Pizza and beer used to be so easy.
Like almost everyone else, beer was an acquired taste for me. I started at about 20 years old - I mean 21 - and I started with the typical, big-brand, American, yellow, standard-issue, macro-brewed boring beers. They all tasted the same, they were all easy to drink, and they all did the trick. But then one day, I tried a "microbrew." I can't remember which one it was I had first, but all 12 of them must've been good, right? All I can say is that I saw the light... and then I saw beers that I couldn't see the light through... and then I saw beers that made the light look brown, amber, cloudy. You get the point. I quickly became a beer snob.
So, by the time I was 23, I set a standard in my life that there is no time for bad beer. I'd rather buy a 6-pack of great-tasting beer over a 12-pack of "piss beer" with no flavor. From then on, I set out on a quest to find more and more great beer. I even had a job where my supervisor and I would have a "Beer Meeting" every Friday at the end of the work week. During the meeting, we would talk about what transpired throughout the week and we would come up with our gameplan for the following week. And the catch with the "Beer Meeting" was that we each had to go out and try to find a beer that the other guy had never had before. For those of you keeping score at home, I won most weeks... but you know what? In a game like that, everyone wins.
Anyway, back to beer pairings. When you drink certain beers, you notice different subtleties: one Stout will taste like coffee; another slightly sour; another like vanilla cream. You catch the differences between Pale Ales: one has an excess of carbonation while another is wetter with a hint of green apples. One wheat beer tastes like a meal unto itself while another remains light and citrusy.
A lot of these descriptions sound a lot like, well, like wine pairings. That's right: beer has just about caught up to wine in food pairings. And why wouldn't it? We pair wine with food, so why not beer?
So, by the time I was 23, I set a standard in my life that there is no time for bad beer. I'd rather buy a 6-pack of great-tasting beer over a 12-pack of "piss beer" with no flavor. From then on, I set out on a quest to find more and more great beer. I even had a job where my supervisor and I would have a "Beer Meeting" every Friday at the end of the work week. During the meeting, we would talk about what transpired throughout the week and we would come up with our gameplan for the following week. And the catch with the "Beer Meeting" was that we each had to go out and try to find a beer that the other guy had never had before. For those of you keeping score at home, I won most weeks... but you know what? In a game like that, everyone wins.
Anyway, back to beer pairings. When you drink certain beers, you notice different subtleties: one Stout will taste like coffee; another slightly sour; another like vanilla cream. You catch the differences between Pale Ales: one has an excess of carbonation while another is wetter with a hint of green apples. One wheat beer tastes like a meal unto itself while another remains light and citrusy.
A lot of these descriptions sound a lot like, well, like wine pairings. That's right: beer has just about caught up to wine in food pairings. And why wouldn't it? We pair wine with food, so why not beer?
Few things on Earth are as good to me as a great combination pizza with a dry, super-hoppy IPA to wash it down. Furthermore, I defy you to find me any wine that would make a more-suitable mate to my beloved pizza. I have other pairings, too, like a nice, bitter, coffee-laden stout with Fish & Chips. You may have your own pairings, too. In fact, maybe you have your own pairings and you just don't know it yet. For whatever reason, we don't typically think of pairing beer like we do wine, but I think that's changing. I can't be the only guy thinking about this, can I?
There are so many different kinds of beers with so many vastly-different flavors that there is no reason to not pair beers appropriately with just about any meal. Find a meal you like and go buy a few different 6- or 12-packs and sample away to see which you like best with any given meal. If nothing else, it's a great excuse to go beer shopping.
There are so many different kinds of beers with so many vastly-different flavors that there is no reason to not pair beers appropriately with just about any meal. Find a meal you like and go buy a few different 6- or 12-packs and sample away to see which you like best with any given meal. If nothing else, it's a great excuse to go beer shopping.
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