Pairing craft beer with food marks start of new culinary adventure

Wine has a long history in food and beverage pairing, while for craft beer, it's still a very new thing. The general rules of pairing beer with food is the four Cs - complement, contrast, cut and create, according to Jimmy Selent, the beer curation manager of Great Leap Brewing in Beijing.

On March 1, a beer and food pairing dinner themed "the chef and the brewer" was held in Sifang Sanchuan at Mercedes Me in Beijing, together with Great Leap Brewing, during which Selent played with all four rules to let his diners have a drinking feast on their plates.

"In fact, in some ways, for someone without an educated palate, I would say beer has more flavors than wine to offer," says Selent.

"According to the Beer Judge Certification Program, there are over 130 registered styles of beer, and each style could spark tons of different ideas."

Selent takes India pale ale as an example, which is a hoppy beer style.

"American IPA uses American hops which are fruity while the old world IPA uses hops from Germany and England which are more piney, and now there are even milkshake IPAs."

The dinner starts with an assorted appetizer - poached shrimp with leek peppercorn sauce, squid roll with vegetable and marinated walnuts with a homemade wasabi sauce.

Selent gives his diners two choices to pair with the appetizer - for people who want to take a bit of the sweet route, they can choose the Honey Ma Gold which is made with Sichuan pepper and honey as it's more floral than spicy, as he thinks Sichuan pepper gives zest to the beer. And for those who want a spicy kick, they can go for the Little General.

"Hoppy beer accentuates the spicy characteristics of a dish," says the 27-year-old from the United States.

Selent applies the same rule to the lamb dish which is fried lamb with cumin and chili sauce. He pairs it with Blood Orange Su Pale Ale to highlight the spiciness, and he enjoys watching people fan themselves with their hands to relieve the spiciness in their mouths.

The cut rule in the four Cs is used on the next dish, beef ribs in black pepper sauce, as Selent pairs it with KoelBrett Apricot to lower the richness of the rib fat and clean the palate.

The KoelBrett Apricot is a mixed-fermentation beer featuring multiple wild yeast strains and bacteria as well as a generous addition of apricots. With a lovely amber color, the beer emits strong funky and barnyard-like aromas followed by a pleasantly tart and smooth finish with 6 percent ABV.

"After the lamb, you probably still feel quite spicy, and after a couple of sips of the beer, the spicy feeling starts to go away," says Selent. "Then you are ready for the remaining dishes and your mouth is fully refreshed."

The tofu soup with vegetable is a challenge as soup is not usually paired with any drinks.

So Selent solves the puzzle by pairing it with Adulating Buddha Wheat which is a light flavored, easy drinking beer which is quite fragrant thanks to the use of American hops.

"I did not think the beer was going to take anything away from the niceness of the soup, but it would just be a sort of a nice little complement to go along - a nice light beer with a light soup to get started," says Selent. "And maybe those fruit flavors of the beer would come out a little bit as you're eating the soup."

To pair the mushroom fried rice, Selent decides to go creative by choosing the Three Door Triple, which is a Belgian triple that Great Leap Brewing makes every year for their anniversary on Oct 10.

"The beer is around 9 and 10 percent ABV, and it's sweet, fruity and also slightly spicy," says Selent, who thinks it complements the fried rice which includes sweet Sichuan sausage.

As for the dessert platter, the mango sago cream and the swan-shaped sweet pastry, Selent uses a special beer to finish the dinner - Jackie O's/GLB Distant Corners, which is brewed with white rice, black oolong tea and Sichuan peppercorn and fermented in oak barrels.

He thinks the beer has a lot different flavors which is a match for the tropical fruit-based dessert.

The Chinese used to drink the same beer through a whole meal, or sometimes change to baijiu (white spirit), however Tracy Wang, the brand manager of Great Leap Brewing who co-organized the pairing dinner thinks there is a potential to enjoy a variety of beers, even craft beer during dinner.

"This is an opportunity to get drunk and have fun with your friends in a different way, where you're challenging your palette rather than just simply filling your stomach," says Wang.

(China Daily 03/08/2019 page16)