Beer on everyone’s lips
I have rediscovered a love from my ancient past. Back in my heedless youth, I didn’t drink beer all that frequently – but nowadays, thanks to the innumerable new variations of conventional and craft beers, more and more often. With all the exotic and out-of-the-ordinary types now emerging, this beverage has in my opinion become really interesting once more. Due not least to my intensive research for the craft beer blog, it’s been rejuvenated – my passion for beer! Besides innumerable beer types and flavour variants, I personally attach major importance not only to the taste of the beers as such, but also to what food’s best suited to eat with each of them. So I decided to experiment on this by myself, and record my findings for you :-).
Pilsner
Pilsner beers are refreshing, slightly tart in taste, and golden-yellow in colour. So they go perfectly with light salads, fresh seafood, Asian dishes or also hot-spiced foods. Salmon and asparagus are also complemented to perfection by a nice tart pilsner.
Wheat beer
A light wheat beer goes best with a nice meaty steak, or some melt-in-your-mouth chicken dishes. Some mild cheese, like young Gouda, butter cheese or various types of soft cheese are ideal accompaniments to a nice chilled wheat beer. For a dyed-in-the-wool Bavarian, thought, wheat beer goes particularly well with veal sausages and pretzels.
Pale Ale
This specialty beer, originating in England, is said to harmonise particularly well with warm apple cake. This exotic combination is perhaps more of an acquired taste. But for all those of you don’t combine beer and cake all that often, though, there are alternatives: mild and medium-mature cheddar are also excellent with it. In summer, on balmy evenings around the barbecue, a chilled pale ale is also a fine accompaniment for grilled chicken or turkey steaks with a tasty potato salad. But burgers and pizza are also excellent with this quaffable beer.
Lager
This pale beer is the ideal accompaniment to vegetarian dishes featuring cabbage, leek or fruit vegetables, like zucchini, or artichokes. For sushi-lovers, I can only recommend trying a lager with your fish instead of sake. And for all those of you with a sweet tooth – a lager also combines well with any fruity dessert.
Indian Pale Ale
A heavily hopped, top-fermented pale ale is best enjoyed to the full when accompanied by a sweet dessert or a hot-spiced Thai dish like Pad Thai or Massaman Curry.
Brown Ale
To accompany this very quaffable beer with its prominent overtones of roast malt, my favourite choice is salty snacks, potato crisps, together with a fiery homemade salsa. Now, during autumn, a dark brown ale will also make a wonderful accompaniment to root vegetables, pumpkin soup and a spicy chilli con carne with some crunchy white bread.
Bock
A bock beer is predestined to accompany strongly flavoured cheese, like Gorgonzola or a Swiss Gruyère. Hearty game dishes or a medium-grilled rib-eye steak with potato wedges also go well with this malty, full-bodied beer.
Stout
Very sweet foods, like a creme brulée, for example, are an ideal match for these dark heavyweights. I shall also be looking to try the beeramisu together with a stout. Spare ribs and barbecue recipes likewise complement the taste of a stout.
Porter
Well-seasoned juicy grilled meat, and indeed any smoked meat too, go very well with this dark, heavy and highly intensive taste. When it comes to choosing a cheese, I would tend to go for a tangy Swiss Gruyère, and for dessert I can recommend a combination of chocolate and peanut-butter biscuits to go with the porter.
Smoked beer
The smoky aroma of a smoked beer is definitely not to everyone’s taste. There’s a saying that you don’t really start to enjoy it properly until you’re on your third glass. What without a doubt goes superbly with this tart, full-bodied beer is a crisply grilled shoulder of pork with thick gravy and sauerkraut or a stuffed onion with mashed potatoes.
The field of craft beers is as fascinating as it’s diverse, and here you have well-nigh infinite opportunities to match specialty beers to specialty dishes. Here Jack finds his proverbial Jill, and every beer-lover will be able to create a highly personalised taste experience.
Faithfully embracing the smoked-beer motto: “The second pint tastes better than the first one, and the third one better than the second!”, you should never stop experimenting in your quest to find your favourite combination of beer and food 🙂 .
Which beer do you chose to accompany your favourite food?
