Beer and food back on the menu at GBBF
Beer and food is back on the menu this summer, with the Great British Beer Festival (GBBF) showcasing the best of the trend.
Britain's brewers have been quiet about the beer and food trend in recent months, after many including Greene King, Wolverhampton &Dudley, Shepherd Neame and Interbrew launched high-profile campaigns in 2003 to encourage more people to choose beer with their meals.
But now things are hotting up again with the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) putting beer and food firmly on the programme of events for this year's GBBF, which takes place from August 3 until August 7 at London's Olympia.
CAMRA is organising a chocolate and beer tasting at the festival on August 5 to support its initiative declaring 2004 to be the "year of beer with food".
Hosted by beer writer Fred Eckhardt, the tasting aims to show drinkers that beer and chocolate are ideal partners.
"It could be perceived as a gimmick but chocolate and beer are not strangers to one another," said Georgie Howarth from CAMRA.
"Just look at Belgium - famous for its chocolate and its beer. Malt is widely used in the chocolate recipes and the brewing process - we've just gone one step further."
And for those who are not chocolate lovers, the Beer Academy is holding tutored tastings pairing bottled beers with some of Britain's best cheeses.
Garrett Oliver from the Brooklyn Brewery in New York will be holding the tastings at the GBBF of August 3.
Meanwhile Greene King has relaunched its Beer to Dine For with a new-look bottle to encourage more drinkers to opt for ale at the dinner table.
The beer was specially created to go well with many different types of food and has been enormously successful. Now the Suffolk-based brewer hopes the relaunch will mean even more customers choosing beer instead of wine with their meals.
And Kent-brewer Shepherd Neame has also been doing its bit to make beer the obvious choice for diners.
It teamed up with local butcher AJ Barkaway, 2004 Kent Sausage Supreme Champion, to demonstrate how beers can complement food.
Visitors to the brewery during the Flavours of Faversham Food Festival last month were treated to perfect matches such as Bishops Finger with game pie or Spitfire teamed with sausages made with the beer.
