Topic: Which beer goes best with Curry?

[phatboytall]

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?

[Peripatetic 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.

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.

[solarsplace]

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

[Robert]

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

[chriswg]

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.

[Peripatetic Phil]

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.

[Razor]

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

[peterandjen]

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.

[curryhell]

Discussion on this topic could even rival that of the search for the "missing ingredient"  .  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 .  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 :

[Peripatetic Phil]

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