Choosing the best beer for a holiday dinner

By HELEN MALANI
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
A friend thought it might be fun to break from tradition and shake up this year's Thanksgiving dinner by serving beer instead of wine. Crazy, right?

But I soon learned that the popularity of beer _ especially imports and craft beers _ is surging. The Latin influence in America is showing up in the success of imported beers like Dos Equis and Bohemia. And there are now almost 1,400 microbreweries in the United States that are producing craft beers.

"We started noticing the trend toward craft beers a year to two years ago," says beer industry analyst Donna Crothers. "The reason they are picking up so much is because the twenty something generation has really flocked to unusual spirit and beer drinks. They don't want something mass produced that you see everyone else drinking."

The big brewers have taken notice and so Anheuser-Busch is offering three limited edition holiday flavors and surprisingly, the popular specialty beer Blue Moon comes from Coors.

My friends Shannon and Trent, who are hosting dinner for 12 this Thanksgiving, and I figured the best way to determine if beer had a place at the table was to conduct a taste test. Don't worry _ I didn't get tipsy! Enlisting the help of the beverage director at my local gourmet food store, we tasted six American craft beers over a faux-Thanksgiving dinner of salad, turkey burgers, mashed potatoes and a pumpkin custard dessert.

The pale Twilight Ale from Deschutes Brewery out of Bend, Ore., had some hop to it and a little hint of spice. But we preferred the Belgian Style Ale Trippel (pronounced triple) from New Belgium, a Ft. Collins, Colo., brewery. This was very good, especially with the mashed potatoes, smooth and not too hoppy.

Next up was the dark Powder House Winter Ale from Big Sky Brewing Co. out of Missoula, Mont. It was a little too much for our dinner, but perhaps would be just the thing to keep you warm on those frigid Montana nights. Big Sky's Web site was the most fun to browse and we'd like to try one of its other brews.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner! Our final pairing with the food was Nut Brown Ale from Santa Fe Brewing Co. Great on its own and something we could definitely order in a bar. Its smooth, solid taste really complemented our dinner well. This was the first bottle we finished.

Pumpkin Ale has been very popular for a few years now. Our choice hailed from Buffalo Bill's Brewery in Hayward, Calif. On its own, nothing to write about, but a sip of this after a spoonful of pumpkin custard, was a big WOW. The pumpkin taste was deepened with the addition of this spice and clove infused beer. This goes on the menu this year.

Frambozen Raspberry Brown Ale, also from New Belgium delivered on what it was _ a raspberry flavored beer. We liked it better once we broke out the vanilla ice cream and imagine it would go well with an apple or pecan pie.

Availability of craft beers can vary by region as most do not have national distribution. The links below can tell you if the beers mentioned are available in your area.

_ Dos Equis www.dosxx.com

_ Anheuser-Busch www.anheuser-busch.com (3 limited holiday editions)

_ Blue Moon www.coors.com

_ Twilight Ale www.deschutesbrewery.com

_ Trippel Belgian Style Ale and Frambozen Raspberry Brown Ale www.newbelgium.com

_ Santa Fe Nut Brown Ale www.santafebrewing.com

_ Powder Hound Winter Ale www.bigskybrew.com

_ Buffalo Bill's Brewery Pumpkin Ale www.buffalobillsbrewery.com

A few good Web sites to learn more about craft beers are www.beeradvocate.com; www.craftbeerradio.com; www.beertown.org and www.microbrewforum.com.

Helen Malani is the chief shopping expert for Shopzilla.com, an E.W. Scripps company, and the largest comparison shopping search engine on the Web. For more columns visit www.scrippsnews.com.