Enjoying Food and Beer: Pairings

Clarissa from Grace Seeds Ministry asked me to do a brief writeup on food pairings, after we hosted a beer and cheese pairing event for Mt. Zion's Share the Harvest gardens.  

Sometimes, unfortunately, food is just fuel.  At those times, when our lives get busy, cooking seems a chore and we just eat because, well, we have to.  But, I find it helps when I can step back and remember that food adds enjoyment to our lives - its the lubricant for social interaction, it can delight our senses, and build community and family.

One of the ways to enhance our enjoyment of food, to remember that its more than just fuel, is to spend some time pairing food with beer.  For me, paying a bit of attention to my food and my beer and how they work together takes our culinary life from bland to vibrant, boring to interesting.  It can spice things up and make you want to pay attention to what's happening on your palate.  

Eighty percent of the beer purchased in this country falls into one style category, and it is the least flavorful and most bland of all categories - Light American Lager.  This is the Bud/Miller/Coors category and they are all very similar.  Any preference for one over the other is an invented, marketing-driven preference, not related to actual flavor differences.  In blind tastings, very few can distinguish between these beers, which all place a premium on lightness of aroma and flavor. 

The beers we are talking about here are different than those.  We're talking real beer - the wide, amazing diversity of beer styles with real and distinct flavors, aromas, and character.  The world of beer is much more diverse than wines, getting to know a few beer styles pays off in depth of enjoyment of flavors - and the ways beer can enhance the enjoyment of our meals. 

As an example, I'll go through the five beer and cheese pairings we did at the tasting:

Revenge of the Kiwi Pale Ale (handmade by me) paired with Spanish Manchego:  This beer has a medium bitterness balanced with bready maltiness, neither overwhelming the other. A prominant mango and tropical fruit aroma hits your nose first and then is followed through in the flavor.  The cheese is made from goat's milk with a little funky-ness, that the hop bitterness of the beer cuts through.

Pipeworks Brewing Company's  Budapest Gambit paired with 9 year old Wisconsin Cheddar:  An Imperial Witbier, this beer is a strong, light colored Belgian-style beer brewed with hibiscus and ginger. There are layers of spice flavors in this beer, complex and powerful, peppery.  The cheddar provided a somewhat plain, simple canvas on which to enjoy the unruly, riotous flavor painting of the beer.

American Stout (handmade by my friend Jim Todd) paired with French Brie:  Jim's inky dark beer combines an easy drinkability with layers of roasted coffee and chocolate flavors, balanced with medium bitterness.  The creaminess and richness of the brie complimented the chocolate coffee flavor of the beer, much like a the dark roast espresso and cream of a cappucino. 

Spiteful Brewing's Dibs are for Dummies paired with Italian Blue Cheese:  This beer is an English-style Barleywine, strong and malty, with just barely enough bitterness to balance the sweetness.  Complex flavors abound in the beer, which was redolent of plums, raisins, caramel, sherry, and bread -  a great foil for the strong earthy flavors of the blue cheese.  Like two flavor heavyweights punching it out.

Lake Effect Brewing's Session Brett Ale paired with Argentinian Parmesan:  This pale gold beer relies on a "wild" yeast, brettomyces, to ferment.  This lends it a strong tart, somewhat sour flavor, with little to no malt and hop flavors.  The saltiness and fattiness of the parmesan, which can be overwhelming when eaten by itself, is cut through by the tartness of the beer, complimenting each other.