Beer and Veg E-Book

Mark Dredge

• Herausgeber: CICO Books
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

Beer and Veg has everything you need to enjoy great craft beer with vegetarian and vegan food, including the best suggestions for how to perfectly pair your beer to whatever dish you're eating, as well as 80 recipes which use beer as an ingredient. The introduction covers how to approach beer with vegetarian/vegan food; then there are tips and tricks on matching beer and food; how to cook with beer in veg/vegan dishes; an extended section of different beer styles and foods to enjoy with them; and then a selection of 80 great recipes using beer as an ingredient. The suggestions made in the book will cover beers from around the world, plus many common and popular dishes. The recipes are a mix of vegetarian and vegan, with vegan options available for most dishes. Having switched to a vegetarian and vegan diet himself in the last two years, author and award-winning beer writer Mark Dredge is the perfect person to help you merge the worlds of craft beer and plant-based food.

Leseprobe

BEER

& VEG

BEER

& VEG

Combining great craft beer with vegetarian and vegan food

MARK DREDGE

Published in 2021 by Dog ’n’ Bone Books

An imprint of Ryland Peters & Small Ltd

20–21 Jockey’s Fields, London WC1R 4B

341 E 116th St, New York, NY 10029

www.rylandpeters.com

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Text © Mark Dredge 2021

Design, photography, and illustration

© Dog ’n’ Bone Books 2021

The author’s moral rights have been asserted. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress and the British Library.

ISBN: 978-1-912983-40-7

E-ISBN: 978-1-912983-44-5

Printed in China

Photographer: Stephen Conroy

Stylist: Kim Sullivan

Food stylist: Katy McClelland

Illustrators: flavor wheels on pages 11 and 24 by Andrew Henderson; other illustrations by Nick Frith

Senior designer: Emily Breen

Art director: Sally Powell

Production manager: Gordana Simakovic

Publishing manager: Penny Craig

Publisher: Cindy Richards

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

BEER STYLES

HOPS

LAGERS

YEAST

MALT

CUISINES

1 BREADS AND BRUNCH

2 MAINS AND SIDES

3 BEER SNACKS

4 BAKING AND DESSERTS

INDEX

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

INTRODUCTION

Beer belongs with vegetables in a way which hasn’t been properly addressed before. Beer is the ultimate plant-based drink. It’s a product of the ground, the seasons, and different regions. It sprouts, grows, flowers, gets harvested, and then it begins its change into beer, helped by the hands of the brewers, and shaped by time and place. Beer is made from plants and it goes really well with plants. It’s time to celebrate that.

Look around the world at the most famous dishes that go with beer and it’s all meat, meat, meat: Belgian beer stews, meat and ale pies, schnitzels, knuckles, sausages, wings, fried fish, steamed mussels…. Beer food means meat. Or it meant meat, because those old, traditional dishes no longer truly reflect the modern world and the drinker who’s likely to eat a broader diet, one more focused on plant-based foods.

Beer is a contextual and social drink that has brought humans together for thousands of years—in caves, by campfires, on farms, around ancient settlements, in the earliest towns, the industrializing cities, and the modern metropolis. It’s a drink that’s more than just hydration, more than just flavor, more than just a social enabler. It is shaped by time and place, by the past and the future; by things in the fields where the ingredients grow, and in the building in which it is made, but also far away from those places; and it’s a drink influenced by culture, climate, fashion, and food.

The world of beer is always evolving and updating. It is built on a foundation of traditions but it is progressively changing with new inspirations and trends, often reflecting changes in what we eat. The traditional beer foods usually come with a classic beer style, and they are of a specific place—the British Bitter, the roast dinner, the pub; the German Lager, the plate of sausages, the beer hall—and they belong to one part of the beer industry. But beer is now way more than just its traditions and heritage, and for a lot of drinkers the idea of a Bavarian beer hall is a novelty and not a part of modern beer culture; modern beer comes in big colorful cans, or we drink it in our local brewpubs or favorite bars. And we drink styles like Hazy IPAs, sour beers brewed with tropical fruits, big strong Stouts made with peanut butter and vanilla, lagers infused with exotic spices and herbs. It’s these innovations which have made beer the most exciting and varied drink in the world, and we could easily argue that the modern beer industry now commands much more attention than the traditional parts of beer culture.

Just as beer is perpetually changing and evolving, so too are the foods we eat. We know more cuisines, we’re more familiar with previously exotic ingredients, we’re trying new dishes, and increasingly we’re eating more plants, whether we are moving fully away from animal products or just eating a more flexible diet with less meat. And that created a gap for a book about beer which specifically looks at it in conjunction with great vegetarian and vegan food.

Having written a couple of books and countless articles about beer and food together, and having traveled the world eating and drinking, experiencing revelatory and unforgettable combinations, I felt like I had a good understanding of what things worked well together. But almost all of those experiences contained animal-based products. Almost all media about beer and food go to meat as the first-choice pairing, as if someone who likes a hearty glass of Stout could only be interested in eating a fat hunk of steak. But a lot of beer-lovers don’t eat like that any more. I don’t eat like that any more.

