In Part II of the pre-Tasty Show B-Day party beer pairing sessions (here's Part I) that have been taking place these past few weeks, five of us congregated at Kickass Cupcakes to determine which brews and which cheeses we're going to pair up at the April 16 event. I can wholeheartedly say that I have never seen anything quite like the tiny, thimble-shaped artisanal cheeses that we've lined up to be part of the pairing. These little cheeses, which are called Hannahbells and are made by Shy Brothers Farm in Westport, MA, are made according to a traditional recipe that the Shy Brothers (two sets of very shy twins) discovered in the Burgundy region of France.

Once again, I'm not going to be all giving away all our party secrets (at least not until after the Tasty Show beercupcakechocolatecheese evening of tasty deliciousness next week), but I will say that after an exhausting evening of rigorous tasting, we came up with some wonderful pairings! Here is a bit of pairing wisdom that I was lucky enough to pick up last week:

Barbara from Shy Brother Farms has a fabulous way of articulating what makes a good food pairing (of any kind) that she shared with me ~ it's when 1 + 1 = 3. Or, translated into the context of beer & cheese, it's when Beer + Cheese = Delicious Enhancement of Both Beer and Cheese That Becomes a Wholly New BeerCheese Entity.