Food pairing
Beer with olives
Cured olives — intensely salty and briny with a bitter edge.
Cured olives are salty, briny and genuinely bitter, which is a rare combination — most salty foods are not also bitter, and the two together are hard on a beer, because brine and hop bitterness compound each other rather than cancelling out.
So the answer is a beer with more malt than bitterness. A dark mild or an ordinary bitter has the sweetness to round off the salt and the restraint not to add to the bitterness already there. Very hoppy beer turns metallic against olives, which surprises people who expect an IPA to handle anything savoury.
Olives rules a lot of beer out, but several beers do the job it needs equally well. Pick between them on preference — the reasons matter more than the order. The attribute doing most of the work is salt.
What to drink
Dark mild — strong
Beer and dish carry similar weight, so neither flattens the other.
Kentucky Common — strong
Beer and dish carry similar weight, so neither flattens the other.
Ordinary bitter — strong
Beer and dish carry similar weight, so neither flattens the other.
International amber lager — good
Beer and dish carry similar weight, so neither flattens the other.
International dark lager — good
Beer and dish carry similar weight, so neither flattens the other.
Low-alcohol bitter — good
Beer and dish carry similar weight, so neither flattens the other.
Czech pale lager — good
Beer and dish carry similar weight, so neither flattens the other.
Alcohol-free pale lager — good
Beer and dish carry similar weight, so neither flattens the other.
What not to drink
- Helles Bock — Delicate food needs a beer that stays out of its way.
- Bock — Delicate food needs a beer that stays out of its way.
- Dortmunder Export — Delicate food needs a beer that stays out of its way.