My diet is now mostly plant-based, with a bit of dairy. That might change in the future, or if I’m traveling and really want to try a local specialty (my stomach still determines most of my travel), but at home I eat a vegan diet. This change led to me eating a more varied diet, to cooking new dishes, and drinking different beers with my dinner, which gave me a new excitement about the possibilities of beer and food together. By not defaulting to animal protein, I felt like I gave myself way more options.

I also learned that I didn’t need to go all the way back to the beginning of learning about beer and food. The basic ideas still apply, whether you’re having turkey or tofu, and most of the time we’re thinking about the sides, sauces, spices, and herbs that go with the protein, not the protein itself. What this did do was make me step away from the pairings I knew about and try new things, new cuisines, new combinations, and it’s been fascinating to learn more about flavor. My realization was that “beer and veg” didn’t need to be revolutionary; it just needed to work for more people with more diverse tastes to go with more diverse beers.

It was cooking with beer which excited me the most in writing this book. Without the focus being on a piece of meat, I could be more creative. I could look to the classic beer dishes and turn them vegan. I could come up with dishes that you’d never find in another book like this. And I found that beer can be an integral ingredient in vegan food in a way which is impossible if you’re using animal-based foods. It made me want to “eat” more beer.

Whether you are vegan, vegetarian, or just wanting to eat less animal produce, my aim in this book is simply to bring together great beers with great food for you. To me, it’s an irrelevance that there’s no meat in this book because, simply, all of the dishes discussed or cooked in this book are delicious with beer. And that’s what is most important.

THE HISTORY OF BEER AND FOOD

There’s a common line surrounding the history of beer saying that we drank it because it was safer than water. That’s absolutely true, of course, because to brew beer you boil a combination of water, grain, and hops, and boiling it kills any dangerous bacteria that might’ve been in the water. But if people had been aware of that, wouldn’t they simply have boiled their water, rather than undertake the more complicated process of brewing beer?

There were other reasons why people drank beer, of course. First, it was nutritious and it provided vitamins, minerals, and calories (300 calories of beer was often more appealing than 300 calories of food). It had flavor, which could be sweet, tart, smoky, bitter, or herbal, and those flavors could season bland diets. If we look back just 200 years, the standard working-class diet in cities like London or Munich was bread, maybe potatoes, and some smoked fish or fatty meat. The food was dense, hard to digest, and boring; beer made it taste better. Also, turning water, grain, and hops into beer basically made water keepable, no bad thing in the days before homes had a ready supply of fresh water. Brewing was as important as smoking and salting meat and fish, pickling and fermenting vegetables, making jams, turning milk into cheese, and distilling leftover grain into whisky or gin, or potatoes into schnapps, or corn into bourbon.

Beer was a basic necessity and it was on dinner tables around the European beer-drinking nations (it took North Americans a lot longer to trade their liquor for lager). It was also on the breakfast and lunch tables, because beer was drunk steadily through the day, sipped like we might do with tea, coffee, or soft drinks. As beer was so prominent in the rural home, we can assume that it was used in a lot of different dishes too—breads, braises, stews, soups. I say assume because there’s actually little written about the history of beer and food and we think that’s because it was so normal to cook with beer, and to drink it all the time, that it didn’t warrant writing about. Plus it was primarily a working-class drink and there’s little documentation of working people’s lives until into the nineteenth century, which is also when beer’s role began to change.

Perhaps the most significant change in the role of beer came when cities created safe supplies of drinking water. Once the expanding populations had ready access to clean water, beer was no longer a basic necessity and could become a drink for leisure and pleasure. When that happened—coinciding with industrialization and urbanization in the beer-drinking nations—we got new beer styles and we started to value different beers, our tastes changing from hearty, sweet, and filling, to light, bitter, and refreshing.

From the late 1800s, beer was the social drink of much of the western world. By the end of the 1900s, it was the most common and most-drunk alcoholic drink everywhere in the world. Beer is the drink we’re most likely to share with others, and in most cultures it’s the drink we’re most likely to have with food. Wine may dominate fine dining, but most of the world drinks a beer with dinner.

Beer’s role on the dinner table is now a social one but it is still symbiotically linked to food. What’s wonderful is how a country’s common foods are so often good with beer. Stews and cheeses in Belgium with dark Monastic beer; tacos in Mexico with Dark Lagers; fried noodles in southeast Asia with cold Pale Lagers; nachos and burgers in North America with IPA. Beer has become the world’s most global drink, but it’s also the most local, brewed wherever you go, and with distinct local flavors and customs to go with the local dishes.

Increasingly, these local foods are being joined by dishes from all around the world, while beers have extended way beyond their old traditional regionality, meaning you could name any beer style and find it brewed anywhere in the world, and with that beer you can serve up whatever food you want. For a lot of us, that food no longer contains any animal products—or at least we’re cutting down and eating a more flexible diet. It’s a new shift in our ever-changing eating and drinking habits. Beer has been with humankind since we first deliberately turned grain into alcohol and drank it. Now it’s something exciting and diverse that we can enjoy for entertainment, with limitless choices for bringing together beer and food, and celebrating it.

