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Pairing food and Beer

post #1 of 44
6/14/07 at 7:21am
Thread Starter 
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?
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post #2 of 44
6/14/07 at 12:43pm
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
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post #3 of 44
6/14/07 at 1:05pm
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.
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post #4 of 44
6/14/07 at 5:49pm
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
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post #5 of 44
7/30/07 at 7:58pm
I also suggest you check out beeradvocate.com for information on beer pairings for different styles of beers. Dan
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post #6 of 44
8/9/07 at 10:27pm
Sausage and Pretzel, what can be better? :crazy:

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.. :beer:

C
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post #7 of 44
10/17/07 at 4:13am
Hello, just because you speak about beers. Do you know a good beer without alcohol?
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post #8 of 44
10/17/07 at 7:22am
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
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post #9 of 44
10/17/07 at 9:17am
How about a cheese soup, like cheddar, or a cheddar-beer soup?

shel
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post #10 of 44
10/17/07 at 9:47am
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
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post #11 of 44
10/17/07 at 10:24am
Michael Jackson's Beer Hunter - Beer Pairings

Michael Jackson was the master.
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post #12 of 44
11/8/07 at 1:56pm
We do some beer pairing videos on our site, and are shooting more as I type. Keep looking in, and make some suggestions.

G.
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post #13 of 44
1/27/08 at 2:07pm
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.
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post #14 of 44
3/14/08 at 10:30am
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... :))
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post #15 of 44
5/15/08 at 5:15pm
Try DOG FISH head world wide's stout -

Have two and ANYTHING TASTES GOOD!
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post #16 of 44
7/26/08 at 12:52am

ffff

Has anyone ever seen this knife before and can it really be used on a bayonet? It is said that it can fit together with a AK47 rifle. Maybe it is a copy of some oldway from China :)
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post #17 of 44
10/24/08 at 4:54am

Pairing food and Beer

Think of ale as red wine and lager as white wine. In other words, when red meat or any dish that you would normally pair with red wine is on the menu, select an ale to serve with it. Conversely, if the main course is fish or poultry, try a lager.
===============
Kyle
Our mission is to provide high quality end to end solutions to the BPO segment in a manner that will improve the operational efficiency while reducing the cost of the services to the client.
4thdimension1@gmail.com
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post #18 of 44
11/7/08 at 9:47am
About 6 years ago I did a full blown Beer Tasting Menu with Rogue Brewery out of Portland. We brought the Brewmeister in to Austin and did a 6 course meal. Sold out the restaurant, 150 seats and it was AMAZING!!!
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post #19 of 44
12/14/08 at 8:50pm
Italian beers with Italian food, Mexican beers with Mexican food, German beers with German food....etc, etc. You cant go wrong.
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post #20 of 44
1/22/09 at 5:36am
Hey Bro,

Fellow kiwi chef, yes well... beer, all us chefs love it but, at the same time there is alot of variety out there. There are different flavours, heavy, light, citrusy and so on. Matching any bevergae is based on personal preference. Some dishes would suit a certain beer, e.g a stout (Killkenny, guiness) would suit a warming cassarole. A citrusy beer could suit deep fryed dishes. Best thing to do would try purchasing different types of beer and match the flavors to food, not all red goes with red meat for example. I will let you know, but the best place to get variety is Belgian Beer bars they are everywhere round the world and there is a broad selection, rebound ideas with the bar-person. Anyway let us know how things are going, where are you working? Which country are you cooking? Jerza
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post #21 of 44
9/30/10 at 8:29am

Kaliber

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post #22 of 44
10/1/10 at 11:00am

Venison gumbo and Abita Amber. Best food/beverage pairing in the world. But maybe I'm a bit biased...

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post #23 of 44
10/2/10 at 4:42am

 

 

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

O'Douls is sold as non alcoholic but I checked the label and it has .05% alcohol in it.

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post #24 of 44
10/2/10 at 3:42pm

 

Kyle,

 

I find the idea that you'd recommend against a lager with a hamburger, and an IPA with fish and chips disturbing.  I love both of those.  

