Pairing Beer with Pasta

Pairing beer with pasta is not something I usually do. So, when a friend recently asked me to suggest a few beers for him to serve alongside the Italian cuisine he is planning to serve at his upcoming dinner party, I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I was a bit stumped. Not sure what it is about pasta, but there's just something about it that doesn't scream 'beer!' to me in the way that oh, pretty much everything else does. And yet, there I found myself last night, with a bowl of spaghetti in front of me and a taste for beer on my tongue. Since I began training for a half marathon a few weeks ago, I've been craving carbs like nobody's business, and after all, it was Wednesday night, which seemed like a perfect time to relax and enjoy a brew. So, pasta and beer, I wanted them both - what's a girl to do?

 Well, a few things, primarily research and tasting. And (lucky dog that you are), I, as your resident go-to beer gal, have taken the liberty of doing both for you (I'm a kind-hearted soul, I realize that). Before we can do anything though, we need to narrow down what kind of pasta dish we're talking about, which basically means the sauce. Pesto, for example, has an herby, garlicky bite, and is a totally different animal than say, an Alfredo, with its slightly nutty cheesy creaminess; as such, each needs to be paired with different beer. Last night, the pasta in my bowl was dressed with a simple, fresh marinara sauce, which, again, is wildly dissimilar from the two sauces previously mentioned. The way to think of it is that pasta is the blank canvas while the sauce acts as the colors that give it panache. So, what colors are we painting with in our dish and how does that affect our beer choice? Read on. 

In general, the stronger the flavor of the sauce, the stronger you are going to want your beer. So, for something like the slightly sweet, slightly acidic, middle-of-the-flavor-road tomato sauce I enjoyed last night, you're going to want to go with a similarly middle-of-the-road beer - for example, an amber ale. The hoppiness of the amber will cut through the sprinkling of cheesy parmesean on top and contrast with the slight richness of the sauce quite nicely. Additionally, the toasted malt flavors also present will complement and bring out some of the grainy flavors in the pasta, creating a very well balanced food-beer pairing. For a richer tomato sauce featuring meat, or a lasagna, for example, we'd want to go a little heavier on the flavor and select a Rauchbier, which, with its smokiness, will pair very well with the meat component of the dish. Going in a different direction, a spicy sauce, like a Fra Diavlo,  should be served with an IPA; depending on the specific beer, IPAs can vary in degree as far as flavor is concerned, but can always be counted on to pump up and highlight the spice factor with their extreme hoppiness. Herby pestos go well with a strong Belgian ale - Duvel in particular works really well with those flavors, while Alfredos - assuming you haven't added chicken, broccoli or any other accoutrements - can stand up well to a rich oatmeal stout.  For those thinking that oatmeal stout, with its sweet coffee-chocolate profile is an odd pairing with an Alfredo dish, try it out - the rich heaviness of both create a really nice, hearty effect.    

Bottom line, you want the flavors in your beer to either compliment or contrast with the flavors in your meal, and you want to be sure that the heaviness of your dish is matched by a similar richness in the brew. For beginners, a good rule of thumb is to pair light meals with light beers and heavier meals with dark beer; another way of thinking of it is to substitute light beers where you might serve a white wine, and dark beers where you'd serve a red. There are so many possibilities out there, and while many, many of them are going to be amazing, some just aren't going to work. So experiment. The world of liquor and food pairings is not just limited to wines after all! Surprise all your friends and order a beer next time you're at an Italian restaurant - you may just get hooked. If you're looking for specifics, here's what I drank last night with my ziti with red sauce:

Tröegs Hopback Amber Ale

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Hopback Amber Ale pours a bright, clear, coppery-red color with one finger of off-white head that quickly dissipates. The aroma is great - caramel and toffee, toasted malts and warm biscuits, all balanced very well with a fruity/floral hop presence. The taste is both sweet and bitter, with slight hints of citrus and a strong malty background. It feels smooth and creamy in the mouth, but medium bodied, and finishes slightly dry. This beer is extremely drinkable, especially for 6% ABV, and tasted awesome with my spaghetti dinner. It would also pair very well with pizza (same types of flavors) or even a nice juicy burger. Other suggestions to pair with your pasta and red sauce include Stone Levitation, Green Flash Hop Head Red Ale and Bear Republic Red Rocket Ale. 

National Drink a Beer Day!!!

