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Have a Beer! Beer Matches Summer Foods Better Than Wine The best wine to serve with your summer menu just might be a beer--or an ale, porter or stout. For warm-weather dining and entertaining, beer has several distinct advantages over wine. Because beer is much lower in alcohol than wine (typically 3.5 to 5 percent, vs. 11 to 14 percent for most wines), it's easier to quaff in quantity, when hot weather or spicy food has you seeking relief. And many of the most popular summer foods simply don't marry well with wine. Wine writers struggle valiantly to suggest a suitable vintage to complement hot dogs or bratwurst and sauerkraut, or barbecued ribs or chicken. But none fits the bill nearly as well as a chilled lager. Same goes for the spicy cuisines of Thailand, Szechuan and Mexico--you can accompany them with a spicy gewurtztraminer or riesling, as some wine connoisseurs suggest, but why not do what the natives do--serve Singha, Tsingtao or Corona? When the Winzer Stube in Hudson, Wis., recently teamed up with Schell's Brewery of New Ulm for a brewmaster's dinner, they paired traditional German and Austrian dishes with classic German beers: Schell's light Cologne-style Zommerfest with the appetizer of white asparagus and ham; a hoppy pils with smoked trout and horseradish sauce; hefe-weizen (a wheat beer) with the sausage course; a Munich Maifest bock beer with venison medallions; and finally Schmaltz's Alt, a Dusseldorf-style beer, with the dessert course of Sachertorte. Beer is a natural with German food--especially the full-bodied German brews that can hold their own against the hearty smoky, salty, sour flavors of bratwurst, ham and sauerkraut. What about more delicate dishes? At a recent beer dinner in Minneapolis at the Loring Cafe, presented in partnership with the James Page Brewing Co., chef Patrick Atanalian showed that beer can hold its own in more elegant company. To accompany James Page Pale Ale, he created a main course of mahi mahi with garlic chile potato emulsion, pineapple baby shrimp zucchini hashbrowns and enoki creme fraiche. At the dinner, Ken Stout, co-owner of the James Page Brewing Co., explained the pairing in terms worthy of a wine connoisseur: The Pale Ale's floral spiciness complemented the garlic chile potato emulsion, while its fruitiness complemented the pineapple, and its underlying bitterness contrasted with the tartness of the enoki creme fraiche. Beer novices can be forgiven for believing that all beer tastes the same. Most of the nationally advertised brands do taste the same and, when they are served ice cold, they have hardly any flavor at all. But beer can be as complex and subtle in its flavors as wine, with flavors and aromas that can range from floral to spicy, sweet to sour, soft to tart, mild to bitter. The dominant flavor elements in beer can come from the hops, the malt, the yeast or any of the other ingredients that sometimes are used to flavor beer--ranging from cherries and raspberries to chocolate and coriander. Beers made from wheat are usually light in body and have a distinctive "citrus-y" taste. A cork-finished farmhouse ale from France or Trappist ale from Belgium can have all the complexity of a fine French champagne. In fact, many imported beers, and a few American brands such as the Sierra Nevada ales of California, are even produced by the same method as champagne. They undergo a secondary fermentation in the bottle. Unlike champagne, though, a fine residue of spent yeast remains at the bottom of the bottle, adding a flavor component that is sometimes described as spicy or even peppery. Most of the world's great beers can be grouped into two big families--warm-fermented ales and cold-fermented lagers. The warm-fermented beers include English bitter and pale ale, Scottish brown ale and Irish stout, as well as many of the finest Belgian beers, and a few classic German brews including Dusseldorf Alt and Kolsch from Cologne. These beers, brewed with top-fermenting yeasts, are fermented at higher temperatures, which results in an earthier, more complex flavor and aroma, often with spicy or fruity overtones. That gives them great versatility for pairing with foods. These flavors are especially pronounced at cellar temperature. The most popular beers in America are all cold-fermented lagers, brewed in styles that originated in Germany and what is now the Czech Republic. Their flavor is usually less complex, but cleaner. The most heavily hopped lagers, such as Pilsener Urquell from the Czech Republic, have a bracing bitterness, while lagers in the styles of Munich and Vienna tend to have a maltier, softer flavor. Both the ale and lager families come in a broad spectrum of colors, from pale blond to copper red to nearly black, and can range from very light-bodied to full-bodied. While traditional ales and stouts are nearly flat, most lagers are very effervescent. Many of the most interesting beers in the world come from Belgium, where it is not uncommon to age beers in oak casks. This gives beers such as Rodenbach Grand Cru and Duvel a distinctively oaky taste that is much more pronounced and intense than Budweiser's famous beechwood aging. Some Belgian beers are spontaneously fermented, using open vats and wild yeast, while others are flavored with everything from coriander to peaches. |
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