Living in the Lowcountry, we are lucky in the recent years to have a fantastic supply of local and international craft beer to choose from, beers which should quench most any beer drinker’s thirst. But way before beer was a bullet point on the calling card of the region, another culinary attraction was and still remains seafood. Living this close to fresh and salt water, how could you not think fish and shrimp when you think southeast?
My experience pairing beer with seafood has generally fallen into two categories. On one hand, I have been lucky enough to visit several tropical locals, and the general rule of thumb in these equatorial spots is drink whatever local beer is available while eating whatever is fresh out of the sea. Think Presidente in the Dominican Republic with the catch of the day, or Pilsen in Costa Rica with a delicious civeche or more recently Magna and mahi tacos in Puerto Rico. Good if you can get it, but not your general daily fare.
More likely, it’s a restaurant in town, where the seafood selection is great yet the beer is limited. I can remember attempting to choose a brew to go with my blackened salmon, not an obvious choice. Or just settling for a timid pale ale whilst feasting on seared tuna. What’s a beer snob to do?
The following are a few suggestions for your beer and seafood combo, certainly not the golden rules that exist in the wine world — white with fish, red with meat, etc. If you have a favorite beer and a favorite fish, pair them and see what happens; there are no hard and fast rules in this game.
Let’s say you are cooking a delicate, light-flavored fish, such as flounder or grouper. You would most likely want to go with a clean, subtle beer, so as to not overwhelm the flavor of the main dish. I suggest trying a pilsner, either a Czech or German lighter lager that will be crisp and clean, but will not overpower the flavors of the fish. The peppery, slight spicy yet gentle malt notes of these beers are a great option.
If the seafood you choose is blackened, Cajun, or even fried, I suggest an American pale ale or IPA. Depending on the level of bitterness you can handle, pale ales and IPAs do a splendid job of cutting through the spicy nature and ‘burning’ of these kinds of foods. Also, the hoppier beers, and even the more bitter American lagers are great at cutting through the heavier, greasy fried foods.
What about the heavier, more flavorful or even meatier fish? Many different beers can work in these cases, and it’s a bit of trial and error to see what works. I have paired Belgian Tripels successfully with salmon, especially when cooked with dill butter. Soy sauce or BBQ tuna is a nice match for an English brown ale as well as a German dunkelweisen and even a Scottish ale, none of which are extremely heavy beers, but are in the mid flavor range, much like these brawny types of fish.
At the end of the day, when dinner is on the table, you don’t have to settle for going by the book. Crack open an exotic beer that either mimics and compliments or contrasts with the dish at hand, and have at it. Beer is extremely flexible, and many different styles can be quite friendly with even the most unusual seafood offering. Enjoy the brews … Cheers.
Gene’s Haufbrau has at more than 200 beers in bottles or on tap. While they don’t have every beer the Beer Snob writes about, they probably have most. Gene’s is located at 817 Savannah Hwy. 225-GENE. E-mail the Beer Snob at publisher@westof.net.

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