Beer & Food: Matchmaking

Matching beer and food should be a very easy concept for the pub trade. So why has it taken so long to catch on? John Porter reports.

On the face of it, matching a great pint of beer to a hearty plate of pub grub ought to be a no-brainer. It's not easy to say why the idea has proven to be a relatively hard one for the pub trade to get its head around. However, of the finalists in the Best Beer and Food Experience Award, a new category added to the Pub Food Awards in 2004, two of the four that made the shortlist were Belgian bars, and the eventual winner, the Porterhouse in Covent Garden, is the London flagship pub of the eponymous Dublin brewery.

Nothing wrong with any of that. The Belgians make great beer and love their food, while the Irish are simply very efficient at having a bloody good time - something good food and decent beer always helps to ensure. It may even be the fact that some of our nearest neighbours are further off the starting block than the British that makes us view this whole beer-with-food thing with suspicion in the first place.

It's also something speciality beers have done well for some time. Where would Cobra and Kingfisher have been without the Indian restaurant market? Italian brewer Peroni was so successful in placing its premium Nastro Azurro brand in restaurant chains such as Pizza Express during the 1980s and 1990s that Nastro is better known in the UK than the parent brand.

For brand owners, applying the marketing lessons learned in Europe to the UK pub market offers a clear opportunity to link sluggish beer sales to the booming food market.

Carlsberg UK is working with food pubs to promote its premium German speciality beer Duckstein. Based on the marketing lessons learnt so far, the company suggests the following:

• Ensure you are prominently displaying the availability of speciality beers to stimulate purchase with food as an alternative to wine
• Supply a beer list as well as a wine list, containing brand descriptors in terms of taste, heritage, provenance, strength, pronunciation and food compatibility suggestions
• Ensure staff are confident enough to recommend appropriate beers alongside certain food dishes on the menu as some outlets do with wine
• Try and emulate the language and vocabulary of wine to inform and educate the consumer about the beer drinking experience
• Use chalkboards in outlets to promote the different speciality beers. Around three to four brands are required to provide choice
• Introduce a new and different speciality beer brand regularly to ring the changes and stimulate interest
• Creating visibility and theatre is highly important - build back-bar displays using bottles for maximum impact and always use branded glasses to heighten the sense of occasion and premium nature of the beers
• Use sampling as a means of driving sales on busy nights - offer speciality beers in small sampling glasses to introduce the consumer to the concept of beer with food as an alternative to wine. Set up "try before you buy" nights
• Some speciality beers for consumption with food benefit from serving at room temperature. Ensure you stock both ambient and chilled versions of key brands
• Staff should have a good understanding of speciality beers and be able to talk knowledgeably about the flavour profile, heritage and origin
• Consider introducing an incentive to encourage staff to sell more speciality beers and generate healthy competition among employees.

Carlsberg believes speciality beers are more suitable as food accompaniments compared to mainstream beers due to their taste profile. They are often brewed with complex flavours and tastes that can be more fully appreciated with food. The growth of beer consumption with quality food demonstrates that speciality beers have become accepted as a popular alternative to wine.

The flavour of Duckstein, apparently, cuts through fat, oil and salt to allow food flavours to be appreciated by refreshing the palate. It is also less fizzy so you can drink it while eating without feeling bloated - a similar marketing message to that adopted by Cobra.

"Duckstein positively booms with rich flavours. It has a spicy hop and nutty malt aroma with a hint of raspberry fruit. Juicy malt and hops dominate the palate, while the long finish starts bittersweet but becomes increasingly hoppy and dry," says Roger Protz, Britain's leading beer writer.

Chefs and waiters are trained to match wine with the menu as a matter of course using the flavours as a guide, and doing the same with beer is really just a matter of applying the same criteria to pub favourites, says Tony Goodger of the Meat and Livestock Commission. "For example, sausage and mash is a 'comfort food dish' so drinking either a good real ale or refreshing lager with your meal will complement the dish. A beer-based gravy would add further value," says Tony.

"As regards pork, the nature of the meat and how it's cooked helps to dictate the drink that would best complement the meal. Bearing in mind that pork is a light and healthy meat, when served as, say, a steak or casserole it should be complemented with a light, possibly even low-carb beer, whereas when it is served as a roast it would need a more robust, fuller-flavoured beer to bring out the flavour further."

Matching beers to food is certainly no more complex than with wine. In fact, beers generally have more subtle, less overwhelming flavours than wines. When looking to create a beer list to match the pub menu, consider the following:

• British dishes​ - beer complements dishes by enhancing herbs, spices and meat flavours without overpowering simpler flavours.
• Italian​ - beer keeps the palate refreshed unlike wines, which at times may be astringent. This allows the consumer to enjoy the meal more when eating food such as pizza, which may also be drying in texture.
• Tex Mex​ - beer cuts through the saltiness of Tex Mex allowing the consumer to eat more, taking nothing away from the dish but enhancing the flavour at the same time.
• Hot & spicy​ - the heat of spicy dishes is cooled by a beer, allowing the true flavours of the food to be appreciated.