THE FLAVOR OF BEER

To understand the flavors in beer it helps to know about the ingredients that create it and the qualities and characteristics they give it. We can then can start to match those up with different foods.

GRAIN

Grains are the base of every beer. The grain will give beer its color, its sweetness, the sugars which will turn into alcohol, some mouthfeel, and flavor. Grain flavors are usually anything that you might find in a bakery: bread, toast, cookies, cake, caramel, toasted nuts, chocolate, coffee.

Barley is harvested and turned into malt, with part of that process kilning or roasting the barley kernels. Different roasting temperatures and times will create malts with different colors and flavors: think of it like bread that’s toasted, as it goes from pale and bready, to toasty amber and caramelized, to bitter, dark, and burnt.

Grains contain sugars. The more grain that goes in, the more sugars are extracted, the more flavor and body we get, and the more alcohol. Different malts are combined to create the base of a beer, much like a baker would combine different flours, sugars, and ingredients to create different breads or cakes, though all beers will have a “base grain,” usually pale ale or pilsner malt, which is the foundation of the recipe (like most bakes use flour).

Malted barley is not the only grain used. Wheat is common and it will give beer a richer texture, often a little (or a lot) of haze in its appearance, and a gentle, nutty flavor. Oats are another common grain. These give a fuller texture and body to a beer and might add a light, oaty flavor. Rye or spelt can be used to add a nuttier, spicier flavor to a beer, while rice and corn or maize are used to make a beer lighter and drier in body.

The brewing process begins with combining warm water with grains and letting them steep together for an hour. During this time, the sugars and other compounds in the grain are extracted into the water, leaving a sweet liquid called wort. The wort is drawn off and moved through the brewing process, while the grain is a leftover by-product and typically goes to farms as cattle fodder.

THE FLAVORS OF GRAIN

Pilsner malt

Bread, cookie, crackers

Pale ale malt

Toast, cereal, bread

Munich malt

Toast, toasted nuts, bread crusts

Caramalt

Toffee, sweet, toasted nuts

Crystal malt

Caramel, dried fruit, honey

Chocolate malt

Cacao, dark chocolate, coffee

Roasted barley

Dark chocolate, coffee, licorice

Wheat

Smooth, nutty, bready

Oats

Creamy, bready, oaty

Above are some common malts and grains and the characteristics they might give to your beer.

HOP AROUND THE WORLD

NORTH AMERICA

Common hop varieties are:Citra, Mosaic, Simcoe, Cascade, Centennial, Chinook, Amarillo, Ekuanot, Strata, El Dorado.

North America is the largest hop growing nation in the world and the hops are mostly grown in the states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. The hops are generally strong in flavor and aroma and dominated by citrus (grapefruit, oranges), tropical fruits (mango, pineapple, melon), stone fruit (peach, apricot) and herbal/woody (pine, dank, allium). These hops are most often found in IPAs and hop-forward beers.

UNITED KINGDOM

Common varieties are:Goldings, Fuggles, Target, Bramling Cross, Challenger, Pilgrim, First Gold, Olicana, Endeavour, Jester.

Mostly grown in the counties of Kent, Herefordshire, and Worcestershire, British hops vary from delicate and complex through to lightly tropical, though rarely will you find the same intensity of flavor in a British hop as in an American hop. Common characteristics include citrus (orange pith, marmalade), stone fruits (apricot), berries (blackcurrant), herbal (woody, minty, tobacco, tea), floral (honeysuckle, elderflower), and modern varieties, like Jester and Olicana, give more tropical fruits (mango, passion fruit, but more subtle than American and Antipodean hops). These hops are most often found in Best Bitter, English Pale and Golden Ale, Belgian Blonde, Saison, Mild, Stout, Porter.

GERMANY AND CZECH REPUBLIC

Common German varieties are:Hersbrucker, Tettnanger, Perle, Spalt, Hüll Melon, Saphir.

Common Czech varieties are:Saaz and Kazbek.

Germany is the world’s second-largest hop grower and most grow in the Hallertauer region north of Munich. In the Czech Republic they grow in the west, around the town of Žatec. Hops also grow in surrounding countries including Poland and Slovenia. Most of these hops have an elegant, subtle character, though they can be expressive and enticing, and are prized for how they give a firm, clean bitterness. They will be citrusy (lemon, pithy, zesty, mandarin), tropical (melon), herbal (grassy, juniper), floral (elderflower, jasmine, pepper). They are most often used in Lagers, Wheat Beers, and Belgian Ales.

AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND

Common Australian varieties are:Galaxy, Ella, Vic Secret, Topaz and Enigma.Common New Zealand varieties are:Nelson Sauvin, Motueka, Riwaka, Rakau.

The main growing regions are in South Australia and Tasmania, and the Nelson region of New Zealand. The hops are known for being abundantly fruity and tropical, with citrus (grapefruit, tangerine, lime, pomelo), tropical (passion fruit, mango, pineapple), stone fruit and berries (gooseberry, grapes), floral (elderflower). These hops are most often used in Pale Ales, IPAs, Pacific IPAs, and Hoppy Lagers.

