Food pairing
Beer with vegan burger
A plant-protein patty built to imitate beef, which makes it a different pairing problem from a vegetable burger.
Modern plant-based patties are engineered towards beef: coconut or sunflower fat for the mouthfeel, yeast extract or heme for savoury depth, and enough browning to give a crust. The result is genuinely rich and genuinely savoury, and it should be paired as such.
It is worth separating from a vegetable burger, which is usually built on beans, grains or beetroot and is lighter, sweeter and more aromatic. Treating the two as one food is exactly the ingredient-name matching that produces bad recommendations.
Vegan burger 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 umami.
What to drink
American amber ale — excellent pairing
A plant-based patty is engineered towards beef — added fat for mouthfeel, yeast extract for savoury depth, a real browned crust — so it takes the same answer beef does. Caramel malt meets the crust and moderate bitterness handles the fat.
Caution: Expect the beer to refresh rather than to stand up to the food.
Tropical stout — outstanding
Deep malt character matches the savoury weight of the dish instead of sitting apart from it.
Rauchbier — outstanding
Smoke in the beer meets smoke on the plate — the same family of compounds on both sides.
Caution: A richer dish than this beer can clear from the palate.
American porter — outstanding
Deep malt character matches the savoury weight of the dish instead of sitting apart from it.
Czech dark lager — outstanding
Deep malt character matches the savoury weight of the dish instead of sitting apart from it.
Caution: Expect the beer to refresh rather than to stand up to the food.
Bock — outstanding
Deep malt character matches the savoury weight of the dish instead of sitting apart from it.
Caution: A richer dish than this beer can clear from the palate.
Old ale — outstanding
Deep malt character matches the savoury weight of the dish instead of sitting apart from it.
Weizenbock — outstanding
Malt sweetness rounds off the salt rather than compounding it.
What not to drink
- Belgian table beer — Expect the beer to refresh rather than to stand up to the food.
- Dark mild — A light beer against a heavy plate tends to disappear.
- Kettle sour — Expect the beer to refresh rather than to stand up to the food.