Hello from France !! And a question about beer pairing... with beer.

Hi everyone. My name is Vincent. I am not new on Ratebeer but this is my first post on this forum. I wanted to share something interesting that happened to me in a french bar in Angers (center west of France), 2 weeks ago. I saw many things on this forum about beer pairing with food but not many topics on beer pairing with... beer. I ordered an imperial stout (Prairie Pirate Noir). The barmaid kindly offered me a light sour ale (Brekeriet Sour Rhubarb , 15cL on tap) to taste with. First, I was surprised but then really #happy# : the strong aromatic full body character of this imperial stout balanced with the light refreshing "regenerative" spirit of the sweden sour ale. What do you think ?

Salut & bienvenue Vincent,

seen you around - nice to see you join in!

Beer pairs very well with beer...in fact, haven’t we all discovered at various festivals, in our 10-15cl glasses, that that sweet Belgian ImpStout could use a dash of his neighbour Girardin Kriek right after it - or even: in it? I can only imagine a saccharine US ImpStout pairing all the better with a simple SE sour. The combination suggested by your barmaid sounds classic...good bar!

Sour after stout is almost always a winning combination.

Thank you bartlebier and FatPhil !

I suppose that every time we order a flight of beer at a brewpub or elsewhere, we are pairing those four (or so) beers with one another. One common occurrence is to see a base beer paired with a different treatment of that beer - barrel aged, or maybe some sort of fruit or spice added, that’s nice to compare.

Originally posted by bartlebier
...that sweet Belgian ImpStout could use a dash of his neighbour Girardin Kriek right after it - or even: in it?