You always here about good wines being paired with food. Like a nice red wine with your cut of beef or a white wine with your fish. Yet you hardly ever hear of beer being paired with food. Like a wine will enhance and compliment the flavor of the meal, a beer can do exactly the same thing.
There are many categories of beer, and many sub categories within them. Everything from a light American pilsner all the way up to barrel aged Imperial Stouts. With such a wide selection it can be understandably difficult to choose. Choosing the beer is just like choosing the wine though. What flavor components does this beer have that will bring out the flavor of your food.
Most of the US tends to drink American macro brewery lagers. Budweiser or Coors leading the way. Believe it or not they are generic beers that have been formulated to be as tasteless as they are. It is hard NOT to match it to your meal. So we will talk about the lesser known beers, what we would call craft beers. Made in smaller breweries and usually done completely by hand with a small staff.
www.beertown.org has some great information on homebrewing and craft brewing.
Some of the more popular craft beers made tend to be Pale Ales. Known for their copper color and crisp hop flavor and bitterness they might be referred to as a session beer. Usually a modest beer in terms of flavors an can be matched well with burgers and brats during the tailgate for the football game. Another beer you might consider for you brat's is a nice German style lager, like a Schwarbier (dark beer) to bring out the flavor of the brat.
For the lazy day around the house and for after mowing the grass, one might grab a nice Hefe Weizen. Those who have been to Germany will know this beer. A turbid golden beer well known for its banana & clove aroma and flavor, it is a great beer for just lying around. The aroma/flavor comes from the yeast that is used and how it metaboliozes the sugars created from the use of wheat in the mash.
Making something spicey for dinner? Maybe some schezuan or something along that line. Grab yourself something with a nice hop bitterness. Yes, that old bitter beer face from the Keystone commericals. An IPA or an India Pale Ale is a beer belonging to the Pale ale family that has a touch more malt and a very assertive hop bitterness, it carries well with spiced foods.
Seafood on the menu? Going to steam some mussles or maybe some lobster? A Czech pils such as Budvar (under the name Czechvar in the US) works well as will another Czech beer Pilsner Urquell (original source).
Done with dinner and looking to relax with a nice piece of chocolate cake? A rich beer, something big like an Imperial Stout or a Barleywine goes very nicely with cake. Another option is an Oatmeal stout float. Place a brownie in the bottom of a stein, fill it about 2/3 of the way up with an Oatmeal stout and then a scoop of vanilla ice cream. I know what you are thinking but it is actually good. An oatmeal stout would be somethign like Samuel Smiths oatmeal stout and not Guinness which is a dry stout.
I know this is just barley touching on the varities of beers on that are out there, but to much of a good thing can be bad. If you would like to know where you might find some of these beers in your area you can check out
www.beeradvocate.com or
www.ratebeer.com
While they are sites for rating beers, they do have the ability for you to look up beers in your area. With the emergence of all the breweries in the last 15 years, what is available in one place is not available elsewhere.
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