Beer: It’s what’s for dinner

Until recently, most Americans would probably giggle if you suggested pairing beer and food in a serious way — the idea being that a beer was fine with a hot dog at the ballpark or a slice of pizza, but that was about it. Yet people have been drinking beer with food for as long as there’s been beer — at least 10,000 years by most estimates. (The oldest known recipe for anything is a beer recipe that dates back more than 4,000 years to the ancient Sumerians.)

Now, of course, hardly a week goes by when there isn’t a multicourse beer dinner or a beer and cheese tasting (or even a beer and chocolate tasting) somewhere in Atlanta. Suddenly, every casual, bar-centered restaurant wants to be known as a “gastropub” — which is just a fancy way of saying that the beer list is as important as the wine list, and so is the way beer is matched with the menu.

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Alison Church / AJC Special

Chef Shaun Doty of Shaun’s Restaurant in Atlanta, prepared a Berkshire pork schnitzel with a grilled onion salad with peanuts, parsley and parmesan. An Ayinger Oktober Fest beer accompanied the dish.

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Alison Church / AJC Special

Shaun Doty prepared a parsnip cake with miso ice cream. A Brooklyn black chocolate stout accompanied the dessert.

Recipes to enjoy with beer
• Pork Schnitzel
• Belgian-style Mussels
• Barleywine Sweet Potato Flan

Restaurants
• What's the Best Brewpub in Atlanta? Vote with your beer stein in the Best of the Big A

Talking with chefs, brewers, and beverage directors at fine-dining restaurants, brewpubs and beer bars, there’s a giddy sense of adventure when it comes to putting beer and food together. And if the old wine rules like “white with fish, red with meat” are considered passé, beer pairing has gone so far beyond those limits as to become a fun culinary free-for-all.

Natural complements

At Five Seasons Brewing Co. in Alpharetta, chef David Larkworthy likes to use the brewpub’s own beer in his recipes. Recently, Larkworthy added some molasses smoked porter, created by Five Seasons brewer Crawford Moran, to a barbecue sauce for Berkshire pork ribs. He paired the dish with the porter, a dark beer that boldly displays a strong complement of smoky-sweet flavors.

“Many barbecue sauces are made with molasses and other flavor-deepening liquids, such as soy or Worcestershire,” Larkworthy says. “We let the molasses smoked porter provide those flavors, which enabled us to use a dry rub on the ribs.” On the lighter side, Larkworthy paired a green apple soup with slow-cooked seafood and Moran’s popular Venus, a clean, snappy Belgian-style wheat beer flavored with orange and coriander.

“The tart soup went well with the sweet and salty seafood,” Larkworthy says. “And the predominant refreshing orange and lightly bready quality of the beer brought it all together.”

Beer isn’t something you’d necessarily associate with chef Shaun Doty or his urbane Inman Park bistro, Shaun’s. But Doty has come up with all kinds of creative dishes and pairings for several brewery-sponsored beer dinners at his restaurant.

At a Brooklyn Brewery dinner, Doty put together an unlikely but winning mix of caraway ricotta gnudis, heritage pork belly and chanterelles in a bowl of jasmine consommé, garnished with crispy pig’s ears. The meal was matched with Brooklyn Local 1 — a strong and lively, bottle fermented (like champagne) Belgian-style ale, with complex herbal, spice and citrus aromas and flavors.

“The spices and floral notes in the dish and in the beer are complementary,” says Doty. “But both were standing up to one another, in the sense that there were complexities coming from each side and you could easily compare and contrast the flavors.”

Beer with dessert is still a surprise for many people. At Doty’s dinners, though, it’s the course that often gets the biggest applause. At a Terrapin Beer Co., dinner Doty’s parsnip cake — a version of carrot cake, with spices and pecans and creamy frosting — is served with miso ice cream and paired with Terrapin Wake ‘n’ Bake Coffee Oatmeal Imperial Stout, a rich, dark ale brewed with coffee that’s a super dessert beer.

“Parsnips are a very simple root vegetable,” says Doty. “But the cake has the spice and nuts, and the ice cream has this fermented malty flavor. That’s a great example of similarities in the food and beer, and how they can complement each other so well.”

