Giving Up Spicy Food for Beer?

[YouHadMeAtASL]

I am a spicy food addict to an insane degree. I eat chips with Tabasco. I squirt enough Sriracha on food to kill small rodents. I eat habeneros daily. I don't know what it is, but I have an intense craving for the heat. I seriously go through one of those huge, bulk Tabascos per week.

I'm pretty sure that I singe off my taste buds on a daily basis. I prefer strong IPAs because they do give me that punch I desire and I can really taste them (I think).

I'm wondering if anyone has given up spicy food in an effort to better appreciate your beer experience?

I try giving it up, but I seriously can't. It's a problem. I just wonder what beer would taste like with taste buds.

 

[jiggs_casey]

There are breweries that produce chili beers... Rogue and O'Fallon come to mind.

I've had Rogue's chipotle ale and it's pretty good!

I wouldn't think you would have to give up one for the other. Just find recipes that incorporate both!

 

[KYB]

I love spicy food but I'm not quite on your level, as far as how often. However, when I got into good beer, I primarily drank big stouts and big IPAs - in-your-face beers. I appreciated Belgian styles but couldn't pick them apart. I felt like I couldn't taste everything. I started drinking more subtle styles (still love IPAs and Stouts) and now I love all Belgian styles, along with other more subtle styles. I think if you can cut down on the spicy food you may appreciate the beer more - however, do what you like.

 

[bovineblitz]

Spicy food and hoppy beer is my favorite combo

 

[Pommy]

I love my food spicy and love pretty much all styles of beer. I dont think spicy food damages your taste as much as smoking or using a lot of garlic or herbs which leave a lingering taste. No need to give anything up, if you cant taste it just up the speciality malts and hops. If you love spicy food you have to find something better than Tabasco, that stuffs weak

 

[Grinder12000]

I'm pretty sure that I singe off my taste buds on a daily basis

You do!

I ate a habenero once and ever since that day I'm pretty much immune to up to medium hot food. Your taste buds do change. I gut feeling is that there is something missing in your diet that makes you crave food (your you like the endorphin rush so you are basically a sex-o-holic).

 

[rustym]

I have the same problem. I love spicy foods more than most people. Heck, I grow habaneros. I have bottles of hot sauce that would eat through carbon fiber. I was eating some chips the other day with a hot sauce made from the ghost chili.

So...if your going to eat foods like that, the beer you drink with it won't matter. You won't taste the difference. I was at a wing place and wanted the hottest they had. I ate all 12 wings, but everthing else I ate, I couldn't taste.

I've learned that if I'm going super spicy, don't order a beer that is a) expensive, or b)distintively different. Strong IPA's do help, and can complement a spicy dish really well up to a point.

Super spicy and taste (of other foods) just don't go together well. Heat has it's own flavor and wants to dominate!

 

[GetLooseontheGoose]

Spicy food and hoppy beer is my favorite combo

Oh yeah, I think its the only beer to stand up to the spice!

 

[smokinghole]

I don't know about you guys but I found that heavily hopped IPAs even help with washing some heat away when eating real spicy food. I would compare it to the cooling ability of milk just more enjoyable because I don't really like milk unless its in my cereal.

 

[Slowfro]

Just can't beat a great bowl of spicy chili and homebrew IPA. Unless of course it's that bowl of spicy chili with the homebrew IPA while watching the Packers bring the Lombardi trophy home!

 

[two_hearted]

Capsaicin doesn't actually cause a chemical burn on skin or taste buds. It just triggers a sensation causing the area to inflame and feel similar to a burn. It shouldn't harm your taste buds long term, you just get some short term pain and numbing.

So, wash down your blazin' wings with a hop bomb and enjoy your complex brews before popping a couple ghost chiles.

Milk will actually counteract the capsaicin due to the caseins present (no idea how or why). Beer won't do anything other than spread the capsaicin around your mouth and make things worse. Any relief is from the alcohol hitting your bloodstream.

IMHO nothing goes better with a dozen hot wings than a tall IPA. I also love getting my endorphins going. I think I was actually addicted to Mango Habenero sauce at Bdubs for a while.

 

[dcott]

If I had to choose between beer and spicy food, I just don't know if life would be worth living anymore!! Also, I agree totally on how great IPAs (especially IIPAs) are at turning down the fire.

On a side note, most of our beer appreciation (particularly when it involves significant arromatic hops and aroma malts) happens from our nose, not our tongues, so eat-on and drink-on OP!!!

 

[beeber]

I too am a heat junkie. I sprinkle habenero powder on everything. I think that the peppers enhance my beer drinking. It opens my sinuses and lets me fully enjoy it.

I wouldn't give up spicy food in an effort to better appreciate my beer experience. I recommend it.

 

[robtotten]

I'd choose spicy food if it came down to that or hop bombs. I wouldn't give up beer in general unless my life was in danger. I love spicy food almost as much.

 

[two_hearted]

dark chocolate with chiles, oh man... Is there anything that spiciness doesn't improve?

 

[powerfreak]

I'm wondering if anyone has given up spicy food in an effort to better appreciate your beer experience?

I don't see why you would. The two are meant to be together.

For me, chips and Mrs. Renfro's Spicy Habenero Salsa with a hoppy home brew or Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is heaven. Nice burn and hops... life is good.

 

[bovineblitz]

dark chocolate with chiles, oh man... Is there anything that spiciness doesn't improve?

I effing love dark chocolate and chilis. You'd think I was a woman with how much I love chocolate, lol.

 

[devilishprune]

Give up the spicy food. In my opinion beer and spicy food don't go together at all; they are each at their best separately.

 

[Pick]

Cheese+hot sauce+beer!!!!

 

[fretsforlife]

Off topic:

Frank's Red Hot should ALWAYS be used instead of Tobasco.

 

[petey_c]

YouHadMeAtASL, Here's a link to satisfy both cravings. This way you're not just drinking pepper juice.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/5x-pepper-beers-172082/
I haven't tried these, but they inspired me to make my own recipe. Since I'm still new at this, I decided to use a Mr Beer "Fire In The Hole" chile beer kit. I used smoked Serranos and Panca chiles. Great smokey taste without being overpowering and a slight burn finish. 1 oz. of each dried, chopped, put in a bag and added after yeast. I suppose you could just change it straight to habeneros (where's that damn tildae, when you need it?) or ghost peppers.