What was your most extreme food and beer pairing?

[Christina Perozzi - The Beer Chick]

As a beer sommelier in a restaurant, I love pairing beer with food. And as the holiday season is just around the corner ( I know its only September but there's allocation to think about!!!) I'd like to do some kick ass - off the wall but delicious pairings! I'd love to hear what some of your favorites have been!

[The Beer Babe]

An accidental revelation. Last night, having mediocre mexican food, I accidently paired mexican flan (custard dessert) with a Red Hook ESB. And it knocked my socks off. If I had discovered that before i only had an inch of beer left in the bottle, I could have written an entire poem about the flavors going on in my mouth. AMAZING.

[Fitz]

I still enjoy the simple pairing of a fine Bleu cheese, such as Rogue Creamery's Oregon Bleu with a good aged Barleywine such as Doggie Claws or Old Guardian.

[Yzetta]

Mine was beer and ice cream.

I just had some Sam Adams so I don't remember what kind of ice cream or what kind of beer, but I swear I had ice cream and beer. I told my friend from Wisconsin what I did and she wasn't a bit surprised: "Oh, ya, the guys love ice cream and beer in Wis."
Damn, here I thoght I'd done something.

[Rob DeNunzio]

You want extreme? Try chocolate chip cookies with DFH Punkin. Dude.

[Yzetta]

I looked up Punkin and it sounds like it would be good with CC cookies.
Was it good?

[KegGremlin]

If you like DFH's Punkin, you should try Southern Tier's Pumking. Best pumpkin ale I've come across thus far (and it's imperial!). It tastes like a really good fresh baked pumpkin bread.

[Rob DeNunzio]

I don't really love pumpkin beers, I only got the DFH because it's making its first rounds here in NorCal (but I did enjoy it, all the more with the fresh baked cookies). As for the Southern Tier, it's not available here, and I can't imagine going out of my way to special order some pumpkin beer. At their best, they strike me as cartoonishly spiced märzens. Is that too harsh? They seem gimmicky to me. But maybe I need to try more?

KegGremlin said:

If you like DFH's Punkin, you should try Southern Tier's Pumking. Best pumpkin ale I've come across thus far (and it's imperial!). It tastes like a really good fresh baked pumpkin bread.

[Chris Wright]

This weekend I had grilled peaches and La Chouffe. The Belgium Golden Ale's subtle sweetness was almost neutralized by the sweetness of the peach. This allowed the spicy notes to step up to center stage, gently shifting the focus of this Beer.

[KegGremlin]

Maybe it's just a New England thing... We like pumpkin everything :-P Perhaps our high affinity for pumpkin beers stems back from colonial times...

Rob DeNunzio said:

I don't really love pumpkin beers, I only got the DFH because it's making its first rounds here in NorCal (but I did enjoy it, all the more with the fresh baked cookies). As for the Southern Tier, it's not available here, and I can't imagine going out of my way to special order some pumpkin beer. At their best, they strike me as cartoonishly spiced märzens. Is that too harsh? They seem gimmicky to me. But maybe I need to try more?

KegGremlin said:

If you like DFH's Punkin, you should try Southern Tier's Pumking. Best pumpkin ale I've come across thus far (and it's imperial!). It tastes like a really good fresh baked pumpkin bread.

[Shawn, the Beer Philosopher]

I too am a fierce apologist for pumpkin beers. I guess I can see the "novelty" of it, to some extent, but I simply don't care. I really like holiday spices. I've found very little in terms of food or drink that I wouldn't like as well, or better, with spices (within reason, of course). This is one of the primary reasons I eagerly anticipate Autumn. And, I might add, one of the reasons I decided to get into homebrewing some years ago ... I can add my own spice! (insert diabolical laugh here).

Anyway, I enjoyed a piece of dark chocolate layer cake last night paired with a dark cherry stout I brewed recently. The stout is quite dry and offset the sweetness of the cake wonderfully. The cake accentuated the roasted coffee flavors in the beer and made it even better. I suppose this would work equally well with most any dry stout. Nice.