Fun Beers for Your Holiday Table

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The holidays are upon us, which means plenty of food, family, friends, and hopefully a bit of Michigan beer. With so many, many choices out there, it might help to have just a bit of guidance for what might pair well with your dinner, so I’ve put a list together with a few ideas, from light to dark, malty to hoppy, fruity to sour. A little something for everyone, and every part of the meal. As a former chef, I’m a huge fan of not just drinking my beer, but also cooking with it. Certain beers are great for adding to a dish to create a depth of flavor that just wasn’t there before, other beers should stay away from your pot. Pretty much anything that is highly hopped should be passed up for a recipe, the resulting bitterness usually isn’t appealing. But toss in a brown ale, a porter, or a stout, and you are on your way to cooking glory. For Thanksgiving, I’ve been known to brine my bird in beer, glaze roasted Brussel sprouts with a dash of Belgian ale and substitute a bit of broth in my gravy with a robust porter. Desserts are a no-brainer when it comes to cooking with beer, the natural sweetness just lends itself to getting a bit of balance with a brew. Scroll on down for my recipe for Dragon’s Milk Pumpkin Pie, where the addition of a beer reduction takes a classic dessert up to the next level.

BY Amy Sherman for MiBrew Trail

Fun beers for your holiday table, plus a punched up pumpkin pie recipe

MIBREW TRAIL MAGAZINE

WINTER 2022

Third Nature Brewing/Courtesy Photo

Holiday dinners can be a lot of rich and heavy foods, so if you want to brighten your palate a bit, why not try something a wee bit sour? Brewery Vivant is releasing a special beer on November 24, just in time for the big day. Space Queen: Shadow of a Skull is part of their series of dry-hopped sour beers. It would be awesome to cut all that fat in the dinner and provide a welcome note of bitterness to the meal. You can find it on draft and in cans at Vivant, and in cans at their sister brewery Broad Leaf Local Beer.

You can’t drink all day if you don’t start in the morning, and while I’m not advocating that, a little tipple in the morning can help your cooking just sail along on this holiday. I recently tried the Sour Peach Bellini beer from Ferndale Project, and wowee, is it a good one. Bright, fresh, and fruity, with all the notes in nice harmony, this beer is totally reminiscent of a champagne Bellini, that classic brunch cocktail. Ferndale’s beer version has so much more depth of flavor, with that lovely sour tang on the finish, it would be an excellent way to begin the marathon. Start your party off light, since it's going to be a bit of a long day, and no one needs to wreck themselves or their palate. Easy to find, Short’s Locals Light is “beer in its simplest form” according to its packaging. I love that this Michigan beer will appeal to macro beer drinkers, as well as to the craft lovers in your life. This is an American-style lager, so it is crisp and clean, easy to drink at a lower 5.2% ABV, and as a holiday bonus, comes in a 12 pack so you can easily stock your fridge for all your guests. This is such a light beer you could easily pair the whole meal with it if you want to go the easy-breezy route.

Local's Light from Short's Brewing Company is a great beer to have on hand for any guest, and comes in a 12 pack to boot. Short's Brewing/Courtesy Photo

Belgian style ales are some of the absolute bests to pair with food, if you pick the right kind. Comfort food is awesome with farmhouse ales, the higher carbonation helps dissipate richness, while the natural esters and fruity aroma just play nice with what's on your plate. Stormcloud Brewing in Frankfort is known for its Belgian-inspired, Michigan-made beer, and is one of my favorite breweries. Rainmaker Ale is a pale ale, brewed in the classic Belgian style. Northern Michigan grown hops provide just the right balance to this beer, and to pairing it with a Holiday dinner. If you have hop heads in your life, try this one. It won’t bust out their palates with overwhelming bitterness, but will satisfy their need for a solid, well-executed beer. Available in cans, in distribution across the state. Another classic style that I feel just lends itself to hanging around the dinner table? German ales. And Cedar Springs Brewing makes some of the best in Michigan. Its award-winning Küsterer Original Weißbier (Weissbier) is a stellar example of the style, and the type of beer that would not only pair nicely with the whole meal, it would also be happy to play a part in some of the recipes of the day. A deep amber color, nice body, and lovely yeasty aroma make this a beer to seek out, year-round.

Barrel + Beam will bring the cranberries in liquid form with their Bog Berry beer. Barrel + Beam/Courtesy Photo

I love the spicy aspect of a good rye ale, it awakens the palate and makes each sip a little more interesting. Pairing a rye with food is an easy proposition, and Concrete Dinosaur from Right Brain Brewing in Traverse City is a no-brainer. This beer won a silver medal for Best Rye Beer at the 2015 Great American Beer Festival and can be found in bottles in distribution throughout Michigan. Have a favorite auntie that makes the best pie? So does the crew at Third Nature Brewing in Rockford. Aunt Gail’s Pumpkin Pie Autumn Ale features Aunt Gail’s actual pie in it and whips out notes of creamy pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, and a hint of vanilla. According to the brewery, it’s the perfect dessert for any Autumn occasion or just a lovely afternoon.

A long day calls for Reinforcement, a bracing stout from Speciation Cellars in Grand Rapids. Speciation Cellars/Courtesy Photo

Like I said earlier, it's going to be a long day, and for some of us, it might just keep getting longer. So, when the going gets a bit rough, smart drinkers will reach for a bit of Reinforcement, a delightful ale from Speciation Cellars in Grand Rapids. Normally known for their exceptional sour beers, this one is not. Instead, it is a massive, beautiful stout that according to the brewery is “a new clean beer that is packed full of extra fun in the form of maple syrup, cocoa nibs, vanilla, cinnamon, and milk sugars. It’s downright damn delicious.” At 11% ABV, it’s the reinforcement you’ll want, and possibly need.

Third Nature Brewing/Courtesy Photo