The Epic Battle: Beer vs. Wine

It may be more useful as cocktail party chatter than formulating advice, but apparently if you’re looking for a beverage that best complements a meal, you might pick up a six-pack instead of that bottle of pinot grigio you had your eye on.

I get an assortment of press releases in any given day and, while it’s easy to delete ones that aren’t strictly germane to our business, it’s hard to pass up one titled: “Beer Defeats Wine in an Epic Three Year Pairing Competition.”  (Despite my initial personal interest, even this topic has a professional component, because beer-pairing, as well as wine-pairing, is a great idea if you’re in the restaurant business.)

But for me, it’s more like a sensory puzzle combined with the conundrum I might face on the infinitesimal chance the White Sox and the Cubs would ever face each other in the World Series. (Grew up on the South Side, but live north, so I cheer on both ponies. I can dream, can’t I?) Cubs vs. Sox…beer vs. wine…which do I really want to come out on top?

Well, according to the press release―keeping in mind it was sent by the brewer in the competition, Stone Brewing Co. ―it’s beer by a figurative and literal nose. This makes sense if you think about all the notes in beer that can mirror those in foods: roasted, caramelized, fruity, sweet, bitter, etc. It’s every bit as complex as wine for those who take their beer-tasting seriously. Or perhaps Greg Koch, Stone Brewing’s CEO and  Co-Founder, has a better eye―or tongue―for choosing appealing flavor combinations than Barry Wiss of Napa’s Trinchero Family Estates .

The event was to highlight the craft of the brewer and the sophistication of modern beers.  But, maybe there’s something to be learned here about balancing and blending flavors in our line of product development. On the other hand it might just be a hedonistic foodie journey through the world of beer and wine food pairings. Whatever the case, Stone Brewing is hosting another event that sounds absolutely delicious: the Ultimate Beer and Chocolate Pairing . Perhaps purely in the interest of food science, it might be worth checking out.

   -Lynn A. Kuntz