Hamm's and Cheese

I still have a lot of yard beer left over from the White Trash party. Surprising, I know. I have been trying to come up with some creative ways to get rid of the excess. I even brought some out to the Brew Day. Only Wort Hog was daring enough to grab a few to try at a later date. The weather is also starting to cool down, so I don't even have a good excuse to pound these ice-cold pale lagers.

As a lawnmower beer, Hamm's is my favorite. Part of it may be that I am just old enough to remember the Hamm's Bear commercials, but just barely. I rediscovered Hamm's during a St Patty's day beer run. I asked a buddy of mine what he wanted, and he said "Anything but PBR." I don't have anything against PBR myself, but when I saw a six-pack of Hamm's held together with plastic rings I couldn't resist. When we got home there were lots of laughs, but the biggest laugh was it wasn't half bad.

In an attempt to put some lipstick on this pig, I thought I would see how a Hamm's would pair with cheese. Fine cheese pairs well with fine beer, and can often improve the drinking experience. However, Hamm's is not a fancy beer, so some grocery store brand cheese should match accordingly. For the cheese I went with a jalapeno havarti, a pepper-jack, and a sharp cheddar.

Havarti is a semi-soft Danish cheese that has a very creamy texture. It has a rich buttery flavor which almost completely neutralized the jalapenos. It turned out to be my least favorite pairing with the beer. The creamy sweetness of the beer conflicted with the adjunct grain sweetness of the beer. The saving grace was the mild kick from the jalapenos.

Pepper Jack actually has a lot in common with Havarti. Both are creamy, semi-soft cheeses, with a buttery flavor. The Jack I had was a lot more firm and not nearly as rich as the Havarti. I think that really helped with the pairing for the beer. With the buttery flavors toned down, it let the kick from the peppers step up. Since there is next to no hops in the beer, the peppers accentuated what was there.

Sharp Cheddar is a cheddar that's been aged six months or longer. The aging allows bacteria to break down fat to create a tangy flavor. The longer it ages, the tangier it gets. I'm sure my cheap chunk of cheese was only aged a few months, but that tang created the best pairing for the beer. The sharpness was almost sour, and that cut through cereal sweetness of the malt. There was a slight salty, metallic twang.

So, enough of this cheese-ball experiment. Overall, I don't think it was an Epic Fail. I will probably try this again. Richard Cheese would approve.