A couple enyoys a meal accompanied with beer. PHOTOs/www.shutterstock.com
First things first, everyone has a favourite beer. They swear by that brand. They will not rest, until they find a pub cool enough to have it in their fridge. It tastes just right, gives them the right high and makes them look super cool. It ticks all the boxes, including, believe it or not, blocking on-coming malaria. Once he feels feverish, he grabs one, drinks it in one go and his health is restored.
On top of insisting on it, while he is out with the gang, until the wee hours of Friday night, Davis will still grab a Nile Special, while eating fish at a beach in Entebbe or while he enjoys roasted pork chops at Kyadondo Rugby Grounds. And when he takes his girlfriend to La Cabana for their favourite spicy curry, he will still grab a Nile Special.
In a perfect world, the three meals mentioned above would make any self-respecting foodie decide to choose a different beer in every case (if one has to, of course). But like Davis, beer drinkers can be very sentimental with their preferred brand. And they will pair the same beer with any food, not knowing what they are depriving themselves of.
The question is, how is someone supposed to know how to pair which beer with which meal? How is someone supposed to know that their favourite beer will ruin a particular meal, so that they ditch it for a better one?
Light beers with delicate dish
If you find yourself at the beach over the weekend, you know fish will be on the menu. Because why else would you go to the beach, right? Fish is as light on the jaws as it is on the plate. The temptation will be to order for Nile Special as usual, but do not cave. It is a hard beer. It is a heavy beer with a lasting impression on the palate. Pairing it with fish diminishes the taste of fish and overshadows it. A light beer such as a Castle Lite or Tusker Lite is a better option. These will not rob you of the delicacy of the meal you drove a long distance to find.
Strong beers with savoury dish
Let us talk meat. Okay? Lots and lots of meat. And cheese. And thick barbeque sauce at your cousin’s home over a long weekend. When you find yourself at a barbeque, where there is juicy steak and all tribes of meat, do yourself a favour and grab a strong stout or hard lager. With savoury food like this, who would blame you for taking Guinness or Nile for the first time? The strong taste of the beer will complement the strong flavours of stew or steak. The rich flavour and rounded roastiness of Guinness stands up to pork chops and amplifies the flavour of both the beer and the food.
Find common flavours
If you hang out at a boujee babe’s house and she just wants to serve a fruit salad, go to her fridge and pick out a Savana or a Smirnoff Black. Or go for a martini cocktail. The citrus flavours in these drinks will complement the citrus flavours in the salad to deliver a great taste in your mouth and great high in your head.
Consider these five key qualities
Consider five key qualities when pairing food and beer: bitterness, carbonation, heat, richness and sweetness. These qualities can complement or offset one another to create a harmonious pairing. For example, carbonation can cut through rich foods and act as a palate cleanser, while malty sweetness can cool the heat of a spicy curry.
Chill beer correctly
We tend to favour beer that is so chilled the bottle is almost white with frost. But if it is too cold, the flavours get dulled. The aroma molecules behave differently making the beer taste thinner than usual at best, tasteless at worst. On the extreme end, if the beer is too warm, like the ones we often find at the grocery shop, the aromas may escape before they can be fully appreciated. Moderation is key.
Pair beer to food of similar colour
This goes back to the first two points. Light beers tend to be lighter in colour and they go well with food that is light in colour. This same principle applies to food. It is usually the case that the darker the food, the more savoury it becomes and vise varsa. Take a look at the dish, and then chose a beer accordingly.
The idea is to try and ensure that the beer you choose to pair with a meal complements that meal and make its flavours come alive and not overshadow them or make them dissipate. Truth is, if you are going to have a beer with your meal, sticking to your favourite beer is not always a great idea.
