Food pairing
Beer with pretzel
Lye-baked bread with a dark crust and coarse salt.
A pretzel is a lye-baked crust, coarse salt and very little else. The lye bath is what makes it: it produces a dark, faintly bitter, distinctly toasted skin that no other bread has, and that skin is the whole flavour.
This is the least complicated pairing in beer and one of the best. Munich Helles has the bready malt to meet the crust and the clean finish to handle the salt, and the two have been served together in the same city for long enough that the answer is settled. Nothing needs to cut anything — they simply taste like each other.
Pretzel 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 salt.
What to drink
Munich Helles — classic pairing
Bready malt against lye-baked bread crust, with the beer’s faint sweetness answering the coarse salt. Neither is trying to be interesting and that is why it works.
Rauchbier — strong
Smoke in the beer meets smoke on the plate — the same family of compounds on both sides.
Caution: Something lighter will let the food lead. This pairing works only if you want the beer to be the main event.
Czech dark lager — strong
Malt sweetness rounds off the salt rather than compounding it.
English porter — strong
Roasted malt echoes the charred, caramelised edge of the food, so the two reinforce each other.
Sweet stout — strong
Roasted malt echoes the charred, caramelised edge of the food, so the two reinforce each other.
Munich Dunkel — strong
Beer and dish carry similar weight, so neither flattens the other.
American brown ale — strong
Beer and dish carry similar weight, so neither flattens the other.
Dark mild — strong
Beer and dish carry similar weight, so neither flattens the other.
What not to drink
- Eisbock — Something lighter will let the food lead. This pairing works only if you want the beer to be the main event.
- English barley wine — Something lighter will let the food lead. This pairing works only if you want the beer to be the main event.
- Alcohol-free pale lager — A light beer against a heavy plate tends to disappear.