New pairing duo: beer + books

Little does Amazon know that I totally scooped them on the beer + books idea and that once The Monkeyhouse is open (give it a few years…) this will be completely de rigueur. 

In the meantime, I’m psyched about this article from Amazon on pairing books with the appropriate beer.  The intent of the article was to suggest beers to drink with contemporary books.  I took a bit of a backwards approach to the article, using it as a tool to find books I might like, to go with beers I already know I like. 

Warning: there is not actually any science whatsoever in most of the pairings since their methodology was to ask the authors what beer would go well with his/her book and several of them so clearly aren’t beer fans.  Evidence? First three suggestions: Bud, Bud, & Busch.  Boo.  Though Part II of the article is coming out tomorrow, so maybe they’ll redeem themselves.

It starts to pick up a little steam with Sierra Nevada & Boddingtons, until… Jackpot!  Ommegang Three Philosophers. This is an awesome beer that I had for the first time a couple months ago when I received it as a birthday gift (I knew there was a reason you’re my favorite co-worker, Jay!).  I guess this means I’ll have to check out Lauren Groff’s The Monsters of Templeton.

The best writing about beer and books is unfortunately about books I’ll probably never read:

Soft Skull Press’s Richard Nash also suggests a cherry lambic for another “monster” book, Martin Millar’s Lonely Werewolf Girl: “There’s an earthiness to the role of the werewolf, a carnality, that’s the lambic for me, and then the cherry is the fruity feminine, but not so purely feminine as a raspberry lambic…[Besides,] it looks gorgeous, and I think our book does too, if I do say so myself.”

Peaches and badgers, not cherries and monsters, enter the beer discussion for Tim Lebbon’s gritty heroic fantasy novel Fallen. Lebbon rates highly Badger’s Golden Glory, a Hall & Woodhouse ale: “It’s a bitter but subtly flavoured beer with a hint–some would say a forbidden breath–of peach. It’s long been said that a gift of peach blossom bring good fortune and happiness to the recipient, and such a gift would be well-received by the two yoyagers in Fallen….Golden Glory would light their [forbidden journeys] with its eager freshness, but it’s definitely an ale with a hint of danger … and it’s not afraid of a fight.”

This got me thinking, if we all flip the tables on Amazon, can we come up with the opposite list, a list of books that would pair well with each of our favorite beers?

Here are two of my recent faves, both beer-wise and book-wise, paired:

Dogfish Head 90 Minute: Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris.  I loved this book for its sense of humor and irreverence, and I think that’s something that comes through in the Dogfish Head brand, and that the owner, Sam Calagione, completely lived up to at the last two beer events I went to.  At the same time though, the book got down to serious business: layoffs, cancer, an abducted daughter.  And I think we all know that if Dogfish Head were all laughs and no substance they wouldn’t be the powerhouse craft brewery they are today.  So, with this pairing you get deep thoughts and a rich beer in oddball packages.  

Brouwerij Van Steenberge’s Gulden Draak: Like You’d Understand Anyway by Jim Shepard.  This is a book of short stories with incredibly well developed characters, so I thought it would be a good pairing with the Gulden Draak.  This is a deep, rich, beer with new flavors that emerge across the course of a single sip, and across each new sip that you take.  And of course since it is 10.5% ABV, you can’t have too much without getting bowled over, so a little but powerful story seems appropriate to go with a little but powerful bit of beer.

I’d love to see posts with other people’s suggestions, so post your own if you have one!