Anyway, I am increasingly of the opinion that Italian food goes exceptionally well with Belgian beer.  Which would explain why several of the craft breweries in Italy (inspired by the American craft brewing revolution) focus heavily on Belgian styles: http://www.bunitedint.com/portfolios/collections/beer/country.php?country=Italy They’ve figured out that Belgian style beers go very well with their native cuisine.

Gulden Draak is a Belgian strong dark featuring the typical spicy and dark fruity flavors of BSDs.  Something like red wine.  And BSDs typically compliment tomato-heavy Italian dishes very well.  I’ve had a lot of success on this front and will probably reach for a Belgian style beer nearly every time I prepare an Italian style meal for the foreseeable future.

Jolly Pumpkin Oro de Calabaza with a fresh garden salad mixed with toasted walnuts and goat cheese, tossed in a Jolly Pumpkin vinaigrette. — Oro de Calabaza is an earth-shattering Bier de Garde with brett funk, aged in oak barrels.  But the oak is barely noticeable.  Lots of black pepper pop and subtle hops.  It somehow made the goat cheese taste even more goat cheesy and was an incredible compliment to the woodsy walnuts.  A+

Macaroni coated with melted brie and Monterrey served with Unibroue Trois Pistoles. — Trois Pistoles is my favorite Belgian strong dark ale.  I mentioned to the attendees last night that Unibroue says it has a shelf life of at least 8 years.  Lots of dark plum and raisin flavor melding with spicy Belgian yeast and alcohol complexity.  It was just an interesting contrast to the smooth buttery flavor contributed by the brie.  Hard to put into words, but a good combo.  A

Good People Snake Handler paired with buttered baked potato, not smothered but pampered with Point Reyes Bleu Cheese. — I am convinced that Birmingham’s own Good People have turned out one of the finest double IPAs in the world.  Just phenomenal, bursting with American hop explosiveness.  Not many foods can stand up to that kind of flavor intensity, and it’s not uncommon for hop flavors to clash harshly with various flavors in food; I’ve encountered that many times.  And not many beers can hold up to the palate-crushing flavor of a strong blue cheese.  So this pairing is an amazing battle that takes place on your taste buds, but it’s surprisingly enjoyable.  The flavors really compliment one another, and I think everyone was impressed by this.  Very fun.  A+

Smoked spare ribs lightly brushed with The J. Clyde’s signature BBQ sauce along a side of vinaigrette cole slaw and North Coast Old Stock Ale. — Old Stock is a sweet and alcoholic English old ale.  This year’s vintage is 11.5% ABV.  When planning the menu I had taste tested the beer up against a chicken breast sauteed in the Clyde’s BBQ sauce, which was a really great pairing.  The beer is quite sweet and the Clyde’s sauce is really, really lemony-tart.  It had an interesting sweet & sour feel going for it.  But the smokiness of the ribs added another element and it wasn’t quite as good as my chicken pairing.  The smoke of the ribs somewhat overpowered the subtle complexities of the Old Stock.  It still went well, but it wasn’t all it could have been.  B+

Great Divide Yeti Imperial Stout with a nice slice of chocolate pie and whipped cream. — I was actually worried about this one, as it was the only one I didn’t taste test before the dinner.  I normally wouldn’t hesitate when it comes to stouts and chocolate, but Yeti is one of the hoppiest stouts out there, full of intense American hops.  75 IBU.  But the chocolate flavors from the dark malts won out here and it was a very good pairing.  The two together produced a new, unique flavor in your mouth.  I think by bringing out flavors in the hops that weren’t really noticeable in the beer alone.  Different but tasty.  A

At least that’s my story.  I have no idea what those slackers Stuart and Doug have been up to.

I’m going to have to ease back into this.  I wanted to mention the best pairing I’ve enjoyed in a while, which is stated flatly in the post title.

Trois Pistoles is a Belgian strong dark, a fantastic style of beer with tons of depth and complexity.  They typically feature raisin, plum, red wine type flavors with spicy phenols from the Belgian yeast.  I definitely wasn’t sure it would go well with marinara, but it was sheer perfection.

The meal was just canned marinara sauce poured over sauteed chicken.  A little fresh garlic thrown in.  Served over prepackaged polenta from Whole Foods.  Very quick, very easy, tasty, and a perfect compliment to the Trois Pistoles.

Which, incidentally, will soon be available here in Bama.  Mine was recently purchased on some out of state traveling but word on the street is that it will appear on shelves of AL retailers soon.  Unibroue is world class all the way, so I can’t wait.

Twain’s has changed a lot since the last time I’d been there. It’s now less a pool hall and more a brewpub- much to my delight. The former brewer from Dogwood is now in charge, and I was rather happy with the offerings- which were paired with appetizers instead of mains, as we were mostly in the mood for lighter fare.

