Perfect Pairs, A Good But Incomplete List

The Brewers Association has just produced a pretty comprehensive list of Beer and Food Pairings, the kind of thing I always enjoy reading, but frustratingly, it's a tad incomplete. Hell, it's more than a tad incomplete.

Now this list has a lot of the usual suspects (and an inordinate amount of barbecue pairings), and I would imagine that it serves a beer novice pretty well. It also has a nice column devoted to just cheese pairings. But it still seems incomplete somehow. Maybe I'm just expecting too much.

It's missing a few beer styles (Saison, anyone? Or is it just classified in a way that I don't understand?), and some terrific, obvious food pairings, some of which I've written about previously here.

If you know me only slightly well, you know I live for beer and food pairings. It's an almost endless labor of love for me.


Did they leave off any of your favorite beer-food pairings? Let 'em fly here.

Our Annual "It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!"

I am so glad to be back blogging.

And at such an opportune time, too. It's time for an annual event in our weekly beer chat, The No Bull Inn, on starchat.net (every Friday night at approximately 11PM EST). This Friday on Halloween Eve (Mischief Night no less!), we'll be gathering up pumpkin beers and sampling them all night, from east coast to west. Pumpkin beers are a great diversion this time of year, and if you follow the advice of yours truly (ahem) and make a plate of cheesy, salsa-laden nachos to accompany them, you will experience one of the great beer-food pairings of all time. I promise.

So this week, head to your local beer store, or wherever you shop for GOOD beer, and grab up a few pumpkin ales: Buffalo Bill's, Brooklyn, Otter Creek, Weyerbacher, Dogfish Head, Saranac and Harpoon are just a few labels you might find. But grab a few (or more, for side-by-side comparison), and join us THIS FRIDAY, OCTOBER 30, for some great pumpkins!

Simply sign on to www.starchat.net after 11PM on Friday night. Register a nickname for chat room use and then seach the "channels" for the "No Bull Inn", our virtual taproom. And prepare to a have a good time with beer and jokes and good chat. See you there!