Four course meal

The formalised pairing of beer and food was a big thing about a decade ago. It was very much driven by the industry rather than consumers, and when they left it behind it fell into abeyance, though I'm sure people continued to drink beer while eating food, as they always have. I know I did. It was a blast from the past, then, to receive this four-pack of beers from the Guinness Open Gate Brewery folk, brewed at and in collaboration with Cornwall's Harbour Brewing, to match a menu at the Hawksmoor restaurant in London. I was happy just to pour them down my neck without thinking too much about complementing and contrasting with some grub.

Following the sequence specified in the accompanying press release, I began with Mixed Botanical, aiming to ape a gin and tonic. Well it doesn't look like one, coming out a hazy deep orange colour. It smells like beer too: the unmistakable aroma of sweet and slightly sticky candy-like malt sugar. That's a big part of the flavour, moreso than one might expect at just 5.1% ABV, but yes the botanicals are present too. I got a mix of ginny herbs -- angelica, cinnamon -- plus a decent smatter of peppery juniper berries. It's zesty and fun, like a G&T, while also tasting absolutely nothing like one. The big malt body means it lacks the sharp refreshing quality of a good aperitif. I'm glad I'm not marking these on fitness for their specified purpose. As a beer for drinking it's spot on, however.

The starter beer is Verbena Saison, standing in for "a dry white wine". Isn't the project somewhat undermined by mentioning what the proper drink is, instead of letting the beer do its own thing? Anyway. It looks like a saison: hazy and a deep yellow colour. There's lots of fizz too, the half champagne bottle feeling much more appropriate here than with the previous one. It tastes a little one-dimensional, with the salt-and-pepper savoury quality of the titular herb, but not much else. Yes it's dry, and the fizz gives the palate a decent scrub which I think would work well with the proposed garlic scallops. This is a simple chap; tasty, different, but not terribly complex. I hoped the second half of the meal would bring the intensity up a notch.

Item three is a Barrel Aged Red, paired with a steak and pretending to be a Rioja. Well, it's red, or possibly pink, though the masses of foam and fizz means it doesn't really resemble blousey Spanish wine in appearance. The aroma is full of sweet summer fruit -- all strawberry and raspberry -- and that very much comes through in the flavour. Cherries are involved, the press release tells me. There's a touch of oak spice on top of the jammy berries but again it's quite one-dimensional; there's none of the richness I would expect from a barrel-aged beer of 6.8% ABV. This isn't very different to the fruit-infused brand extensions from Rodenbach, and shows a similar lack of complexity. As a substitute for Rioja it definitely falls short. While not an unpleasant beer, there's very little impressive about it.

The final item is paired with a sticky toffee pudding and is a Barley Wine. The ABV is a big big 9.5% and it's an innocent-looking orange colour. As one would hope, there's a serious substance here. American oak white wine barrels have been used and they really make their presence felt in the big and heavy vanilla and juicy grape flavours. Subtle? Nah. Pairable with sticky toffee pudding? I wouldn't have thought so: I think the intense acidity would clash with all the caramelised sugar. It's a gorgeous beer though; best of the set.

My closing remark is that none of these really show the advantage of beer with food. They're too heavy; too intense; trying too hard to do what wine does (and failing) whereas beer's primary advantage is that it is not wine, and can do things and hit places that wine can't. If food and beer is to be a Thing, I'd prefer if it played to beer's strengths.