Perfect pairing

At the Windsor Castle in Lye, West Midlands, matching beer and food is a fine art. Susan Nowak reports

In Belgium you find breweries with "brew halls" serving solely their own beers, both as an accompaniment to food and as an ingredient in the dishes. But you'd be hard-pushed to find anywhere like that in the UK. Until now.

For one thing, not many British breweries produce enough different beer styles to give diners plenty of choice to match all the meals on a menu. The Windsor Castle in Lye near Stourbridge, West Midlands, however, most certainly does.

The 10-barrel brewery produces six regular Sadler's ales, ranging from a Black Country mild to an IPA. Choosing from a palette of about 20 different hops, it also brews monthly specials plus seasonals, adding lager, honey beer, stout, winter ale and many more to the list as the year progresses.

They are served in the beautifully converted brewery tap, opened only last year, in a beer and food operation that may well act as a blueprint for others.

In the airy bar and hop-bedecked dining areas customers are presented with the beer menu - a list of the Windsor Castle's six regular beers with tasting notes and flavour-profile charts. A separate sheet covers its full range.

The food menu is sprinkled with tempting beer dishes from chicken fillets in a tempura-style beer batter to beer-baked ham with beer and pear chutney. In addition, the brewer's recommendations suggest beer and food pairings for six of its most popular meals.

The beer cuisine is inspired by John Sadler, who restored his family's heritage by opening the award-winning brewery in an old brickworks in 2004. His great, great-grandfather Benjamin, a local brewer, was followed by his son Nathaniel, whose own son Thomas founded Windsor Castle Brewery in 1900.

It closed in 1927, to be re-opened by John (grandson of Thomas) nearly 80 years later on a new site. Now John's own son, Chris, is the head brewer.

"We wanted to emphasise the beer and food connection because not that many pubs have a brewery behind them," says John Sadler. "The beer dishes go extremely well and are a real talking-point - you don't have to be a beer-lover to enjoy our food. We're busy in the week and always fully booked at weekends.

"I think it is helpful to offer guidelines to people who don't really know what to drink - for example, they can easily make the mistake of choosing a heavy, malty beer to drink with fish instead of a light, hoppy one."

It's a real family affair, with Sadler's wife, Rosemary, who has catering experience, and daughter Emily joining the beer and food matching. Both enjoy devising the recipes.

Diners are encouraged to try crisp, citrus-tinged Jack's Ale with beer-battered cod, ultra-light, clean Thin Ice with Scottish salmon and Hollandaise, while hints of mint and lemon in golden Worcester Sorcerer cut through the stickiness of spare ribs.

Moist, delicious beer bread, flavoured with malty 1900 Original is baked every other day. It is served with juicy ham simmered and left to cool in beer stock, part of the big Hop Picker's platter alongside Hereford Hop cheese.

Beef and pork beer sausages are made specially by a local butcher, flavoured with two Sadler's ales - delicious eaten plain with hand-cut chips, dipped in beer batter or on chive mash with real-ale gravy.

"We did get the butcher to try putting actual hops into our sausages, but they tasted far too bitter," says Sadler.

Herefordshire steak is casseroled in a rich ale gravy, and vegetables deep-fried in beer batter are served with sweet chilli sauce, accompanied by a garlic version of the beer bread.

The beer and food offering certainly increases both wet and dry sales. At the Windsor Castle they sell 20-30 barrels of ale a week - no small beer.

The dishes harmonise well with the English ale; this is not gastropub fare.

"So many gourmet pubs are charging very high prices - we wanted to serve simple food that doesn't cost a fortune," says Sadler.

facts 'n' stats

Owner: John Sadler

Number of staff: 10 (seven part-time)

GP food: 70%

GP drink: 65%

Average food spend per head: £20

Covers a week: 500

Food sales as % of turnover: 60%