If you visit brewery taprooms, you may have run across Vagabond Cheese Company. Alex Ourieff (Certified Cheese Professional) and his curated cheeses are seemingly everywhere that people are pouring beer.

This month alone the curds were at El Segundo Brewing, MacLeod Ales, Brewyard Beer, Transplants Brewing, Arrow Lodge Brewery, Angel City Brewing and Bruery Terreux. That is a lot of miles on the cheesemonger wagon.

If you want a course in pairing cheese and independent beer, your next opportunity is at Boomtown Brewery on Wednesday, August 2. This is as easy as buying the cheese plate then ordering up the corresponding beer flight selected to match up with the cheese.

In general, when pairing beer with cheese, you want to match intensity and have lighter cheese with lighter beer and pungent cheeses with bigger, bolder beers. Check out the video on the CraftBeer.com page for a video tutorial.

In the meantime, here are some specific examples to try:
1. Stout and Blue Cheese
2. IPA and Cheddar
3. Belgian Dubbel and Swiss
4. Kolsch and Mozzarella

Next time you buy beer at the grocery store, swing by the cheese aisle.

The BEER OF THE WEEK is aged like a fine cheese and would also pair well with one. The third release in the ++Good series from Cellador Ales is ++Good – Centennial. A wild ale that is dry hopped with Centennial. The first two beers were aged 3 and 5 months respectively. Centennial was aged for nine months accentuating the “oaky tart funky flavors, with some reinvigorated citrusy notes from the dry hopping.”

This week’s HOMEWORK is to get some Traction. Traction IPA in cans that is. Brewer Devon Randall and Arts District Brewing release their first ever to-go beers on July 29. They join fellow DTLA’ers Mumford Brewing, Angel City and Indie in the canning arena.

Find more of Sean Inman’s writing on his blog, Beer Search Party.