Drink + Food = Awesome

JOHN WILSON

BEER: When matching beer with food there are very few absolute disasters, so you can have lots of fun trying out combinations

THE TRADITIONAL IRISH pub was never noted as a centre of culinary excellence. If you fancied meeting up for a chat, to watch the match or listen to music, there was nowhere better, but any request for food beyond a packet of cheese and onion was likely to be viewed with suspicion. Times have moved on, and most pubs are now keen to supply you with a plate of grub, particularly at lunchtime, when few people now think of downing a pint. The quality of the food varies, but some pubs now make a real effort, and have been rewarded with a very brisk midday trade. These days we even have a gastropub or two to try out, but here we are often encouraged to drink wine with food rather than beer. We know that beer goes with pizza, curry and barbecues, but maybe now is the time to expand our repertoire of beer and food matches?

On the European mainland beer is considered a natural accompaniment to food. Most northern European countries drink it with their meal in the same manner as those further south consume wine. Ask for anything other than an Altbier (a red ale with real flavour) to wash down your Schweinshaxe or Bratwürst in the brew pubs of Düsseldorf, and you will be treated with contempt by the waiting staff. A few kilometres further south in Cologne, the local Kölsch beer, lighter and more floral, is considered the only thing to drink with the area’s excellent black pudding. A Pilsner of some sort is an essential part of the Danish lunch, sitting alongside a chaser of aquavit to wash down all those herrings and other goodies.

But what beer to drink with what food? Even more than with wine, I am convinced there are very few absolute disasters, so you can have lots of fun trying out all sorts of combinations to see if they work. We are already familiar with a few perfect partners; stout and oysters, for one, is a triumph. I am very fond of the English ploughman’s: a plate of cheddar-style cheese, pickles and good bread with a pint of light ale. I have also tried stout and beef stew, and stout with chocolate, too – both a success. A friend who has done a bit of study on the subject advised me to think of darker beers as similar to red wine, full of flavour and quite powerful, and therefore better with red meats, stews and hard cheeses. Lagers and light-coloured beers tend to be more delicate in flavour, so think of these as white wine, to match with chicken and fish.

Dean McGuinness of Premier International Beers gives two other rules of thumb: the stronger and more characterful the beer, the greater the need to have richer, stronger food. The opposite also applies with delicate food – go for a lower-alcohol beer. He also suggests that the spicier the food, the less hoppy the beer – the bitterness of beer can really jar with spices.

THE EXPERTS’ CHOICE

I asked three beer experts to come up with their favourite beer and food matches:

Tripel Karmeliet and roast pork

Aidan Redmond and his brother Jimmy have a passion for beer, and one of the finest selections in the country in Redmond’s of Ranelagh. Jimmy went for roast pork (preferably with the crackling to enhance the sweetness), alongside a bottle of Tripel Karmeliet, a Belgian Trappist-style beer. “It’s a big beer , very robust, but very smooth, with lovely fruit. There is a natural sweetness, which works perfectly with your apple sauce. As with all Belgian beers, it must be drunk from a proper glass, or failing that a wine glass, to get the full flavour.” Tripel Karmeliet is available from specialist beer outlets (€8.50 for 75cl bottle, €3.25 for 33cl).

Chimay Blue and Cashel Blue

Dean McGuinness works with Premier International Beers, the leading importers of speciality beers from around the world. He also has 15 years’ brewing experience. He can be heard on Movies and Booze, a feature on Moncrieff on Newstalk every second Friday afternoon. “I have chosen Cashel Blue with Chimay Blue as my favourite match. The rich, port-like flavours in the Chimay Blue perfectly complement the depth and complexity and subtle, rich character of Cashel Blue. Chimay make their own cheeses in the monastery, so all of the Trappist beers are well suited to go with cheese.” For the more adventurous, there is a range of three Chimay beers to try out. Chimay Blue is widely available in off-licences and some supermarkets. It is 9 per cent alcohol; some outlets stock a gift pack containing the three types. Otherwise, it can be ordered online from www.realbeers.ie, who stock a range of 200 beers online.

Guinness and Belgian chocolate

Marc Stroobandt is a renowned beer expert who works with the Beer Naturally campaign. He will be in Dublin to deliver a series of his highly regarded beer-and-food matching sessions at the Beer Naturally Academy at the Taste of Dublin festival (June 11th to 14th). The Beer Naturally website (www.beernaturally.ie) is worth a look. “I have combined two great traditions: Guinness with a Belgian dark chocolate tart. The two help each other out very nicely; the stout takes away the edge of the dark chocolate in the tart, and brings out the cocoa flavour, whereas the taste smooths out the bitterness of the Guinness. Taken together your senses get this amazing succession of beer, chocolate, beer, chocolate.” Will any Dublin pubs try this out?

jwilson@irishtimes.com

FOUR BEERS TO MATCH WITH FOOD

Budejovicky Budvar (Czech Republic)

5 per cent, €2.69 for a 50cl bottle.

Lager is supposed to go well with curry, but I find some wines are a better match. It is great with chicken dishes, hams, salads and other lighter foods, where freshness and acidity is called for.

Hoegaarden (Belgium)

4.9 per cent, €2.39 for a 33cl bottle.

Hoegaarden is a wheat beer, flavoured with spices – coriander in particular – and orange too. It is naturally cloudy. With its spicy, fruity notes, wheat beer is a great summer drink. It is also very versatile with food, one of the few drinks to hold its own with both eggs and smoked bacon, making it the perfect brunch drink. Wheat beers tend to be light and floral, so go very nicely with fish and seafood, as well as spicy Thai and Indian food – so long as they are not too hot.

Fuller’s London Pride (UK)

4.7 per cent, €2.80 for a 50cl bottle.

The English are famed for their cask-conditioned ales, served at room temperature. Some are amazingly complex, delicious to drink, with a characteristic bitter finish. A lighter ale is a very good thirst-quencher with spicy food from India and elsewhere.

Guinness Extra Stout

4.2 per cent, around €2 per 50cl bottle.

What should we eat with the national drink? As well as oysters, the dry hoppiness of stout also goes well with other seafood. I can also see myself tucking into a beef casserole (made with stout) or a hearty pie (steak and kidney would be perfect). If it is not too dry, the natural cocoa element in stout can be the perfect match for good dark chocolate.