‘Skeptical brewers’ impressed by blue cheese beer
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Marguerite Merritt is the Cheese Emissary for Rogue Creamery. Larry Sidor is the founder and master brewer for the Crux Fermentation Project.
They decided to work together to develop a limited-edition lambic-style ale — a blue cheese beer.
“I think we handled a healthy dose of skepticism even from our blue cheese devotees,” Merritt told KOIN 6 News.
“When I told my brewers what we were doing, they pretty much laughed. They thought, ‘no way, this will not work,'” Sidor said.
The collaboration brings together 2 Oregon icons for an unusual but tasty product.
A tasting event is set for Friday, December 15, at their Crux Pub in Southeast Portland. They’re also selling this at the Crux Brewery in Bend and the Rogue Creamery in Central Point.
“We’re always looking for something to ferment, whether it’s sauerkraut or pickles or beer or wine, whiskey, cheese, you name it, it’s all fermented,” Sidor said. “And so, to kind of bring it all together with you know, Rogue Creamery was just a dream come true.”
He and his colleagues put together tasty science experiments using a portable and shallow tank they call the Coolship.
Sidor said he built “one of these shallow vessels, but I put wheels under it so that we could then go to all sorts of different places in the state of Oregon and harvest the flora that’s in that particular area.”
The Coolship hit the road in January 2022 when the Crux team drove 200 miles from their brewery in Bend down to Rogue Creamery in Central Point. That’s where they added blue cheese to the beer and let it sit overnight.
Then the Coolship took it back to Bend where it aged in oak barrels for nearly 2 years.
Merritt said the bold flavor blue cheese is known for does not dominate this beer.
“I credit the Crux team for really taking charge on understanding how cheese can impact the fermentation of their beer and what we could do to inoculate the beer to infuse it with the regional flora of our region down here in southern Oregon,” she said. “That’s not the first note that you’re going to pick up on. It’s got nuance and complexity, but it’s not too cheesy, it’s not too strong. It’s a really nice balanced product that once you get to know it a little more, maybe sip two, three, glass, two or three, you may begin to pick up on that very, that slight hint of blue cheese on the finish.”
Sidor admitted that when the blue cheese beer finally arrived, “I was really impressed. And the brewers that were skeptical were very impressed.”
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