Hey everybody and happy Tuesday! Or should I say Happy Drink a Beer Day? Yes, that's right, today is a holiday and even better, it's a holiday dedicated completely to beer. What could be better? So go on, don't be shy, and crack open one or two in celebration this evening... or afternoon, as the case may be. What will I be drinking tonight? Glad you asked. 


As luck would have it, today is actually a double holiday day, with the other fun celebration centering around a delicious strawberry dessert. So, in commemoration of both National Drink a Beer and Strawberry Cream Pie day, I will be lounging around tonight with a glass of Pete's Wicked Strawberry Blonde in hand, an absolutely delectable combination of both. 



Pete's Wicked Strawberry Blonde is a fruit beer brewed in Texas but widely available in the Boston area (my thinking is that if it's gotten up this far, it's reaching my friends in the MidAtlantic states as well!). It pours an orangey-yellow color with a thick, bubbly white head and decent retention, though very little lacing. It smells.... like strawberries. And not in a bad way. The scent that reaches my nose first isn't that fake, cloying strawberry syrup strawberry, but fresh, clean strawberry, reminiscent of jam cooking away on the stove. I immediately am intrigued and drawn in by the yummy fruitiness I have inhaled. On the first sip, Pete's tastes remarkably like a pale ale, with lots of toasted malts and graininess, though the strawberry flavor does follow. In the mouth, the strawberry is definitely less pronounced than in the aroma, but I would certainly prefer that to a cloying strawberry cough syrupy mess. In this case, the hints of strawberry are very well integrated into the beer as a whole, presenting as a well balanced and refreshing treat. Oddly, this beer got panned on BeerAdvocate, receiving only a C, or mediocre, rating. I myself have given the beer at B+ , or very good, and I do think that it is just that - very good. It isn't spectacular, it's not world-renowned, but there aren't very many strawberry beers on the market, and this one is very drinkable and both tastes and feels good. Besides, what else are you going to drink to celebrate the two arguably best obscure holidays revolving around food and drink? Pick up a 6-pack!!!


For those of you not strawberry inclined, what are you drinking tonight?!

Pick of the Week: Wachusett Larry

While summer is officially over according to the calendar, I don't think you'll find that the weather agrees. These 80-something degree days will eventually pass us by, however - as difficult  as it is at the moment to imagine - so this weekend I encourage everyone to take advantage of the fleeting sun and heat and enjoy your favorite summer brew one last time. For me, that's Larry, a Double IPA brewed by Wachusett Brewing Company. 


Larry, at 7.5% alcohol, is an Imperial IPA, so expect a bit of a hop-bomb - though not, in my opinion, so much of a palette wrecker that non-hopheads can't enjoy it. It pours a orangey-amber color, crystal clear with one finger's worth of off-white head, good retention and great looking lacing. The sight of this beautiful beer alone made me swoon - the aroma emanating from it put me totally over the edge. Think tropical paradise:  juicy pineapple, sweet grapefruit and tangy citrus with a nice, slightly toasted malty background to round it all out. Larry tastes much like it smells, all fruity hops and bicuit-like malts, with a bitterness that is evident and pronounced but not super-overpowering. This beer is highly drinkable with its medium to full, kinda creamy, kinda dry mouthfeel and swiftly passing aftertaste. It really is a outstanding IPA, no question about it. Sold only in 22oz bombers, I suggest that you pick one up and share with a friend... or enjoy the whole thing yourself..... trust me, once you take one sip, you'll want to. 

Draft or Bottle/Can? Pumpkin or Octoberfest?

            Last night, I ordered a pumpkin beer at a restaurant. This was the first, presumably of many, pumpkin beers that I will go on to enjoy while out to dinner this fall. I know that I've already written about my experience drinking my legitimate first pumpkin beer of the season, but I consider this to be a different first, my second first, if you will, in that it was my first served in a restaurant setting.  Beer consumed in a restaurant or bar is typically, in my opinion, a totally different animal than beer served at home - and that can be both good and bad. On one hand, as craft beer lovers, ordering a beverage in a bar can be a bit nerve-wracking, depending on where you are, in that as consumers, how we are served and presented our beers is totally out of our control. Unlike at home, where you can select your particular choice of glassware, pour the beer at the temperature and with the exact amount of head you want, and serve it with whatever accoutrements that your heart desires, at the restaurant, we are left completely up to the mercy of the waitress, barmaid, server, or what have you. There is an upside to restaurant beer, however, and that upside can be summed up in two words, two words that have me choosing restaurant served beer over home poured beer time and time again... Those two words are "On Draft". 

