BEER and FOOD

An awareness that certain foods can be complemented by specific drinks, has been known about wine for a long time. This awareness has finally reached the great variety of beer flavors now available. From lagers and stouts, pilsners and wheat beers, calorie free and light to dark and potent; this concept is most certainly valid. However, no one has ever discussed the fact that a food can affect, and at times enhance the flavor of a beer. This is beyond adding a lime to a Mexican beer, or a lemon to a Bavarian Weizenbier. This is a total change of effect to the palate. While I do not consider myself an expert on food and beer, I have been developing a number of preferences and opinions.

Certain foods do produce a very different effect on the palate. To cite an extreme, years ago I joined MA out-of-town for a few days (she was on assignment), and I arrived in the room before her return. I had just found a great, ripe Limburger cheese, direct from Germany. I left the cheese on the counter as I chilled down some inexpensive, domestic beer. When she entered, she noticed a distinctively musty smell, not at all pleasant. After a lengthy explanation and accustoming to the odor, I persuaded her to try some of my "great find." She too finally concurred that the flavor was fantastic, and we happily ate our Limburger and enjoyed our beer. Never has this inexpensive beer tasted so good. The flavor of the cheese not only complemented the flavor of the beer to our palate, but clearly produced a unique, new flavor. While this is an extreme example, the proper beer with the proper food is an gourmet's delight. Well, that's not beer complementing food, but food enhancing the flavor of the beer.

After years of reflecting on the phenominum of a combination of beer and Limburger, I finally stumbled onto another, possibly even greater combination - an albacore salad and an Edelweiss Dunkel. At a beer/wine/food tasting in Orange county, California, I picked up an entree of albacore salad, and returned to my Edelweiss stand. After a few bites of the salad, I casually took a sip of my favorite Edelweiss, - an Edelweiss Dunkel. Stunned, this Dunkel tasted even more mellow than normal, and there was no stopping. The afternoon progressed, - an albacore salad and a Dunkel, a Dunkel with an albacore. Along the way I added a clam chowder to the combination - Ecstacy "wie a Bayr im Himmel!"

I have always been of the opinion that an Edelweiss was a perfect complement to a fine fish dinner, especially a lobster with a mellow Edelweiss Hefetüb (Hefeweizen), - not a somewhat bitter Pislner, but a more fruity-flavored Hefeweizen.

Should a beer enhance and complement a food? Should a food enhance a beer? WHY NOT!!!

Edelweiss to you from PA.

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