Drinking beer is a favorite pastime, not only for the variety of different types of beer you can choose from and the relaxing feeling a good glass of ale can bring, but also for the overall experience of savoring an icy cold mug of your favorite brew. If you'd like to expand your knowledge of beer and experiment with beer and food pairings, it's important to understand the various types of beer.
All beer is made from four basic ingredients: hops, malted barley, yeast and water. Most beers have other botanicals-spices, fruit or vegetables-added to the basic beer recipe.
Know Your Types of Beer
There are two main types of beer: lager beer and ale beer, referred to as lagers and ales. There is a third rather obscure type of beer, called a Lambic, which is made only in Belgium, and is not as popular as lagers or ales.
Beers are divided into these two categories by the kinds of yeast used during their creation and by the temperatures used to ferment the two different kinds of beer. Lagers use a yeast that best ferments at cool temperatures, and ales use a yeast that best ferments at warmer temperatures.
Types of Lagers
Pale Lager
Pale lagers have a light color and are light-bodied. They are highly carbonated and have a light taste. Examples of pale lager beer are Coors and Budweiser.
Pilsner
A pilsner beer has a pale color like a pale lager, but is more bitter in taste. The flavors of pilsners are more distinctive than pale lagers.
Light Lager
There are two different types of light lager beers. American light lagers use less hops and barley in order to create low calorie beers. European light lagers are lagers that are pale in color and light in taste.
Dark Lager
Dark lager beers are made with roasted hops and barley. This means they have much richer flavors and are dark in color. They are full-bodied and flavorful.
Types of Ales
Brown Ale
Brown ale beer is red to copper in color and is rather mild in flavor.
Porter
Porter beer is darker in color and is full-bodied, with the barley flavors dominating over the mild hop flavors. They are richly flavored. Some porters even taste like chocolate.
Stout
Stout beer is very similar to a porter. Stout beer is the darkest and thickest of the beers. The strong barley and hops flavors prevail in this dark beer.
What Are Microbrews?
Microbrews are beers that are brewed in small, independent breweries. They often have unique properties to the beers because of the use of local ingredients. Microbreweries often brew beer in much smaller batches, using specialty ingredients.
Draft Beer Vs. Bottled Beer
Draft (also known as draught or tap) beer is served in a frosty beer mug with a full head of foam. Bottled beer will not form as full a head of foam as beer straight from the tap. This is why many beer drinkers prefer draft beer to bottled beer, even if the beer offered on tap is not a favorite beer.
The major difference between a draft or bottled beer occurs during the pasteurization process. Draft or keg beer is not normally pasteurized, which means that the keg must be kept cold. Bottled beers go through the pasteurization process and are packaged at higher temperatures, which can affect the taste of the beer.
Tasting Beer
When tasting beer, take into account the look, color, head of foam, aroma, taste and aftertaste of the beer being sampled. Try pouring yourself four or five mini mugs of beer for a fun sampling experience, and take notes on the flavors and aromas detected in each beer.
Invite a few friends over for a beer tasting and have each friend bring some of his or her favorite beer. Serve peanuts, pretzels, oysters and cheese as palate cleansers and eat a little between each small mug of beer.
How to Pair Beer and Food
In general, it's good to pair foods of like heaviness and flavor with like beers. This is the process followed by most beer connoisseurs. When you are drinking a beer you like a great deal, take some time to think about what food might complement the flavors naturally occurring in the beer. Take a sip of beer, close your eyes as you roll the beer around in your mouth, swallow and see what types of food come to mind.
Food and Beer Pairings
The following are common beer and food pairings:
Light Beer, Spicy Food
Light ales and lagers go best with spicy foods. Heavy beers will make the meal too oppressive for the taste buds, and complex beers will be lost once your taste buds are met by the spicy food.
Brown Ale, Brown Food
Brown ales go great with mushroom gravies, beef dishes and wild game.
Porter Beer, Heavy Stew
Try a porter with a bowl of beef stew or a bowl of chili.
Dry Stout/Oysters
There's nothing like shucking a plate of oysters while enjoying a mug of stout.
Sweet Stout/Sweet Dessert
Pair a sweet stout with a rich dessert like chocolate cheesecake or flourless chocolate cake drowning in a raspberry sauce.
Pilsner/Seafood
A pilsner is great with a plate of fried shrimp or crab cakes.
Amber Beer/Pizza
Bring out the amber beer when you're serving up a homemade Chicago-style deep dish pizza.
 | When pairing food with lager beers, you'll need to pay attention to what kind of lager it is. Pale lagers go best with lighter foods such as crispy torillas filled with spicy Mexican foods or nachos with salsa and cheese. Darker lagers are more commonly served with meals, but can be consumed with some appetizers also. |
 | Microbrew beer is beer that is crafted in a small brewery instead of a large commercial brewery. Microbreweries are classified as such only if they produce fewer than about 15,000 barrels of beer annually. |
If you like to drink light beers, you'll want to pair them with lighter foods. Just like you would pair a milder dish with a mild, sweet wine and a bolder dish with a bolder wine (or white meats with white wine and red meats with red wine), you'll want to think light with light when you look for good food pairings for light beers. |
If you're looking to pair food with your favorite pale ale, you should take a look at heavy, full-bodied menu choices. Pale ales have full-bodied flavors, so you need to pair them with foods that have strong, hearty flavors and can stand up to the ale. A good pale ale can play up the spicy heat of spiced foods or it can balance a robust beef dish. |
If you want to taste a variety of beers, why not consider hosting your own beer tasting party? While it might not be reasonable to taste a dozen different beers on your own in one sitting, it can be a feasible event if you invite a few friends and pour small servings of each beer for comparison. |
