Now I'm not a big beer food pairing snob, but I can appreciate certain styles of beers pairing better with certain styles of foods than others. The one meal that still stumps me when it comes to drinking a beer with it is pasta and other similar Italian dishes (pastas, Italian meats, seafoods, etc.) Normally, I just reach for a bottle of cabernet. Can anyone recommend a good beer pairing with these style dishes? Is there one?
Check the Beer and Food forum. I think you may find some recommendations there. This thread has some suggestions: http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/pasta-beer-pairings.8662/
Creamy sauces - IPAS & non-fruited sour ales Red sauces - stouts but really, wine pairings with pasta reign supreme, as much as I usually prefer to drink beer. Same
I'm not sure why, but I've often found I enjoy saisons with pasta, especially if it's a hoppy one with white sauces, and a nice dry IPA with a spicy red sauce.
I agree with suggestion about the other forum. You will get more specific information there. If you want my two cents, I made some linguine with a chipotle red sauce recipe that paired magnificently with a couple of prima pils a few days ago.
I'm half Italian, and I make a mean linguini with red clam fra diavlo. I've never thought of it as a beer kinda meal, I'm more an Old Vine Zin, but a hoppy Ipa would be my guess.
Thanks, fairly new to posting here. Should have looked for my beer/food question in the beer/food section... I'm going to have to just try pairings for myself. Just ate stuffed shells with meatballs in a mellow and somewhat sweet red sauce. I'm drinking a blended red and really can't picture what beer I could replace it with.
I don't eat much pasta, but with Pizza my preference is for Oktoberfest, when available, or Munich Helles Lagers. Something about that combination clicks just right for me.
For me its just too filling to drink a beer with pasta. However there are quite a few Italian beers brewed that use different techniques and ingredients but to find them well that's a different story. For instance you could try Loverbeer Beerbera 2012 American Wild Ale brewed with Barbara grapes. I just recently ate at Birreria in NYC Batales place. Alot of Italian beers on the menu. Plus they brew their own cask ales on the premises. Pretty interesting and the beer goes better with food due to its temp and low carbonation. They had a thyme Pale Ale that was pretty good with food and also, believe it or not an IPA brewed with pasta! Could you tell? Not really. But they did go better with food. Not something I would seek out on a regular basis though. Italians think food with beverage first in many cases as due the French and most of Europe. JMHO...
Pasta with any kind of red sauce is the most difficult dish for me to pair with beer. I usually just go for the wine and save the beer for another time.