HOPS

Hops are the seasoning and spice of a beer, and they can vary from delicate to intense. Hops give beer its bitterness and much of its flavor and aroma. The flavors we expect from hops are similar to anything that we might find in the fruit and vegetable aisle: orange, grapefruit, lemon, lime, tropical fruits like mango and pineapple, stone fruits like peach and apricot, berries, fresh herbs, mint, pepper, plus more earthy flavors like grass or a woody quality.

It’s the flower of the hop plant which is used and hops are varietal, with each different variety having different characteristics and strengths. Where the hop grows also affects its flavors—just as the same grape variety grown in California and southeast England will have different qualities. Hops contain acids, which give them bitterness, and they contain aromatic oils, many of which are also found in different fruits and spices. The most prevalent hop oil is myrcene, which is also found in mango, lemongrass, bay, and pine (and marijuana). Citra hops are especially high in myrcene. Humulene is another important hop oil—it’s more herbal and resinous, and is also found in sage, ginger, pine, and orange.

Brewers add different hops for different characteristics; some are primarily used for bitterness, while others are reserved to add aroma and flavor. In the brewing process, the sweet wort is brought to a boil and then the hops are added. The boil usually lasts 60 minutes and hops can be added throughout that time, with any hops going in at the beginning of the boil giving the beer its bitterness, and the hops going in later giving it aroma and flavor. Once the beer has fermented, which takes three to nine days, it’s left to mature. More hops can still be added during maturation. This is called dry-hopping and it’s done to give even more aroma and flavor to a beer—it’s the equivalent of putting fresh herbs on your food before serving it.

The main characteristics we get from hops can be seen in the hop wheel on page 11.

YEAST

Yeast is the magical microorganism which makes the alcohol and bubbles in beer. All yeasts produce some aroma compounds (typically fruity), and while most are neutral, some are prominent.

Fermentation is the process where yeast consumes the grain sugars and converts them into alcohol and carbon dioxide, while also producing some aromatic compounds called esters and phenols, which we smell and taste as being fruity or spicy. The fruitiness is often banana, pear, stone fruit, vanilla, or bubblegum, while the spiciness is pepper or clove. Belgian beers and Wheat beers often have a strong ester aroma profile.

Sour beers are made acidic by yeast and/or bacteria (the good kind of bacteria, like in yogurt). These beers are brewed with different strains of yeast which work with bacteria to produce a tartness or sourness, plus a range of aromas which could be fruity, spicy, or more rural and funky. This acidity in beer can be thirst-quenching and refreshing, but can also be more intense and challenging. Some beers, like Belgian Reds and Browns have an acetic flavor, which is like balsamic vinegar compared to the lemony acidity of most sours.

Not all aromas or flavors from the yeast are positive. If we have a Pale Lager that smells of banana and clove then it’s unintentional and a sign of a bad fermentation. Likewise, there are numerous off-flavors which are produced by the yeast during fermentation, like diacetyl (butter, popcorn), acetaldehyde (apples) and sulphur (eggs, struck match). While the yeast produces those compounds, it will also remove them if given enough time to do so.

WATER

Beer is a liquid and water is really important to each beer, but as a drinker considering what beer to have with dinner, we don’t really need to know anything about water. Even the most hardcore beer nerds will very infrequently comment on the water profile in a beer, though if you’re interested, a softer water profile (meaning fewer minerals in it) will give a beer with a softer, rounder mouthful (as in a classic Pale Lager), while a harder water profile will lead to a drier, leaner body (as in a British Bitter or Stout).

OTHER INGREDIENTS AND PROCESSES

SUGARS

Grain provides beer with most of the fermentable sugars which become alcohol, but brewers can also add other sugar sources. A contemporary trend is for lactose to be used in several different styles. Lactose is milk sugar, so vegans should be aware of that, and it’s used to give a creamy depth, texture, and sweetness to beer. It used to be found only in Milk Stouts but it’s now in some Hazy IPAs, some Fruit Sours, and some strong Stouts. In Belgium, you’ll find lots of beers brewed using regular sugar—pale or dark—and this adds a lot of fermentable sugars without adding body to a beer, so they can produce strong beers with a lean, light body. Maple syrup and honey (another thing to watch out for if you are vegan) are also used in some beers—maple syrup would most commonly be found in strong Stouts as an additional flavoring.

FRUITS

Brewers can add any fruit you can think of to their beers. The fruits could be fresh, frozen, purée, pulp, peel, or syrup, depending on what flavors the brewers are trying to achieve. Some fruit beers will be subtle, others will be like juice. Berries (cherries and raspberries) are the most common fruit in Slow Sour beers. Tropical fruits (mango and passion fruit) are used in heavily fruited Fast Sours. You’ll regularly see citrus fruits used in IPAs. Belgian Witbiers traditionally contain dried orange peel. Pumpkin beers are a seasonal special for many North American breweries, often also including spices.

