Some things are great to see – such as the hypnotic Northern Lights dancing over Icelandic skies, Liverpool thumping Man Utd 7-0 and when restaurants pair up with local breweries. There are some brilliant connections between our eateries and brewers, the result is usually having local bottles or cans being offered on the menu or maybe the restaurant having its own named beer.
One of these relationships involves Our Brewery from just outside Randalstown in County Antrim and an award winning restaurant near Glengormley. Tucked away down – dare I say – a sleepy little country road just off the hectic A8 dual carriageway lies Sleepy Hollow.
Step inside this former farmhouse and be greeted with a drinks menu that offers its own branded draught pilsner lager, Our Brewery’s Leaping Lamb, as well as cans from Modest and Our Brewery. However, this post isn’t about the house brew, but the recent barrel aged range from Our Brewery. I was kindly invited to a recent food and beer pairing night at Sleepy Hollow, where owner and chef Paul Dalrymple created a sumptuous six-course taster menu to complement each of the new beers. Thanks for still reading if you’re a Man Utd fan, by the way 😄
Let’s crack on with #1 and I gotta be honest here, I had no idea what a Keptinis beer was until I heard about it from Kevin and Johnny at Get ‘er Brewed. Keptinis means roasted in Lithuanian and their version, Razma at 8.8% ABV, is a Keptinis-style beer where the mash was baked in a large pizza oven. You can watch the brew day video here as the process takes way too long to describe on this blog post! How does it taste?
The beer was aged in a rum barrel for 18 months which added to the sweet caramel vibe but to my surprise it was funkier than I’d anticipated. That’s likely a by-product of the kveik yeast then? Throw in a wee dab of liquorice and it’s a great start, all packaged up in a dinky 375ml bottle. I forgot to take a photo of the very taster starter of wild mushroom, spiced nuts and truffle but I wouldn’t make that mistake again.
Food critic Jay Rainer can sleep soundly in his bed as you’ll see my food reviews won’t be rivalling his illuminating descriptive skills in any shape or form. Next dish out for our delectation was wild venison tartare with port berry chutney and sourdough crouton. Or a big slice of sweet, crunchy bread as I called it. Regardless of terminology, it was delicious. That came with beer #2 – Low Land, an 8.2% ABV Flanders oud bruin, or funky brown ale as the good lady noted.
Funky indeed it was, as expected with this style of Belgian beer. A good bit of chestnut and leather too on the tongue and finishing off with a hint of burnt toffee sweetness. The beer was aged in Bordeaux red wine barrels and I had hoped for more fruity red wine notes to infiltrate the taste. Maybe Low Land captured more oak barrel elements than wine but regardless of that, it was a great accompaniment to the dish.
When I first saw the evening’s menu, this next dish jumped off the page and danced the fandango in my brain – crab bonbon and lobster with crab mayonnaise and cream sauce. And I have to say it did not disappoint – the lobster was deliciously soft, crab bonbon fluffy and cream sauce a perfect balance of sweet and savoury. It was outstanding, the kind of meal I would never tire of eating.
It was paired with a collaboration involving Our Brewery and Modest Beer. Humble is a 5.8% ABV wild lager which had been aged in Chardonnay barrels. A wine barrel aged wild lager? Interest piqued. Again, a perfect bedfellow to the seafood dish, sparkling lemon zest intertwines with tangy lemongrass and tart gooseberry popping out of the bottle in what could be the best lager you’ve never had. Change that fact and go find some. I could drink this lager time and time again.
We move from 375ml bottles to the big guns – 750s – proper wine bottle sizes, the way I like ’em. The first of these is Untamed, a 7.5% ABV wild ale, sitting alongside pulled pork baked inside a brioche bun with smoked sugarpit pork, black apple butter and coleslaw.
As with many lambic beers, Untamed has tart and pulpy apple cider qualities to the fore which complement the pork dish well. There’s a sweet white wine characteristic blended into the apple, like a Sauternes des Pommes, if you will. This beer has the longest maturation period of the new range, aged for 27 months in a French Limousin oak barrel and to be honest I’m not sure that period of time has made it any better than if it was aged for 18-21 months. I’d love to know how it tasted from the tank after that time. I suppose that’s the $64,000 question when aging a wild ale, “How long do you give it before you know the sweet spot is indeed the sweet spot?”
Dessert time beckoned and who doesn’t love a mille-feuille? All that puff pastry and powdered sugar going everywhere over your face except into the huge hole directly between your nose and chin. The game was made more enjoyable with sticky, caramelised peach and apricot with fresh mint and segments of pink grapefruit acting as your palate’s baby wipe. Aha! Take that puff pastry!
Washing down all that creamy, fruity, flaky deliciousness was Séasúr, an 8.5% ABV saison. Packaged in a 750ml bottle and aged in Bordeaux white wine barrels, this blended mixed fermentation beer is bursting with grapey, white wine notes and a small spread of sweet orange marmalade on the side. That counteracts the slightly dry and funky edge to this saison striking a well thought out, crisp balance between dessert and beverage.
We end with dish and bottle #6 – it’s time for chocolate and a big imperial stout. A creamy chocolate mousse under white chocolate and brandy soaked raisin nicely set up the accompanying final beer. Incredibly, Terra Nocturne is Our Brewery’s first impy stout – 11.4% ABV and aged in bourbon barrels for 20 months. What’s created after this journey is a smoky, big, boozy beast.
Sweet blackberries and bitter dark chocolate appear now and again like a dolphin coming up to the water’s surface but then they dive back down again to the smoky underbelly. The intensity of the smoke did take me by surprise but if you marry it up with all those other aforementioned qualities, you’ll find a delightful winter fireside sipper of a stout.
Six courses and six drinks in, we were ready for home and very appreciative of the night’s offerings. Thanks again to Johnny at Get ‘er Brewed for the kind invite and well done to all the staff at Sleepy Hollow for looking after us so fantastically. Hopefully you’ll see some of those bottles in an independent bottle shop near you or grab some at the Our Brewery online shop. Then treat yourself to an exceptional culinary experience at Sleepy Hollow if you’re in the Greater Belfast area.
