Contrary to wine, there are not many guidelines to pair food with beer. I have seen Belgians ordering a lager with seafood, Irish drinking stout and oysters, and germans preferring wheat beer with trout. Some Chefs mention that complementing flavors and not overpowering food is a simple way to choose your beer. For instance, you will prefer a light beer to eat your spicy food and a strong beer to exacerbate the taste of your salad. Personally, I am a big of spicy food and enjoy drinking a light refreshing lager, however, some beer experts suggest Indian Pale Ale with spicy food like Indian good.[1]
The beer asociation listed 3 steps to for the pairing process.
1.-Match strength with strength. Strong beers belong to strong plates and delicate beers with more delicate food.
2.-Find Harmonies. Find a beer that shares common aroma or flavor with your dish
3.- Consider sweetness, bitterness, carbonation, and richeness. Foods that have a lot of sweetness or fatty richness (or both) can be matched by a various elements in beer: hop bitterness, sweetness, roasted/toasted malt or alcohol.
Perhaps the most important aspect of beer and food pairing is to use the taste of beer and potentiation to combine with the right food. Teku Tavern[2] mentions that salty foods accentuate and bring out residual sugar sweetness in the beer, with the combined pairing resulting in emphasized flavor overall.
Overall the idea of the perfect combination of beer and food has gained strong attention in recent years. Some chefs and sommeliers attempt to find commonalities, pairing, say, a spicy Thai dish with a spicy pale ale (could also be a fruit-fruit or chocolate-chocolate synchronization, etc.). The idea is that there is a pleasant echo. Notes in one sip evoke flavors in past or future bites. The opposite approach suggests that contrasting flavors are pleasing in a ying-yang sort of way: A dry, bitter stout classically pairs with oysters, perhaps “cutting through” the sweetness of the shellfish. Sweet and salty always work wonders. Remember that dominant food flavors can come from the protein (like beef), the sauce (such as a cream sauce), or the method of preparation (grilling, for example)[3]
As you can see, food and beer pairing have tremedous potenctial and more and more people enjoy craft beer, we will be certantly be hearing more and more about ideal food and beer dishes.
[1] https://www.brewersassociation.org/.
[2] https://www.tekutavern.beer/
[3] https://www.epicurious.com/expert-advice/how-to-pair-beer-and-food-article
Leave a Reply