Johnny Ringo, Beer Explorer
What Is a Good Beer Pairing with Thanksgiving Dinner?
Each Thanksgiving beer lovers opine online as to which beers and which types of beer pair best with this traditional holiday meal. While there’s no wrong answer, the following is a general consensus gleaned from a number of articles in recent years.
Stick with something light while people are arriving and hanging out before the meal so that you don’t overwhelm your taste buds or feel too full before you even start. Think lager or pilsner.
With hors d’oeuvres, go with something still fairly light but with a little more flavor and character like a moderate pale ale or saison or farmhouse ale.
For the main meal the options are wide open. You could go with something heavy and strong like a Belgian ale to to cut through the fats and starches, something light to cleanse the palate between bites to let the food shine, or something darker, malty, and moderate to complement the traditional main dishes. If a beer is too crazy with hops, it can distract from the milder flavors of the meal, so consider saving that Imperial IPA for another occasion.
The dishes also matter. For things like turkey, stuffing, gravy, sweet potatoes, etc., many feel an amber or malty brown ale is appropriate and complementary, or even a porter. With ham, consider a Weizen or Weizenbock.
For dessert, consider stouts, chocolate stouts, other beers with some malty thick sweetness, or possibly a fruit beer or spiced beer.
A pumpkin ale might be a nice seasonal match at any point during the day or at any point during the meal. Given the style’s very characteristic flavor, though, I find I only want one of these per session. I wouldn’t want to drink the beer all day or all throughout the meal.
I usually keep it to three kinds of beer: something lighter and with light flavors before the meal and during hors d’oeuvres; a malty, slightly sweet, not hoppy brown ale during the meal; and an oatmeal or imperial stout afterwards (I don’t do beer with dessert, but many do).
Here are some articles that discuss the pairings and are the source of most of the above:
http://hoppedupblog.com/2011/11/…
http://hpr1.com/cuisine/article/…
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