A DELIGHTED audience joined TV chef Simon Rimmer to tickle their tastebuds with a masterclass in the art of finding the right beer to go with a variety of different pasties.

Six pasties, hand made by staff at Bolton’s own Carrs Pasties, included a new cheese and jalapeno flavour, were then dissected and matched with different beers from around the world in a tasting demonstration in the main festival marquee.

Simon hosted the event along with beer sommelier Annabel Smith, who decided on the best matching beverages for each pastie

He said that the demonstration – the first of its kind at the festival – proved a huge success.

She said: “My job is to teach people about beer and introduce them to the wonderful variety of flavours in beer.

“We did a pastie and beer matching session where we matched six different types of beer with six pasties so we went from the very traditional meat pastie matched with an ale style beer through to a festival pastie, which was a lamb keema with vindaloo pastie, and we matched that with a 7.6 per cent niche beer.

“We specifically matched the flavours in the beer to the flavours in the food so that they would either compliment or contrast with the pasties.”

Ms Smith, who is a freelance beer trainer and writer with over 30 years’ experience in the industry, said that the reaction of the female crowd was especially pleasing.

She said: “I think it was fantastic to see so many women in the marquee. We are conditioned to think that beer is a bit of a bloke’s drink so it was great to see their reaction to it all.You could almost see that everyone had a particular favourite and that is what I love about beer and food matching is that it is so subjective.

"What suits one person’s pallet might not suit another and there is no right or wrong answer.”

Other pastie flavours included vegetable, steak, cheese and potato.

Matthew Carr, who runs Carrs Pasties with his brothers Joseph and Liam, and father John brought the selection of pasties to the demonstration.

He said: “I don’t think that we will have any of the cheese and jalapeno ones left , they have been very popular since we first started selling them.”