Choose the right Beer for sweet, spicy, or grilled meats

Beer is flexible, and beer choices are virtually endless. It's largely a matter of personal preference whether to emphasize contrast, complement, or cut. There are really no rules, but there are a few useful ideas for ways to start.

Pairing Beer With Sweet Sauces

Sweet bar-b-que sauces may offer the most options. If the sauce or marinade includes fruit, choosing a corresponding fruit beer will intensify the fruity flavors. For instance, Abita's Purple Haze is mildly raspberry, and would echo a berry-tinged sauce. Samuel Adams Cherry Wheat smells and tastes of sweet, dark cherries (although the cherry aroma is stronger than the flavor). There are beers with almost any and every fruit imaginable, including peach, apricot, cherry, blueberry, and even pomegranate, so matching a fruit flavor isn't difficult. Possibly the mostly intensely fruity brews are the lambics, but they're probably not for the faint of heart, and the sour bitterness may be too overpowering to truly go well with the meal.

Not interested in a fruit festival? Beers with strong yeast flavors are also a good choice for sweeter sauces, especially for lighter meats like chicken or pork. Try a wheat beer, a witbier or hefeweizen. Boulevard's Unfiltered Wheat will stand up to beef without overpowering chicken, and is a great refresher on a hot day, to boot. Flying Dog's In-Heat Wheat or New Belgium's Mothership Wit are also good choices with lighter meats and sweeter sauces.