Are you in the mood for a delicious seafood meal paired with an excellent beer? Seafood restaurants can be pricey, but it can also be tricky to cook seafood at home. However, there's an alternative option. Some grocery stores have great ready-to-eat items to take home, and making a stop at a good liquor store gives you a chance to pick the right beer for your meal.
Seafood and fish have some intricate flavors, from light and delicate to strong and rich. When it comes to crab, lobster, and shrimp, beers with a paler malt profile and moderate hop character make the most sense. Specifically, I've found that Belgian styles with these elements go particularly well with seafood, as the complex fruity esters created by the Belgian yeast complement the light yet rich flavors in the food. Some examples are Belgian blonde ales, tripels, golden ales and saisons.
For a recent meal, I picked up shrimp cocktail, smoked salmon dip with tortilla chips, and lobster salad with a focaccia roll. For my beer, I chose Le Merle Belgian Style Farmhouse Ale, or Saison, from North Coast Brewing Company in Fort Bragg, California. Le Merle is part of North Coast's American Artisan Series. It pours a slightly hazy golden color, with an aroma bursting of citrus, white wine, honey and pepper. The mouthfeel is very carbonated, and the bubbles give way to flavors of pears, citrus, pepper, and a buttery richness. Le Merle matches up perfectly with all the flavor components in the meal: the light and crisp shrimp, the moderate richness of the lobster salad, and the strong smoky flavors of the salmon dip.
There's certainly nothing wrong with picking up pre-made items and calling it an excellent meal, especially if you have the right beer to make it complete. Of course, there's never just one "right" beer or style for a meal. With so many new craft beers constantly being brewed, never has there been a better time for creating some excellent pairings of your own.
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