HANUKKAH DRINKS & DESSERTS
Todd – Alright, well how about this? I’ve got Sufganiyah, and that’s fairly traditional.
Chad – That’s very hard to find—you have to go to a Jewish bakery.
Todd – This is obviously intensely sweet. I have a sweet tooth. So, fruited beers might be the way to go if you’re aiming for complementing flavors, but I don’t know if I can handle any more sweetness. If we’re going to contrast flavors, where are we going with this?
Chad – You’re gonna want something that’s going to cut through that, and that’s going to be where beer is actually more versatile than wine. Beer has carbonation and carbonation acts like little scrubbing bubbles on your palate so it can cut through some of that sweetness. It essentially just cleanses the palate.
For Sufganiyah, a Saison would work, but it depends on what kind of Saison you have. Saison DuPont would be great. A Flemish Brown Ale or Flemish Red Ale would be incredible. It may add too much sweetness, but they also have some of the tartness and acidity from being a blended sour, so that could actually be a really cool pairing.
Todd – I think an Oatmeal Stout is actually super killer because it’s got enough roastiness that makes me forget that I might need to go to the doctor after eating this donut. The roastiness is cutting through some of the sweetness because the Stout is a little dry on the back end.
Chad – And that’s a medium-bodied stout, too, so it’s not super filling.
Todd – What would you consider a dessert beer, or an after-dinner beer?
Chad – You could go for something like Lindemans Framboise, a fruited Lambic. You could also go with something with more complexity, like a Barleywine. If you think about it, some people drink port after dinner, and that’s a fortified wine.
Todd – Also, depending on the dinner, the after-dinner beer might change. If you have one of those massive, massive winter feasts, then I think a little bit of something really complex and higher and ABV is nice. If you have a light summer dinner, there is nothing wrong with reaching for a light Lager. But I think in essence, most of the time we’re going for something with a higher ABV, more complexity and in smaller quantities.
We said something you can think about is contrasting flavors, right? Well, if you’re eating a chocolate dessert, that means you’re probably ready for something sweet, right? You’re already having the dessert, so it may be interesting to fully go the other way with something like a Vienna Lager. That’s something that will not cut the sweetness, but it’s going to really bring out the chocolate flavor and get into some coffee flavors. You don’t need to go the whole other way.
Chad – Well, you can also think of food that have different flavor components in them—like a chocolate raspberry cake. If you have a Framboise Lambic with some chocolate, it’s going to recreate those resonating flavors. That’s when the magic happens, like the magic of Hanukkah.
