Pubs are beginning to boost the image of beer by matching it with food. But there is still much more that could be done. Phil Mellows reports.
For a pub trade gripped in a battle to preserve its good image, food is a mighty weapon to be thrown at those who accuse it of only being interested in selling more and more alcohol. An association with food immediately raises the status of a drink. It becomes something to be savoured rather than glugged back. Something serious. You don't often find wine linked to binge-drinking scares, although it's just as easy to get drunk on.
Efforts on the part of both brewers and pub operators over the past couple of years that strengthen the links between beer and food are not just about increasing sales. With 60 per cent of an average pub's wet take still accounted for by beer, beer with food is also about enhancing the quality of the pub experience.
Persuading pub-goers to order a beer at the dining table is not, however, an easy win. For many decades the natural accompaniment to food has been wine. When people sit down to eat, their pints are left at the bar.
As well as the initiatives outlined in this specialo feature, beer has now got a couple of good things going for it. The growth of food in pubs is also a trend towards increasingly informal dining where a beer can find a natural fit.
Meanwhile, beer is meeting the dining occasion half way as specialist beers and cask ales searching for a premium niche take a more up-market stance.
Beers are demonstrating a broad complexity and variety of flavours that challenge these of wines and, served properly, a stylish beer glass can look very much the part at the table.
The potential is there, but pub operators need to work a little more imaginatively to make beer a choice with food alongside wine.
Raising the profile of beer, and especially specialist and premium beers, is a good start. Beer lists with tasting notes immediately suggest epicurean values, especially when part of a food menu links them explicitly, though not rigidly, to certain dishes. Using beer as a cooking ingredient is proving a good tactic, but it helps if you make sure the beer-based dishes on your menu are clearly identified, and naming the beer brand used makes it a little more special.
Ideally, barstaff should also be armed with the product knowledge to recommend beer and food matches.
Beyond that, you can actively encourage your customers to experiment through running beer and food promotions, linking a beer brand with a dish, or possibly even staging a tasting evening with a range of canapés and brews to sample with each other.
There is no better time to give it a try than Beer With Food Week, which runs from March 14 to 20. The event is sponsored by Greene King through its Beer to Dine For brand, the first beer created specifically as an accompaniment to food which has picked up loads of positive publicity and a place on the menu at the prestigious Institute of Directors.
Rooney Anand, the newly appointed chief executive of the brewer, is the man behind the initiative. "It is important that as an industry we redress the balance and get beer back as a focal point," he says. "We are keen to join forces with anyone dedicated to putting beer back on the dining table."
One enthusiastic advocate of promoting beer with food is Judi Houghton, catering development manager at Daniel Thwaites and the Pub Food Awards' Food Champion of the Year.
One of the initiatives that helped Judi to the award, and Thwaites to the Pub Company of the Year title, was around beer with food. For Beer With Food Week 2005 she is offering food-led pubs a promotion that gives a free half-pint of Warsteiner or Lancaster Bomber with certain dishes, including new Lancaster Bomber sausages.
"We're hoping to boost both beer and food sales," she says. "But it will also give our pubs a point of difference, offering people something they can't get in the pub up the road.
"The promotion will run on beyond Beer With Food Week and we have loads of other ideas. There is no reason why people shouldn't be drinking beer with their meal rather than wine."
More on beer and food matching:
Matchmaking: Matching beer and food should be a very easy concept for the pub trade. So why has it taken so long to catch on? Click here.
Round-up: Changing drinking habits have created a gap in the market for a generation of new snacks for pub customers. Click here.
Recipe ideas:
Roast beef in beer with vegetable toad-in-the-hole
Chicken tikka naans with raita, rocket and mango chutney