Food pairing
Beer with pickled herring
Oily fish cured in vinegar and salt, where the acidity is deliberate and dominant rather than incidental.
The whole preparation exists to hold a very oily fish, and it does it with acid and salt in quantities that would be startling anywhere else. What arrives is sharp, saline and rich all at once.
Acidity in the food is what makes this difficult. A sour beer adds to it rather than balancing it, and a sweet beer sets up a clash; what works is something dry, clean and firmly carbonated, which is why the traditional accompaniment across the Baltic is a plain pale lager.
Pickled herring narrows the field sharply, and one answer stands clear of the rest. Most beer falls down on at least one thing this dish demands. The attribute doing most of the work is acidity.
What to drink
Czech premium pale lager — classic pairing
Vinegar-cured herring is sharp, saline and oily all at once, and it is drunk with plain pale lager across the whole Baltic for a reason: a beer with its own strong flavour has to argue with the acidity, and a beer without one simply clears it.
American wild ale — strong
Tartness resets the palate between mouthfuls, the way a squeeze of lemon does.
Bière de Garde — strong
Beer and dish carry similar weight, so neither flattens the other.
Flanders red ale — strong
Tartness resets the palate between mouthfuls, the way a squeeze of lemon does.
Australian sparkling ale — strong
Beer and dish carry similar weight, so neither flattens the other.
Dubbel — strong
Beer and dish carry similar weight, so neither flattens the other.
Belgian golden strong ale — strong
Beer and dish carry similar weight, so neither flattens the other.
Czech dark lager — strong
Malt sweetness rounds off the salt rather than compounding it.
What not to drink
- Dry stout — The vinegar has already done the cutting. What is needed is something clean, not something assertive.
- Pastry stout — Delicate food needs a beer that stays out of its way.
- Sahti — Delicate food needs a beer that stays out of its way.