It's not some new concept, pairing beer and food. Sure wine and food has been the more popular and 'sophisticated' manner of pairings throughout history. In medieval times kings would guzzle goblets of wine and chow down on turkey legs. No, they really would, I've been to a Medieval Times in New Jersey. That had to be an accurate description of how it went down back then, right? I had a good time nonetheless, it's dinner and tournament, what's not to love.
Anyway, pairing beer with food has grown in popularity in recent years. And I am not just talking about the schlub who comes home after work at the factory and cracks open a Bud Ice as he enjoys his hungry man meatfest on one of those little dinner trays in front of the TV. Or maybe something like this.
These days though we have seen craft beers being paired with fine foods, or even not so fine foods. The genres of beer have increased, leaving much debate about what goes best with what. No longer is the only requirement for a good pairing, a simply ice cold beer. The depth of flavors can greatly compliment your dinner. The Wall Street Journal (of all places) has a nice article, right here, discussing just this topic. My one disagreement may be with Ms. Jensen's advice to pair oysters and a creamy stout. To me that would be like ordering a nice tall glass of warm milk to compliment my sashimi. Ironically that same combo is what i think about when I try to make myself throw up.
This article reminded me of a book from a while back by Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head:
This book was actually written way before this most recent wave of beer pairing madness. Dogfish often does beer pairing dinners at restaurants and their website lists a calender of such events. I loved this book when I first read it because I'm a beer person and seeing many combinations of types of food and beer really opened my horizons. At the time I was still just drinking what was cheap and would get me drunk fast. It was the beginning of my beer revelation. I had just recently had my first Dogfish beer and they changed my perception of good beer. 90 minute to this day is one of my favorites. If I find it on tap anywhere, I order it. So when I stumbled upon this book, a new chapter in my beer loving world was opened. Everybody remembers their first time. No, not that first time. The first time they really started to love or appreciate something. There is always that one time or thing that brings you back to that moment when you first began your appreciation. For me, I love a very broad range of music these days. I always trace that love back to two things. One being the band LCD Soundsystem. They changed my perceptions of good music and broadened my horizons to other bands. They were my 'gateway' band in a way. The second was when I attended the All Points West Music Festival. It was my first music festival and previously I had not been a concert person. After that though, I was hooked. I love festivals and finding new bands as often as possible. This is how I felt about Dogfish Head. My gateway beer.
But in reality, you don't have to have the suggestions of a 'beer sommelier' (which I didn't know was a thing until this morning) to know what to pair with what. It should be a trial and error experience. If you find something that works, spread the word. There's nothing better than getting a group of friends together to try good food and beer together. Everyone can be an expert for a day. That's exactly what I'll be doing this weekend. I have put the call out to friends to gather in the city and make our own bar and food crawl. Expect some interesting reports back about the beer, bars, food and subsequent arrests and mug shots thereafter.
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