Curry in a hurry

I’m not sure where we picked it up, but we had a box of Thai-style infused chicken broth in our pantry.  There were directions on the back for making a very easy Thai Coconut Curry Vegetable Soup which consisted of throwing veggies, coconut milk, pasta, lime juice, and the chicken broth in a big pot and heating.  The results were phenomenal–I love easy thai-style curry dishes like this.   I thought I’d do another lager pairing as I’ve had great success with lagers and curry.  I chose Dixie Brewing Co.’s eponimous beer, Dixie, which Beer Advocate calls an American Adjunct Lager.  Yep, I wouldn’t disagree.  I was initially excited about seeing this on the shelf in Birmingham, thinking that Dixie Brewing Co. was up and running again post-Katrina.  According to Wikipedia, however, they are contract brewing with plans to reopen.  Still, it is great to support (semi) local breweries and I hope they are up and running again soon.  However, Dixie’s flagship beer is nothing to write home about.   I could see how this would be good on a hot day on the docks in New Orleans or on the beach, but here in my kitchen on a cold winter night, it was verrry subtle and not very exciting.  The Thai soup did not help bring out any interesting flavors.  I’m sure the hops and malts were used very judiciously as there was not much to either one.  I’m sure I could have done better with a hoppy lager or cream ale.  I did have a thought as I contemplated the mix of flavors, or lack thereof, that Dixie would go well with some utterly spicy cajun food as a palate cleanser.  Somehow that would just make more sense than pairing a New Orleans beer with Thai food…

North Coast Old Stock + dark chocolate. More of that 72% stuff from Whole Foods.  I wasn’t at all sure of this one before trying it, since my most successful pairings with chocolate have involved stouts.   But this was excellent.  Old Stock is a very rich and malty beer with some prominent alcohol notes.  The dark chocolate really pulls out some intense caramel flavors from the beer.  Which, as you might imagine, goes quite well with the bitter chocolate of the 72% grade.

Heineken + Chang’s Spicy Chicken and Crispy Honey Shrimp. The wife wanted P.F. Chang’s the other day on date night.  Inspired by Doug’s Heineken experience with Korean food, I went that direction (as the beer list is a bit depressing).  Not exciting.  P.F. Chang’s around here carried Sweetwater 42o way back in the day, and that would have been a lot more interesting.  But the SOBs dropped it a couple years ago or so.  I don’t hate Heineken, but the flavors are just soooo subtle.  It was washed out by the rather potent Chinese food.  At least it wasn’t skunked.

Cascade Lakes Santa’s Little Helper + Andouille with Red Beans and Rice. Leftovers.  But unlike the pasta from a week ago, red beans and rice doesn’t suffer from sitting in the fridge for a couple days.  Still great.  Though it presents itself as a winter warmer, Santa’s Little Helper is essentially a hoppy American amber.  Quite a nice beer, and another good compliment to the andouille sausage with red beans and rice.  Maybe not quite as good as the hoppier red rye homebrew, as the andouille is pretty intense.  The beer has to fight for some attention on the palate.  But it pulls through and works well.

And finally, Avery Old Jubilation + Hot Wings, tonight.  More leftovers, but these were superior to the first round.  When I cooked these last week, I fried the wings up, poured the sauce over them, and dug in.  Then I put the leftovers in a ziplock bag and poured the remaining sauce in with them.  So they’ve been marinating for a few days, and they were a notch better tonight.  Spicier and more painful.

In spite of my recent comment that I was devoted to pursuing future wing consumption paired with IPAs, I must hang my head in shame and admit I have no IPAs currently in stock.  I probably have at least 20 different styles of beer around right now, but no IPAs.  Shameful.  Part of me wanted to try the homebrew red rye here, as it has IPA levels of hoppiness.  But I instead opted for experimentation.  I went very malty: Avery Old Jubilation.

And the results were surprisingly good.  The caramel sweetness of this old ale-style winter warmer actually provided a good balance to the vinegar spiciness of the wings.  Good contrast, and no off flavors as I’ve experienced with some failed malty pairings.

Ultimately, though, I’m still going to have to vote for the IPA as the preferred pairing for wings.  The citrusy hops of a good American IPA are perfectly refreshing up against the heat of buffalo wings.  Although interesting and complimentary, the winter warmer left me wanting something that felt a little more quenching.  I’m sure a macro lager would acheive that (and certainly has for millions of wings fans), but of course you wouldn’t be tasting anything in that sort of beer when pitted against the intensity of high heat wings; it would be functionally equivalent to water on your palate.  Which defeats the purpose of intentional pairings…