Does craft beer pair well with fine dining?

Goose Island did something similar to this a few years ago in chicago.

http://starchefs.com/cook/feature/goose-island-brewery

i was able to try a few of these at GI's belgianfest but can't remember which one's I got

EDIT: And my answer to OP is YES!

 

I cook professionally, and I think beer is very versatile as an accompaniment. I do however, think that cooking with it gets stretched a little too far and is often executed poorly. You'll never see a menu where every dish is prepared with wine, but you'll see that with beer. For example, I don't think something like a Saison is big enough to stand up in anything other than maybe a poach, much the same way it's ill advised to use a Sauvoign Blanc to cook with. You wouldn't cook with a blush wine, but you'll see something like a Lambic used in dishes. It doesn't make sense to me from a technical standpoint to cook with beer just to say, "Look, there's lager in this sauce!". Stouts/porters for a stew/chili or a dessert sauce, ipa for deglazing a curry, lager for a mexican dish, but once people start to get a little too cute the results are more often quite poor.

 

@matttauszik - I'm having a huge tasting / holiday party at my house this Saturday, and have many cheeses, foods, etc. paired with upwards of 40 different beers representing about 25 different styles. I'm planning on making Bratwurst to pair with the German beers. There's a lot of relatively simple recipes that call for carmelizing onions in butter and beer, or adding beer at the end (after carmelizing) to absorb into the onions. Would you have any type of beer that you would recommend for such a dish, or just skip the beer completely? I'll be grilling the brats, and adding them to the onion mixture after grilling. German beers I'll have (but can add any if you recommend) are Weihenstephaner Hefe, Weihenstephaner Original, and Ayinger Weizenbock.

Thanks!

 

If you have never been to a brewers dinner you need to go to one to answer your own question, went to one at Fullsail and it was one of the best dinning experiences as far as food and beer pairing go.

 

If you are interested in this topic, check out the Brewers Table at Surly Brewing Company. www.surlybrewing.com The entire concept is bringing the Pint to the Plate. Each dish on our menu is paired with one of our unique beers, there is also a 5 course tasting menu with beer pairings.

 

It can. It often doesn't.

 

I believe that it does. And that's one of the things I admire about Fullsteam. When they experiment with a new brew, they often like to pair it with something. They had Chombers One a few years back that I paired with a grilled brat and it went perfectly. Now granted, 90% of beers go well with brats but the sage and lemon taste in this beer was really succulent & perfect for me.

 

Beer can pair well with any kind of food as long as its the appropriate style for the food its being paired with, they need to compliment each other without one overpowering the other.

 

Absolutely. The fact that there are way more beer styles than wine styles helps, as theres pretty much a beer somewhere that pairs well with just about any dish.

 

I don't believe this is true. There are over 1,000 varietals of wine grapes out there. There's a wine bar not far from my house that the wife and I frequent, and every time I go there is a grape I've never heard of.

That's not to say I don't agree with the other half of your statement, as I do love pairing beer with food, and agree there is almost always a beer that will work with whatever dish I am eating.

 

Back when I worked at ABC (huge liquor/beer/wine store here in FL), we had to take ongoing training classes about beer & wine, and this one one of the things we were taught...I dont have numbers, and havent attempted to look it up, but its one of the things that stuck with me...who knows though, maybe the guy teaching that class was full of crap. lol