Beer and Food – A Guide To Pairing

 It’s high time the art of beer and food pairing got more respect. While wine pairing at meal time will traditionally garner more attention, we’re putting our case forward for a celebration of global cuisines to complement our seven beer styles, featuring lagers, ales and wheat beers.

AND UNION has already taken care of the serious matter of brewing the beer, now comes the fun part of drinking and sharing it with a meal. It’s all about balance here; neither the beer nor the food should impact the palate more than the other. 

Pairing by Complement 
Seek out great combinations that allow the unique qualities of the beer and food to work together. This results in a certain balance in the mouth. We are aiming to unite those with a similar flavour profile here, such as a dark chocolate brownie with a Thursday Dark Lager, white bread with a Wednesday Wheat, or a Sunday Pale Ale with an orange cake. 

Generally speaking, foods with high sweetness and richness will find a mate in beers with roasted malts (meeting at the caramel crossroads) or hop bitterness. The power of a spicy meal such as curry, will find a mate in the boldness of a sweeter, hoppier beer that can stand toe-to-toe.

For example, the bitterness from the roasted malts of a Schwarzbier are very close to the bitterness from the cocoa inside the chocolate brownie. The bready-yeasty profile of the Weissbier are like that of a white bread. The Pale Ale's citrusy and tropical notes from the American hops matches the sweet-sour character of an orange cake.

Pairing by Contrast 
Usually, heavy dishes pair well with a light beer, such as our Saturday Unfiltered Lager. On the other hand, it is less likely for a heavy beer to work with a light dish. For example, try spicy food with a Saturday Unfiltered Lager, A hot dog or a hamburger with our Friday IPA, and sauerkraut with a Wednesday Weiss.  

Yum!

For a full week of flavourful AND UNION pairings [CLICK HERE]