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Comparative Imbibature

Comparative Imbibature #1

Essays Approaching a Deeper Understanding of the Hauf n’ Hauf

How should one approach pairing whisky and beer? What exactly is the Platonic ideal of the Hauf n’ Hauf? Following my most recent experiment, I’m confident I know what it isn’t.

With Glencairn and can empty, and as I veered into the kind of doze a lion might enjoy after a haunch of antelope, a light mane massage and long exposure under the Savannah sun, it occurred to my impaired brain that this wasn’t the effect boilermakers were supposed to have.

Sure, the tradition calls for a softening one-two of spirit and ale, a salve for the aches of a day buried down a mine or the strangling stress of welding things together in a shipyard. But it is important to finish both glasses and still function afterwards.

I suspect very few miners or metalworkers would have drank 10.5% beers alongside their dram although, were they to have done so, I’m sure they’d have handled things better than I did. I can say with confidence, however, that the earliest hauf n’ hauf pioneers almost certainly weren’t in sun-warmed flats, watching ‘F1: Drive to Survive’.

Here I share some learnings discussing the hedonic essence of the boilermaker. I am confident that, should you heed my warnings, you will greatly enhance your enjoyment the next time you liberate a can of something to accompany your whisky.

  • 1. Make sure your ABVs are manageable

With any pairing, experts say you should either contrast or complement. When it comes to the overall alcohol strength of your hauf n’ hauf, and with whisky starting at 40% ABV, frankly you need to be realistic with the brewed component. When I poured a large measure of 49% ABV This is Not a Festival Whisky and opened 330ml of 10.5% beer, I unwittingly mounted one of those mechanical bulls after someone has tinkered with the power supply – it was fun at first but I was soon asking why my legs didn’t work. Going forward, any beer over 6.5% ABV simply won’t be considered for a boilermaker. If the whisky is close to or above 50% ABV, I’m probably not going to be interested in any beer above 4.5%.

  • 2. Establish the dominant partner

If point 1 is about being mindful of the practicalities of consumption, point 2 is all to do with finding focus. Where boilermakers are concerned, in my experience it is never 50:50 and perhaps should not be. It is crucial to understand which drink you want to hold the whip. In my unsuccessful hauf n’ hauf attempt, I put two liquids together that were evenly matched, but the overall experience lacked harmony and freshness. It is vital that the drinker recognises when they have a virtuosic performer and use the accompanying beverage to show them off to best advantage. I wouldn’t expect Eddie Van Halen and Beethoven to duet happily, so why did I do it with the Tempest Barrel 04 Sidecar Imperial Pale Ale and the Compass Box? For the record, the Tempest was delicious but if you have the same bias as me, you’re goal is to enhance the experience of the whisky. The Imperial Pale Ale was simply too heavy going. Rather than being given a series of lay-ups, the whisky was instead locked in a bad-tempered arm wrestle. Soupy beer and oily whisky offered no relief from either side, with both competing for my appreciation and attention. Given its ABV, the Tempest should have been enjoyed solo.

  • 3. The interest of the beer should reduce in inverse proportion to the calibre of the whisky

By way of a development to point 2, it seems clear to me that the ‘posher’/’fancier’ the Scotch, or the more you want to taste it, the more populist the beer needs to be. At the highest levels of prestige, the beer should prostrate itself entirely, acting as the broom to the whisky’s curling stone as it rumbles across your palate. One of my favourite boilermakers is The Spice Tree with Kernel Brown Ale. They are extremely evenly matched in their unshowy but well-honed flavoursomeness with the mashbill of the beer enriching the maltiness of the whisky while the tangy hops balance the baking spice notes of the spirit’s oak character. They are also united in being not exactly cheap, nor easy to find. This works because there is parity in the modest interest pertaining to the beer and the whisky.

If, however, we want to drink something like Talisker 18yo (assuming you can afford to), we need to reduce the processing power demanded by the beer. Perhaps a good craft lager like a Camden Hells or even a not too aggressive sour. By the time you are sipping on a 3-Year-Old Deluxe or a well-aged, limited-edition Springbank, you’re into Asahi levels of brewed restraint. A dram of Brora 1972 Rare Malts served alongside anything other than an arctic-ly frosty Budweiser would be sacrilege.

So how will I be acting upon my insights going forward? I will pay closer attention to the whisky I want to exalt, considering where its limitations might be and what style of beer may help rectify things. Then I’ll try to find a can at a reasonably low ABV by way of a sparring partner. The preferred whisky for my next investigation will be Fettercairn 16yo. I’ll report back on what brew is chosen, and how they played together.