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| Be thankful for great beer! |
There are many different focuses that people have when it
comes to Thanksgiving. Some think of family and friends. Some think of football.
Some think of nothing more than a day off of work. But whatever aspect of the Thanksgiving
holiday you tend to focus on, a universal emphasis for all of our holiday
planning is food. Thanksgiving calls for a large spread of delicious food and
large groups of people to share it with. Needless to say, some people take the
food aspect of Thanksgiving very seriously.
This presents a problem. Many of us have very rigid ideas
of what food is appropriate to serve during these large holiday feasts and what
food is verboten. Generally speaking, proper etiquette and traditional values
teach us that beer is one of these verboten items that is fine for before and
after dinner activities, but should never be served with the meal.
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| Take it to the streets brothers. |
It should come as no surprise to you avid readers that I
completely disagree with this majority opinion. First of all, the bubbles
caused by the beer’s carbonation literally scrub your palate and allow your
taste buds to battle through some of the amazing flavors typically found in your
Thanksgiving feast. Additionally, craft beer is more versatile than any other
beverage on the planet, so it allows for a veritable cornucopia of pairing
options to perfectly complement every item on your Thanksgiving table, no
matter what they are. Don’t believe me? Give some of these suggestions a try
and taste for yourself:
Turkey
The centerpiece. The focal point, around which your
entire feast revolves, turkey pairs beautifully with a wide variety of beers
styles: French bières de gardes, Belgian dubbels, saisons, and amber lagers
such as German märzens and dunkels. Some great choices for you to consider are
The Lost Abbey’s Avant Garde Ale from San Marcos, CA or Matt Brewing Company’s
Saranac Lake Effect Lager from Utica, NY.
Stuffing
The one thing I've noticed about stuffing (or dressing
for some of you) is that it is different wherever you go. They are often
specific to both region and family tradition and though they usually contain
sage, onions and celery, there is very little else that is common. The beer
pairing solution will vary along with the type of stuffing you’re serving:
If you’re serving traditional bread stuffing, I recommend
a saison, such as Boulevard Brewing Company’s Tank 7 Farmhouse Ale from Kansas
City, MO or The Bruery’s Saison Rue from Orange County, CA.
If you’re serving oyster stuffing, pair it with a dry
Irish stout like Starr Hill Brewing Company’s Dark Starr Stout from Crozet, VA
or North Coast Brewing Company’s Old No. 38 Stout from Fort Bragg, CA.
If you’re stuffing is a sausage-based stuffing, choose a
dark lager like Anchor Brewing’s Bock Beer from San Francisco, CA or an
American strong ale like Stone Brewing Company’s Arrogant Bastard Ale from
Escondido, CA.
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| Looks like quite a spread. |
Roasted Zucchini
and Squash
The vegetables merit a pairing too, particularly the hearty
and buttery ones that are often served as a vegetarian alternative to turkey.
Zucchini and squash go great with Belgian-style tripels, hefeweizens, saisons, and
bières de gardes. Tröegs Brewing Company’s DreamWeaver Wheat from Hershey, PA, Green
Flash Brewing Company’s Le Freak from San Diego, CA, or Victory Brewing Company’s
Sunrise Weissbier from Downingtown, PA would be excellent choices.
Cranberry Sauce
Whether its cranberry sauce made with care and meticulous
attention to detail, or the infamous cranberry sauce cylinder from a can, you’ll
find that the orange and coriander notes from a Belgian witbier perfectly
complement it. A few delicious options include Allagash Brewing Company’s White
from Portland, ME or Avery Brewing Company’s White Rascal from Boulder, CO.
Mashed Potatoes
Notice the “e” at the end. Old joke, I know.
Mashed potatoes, themselves, don’t have a lot of flavor,
but they are often loaded with “stuff.” My favorite flavor accents for potatoes
have always been Parmesan cheese and garlic, which partner very well with
darker brown ales and porters. Sierra Nevada Brewing Company’s Tumbler Autumn
Brown Ale from Chico, CA, Great Lakes Brewing Company’s Edmund Fitzgerald from
Cleveland, OH, Dominion Brewing Company’s Baltic Porter from Dover, DE, and
Smuttynose Brewing Company’s Robust Porter from Portsmouth, NH will complete
this course of the feast brilliantly.
Yams/Sweet
Potatoes
Another commonly found staple of the Thanksgiving table
is sweet potatoes, which are frequently prepared with lots of butter and winter
spices. Yams tend to pair well with dubbels, dopplebocks or Belgian strong
ales. Look for New Belgium Brewing Company’s Abbey from Fort Collins, CO, Tröegs
Brewing Company’s Tröegenator Double Bock from Hershey, PA, or Dogfish Head’s
Raison D'Être from Milton, DE.
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| A perfect compliment. |
Pumpkin Pie
My personal favorite, especially when served with vanilla
ice cream, pumpkin pie has a massive flavor, so it can challenge a beer with a
massive flavor. Don’t be afraid to pair massive with massive; you almost have
to in order to ensure that one flavor doesn't overpower the other. Plus, there is
nothing quite like a massive flavor power struggle on your palate. For this
course, I recommend Brewery Ommegang’s Three Philosophers from Cooperstown, NY
or Bell’s Brewery’s Expedition Stout from Kalamazoo, MI.
Other Things to
Consider
It’s important to remember not to allow this stuff to
overwhelm you. You can easily become obsessed with pairing, and if you let it,
it will suck all of the fun out of Thanksgiving. The reality is that with the
number of different foods and different flavors and aromas going on, it is
practically impossible to get it 100% right.
You can make pairing on Thanksgiving as easy or as
complicated as you want. If you want simple, get three beers to serve:
something to pair with appetizers, something to pair with the main feast (most
likely something Belgian to complement the poultry), and something sweet to
pair with dessert. Look for like flavors. If your dessert is chocolaty, a
chocolate beer would be a good choice. Then again, a kriek (cherry lambic)
would also be interesting to pair with chocolate. Be creative and apply the
common sense test.
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| Delicious. That's all I can say. |
Also, ask for help. In today’s interwebs and social
media-driven world, advice and suggestions are literally a few mouse clicks
away. Most of the suggestions I've laid out for you today were borrowed from
smart beer minds, courtesy of the interwebs. If I have failed to completely
satisfy your thirst for knowledge, do your own research, or simply ask someone
who is “in the know.” You don’t have to go it alone.
Finally, you’ll find that, throughout this blog post, I
have made recommendations of Belgian, French, and German style beers to pair
with various Thanksgiving foods. Because I value the whole “made in the U.S.A.”
mantra, all of the beers I have suggested are made here in the States. You can
seek authentic beers in these styles from their native homelands if you choose,
but just so you know, their American counterparts are just as good, if not
better in some cases, and readily available. There. I've made my pitch.
One Last Appeal
Please, please, please, PLEASE… don’t go
get a suitcase of Budweiser tall boys or any other corn-based yellow fizzy
industrial pilsner lager-like beer. To put it in perspective, drinking big beer
products at Thanksgiving is the equivalent of eating a turkey sandwich with
slices of Oscar Meyer turkey and American cheese on Wonderbread with potato
chips on the side at Thanksgiving. If that is your idea of Thanksgiving dinner,
I suppose it would pair well with big beer (though I still don’t endorse it).
If, however, you plan on laying out a traditional Thanksgiving feast, treat
your beer with the same respect as you do your food.
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