Here is a Beer and Food pairing menu I just did recently at home for 8 people. A diner in 6 parts. Tapas format, each time with a beer pairing.
What I love about this format is that we all progress at the same pace, we all drink the same beers and it’s very playful.
Find the menu below and some top tips for a successful session!
In this menu I have indicated the beers I have used but also the style so if you can’t find these beers you can easily chose an alternative.
Pro Tips
- Set the scene and make sure you have 1 beautiful beer glass for each participant. If you really only have boston shakers, use stemmed wine glasses. My favorite is the Teku glass!
- Manage quantities… I usually count 1/2 bottle per person for each pairing. It’s always nice that people enjoy fully until the end. They can always have more beer afterward!
- Know your audience. Beer and Food pairing is certainly an opportunity to discover new styles but are they ready for a sharp lambic, a salty gose and a rauchbier? There are plenty of accessible beer styles that are already stretching the sensorial map of most people!
- Don’t steal the attention. Sometime your guest have plenty of questions and keep asking for more info and this is great. Sometime they mostly want to have a great sensorial experience and that’s ok too. Make sure you read their interest and don’t crash the party into a workshop.
- Add you personal playful touch. You can simply ask people to take note so that at the end they can together define the winning pairing?
- Use music as an extra sensorial stimulation. For the menu presented here I created a playlist made of 6 different “music styles” to pair with the 6 “beer and food”. It was completely subjective but added to the fun. Like I used some Juicy lounge beats with the NEIPA, some funky music with the cheese and sexy beats with the dessert… You can find the playlist on Spotify as “Beer & Food (by chrlsnwn)” (you’ll have to figure out when to move to the next course yourself)
Enjoy and let me know how it went below!
