Dec. 09, 2009 - Issue #738: Manraygun
Dinner Party: Pairing beer with food
To the pint
I know that for most of you the default is to reach for a glass of wine to start that holiday meal. Fair enough. Even avid beer drinkers tend to turn to wine when the centrepiece is a fancy meal, but it doesn't have to be that way. Beer is good for more than nachos and pizza. It can be a perfect match for any meal. Here's why.
Beer has a broader range of flavours, aromas and body than wine, mostly because it has more ingredients and more can be done with the ingredients. This allows for a greater range of options when choosing beer to fit a particular food. And unlike wine, the act of choosing need not be daunting. Beer is very forgiving.
So allow yourself to consider the possibility of toasting that roast turkey with a pint of ale. With a few basic beer-pairing principles and some of the suggestions below, you can easily find a beer that will nicely accent that meal you have prepared for hours.
The first task is to identify the dominant flavour or characteristic of the food and of the beer. What are the first words you would use to describe a food? Steaks might be hearty and rich. Salads are delicate and fresh. Chocolate is bittersweet. The dominant flavour will define which beer should be matched with it.
The same process applies for the beer: stouts are roasty, pilsners sharp and quenching and brown ales nutty and sweet. You get the idea.
Once you have your dominant flavours, you want to either compliment or contrast them. In complimenting, you use the beer to accent the food, while with contrasting you aim for an opposite sensory experience. Which you choose is entirely up to your preferences, whim and available selection. For example, let's look at spicy Thai food, like pad thai or a green curry. If you want to contrast, go for a light, crisp lager like Thai beer Singha. The soft sweetness can cut the spice and heavy sauces. However, a complimentary approach might go for a hoppy Pale Ale, such as Propeller Pale ale, or the hoppy Dogfish Head 60-Minute IPA. The sharp hop quality draws out the spice a little more and offers a different dimension.
The key is to select the contrast or compliment carefully. Drinking a German wheat beer with Thai would go wrong—the fruity, yeast flavours would clash. A stout with a delicate fish dish would obliterate the subtle flavours of the food. Similarly a cream ale would disappear under the weight of Jamaican jerk chicken.
So, what about Christmas? Well, for most of you, turkey will be the dominant food theme. Turkey is delicate, soft and somewhat drying, meaning it can't have too strong a beer with it. Something with a soft sweetness will contrast well and accentuate the poultry flavours. A brown or amber ale, as mentioned earlier, works well. German amber lagers are great matches, such as Ayinger Oktoberfest-Marzen. Stay away from hop-accented beers, as they will jar your palate.
But the main meal is not the only time you will want to sip beer. If you are doing appetizers of fruit and cheese, you might try a German wheat beer like Paulaner Hefe Weissbier, or one of Lindeman's fruit lambics. With a rich dessert of mincemeat pie, you need to go heavier. I might choose Celebrator dopplebock or Old Deuteronomy Barley Wine from Alley Kat.
Wild Rose Cherry Porter, the company's latest seasonal, would match well with fruitcakes and chocolate. If shortbread is your thing, try drinking it with Paddock Wood Czech Mate pilsner or Fuller's London Pride—the soft bitterness would contrast well with the buttery cookie.
Of course any of the dozen or so Christmas spiced beers fit the season well. Many breweries put out beers around this time spiked with ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon and other holiday spices. Consider them the beer version of mulled wine. Tree Brewing's Spiced Reserve Ale is a soft, balanced example. Big Rock's Winter Spiced Ale draws out more ginger. Anchor's Christmas Ale, which is different every year, yields a big, bold spice note.
But my suggestions are just the beginning. Let your tongue be the guide and find the pairing that works best for you. Sure beats the Merlot vs. Shiraz debate. V
More stories in the Holiday Guide »
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