The Beer Stands Alone

I think the beer world has a bit of an inferiority complex, at least when it compares itself to wine.  When beer’s evangelists talk about placing beer on a pedestal, they always measure it by wine’s standards: wine’s got a sophisticated, refined image; wine’s price points can run a lot higher than beer’s; fine dining menus have long included wine lists, but beer lists are still pretty scarce at the fancy joints.  Beer’s made some real strides in each of these areas, but even as more people come to recognize that, hey, there’s some quality beer out there, beer’s still got a long road ahead of it to catch up.  Oenophiles will drop $40 or more on a good bottle of wine without flinching, but show people a $40 bottle of beer & watch their heads fall off. 

Beer’s got some real plusses that wine doesn’t, but I think its cheerleaders have to reflect on whether they want to measure beer by the same standards.  One of the biggest talking points when trying to polish beer’s comparison to wine is in pairing with food.  Wine has long been viewed as the companion to serious food (read: “not pub grub”), & a tactic in the campaign to elevate beer’s image has been to knock wine off this pedestal.  Sam Calagione wrote a book with sommelier Marnie Olds debating different wine & beer pairings with food.  Garrett Oliver has hosted tons of tastings to the same effect, basically: pairing food courses with both beer & wine & having people vote on their favorite accompaniment.  The party line tends to be that, because beer has at least four, & often more, ingredients to play with, its variation & complexity are head-&-shoulders above wine, which typically uses one ingredient (maybe two, in the case of fortified wines).  They point to holes in wine’s compatibility resume (cited from Garrett Oliver’s The Brewmaster’s Table): “eggs, cheeses, chilies, smoked meats, smoked fish, tomatoes, ginger, curry, chocolate, avocados, garlic, vinaigrette dressings, spinach, artichokes, asparagus, cumin, and dozens of other tasty things”.  That’s right, folks – according to the party line, wine is not the best companion to cheese (more on that later).

I’ve read The Brewmaster’s Table, He Said Beer, She Said Wine, Lucy Saunders’ The Best of American Beer & Food, Randy Mosher’s Tasting Beer, complete with taste & aroma charts.  Thanks to local podcasters Craft Beer Radio, I’ve listened to every salon from SAVOR, a high-end beer festival aimed at promoting beer with haute cuisine.  The idea of pairing beer with food excites me, & I can’t think of a better companion to good food than good beer. 

Let me reiterate: the idea of pairing beer with food excites me.  Sadly, I’ve often found the practice underwhelming.  Call me a plebe, or tell me I have a stunted palate, but I haven’t found the magic, the fireworks that are supposed to happen when good beer & good beer rendezvous on your taste buds.  To me, beer is complex - & delicious – enough to stand on its own, occupy its own course in the meal.  Typically when I go out to dinner, I’ll have one, maybe two beers before eating.  It allows me to appreciate the beer unaccompanied, untainted, & literally can serve as an appetizer, whetting my appetite enough before the food arrives.  I like tasting each without interference from the other, & I seldom feel that drinking beer with food elevates either one.  If I do end up eating & drinking at the same time, the best that can happen is that they don’t mess with each other, but remain no more than the sum of parts; the worst is that they muddle each other & get in the way.  So I’m sorry to say that I’m not a fan of beer/food pairing, just not on board.  Maybe I haven’t found the right combination yet, but there have been many swings & misses so far.

That said, we at The House realize that not everybody feels this way.  Up to now, The House has pretty much focused solely on the essentials – the beer - & left the cuisine to other restaurants.  BUT, we realize that people like good food to eat with good beer, & for a few weeks now our kitchen has been in full swing.  A real kitchen, serving real food – it boggles the mind, right?  And we’re encouraged that the feedback so far has been positive.  With that & Thanksgiving right around the corner, folks’ minds will be turning to what brews to pair with their harvest smorgasbord.  I’ll, of course, have some good stuff on hand during my family’s celebration, but whatever my guests decide to do, I’ll most likely prefer to sip my beer & just listen to it speak alone, without forcing it into conversation.