Putting together a food menu for a beer party can be tricky, and we don't mean stocking up on fries, crisps and pickles. As I'd said in my previous column, artisanal beer is now a valid and much sought-after component in haute cuisine.
The thing to remember is that ever beer has a unique flavour profile of its own. Once you get a hold of these profiles, it becomes easier to pair and match food to go with those brewskies.
As I'd explained earlier, engineering a craft beer is actually quite simple – once you've got a hang of the tricky, somewhat complicated technicalities, that is. The fun really does begin with the flavours!
Have a taste, bud!
Quite simply, the “flavour profile” of a beer involves the aspects of taste, aroma, mouthfeel and aftertaste. Combining the individual flavour contributions of each beer ingredient leads to a final, overall flavour profile, which can then be considered for food pairings.
Technically, the combined effects of taste and aroma are known as flavour. For instance, sweet, sour, salty, bitter, umami and other tastes come from our taste buds, as we chew.
At the same time, breath carries stimulating aroma molecules, and as we sense the physical presence of food in our mouth, the brain attributes the olfactory arousal to that particular dish or food.
The four classic tastes in food apply to beers as well: that is, sweet, sour, salty and bitter. A fifth – umami, has now become quite well recognised. Umami is essentially Japanese for “deliciousness”, a savoury flavour associated with meats and other proteins. There is also evidence of the existence of receptors for a sixth basic taste: fat. All this apart, there are also factors of alcohol content, bitterness, colour and carbonation.
Bitter safe than sorry
For party hosts, what that means is a careful selection of food that complements the drink - either by cutting out the bitterness, adding to the spice element, or playing up the sweet and sour contrast. In other words, you'd be well-advised to think twice about those deep-fried snacks, onion-garlic curries, masala-loaded kebabs and especially, the yogurt and mint dips on the side.
While all of that might be completely acceptable with regular off-the-rack brews, the flavour profiles can be quite different with new artisanal and craft beer creations. Carbonation, basically the amount of CO2 dissolved in beer, also influences the mouthfeel of a brew, and plays a vital role in balancing malt sweetness in some beers. For example, a stout would contain about 3g of CO2, while a lager would be closer to 5g. Some wheat beers even go up to 8g! (Now you can qualify those bellyful belches.)
I'd love to get a little more in-depth and tell you more about how aroma works – in the traditional way of smelling, or the “orthonasal” way of breathing in through your nose; or in the “retronasal” way, of breathing out as you chew. At the risk of having you tearing at your hair, however, let's just say we all want our beers and food to smell and taste good - together. Next time, we go gourmet on craft beer. Until then, enjoy your drink responsibly.
George Jacob is the Founder and Partner of the brewing consultancy, The Beer Chronicles.
Email george@thebeerchronicles
Twitter @beer_chronicles