Forget wine, introduce craft beer as the beverage of choice to pair with your Thanksgiving Day meal. But where do you start? With so many different dishes on the tables and endless craft beer styles and flavors to choose from, pulling together the perfect pairings can be overwhelming. For this food-centric holiday, here are a few of our suggestions to help you navigate a full day of eating and drinking great beer.
Pre-Dinner hors d'oeuvres
When your guests arrive, you want to make sure you are offering them something that won’t overwhelm their pallets. With a marathon day of eating and drinking ahead, you will want to consider offering something on the light in both flavor and alcohol. Consider something refreshing like our Red, Wheat and Blue. This beer is an American Wheat Ale made with Pilsner and Wheat Malt and bright, floral Willamette, Cascade and Lemondrop Hops. At our taproom we serve this pint with an orange slice to bring out the citrus flavor.
Dinner
With a typical Thanksgiving meal including dozens of dishes, it’s not easy to come up with one that will go with such a diverse plate of food. From the Turkey and stuffing to the mash potatoes, gravy and cranberry sauce – what flavor is going to pair well with so many different dishes? Our recommendation is to go with a Brown Ale. This beer will give you a more roundness of flavor and the nutty nuances goes well with dishes like turkey and potatoes doused in gravy. Our Jersey Girl Brown Ale is new to the taps, highly drinkable and is made with Amber, Honey and C-120 Malts.
Not a fan of dark beers? A California Common or Steam Beer is also going to work well for the main course. This light, amber lager is a medium body variety with subtle malt flavors – allowing for all the great flavors on your plate to shine. Our Clifton Common brew is a great example of this classic style.
Dessert
As you may have guessed, a good stout is usually the way to go when it goes to dessert pairings. While I’m sure there is no skipping dessert in your mind on a holiday like Thanksgiving, Stouts would make a great standalone for dessert. As for the majority of us who are already looking forward to a nice slice of pumpkin pie, a stout pairs nicely with most sweet treats. Our Menace to Sobriety Stout features subtle chocolate flavors that is sure to pair well with any dessert brought to the table.
Whether you are hosting or visiting someone’s home this Thanksgiving, rather than bring a bottle of wine, opt for some craft brews.
We will soon be offering growler service so finger crossed we will have that available before Thanksgiving! Check back often for updates!