Beer & Food

The candlelight flickered over the gleaming cutlery resting on the fresh linen tablecloth. The foie gras was served effortlessly by the smart waiters and the guests raised their glasses... of beer. Surprised?

Many people are when the suggestion of drinking beer with a five-course restaurant meal is suggested. But the subtle tastes of beer can compliment food just like wine. You can select different beers for each course just as you would with wine. There are thousands of beer varieties around the world carrying a huge range of flavours and tastes that can match any food served.

Beer is more traditionally associated with rough, peasant food or snacks. Beer with sandwiches, beer with sauerkraut beer with mussels and chips but beer with lobster? The answer is yes and a growing number of people are realising the sophisticated potential. Having beer with a meal is not new and it is not against tradition. Beer has a long history of being matched and enjoyed with food, said Corinne Goff-Lavielle, of Heineken, France.

Beer Delivers
All over the world, people have dishes they have with beer. We want to take that a stage further so people can enjoy good beer with good meals. Beer is capable of delivering very different tastes.

Few could deny that oysters and stout are a marriage made in heaven so the combination of beer and food is a natural partnership. It is also as hard to match a beer with soup as it is with wine. But the beer flavour range is so vast that it should be possible to match any taste while enjoying the elimination process along the way.

Abbey beers, such as Affligem, have rich and subtle tastes, which mean they can be paired with all sorts of food.
Fish courses demand white wine just as they insist on a hoppy pilsner which helps firmer fish such as cod while the heavier varieties like salmon can benefit from the dryness and refreshing character of export beers. Sushi goes with a light, blonde beer and pizza tastes as good with a decent beer as it does with wine.

There are many occasions where we take beer’s natural ‘fit’ with food for granted. Barbecues go better with a range of beers from the light to heavy and spicy food, while natural for beer, is a notoriously difficult area for wine. Beer, and in particular lager, goes well with the spicy food from Indonesia and the Asian sub-continent. The subtle tastes complement each other and the combination is repeated around the world.

Five-Course Beer
Having established the principle, it is relatively easy to extend the practice to food from the delicate to the devilish.
One of the biggest imagined barriers with beer and food is quantity. You don’t have to plunge headlong into a barrel to get the flavour and it is possible to go through a five-course meal with differing beers without ruining your appetite. Heineken, which is backing the union of beer and quality food, had an excellent response to a series of dinners that it has served with not a drop of wine in sight. A different beer supported each course and guests were surprised at the range and quality of taste.

It was a great experience and opened up a lot of minds to the possibilities,” added Madame Goff-Laveille. “The beer was served in smaller glasses so the quantities were manageable. The menu, and its supporting cast, that was so well received is as above.

Everyone really enjoyed the experience and commented on how natural it was to drink beer with each course. We supply a 500-strong chain of restaurants in Europe, which is keen on this idea and they have had great feedback from customers.

James Bond Stout
“It seems that more and more people are considering or enjoying beer, rather than wine, with their meals. There is a harmony of tastes that works well. Of course, there would need to be a significant change of habits for guests to arrive at a high-class restaurant and ask for the beer list rather than the wine list so it may be some time before we see James Bond wooing female villains with pilsner rather than vintage champagne. But, it is worth noting, that Bond star Pierce Brosnan loves his stout and that politicians are just as likely to enjoy beer as wine.

If you are planning a dinner with a different beer for each course you need to consider how different beers will follow one another. It is better to start with lower alcohol styles and move up to the older ales for the final courses. Take it easy on servings - about four ounces of beer per course so guests are not too full. Many chefs have discovered that not only does beer enhance the flavour of food but food also enhances the flavour of beer.

The message is to experiment by sipping your beer slowly so you can recognise and identify its qualities and then think what food what might to with it. Every country is proud of its brewing tradition and perhaps all the revolution needs is just a few more people exploring the true flavours of beer.