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Fine festive food deserves fine beers

December 14, 2006: As you carve the turkey and tuck into the Christmas pud this festive season, what will you be washing them down with? Sparkling wine? Shame on you.

As the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) is pointing out, there are a variety of excellent bottled-conditioned beers that perfectly complement the festive fayre.

Because of the wide range of styles and flavours available, beer is an incredibly versatile drink that can be matched with any dish — and with much more success than wine.

	THE BOOK OF BOTTLES
	All the beers recommended here feature in CAMRA’s Good Bottled Beer Guide, by Jeff Evans. It is available direct from CAMRA (priced from £8.99) at www.camra.org.uk/shop or by calling 01727 867201, or from all good bookshops. Real ale in a bottle is also known as bottle conditioned beer as the bottle contains yeast so that the ale goes through secondary fermentation in the before it is served.

There are more than 2,500 different varieties of real ale brewed by more than 600 breweries, and around 800 are available as real ale in a bottle.

Here are some of CAMRA's Christmas Day suggestions.

Breakfast: with smoked salmon and scrambled eggs try an English wheat beer. This will complement the delicate flavour of the fish, but is not too hoppy as to overwhelm it. Recommended: Meantime Wheat Grand Cru (contact brewery for stockists) or O’Hanlon’s Double Champion Wheat (available at Booths, Thresher and Majestic).

Dinner: for an aperitif try a fruit beer such as Meantime Raspberry Grand Cru (contact brewery for stockists).

Starter: vegetable soup matches well with a pale bitter. The gentle perfume flavours of the beer will complement the taste of the vegetables and leave a pleasant hoppy aftertaste. Recommended: Coniston Bluebird Bitter (Asda, Booths, Co-op, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose).

Main course: with turkey go for malty ales. The bittersweet malt will bring out the subtler tastes of the turkey without overpowering the flavours in the vegetables and trimmings. Recommended: Fuller’s 1845 (Asda, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Waitrose).

Vegetarian: nut loaf also matches well with a malty beer, but, of course, it needs to be suitable for vegetarians (many real ales are fined with a substance called isinglass, a form of gelatine made from fish bladders). The spicy, smoky flavours of the malt will complement the nuttiness of the dish. Recommended: Black Isle Organic Scotch Ale (suitable for vegans — contact the brewery for stockists).

Dessert: With Christmas pudding or mince pies it has to be a dark stout or porter. The roast coffee and chocolate flavours in dark stout or porter are a perfect match with sweet desserts (including the after-dinner chocolate mint). Recommended: Titanic Stout (Sainsbury’s).

As a digestive try a barley wine such as the 2006 Champion Winter Beer of Britain, A over T, by Hog’s Back Brewery (Harrods).

CAMRA press officer Owen Morris said: “The traditional Christmas turkey dinner is a great time to enjoy the company of family and friends, and for too long people have thought that wine is the only beverage to serve.

“Beer is much more suited to sit next to any dish. You do not have to have a pint of each different style. In fact a small stemmed glass is a much better way to enjoy these beers with a meal, and a third of a pint measure is perfect for beer and food matching.”