While some people’s idea of a beer and cheese pairing may be Budweiser and
nachos, a beer tasting of a decidedly more sophisticated nature will take place
this weekend at the Offshore Ale Co. On Sunday, the local brewpub will host an
evening featuring a selection of craft beers paired with gourmet cheeses, to
benefit the Island Food Pantry.
With the rise of microbreweries and increasing varieties of beer, a new breed of
connoisseurs has evolved, and beer tastings and dinners have become a popular
trend in this country, where, according to craftbeer.com (a website dedicated to
gourmet American beer), we now have more beer styles and beer brands to choose
from than any other market in the world.
Rose Willett of Fiddlehead Farm, who is selecting the cheeses for the event, is
an amateur gourmand of another sort. Four years ago, Ms. Willett and her partner
Bob Skydell purchased Fiddlehead Farm, with its popular farm stand/store on
State Road in Vineyard Haven. Since then Ms. Willett has purposefully increased
her knowledge of food growing and producing. Long a proponent of the slow food
movement, she has started visiting farms around New England in an effort to
learn more about the cheeses that she sells. “For some reason it just resonated
with me,” she says. “I became very serious and it became a passion. I do lots of
reading and get out there visiting farms and making cheese.”
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