Pairing Question for a restaurant event...

[Airborneguy]

My chef friend was asked to make a dish for a restaurant opening event at his friend's new place. This guy plans to make the place a brewpub in the future, and so my friend wants to pair his signature dish with a beer to keep that theme.

My friend's dish is smoked pork belly with an asian-style glaze. I'm not sure exactly how he makes it, but it is sweet and gingery, carmelized and goes great with the smokiness and saltiness of the pork belly.

We've been bouncing ideas and he's leaning towards a ginger/lemongrass pale ale, but I wanted to make something chocolaty and caramelly to take the sweetness in a different direction, maybe a chocolate porter or even a brown ale with a little extra chocolate/black patent malt. We both rules out a smoked beer because the pork belly already has a very strong smoke element.

Any pairing experts have any better ideas? This is the first time I've ever been asked to brew for an event (well second, but they wanted two kegs so I said no), so I want to make a good impression. Plus, its for my friend so I want him to benefit from a good presentation and pairing.

 

[Brewkowski]

http://www.seriouseats.com/2009/12/serious-beer-pairings-for-chinese-food.html?ref=serelated

http://www.samueladams.com/enjoy-ou....aspx?id=7067c0ba-b2ec-4717-8215-264e570b8e6b

http://www.foodservicewarehouse.com/education/pairing-asian-beer-with-asian-food/bd293.aspx


Seems like alot of articles out there would go more towards your malty-lower hop idea. To me it seems like an IPA or something with similar ingredients would be too similar, maybe too hoppy, but I guess you can look to either compliment or contrast. I normally drink lighter beers with asian style food like a wheat beer with good mouthfeel and a lot of sorachi ace hops for aroma, but maybe somewhere around brown ale, scotch ale, or bock?
Either way that's pretty cool, hope everything turns out.

 

[the_bird]

What about a sour beer? Since the pork is already sweet and caramelly, how about something that's a little on the tart side to balance that? I don't think (personally) I'd pair a sweet dish with a sweet beer.

Or, something that's kind of clean and refreshing. Maybe like a Saison, if you want something that's more interesting than a pale ale or a standard wheat beer.

 

[JonK331]

I had a similar pork belly dish at a restaurant a few weeks ago and had a Pliny with it. Awesome combo. However, I think a pear cider would go very nicely with it. If you have to do beer, then I'd go with a roasty brown or brown porter, something with roast malt flavors and not too much caramel.

 

[Airborneguy]

What about a sour beer?

I totally like this idea, but not enough time. It was the first thing I thought of, but unfortunately I only have 7-8 weeks.

 

[Airborneguy]

If you have to do beer, then I'd go with a roasty brown or brown porter, something with roast malt flavors and not too much caramel.

Remember this dish is also VERY smoky. Would roast and smoke compliment each other? I like the idea. Maybe a slightly roasted brown with a decent level of bitterness (I'm not going for style here obviously)?

And Hophead, thanks for those links. I'm going to bookmark those either way for future reference.

 

[bierhaus15]

Let's see: you got sweet, asian spices, smoke, and rich fatty pork. Man, that makes me hungry...

Normally I would say robust porter for smokey pork/bbq, but I really think a good Belgian dubbel would be perfect here. With pork belly, you'll need something that is both dry and lively (carbonated) to cut through the fat and clean your palate. A dubbel would also work pretty well since it's not sweet and the light malt/ caramelized sugar flavors of the beer would work well with the glaze on the pork. The yeasty-peppery, spiciness of a dubbel would go well with the Asian elements and hold up well with some smoke. Also, you really don't want a lot of bitterness or hops with smoke flavor, as they clash pretty bad.

 

[the_bird]

I said a Saison earlier, but a dubbel would be really nice, too.

 

[Airborneguy]

I'm going to pitch the saison idea to him. Time is a constraint here, so things like sours and dubbels are pretty much out of the question. But I do like the saison idea, and it would give me an excuse to make one of my friend's ginger saison, which goes with my chef friend's original request: something with ginger in it.

Thanks everyone, I'll update this as it goes along.

 

[the_bird]

So, did you get the go-ahead on the Saison? I've been wanting to make some kind of ginger-infused beer, I was thinking a simple American Wheat but a the more I think about it the more a Saison seems like a great pairing.

