Top Tips for Food and Beer Pairings

• Match the weight of the beer against the weight of the food. Try thinking of a pale beer as a white wine and a red wine as a dark beer.
• Look for compliments and contrasts. Match flavours in the beer with similar flavours in the food, or engineer tastes like citrus inflections with fish and fruit beers with game.
• Use beers to cleanse the palate, when possible. A sharp acid taste can slice through fat and grease and a lively carbonation can clear away creamy tastes.
• Build up beers, in terms of character and taste throughout the courses.
• Be sensible with quantities, beer can be quite filling. Fiona Burrell, Head of Edinburgh New Town School of Cookery, suggests drinking beer from wine glasses, so that the beer is appreciated and savoured.