“They [small brewers] also provide the fuller-flavored
beers that people want,” says John Cheek, president of
Florida’s only certified organic brewery, Orlando Brewing
in Orlando, Fla.
Today’s beer drinkers are diverse, as well. “Our customers
range from multimillionaires to blue-collar workers,”
Cheek notes.
Beer in the dining room
Across the country, the popularity
of beer-and-food-pairing dinners
is on the rise. Bruce Paton, known
to many as the “beer chef,”
former executive chef of the now
closed Cathedral Hill Hotel in San
Francisco, has planned dozens of
these dinners. “The basic rule of
pairing is not to let one overpower
the other,” he explains. Thus,
lighter flavored foods pair with
lighter flavored beer. Foods that
are more assertive require beers
that are more assertive.
he says. For example, he pairs
a porter, a dark ale with roasted
malts, with black bean soup to
create a harmony of the smoky,
earthy black bean flavors with the
smoky, coffee-like roasted-malt
flavors. Bitterness and carbonation
provide cutting power and
contrast, especially if the soup is
spicy. Hop aromatics combine well
with the soup’s cumin and cilantro.
“So this great pairing works on
several levels,” Oliver says.
And more and more of them are women. “We see a lot
of middle-aged business women ordering beers,” says
Aimee Achilli, bartender and resident beer expert at Young
Augustine’s, a restaurant and bar in Atlanta. Some of them
participate in Achilli’s monthly beer tastings, which focus
on a particular style of beer.
Next comes what Oliver calls the
“flavor hook” — the part of the
beer’s flavor that links up and
harmonizes with particular flavors
and aromas in the food. “Beer
can often contrast and harmonize
equally well and at the same time,”
Brewers such as Oliver, Cheek and
Greg Koch, CEO of Stone Brewing
Co., Escondido, Calif., also have
plenty of experience putting the
right dish with the appropriate
brew. Koch has even participated
in competitions pitting beer against
wine. “I’m proud to say my beers
won,” he says, noting that those
