High Spirits: Beer

HIGH SPIRITS

BY JARED ROUBEN

This past year, I checked off a barbecue trip to Texas that has been at the top of my bucket list for far too long.

I was born in Georgia, where I originally cultivated my love for outdoor barbecues. I have childhood memories replete with pulled pork sandwiches, baby back ribs and Brunswick stew. The experience was about eating with your hands, getting sauce on your face, sharing with family, and finishing meals with sweets like freshly baked blackberry cobbler or a slice of peach pie.

So when I headed down to new barbecue territory, I had high hopes. I marked my Texas barbecue map with every pit from the Hill Country to Austin to San Antonio to Houston. My goal was to explore the region’s smoked fare and to find the best beers to wash it all down.

The layers of flavors and aromatics across different cuts and treatments of meat naturally lend themselves to the variety and flexibility found in various beer styles. For example, fully smoked, thick-cut, fatty beef brisket slathered in sweet, tomatobased barbecue sauce might call for a cold Texas Pilsner like the local favorite, Lone Star. Or, take the same brisket and, for another layer of flavor, pair it with Moody Tongue’s Crushed Green Coriander Wit, which matches the same light body with a layer of fruity crushed green coriander.

So I tossed all greens to the side and focused exclusively on eating smoked meats and drinking beer for the next week. Here are a few of my pairing takeaways with several of Texas’ finest offerings: Beef Brisket: A cold, light lager cuts through the fattiness of beef brisket without overshadowing the complexity of its rub.

Beef Ribs: The residual sugars which sweeten a Bock beer complement the caramelized sugars often found coating beef ribs.

Pork Sausage: The fruit-forward hops and carbonation of an American Pale Ale help cleanse the palate of the richness and fattiness in each bite of pork sausage.

Pork Ribs: The molasses flavor found in the amber malts of a Scotch Ale complement the brown sugar flavor found in many barbecue sauces and rubs used on pork ribs.

Smoked Turkey: The light body and touch of smoke found in a Smoked Helles complement the lighter body and smokiness of a barbecued turkey. In general, the best barbecues always take place outside, under the sun and with a lighter style beer—say, a pilsner, wit or pale ale—in hand. With barbecue in my blood, I enjoy brewing these styles to complement many of my favorite dishes. Pair the sweet, citrus notes of Moody Tongue’s Crushed Green Coriander Wit with smoky beef brisket, or the tropical flavors in our Cold-Pressed Paw Paw Belgian with smoked turkey to add a layer of fruitiness to the dish, the same way you might pair cranberry sauce with turkey on Thanksgiving.

With this recent trip in mind, I look forward to creating culinary beers that can stand up to the complexities found in the smoke, rubs and sauces across the great state of Texas.