 

[Airborneguy]

Actually, yes, but I'm still waiting to get the recipe from my other friend so I didn't update this. Have you ever made a beer with ginger? I made a ginger/lemongrass pale ale last summer, it was awesome. If you want the recipe, let me know.

 

[the_bird]

Nah, I'm wondering mostly how much ginger you were planning to use. Fresh, I assume? Add it to the boil in the last few minutes?

 

[Madinaman]

Just my two cents on the issue. I would use a hoppy beer for this. Anything else, and the ginger and such would build up on the tounge, and the beer will be lost. Buffalo wings and IPA are a match made in heaven, so if you wanted roasty involved, go with a Black IPA or something similar.

 

[the_bird]

Just my two cents on the issue. I would use a hoppy beer for this. Anything else, and the ginger and such would build up on the tounge, and the beer will be lost. Buffalo wings and IPA are a match made in heaven, so if you wanted roasty involved, go with a Black IPA or something similar.

See, I'm going to disagree with that. I love me a real hoppy beer, but you really want the pork to be the star in this case; you don't want the beer to overwhelm the food. Hoppy IPAs can be great alongside a powerfully flavored dish, but then it becomes more about the beer than the food.

Besides, ginger is pretty well known as being great as being a great palate cleanser; think of the pickled ginger that gets served alongside your sushi.

 

[Airborneguy]

Nah, I'm wondering mostly how much ginger you were planning to use. Fresh, I assume? Add it to the boil in the last few minutes?

My last recipe used only 1/4 oz, but this time I am going for a full oz. I used fresh cut root.

 

[Airborneguy]

I would use a hoppy beer for this. Anything else, and the ginger and such would build up on the tounge, and the beer will be lost. Buffalo wings and IPA are a match made in heaven, so if you wanted roasty involved, go with a Black IPA or something similar.

In some cases, I'd agree, but in this case, we're not really looking to match the dish in complexity, just to compliment it. The beer in this case is an added bonus, the event and the dish are all about the food, so the dish has to shine above the beer. It's a chef event, not a beer event. Plus, my friend and I are both malt people anyway. I rarely even try IPA's.

I'm not sure what you mean with the last sentence btw, he's not making wings.

 

[Madinaman]

It was more of the fact I didn't read the post clearly enough. I saw asian glazed, and immediatly thought of Thai food, which tends to be very spicy, balanced, but spicy. I was noting that since I believed it was going to be spicey, and IPA would work well, as they pair very well with buffalo wings, which, tend to be spicey, smokey, sweet, etc. This is just my personal opinion on the issue, and if I had read Asian as just Asian, and not taken it to mean Thai, or Japanese, or Korean, or Chinese, I would probably have selected a different type of beer for each cuisine.

 

[EoinMag]

The trick with matching food and drink is to pick up on elements of the dish in the drink, so if it's sweet then match it with a sweet beer, if sour then sour, etc for any flavours.

Don't take it in a different direction, chocolate or the like, it won't work.

 

[WAdamC]

GO EASY ON THE GINGER! A little bit goes a long way, and an ounce is insanity.

 

[the_bird]

My last recipe used only 1/4 oz, but this time I am going for a full oz. I used fresh cut root.

When do you add it? End of boil, beginning of boil, "dry-ginger"?

 

[Airborneguy]

bird,

End of boil, in a hop bag. It was dry, cut-up ginger root.

GO EASY ON THE GINGER! A little bit goes a long way, and an ounce is insanity.

I think I agree with you on this one. How about 1/2oz? Last time, using 1/4oz, the taste was barely perceptible.

 

[Airborneguy]

Picked up my ingredients today. Decided to go with Candied Ginger instead of fresh ginger. I was leaning towards making my own candied ginger anyway, but they had it at the store.

I also ran into a little problem: I wanted Wyeast French Saison 3711, but they were out. They were also out of Belgian Saison (which I don't like anyway). One of the workers suggested Belgian Ardennes, and we read up on it at on the Wyeast site and I decided to try it out. The esthers seem to be slightly more subdued, so I might raise the temperature a little bit.

Other than that, the recipe is simple:

8.5 Belgian Pils
.75 Munich
1-.75 Wheat (haven't decided how much yet)

1.5oz Hallertauer 60 min
.5 Hallertauer 5 min

I'm going to add the candied ginger at flameout, 1-2 oz haven't decided how much yet. I'm going to confer with my friend on that.