Beer & BBQ – Could It Get Any Better?
Every year we find ourselves marking the start of Summer with Memorial Day Weekend – a weekend full of grills, great laughs, of course the gratuitous cooler full of beer. What could be better? Nothing – except maybe making the beer and whatever is on the grill play together in a delicate balance as beautiful as a ballet or perfect as a stoppage-time, corner-kick goal to with the game (let's go Orlando City Lions).
But the question remains, what do you pair with said grill goods? Down here in Florida we'll be spending our Memorial Day down by the beach so to get ready, we compiled a list of the best pairings to make sure you kick off the summer right.
Hamburgers & Hotdogs An American staple for any bbq and thankfully the beers that pair well are as varied and colorful as the American people – meaning you can basically drink anything with these guys and it'll still taste great. But if you want the full experience of a Summer 'dog or burger, pick up a light and refreshing pilsner – you wont be disappointed. Our favorite: Crisp from Sixpoint
Chicken Personally we grill our chicken with just seasonings (or buffalo sauce if we're feeling ambitious and wanting wings), but whether you're basting it with a smoky/sweet mix of barbecue sauce or just letting the salt, pepper, and season du jour render the skin and fat into a crispy display of flavor, you can count on a Hefe to give you the crisp refreshing taste to kick it up a notch. The fruitiness of many of them also helps to compliment the spice. Our favorite: Hefeweizen by Widmer Brothers
Pork Be it sausage, brats, or loin, pork is a go-to for many bbq outings. The fatty and salty flavors commonly attributed to "the other white meat" generally lend themselves to an easy, laid-back amber. It helps to wash down the salt and get your mouth ready for round 2. Our favorite: Lucky 13 from Lagunitas
Beef Now there are two different aspects of this one, you can either have your steak or something a little more ambitious: brisket. So we'll break it up. With steak, you want to really let the flavor of this one stand out, which is pretty easy since it's steak, so think something easy like a saison. Saisons often times have the unique ability to be a palate cleanser, like a solid red wine, it allows each and every bite to be as good as the last. Our favorite: Saison Du Buff by Dogfish Head The latter, brisket, is tricky because you have to account for a couple of different time periods. One of our favorite hobbies is to smoke a brisket, and if any of you have done it out there, you know this takes time. Lots and lots of time. Normally starts at 2am and doesn't get served until about 5pm, thankfully we have a few friends that get in on it so we have a sleep rotation. It also means you've got to continually have a source of beer for basting and tasting. We like to start the night with a coffee porter (normally used in the rub), then augment it with some late night Scotch. After everyone's had their naps we will switch to a session IPA (our favorite: All Day IPA from Founders) to get through the hours of waiting. But when the main event comes, it's got to be a porter. It's delicious! It augments the char and smoke you get from 13 hours in the smoker and is only enhanced by any bbq or mustard sauces you may enjoy with your brisket. Our Favorite: KBS from Founders Granted either the steak or the brisket would also pair well with a brown ale, but these are our tried and true results. As you can tell, we're kind of big brisket fans so when we think beef, we think brisket.
Veggies Even though when most of us think bbq we think meat, there's something to be said for grilled vegetables – be they corn on the cob coated post-grilling in a delicious blend of Mexican spices and cojita cheese or your standard squash/mushroom/onion kabobs. Either way, you're going to want to go light with your beer choice, either an easy light wheat beer or our personal choice Mexican cerveza. It'll keep you thinking you're making the right health choices by eating vegetables with a "light" beer. Our favorite: Tecate
Dessert
This has nothing to do with grilling but everything to do with the perfect end to a Memorial Day bbq: Beer Floats. That's right, grab yourself a scoop or two of vanilla ice cream in a glass and pour a delicious stout over it. Our favorite: Milk Stout by Left Hand Brewing.
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