5 beer and food pairings to try with your homebrew

There's something pretty satisfying about handing somebody a beer you brewed yourself, and the thing that lifts it further is putting the right plate of food next to it, because a beer that tastes good on its own can taste noticeably better alongside something that suits it. I'm not going to pretend there's a correct answer here, since taste is taste and yours might not be mine, but there are a few combinations that work for a reason you can actually explain, and once you know the reason you can start working the rest out for yourself.

Pale ale and grilled lemon and herb chicken

A pale ale is about as balanced as beer gets, with enough bitterness to notice and a citrusy, floral thing going on from the hops, and that's exactly why it sits so well next to chicken that's been marinated in lemon and herbs. The bitterness cuts through the oil in the marinade so your mouth resets between bites, and the citrus in the hops and the lemon in the marinade are basically pointing at the same flavour from two directions. If you're making the marinade yourself, put some zest and garlic through it and the whole thing lines up even better.

Amber ale and pulled pork with smoky chipotle

Amber ale carries a caramel maltiness that a pale ale doesn't, and that malt is the bit doing the work here, because rich fatty pork needs something with a bit of body behind it rather than something light and crisp. The toasty malt gives the pork somewhere to sit, and the beer takes the edge off the chipotle heat without washing the smokiness out of it. Tacos are the easy version of this, and it works just as well in a roll.

A hoppy IPA and spicy buffalo wings

Hops and chilli heat are a genuinely old pairing and the reason is fairly simple, because the carbonation scrubs your palate clean after every bite and the bitterness stands up to the spice instead of disappearing under it. The risk with this one is going too far, so if your IPA is already at the bitter end and your wings are already hot, you'll spend the whole meal with your mouth on fire and taste none of it. A blue cheese dressing on the side is worth having for that reason, and not just because it's traditional.

Stout and dark chocolate cheesecake

A stout brings roasted coffee and chocolate notes out of the dark malt, so putting it with a dark chocolate dessert is less of a contrast and more of a doubling up, and it works because the creaminess of the cheesecake softens the roast in the beer while the beer stops the dessert being too sweet. This is the one I'd start with if you've never tried pairing anything, because it's very hard to get wrong.

Wheat beer and a summer salad with goat cheese

Wheat beers are light and a bit hazy, and they usually carry a soft banana or clove note that comes from the yeast rather than from anything you added, and that gentle sweetness is what makes them sit nicely with a salad that has fruit in it. Peppery greens with strawberries and goat cheese is the version I like, because the tang in the cheese balances the beer and the fruit picks up the yeast character. It's a lighter pairing than the others and it's the one for a hot afternoon.

How to work out your own

There's no single right way to do this and the five above are a starting point rather than a rule, so the useful thing to take away is the two moves sitting underneath them. You either match, which means putting a roasty beer with a roasty food and letting them reinforce each other, or you cut, which means putting something bitter and fizzy against something rich and fatty so it resets your palate between mouthfuls. Almost everything worth trying is one of those two, and once you can name which one you're doing, you can look at whatever you've got in the fermenter and work out what to cook.

Shop related products

• Thomas Coopers Bootmaker Pale Ale 1.7kg. The pale ale kit for the chicken pairing.
• Thomas Coopers Family Secret Amber Ale 1.7kg. Caramel malt, and the one for anything smoky off the barbecue.
• Coopers Original Stout 1.7kg. Roasty and dark, and the one for dessert.
• Coopers European Lager 1.7kg. Crisp and clean for when the food is delicate.

Did you know we also stock the Thomas Coopers Brew A IPA kit and the Preacher's Hefe Wheat kit in the shop. They're not on the website, so give us a ring on (08) 8536 4333 to check what's on the shelf.

The rest of it is in our homebrew beer supplies, and if you're not sure which kit suits the beer you actually want to drink, Brewhilder will talk you through it.

More from the blog

• The best beer styles to go with lamb chops on the barbie
• How to host a beer and barbecue tasting night
• 10 Irish beer cocktails for brave homebrewers to try

I'm no chef, but I'll happily call this research.

Candeece