My brother and I both got flights. They included Heaven for Climate Golden Ale, Mad Happy Pale Ale, Thirty Days Belgian Black, and Three Lies Cocoa Stout (which had an interesting overtone of milk stout, though that is not its style). All were quite good, though the Golden was my least favourite. (I tend to favor hoppier and darker brews.) I found the Mad Happy went particularly well with the hummus and pita I’d ordered. The only weird element was the cucumber spears included in the dish- they didn’t seem to go terribly well with anything, including the hummus. I tried my father’s appetizer- deep fried green beans with horseradish mayo- and decided it was best with the Belgian Black. (I’d figured the Pale Ale would be best with the horseradish element.)

I ended my evening with Stone’s Oak Aged Arrogant Bastard, which Twain’s had on tap. I’d only had it from the bottle before- and found the tap version a bit milder; not quite as much bitterness, and not quite as pronounced an oak overtone.

I do recommend you stop by Twain’s and give their brews a try. They’re probably not totally on par with the world-class brews you can find at The Brick Store, but they’re not bad.  (I’m a fan of drinking locally- so when in Decatur, why not drink Decatur brews?) I’m sure I’ll return for more.

Not actual DFH beer.

Yes, a repeat of the beer style and food style from last night.  It was such a winner, and I was in the mood for pasta.

This is the same homebrew that Doug recently paired.  Highly phenolic, fruity and spicy.  Close to four years old, but this is a style that ages very well.

You, too, can clean out your fridge and make something tasty!

The pasta was a chance to clear some stuff out of the fridge while still creating an excellent meal.  We had a little left in a jar of vodka sauce, a little alfredo, and a little sour cream that all needed to be cleared out.  Plus some italian dressing seasoning, a can of diced tomatoes, the remaining cloves in a head of garlic, and some ground beef.  Also, half a bag of shredded mozzarella and half a bag of a blend of parmesan cheeses.

My preference would have been to put this with penne, but we only had a few scant noodles of that sitting in the bottom of a box.  So I poured that in but had to add a lot of macaroni to fill things out.  After it was all cooked, I put it in a casserole dish and topped with all the cheese and baked for 20 minutes until the cheese was lightly browned.

Good results on the pasta, and again, a Belgian strong dark went nicely.  Yum.

Doing my part to save the planet by recycling pics.

The last time I attempted a pairing with one of these pizzas, it was an unmitigated disaster.  This time, however, I was working off the recent experiences of one “Doug,” Beerlicious contributor.  Doug had a good experience pairing up a Belgian strong dark with Italian food, so I figured that was a good direction to go with this tomato and pesto heavy meal.

See the above-linked post for more details on the pizza, but the dominant flavors are from the tomato sauce, pesto, and mozzarella.  And indeed, it all worked rather well with this Belgian strong dark.

17 years of perfection, guys. Cheers.

The beer was remarkable.  Burnt toffee, plum, raisin, and — call me crazy — I was getting some whiskey flavors.  A little vanilla from some oak?  Definitely some liquor flavors in there and some alcohol bite.  A really marvelous brew.

Definitely on the malty end of the spectrum, not hoppy at all… kind of like the doppelbock, which bombed next to this same pizza.   But while the doppelbock was the epitome of unadulterated, thick malty richness, BSDs have tremendous amounts of flavor coming from yeast, alcohol, and often Belgian candi syrup.  Those flavors overwhelm the subtle contributions of the likes of munich and vienna malts.

And among Belgian-style beers, few do them better than Canadian Unibroue.  Those guys have a tremendous world class lineup.  And the dark fruity, toffee, whiskey-like flavors of Unibroue 17 were excellent with pizza.    Some higher class Italian pairings with BSDs are definitely in my future.

Simple and succulent

I wasn’t overly psyched about this pairing prior to sitting down for dinner, but when the mood hits for a Belgian Strong Dark Ale, you have to seize it.  Actually, it turned out that the aged homebrew was a nice addition to the otherwise simple meal of parmesan crusted chicken breast and spinach and mushroom risotto.  The risotto came from a box, so it was a little salty, and the spinach was a nice non-box addition.  The parmesan chicken was fried in a pan with an olive-oil and butter mixture.  The chicken itself was perfectly cooked an juicy.  As for the beer, imagine candied cherries and treacle, molasses, and alcohol.  The pairing reminded me of a nice red wine with cheesy Italian food.  Generally I don’t like beer with Italian food, so perhaps a Belgian Strong Dark would fit the bill sometime.  In this case, the estery and pleasantly phenolic beer was a nice contrast to the flavorful chicken, spinach, and risotto.  The sugary drink was a special treat on the side which I enjoyed immensely.  I’d say it earned seven letters out of eleven on a scale of zero to beerlicious.

The Gouden Carolus Noel is one of the best holiday seasonal beers around.  It’s a world class Belgian strong dark ale at 10% ABV, already a nice Christmas beer to begin with, made more festive with some masterful spicing.  I can’t even tell you what the spices are, they are so subtle and complex with no one spice smacking you in the face.  But they perfectly round out the spiciness produced by the Belgian ale yeast.  I would guess they fall in the usual winter warmer field of cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, etc.

Hardly surprising that these flavors meld perfectly with pecans, a nut that is commonly spiced with those same spices for a holiday treat.  The beer is a bit on the sweet side (not cloying!) so chewing on a pecan with some GC Noel evokes taste budular images of a fine holiday desert.

Highly recommended.