The British Beer Book by Steven Goodwin

Author:Steven Goodwin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: beer, pub, ale, lager, camra, hangover, purity, malt, hops, yeast, water
ISBN: 9781783334742
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited 2014
Published: 2014-01-21T00:00:00+00:00

The glass for “a yard of ale”

About Drinking

Food and Drink

One large area of interest is the matching between food and drink. It is well studied in the wine arena, but it is less well known in the beer community.

For Starters

Many starters and appetizers are just that, a prelude to a main meal with a few subtle and interesting tastes to make you hunger for more. To match this, a chosen beer must be similarly light.

Sweet & sour Chinese Dunkel (sweeter lager)/biere de garde (French). Beers with slight spices and ginger.

Pate Milds, strong dark lager.

Salad Light and fruity lagers.

For the Fish Course

There are two taste profiles attached to matching beer and fish.

The first is to keep everything light, in accordance to the fish, so lagers are a good choice here.

The second is to contrast the strong saltiness of fish (particularly oysters) with a strong taste in another area (with stouts and geuzes.)

Battered fish: Most ales and lagers.

Lobster/crab/calamari: Wheat. Lambic.

Oysters: Stout.

Smoked fish Stout: Rauchbier.

Seared scallops: Sweet porter.

Mussels: Geuze.

Shellfish: Pils and lagers.

For Main Courses

With so many dishes being served around Britain, we have space only for a short list of the primary meats available.

Duck/Game: Kriek, Belgian trappistes

Beef stew: Abbey ales, full-bodied bitters

Grilled/BBQ: Dark roasted malts. Rauchbier.

Pizza: Amber lager. Marzenbeir. Alt beer.

Smoked pork: Wheat, strong dark lager. Rauchbier.

Salted pork: Hoppy pils. Wheat. Strong dark lager.

Lamb: Spicy and malty ales. Dark lager.

Chicken: Lager, wheat (boiled). IPA, mild (roast).

Curry: IPA, fizzy pils.

For Desserts

The principle rule here is that the beer must always be sweeter than the dessert.

Fruit-based : Fruit beers (Kriek, frambozen, etc, chosen to match the fruit used)

Very sweet desserts : Imperial Stout

Chocolate : Stouts and porters (anything with dark malts)

Did you know..?

Dipsophobia is the fear of drinking.

For Cheese

There are many reasons why beer is better than wine, but in the interests of brevity I’ll give just one. Namely - you can eat cheese with beer!

The old argument is that you should have a “cheese and wine” party. The problem is that no matter how weak the cheese, it will almost always destroy the taste and subtleties of the wine. Period. That’s the reason my university had the alternate, “Wine and wine”, party!

Cheese, like most milk based products, leaves a thin coating over the tongue and on the stomach lining. This stops many other tastes from getting through. Curry aficionados know this already and use the principle in reverse - they drink a milk-based Lhassi to coat the stomach which stops the hot chilies from hurting. This cheese coating will get destroyed by the carbonation found in beer, allowing both tastes to fuse together in the mouth, which is in contrast to wine whos tastes slide over.

Although some will argue you should always contrast flavours between food and drink, many people prefer similar tastes in both so they can compliment and bring out the common taste that they share.

Mild (Cheddar, Cheshire, or Edam): Light ale, or pale ale.

Mature (Cheddar): Cask ale with biscuit malts, bitterness or fruit. IPA.

Sharp/very mature: IPA.

Nutty (Gruyère): Brown ale.

Blue (Stilton): Porters, and dark ales.

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