High-alcohol beers and how to pair them with meat

Craft beer, a matter of details

The meat and beer recipes choose to maximize the flavor and make the dish even tastier and more complete. In fact, under the gustatory level, it is the assonance between the flavor of the meat and the toasting of the beer that becomes the perfect - or imperfect - combination capable of producing a very respectable dish.

Craft beer chooses to distance itself - and quite a bit - from commercial proposals and offer its public an experience that ranges from an initial flavor in full contrast to the aftertaste. In fact, very often, tasting a beer allows you to discover particular aromas that otherwise would not have been evident, which is why the combination with meat must be analyzed in detail and subject to a few - but strict - rules. The harmony between meat and beer comes from the desire to move away from the now too classic glass of red, and then, during a barbecue, beer wins hands down!

Craft beers: aroma detail

Agricultural beers differ in many factors, the first to take into consideration is the aroma which allows for a first screening. Furthermore, diversity allows you to best combine beer with meat and understand when a drink can best complement a flavour.

For example, if we choose grilled meat, where the flavor is and must remain authentic, we need to balance the palate with a "drink" that is, something rather light and fresh capable, in other words, of cleansing the papacy of flavor and completeness of the morsel of meat. White beer is the perfect example of how you can complete a tasty and abundant course of barbecue-flavoured ribs, but that's not all.

The hops

There are 4 types of aromas, or rather, these are the most common: hoppy beer. It offers the drink a rather bitter flavor capable of enhancing the added ingredients such as fruity and floral. The flavor is complete and intense, while the taste depends on the processing and when the hops are added: if too early, the beer is more bitter. A medium body, a color that ranges from full yellow to amber to offer a sustained alcohol volume.

The malted ones

When the agricultural beer recipe is enriched with malt, the color becomes lively and intense. In fact, during the process of creating the product, the malt combined with sugar and candy barley returns that classic lively color. These types of craft beers choose to approach, when creating the recipe, well-known and traditional flavors such as bread crust, dried fruit and sometimes toffee. The added ingredient characterizes the color which goes from lively and intense yellow to darker colors similar to sunset such as amber.

The pils

Fresh and light, she is the classic blonde who taps herself in the worst - and best - bars everywhere. Sparkling and refreshing, it allows you to recover the mineral salts lost during the meat preparation phase which, especially when it comes to barbecues, can become demanding. The alcohol content is light and the color is a straw yellow which, once again depending on the ingredients added, can reach other darker and more full-bodied shades.

The toasted ones

The strong point of the toasted aroma is the sensation that the beer gives in the aftertaste: coffee and cocoa are the best-known flavors and aromas. Usually this dark beer has a full and substantial body, a rather intense copper color and allows you to taste a rich and authentic flavour. The scent reaches the nostril as soon as it is tapped and allows the drink to present itself as the absolute protagonist without beating around the bush. Even genuine meat chooses to offer a similar flavor thanks to the amber beer that wants to establish itself as the protagonist.

Craft beers: details of types

In addition to the aroma, there are real glossaries that include different characteristics of the beer which, after having defined the aroma, must present itself on the table in a well-defined and clear way, only in this way can it be enjoyed at its best and transform a simple lunch into a 'complete experience. There are many types of craft beers present on the global scene and range from almost invisible characteristics to well-defined traits such as the color and texture of the foam. There are 8 main types which then range into countless subcategories.

• Abbey beer . Noble beers coming from monasteries and abbeys in Belgium are today produced in different spaces and keep the characteristics of top fermentation and intense aromatization intact.
• Lambic . Fermentation is spontaneous and occurs thanks to the perfect combination of yeasts and volatile bacteria. A dry taste accentuated by the addition of fruit which gives an acidic and intense touch.
• Ale . They are obtained from malt and offer a fruity and full body. The best known in Italy is the IPA which chooses to be rather bitter and thirst-quenching.
• Blanche . The name contains the main characteristic, a light and underdeveloped drink that focuses entirely on freshness.

Bock . Lager in the strong version and of German origin. The intense and overbearing color defines the drink with a full, rich and intense flavour. Lager . The classic draft beer at the bar, pale, bottom-fermented and with prolonged maturation, gives a light color. Pils . The other super blonde notes that, unlike its relative, it chooses to present itself with a flavor with a strong hint of hops and a usually floral aftertaste, with rare exceptions. Weissbier . Sour, suitable for few and created with an irresistible mix of malt and wheat, unlike the previous ones, to be enjoyed at its best it must first be understood since it presents itself with a strong carbonation and a considerable commitment, from the first sip.

Craft beer and meat, details to read

Now that we have clarified the different types of beers, we need to understand how to pair them with meat, so as to identify and enhance the organoleptic characteristics of the two elements and combine them in the best possible way. Each cut of meat differs in multiple aspects which, as with beer, make the dish more or less delicious: sweetness, fattiness, acidity and succulence, without forgetting the olfactory persistence. It is therefore necessary to make an accurate and detailed selection.

On the one hand, the different possibilities allow you to engage in extravagant experiments that can also include the cooking phase. In short, there are beers that are perfect when they also lend themselves to the moment of blending the meat.

Others, however, like red beer, choose to enhance their taste only when combined with particular cuts of meat and cooked in certain ways: see a Fiorentina or a Porterhouse cooked on the BBQ. In general it can be stated with absolute certainty that a soft and enveloping beer is associated with tasty meat with crunchy and tasty cooking, on the other hand when the cut of meat is sweet and soft it is perfect paired with more characteristic beers and - a traits - egocentric.

Beer and meat, the inevitable detail

In the kitchen, even more so when choosing traditional products, it is necessary to create dishes that have a specific starting characteristic: balance.

After all, we are in constant and perpetual search for this element, too often we choose not to consider it right there, where it is needed. When creating, inventing or experimenting with a recipe, it is necessary to make use of professional tools as well as respectable raw materials, at the same time the union of the elements must be balanced, so as to create inviting and good dishes, without peaks of eccentricity and without the risk of exaggerating.

In other words, balance is needed, which begins with the choice of meat and ends with the choice of beer online, Carne Genuina represents the perfect stage!