BellaOnline Forums Food and Wine Beer & Brewing Do you like food with your beer?

Do you like food with your beer, or do you prefer the pure taste of the brew as a solo treat?

What is your most common food/beer combo? Is this also your "favorite" food/beer combination?

Okay, how about a charcoal roasted pig in a big ole Cajun microwave? That way, you can drink beer all day while the hawg is cookin! If you tell enough people, they'll all come with MORE food - Red Potatoes, corn-on-the-cob, maybe some special cheeses and gourmet mustards! Apple pie with Belgian Ale, or Heavenly Hash with Chocolate Stout...Hmmmmm....

Cheese - Definitely cheese! Something strong and sharp, paired with an intense, biting IPA or a malty Scottish Ale.

Schwarzbier is a grand accompaniment with spicy, blackened foods like Cajun Chicken or Mississippi Red Pork Chops. The rich, snappy bitterness and roasted espresso flavors have the power to absorb the heat of tongue-tingling foods.

Welcome with hot sausages, spiced ham or jambalaya dishes, these black beers also merge well with spicy luncheon meats like pastrami or corned beef on slabs of fresh-baked seeded rye or pumpernickel bread.

Ooh I love beer!

I used to drink it often (solo treat, as you say) after work - my hubby and I would swing by the pub after work, especially on a Thursday or Friday.

Now, however, I've tried to cut back a bit - especially since I noticed how flat my stomach became when I gave it up for a month before our wedding! I save it for weekends now and it has definitely become our Friday night pizza and beer treat. I cannot imagine pizza now without beer. Also, beer is a must with barbecues. And I also like it with pies.

Other than those specific beer-oriented foods, I tend to have wine with my meals.

Hot, hot Mexican food with Farmhouse Ale!

I think a lot of people tend to drink wine with meals, as you do, elle CreatEd. The old phrase, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do," has us often doing what our group does, or what we have always done in the past, especially when we eat.

Over the Holidays this year, I made a conscious decision to drink styles of beer that would match all my meals - even when everyone else was drinking wine. No, I'm not turning into a beer snob - just doing an experiment. To my delight, I found that beer matched food on a more pleasing level, consistently. No wonder it has lasted thousands of years!

You can learn more about this in Garrett Oliver's book, "The Brewmaster's Table - Discovering the Pleasures of Real Beer with Real Food."

If you don't want to put in that effort, there are many brewpubs and breweries holding "Beer Dinners" now - those with multi-course meals that serve specific, selected beers with each course. Framboise (Lambic beer infused with fresh raspberries), for example, is wonderful with a rich, chocolate dessert.

Give it a try! You may be pleasantly surprised.

As for the "Beer Belly" that so many read about - I'm all about beer and health. Consistent exercise works!

I have a hard time eating Asian, Caribbean, Cajun or Mexican food without beer. Once in awhile I'll drink gewurtztraminer with Asian food, but I much prefer the palatal feel of beer (versus wine) with spicy or heavily spiced food. I like to match my beer with the country/area of origin with my food. Dos Equis (never Corona, it makes me sick as a dog) with Mexican, Singha with Thai, Abita with Cajun, etc.

If I'm comparing beers or trying out a new brew, I prefer to go solo with it - I don't want to confuse the food flavors with the beer flavors. (Especially since I love spicy or strong flavors.) But I definitely love to have food and beer together! In fact, I usually think most foods just scream for a beer to go with them to really round things out properly. I think about the only kind of food I don't think of pairing with beer is probably Italian foods like pastas - I don't know whether it's just in my head that Italian food goes with wine, or if it's because I haven't had any Italian beers to see what I think of them.

Moules and frites and a Unibroue Blanche de Chambly?

With Maryland steamed crabs or chicken wings, most definitely.

My daad always eats with beer

Last weekend, I had a peppercorn marinated pork roast, grilled over charcoal and hickory chips, with a Great Divide Titan IPA. It was a GREAT combo!!!

I have to agree. I have two beers with dinner every night, unless it's italian that i've fixed, and then it's wine. I love beer, do NOT love the tummy that comes with it, but that's where exercise does come in handy. A good walk around the block after dinner does wonders. This way I can have my beer and not the belly too! LOL

Why do so many people think beer causes a "beer belly"? Research says that moderate beer drinking doesn't cause a beer belly, eating does. Men often develop a belly as they get older, even if they don't drink beer. And how many women have you seen who are overweight and swear they would never drink beer?

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"I found that beer matched food on a more pleasing level, consistently"

A more pleasing level than what? Wine?

I have to say that I believe this will only be true for those who much prefer beer to wine.

In general, I think wine is a better match for dining do to its lack of carbonation. Gas fills one up. Further, maybe I am wrong, but I don't think beer was ever intended to be a "sipping" beverage. The sheer volume of liquid one drinks with say three different beers makes it less suitable than wine for fine dining.

