How’s this for a New Year’s Resolution – Beer and Food
Guest article by our man at The Beer Hub, Mark Tetlow
Although January is traditionally quiet, there are still ways to entice people into your establishment. Why not try something different this year with your offer? Instead of the typical white wine with white meat and red wine with red meat, why not create a meal matching the different courses with a selection of beers from your range.
There is a huge variety of beer styles all with their own individual tastes, everything from bright spitzy lagers through to dark rich ales and along the way sour tart Flemish brown ales and sharp fruity lambic beers.
With this large pallet of flavours, it’s very easy to match each of the different courses on your menu with a different style of beer. As each beer can be sourced from different parts of the world, may have undergone a slightly different brewing style and used different raw materials, each one will have its own story. A great way to enhance your menu and event advertising.
So, how do you go about designing the meal? The easiest way is to engage the services of a beer sommelier who will be able to guide you through the process. If you decide to be brave and undertake the task yourself, after all, the sampling is quite good fun, here are some points to consider.
Firstly, you need to understand the intensity of flavours in the food and beers, full flavoured foods work best with strong rich beers whilst lighter foods work better with more delicate beers. So chicken and fish tends to work with lighter lagers and wheat beers and red meat and spicy foods work better with darker ales and stouts.
Once you have decided on the types of flavours you then need to think about how the beers can enhance the food and basically you can either look for contrasting or complimenting flavours. So for instance, rich chocolate based dishes go well with cherry kriek lambic beer, full flavoured venison can work with sour Flemish Oud Bruin ale. If you go for complimentary flavours you are looking to try and bring out certain flavours of the food so smoked fish would go well with a German smoked lager or roasted red meats could work with a dark porter made with roasted malts.
You may decide to be a bit different and offer two alternatives for each course, that way you get people taking and discussing the combinations which is a great thing for your pub as it means they have engaged with the meal and more likely to recommend the pub to their friends.
Don’t forget to serve the beer in small wine glass measures and be careful of the bitterness of the beers as it can be enhanced by the food, so make sure you do your homework!
Here is an example of a beer menu, go on give it a go – cheer up the New Year in style!
Aracana yolk, mushroom mousse, stout vinegar
Beer Match – HOGAN’S, HASELOR, WARWICKSHIRE 5.4% A medium cider, slightly sparkling, sweet apples, dried fruit, caramel, hint of wood
Hop smoked breast of wood pigeon,chicory & hazelnuts?
Beer Match – ABBE DE LEFFE, BLONDE, LEUVEN, BELGIUM 6.6% Belgian Abbey beer served chilled from the tap, strong, yeasty & fruity.
Fish – butter poached turbot, artichoke veloutè, truffle gnocchi
Beer Match – CITRA, OAKHAM ALES, PETERBOROUGH, CAMBRIDGESHIRE 4.6% Multi award winning beer made with single variety citra hops, amazing grapefruit, lychee & gooseberry.
Main – hay baked Venison loin, braised red cabbage, roast celeriac
Beer Match – PETRUS OUDE BRUIN, BROUWERIJ DE BRABANDERE, BAVIKHOVE, BELGIUM 5.5% A sour beer,think of earthy red wine with a head. Sour sweet balance.
Sorbet – Cranberry and pomegranate
Beer Match – CALI’ CREAMIN’, VANILLA CREAM ALE, MOTHER EARTH BREWERY, VISTA, CALIFORNIA 5.2% Smooth & creamy, subtle aroma & flavour of vanilla.
Savoury dessert – Iced beetroot parfait, rosemary ice cream, chocolate
Beer Match – SAMUEL SMITHS ORGANIC CHOCOLATE STOUT, OLD BREWERY, TADCASTER 5% Smooth and creamy character, deep chocolate, nutty flavours, bittersweet finish.
Sweet dessert – Poached william pear, honey, walnut cream,Vanilla foam
Beer Match – TRAPPISTES ROCHEFORT 8, BRASSERIE DE ROCHEFORT, BELGIUM 9.2%. One of the few Trappiste beers. Deep brown colour, complex rich flavour. Fruit, spice, leather, and figs.
Happy New Year from The Beer Hub and CellarCraft!
If you have any questions just ask CellarCraft or The Beer Hub