How To Pair Sour Beers With Food, According To A Master Cicerone

Even in the world of craft beer, sour beers often get overlooked. Brewers in the U.S. were quick to embrace hoppy IPAs and have moved on to creating more easy drinking pilsners and session beers since then, but despite a few good popular sour beer releases, the style has never broken through to widespread popularity. That's too bad, though, because they are a wonderfully refreshing and delicious type of beer. Sour beers pair complexity and fresh flavors with a distinctly tart bite from special brewing bacteria that distinguishes them from all other beer styles. 

And while we will sing the praises of a great sour beer, we recognize that lack of familiarity can be self-reinforcing, as not knowing the kind of meals that pair well with sour beers can lead people to keep avoiding them. So, to remedy the situation, Tasting Table asked an expert. Rich Higgins (@maltyrich on Instagram), a master cicerone, certified sommelier, and former brewmaster, offered up his recommendations on how to pair sour beers with food. 

Higgins explained to us that "sour beers have more acidity than typical beers, which offers them an extra dimension to consider in food pairings." He likened pairing sour beers to using lemon or vinegar, saying "their sourness can be great for cutting the richness of fatty or starchy foods or balancing and brightening salty or sweet foods." However, Higgins did caution that "acidity isn't a pairing panacea," warning that it can bump against bitter foods like kale and arugula, blackened steak, or bitter chocolate.

Getting more specific with the dishes that should make you reach for a sour, Rich Higgins recommended, "when pairing sour beers with bitter foods, make sure there's enough sweetness and/or fat in the equation that the sourness is needed." Sourness is a kind of acidity, and as one of the five principal tastes, along with sweet, salty, bitter, and umami, it can help balance out and bring a lightness to food that is too heavy, saccharine, or one-note. Higgins even gave us a simple trick if you still aren't sure about pairing sour beer. His idea was "use the lemon test: Any dish that'd be improved with a little lemon juice or a red wine is gonna be great paired with a sour beer. That's a lot of dishes!"

And to highlight just how versatile sour beers are, he gave us a laundry list of specific pairings he'd recommended, including fried dishes like calamari and fish and chips, meaty sausage and steak au poivre, rich eggs Benedict and cacio e pepe, and even lighter options like Thai green papaya salad and ceviche. But maybe the best place to start is something you already want to a drink a beer with anyway: a cheeseburger. Higgins told us a Midwestern juicy lucy would be great, but the acid of a sour beer is perfect for cutting any burger that is dripping with juicy fat and covered in melty cheese.