Beer and food – they're a fine pair
By Phil Mellows
Among my most embarrassing moments – I have many to choose from – was the tasting at the E & J Gallo winery in California when a prominent member of the Gallo family asked me what I thought about their wine.
My mind was a complete blank. I had nothing to say. The awkward silence was broken by another member of the press party who spotted my plight. Of such stuff are heroes made.
It’s not that I hate wine. I just don’t find it very interesting. I can drink it if I have to – and there are far too many occasions when wine is foisted on you with no other alcoholic option. It’s regarded as the only appropriate beverage for things like post-conference gatherings, book launches, receptions (whatever they are) and most of all, accompanying a meal.
Beer has a secure place alongside curries, burgers and pizzas, but if you’re dining at a smart restaurant you might be enjoying a beer beforehand then it’s automatically assumed you’ll drink wine at the table.
There are exceptions. You won’t find any wine at the British Guild of Beer Writers’ annual dinner, where courses are paired with different beers in an unpretentious way, provoking discussion about what works and what doesn’t.
I’d even say beer offers a better match than wine with many kinds of food – well, all food, for me. It offers more matching options for one thing.
I remember a tasting at the Theakston Brewery, which isn’t renowned for having an especially diverse range, though it does have Old Peculier, stretching it in an interesting direction. It struck me then how a single traditional family brewer could produce a broader array of flavours than the whole wine market. Not so surprising when you consider beer is basically made with four ingredients and wine only one (two if you count the yeast on the grape skins).
On another occasion I was invited on a beer-paired train banquet by InterCity, the old long-distance arm of British Rail, which was expanding its on-board beer offer. I can’t remember much apart from the final courses – the cheese board came with the singular Traquair House Ale and the dessert, some sort of chocolate confection, with a framboise, a Belgian raspberry beer.
The latter was a revelation. Wine is hard to match with sweet things but the framboise and chocolate was a party on the palate. And they could have just as successfully paired it with a rich stout.
Then there’s seafood. The other day I called in at The Urchin in Hove (pictured), which is a serious destination for shellfish that, yes, has a strong wine list but is also great for beer. It has its own brewery, Larrikin, in the basement turning out a variety styles on half a dozen taps, plus a fridge of bottles and cans clearly chosen to go with the menu.
I went for the Larrikin Oktoberfest Marzen to accompany a simple half-pint of shell-on prawns, which took me back to the Sunday tea-times of my childhood. The Marzen, a kind of beefed up lager, made it one of the most pleasurable beer experiences I’ve had lately – and it was swiftly followed by another.
My local burger takeaway kindly offered me a complimentary home-made chocolate brownie to follow my Cajun chicken. I stared at it for while thinking something was missing, then realised it needed a bottle of beer. So I cracked open a St Austell Black Square Russian Imperial Stout (2021 vintage, 11% abv).
For the best part of an hour I sipped and nibbled, slowly savouring the combination, making sure I finished them together.
Wine? Who needs it when you’ve got beer.
Photo © www.instagram.com/urchinpub