Food pairing
Beer with sticky toffee pudding
Dense date sponge in toffee sauce — about as sweet as a dessert gets.
Date sponge in toffee sauce — one of the sweetest and richest desserts in British cooking, with a genuine burnt-sugar bitterness under the sugar.
Dark caramel malt meets the toffee almost exactly. The beer must be as sweet as the pudding or it will taste sour beside it, which rules out most of the catalogue.
Sticky toffee pudding 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 sweetness.
What to drink
English barley wine — excellent pairing
Toffee and dried fruit on both sides, and enough alcohol to cut the sugar so the pairing does not collapse into pure sweetness. Serve both in small measures.
Belgian dark strong ale — strong
Beer and dish carry similar weight, so neither flattens the other.
Weizenbock — strong
Beer and dish carry similar weight, so neither flattens the other.
Tropical stout — strong
Beer and dish carry similar weight, so neither flattens the other.
Milkshake IPA — strong
Beer and dish carry similar weight, so neither flattens the other.
Sweet stout — strong
Beer and dish carry similar weight, so neither flattens the other.
Wee heavy — strong
Beer and dish carry similar weight, so neither flattens the other.
Doppelbock — good
Beer and dish carry similar weight, so neither flattens the other.
What not to drink
- Bière de Garde — Sweet food makes a drier drink taste harsher than it is.
- London brown ale — A light beer against a heavy plate tends to disappear.
- Gueuze — Sweet food makes a drier drink taste harsher than it is.