Perhaps this is known, but the other day I had a decent lager (premium lager ~ pilsner, if you like) to drink with a spicy fish + seafood dish, and it was surprising how extremely well the pairing works!
The spiciness and rich seafood flavour was cut by the freshness of the lager without having any over-biting sour flavour that you sometimes get in lagers… and if I ignored the fishy taste in my mouth and the spiciness, the beer would easily increase its rating hugely both in flavour and palate!
Have you ever happened to have a lager with a spicy seafood dish?
I’m wondering if there was any oiliness or fattiness in the seafood or any sauce it was in (such as cream or coconut milk)? I find that a crisp lager helps refresh the mouth with its bitter bite contrasting against the slicker tongue coating from the food.
I eat a lot of spicy (not much seafood though), and I love good lagers. So yeah, I’ve done it often, and there’s nothing like a dry hoppy Lager to refresh your numbed tastebuds.
It used to be that IPAs were the way to go for spicy & creamy food, but that goes for the bitter old school West Coast stuff, not for today’s vanilla milkshakes.