Blue cheese beer debuts with ‘healthy dose of skepticism’

Lifestyle

By Angela Barbuti

Instead of eggs, you can now find cheese in your beer.

A brewery and a creamery in Oregon partnered up to craft blue cheese beer.

Rogue Creamery and the Crux Fermentation Project collaborated to create Coolship Beer No. 6, an ale brewed using Rogue River Blue Cheese and aged in oak barrels for nearly two years.

Cheese connoisseurs had reservations about the bold libation, according to Marguerite Merritt, cheese emissary for Rogue Creamery, an organic cheese company in Central Point, Ore., about 35 miles north of California border.

“I think we handled a healthy dose of skepticism even from our blue cheese devotees,” she told KOIN-TV.

Larry Sidor, founder of Crux Fermentation Project, a craft brewery in South Bend, Ore., said his employees also had their doubts about the new flavor.

“When I told my brewers what we were doing, they pretty much laughed,” he said. “They thought, ‘No way, this will not work.’”

However, the combination, Merritt explained, is “not too cheesy.”

“It’s not too strong … maybe sip two, three, glass, two or three, you may begin to pick up on that very, that slight hint of blue cheese on the finish,” she told the outlet.

Sidor welcomed the chance to experiment with a new product, calling it “a dream come true.”

“We’re always looking for something to ferment, whether it’s sauerkraut or pickles or beer or wine, whiskey, cheese, you name it, it’s all fermented,” he said.

People on X have mixed reactions about the new beverage, which is available for purchase at both the pub and the creamery.

“I’m intrigued,” wrote @PwrFulWmn.

“I am not sure about this combo here … Might be very gassy consequences … ,” countered @OttawaGemmells.