Pairing Beer with Food by Kevin – October 13, 2004

Beer can be a great accompaniment to many, if not most, food courses.  In fact, beer can often be more appropriate to wine for many dishes.  Beer can have many diverse flavors, such as malty, bitter, sour (acidic), smoky, spicy, caramel, sherry, raisin, plum, fruit, and so on, in addition to having other aspects, such as carbonation, that can play a large role in successfully finding the beverage of choice to pair with a particular food. 

This report provides some basics on pairing food with beer.  Granted, this is a very subjective topic and not everyone’s taste buds may be in agreement – but, none-the-less, here are some things to think about when you’re reaching in the refrigerator to select a beer to have with your next meal.  These are mainly summaries from [1, 2].

1)     Maintain the “balance” between the beer and the dish.  If you have a delicate dish, such as a salad, then generally, you would want to select a more delicate beer, such as a Witbeer, Hefeweizen, Helles, American Wheat, etc.  An aggressive beer, such as an American Indian Pale Ale, would overwhelm the dish such that the only thing your palate will remember is the beer and not the food.

2)     For foods that may have a higher oil content (cheese or fried foods) or aggressive flavors, carbonation can play a large role as it can provide an “amnesia of the palate” [1].  Basically, stronger flavors, such as a curry, will tend to linger on your palate and a highly carbonated beverage can more effectively “rinse” your palate such that your next taste will be as good as the first.  This is something that you can’t do as easily with wines (aside from Champagne and sparkling wine).

3)     Consider the “bright and dark” [1] flavors of the dish and pick a beer that you know has flavors falling in this profile.  Bright flavors consist of those that give a dryness on the palate often with some acidity (such as coconut, lime, apple, citrus).  Dark flavors are more often roasted flavors such as caramel or coffee or dark fruits, such as plums.  As an example of a bright-flavored dish could be ceviche (fish cooked in lime juice with chopped onions, tomatos, peppers, and cilantro).  A beer that would match the bright flavors here could be a lambic, Flanders red, or a hefeweizen (as they all have some acidity and don’t emphasize “dark” flavors).  On the other hand, a grilled hamburger would be more of a “dark” flavored dish due to the red meats and caramelization due to the grilling.  A beer that would likely pair well with a hamburger would be one that has dark flavors, such as caramel, which could be an amber ale or brown ale.

4)     Consider the bitterness of the beer that you’re selecting for the pairing, particularly, to maintain the balance referred to in point 1.  So, a more aggressively-flavored food, may require more bitterness to preserve the balance whereas this would overwhelm a delicate dish.

5)     Consider the complementary or contrasting nature of the beer and the food.  If the food has a strong character (such as fruit or smoke) then a beer that also has that same strong character may be “too much”.  For example, fruit lambics are not known to pair well with fruit desserts as they “cancel each other out”.  On the other hand, a fruit lambic may be a very nice complement to a chocolate dessert where the tartness of the lambic can counter the sweetness of the dessert and the fruit flavor from the lambic will be more appreciated.

Here is a summary of some recommended food/beer pairings [1].  There are many different beers and different foods, and, of course, there are many beers that go with a certain food and vice versa.  When looking through this table, though, you will see some trends.  For example, shellfish will tend to go with beers that have at least “some” acidity associated with them.  This makes sense as there is typically a “brininess” with seafood that would be complimented by some sourness.  Another example, is grilled meats, which will tend to be associated with beers that have more malty/caramel flavors to match the caramelization process introduced by the grilling.  “The Brewmaster’s Table”, by Garrett Oliver provides a thorough discussion of the interplay between different beers and foods.

These guidelines were considered when selecting beers to pair with the menu that follows.  For example, the salad with orange slices was paired with the Belgian Wit to 1) maintain “balance” in the dish with both being delicate and 2) to complement the subtle orange flavors in the beer with orange in the salad.  The gumbo was paired with a Porter such that the roasty, burnt popcorn character of the roux would be matched to the burnt character in the Porter given by the black patent malt.  The shrimp creole and jambalaya were paired with the American Pale ale as it had a more assertive bitterness to balance the pairing and counter the acidity from the tomato character of these dishes.  The chocolate pecan pie was paired with an Imperial Stout as the roastiness from the stout compliments the chocolate in the pecan pie.  Similarly, the subtle banana character of the weizenbock was intended to compliment the stronger banana character in Bananas Foster.  The menu and corresponding recipes follow.  The references for these recipes are included, though, in most cases – my preparation is a bit different from the published recipe.  The recipes here reflect how these dishes were prepared at the Beer dinner.

For Kevin's complete write-up, including the recipes, click below (it's a MS Word format document):

Beer and Food Pairing