Food pairing
Beer with sweet and sour
Fried protein in a sharply sweet-sour sauce.
Sweet and sour sets the hardest problem in this catalogue: a sauce that is aggressively sugary and aggressively sharp at the same time, over fried protein. Either attribute alone would be manageable, but together they leave very little room.
The beer must be at least as sweet as the sauce or it will taste thin and sour beside it, and it needs enough body not to be washed away by the acidity. Dark, malty and strong is the direction — a Belgian dark strong ale or a weizenbock. Dry, bitter beer is the one thing that reliably fails.
Sweet and sour 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
London brown ale — strong
Beer and dish carry similar weight, so neither flattens the other.
Belgian dark strong ale — strong
Brisk carbonation lifts residue off the palate between bites.
Weizenbock — strong
Brisk carbonation lifts residue off the palate between bites.
Milkshake IPA — good
Enough residual sweetness to stand up to the dish rather than being flattened by it.
Wee heavy — good
Enough residual sweetness to stand up to the dish rather than being flattened by it.
Doppelbock — good
A big beer has the presence to stand alongside a rich, sweet dish.
Sahti — good
A big beer has the presence to stand alongside a rich, sweet dish.
Sweet stout — good
Beer and dish carry similar weight, so neither flattens the other.
Caution: Acidity in the dish is doing what bitterness would otherwise do. A beer with its own acidity, or one with enough residual sweetness to sit under it, is the safer direction.
What not to drink
- American lager — Sweet food makes a drier drink taste harsher than it is.
- Belgian single — Sweet food makes a drier drink taste harsher than it is.
- British golden ale — Sweet food makes a drier drink taste harsher than it is.