CHOCOLATE, COFFEE, NUTS, AND VANILLA

Chocolate, cacao, and/or coffee will add extra richness, more roasted flavors, and perhaps some sweetness, and are most often found in strong Stouts and Porters. Nuts will also most commonly be found in Stouts, usually strong ones, but sometimes in regular-strength beers (like Peanut Butter Porters). Coconut is used in a wide range of styles, from light sours, to IPAs, to Imperial Stouts, and gives a tropical creaminess. Vanilla is another common flavoring, again most often (but not exclusively) found in dark strong beers. A trend for “pastry” or “culinary” beers has seen even sweeter ingredients being used.

SPICES AND HERBS

Like chefs, brewers can take whatever they want from the spice rack. The most common spice in traditional brewing is coriander seed, which is used in traditional Gose, wheat beers, and some other Belgian styles, and gives an orangey-floral fragrance and flavor. Any other spices and herbs can be used as a seasoning in beer: pepper, grains of paradise, cardamom, cinnamon, lemongrass, ginger. Tea or floral ingredients like elderflower, jasmine, hibiscus, and juniper are brewed into styles ranging from Saisons and Sours to IPAs. Gose will be brewed using salt to give it a richer flavor. And chili is regularly used in beers.

BARREL-AGED BEER

Beers can be matured in wooden barrels to develop new flavor profiles. There are two main types: sour and not-sour. The sour beers often go into old wine barrels and they are encouraged to acidify, turning tart and vinous; sometimes fruits are also added. The non-soured beers are most often Imperial Stouts or other strong ales, and these go into barrels which previously held bourbon, another spirit, or sometimes wine. The previous liquid, plus the wood itself, will impart characteristics to barrel-aged beers, where common flavors are vanilla, oak, woody spice, and coconut.

HOW TO TASTE BEER

There are no right or wrong ways to taste beer (unless you spit it out—that’s wrong) and it’s a uniquely individual experience, which only comes from actual experience of doing it. The best advice I can give to be a better and more confident taster is simply: drink more, drink more broadly, eat more broadly so you know more flavors, and really try to think about what you’re drinking. Like learning a language or playing a sport, we can practice and improve at tasting beer if we focus a little.

The hardest part of tasting beer is usually connecting your flavor experience with the right words in your brain (you smell something fruity, but what exactly is that fruit?) Finding the words to describe beer is difficult. I tend to focus more on the balance of the beer: how do the malts and the hops interact, what’s the body of the beer like, what’s the first impression and the last, and most importantly: is it delicious and does it make me happy?

Flavor is the combination of smell and taste. Without a sense of smell, we can only get a limited appreciation of what we’re eating and drinking, though we should still be able to pick out the tastes (sweet, bitter, sour, salty, or umami). Memory, emotion, and experience are closely linked to flavor, and certain smells and tastes elicit different emotional responses such as nostalgia and happiness. The neuro-wirings of smell and taste are connected to the nervous system, which is why some smells can make us thirsty or hungry (fresh coffee brewing, the smell of bread baking) while others can make us feel disgust (rotting vegetables, sour milk). Personal experience is also key: if two people drink the same beer and one tastes papaya, pomelo, and grains of paradise, but the other person has never eaten those ingredients before, then they might taste melon, grapefruit, orange, and pepper. Neither drinker is wrong, because of the individual nature of taste and flavor.

Scientifically, there are some useful things to know about taste. The tongue is a sensitive muscular organ that we can train, but it also has important innate functions. For example, we have the five tastes of sweet, sour, salty, umami, and bitter, but our tongue doesn’t treat them equally: there are significantly more taste receptors for bitterness than sweetness. When we eat something sweet, it’s almost always good and our brain doesn’t need to worry about it. But something bitter could potentially be a toxin, so our brains need more time and information to decide whether it’s safe to swallow or not. A lot of people don’t like IPA or black coffee for this reason, but the tongue is adaptive and we can grow to like them.

Beyond smell and taste, the sensation of touch is important to our enjoyment of food and drink. Trigeminal sensations will pick up on the beer’s carbonation (flat or fizzy); its temperature (ice cold, too warm); its texture (thin and dry like soda water, thick and smooth like milk); they’ll sense spice and heat; they can pick up on cooling sensations like mint and cucumber; they’ll feel tannins, which are dry (think about unripe bananas or a woody dryness in some wines).

Want to be a better beer taster? Just drink more beer.

THE IMPORTANT CHARACTERISTICS OF BEER

While thinking about the flavors of beer we also need to consider other qualities, including its strength, its intensity, and its mouthfeel. All of these will contribute to the overall appreciation of the beer and then how it might work with food. Here are some common words used to describe a beer, and what they really mean.

Mouthfeel: The body or texture of the beer. This could range from light (think soda water) to heavy (think syrup); light beers are often refreshing, whereas heavy beers are more filling. “Smooth” is a word used often and it’s an indicator of a beer that has a low carbonation and low-to-moderate hop bitterness, while “creamy” will usually be used when describing a sweeter, richer beer.

Finish: The flavor or character at the end of the beer. It’ll normally be on a scale from dry and bitter to sweet, and from short to long. Most mainstream lagers have a short, dry finish, whereas a quality Pilsner will have a long, dry, and bitter finish. An Imperial Stout will probably have a long sweet finish.

