Beer With a Meal

tempnam

A thread over in AH with everyone arguing over food snobbery & Michelin starred restaurants got me thinking...

I'm getting married soon, and we have hired Locks Brasserie for lunch for our guests.

They don't serve beer, but have said that they can order beer in for us, or we can arrange our own for the day.

I'm looking for a couple of ideas for beers that will go well with the meal.

A sample menu will be along the lines of:

Starter
White Onion Veloute Smoked Eel, Cheddar Croutons, Worchestershire Sauce
Goat’s Cheese Parfait Burnt Onion, Asparagus, Radish, Cabernet Sauvignon Vinegar
Home Smoked Salmon Pickled Cucumber, Creme Fraiche, Rye Croutons

Main Course
Chicken Sausage & Sage Dumpling, Celery, Bread Sauce
Hake Coconut Curry, Bok Choi, Samphire, Oyster Mushrooms
Lamb Shoulder Braised Vegetables, Pearl Barley, Wild Garlic Gremolata

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

drumswan

Plenty of beer and food matching information on the interwebs.

http://beer.indiafanclub.com/?p=500

irish_goat

A lot of different flavours in that menu so you'd really need a selection of beers to match all of them but I think a decent pale ale would be a good start, something like O'Hara's or Kinsale Pale Ale would go well with the goats cheese, the salmon and the curry anyway. For the lamb I'd get something a bit darker and maltier, maybe Clotworthy Dobbin or Copper Coast.

If you really want to spoil yourself I'd get a nice Belgian Trappist for the lamb, maybe a Rochefort 10 or Westy 12 (if you have it), though obviously you might not want to shell out enough to get everyone one of those.

drumswan

irish_goat wrote: »

If you really want to spoil yourself I'd get a nice Belgian Trappist for the lamb, maybe a Rochefort 10 or Westy 12 (if you have it), though obviously you might not want to shell out enough to get everyone one of those.

The La Trappe stuff is quite reasonable, the Dubbel is only €7 for a 750ml bottle in Drinkstore.

Seaneh

tempnam wrote: »

A thread over in AH with everyone arguing over food snobbery & Michelin starred restaurants got me thinking...

I'm getting married soon, and we have hired Locks Brasserie for lunch for our guests.

They don't serve beer, but have said that they can order beer in for us, or we can arrange our own for the day.

I'm looking for a couple of ideas for beers that will go well with the meal.

A sample menu will be along the lines of:

Starter
1: White Onion Veloute Smoked Eel, Cheddar Croutons, Worchestershire Sauce
2: Goat’s Cheese Parfait Burnt Onion, Asparagus, Radish, Cabernet Sauvignon Vinegar
3: Home Smoked Salmon Pickled Cucumber, Creme Fraiche, Rye Croutons

Main Course
4: Chicken Sausage & Sage Dumpling, Celery, Bread Sauce
5: Hake Coconut Curry, Bok Choi, Samphire, Oyster Mushrooms
6: Lamb Shoulder Braised Vegetables, Pearl Barley, Wild Garlic Gremolata

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

1 and 3: There *might* be a temptation to try and pair these dishes with something like a German Rauchbier, but I think that would completely overpower them and I'd recommend either something clean and light like a good pilsner or something a bit more adventurous like a Belgian saison

2: Something with a good malt backbone and a decent level of floral hopping like Brewdog's 5AM Saint could work well here.

4: This could pair very well with a lot of beers, something like Comeragh Challenger might be perfect for this dish though, the malts will lift the sage and caramelization of the chicken and the spiciness of the hops will help cut through the bread sauce.

5: A nice fruity pale ale or ipa like Thornbridge's Kipling or Tuatara's APA would contrast very well with the spiciness and coconut flavours of the curry, the mango and passion fruit notes from the kiwi hops would go well with the exotic coconut and lime notes in the curry.

6: A good Irish Red Ale like O'Hara's Red or a scotish ale like Williams Brothers 80 Shilling could work very well here, or you could go all out and serve with a good IPA or DIPA as the lamb has a big enough flavour to hold up against a beast of a beer like Galway Bay's Of Foam and Fury or a big American IPA like Odell IPA, the malt in the beer will go nicely with the sweetness of the braised veggies too.


Those are just quick thoughts from a quick glance at the menu, but without having tasted the dishes I couldn't be sure they would all work as well as I might imagine.

Seaneh

drumswan wrote: »

The La Trappe stuff is quite reasonable, the Dubbel is only €7 for a 750ml bottle in Drinkstore.

only €6.50 each if you buy 6 of them.

The Quad (10% abv) is only €8 per bottle if you buy in lots of 6 too.

That said, I am almost certain Drinkstore would do deals for larger bulk orders, or there is always the option of buying some beers at wholesale prices from the likes of Fegans Food Services who stock Trouble, Eight Degrees, Kinegar, and a few other Irish ranges.