Pairing Pizza and Beer? Why Not?

During the Beijinger 2014 Pizza Cup, our readers voted beer as their favorite liquid accompaniment with pizza. But which one goes best with which pizza? The fine folks at Vandergeeten gave us 10 suggestions for imported beers and the pizzas they accompany best, but the question is which beer with which pizza? You have no excuses anymore because we found the perfect beer for your favorite pizza.

Keizerrjik Van Bree and Seafood Pizza
Authentically brewed in Belgium, Keizerrijk Van Bree is a premium white beer brand known for its light smooth taste and intense aroma. It has a good balance of sweetness and sourness with a slightly fruity lemon taste and hint of coriander, leaving a good refreshing flavor with each sip.

We all know that lemon brings freshness and enhances the taste of seafood. With its fruity lemon taste, Keizerrijk Van Bree and seafood pizza is the perfect match.

Palm Amber Beer and Beef Pizza
Special Palm is the absolute number one Belgian amber beer. The unique amber malts determine the Palm basic flavor: mild caramel flavors with a honeybed mellowness and hint of fruits.

It takes a fresh and flavored beer to go with a beef pizza. A cold Special Palm will take the beef taste to another level.

Chimay Triple and Cheese Pizza
Chimay Triple has fruity notes of muscat and raisins, which gives this beer a particularly attractive aroma. There is no acidity, but an after-bitterness which melts in the mouth. It goes very well with a variety of strong cheeses.

This beer is the best match for a cheese pizza, Chimay Triple’s carbonation helps bring out the cheese flavor.

St. Feuillien and Bacon Pizza
St. Feuillien Saison is what the Belgians call a beer of the terroir, a traditional farmhouse ale with all the savory richness of the fertile land of southern Belgium. Saison, a warm golden blonde ale, is a top-fermented classique. Thanks to secondary fermentation in the bottle, Saison has an unmistakable flavor full of rich nuance and a slight tang.

The thing with bacon is that you have to find a beer that will not overpower. St-Feuillien and Bacon pizza are complementary because it can stand up to the flavor of bacon.

The Cuvée des Trolls and Pepperoni
The Cuvée des Trolls is a blond beer, either filtered or unfiltered. Fresh and scented, full and well-balanced and highly digestible, it has an alcohol volume of 7 percent. It is characterized by all of the unique Dubuisson Brewery qualities. Specifically, it is brewed in the traditional way, it is 100 percent natural, it has no additives and it possesses unquestionable character.

Pepperoni pizza is a spicy one, it takes a beer with strong character such as Cuvée des trolls to handle it and enhance the flavor.

St. Louis Premium Pêche and Chicken Pizza
St. Louis Premium Pêche is delicious Lambic beer with peaches, a beautiful recipe for a summer thirst-quencher. The very fruity flavor creates a perfect balance between sweet and sour. A chicken pizza needs a smooth beer that will not overpower but make the balance such as St Louis Premium Pêche.

CH’TI Ambrée and Barbecue Pizza
CH’TI Ambrée seduces the drinker with its entrancing copper colors and effuses rich and powerful aromas of subtly roasted malt and caramel. With taste notes of copper and cognac, it is a slightly sweetened, harmonious and flavorsome beer: perfectly balanced. It goes very well with cheeses, beef, and grilled meat.

Kwak and Tuna Pizza
Discover a very mellow, fruity attack, a nougat-like solidity, and a slightly spicy character with hints of liquorice passing into a warm finish that reminds you of caramelized banana. The bitterness always remains in the background and in the end emerges delicately. It goes very well with all kinds of meat as well as salmon, bass, billfish and many members of the mackerel family. This beer is also very suitable with tuna pizza.

Photo: Vandergeeten