Ale Caesar: Beer pairings for your favorite salads

Given the longstanding love affair between beer and grilled and barbecued meats you could be forgiven for overlooking a less-talked-about pairing opportunity And I m not talking about pizza burgers hot dogs or even cheese all of which are beer matches made practically in heaven I m talking about beer and salad OK so it s not the most of obvious choice but beer is extremely versatile and can be paired wonderfully with almost any dish it s just a matter of finding the best pairing to unlock a combination of flavors that is more than the sum of its parts For simplicity s sake I m looking at the first-course salads that tend to be more delicate yet contain numerous individual ingredients and strong flavored dressings rather than heartier-style salads and divided my recommendations based on the style of dressing The best pairings are often with lighter-bodied more nuanced beers to complement the delicacy of the salad A beer that s too strong or too heavy will run roughshod over the subtle flavors in your salad Creamy dressings In the United States the majority of popular salad dressing is ranch which in the s was first pioneered in California by Steven Henson for his Hidden Valley Ranch steakhouse near Santa Barbara Ranch alongside other creamy dressings such as Caesar Thousand Island and Green Goddess pair nicely with hefeweizens weissbier and other wheat beers where the smoothness from the added wheat keeps them from overwhelming the salad Hoppy pilsners are another good choice along with red ales amber lagers and blonde ales Although they re harder to find a rye beer is also great because of the spiciness the rye adds Stronger creamy dressings like blue cheese carry tangy flavors that can stand up to heartier beers even dark ones so I d recommend a doppelbock or dunkelweizen a dark wheat beer Consider pairing a more meat-heavy salad with a hazy IPA or a spicy Belgian tripel Courtesy Getty Images Vinaigrettes Oil and vinegar is easily the oldest type of dressing with evidence of the ancient Babylonians using it nearly years ago The French later refined oil and vinegar dressing adding mustard ketchup paprika and other herbs but the bulk popular one in California according to sales material from is Italian dressing which adds herbs spices chopped vegetables and garlic into the mix Other similar dressings include honey mustard balsamic and other vinaigrettes For lighter beers great choices are a Belgian witbier whose signature orange peel and coriander pull out a salad s nuances or a saison or farmhouse ale especially one that exhibits notes of pepper from the yeast used in brewing Other good choices include k lsches wheat beers and amber lagers Or you can lean into the dressing s vinegary flavors and choose a sour more acidic beer such as a Belgian lambic gueuze or Berliner Weisse A sour Flanders red can also pair wonderfully with your salad especially if it includes seafood For a wedge salad try an IPA a porter or a stout but not an imperial one If your salad includes fruit a complementary fruit beer especially a fruit wheat beer can work wonders Another approach is to ignore the dressing in favor of a specific component For example you can pair a Waldorf salad and its signature walnuts with a nut brown ale to give more weight to that ingredient A rich pale ale works well too Related Articles Is hefeweizen the original hazy The art of grilling with beer A brief history of beer from ancient goddesses to Oregonian craft brews Not just for wine lovers A brewery day trip to Paso Robles What Sierra Nevada Pale Ale s rare World Beer Cup win means Here are two more pairings for a couple of the bulk popular types of salads Ale Caesar Caesar salads which originated in Mexico are one of the most of popular varieties in the current era I m personally fond of pairing mine with a German helles a light-bodied malty lager but pilsners blonde ales or cream ales are solid choices too Cobb Since a Cobb salad commonly includes more meat than plenty of other salads it s one of the scarce types that will work well with a hazy IPA Naturally the same is true for any other heavily meaty salad A spicy Belgian tripel is also a great pairing Contact Jay R Brooks at BrooksOnBeer gmail com For more food and drink coverage follow us on Flipboard