Kernel and Curry night

Beer and curry, a difficult combination to beat. Beer and pizza comes close. Tonight's chosen beer, The Kernel Pale ale Mosaic is a single hop variety IPA from the much reputed Kernel brewery in London. The curry was by none other than Alnwick's newest and finest Indian restaurant and takeaway Mivesi.

The thing about bitter beers with spicy food is that it only seems to work up to certain extremes, beyond which it becomes painful. For me this combination edges towards the pain threshold but works well enough that it doesn't matter so much. The Sri Lanka curry offers coconut, tropical and lemon flavours that complement the beer well whilst intensity wise nether hop bitterness or spice seemed to dominate. Overall a nice yet rather intense pairing that almost borders on the 'intense bitterness with intense spice = pain' theory.

I found the Mosaic hop to be quite fascinating and complex, combining a little of that galaxy esque floral melon and passionfruit with soft citrus and a bitter lime edge. The aroma is very pungent with a smooth bitterness and there's a slight earthy dimension to it to. This is obviously one of the new breed of super hops that can act great as a stand alone hop variety in a beer. A good offering from The Kernel, though you would never guess it was a single hop beer.