1. Pairing and Tasting
Beer and Food Pairing

2. The Building Blocks of Pairing
Great food and beer pairing creates a balance between the components of a dish and the characteristics of a beer. As much as it seems complex, it’s actually pretty easy to make great pairings.
Basic Taste Components in Food:
Fat
Spiciness
Salt
Acid
Sweet
Bitter

3. The Building Blocks of Pairing
Consider the Intensity of the Food, Consider the Intensity of the Beer.
Is the Food light or bold?
Is the Beer light or bold?
Choose a basic taste strategy (e.g. sweet + salty, fat + acid, sweet + sour, etc)
Consider pairings based off of Complementary Pairing or Congruent Pairing.
The Building Blocks of Pairing

4. The Building Blocks of Pairing
Mouthfeel: Literally, how a food or beverage feels in your mouth and throat.
There is a very large array of mouthfeel characteristics:
Smooth
Harsh
Full
Heavy
Acidic
Velvety
Chalky
Metallic
The Building Blocks of Pairing
Mouthfeel

5. How Does Food and Beer Interact?
There are several ways food and beer interact when paired correctly.
Bridge: Also referred to flavor hooks or echos, where beer and food meet via similar flavors.
Example:
Pairing fettuccine alfredo sprinkled with rosemary and sage with an American IPA with hints of pine and spruce.
The flavors are not exact, but they find and bridge to each other because the flavors are similar.
Bridge

6. How Does Food and Beer Interact?
Flavor Groups: Similar flavors found in both beer and food. Think of them as individual elements that are part of the whole.
Examples:
Smoked: bacon, hickory, maple barbecue, wood fire
Earthy Root Vegetables: beet, carrot, potato, yam
Tropical Fruit: guava, passion fruit, mango, papaya
Stone Fruit: peach, nectarine, apricot
Spicy: ginger, mustard, horseradish, clove, cinnamon
Pepper Spice: jalapeno, habanero, serrano
How Does Food and Beer Interact?
Flavor Groups

7. How Does Food and Beer Interact?
Congruent: When pairing beer and food that share the same flavor elements, they compliment each other.
These pairings generally strengthen and enhance each other
Example:
Pairing an American IPA with tropical notes to compliment pineapple salsa on top of a grilled chicken breast.
How Does Food and Beer Interact?
Congruent

8. How Does Food and Beer Interact?
Complimentary: When food and beer have opposing flavor attributes, they contrast.
Compliments can either enhance or suppress each other's intensities.
Compliments are more tied to basic taste elements and are not as prevalent in aromatic elements.
How Does Food and Beer Interact?
Complimentary

9. Complimentary Continued...
Example 1: The bitterness of an IPA complimenting with the sweetness of cheesecake.
The elements (bitterness and sweetness) lessen each other allowing the individual flavors to shine through much brighter.
Example 2: Pairing the same bitter IPA with a hot, spicy dish. The bitter and spice qualities are enhanced.
Complimentary Continued...

10. How Does Food and Beer Interact?
Emphasize or Enhance: When food and beer elements combine to make each part more strongly perceived than it is on it’s own.
Salty foods accentuate and bring out residual sweetness in beer, with the combined pairing resulting in emphasized flavor overall.
Example:
A Belgian Wit, which is traditionally not a sweet style, can taste sweeter when paired with something like salted eggs.
How Does Food and Beer Interact?
Emphasize

11. Pairing Examples

12. How We Perceive

13. Create Your Own Tasting Routine
Traditional pairing advice was often based on the “drink this with that” theory. It’s a very safe system but often leads to pairings that are things you typically like and are predictable.
The key to pairing and to learning how to taste is eating and drinking things you might think you don’t like.
It’s best to let these biases go when tasting. You will find things you had no idea you actually enjoy.

14. Create Your Own Tasting Routine
We Are All Different
Science has found that everyone’s taste receptors are sensitive to different chemical combinations. There is not a one-size-fits-all to tasting or pairing methodology. It’s all personal.
Pairing and perception are all very personal.
Most of the time there is NO WRONG ANSWER!

15. Create Your Own Tasting Routine
It’s Okay To Break Tradition
Tradition has its place, especially in the world of beer and culinary.
New beer types and food recipes are being invented everyday. Tasting and pairing sometimes needs to go beyond what is considered traditional.

16. Tasting Beer

17. Pairing Notes

18. Set Yourself Up For Success
When tasting a flight of beer, make sure to have exactly what you need on hand:
Clean glasses
Water
Pen and paper (or a tasting map)
Plain crackers- palate cleansing
Set Yourself Up For Success
Materials

19. Set Yourself Up For Success
Avoid strong smelling hand lotions, perfume, etc.
This will affect your tasting experience.
Remember, 80% of what we taste is based on our aroma senses.

20. Set Yourself Up For Success
The temperature of the beer will also affect your tasting experience.
Not all beer styles are created equal, yet most are served directly out of a 38F refrigerator.
This is usually okay for light beer and lagers
Typically a cold beer will have more muted aromas and flavors.
Darker beers and those above 8% ABV should sit at room temperature for at least 10 minutes prior to drinking.

21. Quite Simply, How To Taste!
Pour and examine
Color
Collar foam or head of the beer
Cloudy or clear?
Take notes
Smell
Swirl the beer gently to release aromas
Are the aromatics layered and complex? Simple? Subtle?

22. Quite Simply, How To Taste!
Take a sip
Sip just enough to coat your tongue, this will awaken your palate. Take a second sip and pay close attention to the order of elements as they appear
As you swallow a sip, exhale through your nose. This will emphasize certain elements that may not have been detected at first.
Evaluate the body and mouthfeel:
Sticky
Smooth
Sharp
Astringent
Thick
Thin

23. Quite Simply, How To Taste!
Evaluate the Intensity of Elements
Smell and taste the beer again, but this time think about the intensity of each element from your notes.
This can be done with a numbered scale or simply with words.
In class we will be using a tasting sheet to evaluate both the beer and the food pairing

24. DARE. RISK. DREAM.
Jack Joyce