Beer and Food - Striking success with food matches
Interbrew UK category manager Vikki Balmer offers PubChef readers advice on how to matchbeer and food.
She says: "Whether it's wine or beer, when it comes to food matching, the drink should perform one or a combination of roles - complementing, contrasting or cleansing the palate. It's these processes that bring out the flavours of both the food and the drink. "Through this, a particular drink will taste even better when drunk with a particular food than it would taste on its own, and vice versa. "Subtle flavours that may not be noticed normally will come out through proper matching, using the principles of compare, contrast and cut."
Interbrew recommends: In general terms, light, fresh beers will go with light fresh food such as fish. Strong, dark beers will go better with full-flavoured robust dishes such as stews, casseroles and red meat dishes. Although the above is a reasonable guideline, it is by no means the rule. On a micro-level, the fruitiness of a specific beer such as Framboise may perfectly complement the raspberry in a dessert. Contrasting flavours will enhance the differences in the beer and the food - and is a perfect situation where opposites attract. An example of this is beer and chocolate: the bitterness of the beer is a perfect contrast to the sweetness of the chocolate.
Another role of beer is cleansing the palate. Vikki says: "Beer can be used to cut through spicy, fatty and rich flavours to refresh the palate so that every mouthful of the meal is savoured. "Asia provides some fine pilsnerstyle beers such as Singha from Thailand. Such crisp, clean and dry beers are ideal for cutting through the spiciness of Thai food, while cleansing the palate at the same time."
