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Chip
Tate, home brewer and cheesemaker, talks about
putting beer IN cheese
"I've
never made a cheese that was rind washed with beer, but I've made
some pseudo-monastic styles that incorporated some beer in with the
milk for hard cheese," says Chip Tate, a former brewer in Waco,
TX. "Beer does tend to soften
the curd a little, but adds a nice flavor that becomes more pronounced
the warmer the curd is when it is drained - as
far as the degree to which the malt character of the beer is imparted
to the cheese; hoppier beers will leave a pleasant bitterness in the
cheese that seems to be less dependent on temperature."
I am
reminded of the lovely hops-wrapped semi-soft cheeses of England,
aged in a layer of fresh hops.
Tate
makes raw milk cheddars mostly, but has also dabbled in harder cheeses
like very old Montasio and other Italian-style grating cheeses. "As
for affinage, I do have some experience but only enough to know that
aging and maturing cheese is much more of an art than a science. I
made multiple rounds of hard cheese that came from the same milk,
the same curd and were aged even on the same shelf of the cellar and
had notably different characters and rates of maturation. Other than
basic "care of good cheese" practices (proper temperature, humidity,
regular turning and inspection, etc.), I have taken the taste and
see approach."
Tate has plenty of company among professional cheesemakers: the Rogue Creamery in Oregon makes a Rogue Chocolate Stout Cheddar, and the Brovetto Cheese Co. of Jefferson NY makes an almost Taleggio style cheese with Ommegang ales.
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