How To Pair Your Favorite Spicy Foods With The Right Beer

Unsplash/Nahuel Hawkes

For anyone who loves to pair their food with wine, beer or spirits, it’s important to know what you’re looking for in that beverage. For example, certain spicy foods call for beers with a backbone. It’s all about balance and making a conscious decision about what prominent flavors you want in your meal.

There are two ways to think about pairing spicy food and beer: you can either mellow out the spice or you can drink a beer that’ll enhance the spiciness.

To mellow out the spiciness of a dish, go with medium beers that are hop-forward like amber ales, wheat beers, brown ales, porters and stouts. Certain pilsners will also help to the tame the heat.

Unsplash/Cel Lisboa

If you want to accentuate the spiciness, go with IPAs and pale ales. Bitter, hoppy flavors and highly carbonated beers put a megaphone to spicy foods. Remember that beers with a high alcohol percentage will also increase the warmth that comes from the spiciness of a dish. And any beers that are too sweet might overpower the heat and other flavorful ingredients in your dish, so save the fruity beers for after dinner.

The next time you have company over, impress them with your new food and beer pairing skills. Give your guests both an IPA and a wheat beer and let them identify the difference.

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