Trend: beer pairing
Move over, Merlot! Goodbye Grüner Veltliner! These days, we’d rather drink a matching beer when we go out to eat. Even at Michelin-starred restaurants. Trend forecaster Vincent van Dijk saw this trend coming at us. And a golden tip for beer lovers: on August 11, Michelin-starred restaurant Vermeer is hosting a Sunday Beer Brunch.
Drink pairing
The days when restaurants served only matching wines are over. Increasingly, alongside a wine pairing, you can choose a drink pairing, which also offers pairings with cocktails, tea, juices and other non-alcoholic refreshments. Another trend is that chefs and sommeliers are discovering that beer isn’t just delicious with a bitterballen.
Two Chefs Brewing
At Eleven Madison Park in New York, one of the best restaurants in the world, the sommelier doesn’t look surprised at all when you ask which beer best complements a dish, because at least as much attention has been paid to the beer list as to the wine list. Beer is also gaining ground in the fine-dining world in the Netherlands. One of the restaurants that is genuinely good at beer pairing is Bar Alt. No surprise: this is the restaurant of Two Chefs Brewing, the beer brand founded by two former chefs who think from the pan outward. They create flavor combinations that genuinely make you happy.
IJverig
Just opened is IJver, in a warehouse on Amsterdam’s NDSM site, with no fewer than 34 taps, beer cocktails and a hundred different bottled beers. Here, beer is paired and cooked with industriously.
Cliché Chablis
Pairing isn’t difficult at all: you enhance a flavor, create a bridge or deliberately seek out the contrast. It’s a matter of lots of practice. How about a wheat beer with your cheese board instead of the tired old port? Its slightly bitter flavor works wonderfully with the richness of the cheese. And with oysters, instead of the cliché Chablis, you can also serve a light porter beer, with a bitter flavor from the roasted barley malt.
Want to try it yourself?
On Sunday, August 11, Michelin-starred restaurant Vermeer Amsterdam and beer brewer Oedipus are hosting a Sunday Beer Brunch. Vegetable guru Chris Naylor has come up with a number of brilliant dishes that pair incredibly well with the different beers from this colorful brewery. The brunch starts at 12 noon, costs 99 euros for four courses and you can make a reservation through Vermeer.
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