Hi everybody welcome to Drinks Tube
I'm Tim Anderson, I'm a chef and a beer geek
and I love to pair food with great beer.
Today we are going to be pairing some great beers with often overlooked but very important category of food
bar snacks.
Now there are some classic bar snacks you find in pubs and bars everywhere.
and I'm going to find the perfect beers with them.
First up, the classic bar snack. Salty, crunch, piggy pork scratchings.
Now a meaty bar snack like pork scratchings demands a meaty beer.
We are going to go for one of the meatiest ones around
a German smoked beer style called Rauchbier.
This is schlenkerla rauchbier from Bamberg, Germany,
it is really really rich from hickery smoke almost tasting like liquid bacon.
Now when you pair beer and food we want to do the same thing everytime.
You take a sip of beer, get that flavour in, have some food
mmm
Now when there is still a bit of that food flavour in your mouth
have some more beer.
It's when those flavours meet that the real alchemy happens.
You start to notice flavours in the beer and the food that you didn't notice before.
This works beautifully.
The beer has a really rich smoky flavour,
which obviously goes great with the pork.
But it is also fairly light bodied and has a bit of fizz to it.
Which helps cut through the fat and the salt of these delightful scratchings.
So next time you're munching on some pork scratchings at the bar,
try it with a rauchbier, another smoked beer.
If they don't have one, something else with a nice roasty dark malt flavour will do.
A dry stout, a porter or even a dark mild.
Next up we are turning Japanese,
with wasabi peas.
Wasabi peas are little green flavours bombs, they're
really savoury and nutty from the peas and they've got a
and they've got that big whack of heat from the wasabi.
To go with it you want to get something a little bit fruity and a little bit spicy itself.
Like a Belgian Style Witbier.
I've chosen a Japanese witbier Hitachino nest white ale.
This is brewed with coriander, orange peel and a little bit of orange juice.
Almost smells like a Ginger Beer.
That spice on spice works so well that gingery, orange zesty, coriander flavour,
meeting the wasabi is perfect.
The bubbles in this beer which are really lovely and foamy, and sort of help clean up the palate.
With that almost peanut buttery richness you get from the peas.
So whether you're at the bar or at home next time you're snacking on some wasabi peas
get yourself a nice zesty witbier.
Next up something a bit more substantial, something that really lines the stomach,
scotch egg.
Scotch egg of course is a boiled egg wrapped in seasoned pork mince,
breaded and deep fried, it's lovely and meaty and rich.
The classic pairing for egg dishes, is a German Hefeweizen, wheat beer.
I've chosen one of my favourite beers, Wu Gang Chops the Tree.
It's more or less a classic german wheat beer but it's brewed with bay leaves.
The beer is light and refreshing and palate cleansing,
but there is enough flavour and body there to stand up to all the big flavours in this egg.
There's a natural clove like flavour from the yeast in this wheat beer.
works so well with that pork.
And that natural sweet wheat beer flavour,
it perfect for that nice creamy yolk.
Honestly folks whenever you're drinking any kind of beer, you should probably
have a scotch egg. Scotch eggs are delicious.
But especially if you're having a wheat beer.
A German style wheat beer is such a good match for that.
Lastly we have got one of my favourite bar snacks, and that's olives.
Now olives are an acquired taste for many and they're notoriously difficult to pair
with drinks, especially wine.
But that's why we are drinking beer,
Olives a salty, bitter, tangy and oily all at once.
So we need a beer that can stand up to all those flavours.
And I've chosen Orval.
A classic Belgian trappist beer.
If you want to learn more about trappist beer,
click here to see the Craft Beer boys video on Trappist Ales.
Now Orval is unique among Trappist beers in that it is brewed with Brettanomyces.
A fungus which is considered a fault in wines and many beer styles
but in Belgian ales it contributes a nice funky aroma and a little bit of tartness.
It's kind of got some of the same fruity, earthy flavours of aromas that the olives have.
Many beer pairings work by contrast, they work because they're different, complimentary.
But in this case the beer and the olives work so well because they are actually quite
similar, they have about the same level of bitterness,
and the same level of tartness which means they cancel eachother out.
Both the beer and the olives seem sweeter,
the olives in particular take on a real meaty, savoury flavour.
And the beer, the beer also becomes sweeter and
almost like a honey flavour but it's got these lovely soft, rolling bubbles,
that come in and clean up the oil on your palate.
It's fantastic.
So next time you're nashing on some olives,
try with a beer and make that beer something tart,
and probably Belgian like a Lambic, Trappist Ale or Flemish Red.
So there you go, some awesome beer and bar snack pairings.
Now if you've got some good beer and bar snack combos of your own,
I'd love to hear them so leave them in the comments below.
If you'd like me to do more of beer and food pairing,
click here to see me match beer and street food.
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Cheers!