Serving Beer With Food

Beef: Strong ale, porter and stout are all sufficiently 'meaty' enough to go compliment the rugged flavour of beef.

Cheese: Try Brie and other creamy full flavoured cheese with a stout; goats cheese goes well with tart beers such as wheat beer or lambic beer; barley wine and strong ale go well with blue cheese; real ale and lager compliment the sharp and bitter taste of cheddar.

Curry: The combination of beer and Curry is by now classic. Try to go for lagers brewed in India (or by Indian companies, such as Cobra), as they are brewed especially to compliment spicy dishes.

Duck: Trappist ale and lambic fruit beers compliment the tangy flavour of duck.

Mushrooms: Rich malty beers go well with the strong muddy textures and flavours of mushroom based dishes.

Lamb: Lamb is both robust and full of subtle flavours; try spicy ale, a wheat beer, or a lambic beer.

Pies: Stout, Porter and Strong ales are an excellent accompaniment to pies, many of which contain ale or stout as an ingredient.

Pizza: Amber and brown ales suit the sweet and spicy flavours of Italian pizza.

Poultry: Lagers and Wheat beers go well with the robust yet light and creamy taste of chicken.

Salad: Light lagers and ales go well with a summer salad.

Seafood: Stout and oysters are a well-known combination, the textures going excellently together; fish go well with light lagers and bitters

But what beers go with desserts?

I have the beer-a-day calendar by Charlie Papazian and someone else and it seems like he is always suggesting that certain beers would go well with various desserts. I have never been able to make satisfactory pairings though. I would usually choose a nice pint rather than having any dessert...fewer calories too.

Casey27 said:

But what beers go with desserts?

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They say that stouts go well with chocolate desserts. I don't usually have beer and dessert together though.

Interesting BG, Ill have togive them a try sometimes, are you a French Chef or something?

It really depends on what you're having for dessert... Would you pair a stout with a lemon tart? I know I wouldn't. However, a nice tangy/tart fruit lambic would complement that nicely. On the other hand, a rich choc. stout with a piece of dark chocolate cake would be fantastic.

A nice Barleywine with something like pears poached in red wine with marscapone or fresh cream would also be fantastic.

With cheese, I like the dark belgian trappist beers with the more robust farmhouse cheeses. If you ever had a chimay rouge with a good piece of roblechon, or vacherin you'll know what I mean.

Pairing beer is both like and unlike pairing wine. There are fewer set conventions, a little more room to wiggle, but in the end it still all comes down to personal taste. Some people like port with cheese, others like a spicy red like syrah or grenache. Some people will swear by stout with their oysters, other a crisp/light kolsch. The only way to find your palate is to try, try, try...

I think IPAs and BBQ were meant for each other. The fruit and spice of each watch from the stands while the bitter and the sweet battle it out for their amusement.

Favorite dessert combo is stilton, pears, caramelized pecans and a glass of barleywine

Two questions:
Would you choose a different beer based on the type of spice? Specifically, there is the 'peppery' hot (like buffalo-wings or dishes with jalepenos/serranos/habaneros/etc.) and then there is the 'aromatic' or 'horseradish' hot; like hot mustard, horseradish, wasabi.

I love sushi with lots of wasabi but almost always have sake with that.

Also, is your definition of 'pie' the same as in the US? Here in the US, 'pie' usually means a sweet dessert.

All I know is I never want to have a red ale with cheap bbq ever again. In fact it's put me off eating with beer at all. It was hell, it made the beer taste like I was drinking pure ethanol or something. I almost puked. (Yes, the beer was good before I started eating)

Nugu... Sorry to hear about the bad red ale + BBQ experience! Bad BBQ will ruin anyone's night, but good beer + good BBQ is... Good! Myself, I like a Scottish ale with BBQ, particularly if the sauce is on the spicy side or has a good vinegar twang to it. I find the maltiness of the beer to be a good compliment to the spice/twang.

I'm about a third of the way through Brewmaster's Table by Garrett Oliver. If anyone is interested in pairing beer with food, this is the book for you.

SpanishCastleAle said:

Two questions:
Would you choose a different beer based on the type of spice? Specifically, there is the 'peppery' hot (like buffalo-wings or dishes with jalepenos/serranos/habaneros/etc.) and then there is the 'aromatic' or 'horseradish' hot; like hot mustard, horseradish, wasabi.

I love sushi with lots of wasabi but almost always have sake with that.

Also, is your definition of 'pie' the same as in the US? Here in the US, 'pie' usually means a sweet dessert.

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I'm pretty sure by pie he means savory pies, like the meat pies you're likely to find in the UK.

Regarding spice, this all really depends on your taste. When I drink wine wine with something like Indian food, I tend to go with something light and crisp with a good acidity that will 'reset' my tongue to baseline. Likewise, crisp beers like Tiger or a good european lager. I know from experience that I love sushi with belgian wits, and that Hitachino beers are great with it too.