Top pairings
Which beer pairs best with the Thanksgiving feast? What the experts say
You’ve probably got your Thanksgiving wine sorted but what about a beer? If you don’t drink it yourself it may not be something you’ve given much thought to but in fact beer makes just as good a partner for the myriad different flavours of the typical Thanksgiving feast as wine.
My own view is that it needs a beer of character - a rich hoppy IPA or a saison but am I right? I asked three experts in the field what they thought.
Garrett Oliver is brewmaster of Brooklyn Brewery and author of the Oxford Companion to Beer.
I’m a big fan of earthy French bières de garde (farmhouse ales) and dark Belgian strong abbey beers. And I’m pretty much a saison fan with almost everything! But overall the French versions are a better pairing with turkey; they usually have some caramelized flavors and a nice soft maltiness, not quite so dry and sharp as the classical Belgian saisons.
I also think funky French and Spanish ciders work well. We can’t get the best British ciders here (NYC) but I’d definitely get Tom Oliver’s cider (Herefordshire) or New Forest Cider if I could!
Ben McFarland, award-winning beer writer and author of Boutique Beer
To gain full access to this article and other premium content you need to purchase a bundle of credits which you can do as a one-off purchase or - and this is better value if you consult the site regularly - on an ongoing subscription basis. (1 credit = 1 article)
To buy credits you need to register an account, which which is easy to do here. Or just sign in to your account if you already have one.
If you’d like be able to check out all the food and wine pairings on the site you can buy a bundle of credits here to access my premium content.
And/or for regular updates on what and where I’ve been eating, drinking and travelling sign up for my weekly newsletter Eat This, Drink That, Live Well.