#food-pairings

#food-pairings

SF Beer Week is back again, from February 20 to March 1, offering the Bay a chance to celebrate all of its amazing breweries and beer-focused bars with a mix of eclectic events that you don't need to even love beer to be scrambling to attend. Before Nosh gets into some of the specific thirst-quenching, note-worthy East Bay events that you should attend this beer week, let's get two major categories out of the way: events centered around one beer type and then food pairings.

But as the air chills, veering into raw and rude, winter begs for something altogether more comforting. Red wine may seem the obvious choice, but consider embracing white wine's moodier alter ego. Think brooding, nostalgic wines with an unwillingness to fade away quietly-bottles with gravitas, texture and complexity. Enter the heady, untamed sensuality of Condrieu, or the dreamy marzipan and melted-candle textures of Châteauneuf-du-Pape Blanc.

Last week, I ended my book tour with an event at Elliott's in Edinburgh for the city's book festival. These tastings usually take place on a week night, so I tend to opt for three easy-drinking favourites. A kabinett riesling? Check. A fruity cotes du Rhone? Check. Then I spied a lambrusco. I love starting the evening with a joyous glass of something fizzy but, to my surprise, many members of the audience remarked how they didn't have the best memories of lambrusco.

Spicy beers take that instinct a step further - playing both sides by cooling the heat while amplifying it, a maximalist approach that reins in the burn just enough to let it shine.

The two most ideal places to drink wine are on your own couch... or at an actual vineyard with the winemaker's border collie named Riesling.