Raising Glasses to Flack’s Beer Sommelier Evening
Nine winners of Flack’s Beer Sommelier competition and their partners enjoyed an informative and entertaining evening with Annabel Smith, one of the UK’s first accredited Beer Sommeliers.
The evening began in the Flak Shack with welcome glasses of Double Drop served in champagne flutes. Trestle tables and chairs for 30 with tablecloths, napkins and sample glasses awaited in the fermenting room, where the evening began tasting and smelling the crystal malt, floor malted barley and hops (rubbing and smelling to release the flavour) while learning some fascinating and entertaining facts about the history of beer.
Annabel Smith took the guests through each of Flack’s ales, testing powers of observation and olfactory senses, while introducing a perfect food match with each ale. Cask ale Romsey Gold (4%) matched with deliciously ripe Camembert, cask ale Flack Catcher (4.4%) was teamed with Home Made Cheese Tart, cask ale TPA (5.3%) found a partner with Spicy Chorizo, Parma Ham and Green Olives, cask ale Hedge Hop (4.9%) matched with locally produced Lyburn Mature Cheese and, finally, bottled Black Jack Porter (4.6%) was presented with Milk Chocolate Salted Caramels.
Guests went away appreciating that beer makes a very good partner with food, it is also much healthier than wine (when drunk in moderation); one guest commented that “it makes you feel very differently about real ale”, others were looking to book themselves onto a next event with the “brilliant” evening being concluded as “awesome” by another guest.
With taxis awaiting, the successful evening drew to a close, with all guests leaving with a box of Flack’s bottled ales.