You’re in your favorite sports bar with friends and everyone’s craving chicken wings. The waitress takes your drink order as you mull your options: How spicy do we want them? What flavor? How many?
Maybe it’s time wings-and-beer lovers order wings first, then beer. So instead of asking for a mindless light lager, ask yourself what beer goes with what style of wings.
We went to local folks who know their beer to help us here. Our wing-beer experts:
• Beer blogger Renée DeLuca, daughter of Jack McAuliffe, craft-brewing pioneer. McAuliffe teamed with Jim Koch of Samuel Adams Brewing Co. to re-brew New Albion, considered the first American craft ale, which is in store shelves now throughout Northeast Ohio.
• Robert Morson, owner of Riverside Wine in Kent. The store specializes in both wine and beer, and rotates more than a dozen excellent beers on tap that are poured as samples or pints.
• Competitive eater Tiny Tim Rauscheder of Parma.
• Rocky River-based Rob Gerrity, trade quality manager for Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.
Buffalo
Generally deep-fried, unbreaded and coated in a sauce of vinegar-based cayenne pepper sauce and butter. Served hot, often with celery sticks and blue-cheese or ranch dressing for dipping.
Morson: “I really think sometimes a regular pale ale, not over the top citrusy, will go with wings.”ÂDeLuca: “Hot spicy wings in general go great with a pale ale cause it cools your palate. An (India Pale Ale) or American pale ale would be great.”Â
Rauscheder: “Typically a lager. That’s what I would go for unless it’s really hot. If it’s really hot I like something dark, like (Great Lakes Brewing Co.’s) Edmund Fitzgerald Porter."
Gerrity: "The conventional choice would be yellow fizzy lager, but I’d go a little nutty on this one. A Belgian dubbel abbey ale. It’s a complex wing flavor, and you need complex beer flavors to go with that. It has a little sweetness from the sugar with an overlay of spices. Also it’s pretty highly carbonated to scrub the palate a little bit, wipe the chicken fat away."
Asian
These would have some combination of soy sauce, garlic, ginger and Chinese five spice powder. But they are not hot in a peppery way.
DeLuca: “I really love a nice amber. . . . Mendocino Brewing Company makes Red Tail Ale that would complement those flavors nicely. It’s a nice rich flavor to offset some of the flavors you’re gonna get. It will cut through, and it will have a little bit of hop to it, but it won’t be overwhelming.”
Morson: “Widmer Brothers’ Brrr Seasonal Ale. It’s red in color but not over the top. It’s got caramel and chocolate malts, giving it a little bit of a sweet flavor. It’s pretty darn good. It’s not a spicy beer.” He also mentioned two others that would be appropriate here: Bear Republic Racer 5 IPA is “not too big” and Head Hunter by Fat Head’s in North Olmsted, another well-balanced ale that would accentuate the spices.
Rauscheder: “IPA. A little bit of bitterness cuts through these wings. These can be overly spicy. The sharpness cuts through.”
Gerrity: “Soy is pretty savory, ginger has that little snap to it. Let’s see, I’m sort of thinking about a pilsner. With pilsners you often have noble hops, which are pretty floral.”
Barbecue
Ideally, these would be grilled but could be baked. Ingredients would include black pepper, onion powder or garlic powder (or both), honey, barbecue sauce and maybe chili powder. Could be hot, medium or mild.
DeLuca: “I got a perfect one. Alltech Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale. It’s delicious. You’ll get some of that bourbon flavor in the beer to cool it down, to complement the flavors.”
Morson: “It might sound weird, but a Christmas Ale probably would go good with that. . . . it’s a full-bodied ale. Matching up spices would be really good here. Or go the other way, go with a lager, or a Great Lakes’ Dortmunder Gold. Sometimes people like sweet with sweet.”
Rauscheder: “That’s any beer! Any beer could go with barbecue wings. I wouldn’t go with anything dark. Pabst?”
Gerrity: “I would like a porter ’cause usually barbecue has a grilled component and sometimes it’s a little smoky. Maybe even a porter with a smoked quality. Right here you’re looking at total harmony where the beer will harmonize with the wings.”
Dry rub
This could include almost any mixture of spices. One recipe combines sweet paprika, cayenne, garlic powder, onion powder, thyme, oregano. Another blends dark brown sugar, chili powder, sweet smoked paprika, cumin, cayenne pepper, garlic powder and mustard powder.
DeLuca: “I had a really good beer for the Super Bowl – we made gumbo with similar flavors. We paired it with Abita Turbodog (English Brown Ale). . . . Abita was rich and cut through all of the (flavors) but was refreshing at the same time.”
Morson: "Wow. Boy, we haven’t touched on a stout. Might be something like that or Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale — that has got a flavor which might complement the rubs. Or a brown ale.”
Rauscheder: “Dry rub wings are not something I normally get down with. Any beer. This is another one even though it’s a dry rub with spices on the wing, it’s not as powerful as a sauce. Any regular beer. Again, nothing real dark.”
Gerrity: “There are two approaches to take to this one. A beer that is complex . . like an IPA. If you want to go mild on this one, you can use a Vienna lager, because you don’t want to overpower all these spices.”
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