Pizza & Craft Beer Pairing Part 2
Last month, The Full Pint had a beer and pizza party at headquarters, and focused on pairing high end frozen pizza (not kidding here) from Screamin’ Sicilian with easy to obtain craft beers, many of which considered nationally known classics. We are back for a part two where we pair the same Screamin’ Sicilian pizzas with some strong, bold, flavorful beers. Before we share the pairings and results, we need to disclose that if you are new to stronger ales, take it easy with them, and as luck would have it, a rich food like Screamin Sicilian pizza will be your friend when enjoying these types of beers.
The Beers
Arrogant Bastard Ale by Stone Brewing Co. – A bitter, abrasive strong red ale with a toasty caramel backbone.
Firestone Walker Double Jack – The classic West Coast Double IPA. Bursting with aromatics.
Oskar Blues Ten FIDY Imperial Stout – Possibly the first ever canned Imperial Stout. Roasted malts, notes of coffee and chocolate.
*We had to limit this tasting to three strong ales so we could still take notes.
Our Method
A sip of beer then a bite of pizza repeated a few times. In between beers and pizzas, we refresh our palates with room temperature water.
The pizzas:
Screamin Sicilian Bessie’s Revenge – an upgrade to your everyday mozzarella cheese pizza. This has four different cheeses to create satisfy your cheese cravings.
Screamin Sicilian – Mambo Italiano – Think meatlovers pizza. Rather than thin, rinky dink pieces of pepperoni, sausage and meatball, you get big chunks of MEAT!
Bessie’s Revenge worked well with….
Oskar Blues Ten FIDY – The cheese cut out some of the strong coffee roastiness and brought out the chocolate in this beer. Very enjoyable. Much like in our first tasting, dark roasty and smoky beers work so well with this pie.
Mambo Italiano worked well with…..
Firestone Walker Double Jack – Hops and pepperoni seem to be best friends we’ve concluded. The citrus and pine along with the spiciness of the sauce and pepperoni made the perfect pairing.
Arrogant Bastard Ale by Stone Brewing Co. – While the entire premise around Arrogant Bastard Ale is the ‘in your face’ roughness of the beer, the pizza toned down some of that shocking bitterness and brought out the malt sweetness and other pleasant flavors you may not find from that beer on it’s own.
With that said…
The two hoppy beers (Double Jack and Arrogant Bastard) weren’t bad at all with Bessie’s Revenge, but they weren’t a perfect match like Ten FIDY was.
All and all it was very fun pairing these beers, and we were surprised at how well executed the Screamin’ Sicilian pizzas were for coming from the freezer section. We hope that when you check out a Screamin’ Sicilian pie, that you pair them with some delicious craft beer.
