Sometimes a pairing plan doesn’t pan out. It seems like a good idea at the time, but when push comes to shove, it just doesn’t jell quite right.  That’s what happened last night.  I started by braising from beet greens on the stove, along with some pancetta, onions, white wine, and chicken stock.  I also started some of Alton Brown’s baked brown rice in the oven, replacing the water with chicken stock. Eli then turned to preparing some filets of mahi mahi.

I was craving a big beer with dinner.  I looked in the fridge to see what was there, and found a few light belgium brews that I knew would be a decent enough pairing, but I just wasn’t feeling it.  I wanted something big.  I wanted something hoppy.  I wanted a Hopsickle.

With this in mind, Eli crusted the Mahi Mahi with almonds and spiced it aggressively to stand up to the beer. The pairing, while not a natural choice, had promise: Mahi Mahi is such a meaty fish, along with the almond crust, bitter beet greens I thought could stand up to this big ol hoppy beer.

I was wrong.  It bowled right over the fish.  Although the texture of the fish made a great last stand against the beer, the rest of the flavors were washed out by the brew.  Even the beet greens, which were cooked in fat from the pancetta and seasoned aggressively couldn’t make it past the beer – all you got was hops. (Delicious hops, admittedly, but not quite what I was looking for in a pairing.) Eli took two sips, and politely pushed her glass away and asked for a ginger ale.  There were other beers in the fridge that could been a good pairing, but we already had one big beer open and on the table.  I finished my plate, before returning my attention back to the beer.  Dinner was delicious – the mahi mahi was meaty but delicate, and the beet greens (one of my favorites) were great besides being slightly too salty (my fault), and could have used more pancetta. The brown rice was great as always, and studded with pomegranate arils which provided great color, and texture.

Moyland’s Hopsickle Imperial India Pale Ale is very much a beer geek’s beer.  Unlike some other big IPAs, like DFH’s 90 Minute which I often use as a gateway beer to big IPAs for non beer geeks, this beer is a hoppy frontal attack. It’s designed to showcase it’s hoppy character, and has enough malt and alcohol to back it up, without distracting from the main show.  To be fair, the name does make this clear from the onset.  Oh well – more for me.

Next time I break this out for a food pairing, I’d expect it to be while pulling something off the BBQ – or maybe some spicy chinese?  Oooh… or maybe this is just the beer to take over to Pak Wan for Indian/Pakistani with me sometime? I bet that could stand up to the hoppy abuse.

Tags: hopsickle, Mahi Mahi

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 29th, 2008 at 6:59 pm and is filed under Pairings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.