Event: The Bishop & The Pope vs Red Hill
Venue: Bishop of Ostia and Pope Joan, East Brunswick
Date: May 22, 2013
Good Beer Week Stream: Foodie
The Event:
In 2012, the neighbouring East Brunswick venues owned by mates Ben Foster and chef Matt Wilkinson went head to head for their Good Beer Week event. The Bishop of Ostia and Pope Joan represented beer and wine in a challenge to see which would pair best with Matt’s food. The night was a feast that, even among the many highlights of the second festival, stood out for the quality of the fare on offer and the willingness of an almost exclusively wine crowd to give beer a go.
For 2013, the two venues (which are soon to be joined under the one name, we understand) paired up to provide the backdrop for a Battle Royale between man and woman centred around the Mornington Peninsula’s Red Hill Brewery. For Matt, it was a rare and welcome nighttime venture into the kitchen, while Ben was on hand to share hosting duties.
The format was thus: Matt created a five course menu and sent it to Karen and Dave Golding at Red Hill. Karen joined forced with the Beer Diva Kirrily Waldhorn to select a beer match for each course, Dave hooked up with The Crafty Pint’s founder (me) to do the same. The beers were selected from the full Red Hill range and augmented with any other beer we thought could do the job from around the world.
That meant there were two beers with each course, one selected by the ladies, one by the gents, but the dinner guests didn’t know who had selected what until they had voted at the end of each course. Noticeably, the choices were all drawn from the maltier, yeastier realms of the beer world, with the Red Hill Hop Harvest Ale the only slight deviation.
At various points in the evening – not least the canapes – there was a feeling that each beer matched with a different element of the course better, hardly surprising given the way Matt likes to lavish every single one with so many textures and flavours. For example, for round one, the Geuze Boon (selected by the boys) was perfect with the Anchovy Toasts, whereas the Red Hill Pilsner accompanied the Garlic Snail Croquettes just right.
That said, the Pilsner took the round, with the ladies sneaking round two as well with their Trois Monts Biere de Garde finding favour ahead of the Red Hill Belgian Blonde against the platters of smoked, pickled and caressed morsels. As for the dishes, they were ideal for a late Autumn evening: you could call some of the dishes comfort food, but carried off with unmistakable panache. There was heartiness and plenty of soul, wizardry with vegetables, plus flourishes like the apple filled with black pudding – a highlight for all – and a dessert that could have been designed just for me.
According to the menu it was “Warm, sweetened oats, salted caramel ice cream, white chocolate and rhubarb”, although it may as well just have said “Heaven in a bowl!” I instantly declared it the best dessert I’d tasted since Matt had served up a treacle tart with sticky toffee pudding at a beer dinner back in 2009.
“It’s bloody porridge,” exclaimed Karen with more than a little ridicule in her voice. But so what if it was fancy porridge; it was awesome as I proved by eating mine, my wife’s and the Beer Diva’s…
It was also a course that went to the men, with Chimay Blue pipping Red Hill’s Temptation, meaning there was still the chance of a draw if Dave and I could take the last round. This saw an aged version of Red Hill’s Imperial Stout go up against the brand new Heilala Vanilla Stout from the Women of Beer. They were matched with whipped blue cheese on toast with Rooftop Honey and, two mouthfuls in, I was able to breathe a sigh of relief.
“We’ve got this round in the bag,” I whispered to Dave. “Your Imperial Stout is perfect with it.”
Sadly, only four people in the room agreed and the ladies walked away with the crown. Or maybe Matt did for his awesome food? Or maybe it was everyone in attendance – particularly the two guests who were so enthused by the evening they were invited to offer their colourful tasting notes on proceedings?
Either way, it was another fantastic feast enjoyed with great humour and an event that I hope becomes a Good Beer Week staple. What next though? Pope Joan, Red Hill, The Crafty Pint and the Beer Diva versus the World…?
Killer beers:
More a case of killer pairings in this case. The Boon and anchovy toast, Trois Monts and the rustic platters and the Imperial Stout and cheese course (despite what everyone else thought!). Was great to see so many people enjoy their first Chimay Blue too, and the Heilala is the best Women of Beer release yet.
Highlights:
Every single mouthful of all three bowls of the “porridge”.
The event in three words:
Good, wholesome fun.
Slideshow of the evening