Carbonation: How fizzy the beer is. Some beer, like classic British cask ales, will naturally have a low carbonation (but they shouldn’t ever be flat like water), while other beers, like Belgian ales and Slow Sours, will have a brisk, lively fizz to them. The carbonation can have an uplifting impact with food, being refreshing against stronger flavors and high fat content.

Clean: For me, a “clean” beer is one that’s free from negative characteristics and also has a flavor profile that’s really defined. Imagine a really good photo—a perfectly in-focus image is like a really clean beer, whereas a shot that’s a little (or a lot) out of focus, isn’t clean. In my experience, all the best beers have a “clean” taste and flavor balance.

Balanced: A beer which has a balance of flavors between the sweetness, bitterness (or acidity), and alcohol. This doesn’t mean it’s low in flavor and boring, and even the strongest Stouts should still have a balance to them, while a very bitter Double IPA can still be balanced if it has an appropriate malt profile and the bitterness isn’t overwhelming. The best beers in the world all share a great balance, which leads to you wanting to drink more of them.

Dry: Champagne is a dry drink, while Irish cream liquor is the opposite—it’s sweet. Dry describes the finish of the beer, which will be crisp, refreshing, and not sweet. Most good lagers (and most cheap ones, actually) are dry. Crisp is another word often used in place of dry. It’s a beer with a snappy, clean, refreshing finish.

Juicy: A word most often used to describe very hoppy and hazy beers which have a juicy quality. The juiciness could be the appearance (orange and opaque), the aroma (lots of juicy fruits), or the flavor (a tangy citrus quality).

Spicy: Spice is usually a combination of peppery yeast, perhaps some cloves, ground spices like coriander, and also a dryness to the beer which enhances the spiciness. It’s most commonly tasted in Belgian ales and wheat beers.

COMPLEMENTARY FLAVORS IN BEER AND FOOD

When we are bringing together beer and food, we are usually most interested in the sauces, side dishes, or seasonings, rather than a protein element. Think about Thai fried noodles: it doesn’t matter if it’s chicken, prawn, or tofu because the soy sauce, garlic, fresh herbs, chili, and lime have way more impact. Here are some common ingredients, with beer styles which might naturally work well with them. Below and over the page is a group of primary beer flavors and the foods which might complement them.

FOOD FLAVORS

BEERS

Butter

Pale Lager, Pilsner, Dark Lager, Kölsch

Black pepper

Belgian Blonde, Saison, Tripel, Dubbel, Pale Ale

Lemon

Pilsner, Pale Lager, Smoked Beer, Slow Sours, Tripel, American IPA, Hazy IPA

Soy sauce

Stout, Porter, Dark Lager, Black IPA, Dubbel, Dunkelweizen

Lime, Thai basil, cilantro (fresh coriander)

Pacific Pale, Hoppy Lager, Belgian Blonde, Fast Sours

Dill, basil, fennel

Saison, Belgian Blonde, Tripel, Slow Sours, Hoppy Lager, Pacific Pale

Rosemary, thyme, sage

Saison, Tripel, Pale Ale, IPA, Double IPA, Hazy DIPA

Roast garlic, sweet onions

Pale Ale, IPA, Double IPA, Porter

Salsa/hot sauce

American Pale Ale, Dark Lager, Amber Lager, Porter

Tomato ketchup

Pale Ale, IPA, Black IPA, Dark Lager, Porter

Mustard

Hefeweizen, Saison, Dark Lager, American Pale Ale, Pilsner

Yogurt

Wheat Ale, Hefeweizen, Fast Sours

Smoke

Porter, Smoked Beer, Pale Ale, Dunkelweizen, Dubbel

Cinnamon, nutmeg, clove

Dubbel, Quadrupel, Dunkelweizen

Caramel

Imperial Stout, Red IPA, Weizenbock

BEER AND FOOD: SOME GREAT FLAVOR COMBINATIONS

Beer Flavor

Found In

Complementary Foods

Bready/toasty

Pale Lager, Kölsch, Pale Ale, British Pale Ale, Golden Ale, Amber Lager, Dark Lager, Strong Lager

Bread, hot dog/burger buns, pizza, pasta, fried batter, mild cheese, white beans, potatoes, savory pastry, rice

Caramel/toffee

Pale Ale, IPA, Red IPA, British Bitter and Mild, Porter, Imperial Stout

Roasted vegetables, roast onion and garlic, fried foods, toasted nuts, aged cheeses, miso, dried fruit, sweet potato/squash, maple syrup, ketchup

Nutty

Amber Lager, Dark Lager, Amber Ale, Red Ale, Brown Ale

Aged cheese, toasted nuts, roasted vegetables, whole grains, beans, sesame/tahini, wild rice, wholegrain pasta, nutritional yeast, white miso, coconut, corn, corn tacos, cauliflower, lentils

Roasted

Stout, Porter, Dark Lager, Black IPA,

Roasted and barbecue vegetables, root vegetables, roasted nuts, smoked tofu, Brown Ale mushrooms, black beans, soy sauce, miso, dried fruits, chocolate

