By Marc Bona, The Plain Dealer
It's Thanksgiving. You're headed to Uncle John's, and you know he's going to savor the moment of slicing the turkey as the peppery stuffing, tart cranberries and steamed vegetables are passed around. Aunt Sandy will trot out the wine, of course. But what if you want to introduce the crowd to beer?
Not just any beer, but hearty ales that work in sync with corresponding dishes the way Vizquel and Alomar complemented each other on a double play.
With its many flavors, Thanksgiving dinner can be a challenging meal to match with beers, but it can be done. No hard and fast rules, just general pointers:
Allison Carey, The PD
In the beginning: Like an orchestra warming up, start small and move slowly to bigger, bolder tastes. A light-bodied beer with flavor is nice early on. You start with a big boy like an imperial stout, and your taste buds are going to go to sleep for the rest of the meal, Joshua Bernstein warns in "Brewed Awakening." Consider beginning with an Asian beer like Tsingtao. Or get adventurous and start with a Belgian farmhouse ale, says Patrick Beach, who writes about beer occasionally for the Austin-American Statesman. "They are just exploding now."
Hand in hand: If you like a certain beer, and you enjoy a certain dish, chances are you're going to be OK. However, "together they sing," write the brewers-authors of "The Craft of Stone Brewing Co."
Suggestions
Here's very different, but equally appropriate, brews for your table next week:
Tripel Karmeliet: This Belgian is not heavy, has great carbonation to cut through fat in gravy, and its large-format bottle in cork and cage would fit in with an elegant table setting.
Rogue Dead Guy Ale: Author Joshua Bernstein suggests this with fried chicken, so I would say it's worth a try with turkey. The Oregon-brewed ale is not over-the-top bitter.
Yuengling lager: Author James Waller makes an excellent point that certain meals are composed of "multiple dishes of varying flavors." Thanksgiving fits this perfectly. Consider a "multipurpose" non-pilsner lager.
Lagunitas Olde GnarlyWine: This barleywine style could be served at dessert in lieu of a port, says reporter-homebrewer Patrick Beach. Another possibility after the meal: a lambic. Lindemans Framboise is a nice one, low in alcohol, not sweet, and has a tart, crisp taste.
Intense affair: Aim for a strong-bodied brew to match with traditional dishes on the table, says home brewer Rich Carson of Brooklyn. You want "a more sipping beer, with more body . . . You drink a Budweiser with a real nice turkey and stuffing and it will disappear on you." A strong beer, he adds, deserves a dish with "intense flavors."
Don't spice up things: As much as Clevelanders love their Christmas ales, you might want to stay away from the overly spiced ones. Might sound blasphemous, but that spice rack in the ale could wash away the herbs and spices that Aunt Sandy used in her cooking. As Christina Perozzi and Hallie Beaune write in "The Naked Pint," "You don't want your beer to overpower your food. It's no good if your beer has taken your palate hostage." Beach puts it succinctly: "You want to avoid a lot of those beers that have a ton of spice in them. You have pine cones in your beer and sage in your dressing?" Christmas ales on the Thanksgiving table "would be completely out of whack," he says.
Color scheme: Fashionistas have their rules for matching accessories and outfits. Matching beer and food is even simpler: Go with similar colors. Dark, heavy beers pair well with hearty, robust dishes, writes James Waller in his irreverent but informative book "Drinkology." Beach suggests a lightly smoked porter with smoked turkey or ham to complement the food.
Balancing act: Beer experts tend to disagree in this area. Do you seek a beer with the opposite characteristics of the food or similar ones? Bitterness of an India Pale Ale, for instance, tends to contrast fatty dishes nicely. But a hopped-up IPA might pulverize a meal's flavor. Beach offers a general guideline here of about 80 IBUs, the measuring stick for bitterness in beer. Going over that might be too much, he says.
Common sense: "If you don't like dark beers, don't force one down your throat," says Carson, whose porter took second place in a statewide homebrewing competition last year.
Go easy: There is no rule that says you have to drain a large-format bottle of Chimay (although that Belgian ale would go nicely with turkey and gravy) during dinner. Pour light. Put a few bottles out, try a bit of each -- Bernstein suggests four or five ounces -- then move to the next one.
Have fun: "Pairing beer and food isn't a science. It's a game," Waller writes.
In the end, for all the guidelines and all the beers, Carson and Beach say it best: "Drink what you like."
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