Maybe the gastropub trend will encourage more dining establishments to encourage beer and food pairing? The places I have seen often add a beer suggestion to an entree, and usually have a more flavorful selection.

I’ve been to two beer dinners, and I love trying my own match-ups at home. But like you, I tend to be part of the choir, and a beer dinner usually costs enough to make it difficult to invite non-enthusiasts. I’m not a big wine drinker, so I’d probably decline an invitation to a $100 wine dinner because I’d rather spend my money on beer instead of wine.

Maybe craft beer enthusiasts/chefs/establishments need to start offering more tastings and less intimidating meals, like a scaled down version of a dinner, to entice new drinkers. I mean, beers from BevMo can be pretty great, so the $100 Firestone Walker dinner I went to could be redone as a $50 dinner and feature the regular beers that people CAN get, along with some simple, well-prepared food with an extra touch of flair to make it special but still comfortable.

I’ve found that introducing friends to craft beer can be really fun, but it needs to be gradual. A stepping stone style dinner would be a great way to show some nuances without overwhelming people with the more complex brews. There is time for that later, and we can manage those in the meantime.

What might really signal Beer and Food pairings have arrived is when beer pairings are provided in lieu of a wine pairing. For example, Beer generally pairs better with spicey foods than wine. If a restaurant with a good wine list suggested beer instead of wine for certain dishes, that would be something. It’s probably happened already, somewhere.