Beer bar combos

Though Taco Mac may be best known for Buffalo wings and a huge draft beer selection, executive chef Matt Deckard has been devising menus for an ongoing series of beer dinners that feature surprisingly sophisticated and playful dishes.

Deckard’s beer can chicken is an adaptation of a spicy specialty he likes to prepare at home. For a Lagunitas Brewing Co. dinner, Deckard paired it with Lagunitas IPA, an American pale ale with a bright, hoppy citrus essence.

“I marinated the chicken in herbs, Taco Mac wing sauce and IPA, which really added another dimension to the chicken. The savory flavors of the herbs and the pepper spice accelerate your taste buds into the strong hop note and subtle malt prevalent in Lagunitas IPA,” Deckard says.

One of Deckard’s favorite dessert and beer combinations, pumpkin mascarpone cheesecake and Highland Cold Mountain Winter Ale, was conceived especially for the holiday season and the spiced winter seasonal from Highland Brewing Co.

“When I first tasted it, I tasted coconut, winter spice, cranberries and toasted malt,” Deckard says. “All I could think about was Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner at my grandmother’s house, and that sweet smell of pumpkin pie. The pumpkin in the cheesecake brings out the toasty malts in the beer and the mascarpone smooths out the edges.”

Four great food beers

• Saison Saison

Traditionally a Belgian farmhouse-style ale, is refreshing and easy to drink, yet embodies such a robust range of aromas and flavors that it may be the ultimate food beer. Look for lively carbonation, a spicy, fruity presence backed by earthy notes, bracing hop bitterness and a dry finish. Pair it with almost anything, but bright, hot Asian foods really shine. Saison Dupont Vieille Provision is the classic, but De Proef Saison Imperiale, Fantôme Saison, and Ommegang Hennepin are great, too.

• India pale ale

India pale ale was invented by the British. But it’s become dearly beloved among American craft brewers, who have kicked up the style with the aromas and flavors of bright, citrusy American hops, which make a simpatico match for burgers with lots of fixings, hot and spicy Mexican, Thai or Indian food, or sharp cheddar cheeses. Hometown favorite Sweetwater IPA is the freshest you’ll find in Atlanta, but Victory Hop Devil, Lagunitas IPA, Great Divide Titan IPA and Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA are all first-rate.

• Trappist and abbey ales

Simply put, Trappist ales are produced only at Trappist monastery breweries, while abbey ales are not. But there’s a similar range of styles, with dark strong ales, such as Chimay Grande Reserve, at the top in terms of alcohol and complexity. Aromatic and complex and loaded with malt and dark fruit flavors, they can stand up to big rich foods, from foie gras and duck to short ribs and strong cheeses. Beyond Chimay, Rochefort 10 and St. Bernardus Abt 12 are both sublime examples.

• Imperial stout

Imperial stout could be the world’s greatest dessert beer. Dark, rich and sweetish (not dry like Irish stout), it’s another historically British beer that’s been embraced by American craft brewers. Bittersweet dark chocolate and espressolike qualities make it a natural with chocolate desserts, but those flavors also find a creamy contrast in flan, cheesecake and crème brûlée. And salty, pungent Stilton is a crazy good match. Among the horde of winners, look for Brooklyn Black Chocolate, North Coast Old Rasputin, Victory Storm King and Terrapin Wake ‘n’ Bake.

What to Know:

• Most beer styles aren’t acidic, which means — when compared with wine — they aren’t as affected by salt and sugar or tricky ingredients, such as cheese, chocolate or spices.

• Most beers have some degree of carbonation, the lively bubbles that quickly cleanse the palate.

How to Pair:

• Consider the impact or flavor intensity of beer and food on a spectrum from light to heavy and bright to dark.

Wheat beers and light lagers are on one end, dark stouts and strong ales are on the other end, with snappy pale ales, amber lagers and roasty brown ales in between.

On the food spectrum, salads and many vegetables are on one end, red meat and strong cheeses are on the other end, with pasta, seafood and poultry in between.

• Remember to match to the strongest flavors, which might include rich sauces or spices in food, and flavors such as oak or smoke in beer.