What’s the Ultimate Beer to Pair with your Burger? Tasting the Byron Pickle Beer
Byron Burger has released a pickle beer that should pair perfectly with their burgers. But what is a pickle beer? And is it in fact the ultimate beer to have with your burgers?
Learn more about the release of Byron’s Pickle Beer here.
What is a pickle beer?
First things first, what even is a pickle beer, there seems to be a style that's quite interesting and available in the US. The most well known is The Best Made Pickle Beer that's brewed by Martin House Brewing Co in Fort Worth, Texas. They did a little collaboration with Best Made Pickles. And the reviews that I've seen of this beer basically say that it is pickle juice with a bit of carbonation in it. It's not like any beer anybody's ever tasted. I've also seen recipes where you can add a bit of pickle juice to beer. Apparently, that's really good.
What beer styles work for pickle beer?
So pickle beer is basically a beer that's supposed to taste like pickles. But what beer styles work well, to even be able to recreate that flavour in a beer. I'd say probably a Gose. This is a German wheat beer style. I believe in the newest BJCP update it has now been added to the regular style guidelines rather than being down in the historical beers which are more difficult to find. Lots of breweries are now brewing this style. Usually they put fruit in them and the water in the place where the beer was originally brewed was quite salty. So this beer has a bit of a salty taste to it and salt is also added to the brew. That saltiness will replicate pickles well and the Best Maid beer is a Gose. You could also use a Berliner Weisse that has lots of lactic sourness as you want a bit of that sour taste to a pickle beer. Any kind of sour beer base is going to work for a pickle beer. Byron has chosen to use a Saison base. This made me really excited because I love a Saison. There are particular style elements I'm going to be looking for in a Saison - it should be highly carbonated, and have maybe a lemony or citrusy spritziness to it. I'm going to want peppery notes in there from classic Belgian yeast. As well.
Pickle Beers To Try
If you can't get down to Byron to try their beer, what other pickle beers could you try? Versions closer to home include Damn Dead Cucumber from Wild Weather Ales. And I have also tried I'm A Beer Morty by Hand Brew Co - that one really tasted like pickle.
Byron Pickle Beer
The Byron pickle beer is a Saison that has been infused with dill. The label also said it should also have a sharp tang. It has been contract brewed by Redchurch Brewery in Essex. Unfortunately, the Byron that I visited served the beer with a frozen glass. This is a big red flag for craft beer geeks as it will dull the flavour of the beer. It did take a while for the full flavours of the beer to come through and by that point I had finished my burger. I’ve also since seen that some Byron locations are serving the beer with a pickle in the neck of the bottle – this will change the flavour profile of the beer.
The beer itself has brilliant clarity and is a very pale straw colour. It has lots of carbonation bubbles but only a very low foamy head. The aroma of the beer was quite citrusy and floral. I didn’t get the peppery yeast notes I was expecting from a Saison – I would be interested to know what kind of yeast the brewery used. There was a light herbal dill aroma in the background. On the taste, the beer had high carbonation, a light citrusy zing that is expected from a Saison and it was incredibly dry. The dill infusion comes along and lingers into the finish. But overall the beer is quite light. When I tried it with a burger it cleaned the palate very well but I wouldn’t say it added to the flavours any. Overall I would say this is an interesting experience to try if you happen to be in a Byron Burger and you enjoy a beer.
What other beers pair well with burgers?
If you aren’t into pickle beer, what beers can I recommend to pair with your burger that would be the ultimate burger beer? I think IPAs would go quite well with burgers. Specifically, if you're having a beef burger, I think a Black IPA would go really well. You're going to get the fruity hoppiness that's quite refreshing in a Black IPA, but then that light roastiness in it is going to go really well with the Maillard reactions on the cooked meat. If you are then having maybe a chicken burger, a New England IPA might go really well because it's got a bit more fruitiness but it's still really refreshing. And if you're going to have a veggie burger, you want something, I think, that is slightly spiced. So maybe an American Wheat Beer or a Belgian Witbier that has got a little bit of spiciness in there. That will pair well with the spiced nature of a veggie burger.
Are you now inspired to try pickle beers? Or are pickle beers just not for you? If instead you would like to know how to pick your next favourite beer – check out my video of tips over on my YouTube channel here.
