Curry Recipes Online
Curry Chat => Lets Talk Curry => Topic started by: phatboytall on January 06, 2011, 10:53 AM
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I have always wondered which beer is the most enjoyable with a curry. Ales, Lagers, Wheat beers, Ive tried and heard cases for most of them.
So me and a few mates decided to do a blind taste test of all the Indian Restaurant "Curry" beers with a takeaway to crown a champ. Interesting results
http://thebeerbunker.blogspot.com/2010/11/which-beer-goes-best-with-curry.html
Obviously a limited pool of restaurant available beers, but great fun!
Whats your favorite curry beer? Does it change dramatically with the type of curry?
Would love to hear peoples thoughts.
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Sad sod that I am, alcohol abuse, an undiagnosed viral hepatitis, or simply an over-sensitive liver (my consultants can't agree which) have led to my being enforcedly teetotal. My choice is therefore restricted to so-called "alcohol-free" beers, which in Germany at least can be up to 0,5% alcohol. And Beers of Europe (http://www.beersofeurope.co.uk/) carry almost every one :) So, over the years, I have worked my way through their entire stock list, and come up with just two that are really, absolutely, perfect. Absolutely top was Main Thaler, now sadly disappeared from the market; but a very close second is Clausthaler Extra Herb (http://www.beersofeurope.co.uk/acatalog/Beers_of_Europe__Clausthaler_71.html#aDEC190), which is not only a splendid accompaniment to a curry but is also a very satisfying drink in its own right. Cobra alcohol-free is way way down my personal list, perhaps because it is genuinely 0% alcohol. And Kaliber doesn't appear on my list at all : I don't know of a single person who regards it as drinkable, and how it has remained on the market for so long is a complete and utter mystery.
** Phil.
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If I'm in a restaurant I'll usually order pints of Cobra. If I'm tucking into a hot Vindaloo strength curry all I need is something cold and bubbly. By the time we get to the restaurant I'm usually in for 5 or 6 pints so the subtleties of Indian lagers are lost on me. I like bitter, ale and an occasional Guinness but with a curry I couldn't imagine anything but lager.
At home I usually favour cans of Stella or Bud but only because I get them cheap from duty free (72 x 440ml for ?35).
I like the article though. I'll give that one you recommend a go next time I see it.
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I'm a bit out of the loop living abroad , but Cobra allways seemed to go well and is the one beer nearly all sit down BIR's would sell though I am not sure if it still tastes the same as it used to as foreign beers get snapped up screwed up and brewed up by UK companies, I am thinking Fosters, Castelmaine, Budweiser, Heineken, at home in the UK I always went for a Mexican beer which are well suited too spicy food i'm thinking Corona, Tecate and Sol, nice and smooth and refreshing with no overpowering taste, if you come over to Thailand go for SanMiguel light or Leo to go with your Thai or Indian food.
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When eating in a restaurant I always look forward to a pint of Kingfisher with my curry
but only if it's on tap.
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if you come over to Thailand go for SanMiguel light or Leo to go with your Thai or Indian food.
Not Singha ? I am surprised !
** Phil.
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At home it's budweisers for me but like a few of your when sitting in for a meal it's cobra or kingfisher pints on draught , not the bottles
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Any, or wine, I'm not fussy....
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Well, I'm afraid that I'm one of the strange types, that can't drink alcohol whilst having a meal :(
Copious amounts before hand, yes, and equally large amounts afterwards, no problem but whilst eating my meal, just water I'm afraid.
My 3 beers of choice would be, Budweiser, Tennents Extra (don't see it much these day's) and being of an Irish family, Guinness, naturally.
Ray :)
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if you come over to Thailand go for SanMiguel light or Leo to go with your Thai or Indian food.
Not Singha ? I am surprised !
** Phil.
Singha has too strong a taste for me and is brewed at 6% here (only 5% in the UK I think) and it gives me a terrible hangover, don't even touch Chang as it has a long shelf life due to all the chemicals like formaldehyde in it and is brewed at a minimum of 6.4% but can be a lot stronger, it is the beer of choice of the local alcoholics and it gives you an even bigger headache than Singha, Tiger has a strong overpowering beer taste and as for the local Heineken as well as being the most expensive of the lot it always has a weird taste to me.
