Pairing Ipa Beers: Best Foods To Enjoy With Your Brew

India Pale Ale, or IPA, is a popular beer with a strong flavour and a high alcohol content. The drink is bitter, hoppy, and often citrusy, with a thick feel in the mouth. Because of its strong flavour, it is best paired with food that has similar intensity so as not to overwhelm the palate. Salty and fried foods, for example, tone down the beer's bitterness and highlight its maltiness. The carbonation in IPAs also helps to cut through fat and cream, making the drink a good choice for fatty foods like sausages, deep-fried meats, and French fries. Spicy foods are another good match for IPAs, as the drink's bitterness initially amplifies the spice before cooling the palate.

Characteristics of IPA Beer and Food Pairing

Spicy foods like Thai and Indian cuisine

The hops in IPAs also work well with the spices commonly used in Indian food, like tamarind, coriander, and cardamom. The hops and bubbles in an IPA can also stand up to ghee, the clarified butter that makes Indian cuisine so rich.

When pairing an IPA with Thai food, look for one with citrusy aromatics that will complement the lime juice and cilantro often found in Thai dishes. A New England or hazy IPA is a good choice for Thai food and South Asian curries.

If you're eating a particularly spicy dish, be cautious of imperial IPAs or other boozy styles, as the higher alcohol content can amplify the heat of chilis. It's also best to avoid highly carbonated beers, as the carbonation can increase the perception of heat. Instead, opt for a softer, smoother beer that will coat your tongue and make it easier to handle the spice.

Salty and fried foods like chicken wings and cheese curds

Salty and fried foods are a great pairing with IPAs. The salt and fat in these foods tone down the bitterness of the beer, drawing out the malt flavours. Fried chicken is a perfect example of this, and a plate of Wisconsin cheese curds is a delightful match for an IPA.

Cheese curds are coagulated dairy chunks, the product of the first stage of cheese-making. They have a rubbery texture and are best eaten fresh, as the squeakiness that fresh cheese curds are known for is produced by the rubbing of protein strands against the enamel. Frying the curds in a beer batter is a popular way to prepare them, and they are often served with a cold beer.

To make beer-battered cheese curds, you will need to coat the curds in a batter made from flour, milk, baking soda, beer, salt, and eggs. The curds should be frozen for an hour before frying, and the oil should be heated to 400°. After coating the curds in the batter, they should be fried for a couple of minutes until golden brown.

Chicken wings are another food that pairs well with IPAs. A recipe for IPA Sriracha chicken wings uses a marinade of IPA, salt, ketchup, Sriracha sauce, cider vinegar, soy sauce, ginger, and cornstarch. The wings are left to marinate overnight before being cooked.

Burgers with barbeque sauce

When making your burgers, you can add some extra ingredients to enhance the flavour and make them even more delicious. For example, you could add some cayenne pepper, garlic powder, and green onions to your beef patties. You could also add some bacon to your barbeque sauce, giving it a nice, warm, bacon-onion flavour.

When it comes to grilling your burgers, it's important to get them to the right temperature. For a medium-rare burger, grill them to 130-135°F, for a medium burger, 140-145°F, for medium-well, 150-155°F, and for well done, 160-165°F.

To make your barbeque sauce, you can use a simple combination of ketchup, brown sugar, honey, mustard, and a few other ingredients. You can also add liquid smoke to give it a subtle, smoky flavour. If you want to get creative, you can experiment with different types of barbeque sauces and find your favourite.

Finally, don't forget to top your burger with some cheese, bacon, onion rings, and fresh vegetables like lettuce and tomato. Serve it on a fluffy potato roll or a buttery brioche bun, and enjoy it with a refreshing IPA.

Sausage, deep-fried meats and French fries

Sausages, deep-fried meats and French fries are all heavy, fatty foods that pair well with an IPA. The IPA counterbalances the salty, fried taste of these foods. The carbonation and brightness of the IPA also help to cut through the fat.

When choosing an IPA to pair with these foods, it's important to consider the intensity of the flavours. The food shouldn't be more powerful than the beer, and vice versa. A session or regular-strength IPA will generally be more successful than a double, triple or quadruple IPA, which may have too much flavour and ABV to pair well with most dishes.

The hop flavour of the IPA is another important consideration. Modern American IPAs have distinct fruit-driven profiles, with notes of citrus and mango that can complement similar flavours in food. For example, an IPA with citrus notes could pair well with a sausage that includes citrus zest in its ingredients.

In addition to the hop flavour, the malt profile of the IPA can also be taken into account when pairing with food. Some IPAs have more prominent malt bills that can come across as biscuity, bready or caramel. These flavours can be matched with similar flavours in food, such as the baked dough of a sausage roll or the caramelised crust on grilled meats.

Finally, the level of bitterness in the IPA will also affect how well it pairs with sausage, deep-fried meats and French fries. Super-bitter beers work well with fried or salty foods, as the salt and fat tone down the bitterness and call attention to the malt.

Desserts like carrot cake, chocolate truffles and ice cream

Desserts like carrot cake, chocolate truffles, and ice cream can be great to have with an IPA.

Carrot cake is a classic pairing with an IPA. The bitterness of the IPA and the sugary sweetness of the carrot cake balance each other out. The natural sweetness from the carrots and the thick layer of sweet, tangy cream cheese frosting make carrot cake incredibly sweet. This means that pairing it with another sweet drink will overwhelm your dessert experience. The key to pairing beer with this cake is balance. Imperial Pale Ales (IPAs) are snappy, bitter beers with lots of citrus or floral components. When you pair that with a super-sweet dish like carrot cake, the bitterness and sweetness of the two contrast each other, balancing the extremities of each.

Slightly sweeter IPAs work better with chocolate truffles, so pick an English version or a maltier American IPA. The malt in the beer heightens the caramel side of milk chocolate, and the hops intensify the spice.

IPAs can also be paired with ice cream. Fruit-based lagers make a delightful pairing with fruit-based ice creams. Keep a stout in mind for chocolate ice cream.

Frequently asked questions