            I just love draft beer, and I'd chose draft over bottled or canned any day of the week, simply because I believe that it's better. And you know what? - it's not just me. Draft beer actually is better.  Draft beer has a better taste than its canned and bottled brethren, and is typically much fresher. It doesn't go through the harsh trials that beer designed to be sold in stores does - being shipped and packaged and exposed to sun light, etc. - and as such is less susceptible to off flavors caused by extreme or inappropriate conditions. So.... we're agreed then: beer on draft is better than beer in cans or bottles, end of story. Now - on to my first, or second, or second first, pumpkin beer experience:

            I ordered a glass of Shipyard Pumpkinhead Ale last night at TGI Fridays; not exactly Beer Mecca, I know, but it was trivia night (we won, by the way) and though I wasn't planning on imbibing, I was seduced by the offer of something other than Bud Light. What can I say? It's September, so I haven't had my fill - or overfill, as it may end up being - of Pumpkin Beers yet, and as you now know, I love me some beer on tap. It had been a long day, and sometimes, you just have to go for it. So I ordered a glass of the Pumpkin, and my companion ordered one of the Sam Octoberfest, and we set about having ourselves a mini fall tasting, right there in the middle of our kick-ass trivia marathon. 

            The Shipyard Pumpkin looked a lot like the Bud Light I had not wanted to order, though leaning a little more on the side of orange and sporting a snazzy cinnamon sugar rim. I know there are a lot of haters out there who can't stand it when bartenders make unnecessary or unwanted additions to their beers, but let's keep in mind that I was at Friday's and to be honest, cinnamon sugar and pumpkin do go together really well, like pumpkin pie in my mouth. So I didn't complain about the sugar rim. In fact, it may have just been my favorite part of the beer. 

            The Shipyard continued on the Bud Light route as far as taste, aroma and mouthfeel are concerned. I actually don't necessarily think that's a bad thing, so please don't get the wrong impression - I am fully aware that there are plenty of people out there who really enjoy Bud Light and who would embrace a pumpkin take on it as the perfect answer to the seasonal beer question. Not everyone is into really spicy or heavy pumpkin beers, remember, and I actually may be one of those people. I haven't tried enough this season to know for sure, but I'm definitely not going to slam the Shipyard Pumpkinhead for being too adjunct-lager-like (that means too much like Bud or Coors or Miller as far as style). The beer was extremely light, with only the tiniest hints of pumpkin and spice coming through, but I got the impression that that is what the brewers were going for. Again, I wasn't at the Cambridge or Portsmouth Brewery, and I wasn't at some upscale beer bar. I was at Fridays, and this beer was extremely drinkable and worked well with food. Overall, I think it sort of reached the goals it had set for itself.  Pumpkinhead received a C on BeerAdvocate, which means mediocre, and I think that's probably pretty accurate. Though I certainly wouldn't serve it at a tasting or something like that, I'd order it again at Fridays. And only partially for the cinnamon sugar rim. 

            The Sam Adams Octoberfest, on the other hand, was less Bud Light-like. I enjoyed it, though I typically do not favor Sam Adams beers - this was actually the first brew put out by them that I would order again. It was served to us pretty flat - not sure how much of that was due to the bartender's pour, again, one of the things about beer at a restaurant that's out of our control - and was pleasantly amber in color. It both smelled and tasted malty and slightly sweet; imagine light brown toast with caramel drizzled over it. It felt smooth and a little sticky in the mouth, and I considered it to be extremely drinkable as well. This definitely would be a good beer to order if you are the kind of person who doesn't typically order beers at places like Fridays, due to their limited selection of craft. I will certainly be ordering it again next time I'm at a restaurant like this, and I think I'm going to be a little sad when the Sam Winter Ale comes along... 

Anyway, for me it's always draft beer over canned or bottled, and I think I'm going to side with the Octoberfest over the Pumpkin this time around. What do you think? 

