Two of my favorite things to consume are beer and whiskey. Most often I have them together and pair them up. Lucky for all of us, they make a fabulous pair and are perfectly complementary.
I enjoyed beer long before I could appreciate whiskey. At first, whiskey was too strong and harsh for me. But one day a friend ordered me a Maker’s Mark bourbon to go along with the Newcastle Brown Ale I was drinking. I slowly sipped both, and suddenly the harshness I had associated with whiskey disappeared, and I started to notice the subtle flavors of vanilla, toasted coconut and sweet oak. It was then that I realized how beer can bring out flavor notes in whiskey, and vice versa.
A beer with a shot of whiskey is nothing new. The boilermaker has been around for a long time, usually entailing a cheap shot with a cheap lager, all meant to be consumed quickly. But today, given the variety and high quality of craft beers and whiskeys available, pairings are meant to be sipped rather than gulped.
Something to try: Sip the beer and then the whiskey, then do the opposite. Many times you’ll find very different results.
The two drinks share a similar beginning. Both are grain-based, steeped in hot water to extract the sugar, then fermented. After that, they travel down different paths to become finished products, but they ultimately share many similar flavors. The abundance of beers and whiskeys on shelves means that pairing options are limitless, and it’s incredible fun to experiment and try new things.
There’s no right or wrong, but here are a few really great pairings I’ve discovered over the years.
>> Irish whiskey: Try a Belgian tripel, hazy IPA or a Munich helles. Irish whiskey is delicate and lighter- bodied, with subtle fruit notes. Stick with a beer style that doesn’t overpower those wonderful flavor notes. My favorite pairing is Redbreast 12-year-old, neat, with a Westmalle Tripel.
>> Bourbon: Think German hefeweizen, porters and English IPAs. To find a pairing for American bourbons, I stay away from beers with too much malt sweetness. The heavy oakiness and corn in bourbon provides lots of sweetness along with hints of toasted coconut, vanilla and a touch of smoke. The delicate notes of spice, banana and other fruit from a Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier pair up nicely with a wheated bourbon like Larceny.
>> Scotch: Consider a kolsch, stout or Scottish ale. The amount of peat flavor in a scotch will determine how you pair it. For a heavily peated scotch you want a beer that can either complement the smoke, like a roasty, full-bodied stout, or a lighter beer that allows the peat to shine through. Try Laphroaig 10 Year Cask Strength with Gigantic Brewing Co.’s Kolschtastic for a surprise. The soft cereal malt flavor of the kolsch, along with its subtle fruitiness, really opens up the sweetness in the scotch’s smoky notes.
Tim Golden, a certified cicerone, shares his obsession with all things craft beer on the third week of each month. He is part owner of Village Bottle Shop in Kakaako.
