Not just summer seasonal beers, but beers that I love when the weather gets warm.
You’ve just ordered your dinner and you are waiting for the delivery person. Time to take a look in the fridge and choose a beer. What did you order?
The classic delivery option; it is a favorite of mine. Surprisingly, pizza is not an easy match for beer. Acidity, like that in tomato sauce can clash with some beers and create an unpleasant aftertaste. You could just grab a macro lager, it’s cold and refreshing, but it adds nothing in the way of taste. I reach for an amber lager like Brooklyn lager or Yuengling lager. They are easy drinking and they bring a good balance of sweetness and hops that doesn’t clash with the pizza.
Wings and beer can be tricky. In general, stronger flavor the foods go well with stronger flavor beers. However beers with a strong hop flavor can often intensify the spiciness of foods. The might work for some people, but it can easily be overpowering for others. So if you are looking for big and bold go with an IPA like Clipper City Loose Cannon or an American Pale Ale like Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. If you are looking for more balance, go with a dry stout like Guinness Extra Stout or a porter like Tröegs Dead Reckoning. I find the dry roasted malt flavors to be a nice complement to spicy foods because it provides a cooling contrast.
Chinese take out is a broad category of food. For you basic beef and broccoli or chicken and vegetables you really can’t go wrong with a German Helles Lager like Spaten or Paulaner. They provide a great clean straight forward flavor, and a crisp finish that enhances the simple goodness of these dishes. For their spicier counterparts, like kung pao chicken or pepper steak, I like a Belgian Wit like Allagash White. They provide a more complex flavor with their variety of spice and floral flavors that complement that of spicier Chinese dishes. For Peking duck I like a maltier flavor like that of a Munich Dunkel Lager, Ayinger Altbairisch Dunkel for example.
These are just a few examples. But I hope you’ll see that it’s not just home cooking and five star cuisine that can be enhanced with a great beer.
A great cut of beef perfectly cooked is a thing of beauty. I’m getting hungry, and thirsty just thinking about it. Great beer makes an excellent complement to steak, no matter what cut you are talking about. When choosing a specific beer to pair with your steak, the cut one of the factors. Seasoning is the other factor.
In general, when cooking a steak you are going to be creating a nice flavorful crust on the outside of the meat. The sweet smoky flavors developed by this caramelization are going to match well with the sweetness and earthiness of maltier beers. For more tender cuts like filet mignon that have a more subtle flavor you want a more subtle beer like a brown ale or amber lager. For more flavorful cuts like flank steak and skirt steak you want a beer with a stronger flavor like a stout or Belgian strong dark ale. Similarly for seasoning, when minimally seasoning a steak with just salt and pepper you want a more subtle beer. The more additional flavors, especially bold flavors, you add to the mix the more flavorful beer you want.
Here are some examples:
Great food and great beer are two passions of mine. Put the two together and you’ve got a recipe for a great dining experience. I’ll be exploring this topic in more detail, but for now i’m just going to share some of my resources for pairing suggestions.
BeerAdvocate.com – My primary source for beer news and information
CraftBeer.com – Great PDF of pairing suggestions
The Brewmaster’s Table – The go to book for pairing advice
Brewery: Boston Beer Company
Style: American Pale Ale
Overall Score: B-
Notes: Golden amber in color and a thin lacy head. Moderate carbonation provides a pleasant mouth feel. Nothing outstanding in the aroma, some minor floral notes. Good malty sweetness upfront gives way to a nice hop floral taste. The aftertaste is a nice lasting combination of the sweet and bitter. Overall this is a nice balanced brew worth of spot in the fridge.
This book by Garrett Oliver is one of the most used books in my collection. His take on beer and pairing it with food will really enhance your dining experience. It is superb to read cover to cover, and it also makes an excellent reference. Great beer and great food have become passions of mine. This book hits on both of those and combines them wonderfully.
The Brewmaster’s Table: Discovering the Pleasures of Real Beer with Real Food
Brewery: Yuengling Brewery
Style: American Amber Lager
Overall Score: B
Notes: Clean and refreshing is what you are gonna get with this beer. An excellent thirst quencher. One of my go to beers when I am looking for something light. A great session beer. Goes well with a lot of different foods. The taste is on the sweeter side and the hop flavor is a bit subdued. I prefer it on draft, but it is decent from the bottle too.
Brewery: Boston Beer Company
Style: American IPA
Overall Score: B
Notes: Good hop flavor. Less bitter than the average IPA. A good starter IPA. Flavor a lot like Clipper City Loose Cannon, but less intense. I’d buy it again, but not my go to IPA.
Brewery: Stone Brewing Company
Style: Russian Imperial Stout
Overall Score: A
Notes: Dark black in color, so dark I can see my reflection in the beer glass. A nice head with some lacing as it is consumed. Smells sweet with a hint of coffee and vanilla. The aroma is good but not great. Tastes like roasted coffee, sweet vanilla, and bitter chocolate. It has a great lingering aftertaste, not too sweet, not too bitter, just right. It has good mix of carbonation and smoothness. Over all it is complex and smooth, very drinkable, one of the best Russian imperial stouts I have tried thus far.
Brewery: Stone Brewing Company
Style: American Strong Ale
Overall Score: A-
Notes: Amazing aroma of pine, orange, and honeysuckle. Bold flavor up front of hops along with rich caramel sweetness. Strong lingering aftertaste of both bitter and sweet. Definitely a great beer to sip.
What I’ve been drinking lately
Craig Bowser 