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At home it's budweisers for me but like a few of your when sitting in for a meal it's cobra or kingfisher pints on draught , not the bottles
Why not bottles? Its all the same pasturised and carbonated product?
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Singha has too strong a taste for me and is brewed at 6% here (only 5% in the UK I think) and it gives me a terrible hangover, don't even touch Chang as it has a long shelf life due to all the chemicals like formaldehyde in it and is brewed at a minimum of 6.4% but can be a lot stronger, it is the beer of choice of the local alcoholics and it gives you an even bigger headache than Singha, Tiger has a strong overpowering beer taste and as for the local Heineken as well as being the most expensive of the lot it always has a weird taste to me.
Interesting ! In my pre-teetotal days, I loved Singha and Tiger, but then I was always drawn to strong beers, not for their alcohol content but simply because they seemed to have a far better flavour. For me, 5% was infinitely better than 3,5%, and Chimay Rouge and Chimay Bleue (7% & 9% respectively) were out of this world, yet now I drink 0,5% and love it. I really think the Germans have learned how to brew alkoholfrei Bier that tastes just as good as the real thing (thank goodness !).
** Phil.
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Singha has too strong a taste for me and is brewed at 6% here (only 5% in the UK I think) and it gives me a terrible hangover, don't even touch Chang as it has a long shelf life due to all the chemicals like formaldehyde in it and is brewed at a minimum of 6.4% but can be a lot stronger, it is the beer of choice of the local alcoholics and it gives you an even bigger headache than Singha, Tiger has a strong overpowering beer taste and as for the local Heineken as well as being the most expensive of the lot it always has a weird taste to me.
Interesting ! In my pre-teetotal days, I loved Singha and Tiger, but then I was always drawn to strong beers, not for their alcohol content but simply because they seemed to have a far better flavour. For me, 5% was infinitely better than 3,5%, and Chimay Rouge and Chimay Bleue (7% & 9% respectively) were of this world, yet now I drink 0,5% and love it. I really think the Germans have learned how to brew alkoholfrei Bier that tastes just as good as the real thing (thank goodness !).
** Phil.
I agree with you Phil, personally find now that beers of around 5% seem to have a much better flavour!
Don't get me wrong, if it was a choice of no larger or a can of Fosters, then obviously I'd have to have a Fosters (yuk) - but a nice chilled pint-ish size bottle of Peroni with anything and you cannot go wrong ;)
cheers
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Well, I'm afraid that I'm one of the strange types, that can't drink alcohol whilst having a meal :(
Copious amounts before hand, yes, and equally large amounts afterwards, no problem but whilst eating my meal, just water I'm afraid.]
Agreed. Nothing like plotting your meal over a "few" beers in advance, but once I start eating I lose interest, and afterwards I'm too stuffed for anything other than shorts.
By the way, Tesco have recently been stocking Bengal Lancer, a high strength hoppy "real" India Pale Ale by Fullers. Lovely stuff!
Rob
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At home it's budweisers for me but like a few of your when sitting in for a meal it's cobra or kingfisher pints on draught , not the bottles
Why not bottles? Its all the same pasturised and carbonated product?
Are you serious??? You run (or at least contribute to) a beer testing website. The difference between a glass bottle of beer compared to it's equivalent draught is immeasurable. I can manage to drink bottled Peroni and Cobra but that's about it. If there is a draught option I'll take it every time. I don't know anyone who wouldn't.
As for you people who can't drink beer with a curry... I'm disappointed with you.
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Are you serious??? You run (or at least contribute to) a beer testing website. The difference between a glass bottle of beer compared to it's equivalent draught is immeasurable. I can manage to drink bottled Peroni and Cobra but that's about it. If there is a draught option I'll take it every time. I don't know anyone who wouldn't.
