Paring beer and food may sound a bit snooty, but it really is quite the taste experience when the flavors of a fine craft beer blend perfectly with great food. And by great food, I’m not just talking about “fine dining.” I’ve enjoyed a few great wine and beer pairing dinners with multiple courses and excellent pairings. But let’s face it. Most of us don’t eat and drink that way on a regular basis. Fortunately, that doesn’t mean a good pairing is out of the question. Quite the opposite.
With that in mind, I decided to try a bit of a pairing experiment with one of my favorite foods. Ribs. Pork ribs. Babybacks. Dry rubbed, charcoal-grilled goodness. It get me charged up to create a good dry rub, prepare the ribs, get the charcoal ready and spend four hours or so tending to the ribs while smelling the spices mix with the hickory smoke. As a captive audience for several hours, is there any better time to sit back and enjoy a brew or two?
Last weekend was the first truly warm sunny weekend in Missoula this year. The urge to fire up the grill couldn’t be denied and lent itself well to the first ribs of the season. But what beer to have with them? I use a dry rub with a variety of ingredients that always ends up a bit different given the relative carelessness needed when measuring. In the end, there’s always a bit of heat from some chili powder bumping up against sweet paprika and brown sugar. I tend to favor sweet, tangy barbeque sauces to pour on or dip with after the grilling is done. I figured a sweeter, rather that hoppier beer would complement the flavors nicely. Off to the fridge I went.
From among the various brews hanging out in the fridge, I picked two: Bayern Brewing’s new Dump Truck Extra Pale Summer Bock and New Belgium Brewing Inc.’s 1554 Enlightened Black Ale. Bayern’s Dump Truck has only been out for a month or so and I’m already really digging it. It has the smooth crisp flavor of a great lager, the malty sweetness of a good bock and a nice medium mouthfeel with 6% abv. It is a great beer to find this time of year when so many summer seasonals move into the hop world and abandon the malt side of the family. The color is a bit of a cloudy, off-yellow. As for the paring, it was perfect. The sweetness of the malt did indeed pair nicely with the sweet tangy barbeque sauce and the heat/sweet tango of the dry rub. It complemented the flavor profiles, by adding to them without trying to compete or overpower them.
Next up, I poured a pint of New Belgium Brewing Inc.’s 1554 Enlightened Black Ale. I’ve really enjoyed this beer for years and even crave it as a session beer from time to time. 1554 is a medium bodied ale with a fair amount of chocolate malts that I can describe with one word: earthy. That’s always what comes to mind with I drink this malty, easy to drink beer. There is a hint of roasted malt flavor to go with the chocolate malts, but pinning a particular style on this beer is difficult (and unnecessary). It is just dang good. How did it pair up with the ribs? Equally as well, though in a somewhat different way. The earthiness of 1554 picked up more of the smoke flavors, yet still complimented the sweet and tangy barbeque sauce and the spices in the dry rub. Like Dump Truck, it complimented the flavors without competing with them, added without overpowering. Just what a good paring should do, whether fine dining or fine grilling.
For quality control, I also tried a bit of Stone Brewing Co.’s Levitation Ale, a pale/amber ale with a moderately strong floral/pine hop aroma and bitterness to see how a hop featured beer would pair. As expected (no real shocker here, but someone has to be in charge of quality control) the hop flavors and bitterness clashed rather than complimented the flavors creating a competition that did not sit well with me. That said, far be it from me to tell you what to drink. Drink what you like, but don’t be afraid to try an experiment of your own. It works just as well with backyard grilling.
