Pairing beverages with various food dishes is not a new practice. Beer-pairing and wine-pairing dinners are common even now, with some spirits like whiskey or cocktails occasionally served with courses or occasionally featured at some events. However, one type of dish seems to gravitate often and specifically to craft beer (and vice versa), that being the broad category of soups, stews and chilies.
What drives this apparent affinity one has for the other? Let’s begin with one obvious axiom that is often repeated in this space: Beer is food. The refreshing beverage that is craft beer should be considered no less a foodstuff of equal caliber and expectations of any prepared restaurant dish, and subject to the same respect and scrutiny. What is served in your modern beer glass should be no less quality than what is on your plate and, as a consumer, you should demand the same standard for both.
But soup and craft beer tend to appear with one another more often than other beverages, dishes or cuisines. The craft beer–centric Holy Grail Pub in Plano hosts a “Chili-Pa-Looza” early every year, serving a selection of four house-prepared chili variations (this year including Beef Brisket, Green Chili Chicken, Spicy Creole Sausage, Vegetarian Three Bean) to enjoy along with their curated imported and domestic beer selection. Most recently, Fort Worth’s Maple Branch Craft Brewery served a soup-and-beer-pairing flight of the standard four servings (pictured, listed clockwise from top), each paired with a sampler of one of their house-brewed offerings.
The essence of beer-pairing dinners and similar events is to find common (or complimentary) flavor elements shared both by the beverage and the dish. Darker beers like stouts and porters pair well with beef, especially that which has been grilled or smoked. Wheat beers work well with toasty, bready, starchy ingredients like pasta or potatoes. Hoppy IPAs can work with may vegetables, complimenting their herbal nature or natural bitterness or―depending on the varietal of hops used―naturally pair with juicy tropical fruits, berries or citrus. It is not unusual that beers originating from a certain region pair well with cultural dishes native to that same area.
- French Onion paired with an English porter (Britannia)
- Chicken Noodle paired with a light lager (Revere’s Light)
- Potato paired with an English brown ale (Montgomery)
- Broccoli & Cheddar paired with a bock (The Yodeler)
At its core, soup is basically a stock or flavored broth customized with herbs, spices and/or solid elements. If we define it by utility, a flavorful beer can often be substituted directly for a broth or stock in almost any recipe, as both behave about the same under cooking conditions. In fact, adding a beer to a chili recipe is not unusual at all, and one might be surprised at how easily a malty amber ale or pale lager can work in place of ordinary beef, chicken or pork broths as a base for soup, sauce or risotto.
This idea of “beer-as-broth” has been taken one step further by Dallas’ Vector Brewing, who went as far as producing a few soup-themed craft beers. These are house beers influenced and intended to represent a specific style of soup, such as their “Pho Sho,” an herb/spiced beer resembling a beefy Vietnamese pho, or a hazy IPA inspired by tom kha gai, a brothy Thai-herbed coconut chicken soup (both collaborations with Intrinsic Smokehouse & Brewery of Garland).
The madness behind these soup beers is Vector’s owner, Craig Bradley, and more specifically his head brewer, Tommy Gutierrez, both of whom are big foodies. “Why not?” says Bradley. “When you think about it, when we brew beer, we’re just making a large, malt-based broth with various ingredients and flavors, which just so happens to ferment and turn into alcohol.” The “Pho Sho” was made with a malt and rice base, and then the constellation of pho aromatics were added: basil, lemongrass, ginger, lime leaf, coriander, cinnamon, clove, star anise, cardamom, black peppercorns and shiitake mushrooms. The Thai-inspired hazy IPA was brewed with oats and rice, then dosed with Thai basil, lemongrass, chiles, cilantro, and lime leaf before being conditioned on desiccated coconut, galangal, fresh lime, and both shiitake and oyster mushrooms. (A Mexican pozole-influenced beer was proposed but I don’t know if that was ever released to the public.)
The magic of these soup beers from Vector is that they retain their “beeriness” while still carrying the taste of the associated dish. The Thai IPA actually does include all the flavor elements of a tom kha gai yet it is unmistakably still a beer, specifically a hoppy IPA. This execution speaks volumes not only to the skill of the brewers but also the skill in recipe development, to be so attentive to both the classic flavors of the food item as well as making a quality drinkable beer.
“Beer is a wonderful pairing with soup as well!” adds Bradley, “From a crisp pilsner with spicy chili, a savory minestrone with a hoppy pale ale, or a rich French onion soup with a dry Brett saison, there are countless combos that can be enjoyed.” Next time you serve up a steaming bowl of soup or stew, think about how to pair that meal with a good local craft beer. PH