 

Lagers tend to be crisp like many white wines.  While can be smooth, like some reds.  But I don't think the analogy holds any farther than that, and it's not much of a guide.  Maybe you could go into you ideas about pairing more deeply.

 

 

In re., O'Doul's, Kaliber, and other non-alcoholic beers: If you think of ".05% alcohol" as "99.95% alcohol-free" that may help you realize that both mean 5 parts per 10,000.  It really doesn't get more non-alcoholic than that. Ripe fruit and vanilla ice cream are more highly concentrated. 

 

Work it out yourself.  Vanilla extract is 35% alcohol; 1 tsp extract per pt = ~1/3 tsp alcohol per pt.;  96 tsp per pt = 288 1/3 tsp; 1/288 = ~0.35%; QED vanilla ice cream is (roughly) seven times more concentrated. 

 

All "non-alcoholic" beers have trace amounts of alcohol.  

 

Let me add that I respect the desire to avoid even trace amounts of alcohol, as well as the ideas that even a scintilla in non-alcoholic beer is "enabling," is forbidden from religious dietary schema, or anything else.  I'm certainly not telling you how to organize your life or beliefs.  But as a matter of reality, if you're really serious about avoiding alcohol in even these tiny amounts, you probably can't.  It's not only added to all sorts of different foods, but it's a naturally occuring substance. 

 

BDL


Edited by boar_d_laze - 10/5/10 at 8:41am
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post #25 of 44
10/3/10 at 7:15am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kyle2008 View Post

Think of ale as red wine and lager as white wine. In other words, when red meat or any dish that you would normally pair with red wine is on the menu, select an ale to serve with it. Conversely, if the main course is fish or poultry, try a lager.
 



You have to know that wine, when cooked, adds some particular effects or components;

- white wine can and will probably produce acidity

- red wine will always give a bit more sweetness

 

Also, when using beer, it will add a slightly sweet/bitter component to the dish.

 

I wouldn't use a lager in cooking.

There are enough dark, blond and ambercolored beers around. Well at least +700 in my country.

 

It's also well known that cheese and wine is often a bad combo. Cheese and a selected nice beer is very yummie. 

 

 

You can use beer in a lot of sauces too instead of wine. The variations are endless.

Another suggestion; make some kind of a Hollandaise with some blond Leffe and serve wit fish.

How about carbonnades flamandes?

 

 

 

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post #26 of 44
10/3/10 at 12:56pm

Chris,

 

"Pairing" doesn't mean cooking.  It means choosing the right beer to drink with a given food, or vice versa.

 

Kyle's rules don't seem to fly in the face of ordinary experience; but perhaps he meant something else by them than what I (or you) understood.  He's a thoughtful guy and I'm hoping he'll provide more explanation.

 

BDL 


Edited by boar_d_laze - 10/5/10 at 8:43am
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post #27 of 44
10/4/10 at 5:07am

Oh yes, now I see that I misinterpreted that post. Sorry Kyle!

I do know what pairing is... extremely complex.

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post #28 of 44
10/4/10 at 7:56pm

Kaliber

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post #29 of 44
10/5/10 at 4:07am

This is one of the pioneers in Belgium, concerning cooking with beers and serving selected beers with the food.

It's in a very small village at the border with France. Quite an excellent reputation.

Here it is (also in english available); http://www.hommelhof.be/

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post #30 of 44
10/5/10 at 6:46pm

I have been hearing commercials on the radio with Bewmaster Oliver making his beer pairing proclamation.  It seems the brewmaster is a bit of a beer & food aficionado, and hearing his position regarding beer & food pairing (over and over again), I really got to thinking.

I’m excited about the approaching warmer weather for so many reasons.  While most of them are obvious, one reason I’m excited is that I will be drinking more chilled beverages outdoors.

Sure some of the chilled beverages I’ll be drinking will be beer, but a lot of it will also be wine.  And the exciting part is that I’ll be drinking a lot more white wine in the coming months.But as a whole, light, fresh, crisp, acidic white wines pair better with foods than red wines do.  As do, beers…

 

 

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