Ralph Bungard of Three Boys Brewery reckons fortune favours the brave when it comes to matching food and beer. What could possibly go wrong, he asks.

You can really put a unique spin on your next dining date by taking an adventurous jump into matching food with some of the amazing beer styles now on offer from our independent New Zealand brewers. Aromatic hops, complex malts and funky yeasts are the tools modern brewers use to provide anything from gentle fruitiness and complex maltiness through to in-your-face hop explosions and mouth-puckering sourness – all in the name of beer.

The secret to good food-to-beer matching is not complex. Let’s face it – what can really go wrong that won’t, in the worst case, just leave you with some great talking points and memories to savour.

For me, a good starting point in beer-to-food matching is to chant “similar or contrasting”. That is, either match similar or contrasting flavours. For example, let’s say we are looking at matching a rich and roasty stout beer: why not go similar and match it with sweet chocolate pudding or instead go contrasting and match it with sharp, tart cheese? Both will work.

The other rule to keep in mind is to consider whether the match itself improves the overall experience. Give your taste-buds a challenge and ask yourself, is the taste experience greater than the sum of its parts? If it’s not, just try again!

The great thing about beer is that generally you are looking at lower alcohol contents compared with wine. This provides an excellent opportunity to match a beer style with each course without having the embarrassment of “your dessert sliding off your plate” – If you get my drift.

The continuously expanding catalogue of beer flavours from our local brewers means that there are exciting discoveries to be made in the world of food to beer matching.

Just to get started, here’s some matches from the Three Boys range that I think are a real treat — Three Boys Pils with teppanyaki-style dining: A good pale beer and Japanese food is a classic. In this match, the robust bitterness cleans the palate to allow the gentle flavours of this food style to shine. Three Boys Wheat with green lip mussels: This is a classic Belgian match-up with a New World spin. The gentle aromatic flavours of lemon and coriander seed in this wheat beer work a treat when matched with a spicy, Kiwi-Asian fusion take on mussels. Three Boys West Coast Red IPA: This big, bold beer packed full of hops and velvety complex malts seamlessly integrates with smoky barbequed meats and seared veges. Three Boys Imperial Oyster Stout with cheese: Forget wine and cheese – the sweetness and rich flavours of chocolate, caramel and coffee in this 12 percent gentle giant is a dream match with cheeses with a sharp and tart edge. Get a platter and experiment away. And one more, just for simplicity, find a spot in the afternoon sun and try a Three Boys Tres Amigos, Mexican-style lager with corn chips, guacamole and salsa – what could go wrong!

threeboysbrewery.co.nz