I've found a use for SpontanBasil

I snapped up a http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/187/171094/ when it appeared in my supermarket last week, which set off a week-long (purely internal) debate -- what do you DO with a gueuze infused with basil? I'd figured it would just be a curiosity for a future aperitif or tasting, but completely independently, my wife planned a menu of a caprese (mozzarella and tomato) salad, then paste (trofie of course) with pesto. In fact our basil pot had died and we didn't replace it, so, the opportunity was too obvious. I took the plunge. While the salad would usually have a dash of vinegar besides copious olive oil, I left the acetic out and let the beer fill in for that and the missing basil (of which I usually use a lot).

I wasn't overawed by my first sniff, with just a restrained whiff of the herb garden, and taste, not so sharp and herby, mainly just a workaday gueuze. But with the food it actually worked, to my mind. With the caprese, the gueuze did what you hope it can for some a decent cheese -- cutting through the cream structure and enhancing nuttiness and salt -- and highlighted the sweet of otherwise tart tomatoes. And with the pasta, it rhymed nicely with the pesto and helped declutter the richness. That's a happy story -- one round of contrast, one round of complement.

I wouldn't recommend this to an Italian (ha) or banishing the Ligurian wine, but I don't think I'd attempt that menu with any other beer. I can see this working with red-sauce pastas as well. If you have some SpontanBasil on hand and no clear idea how else to enjoy it.