BETTER BEER BUREAU
BEER is food...Food with BEER
Pairing ideas of Beer with food
When one thinks of the beverages served in many restaurants, wine comes to mind most frequently. Many traditionalists would be surprised to learn that beer is now on the fine dining menu. Despite its sporty, pub-crawl, keg party reputation, beer has been transformed into a chilled, foamy beverage served among the elite and the everyday Joe equally. It is becoming more common to see restaurants people peruse a list of beers, not wine. With the advent of micro brews more and more restaurants are offering a wider selection of beers and paring with foods gives diners a new opportunity to try different types with their meals. It is also becoming commonplace for hosts and hostesses to wonder what beer to serve with the meal they will serve their guests during dinner parties.
What type of beer goes with the dishes served at meals and in restaurants? There are many different types of beer: lager, ale, pilsner, brown, bock, porter and stout. How do these beers pair up with food? There are so many types of food to choose from: Mexican, Chinese, Thai, Japanese, British, and German etc. The easy answer is to choose what you, the diner, believe to be a great taste match. Everyone’s tastes differ and there are enough choices to go around. For those of you who are stuck and don’t know where to begin, the following is a good place to start.
Fish dishes demand a delicate beer mate – unless the fish is heavily battered and deep-fried. Fresh fish tastes best with a pilsner or a light lager, as does beer battered fish. Fish and chips, British-style, can accompany brown ale or a heavier lager.
Only with beer can chicken taste good – a sentiment shared by passionate beer drinkers. Chicken tastes good with almost anything and the choice of beer depends on individual tastes. Dramatic-tasting chicken dishes, such as curried or Thai heavily spiced chicken can be paired with stronger beers like malty amber or a dry porter. A roasted chicken really goes well with a light lager or pilsner.
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- Benjamin Franklin
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FOOD...
One possibility is to choose a beer that matches the country of origin of the food being served. If going out for sushi, try to have a Japanese beer with your tempura and maki. Kirin beer, which was a light, delicate beer ideally suited to the delicate tastes of sushi. The Kirin people claim their beer has complimented sushi for almost a century. A German dinner with bratwurst & sauerkraut or sauerbraten goes well with the traditional German beers made of only malt, yeast and water.
Mexican beer is a perfect match for those south of the border meals-with or without the lime. In Mexico and southwestern United States, some people like to drink chili beer – a lager style beer that is rich, malty and roasted. This rather hot beer is the perfect match for spicy Mexican offerings such as burritos.
British beef and Yorkshire pudding go best with a stout beer like Guinness. Guinness itself is like a meal in a glass. A hearty meal tastes better with a hearty beer. A stout beer can also be paired with other heavier meals such as lasagna, pasta, pizza and game dishes.
Standard beef dishes like burgers, steak, and roasts are best paired with lighter lagers and pilsners to offset the heaviness of the meal and provide for a clean palate between bites. Some great European lagers are excellent with beef like Stella Artois, Beck and Heineken.
To end a dinner, diners may want to try dark ale, cream stout, Oatmeal Stout, Double Bock or Scotch Ale. All of these beers are heavy and sweet and would taste great with cheesecake or tortes. Imperial Stout needs a dessert made with chocolate, as it is quite bitter and heavy.
If the dessert is light and fruity, perhaps a fruit-flavored lambic would go well. Lambics are wheat beers produced in Belgium and some of them are flavored with raspberry, cherry and peach. It is common sense that a fruity beer would pair well with a fruity dessert.
A BETTER BEER BUREAU FACT:
Out of all the alcohol drinks, beer contains the smallest percentage of alcohol and when consumed in logical portions, can increase the levels of good cholesterol (HDL) in the blood. For over thirty-five years, scientists have researched the effects associated with balanced beer consumption for the human cardiovascular system. The research outcomes have shown one bottle of beer during a meal can obstruct the development of plaque inside the human arteries.
