This quick and easy guide will have you pairing food and beer like a pro in no time at all.

There’s been a lot of discussion in recent years about pairing food and beer, and for good reason. Beer can be brewed with a vast range of flavors, and with the continuing explosion of new craft brews and breweries, it’s easier than ever to find the perfect beer to match your meal. This easy guide to pairing food with beer provides a few simple matchmaking tips to help you navigate your way through the myriad choices at your favorite beer store, pub, or restaurant to create the perfect pair, whatever the occasion.

1. Personality Profile (Avoid blind dates; know your partner)

When pairing beer with food, it’s important to consider not only what you are eating, but how it’s prepared. How a dish is seasoned and cooked is just as important as what is being cooked. Dishes that are lighter in flavor and more minimally prepared will, in general, pair better with a more delicately flavored beer. Your favorite brew might be a bold west coast IPA, but its aggressive hop bitterness and malt undertones would completely overshadow the subtle flavors of a classic shrimp cocktail or a California roll. A white beer, however, brewed with coriander and orange peel, or a gose, which is also brewed with coriander as well as sea salt, would both complement theses foods and not fight for attention on your palate. The same consideration also applies to big, rich foods.

Remember your favorite IPA? Reach for it when you’re in the mood for a bacon cheeseburger or a pulled pork sandwich and see how the beer’s bold profile works to enhance your dining experience. An IPA’s bitterness will cut through the fat and salt while the rich maltiness provides the much need balance. A lighter beer such as an American-style wheat beer would be completely lost to your senses.

2. Pairing Is A Love Affair, Not A Wrestling Match

It’s true that opposites attract, but they need to work together in order for the marriage to last. Picking the perfect beer to partner with your meal is about finding compatible flavors. Sometimes those flavors are complementary, and sometimes they are contrasting. Consider the classic cobb salad, a culinary match-up of flavors both delicate and bold that has withstood the test of time. Amber ale would be a nice partner here, as its caramel notes provide the perfect foil to the pungent blue cheese and salty bacon. These same caramel notes will complement the grilled chicken breast, and amber ale’s floral hop finish and light bitterness will gently prepare your palate for the next bite. If you’re looking to spice things up a little, consider pairing a saison with this salad.

A saison’s nuances of honey and lemon peel contrast nicely with the blue cheese and bacon, while its peppery yeast, and dry finish balance the salad’s red wine vinaigrette. Amber ale and saison are two vastly different beers on every level, yet both have characteristics that make them a successful pairing with this salad.

3. Dessert plus Beer Equals Sweet Rewards

Yes, pairing beer with dessert is a thing. The sweet ending to your meal deserves some beer love too. Many people don’t think of beer as a beverage to enjoy with dessert. Their go-to pairing is still coffee or wine, but beer is incredibly versatile, and you can really “wow” your guests (and maybe even impress yourself if you’re dining out) by pairing even the simplest desserts with easy-to-find brews to create a memorable flavor combination. The richness of the dessert, along with its sweetness and its main flavor profiles are the key to finding the right beer to accompany it.

The yeast and hops used in different beer styles often impart fruity and spicy notes that can marry wonderfully with sweet desserts. Belgian-style tripels have notes of banana, honey, and allspice, and pair well with sweet-tart desserts like apple pie, adding another layer of fruit and spice to your taste buds. If you prefer your pie with a scoop of French vanilla ice cream, then Imperial stout is the way to go. Its dark roasted malt flavors often suggest strong coffee, which, along with its higher level of alcohol and long, bitter finish, provide nice contrasts to the pie’s sweetness and cut through the ice cream’s fat. Salted caramel brownies are elevated to a whole new level when enjoyed alongside an Imperial IPA. The salt will mitigate some of the hop bitterness of the beer, allowing the malt body and tropical hop flavors to highlight the brownie’s gooey goodness. Fruits and berries are delightful with fruit lambics and sour beers, and even a basic yellow layer cake becomes an elegant dessert when enjoyed with a bourbon-barrel-aged beer, which itself has complex layers of vanilla and dark sugar.

We hope you find this simple guide to food and beer pairing helpful. Just remember, food really does love beer. So, whatever food you’re eating, there’s a beer that is its soulmate!

Looking for more articles like this? Be sure to check out our Pairing collection. If you try any of our recommended pairings, show us! Snap a photo and share it with us on social media using the hashtag #foodlovesbeer and tag us @foodlovesbeer.

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