Just had an awesome Beer Vs Wine dinner party on Friday. Got the idea from an awesome book titled
He said Beer, She Said Wine: Impassioned Food Pairings to Debate and Enjoy. The founder of DogFish Head is one of the co-authors...
Anyways, the dinner was a huge success, everyone had a great time and even the people who aren't beer fans were impressed.
Our beer menu included:
Ommegang Witte (paired with spinach dip)
Weihenstaphan Hefe weissebeer (paired with goat cheese truffles)
Boon Geuze (paired with a tomato and fresh mozzarella salad)
Duvel (paired with a grilled fish with greens dish)
Yeti Imperial Stout (paired with a caramel pecan chocolate upside down cake)
The Yeti and the Boon Geuze garnered universal praise. Even for the seasoned beer pros like myself, the Geuze was a slight shock to the system - absolutely fantastic but unique too. The Yeti from Great Divide Brewing Co in Denver was the best Imperial Stout I've ever had (I'm going to get a couple of my fellow beer aficionados to try the oak-aged version sometime in the near future). We didn't do any formal voting on who "won" each round, but I'm sure that these two were near unanimous choices. The Weihenstaphan was delicious, but was up against an equally excellent wine. The Duvel was good, but the Graves Blanc that was paired with the fish was amazing - I'm not a wine guy but it's my favorite wine ever.
It was a GREAT evening, and I'd highly, highly, highly recommend picking up the book - even if you don't end up throwing a dinner party with it - it's very educational, and it will help your enjoyment of both beer and wine.