First Pumpkin Beer of the Season Flops

 Last night I cracked open my first Pumpkin Beer of the season and I've got to say, I was less than impressed. I'd been excited about Cape Ann Fisherman's Pumpkin Stout since I heard about it from TJ Peckham, a rep for the brewery, at the Newburyport Yankee Homecoming Beer Festival this past July. He'd mentioned to me that their seasonal fall offering was hitting stores on August 1st, and when I finally came across it a couple weeks ago, I gleefully snatched up a six-pack. Here I was, all excited: I thought I couldn't go wrong with a pumpkin stout. How could I? I love stouts, love the combination of chocolate and pumpkin.... I honestly thought there was no way that a pumpkin stout could do me wrong. But it did. It did me real wrong, and here's why: 

 First of all, Fisherman's Pumpkin Stout pours completely flat. While this isn't exactly an unheard of occurrence in stouts, what a beer lacks in carbonation, it typically makes up for in thickness. Fisherman's apparently missed this memo. If there is one pet peeve I have about stouts, it's in regards to mouthfeel: I like my dark beers creamy, chewy, smooth and even syrupy on occasion. I do not,  on the other hand, like them to feel like under-carbonated Bud Light in my mouth; I just don't go for that. For me, undesirable and inappropriate (as fits the style) mouthfeel can ruin a beer. It's hard to convey the taste of roasted malts, rich chocolate and coffee, the typical flavors put forth by stouts, for example, via a thin, watery consistency. This principle definitely applies to Fisherman's Pumpkin Stout, with the mouthfeel detracting from the flavor.... though, to be honest, I'm not sure the flavor was doing too well on it's own anyways. Throughout the course of my glass I tried to pick up whatever subtle flavors and nuances I could out of this beer, but they were just that - extremely subtle. Pumpkin and fall spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, etc.) were hinted at, and possibly could have married well with the stout style, had any of the characteristics of a stout been present. I was hoping to find the dark richness of malts and chocolate in my glass, but what I actually got was a very weak interpretation. Overall, the best thing I can say about this beer was that it didn't attack you with fake, cloying pumpkin and overwhelm with cinnamon spiciness, as some pumpkin style beers can do. Going the stout route is certainly an interesting and not overdone way of putting pumpkin into beer; unfortunately, while intentions were good, the delivery just fell flat. 


Have you tried Cape Ann Brewing Co.'s Fisherman's Pumpkin Stout? If so, what did you think? For everyone else, what's your favorite pumpkin beer? Maybe your suggestion will wind up in my glass next!

Change IS good, but.....

I realize this may sound odd coming directly after my “fall is coming, change is good” post, but I’m sitting here right now with a bomber of Ballast Point Scuplin IPA and I’m about… to…. open it. There. For all you wondering what the big deal about this particular bottle of beer is and why I’m breaking my own “move on from IPAs rule”, let me fill you in. Sculpin is a phenomenal India Pale Ale, loved by hopheads (people who love bitter, hoppy beers) and regular folk alike. In addition, this brew scores an A, or outstanding, on BeerAdvocate.com, and is ranked #17 on their “Top Beers on Planet Earth” list. It is also typically sold only on the West Coast, or rather, not on the East Coast, so how I came to be in possession of this particular bottle still remains rather a mystery to me. Sculpin is a beer I’ve been yearning for for quite a while now, after trying it on tap at the Cambridge Common several months ago. So, when I came across it about a week ago, sitting alone on a shelf at Marty’s Liquors in Newton, I just had to pick it up. At $12.99 a 22oz bottle, it was kind of a splurge, but pay check be damned! - I just couldn’t resist. So, I picked it up, put it in my fridge, and now it’s here, in my glass. Let’s taste, shall we?

Sculpin pours a beautiful, cloudy orange-yellow with a white fluffy head that quickly dissipates into little islands that float on the surface of the beer. It smells delicious, good enough to eat, bursting with juicy, tropical hops. This beer is so fragrant, full of pineapple and grapefruit marmalade on bread toasted to perfection. And it tastes just as good as it smells: same juicy tropical fruitiness, same toasty malty backbone but with a nice tinge of bitterness that lingers just long enough.  This beer is highly drinkable and at 7% ABV, there’s no reason you can’t indulge in a second glass. So go on, find yourself a bottle, find yourself a friend who has a bottle, call up Cambridge Common and beg them to put it back on tap for you – whatever you have to do, do it, just make sure you enjoy this one last fantastic IPA before the summer totally passes by.