Beerpedia

Beer goes great with food. What’s happening in the food world?  

From the beginning of mankind, food played a central role in our lives. With the relatively recent digital (r)evolution, a whole new world opened up. Few years ago, Google started using the term Digital Kitchen with “59% of 25- to 34-year-olds head to the kitchen with either their smartphones or tablets”. Tasty-style videos started appearing all over our screens. Popularity of cooking shows, food-related channels and influencers exploded. Today, food is everywhere.

The great thing about the internet is the ability to exchange ideas in a simple way. Suddenly, remote cultures became closer. Recipes previously available only locally got recognized globally. Unknown ingredients started gaining popularity and new takes on old recipes became a norm. Filipino BBQ, West Africa cuisine, ube, kimchi, black tahini … we can go on forever. Thanks to social media, an entire flavour revolution happened. And food was at the forefront of it.

Beer follows the food pattern and seems to be on its own quest of exploring bold new flavours, reviving old beer styles and treating new ingredients to traditional brewing techniques. With the increase in complexity of flavours in both food and beer an interesting thing happened. When reading interviews with some well-known chefs, many of them seem to prefer simple, less complex beer styles, like pilsner or blonde ale.

While the real reason is hard to decipher, it seems that complex dishes that many chefs tend to create go well with more balanced, easier to drink beers. Whatever the case, a fine beer will always be there to go with food, no matter what local recipe suddenly becomes popular across the globe.