Well, now you do :) Although I have never formed an opinion about the relative merits of bottled v. draught Cobra or Kingfisher, I can say with complete confidence that when I still drank alcoholic beer I infinitely preferred bottled Guinness to draught, and in my later years I gave up draught beer completely and switched to premium bottled ales such as 1845, Bishops Finger, Bombardier, Old Hooky, Pedigree, Ruddles, Speckled Hen - , Spitfire, Theakstons, and XXX, as well as imports such as Chimay, Cobra, Hefe Weissen, Lefe, Singha and Tiger. Each to their own, of course, but somehow the "warm, flat, slightly off-smelling" traditional British draught beer has never been something that has appealed to me, although I drank rather too much of it before I learned to be more selective.
** Phil.
- Speckled Hen was also available on draught as well as in bottles, but the flavour, the nose and the gaseousness of the bottled version was (to my mind) far more consistent, but I also preferred the taste and texture of bottled Hen as well as the fact that it was served chilled.
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As for you people who can't drink beer with a curry... I'm disappointed with you.
Ha ha Chris, sorry for your dissapointment mate ;D
It's not so much that I can't drink beer with a curry, it's more that, for me, the curry makes the beer taste rank, so I stick with water until the curry's gone. Then it's beer o'clock again.
As for bottles v draught, Budweiser, bottled every time for me however, Guinness has to be on draught, the bottled stuff is just vile, IMHO.
Ray :)
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There's a choice of four beverages to have with a curry for me.
Newcastle Brown Ale, or a bottle of dog if your northern.
A decent pint of Bitter, Worthingtons is a good one.
A very nice drink any time, especially with a ruby is a nice cold Bottle of Perry. NOT PEAR CIDER!!!.
And finally to cleanse the gob, Brandy Coffee mmmmmmmm. :)
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Discussion on this topic could even rival that of the search for the "missing ingredient" :o. Personally, i am a confirmed Belgium beer drinker, preferably with a starting alcohol content of 6.6%. Normal tipple is Leffe Blonde peaking at Rochefort 10 at 11.4% - the last one of the night having tasted many other good 8% and 9% on the way (Chimay however does nothing for me, all a question of pallet though!). After that the memory starts to cloud a little ;D In the absence of "quality" beer, a good real ale, cask or bottled goes down equally as well. Lager is a non starter unless there is total absence of any of the above. The only exception is Cobra or Lal Toofan - imho the perfect accompaniment to a curry. Post curry, back to the proper stuff of course :P. As for Guinness, refuse to drink it outside of the emerald isle, with the exception of the export gear clocking a respectable 8% on the intoxication meter.
All this said, a glass of nice ice cold milk also goes down very well with a quality vindaloo or phall ::)
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All this said, a glass of nice ice cold milk also goes down very well with a quality vindaloo or phall ::)
Makes a good enema, too, if the pain gets too much to bear (or so I'm told) ;D
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My own favourite beer is a very low hop Wheat Beer. I love the yeasty banana flavours.
Hops are bitter. With a curry I want to avoid bitterness in the accompanying beer.
Also I would search out those beers with natural gas though second fermentation and not as with most lagers - through artificial injection of carbon dioxide.
Injected gas bubbles are much larger than natural gas bubbles.
First the bubble surface area of the injected bubbles is smaller and therefore less taste generated - think total area of ball bearings inside a football compared with the surface area of the football itself.
But more important with injection easy in - easy out. Natural gas (through fermentation in a closed vessel) stays in.
And then large bubbles lead to belching and farting. :o
But that may be an objective. ::)
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I'm a real ale man myself - I have run 2 real ale pubs and without being more boring than your average CAMRA dullard - the new(ish) style of pale hoppy beers such as Oakham JHB, St.Austell - Proper Job, Castle Rock - Harvest Pale etc. Go perfectly with a curry. The problem is getting them in a restaurant.
When I do a curry night in the pub - these pale ales go down a storm - Milton Tiki or Sparta are our house beers and they sit very well with spicy food.
You don't get much choice in a curry house though - so usually end up with the bottled lager.