BrewArt Beer Food Pairing at Albert & Sydney
The World Loves Melbourne was invited to experience the fabulous pairing of BrewArt Brews with the standout food of chef Matt Germanchis (ex Pei Modern) at Albert and Sydney. This was a culinary feast with a foodie audience, including 20 foodies who won a competition to be at the event. Chef Matt Germanchis told us he spent over two weeks preparing the food pairings with the beers, and he was able to explain why each dish accentuated the nuances of the beers.
BrewArt is the world's first fully automated personal brewing system. We enjoyed beers from the machines from BrewArt. It's amazing that you can experience pub quality beer in your home with these machines. The BrewFlo is a sophisticated temperature-controlled beer dispenser that doesn't require CO2. This is the machine that you pour from and drink beer from at home. We were told there were over 40 beer styles (BrewPrints) to choose from in the BrewArt range - so plenty of diversity - and on this beer and food pairing night we sampled 3 standout beers with food.
The other machine is the BeerDroid (cool name), which can brew 10 litres of any beer style at the touch of a button. This is the machine where you add in the beer ingredients, set up push notifications to your phone and allow the beer to brew over a period of weeks until it is ready for kegging and dispensing in the BrewFlo. The BrewArt system is available exclusively through Harvey Norman or online at https://brewart.com/au/store/hardware.
The Czech Pilsner was our first tasting and an outstanding beer in the BrewArt range. Light to medium amber, clean and effervescent, an Eastern European style popular in North America, with a generous foam, yellow gold hues and a floral spice aroma. Served cool or cold, you can enjoy the refreshing floral bitter hop finish.
What to pair with a floral spice nuanced pilsner? Chef Matt brilliantly paired the beer with kingfish tartare, ginger, and a seaweed cracker, which complemented the spicy nuances with a clean finish. Also served with the Czech Pilsner was the Parmesan shortbread with Parmesan cream. Pilsners are a versatile food beer, especially with spicy and complex food combinations, and chef Matt nailed it.
The American Pale Ale was another top-notch beer in the pale ale style made popular by craft brew fans, with a freshness and character reflecting premium hops with a scent of pine and passionfruit. We could taste sweet coffee, citrus and grapefruit before a cleansing bitter finish. Chef Matt Germanchis excelled with my favourite pairing of the night, serving us octopus, Romesco and almond, as well as naturally fermented fennel salami, pickled radish and garlic. Pale ales go well with roasted and barbecued foods and the serving of octopus was a masterstroke. The naturally fermented fennel salami was a wildcard but paired wonderfully. This was sexy food from a talented chef.
Chef Matt Germanchis was on fire with his food pairings with the BrewArt beers.
The final beer was the dark looking Ruby Porter, my favourite beer of the night. With a wicked ruby red glow, white creamy foam, and a cleansing, moderately bitter finish, this British style beer balanced with hints of toffee and faint chocolate is intriguing.
This dark brooding beer had kind of an oak characteristic. It needed something big for the pairing and chef Matt Germanchis didn't disappoint, serving a chicken liver parfait doughnut with 100% cocoa, as well as a duck ham, prune (cooked in stout), with radicchio (compressed with stout). Big bold flavours with a big bold beer! The radicchio cut through some of the richness. What a great beer and a stunning pairing!
This was an impressive foodie evening with thanks to BrewArt and Albert and Sydney.