For Speciaalbierwereld.nl and OnderNulPuntVijf I did a food pairing of a low-alcohol blonde beer and a homemade flammkuchen. The beer I chose for this food pairing was the Designated Dryver from the Dutch Bargain brewery from Zeeuws-Vlaanderen.
Tasted and written by… BierMich!
Dutch Bargain: About the brewers
The beer in this food pairing comes from the Zeeland brewery Dutch Bargain. Dutch Bargain was started by 3 brewers, Marc Menue, Stijn Jordans and Thibo Baccarne, in 2011 in Groede and has since started a mission to give more people the 'craft beer experience 3.0'. The 3 gentlemen seem to be succeeding, because the brewery is growing and has already had to move to larger premises once.
Dutch Bargain also refers to the habit of Dutch merchants to seal a closed deal with a joint drink. In the past often with gin, of course, but why not with craft beer?
Designated Dryer: About the beer
The Designated Dryer is a blond beer with 0.3. If you have a Dry January or you are the Bob, you can enjoy this blond beer. The brewer used water, wheat malt, barley malt, yeast and hops for the brewing and wanted to make the low-alcohol version of the Zeeuws Blond with this beer.
I tasted the beer first before pairing it with the food. Below are my tasting notes.
Sight: the beer is clear, golden in color and has a short, white head.
Smell: The scent is hoppy and fresh with citrus.
Taste: This low-alcohol blond ale is a bit sweet and fortunately also has something hoppy with citrus in the taste.
Homemade Flammkuchen with fennel & bacon
Now the flammkuchen, because I want you to know what I used to put this delicious dish on the table and drink a beer with it. Of course I made a dough with flour, water and yeast and, after the dough had been able to ripen in the fridge for about 20 hours, rolled it out into a round base. On this bottom I spread crème fraîche (with garlic and nutmeg) and then put a mixture of red onion, fennel, olive oil and black pepper on top. Then crispy fried bacon and grated gruyère on top and 5-8 minutes on the pizza stone in my BBQ that was heated to 350 degrees Celsius. Immediately after removing from the BBQ, I sprinkled fresh dill and grated lemon zest on top.
The result: a delicious savory flammkuchen with a crispy base and a fresh fennel and lemon flavor in addition to the salty taste of bacon and gruyère.
Designated Dryver x Homemade Flammkuchen with fennel & bacon
The somewhat sweet taste of the Designated Dryver goes very well with the spicy and salty flavors of the flammkuchen. The fresher hop notes, although not overly present in the taste of the beer, are of course well balanced with the flammkuchen, because it also has some fresh flavors of the fennel, dill and lemon.
A nice pairing that gives the Designated Driver more 'bite' and gives enough credit to the flammkuchen.
Until the next!
Want to read more reviews about specialty beer? Take a look at the Speciaalbierwereld.nl! Or check out all blond beers here at OnderNulPuntVijf!
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