Dried fruit

British Bitter, Dubbel, Quadrupel, aged beers, Red IPA

Dried fruit, balsamic vinegar, miso, caramelized onions, cooked orchard fruit, tamarind, chutney, tagine

Smoky (wood and spice)

Smoked beer, some Porters and Stouts, Hefeweizen, Saison

Smoked tofu, barbeque sauce, paprika, all spice, cloves, chipotle chili, roasted nuts

Sweet

Imperial Stout, Sweet Stout, Strong Lager, Hazy DIPA

Sweet potato/squash, gochujang, hoisin, bread, cakes, pastries, chocolate, vanilla cream, pancakes, sweet onions, root vegetables, cooked stone/orchard fruit, vanilla, honey, maple syrup

Creamy

Sweet Stouts, Weissbier, Hazy DIPA

Cream cheese, cheese sauces, avocado, egg yolks, eggplant (aubergine), cashew nuts, risotto, beans, mayonnaise, yogurt, coconut and coconut cream, chocolate

Oak/barrel-Aged

Barrel-aged beer

Vanilla, coconut, woody spices, toffee, chocolate

Spicy (from yeast)

Witbier, Weissbier, Saison, Belgian Blonde, Dubbel, Tripel, Quadrupel

Cloves, ginger, ground spices, fennel, chili, miso, Thai basil, basil, aniseed, black pepper, arugula (rocket), celeriac, carrot

Fruity (from yeast)

Pale Ale, British Ale, Hazy IPA

Chutney, olive oil, dried fruit, stone fruit, mature cheeses, ginger

Acetic

Slow Sours

Balsamic vinegar, tomatoes, marinara sauce, ketchup, tamarind, pickles, chutney, mustard

Acidic

Slow Sours, Fast Sours

Fermented foods (sourdough, yogurt, kimchi), citrus fruit, wine or cider vinegar, fresh cheeses, goat cheese, tomatoes

Fermented

Most beers

Miso, aged cheese, sauerkraut, kimchi, sourdough, Sriracha, dark chocolate, coffee

Earthy

Slow Sours, Saison, English IPA

Farmhouse and blue cheeses, goat cheese, potatoes, root vegetables, olive oil, berries, cauliflower, beetroot, turmeric, cumin

Citrus hops

Pale Ale, all IPA and DIPA, Red IPA, Hoppy Lager

Citrus fruit, ginger, onion, chive, mint, cilantro (fresh coriander), ground coriander, tropical fruits, Cheddar cheese, roasted onion and garlic, avocado, lime, Szechuan pepper, lemongrass

Tropical hops

Pale Ale, all IPA and DIPA, Pacific Pale, Hoppy Lager

Mango, passion fruit, pineapple, roasted garlic, ginger, sweet potato, aged cheeses, mint, Thai basil, lime, mirin

Stone fruit hops

Pale Ale, all IPA and DIPA, Pacific Ale, English Pale Ale

Ginger, dried apricots, avocado, toasted nuts, honey, ground cilantro (coriander), nutty cheeses

Herbal hops

Saison, Tripel, Pilsner, British Ale, Red IPA, American IPA

Basil, thyme, garlic, pepper, cinnamon, mustard, ground coriander, oregano, sage, rosemary, citrus peel, arugula (rocket), Brussels sprouts

Floral hops

Saison, Pilsner, British Ale, Golden Ale

Aged cheeses, mushrooms, truffles, cumin, potato, eggplant (aubergine), cilantro (fresh coriander), dill, rosemary, lemongrass, avocado, bell peppers

HOW TO PAIR BEER WITH VEGETARIAN AND VEGAN FOOD

So how do you pair vegetarian and vegan food with beer? The good news is that the existing approaches to beer and food pairing are still totally relevant. Here I’ll give a few tips and some considerations and then we’ll jump into specific ways to focus on veggie and vegan food with beer, using the Three Bs of beer and food pairing: Bridge, Balance, and Boost.

Before even thinking about the Three Bs, the most important consideration in any beer and food pairing is the intensity. A Dark Lager and an Imperial Stout have shared flavors of dark malts, toasted nuts, and chocolate, but they are completely different strengths. If you have a bowl of mushroom fried rice followed by a chocolate brownie, then the Dark Lager will match the rice and the Imperial Stout will match the brownie, but swap them around and something is overpowered. We always want to make sure that we find a balance of intensities.

Another consideration is the mouthfeel and texture of a beer. This can range from light to thick; it could be low in carbonation or really fizzy; it could be creamy and sweet, or dry and refreshing.

Red Tomato Tart with Oven-Dried Beer Tomatoes, page 138.

GOOD EXAMPLES OF BALANCING INTENSITIES

Pale Lager

Tomato and mozzarella salad

Golden Ale

Green vegetable risotto

Pale Ale

Grilled vegetable pizza

IPA

Roasted vegetable lasagna

Double IPA

Smoked tofu and BBQ veg sandwich

A Pilsner is going to be dry, well-carbonated and light in body; a Belgian Golden Ale will be similar but with more structure and body behind it; a Double IPA will be rich, rounded in the body, and lower in carbonation, with a prominent bitterness.

