How to Pair Beer: A Brewmaster’s Guide
According to archaeologists humans have been drinking beer for over 5,000 years. Presumably, we’ve been eating food that whole time too, so you’d think we’d be pretty good at figuring out which beers pair well with our favorite meals. Well, we are good at it! Or at least Brewmaster Fal is.
Indeed, a well-crafted beer can elevate a meal, and vice versa. It’s something Fal and our team think about with every one of AVBC’s recipes; prioritizing balance in our brewing philosophy. Rather than overpower, our beers are uniquely suited to bringing out subtle and complex flavors in many different kinds of cooking.
Good beer alone is not enough though. In order for a beer pairing to really sing you have to follow a few simple rules. Fal laid them out for us below. 5,000 years of wisdom, condensed for you here on a glowing screen:
Always start with impact.
Impact is the strength of the beer’s impression on your palate. To have a successful match, you’ll want to match the impact of the beer to the impact of the food. For example, you don’t want to pair the Huge Arker with a delicate light fish because it would overpower it. Better to pair it with the Boonville Gold.
Decide if you want to compliment or contrast the dish
A big beer will overwhelm delicate fish, a lighter beer may seem to disappear when paired with spicy foods. Go for light bitterness for more delicate dishes, and save bitter or darker beers for richer more complex items.
Contrasting
It’s difficult to pair most beers with spicy foods, so, with a few exceptions it is best to contrast when pairing spicy food. For most of your Indian dishes use lighter beer Like Poleeko Pale or Boonville Gold, the bitterness will “cut” the spices, it will cleanse and “refresh” the pallet, and make your taste buds ready for the next bite. This is contrasting with the foods.
Complementing
The flavor hook is the part of the beer’s flavor and aroma that matches, harmonizes, accentuates or complements the flavors in your food. Beer can have flavors of caramel, coffee, chocolate, bread, bananas, limes, herbs, smoke or raspberries, the list goes on and on, and all these can find complement or similar flavors in food. This concept is particularly relevant when it comes to pairing desserts. Our Bourbon Barrel Stout pairs nicely with a vanilla chocolate cake. The chocolate flavors in the beer will pick up the chocolate in the cake (same with the vanilla notes.)
