Our beers have a tendency to find their way into our cooking--usually with delicious consequences, although sometimes with more success than others (the stout iced coffee will not be replicated).

We plan to share some of our favourite recipes here, and hope they provide some ideas and inspiration for your own innovations.

Here are the first:

Baltic Night Chocolate Courgette Cake (with Baltic Night)

Wild Game and Mushroom Stroganoff (with Baltic Night)

King’s Brew Stew (with The King’s Shipment)

Our beer has also made appearances in a number of local food producers’ kitchens. Oxford’s own ice cream cafe G&D’s has created a ‘Compass Stout’ flavour ice cream, made with Baltic Night. We recommend serving it with warm chocolate sauce -- perfection! Artisan bakery The College Loaf has created a special ‘beer bread’ made with Baltic Night Stout. Manos himself, at our tasting venue in Jericho, occasionally marinates a leg of lamb in Baltic Night and oven-roasts it to tender perfection.

If you concoct any beer-infused recipes of your own that you’d like to share, please let us know; we’ll try them out and may publish them here!

Many people have the misconception that beer is to be drunk by the bar with some nuts, while wine should be enjoyed with your meal. Not so: beer is as good as, if not a better, companion to food than wine and there are some great local breweries around producing top quality tipples.

So what beer goes with my food? The best and easiest way to find out is to try, but if you want some guidance, our head brewer Mattias has put together a few suggestions below to get you started:

Say you have decided on a shrimp starter, which you would normally have with some imported white wine. If it’s a creamy affair try pairing it with something like Cotswold Wheat beer, which has a nice fruity flavour to match any herbs in the sauce; is light enough not to overpower the shrimp; and has some carbonation to cut through the fat in the sauce and refresh your palate for the next bite. If it’s a spicy grilled shrimp, go with something with a bit more bite to it like Isis Pale Ale. Isis has a lemony aroma that works with the shrimp and a bitterness that will stand up to a good chunk of chilli, while its malty flavour will mingle with the shrimp’s grilled flavours.

If for a main you go with a steak, I would suggest Cotswold Dark with its lovely dark malts marrying up perfectly with the grilled flavours and the rosy meat juices combining with the slightly roasted tones to achieve perfection. Isis Pale Ale will work wonders with a Cotswold lamb with mint sauce: the fresh mint and the hops will combine for a fresh taste, while the crystal malt in the beer keeps those lamb-y flavours in check. A lighter alternative would be roasted chicken, which comes into its own when paired with The King’s Shipment IPA. This oak-aged IPA has a sweet, almost honey, note that livens up the chicken. (Note: a roast chicken basted with a bottle of King’s Shipment is really tasty, especially when roasted over a bed of potatoes.)

A chocolate cake for dessert is a must to finish off a meal like this, especially when accompanied by Baltic Night Stout. This dry stout has a mouthful of coffee/cocoa flavours to match the cake, yet it is light enough in body not to fill you up. Personally I would top off the cake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and some hot raspberry sauce: absolute bliss!

So now, how do wine and nuts taste…

Click here for the flavour profiles of our beers and some more pairing suggestions:

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