I think certain foods may match better with a a beer. When I hear people talk about matching a $30 Zinfandel with BBQ rib dinner I shudder.

Ah! FrankJBN, it seems you may be missing the finer delights of beer! Have you not heard of the concept of splitting a bottle among, perhaps, 4 or 6 people and matching a select beer with each course? Just an inch or two of beer, poured into a tulip glass, and savoured for each layer of aroma and flavour? Lambic, gueuze, framboise, or zwicklebier; Russian Imperial Stout, Irish Red, or Belgian Dubbel; Saison, Imperial IPA, Grottenbier, or Trappist Ale? There are hundreds of styles to choose, with the freedom to match a different beer with each nuance of flavor.

You are right. Drinking down an entire pint of three different beers would certainly spoil my meal. However, if you try the recommendation above, you may find your appreciation magnifies exponentially. The recommendations were not my idea at the starting gate, but were concepts taught to me by those who are world traveled and have experienced beer in its own terroir.

Filling up with gas? Yes, "if" you are drinking a highly carbonated beer. The same would be true of consuming three bottles of champagne. There do exist many styles of beer that are flatter, and portray many characteristics that you may enjoy in wine.

Assess what it is you like about wine. Is it the lack of carbonation, the fruity flavors, alcohol content, or tartness? These can all be found in beer, as well. Duvel, DeuS, Gouden Carolus, Epluche culotte Tripel, or Girardin Gueuze, for instance. How about a "warmed" Sam Adams Millennium or Midnight Sun Arctic Devil as you sit by the fire on a winter evening?

Have you read Michael Jackson's "Great Beers of Belgium," "World Guide to Beer," "Beer Companion," or "Pocket Guide to Beer"? How about Garrett Oliver's "The Brewmaster's Table"? I know hundreds of people who carry these with them - particularly Jackson's Pocket Guide - when they are out for an evening of beery experience. They choose a great beer bar with a selection of hundreds of beers and sample, for hours, each suggestion in the book - sometimes they take notes within the book, or carry a journal with them, just for fun.

You are, of course, entitled to your opinion, whether it be a preference to drink wine, or a preference for a particular beer style. When I write about beer and the flavours I taste, I am describing it as my own palate experiences it. Each individual has their own set of taste-buds, and each palate is different. I do not profess to tell you how it should taste to you, but merely suggest some of the wonderful flavours you may encounter - grapefruit, lemons, orange, coriander, licorice or barnyard; candied fruit atop a holiday cake; cotton candy, figs and currants; or any of a host of palatable variation.

Enjoy whatever beverage you choose, but always remember to keep your mind open and your options at your fingertips. That way, you give yourself the freedom and latitude to experience gustatory delights in all their glory.

I am not a beer connoisseur and I could never sip beer. When I drank beer it was because I wanted to get a quick buzz. I could never get drunk off of beer, just full.

The only time I ever got drunk off of beer was when I was dropping shotglasses of Jack or Old Grandad's into it. I cannot drink beer with dinner and if I was drinking beer before dinner, then I was done drinking it after dinner.

Just didn't taste the same to me after eating. I could never eat the popcorn or peanuts in the bar either, but of course, that stuff was there so you would buy more beer as everything was oversalted.

Favorite beers of mine are Molson Golden, Molson Brador (which I cannot find in the states anymore), and sometimes Bud goes down good but always gives me a headache.

I like Molson Ice, Michelob, Beck's and Foster's. Beck's and Foster's are as exotic as I get.

I don't like pale ale, red ale, winter ale, or dark ale. I don't even really like ginger ale all that much.
I don't drink beer out of a glass because I can smell it in a glass and the smell turns my stomach.

My beer has to be ice cold and not "warmed" or room temperature.

Oh, here's an interesting story:

When I was in basic training for the army in South Carolina back in '81, the only beer you could get on the base was Schlitz.
When I came home, I joined a softball league that was a beer league in where the losing team had to pay for the keg in the bar. Anyway, there was a certain beer that we were playing for, the name escapes me, but this one bar we played at tapped a different beer than what we were supposed to have and after drinking it, I told my buddy that we were drinking Schlitz.

He didn't believe me and he went up to ask the bartender if we were drinking Schlitz and the bartender said we were because he had run out of the other beer and their delivery never showed up that day. My buddy was impressed and called me a connoissuer but I know it is because it was the only beer I could drink for almost three months and Schlitz has a very unique, (read: nasty) taste to it.

I don't like the exotic beers that come out of micro-breweries and beers that are "fashionable" or the "flavor of the month".

Now, I am not knocking anyone who enjoys those or who can drink beer with food, more power to you. I wish I could do that stuff or liked those other beers but I don't and that is just me. I always grew up with a crowd that bought beer to get drunk with and that is just the way we enjoyed it.

