The Old Brewery

1 Reviews on “The Old Brewery”

• We Love Food, It's All We Eat

  If you like your beer, and we dont mean the usual weak lagers or soapy bitters, then you must pop along to the Old Brewery in Greenwich. These are serious beers, were talking up to 10% ABV serious!Situated in the Old Royal Naval College just a cannon balls shot away from the Thames and the newly renovated Cutty Sark, its split into three distinct areas. 1) An outside courtyard perfect for summer drinking (when summer decides to show up). 2) A cosy, dimly lit bar with a wall of beer and a good selection of wines and bar food too. 3) The restaurant, during the day its a relaxed cafe and at night its converted into a slightly more formal dining roomAnd what a room, as we arrived for the beer pairing evening we were greeted by a rack of hundreds of bottles hanging from the high ceiling and the shiny brass tanks of the Meantime micro brewery. The seats were already arched around a table on which sat 10 different bottles of beer. Saff looked at me in horror at the thought of drinking that much beer. I, however, was up for the challenge.Taking centre stage for an hour (or as it turned out about 40 minutes) was American born brewmaster Eric Toft. Eric, currently at the Schoenram Brewery, has worked for some of the worlds most well-respected craft beer producing companies in the USA, Belgium and Germany. What he doesnt know about yeast and hops isnt worth knowing, but what he knows about fashion could be written on a bottle top. A plaid shirt tucked into lederhosen isnt a good look for a grown man! This dress sense could be explained away by the fact he has lived in Bavaria for over a decade and spends every waking second thinking about or drinking beer.Even though most of what Eric said went over our heads (were not beer experts by any stretch of the imagination), its hard not to admire his passion and enthusiasm. Brewing is such a dry and specialist subject matter but somehow Eric made it amusing. During the talk we tasted Schoenram Gold (the most mild beer of the night), Hop Devil (a rich tasting amber beer) and Saphir Bock Victory (with a sweeter flavour). After a short rundown of the menu by Rod Jones, their in-house brewer and beer sommelier, were shown to our tables.Now this was the section that we were really interested in. Wed obviously been to wine pairing evenings but never a dedicated beer matching event. The five course menu sounded really good, but noticed the lack of carbs, we later found out that this is a deliberate move as beers are more filling than wine. So that explains why its not called a wine belly.First up was the Seared scallop with pickled cauliflower puree & carrot oil. The clean yet strong Schoenram Pils cut though the earthiness of the pure and somehow highlighted the sweetness of the carrot oil. The scallops needed the crunch from chunks of pickled cauliflower.The Confit duck leg & foie gras terrine served with chutney & baby gherkins was paired with a glass of Conatus (a 17 month old Belgian style beer). The terrine was extremely rich and far too fatty/buttery for Saff. Although I loved it on the toast with onion marmalade style chutney. The slight fizz from the beer did a brilliant job of cleaning the fat from your palate in preparation for the third course.Next came the Brown shrimp-stuffed tomato with hollandaise sauce & keta caviar washed down with Old Brewery Belgian Pale Ale. This is a popular dish served in Belgian coastal towns, the sweetness of the tomato and the fairly subtle sauce didnt overpower the shrimp and was a much more interesting dish than I expected. The wheat beer had spiced tones to it, I picked out cinnamon. I was starting to get the hang of this beer tasting malarky. This fish dish would have really only gone with the driest of wines without getting a metallic taste that can sometimes happen no such problem with beer!On to the main event, Pork belly with spiced red cabbage & Bramley apple served with Saphir Bock. This is a typical Bavarian meal, served with a typical Bavarian beer. The actual pork belly was moist and full of its meaty juices, as for the crackling, well, it was perfectly crispy without that layer of chewy fat you often get. Beer sommelier Rod Jones, who was walking amongst the diners, asked me what flavours I could pick up from the beer. By now we were both starting to get a little tipsy and I blurted out dark chocolate without really thinking. Rod smiled and congratulated me, these chocolate and caramel notes came from the type of malts used told you I was getting good!To finish I had the bonus of a double cheese board (regular readers will know exactly how Saff thinks about cheese). This was served with 3 of the highest ABV beers I think Ive had, luckily they were served in shot glasses. The Schoenram Imperial Stout (10%), Schoenram IPA (8.2%) and Victory Storm King Imperial Stout (9.1%) were face twistingly strong that after taking a sip of the Imperial Stout our waitress looked at my expression and said kick in the balls? You get the idea!We both had a fantastic evening with plenty of good food, even more great beer and a talk from Eric the brewmaster, all for 50 each. The Old Brewery hosts regular Beer and Food matching evenings each having its own different theme. welovefood-itsallweeat.com

  January 30, 2015, 4:12 pm

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