Pairing food and Beer

[Kiwicook]

I was discussing this when talking to a brewer recently.

What dishes might successfully be paired with beer instead of wine?

What beer characteristics lend them to pairing with certain dishes?

[Cat Man]

Garrett Oliver

Visit Garrett Olivers website and buy his book.

He owns this category, I have the book sitting on my desk right now

Cat Man

[cape chef]

I find the foods of Alsace, Lorraine, Artois (all in Northern France) to work beautifully with many styles of beer. From Belgium ales (right above Artois) to many styles of German beers. The Belgium ales for the most part are top fermented and bottle conditioned to add a great deal of depth and complexity. The heavily hopped German beers have big forward flavors with sturdy body and finish.

[Cat Man]

Hey Kiwi, since you're in Victoria, I thought I'd say that VB is one of the best food pairing beers I've ever had.
Goes great with just about anything, so you're lucky to have access to that wonderful beer.

I did a beercan chicken once with Victoria Bitter and it added unreal flavor.

Cat Man

[ChicagoDan]

I also suggest you check out beeradvocate.com for information on beer pairings for different styles of beers. Dan

[Coregonus]

Sausage and Pretzel, what can be better?

I find interesting pairing Ales with sharp cheeses. Also, (are u sitting tight?) enjoy oysters with lighter Hefe-Weizen - isn't lemon bond them?

Belgium offers lot of fruity-nutty (opposite to malty-hoppy) brews that great with complex seafood dishes. Especially bottle-fermented.

Ever tried beer with dried whitebait or bream? Will make you feel DIFFERENT..

C

[sabalex]

Hello, just because you speak about beers. Do you know a good beer without alcohol?

[AllanMcPherson]

At our restaurant we've just launched a beer and game tasting menu. We're pretty excited about it and thus far have been getting enthusiastic responsed. We've chosen an international style of selection with beers from Scotland, England, Quebec and a porter from right here in Nova Scotia. The biggest hurdle (for me anyway) is matching a beer with a soup course. The carbonation of the beer with the still broth of a soup creates a bit of a disjuncture in the mouth.

--Al

[shel]

How about a cheese soup, like cheddar, or a cheddar-beer soup?

shel

[AllanMcPherson]

Shel,

I agree. Cheese or cream, something rich and fat, would work with the beer. Our catch is the game element. We've got a very elegant carabou stock base for the soup that would get masked by this approach. What we've done to "rich it out" is a hazelnut pesto finition. We've paired it with a nut-brown ale and the flavour match is good. The texture still concerns me. Maybe some sort of crunchy addition, whole grain crackers, or crouts?

--Al

[Harpua]

Michael Jackson's Beer Hunter - Beer Pairings

Michael Jackson was the master.

[heavyG]

We do some beer pairing videos on our site, and are shooting more as I type. Keep looking in, and make some suggestions.

G.

[luegofuego]

lots of stuff goes great with beer imo. pot roasts and stuff like that... most sorts of game... pickled herring and cured salmon and that kind of stuff.

[firerose0801]

Check out beerpairing.com for a couple of really good articles about pairing beer and food. Sometimes beer does go better with certain foods than wine does. I remember when I was in college, we used to have beer and cheese nights once a month and wine and cheese nights once a month. The beer and cheese parties always drew a significantly larger crowd than the wine and cheese ones (although that could have been in part due to my schools very large fraternity population... )

[GetBakd]

Try DOG FISH head world wide's stout -

Have two and ANYTHING TASTES GOOD!