Wine? Don't get me started on that. Richard's Wild Irish Rose for 1.99 a quart was another cheap drunk. lol.

"Ah! FrankJBN, it seems you may be missing the finer delights of beer!"

Really? It seems you neglect your own advice - keep your mind open.

What makes you think so? Because I prefer wine? Because I think of beer as a carbonated beverage? It is you know. I don't have the experience you have had with suds, but among the hundreds I have tasted, only those that had gone flat were not at all carbonated - and gas is gas.

"The same would be true of consuming three bottles of champagne." True, yes. Simply absurd, also yes.

"Have you not heard of the concept of splitting a bottle among, perhaps, 4 or 6 people and matching a select beer with each course?"

Sure I have. I have heard lots of less than worthwhile ideas in my time. Drinking a couple of ounces of beer at a time - with my meal - ranks right at the top of that list.

Perhaps that is it - because I enjoy my beer in a different manner than you do.

By its nature and history beer is not intended to accompany food in small sips. Never was, never will be. One can critically taste beer just as one might wine or anything else. To attempt to critically taste beer - to have a swallow of beer to accompany each course - during a meal does a disservice to the beer, to the meal and to one's throat.

Until a beer has been 'stewed', it is impossible to get the full impression of a beer. To taste two ounces of beer tells one nothing about how the end of the pint tastes.

Referring to beer guides: "I know hundreds of people who carry these with them" - all I can say is that I pity them. One learns less about the taste and quality of any beer by reading about it than one does by merely observing the beer. Then when you move to actually smelling and tasting it...

Thanks for granting at the least that I am entitled to my opinion. I never doubted that I was.

By the way, since you were mistaken in your opinion that you could guess where I live based on the beer I drink, I'll tell you. I live closer to Monk's than you do. Remember back 'in the day', decades before Monk's when the Khyber Pass was the place to get real beers?

Anyone for a Mad Dog 20/20?

I love Michael Jackson's World Guide to Beer and his Pocket Guide - Beer Bibles to me! I used to feel intimidated when I went into a beer bar that had a huge list - so many choices, and not a clue what I might like! Don't pity me, Frank. Just because I enjoy reading about beer doesn't mean I observe it less.

Yack, i don't even like the taste of beer, yet i'll drink
JIM BEAM Straight ( my friends can't figure that one out)

Which Jim Beam do you drink:

White Label - 4 years old, 80 proof, soft and medium bodied with a veil of sweetness, vanilla and spice?
Jim Beam Black - 8 years old, 86 proof, complex, full of oakiness, vanilla and fruit, balanced?
Choice - 86 proof and charcoal filtered after aging?
Have you tried any of the Jim Beam Small Batch Bourbon Collection?

Weird! As I am writing this to you, my experiences with these "Beams" have been so memorable that I can actually smell them in the air. I guess I must be hallucinating! LOL

I understand how you can love Jim Beam, yet dislike beer. The whiskeys are distilled, and retain a sweetness and spice that is a distinctive character of the dram. Typically, the hops in beer give it a bitter bite in the finish, one that can be enormously satisfying to a hophead, or extremely off-putting to a malt lover such as yourself.

You may want to try drinking the style of beer known as "old ale" - very malty, may have a more vinous character, or perhaps a "brown ale" like Moose Drool. Maybe a Scottish Ale/ Wee heavy? Or stick with the "Beam".

Have you cooked with it? A beef roast, sprinkled with herbs and drenched in Jim Beam in a hot oven will titillate your taste buds like the vibrato of Ben Webster! Mmmmm...

Carolyn, I drink the white label, wow never thought you could cook with it. will have to give it a try, thanks

"Hophead" - that would be me

Funny. I love whisky too. Chivas Regal 12yo is still the ultimate, but I also enjoy Glenfiddich and Jameson.

Chivas 12yo - a blend, and the seventh largest global seller in the world!

Glenfiddich - a single malt - Its flavors are similar to Chivas, don't you think?

...and Jameson - a different animal altogether. Which one do you prefer?

It is hard to pick between Chivas and Glenfiddich, but currently Chivas is nosing ahead. Jameson is our general whisky for the weekend nightcap, since it is much "cheaper" than a 12yo, and since neither of us has anything other than a block of ice with our whisky, we have to go for a decent one even for general use. (As I type this I'm almost cringing because it is all we have to put in our Irish coffees that we are planning tonight - bloody expensive Irish coffee...)

But bloody delicious, I would say!

Do you have Michael Jackson's "Complete Guide to Single Malt Scotch" or his award winning book "Whiskey: The Definitive World Guide"?

No, I'm afraid I have to admit I'd never heard of Michael Jackson until I read your thread about his death. I'll have to keep an eye out for his books.