Are You Game for a Great Food and Beer Pairing?

There are so many different ways to create a great burger. Adding spices, cheeses, or vegetables, either inside or on top, can take the burger's flavor profile in a lot of different directions. A great burger with bold, complex flavors needs a sturdy and complex beer to match its intensity. A friend recently gave Kris and me some elk meat from a Fall hunting trip, so we made elk burgers this week. With the help of a great recipe we found, they turned out to be absolutely delicious, and my choice of Old Ruffian Barley Wine by Great Divide Brewing Co. complemented them perfectly.

Old Ruffian is an American barley wine style ale that packs huge aggressive flavors. A barley wine is a strong ale that's enjoyed most often during the colder months, and has the ability to age for up to a decade or more. The 10.2 percent ABV Old Ruffian pours a dark ruby red with moderate carbonation. The aroma exudes a sweetness like dark fruits or caramel, and the taste matches the sweetness before giving way to huge hop characters. Flavors of tropical fruits, citrus, piney bitterness and a slight alcohol burn linger on the tongue. To put it simply, this beer has a lot going on inside it. Old Ruffian is full-bodied but has a slick mouthfeel, making it a nice match for a meal.

We prepared the burgers by stuffing them with blue cheese, red onion, thyme, oregano, garlic, and a few other spices, and topped them with caramelized onions and bacon. Among the amazing flavors were the savory lean elk, sweetness from the caramelized onions, smokiness and saltiness from the bacon, and a richness from the blue cheese. Old Ruffian had an answer for all these flavors, with the sweet maltiness in the aroma and initial taste, then the huge hop flavors slicing through on the finish. For such a big, strong beer, it doesn't overwhelm the meal, but instead enhances it.

A great aspect about food and beer pairings is that experimentation is encouraged, so consider trying Old Ruffian with a meal of your own. Likewise, maybe try elk burgers or other wild game with another craft beer that sounds like a good match. Cheers to exploring the world of food and beer!