beer flight

Pair your fall food with beer

Fall brings new foods and flavors, and there are many beers that pair perfectly with the apples, gourds, and Thanksgiving classics you’ll be enjoying this season.

There are two spots in the Chicago Botanic Garden where beer is served: the Garden View Café and the Rose Terrace Beer Garden. Now that it’s fall, the Beer Garden is only open on weekends (weather permitting), but the new season also means there are new flavors and varieties to try there.

I sat down with Matt Sherry, beverage supervisor at the Garden, to find out what beers are best this time of year, which beverages pair well with classic fall dishes, and what interesting craft brews are available at the Garden this fall.

Beverage supervisor Matt Sherry and colleague prepare for our beer garden's grand opening this past summer.
Beverage supervisor Matt Sherry and colleague prepare for our beer garden’s grand opening this past summer.

A basic rule in pairing alcohol with food is to make sure there is balance between what’s in your glass and what’s on your plate, so the flavors in your drink don’t overpower your meal, Sherry said. That’s, of course, true for beer as well. 

Here are his fall food and beer pairings (all of the beers are available at the Garden):

beer-3Sheeps-Cashmere-HammerTurkey chili: A darker beer like 3 Sheeps Brewing Company Cashmere Hammer would work well with a heavy dish like chili. Its creamy flavor and texture has chocolate notes that complement the cinnamon and cardamom spices usually found in chili.

Roast turkey: IPAs have a bitterness that cuts through the taste of the fat in foods like turkey. Citrus is always a good pairing with poultry, so choose  Goose Island Juicy Double IPA, which is brewed with orange juice, for Thanksgiving dinner or leftovers.

beer-My-Shout-Sparkling-AlePumpkin pie: For a rich, dense dessert like pumpkin pie, a lighter beer works best. Goose Island My Shout, an Australian sparkling ale, is a limited-edition release that has hints of stone fruit, making it a good choice for pumpkin pie. If you want to go overboard with the same flavors, go for a pumpkin ale.

Butternut squash soup: Skip the beer when you have butternut squash soup and grab a cider instead. A dry cider isn’t as sweet, so it won’t overpower the flavor of your soup. Virtue Cider Michigan Brut is especially nice.

beer-Petal-to-the-KettleAnti-fall choices: If you want no part of sweater weather and pumpkin spice lattes, grab a SweetWater TripleTail. This IPA is brewed with tropical flavors like passion fruit and papaya, so you can imagine you’re on a beach instead of gearing up for cold weather. Another good option is Upland Brewing Company Petal to the Kettle. Part of the brewery’s Side Trail Series, a limited edition set of experimental brews, this sour has hibiscus and strawberry flavors.

 

Ready to sample some creative craft beers? Come to Autumn Brews on Thursday, October 12. Tickets available online.


©2017 Chicago Botanic Garden and my.chicagobotanic.org

Published by

Jasmine Leonas

Jasmine Leonas is a media relations specialist at the Garden. She lives in Chicago with her husband and son. A native Floridian, she still gets excited when it snows.