Beer at the table - the basics

In the Middle Ages, beer was the daily drink, so also at the table. There are still famous and classic dishes that with beer provide an unforgettable taste sensation: oysters with stout, various beers with various cheeses. Gradually, beer lost its place at the table: wine, tea and coffee took over and even water proved drinkable again. The dominant position that lager occupied for a long time did not help to reclaim the table conquer: it suited few dishes. In recent years, the combination power of beer at the table is being rediscovered and reappraised. Thereby using beer as a flavor accompaniment is not difficult, and you can even cooking. We would like to list some general tips so that you too can enjoy beer at the table. 

Beer or wine?

Beer has very many more hues than wine, and therefore many more flavor nuances. Moreover, all beers have carbon dioxide, something that only few wines have, and this is what makes it so beautiful at the table. Carbonic acid cleanses the mouth, washes the taste receptors, and prepares your tongue for a new experience each time. To properly deployed at the table, we shamelessly draw on the years of experience that one has gained with wine at the table. With the following rules of thumb and patient trying, you will learn to find the right beers to go with your dishes on your own. Then begins the tasting adventure, and you will find the rare combinations that are more than the sum of their parts.

Our basic tips

• Beer is companion: you pour as much beer as you would with wine. With a 30 or 33 cl bottle you can thus serve two people just right.
• Use wine glasses - you immediately have the right amount, and you can perceive the aromas optimally.
• Match the intensity of the beer at the table to that of the dish. Light bites deserve ditto beers; hearty dishes need beer with muscle.
• The attached chart shows which basic flavors do or not match.
• You can look for reinforcement or for counterbalance - both can produce moving moments. Sweet on sweet works for example, as does salt on bitter.
• If you have a choice between a beer that might be just short and one that might be just too much, always choose the former. The is primarily about the dish, after all.

The importance of preparation 

As important as looking at the basic flavors of the dish, it is as important to take the preparation method into account. If (part of) the dish is smoked, then a combination with a beer containing smoked malt could be a choice. Pickled or candied, pickled or dried, baked or boiled - it all matters. The best-known example is the Maillard reaction: in this, proteins and sugars change flavor and color under the influence of temperature of flavor and color, for example when you fry or grill meat. This also happens also happens with grains that are dried at a relatively high temperature, and from which you then brew dark beer. Naturally, beers such as double, porter, stout, bock beer and barleywine (which are brewed from dark malt) go beautifully with grilled or baked meats!

Beer at the table: winning combinations and misfires

It is dangerous to say, 'this beer goes with ...' because there are still many variables that can throw a spanner in the works. Nevertheless, there are some general tips for successfully enjoying beer at the table. The most failures we can often see coming from miles away: we try to reconcile flavors or ingredients with each other that cannot be combined. Baked cod paired with a Russian Imperial Stout: no, that's not going to be anything. But even with intensity, things can quickly go wrong. Serving a 10% alcohol barley wine with a light appetizer is as much of a drama as serving a sweet white beer with an intense chocolate dessert. serve a sweet white beer: it simply doesn't match. Just as you don't serve a Beaujolais Primeur with the dessert, or an intense Barolo with the appetizer: pay attention to the intensity!

Many king pairs are found with the combination of beer and cheese. For example, many wines go out of their way for blue cheese (and leave sweet port or dessert wine), while beer begins to warm up. A barley wine, with its many residual sugars, provides a warm bath for the spicy blue, an (Imperial) India Pale Ale further enhances the intense flavor while a porter, especially with milder blues like Stilton, makes the combining power of port seem like child's play.

Soft white cheeses feel senang with white beer or a lager, while also fruit beers and even dry stouts also lead to wonderful combinations. And for those who once drank an old Gouda crumble cheese with India Pale Ale or Imperial Stout, they are now running their mouth watering. You can feel in your lumps that lager is blown away by crumble cheese, while Imperial Stout makes you unable to taste any of the white mold taste.

A baked steak, or a charcoal-grilled Tomahawk pair with a double, a porter or even a mild barleywine: pure delight. Cod, baked on the skin: there a Belgian white beer to go with it. Do not substitute a Weizenbier Instead: that does not work; it lacks the acidity that white beer has. Smoked trout with saison, stout with oysters, mussels cooked in blond beer - sit back and enjoy. Asparagus, on its own or a la Flamande: both classic white beer, blonde beer and saison work in their own inimitable way. Asparagus and gueuze won't work.....

Have chocolate mousse for dessert, serve a barley wine with it and count on applause. In contrast, a scoop of vanilla ice cream will be happy with a splash of porter or Export stout over it: that's all it takes, although you may well grate chocolate over it. Finishing with a fruit salad? Serve a kriek with that and enjoy. Carrot Cake and Belgian Style IPA - an almost blinding treat. Or a classic hangover of yogurt with cherries or blackberries, paired with a Gose - maddening because of the slight saltiness that dances on the fatty, sour fruitiness. Do not serve a triple with that - that just hurts.

Now enjoy beer for yourself, and plenty of it, at the table!

Wondering which beers thrive alongside winter fare? Then read our Beer to go with winter food blog.

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