Wine-Not Consider Beer?

By Aubrey Laurence
for the Daily Camera

Next time you find yourself wandering liquor store aisles, aimlessly in search of beverages for yourself or your houseguests, consider beer instead of wine or champagne. And I don’t mean that yellow and fizzy, mass-marketed, macrobrewed, mainstream beer. I’m talking about beer with character, depth and flavor. Most mainstream beers account for more than 95 percent of the market, but they represent less than 5 percent of the 60 to 70 beer styles out there. In just a few decades, the United States has become one of the greatest and most diverse “beer countries” in the world, and Colorado happens to be one of the better “beer states.”

This is a very festive time of year, so you may find yourself hosting or attending a lot of parties with food and alcohol. Instead of going straight for the wine to complement your food, reach for a good beer, which is a very worthy partner to food. Beer and food is a match made in taste-bud heaven. There are a myriad of possible combinations out there, so giddyup.

While there are no steadfast rules in pairing beer with food, there are some general concepts to follow. One misconception is to pair spicy food with a light beer (which would make the beer taste like water) or mild food with a spicy beer (which would cause the spicy beer to overpower the subtle nuances of the food). In general, you want the intensity of the beer to match the intensity of the food. This allows you to enjoy the beer and the food, as well as the new flavors that are created when the two merge on your tongue. Spicy, rich and flavorful foods should be paired with richly malted and generously hopped beers, for example.

Having turkey (again) for New Year’s? A Märzenbier (also called Oktoberfest) or an amber ale would pair well. The sweet flavors in the turkey will meld with the sweet, roasty-toasty malts in the beer. MacTarnahan’s /Portland Brewing (Portland, Ore.) Uncle Otto’s Oktoberfest, Twisted Pine (Boulder) Amber Ale, Left Hand (Longmont) Sawtooth Ale or Rockies Brewing (Boulder) Fall Fest would all go great with a turkey dinner. To take it up a notch, try New Belgium (Fort Collins) Abbey Ale.

Having ham? I suggest a spicy, strong and flavorful Belgian strong ale, such as New Belgium Brewing Trippel or Avery Brewing Co. (Boulder) Salvation. The spicy and sharp flavors in these beers will complement the brown sugar, salt and spices in the ham nicely.

If you like chocolate and coffee, Rogue (Newport, Ore.) has what you’re looking for. Rogue Chocolate Stout exudes with coffee and chocolate aromas above a chewy sweetness, balanced by a little bitter-burnt edge. Rogue Mocha Porter is a little more mild, but it’s still roasty and toasty with rich and bitter-sweet cocoa notes. Either would go great with vanilla ice cream and/or chocolate desserts. Additionally, Mountain Sun Brewery (Boulder) makes an excellent Java Porter. Or maybe you’re looking for something that’s a little more intense in this department. Enter Dogfish Head Brewing (Delaware) with the powerful beer named Worldwide Stout. This heavybodied beer is loaded with intensely roasted flavors and dark fruit notes; and it would make a good apéritif by itself. But be warned, it has a well-masked alcohol nip. Depending on the year, it will have between 18 and 23 percent alcohol.

For dessert you have a lot of beerpairing options. Avery’s The Czar Imperial Stout is more than perfect by itself, but it would also marry well with some vanilla ice cream. Any chocolate-based dessert or cheesecake would pair wonderfully with a lambic framboise (raspberry) or a lambic kriek (cherry). New Belgium Transatlantique Kriek would be an excellent choice, for example. Transatlantique is a beer made from a lambic kriek (made with Polish cherries) that was shipped to New Belgium from Brouwerij Boon of Belgium, and then blended with an original New Belgium brew. The result is a crisp, vinous and effervescent beer that’s filled with oak, vanilla and cherry aromas. It’s a refreshingly tangy and tart beer with a sweet base. Drink it from a globe glass to funnel its wonderful aromas to your nose.

Is apple pie your thing? A sweet stout, like Left Hand Milk Stout, will do the trick. The darkly roasted malts – and the low bitterness – will melt into the baked, spiced-apple flavors in the pie and dance on your tongue. With pumpkin pie, try a brown ale with nutty, chocolaty and roasted flavors, which will blend well with the spices in the pumpkin pie. Avery Brewing Co. makes a great brown ale called Ellie’s Brown Ale.

While beer is great with food, it’s surely great by itself also. Here are a few suggestions to get you started:

For the wine drinker that has never given craft beer a chance, Belgium, Canada and many American microbreweries are calling your name. Chimay Bleu (Trappist ale from Belgium) offers a mouthwatering complexity, yet it is still approachable. Duchesse de Bourgogne (Belgium) is fruity, vinous and rather sweet, with some curious balsamic vinegar notes, as well as some mild hop flavors. Fantome Saison (Belgium) is the essence of “funky” and “earthy,” with “horseblanket” (brettanomyces) flavors that may not sound too appealing, but they’re good in this beer (although, in wine – as well as some beer styles – this “bretty,” phenolic flavor is considered an off-flavor), and Fantome goes great with “stinky,” aged cheeses. Unibroue 11 (Canada) has a wonderfully vinous complexity that is chocked full of rich malts, spices and fruits.

If champagne is your thing, try an effervescent and dry Belgian lambic gueuze (or geuze), such as Hanssens, Cantillon or Boon. Or, for a real champagne-like treat, splurge on a bottle of Deus Brut des Flandres ($30 a bottle at Liquor Mart).

If you’re feeling really adventurous, Stone Brewing Co. (San Marcos, San Diego County, Cali.) has your ticket. Stone is new to Colorado, but it’s no stranger to good beer lovers. For a complex roller coaster ride of malts and hops, pour yourself some Arrogant Bastard Ale or, if you’re really brave, some Double Bastard Ale (thick, rich, robust and bursting with chocolate and toffee malt flavors, accented by earthy and grassy hop flavors and aromas). Both of these beers keep your interest in a firm grip, leaving your tongue piqued with curiosity, sip after sip.

For a mind-blowing hop experience, quaff a Stone Ruination IPA, which takes hops to a new level, offering spicy nuances and eye-opening olfactory sensations. For an ocean of juicy hops complemented by thick and sugary malts, try Avery’s Hog Heaven Barleywine.

If sourness and tartness is your bag, New Belgium’s La Folie, a sweet, sour and zesty Flemish sour ale, is your answer (which is currently only sold at the brewery in Fort Collins).

So what should you crack open on New Year’s Eve? How about a beer with celebration in its name? Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. (Chico, Calif.) recently released one of its seasonals, Celebration Ale, which is a maltysweet and hoppy ale that is full of flavor, but not over the top, so it would make a good session beer. By the way, there are many other “winter” ales out there to try, many great ones from Colorado breweries, too.

This year, make your New Year’s resolution to try some new beers, explore some new styles and practice pairing beer with food. With any new beer you try, do your senses a favor and pour your beer into a clean glass.

Listen to the bubbles, look at the beer’s luminescent color and frothy head, smell the bouquet of aromas lifting away with the escaping carbon dioxide, feel the texture of the beer on your tongue, and taste the synergy of yeast, malts and hops. The smile on your face is a reflection of your sixth sense. Cheers!

For more information on beer and food, check out the “The Brewmaster’s Table” by Garrett Oliver. To read reviews on different featured beers, visit www.BoulderatNight.com and click on Eye of the Beerholder. To see more than 257,000 amateur ratings of more than 26,000 different beers, visit www.ratebeer.com.