Northern Monk - Ultimate Bar Snack Beers
What is the ultimate bar snack?
It’s undoubtedly something savoury but what’s your choice? Is it the humble pork scratching, slightly off-putting hairs and all? Or maybe a nut of some sort, roasted or salted? Or even a classic bag of crisps, torn open, splayed out on the table for sharing?
Chances are it’s one of these (or a variation) unless you’re being deliberately obtuse or have decided to immediately contradict your opening statement - pretzel pieces don’t really fit into any of these 3 categories and are top tier, especially the jalapeno or buffalo flavours (although Snyder’s don’t export their delicious bready goods to the UK anymore, for shame). See also: any type of cured meat.
For me, it’s a packet of Smith’s Scampi Flavour Fries. I would explain why but Pellicle did an absolutely incredible deep-dive on them that is well worth a read if you’re a fan of the preposterously pungent pieces like I am.
Caveats aside, these three types of snacks are the inspiration behind Northern Monk’s latest batch of bonkers beers (they made Prawn Cocktail and Cheese & Onion crisp-inspired beers in collaboration with Seabrooks two years ago).
Ultimate Bar Snack Beers
Scampi & Lemon Pale Ale - inspired by Smith’s Scampi Flavour Fries
Dry Roasted Peanut Stout - inspired by KP Dry Roasted Peanuts
Pork Scratchings Best Bitter - inspired by Mr Porky’s Original Scratchings
These three beers are a part of the Faith in Boozers campaign - 22 pubs were given kegs of these unorthodox beers with all profits being retained by the pub as a little thank you from Northern Monk. They also sold a limited run of cans and I, maybe stupidly, grabbed a pack.
I also managed to source a packet of each snack each beer was made to mimic and thought I’d conduct some very real science and see if (1) any of the beers actually tasted like the snack and (2) how well they paired. This did involve me purchasing my own card-backed display of Scampi Fries which I was not allowed to hang on the wall despite my protestations.
Anyway, LET THE GREAT EXPERIMENT BEGIN…!
Scampi & Lemon Pale Ale - inspired by Smith’s Scampi Flavour Fries
Beer: This was the one I expected to be the worst despite being my favourite snack of the three. Does anyone really want a fishy beer? I approached with trepidation, took a sniff to get the aroma, and remained trepidatious. This beer smelt a bit like how I’d imagine it’d smell if someone put a lemon inside a pair of sweaty socks and twirled them around the room, it wasn’t particularly pleasant.
However, I dove in, took a sip and was actually quite surprised. The beer didn’t really have any trace of fish flavour that I could detect - which was probably a good thing but I’d built it up in my head so much that it was a little underwhelming to not get any fishiness at first. It was essentially a very lemon-heavy, light pale ale which was pleasant enough but I expected more weirdness.
Snack pairing: After a few tentative sips to try and fish out (weyyy) the scampi flavourings, I cracked open the bag of Smith’s Scampi Flavour Fries to see how they paired together. The lemon flavour in the beer really amplified the savoury and fishiness of the fries here and it was bloody brilliant. Northern Monk should’ve sold these beers with the snacks just so everyone could experience this and not just a sad little man with nothing better to do. By the time I’ve published this post, this beer will probably be long gone but on the off-chance it’s still around - definitely grab a bag of fries to have with it and thank me later.
Overall: The beer itself was a bit of a damp squib but when combined with their snack namesake made for an absolutely lovely time in my mouth. I’m hoping the other beers stand up on their own but if they are as good when paired with their snack companion then I’ll be pretty happy.
Pork Scratchings Best Bitter - inspired by Mr Porky’s Original Scratchings
Beer: I was less wary of the second beer of the pack - a bitter is hard to mess up, even with scratchings. It smelt like you’d expect a bitter to smell except it had a faint smokiness in the background somewhere which was quite welcoming.
It looked like a bitter with its distinctive copper colour and creamy head so I dived in with abandon. I’m noticing a theme here - this is good. Very good in fact but it’s very subtle as per the first beer. There is a distinct savouriness there that actually works well and makes the beer incredibly drinkable. I polished off the beer and scratchings (see below) in double quick time.
Snack pairing: The subtle savoury smoke from the beer really helped amp up the salty, meaty, crunchy pig skin. It worked unsurprisingly well because scratchings make you thirsty so you are basically alternating between beer and snack before they are all gone. Also, no hairs were discovered. Bonus!
Overall: Much like the first beer then except the beer was slightly better and the pairing not quite the same level but still good. Can beer three nail it completely?
Dry Roasted Peanut Stout - inspired by KP Dry Roasted Peanuts
Beer: I’ve had plenty of peanut butter stouts over the years but I think this is almost certainly the first dry roasted peanut stout I’ve ever had. It had a really good roasted nutty aroma that lived up to expectations. It instantly reminded me of being in the pub so they’ve nailed it here.
The taste, like the previous beers, is a little more subtle. It’s a very good stout with the hallmark roasty, chocolatey, malty flavours but the finish had a slightly salty, nutty taste that rounded out the beer very nicely. I’m a sucker for a stout so this was very enjoyable.
Snack pairing: Much like the pairings before this one, the snack helped amplify the underlying hint of savoury bite within the beer. Maybe the weakest pairing but still a worthwhile endeavour (at least that’s how I’m justifying it).
Overall: Probably my least favourite snack of the three so didn’t expect much. The beer was probably the second best but the pairing the worst.
Summary
Overall I think I’d rank the beers (1) scratchings bitter (2) nut stout (3) scampi pale. The snack pairings I’d go with (1) scampi (2) scratchings (3) nut stout.
Which, after crunching the numbers in the lab means the overall rankings are:
Pork scratchings bitter with pork scratchings
Scampi fries pale ale with scampi fries
Roasted peanut stout with dry roasted peanuts
Make of that and what you will. By the time I’ve posted this the beers will probably be long out of stock but if they are ever rebrewed you can refer back to this and compare your findings with mine. Science!
