Spicy Food Beer Pairings

[5mooth0perator]

I've seen some of these food beer pairings reading beer reviews. I wonder what the conventional wisdom is for spicy food? Like salsa, kimchi, Thai curries. I really enjoy a good salsa with garlic and jalapeños, but recently my beer is a little overwhelmed. What do people generally do to sizzle through? Should I look to the Mexican brews for inspiration, Malty adjunct lagers or maybe triple the hops? I am afraid that with the intense flavor of fresh salsa or curry, I could eat the hops and not notice.

 

[brewing_clown]

Brown ale goes well with a spicy Indian curry, imo.

 

[5mooth0perator]

Brown ale goes well with a spicy Indian curry, imo.

Interesting, I sort of left the Indian cuisine out, because it's pretty different creamy milk based, and well IPA's were named after the country.

 

[catdaddy66]

I have read that an informal study found Mexican lagers are great beers to mitigate the spiciness in foods. Now if you are looking to accentuate the spiciness, I have not any info on that issue.

 

[5mooth0perator]

I have read that an informal study found Mexican lagers are great beers to mitigate the spiciness in foods. Now if you are looking to accentuate the spiciness, I have not any info on that issue.

Mitigation is something to consider. I think a good palette cleansing would be appreciated too. I think the spicness or heat is one aspect, but I am also thinking about the acidity and pungency.

 

[GPP33]

I love spicy food and I love beer. I don't enjoy them together. Some people say IPAs pair well with heat but not in my experience. I guess I could see a brown working but I still think I'd enjoy em more apart than together.

 

[InLimbo]

I love spicy food and I love beer. I don't enjoy them together. Some people say IPAs pair well with heat but not in my experience. I guess I could see a brown working but I still think I'd enjoy em more apart than together.

Could not agree more with this, and it's nice to read that there are other people out there that feel the same way. I'm wondering if this is a myth that has been perpetuated for so long that people really think these two things go together.

My personal opinion (based on limited unscientific tastings) is that hop bitterness clashes with spicy food--anything with higher IBU levels in it, no matter what the style--possibly higher ABV too, but I haven't gotten that far into my "studies" yet. I've personally had great success with low IBU beers and spicy food: my absolute favorite beer to pair with spicy food is a good hefeweizen. The malty flavors in hefeweizens won't get completely blown out by spicy food, and the sweeter malt flavors with the clove/banana esters offers a nice compliment to whatever spicy food you're drinking it with. Give it a shot!

 

[5mooth0perator]

Could not agree more with this, and it's nice to read that there are other people out there that feel the same way. I'm wondering if this is a myth that has been perpetuated for so long that people really think these two things go together.

My personal opinion (based on limited unscientific tastings) is that hop bitterness clashes with spicy food--anything with higher IBU levels in it, no matter what the style--possibly higher ABV too, but I haven't gotten that far into my "studies" yet. I've personally had great success with low IBU beers and spicy food: my absolute favorite beer to pair with spicy food is a good hefeweizen. The malty flavors in hefeweizens won't get completely blown out by spicy food, and the sweeter malt flavors with the clove/banana esters offers a nice compliment to whatever spicy food you're drinking it with. Give it a shot!

I think it depends on the nature of the spicy food, for something like a curry that sort blooms with layers of spice, cloves, coriander, pepper, fenugreek etc. I could see an IPA fitting with pretty well. Acidic and intense spicy foods like kimchi or salsa, probably need some yin to balance the yang.

 

[Hanglow]

I also don't really get bitter beers with various indian curries, I much prefer a mild which is much less bitter and also even crap lagers like cobra. I think something with a decent lactic tang would be good too, a bit like lassi in that way although that is obviously quite a different texture/taste to beer

I'm going to try a weizen too, it's been a while since I have had one with something spicy

 

[5mooth0perator]

There is also the porter spice connection. IMO porters/stouts are wonderful with gumbo, the chocolate and coffee notes meld with a dark toasty rou made with darkened flour very well.

 

[DrinksWellWithOthers]

I feel some people pair hoppy beers with spicy foods because that's what they hear they're supposed to do. I'd rather have a beer that doesn't overpower the flavor of the dish and tunes down the perceived heat from the food.

I teach a certified Cicerone exam prep course at work and we recently had a food pairing class and one of the dishes someone brought was boneless Buffalo tenders that we paired with Bitburger Pils, New Belgium Fat Tire, and Troegs Perpetual IPA. The pils was completely lost in the pairing, the maltiness and sweetness of the fat tire cut the spiciness of the dish without overpowering any of the flavors and the IPA increased the perceived heat to where the dish was almost unpleasant - the heat became thr focal point of the food. The Fat Tire was the class favorite.

 

[oceanic_brew]

I feel some people pair hoppy beers with spicy foods because that's what they hear they're supposed to do. I'd rather have a beer that doesn't overpower the flavor of the dish and tunes down the perceived heat from the food.

I teach a certified Cicerone exam prep course at work and we recently had a food pairing class and one of the dishes someone brought was boneless Buffalo tenders that we paired with Bitburger Pils, New Belgium Fat Tire, and Troegs Perpetual IPA. The pils was completely lost in the pairing, the maltiness and sweetness of the fat tire cut the spiciness of the dish without overpowering any of the flavors and the IPA increased the perceived heat to where the dish was almost unpleasant - the heat became thr focal point of the food. The Fat Tire was the class favorite.

I'm glad you posted this since I made a stir fry with Scottish wee heavy and oatmeal stout reduced down with some soy sauce and thyme.

The vegetables were spiced heavily with Garam masala, coriander, pepper, cumin, and ginger.

The beer paired very well with a glass of Scottish wee heavy. It was a beautiful meal.

 

[MaryB]

The world of spicy is huge, sweet/hot, salty/hot, sour/hot... so the beer has to be matched to the recipe served. As mentioned above something like Buffalo Wings falls towards the salty/sour/hot area and a sweeter beer offsets that. If I had something like General Tsao's Chicken that is sweet hot a lager pairs fairly well as does an IPA. Salty/hot I go lager for sure because salt pairs well with lager.

 

[InLimbo]

I feel some people pair hoppy beers with spicy foods because that's what they hear they're supposed to do. I'd rather have a beer that doesn't overpower the flavor of the dish and tunes down the perceived heat from the food.

I teach a certified Cicerone exam prep course at work and we recently had a food pairing class and one of the dishes someone brought was boneless Buffalo tenders...

Have you tried a hefeweizen with your spicy buffalo tenders yet? I stand by my original claim that high IBU and high spice (or specifically "heat" level) will clash. Fat Tire is what, 20 IBU? Fits my theory! Try pairing a hefeweizen with your spice dish in your certified cicerone class sometime. I'd love to hear how it goes.

 

[DrinksWellWithOthers]

Have you tried a hefeweizen with your spicy buffalo tenders yet? I stand by my original claim that high IBU and high spice (or specifically "heat" level) will clash. Fat Tire is what, 20 IBU? Fits my theory! Try pairing a hefeweizen with your spice dish in your certified cicerone class sometime. I'd love to hear how it goes.

Usually for class I keep it basic and reserve things such hefeweizens and witbiers for lighter fare like seafood and salad but I'll give it a shot.

I love finding things that work that you wouldnt necessarily think would. For example we also had fudge brownies with a ganache frosting and paired it with a sweet stout, chocolate stout and Goose Island Lolita. Even people who dont like sours thought the Lolita paired best and they werent able to pick up on the things they don't like about sour beers in the pairing.