Mouthfeel works differently with different foods. If you’ve got something with a high fat content, like a creamy curry or farmhouse cheeses, then you often want carbonation to lift and cut it so you’d have a Pilsner with the curry and a Belgian Gueuze with the cheese. Sweeter foods often want a richer, more luxurious mouthfeel, like having a Hazy DIPA with roasted peaches. Chili heat can be softened with a smooth, creamy, sweeter beer.

The alcohol content will affect the intensity and the mouthfeel of a beer, while the alcohol itself can also be a strong flavor with food. Typically, the stronger the beer, the stronger the dish you want with it. You’ll also find that very strong beers are best balanced by fat (cheese), salt (fries), or sweetness (cake).

Beer Chick’n Tenders, page 132.

Watch out for chili heat. It’s the capsaicin in a chili that makes it feel like we’re being burnt and it’s a temporary irritation that might last a few seconds or a few minutes. You want to find a beer which can soothe that irritation, not make it worse. Typically, a very hoppy beer will ignite the fire of hot chili, and a highly carbonated beer can feel like it’s poking the burn, whereas a sweeter beer with a full body, like a Hefeweizen or Sweet Stout, can wrap around the heat and cool it down.

And think local when pairing beer and food. Look around the world and you’ll find local dishes served with local beers or beer styles. Many of these come from the traditional beer-drinking nations and one challenge we have matching beer and veg is that most of those classic dishes are animal-based (stews, sausages, and so on), but we can find many more examples that are vegetarian (usually with cheese) or which can become vegan, while we can also look at seasonal dishes. Local beers have a way of reflecting local cuisines, cultures, and climates.

Some great local pairings include:

• American Pale Ale with bean and avocado tacos

• American IPA with mac ’n’ cheese

• Munich Helles with pretzels

• Amber Lager with Käsespätzle (German mac ’n’ cheese)

• Italian Pilsner with pizza

• Trappist ales paired with the monastery’s cheeses

• Pacific Pale Ale with a superfood salad bowl

• Witbier with fries and mayo

• English Golden Ale with asparagus risotto

• British Bitter with a nut roast

THE THREE Bs OF BEER AND FOOD

1: BRIDGE

A zesty Witbier with a Thai coconut curry. A caramelized Red Ale with roasted root vegetables. A coffee-infused Stout with a chocolate chip muffin.

By finding shared flavors in the food and the beer we can build a bridge between them. Sometimes you’ll focus on the main flavor, like trying to match a cherry beer with a cherry cake, while other times you’ll want to look at the additional ingredients or what’s served with it, like having a tropical Pacific Pale Ale with a herby, citrusy Thai salad. There might also be additional ingredients in the beer which can help the bridge, like a Witbier, brewed with orange peel and coriander seed, paired with a tagine or falafel. By pulling together similar flavors, we’re drawing the food and beer closer to one another.

Stout Shakshuka, page 116.

Some flavor bridges:

• American IPA with rosemary, thyme, citrus, caramelized onion

• Pacific Pale Ale with fresh cilantro (coriander), lime, lemongrass

• Pilsner with fresh herbs, lemon, pepper, fresh bread

• Amber Lager with toasted bread, pizza dough, nutty cheese

• Witbier with lemon, earthy spices, peppery herbs

• Fast Sours with citrus, yogurt, fresh cheese

• Hefeweizen with coconut, toasted bread, creaminess

• Saison with pepper, fresh green herbs, lemon

• Dubbel with miso, aniseed, dried fruit

• Stout and Porter with roasted foods, soy sauce, chocolate

Take the bridge between beer and veg:

• Pacific Ale with summer rolls and sweet chili

• Belgian Dubbel with lentil bolognese

• Porter with roasted eggplant (aubergine)

• Witbier with lemongrass and chili tofu

• American IPA with garlic and herb focaccia

• Dunkelweizen with vegetable and bean tagine

• Pale Ale with caramelized onion tart

• Raspberry sour beer with lemon cake

• Quadrupel with baked apple

• Slow Sours with goat cheese

2: BALANCE

Oatmeal stout with bean chili. Hefeweizen with spicy fried rice. Hazy DIPA with mushroom risotto.

It’s good to aim to harmonize and create balance with beer and food, and there are several ways to do this. One is to think about spiciness and trying to cool it down, like having a malty Dark Lager with bean tacos and hot sauce. Another is to create balance between intense flavors, for example a bowl of salty garlic fries will be well matched by a really bitter IPA. While we can also use beer to create a balanced eating experience and to leave us feeling refreshed, like having a Pilsner with deep-fried foods.

What balances what?

• Bitterness balances salt: Pilsner and pretzel; Session IPA and loaded nachos

• Sweetness balances spice: Hefeweizen and Thai red curry; Dubbel with bean tagine

• Sweetness balances umami: Porter with miso eggplant (aubergine); Bock with veggie lasagna

• Roast balances acidity: Stout and huevos rancheros; barbecued mushrooms with Gose