In spare moments when I’m not swamped with work or trying to become a world champion of napping, I find it a fun challenge to consider beer and food pairings. There are books, magazines, and even classes dedicated to wine and food pairings, but beer often gets the short end of the bottle.
Beer has so many possibilities. There are sweet beers, sour beers, beers that taste like chocolate, beers that are low in alcohol, and beers that hit you over the head with alcohol. Beer is also not under the limitations that wine has when it comes to salt and spice.
Additionally, beer is the ideal match for summer’s favourite cuisine—barbecue foods.
To find the best matches for traditional grilled fare, I put on my beer thinking cap and got grilling.
The first thing on the menu—sausage. The beer that goes best with sausage depends a lot on how spicy the sausage is and the toppings you put on it. As a general rule, the more mild the sausage and toppings the more mild the beer can be. My suggestions would be either a Hopfen Weisse or a ginger beer.
A Hopfen Weisse is like if a wheat beer and an IPA decided to get together in the same keg, mixing the best qualities of both to make one tasty baby. This beer is crisp, with hints of citrus—perfect for hot summer days. Schneider Weisse does an excellent Hopfen Weisse, but be wary. Despite its light taste, the alcohol content is eight per cent.
As for ginger beer, try Revenge of the Ginger by Double Trouble, which is like a drier, finer version of the non-alcoholic Canada Dry. If you like things on the spicy side, an IPA is your best friend when it comes to having a brew with your food. The bitterness in IPAs is able to cut through the spice, while not being overpowered by it like most beers.
So if your sausage is on the hot side or you like tons of hot peppers, an IPA is your best bet. My personal favourite is Muskoka’s Mad Tom IPA, which is citrusy smooth with that classic IPA bitterness.
For those adventurous grillers out there, Mad Tom can also be used for beer can chicken. The concept is quite simple: shove a can of beer up a chicken’s bum, cook on the barbecue and voila! The result is a juicy and flavourful bird.
The first step is to drink half the can of beer (already an awesome recipe) since only half of the can is needed. The next step is to place the can up the chicken’s behind. You can buy a special holder at most kitchen stores in order to help hold the can in place. Once this is done, the chicken is placed on the barbecue on medium-high heat for roughly one hour to an hour and 15, or until the juices run clear.
Now that summer weather has actually arrived, these suggestions will go perfectly with a nice patio. Happy grilling and beer drinking, everyone!
