Pair The Right Beer With Your Australia Day Meal

With Australia Day around the corner there is a small tradition that tends to highlight the big day, an Aussie BBQ. Friends gather around to prepare a meal, enjoy a few drinks and listen to some great music. The drinks is an important part of this equation and people will look at the beers on offer and be pleased or sad they didn’t bring their own. We got a few tips from the guys behind the latest Aussie brewers Yenda which will help ensure you don’t make a mistake.

1. Seafood

Seafood always works well with a lager as the fresh fish flavour complements a crisp tasting lager, and, let’s face it, you can’t go wrong with beer battered fish and chips! From salt and pepper squid to bugs, lobster or prawns, seafood is the perfect match for a light and refreshing lager. The zesty, tropical fruit aromas of Yenda Crisp come from the addition of a new variety of hops called Vic Secret. It’s what gives Crisp its modern Aussie twist, and these grapefruit and pineapple aromas make it a perfect partner for fresh prawns, oysters and sashimi, all our favourites for that alternative spread on a 40 degree day.

2. Dude food

Typical ‘dude food,’ that’s fried or crunchy with a salted finish matches well with a Golden Ale. A full-bodied beer, Yenda Golden has a malt driven sweetness with a more biscuity, toffee character coming through. It’s earthy and floral aroma is best suited to fried chicken, and also makes it a good match for some pre-dinner salty snacks, especially good old Aussie macadamia nuts or a packet of chips.

3. Meat

English-style Pale Ale also has a malt-driven sweetness that means it’s well suited to rich meat dishes, so try this one with your steak sandwich or sausage sizzle. The sweetness of the Yenda Pale will contrast with the richness of the beef, creating a perfect flavour balance. It’s all thanks to the harmony created by the malty, biscuity flavour of the beer and the Maillard reaction, that’s the chemical reaction that takes place between amino acids and reducing sugars that gives browned food its distinctive flavour. So it works equally well if you’re opting for ham or pork.

4. Dessert

Crisp and refreshing ciders like Pressman’s are perfect to end a meal and cut nicely with a cheese or fruit platter. The fresh and tart apple flavours of the cider will also pair beautifully with a Pavlova.

Our Thoughts

Never to write an article about a new beer without tasting it first, we tried out the Yenda Pale Ale, Lager and the Cider to see if it was good enough to serve with friends on Australia Day. We generally love a pale ale and the offering from Yenda was quite nice without being overly heavy at all. The lager is one of those drops that even before the meals are served, you’ll be enjoying a few of these by the BBQ over and over again. Cider isn’t usually our pick of the crop so we had some ladies try them out and got praise all round. An Australian set of beer and cider on Australia Day matched with some local produce with some John Farnham is our version of a perfect day celebrating this great country.

Yenda is available at most stores, a little over $50 for a case of 24.