Parliamentary Beer Group chair attends Dea Latis tasting event
The event, held at the city’s Old Blind School gastropub, offered a six-course meal with matching beers to local women and a select few men, including All-Party Parliamentary Beer Group chair, Graham Evans.
The tasting was led by beer sommelier Annabel Smith who took delegates through six different styles of beer, including brews from two local brewers – Mad Hatter and Neptune Brewery.
Beer and food matching
Each beer was accompanied by a complementary food, from cheese and fish to cheesecake and chocolate:
- Freedom Pilsner with Welsh rarebit
- Blue Moon with smoked haddock fishcake and chorizo, as well as with Terry’s Chocolate Orange
- Lagunitas IPA with tandoori salmon
- Neptune Brewery Abyss Stout with six-hour roasted lamb
- Mad Hatter Brewing Liverpool Tart Sour Beer with Vimto and blackcurrant cheesecake
- Robinsons Old Tom with chocolate mousse
Annabel Smith outlined the feedback from delegates at the tasting and how it changed some drinkers' minds.
She said: “The response from our guests was overwhelmingly positive; non-beer drinkers had their preconceptions about beer overturned as they found at least one beer they enjoyed and will consider drinking in the future."
Preconceptions about beer
Smith added: “Women already drinking beer broadened their repertoire by trying new styles.”
Dea Latis organiser Lisa Harlow echoed Smith’s comments on drinkers looking at beer in a different way.
She said: “We had great support from the local Ladies That Beer group, which meets regularly in Liverpool, and I think we converted quite a few beer novices too.
“Many women still have preconceptions about beer, so our events are about trying to bust some of those myths and show that beer doesn’t make you fat, doesn’t have to be served in pint glasses and isn’t all brown and bitter.”
