Hey all, I am leading a craft beer education/food pairing class at our Taphouse soon, and I am in search of ideas and opinions. The plan is to do it twice a month, each class 1.5-2hrs long, covering 4 beers, 1 style...so IPA's, Stouts etc... Obviously I will start with the history of craft beer and the style, but I was wondering if any of you had an opinions on what I should really talk about etc...the food pairing will be enough to fill you up but will be mostly small plates for each beer. The beer pours will be 8oz pours and there will be bar/snack style food at each table...I am still unsure of the entry price, if you guys had any idea of a good price for this...they will be getting a full meal and 2 full beers altogether after the class is finished...plus the 2 hour education. Our 1st class will be IPA's obviously..and I was going to do IPA's/DIPA's...are there any suggestions like maybe doing 2 specific IPA styles.. (west coast) then 2 more (East) or floral vs maltier etc... basically open to any opinions/ideas/price range and how it should be led...we are planning on advertising on Facebook and at the bar etc...any ideas? Thanks guys.
I have never been one to actually drink my craft beer with my food, I'm pretty much a before or after kinda guy, not a during. However I have come across a couple of combos where it worked out AMAZINGLY! And i'm not sure if the style of beer with work as a "one size fits all" kind of way, I'm pretty sure it has to be the exact beer I had due to the body and carbonation in contributed to the meal and all..anyways, 1.) Stones IPA with pan fried rock fish with dungeness crab with fries on the side. The crisp clean feel to the beer just complimented the seafood taste so so well! I'll never forget going "wow this beer is tasting so much better because of the food and vise a versa. 2.) Ordered a bloody mary for a late lunch at a diner and wasnt digging it so I ordered a ninkasi oatmeal stout instead which went too perfect with a good BLT. It gave off the kind of coffee, chewy thing and mixed with the saltiness of the bacon extremely well. 3.) Breakside's Pilsner with a big ole burger. Nuff said. Hope these are some good ideas to try!
Why would you "obviously" start with IPA/DIPAs? Frankly, I think IPAs are a terrible pairing with food. With their high IBUs, IPAs are renowned palate-wreckers. If you are serious about beer and food pairings, I would recommend that you not start with IPAs. If you are determined to start with an IPA, you would need to pair them with rich or fatty foods --- something that can stand up to the bitterness of an IPA.
I'm with BuckeyeOne on this, and I guess I'm a bit puzzled by what the OP is trying to do here. I've been to a few food and beer pairings in the past, but the focal point was always more on the food. Typically, there was a different beer for each course, with the organizer trying to show what sort of beer goes with what type of food (and why). In the case of a single style (IPA, DIPA, porter, ESB, etc.), I would say that it would almost be more interesting to try each IPA/DIPA with the same, particular dish, to see what beer goes better with that dish. Maybe it's just a coincidence, but none of the beer dinners I attended had an IPA pairing. IMHO, that's because (as Buckeyeone noted) IPA's and DIPA's generally don't pair all that well with food. That doesn't mean I don't normally eat something with my glass of blue dot or hop venom, but it typically tends to be things like hot wings (with lots of blue cheese), pizza or nachos. I can't even imagine drinking an IPA/DIPA with a salad (unless it was a rich cobb salad), a fish dish or some sort of sweet dessert. Maybe I'm missing something here (which would be typical), but this almost sounds more like an introductory to craft beer class, where the food is incidental. At least that's the impression I get after reading over the OP's comments about presenting different style IPA's/DIPA's, or ones from different parts of the country. That part of the class sounds as if it would be pretty interesting... the food part, not so much.
^^ I found the stone IPA to work great because it had that lighter crisper straw-hay body thing going on with a good kinda sweet hop balanced finish to where it just cleaned your mouth but still went well with the fat from the pan that was still on the fish and the kind of sweet like taste to dungeness crab. I highly recommend! But yes on the hole I think IPAs need your whole mouths focus and not tried to be tied into other food flavors
It sounds like you're trying to smash together two separate and different concepts: beer education and food/beer pairing. I don't think this is a good idea for many reasons. It's harder to isolate flavors and compare one beer to another if you're eating food in between (unless it's something like crackers or a neutral flavor). You also tend to simply drink the beer when you're eating, rather than taste it. If you want to build up knowledge and cover beer from an education perspective, leave off the food. Or serve it at the end of the class. I'm also not sure why you would start with an IPA/DIPA class. These are intensely flavorful and aromatic beers - hardly a place to start a learning experience. I would start with pilsner or lager and learn some basics about the tasting process. Maybe use some additives to illustrate the different types of tastes (bitter, sweet, etc). Then perhaps a class on pales or IPAs. Then stouts or porters. Maybe finish with something more complex, like a Belgian quad or perhaps a wild ale. Think about building knowledge through the series, rather than trying to impart it all at once. Perhaps run a couple week series where in each class, you specialize in a style and build towards having a final class that is a food pairing of each style you learned about with an appropriate food.
