Beer goes well with any kind of food. That’s the first thing Kaiju Beer’s Callum Reeves wants you to understand.
“It’s actually a lot easier to match than wine,” he says.
Reeves would know. In 2012 he was working in the wine industry when he and his brother Nat Reeves produced a cider for a friend’s wedding. They followed it a year later with a heavily hopped double IPA they initially named Monster Mash. What followed was a sold-out beer tasting, a lot of social-media buzz, and, six months later, the creation of Kaiju.
Seven years on, the brothers are the stewards of one of Australia’s best-known craft breweries (thanks in part to New York-based artist Mikey Burton’s distinctive branding) and a terrific core range of beers.
Their most popular drop far and away is the Kaiju Krush Tropical Pale Ale, which was the catalyst for the brothers installing a canning line in their Dandenong brewery in late 2017. Before Krush, Kaiju was producing 100,000 litres of beer a year. These days, it’s more like 500,000 litres.
“We knew we’d produced something cool, but we never thought just how popular it would become,” says Reeves.
But the brewery produces other celebrated brews, including its Metamorphosis IPA, a Main Squeeze Passion Guava session ale and the Golden Axe (the cider that kicked everything off all those years ago).
All match with a variety of foods, handy for when it’s time to gather round the barbeque. With summer approaching, we asked Reeves for some of his favourite coal-fired pairings.
Sausages with tropical pale
Callum says this crowd-pleasing barbequed food is ideal with a tropical pale ale – the bitterness of the beer contrasts pleasantly with the saltiness of the sausages. Still, it can’t be any old snag.
“We have a really great butcher in [Melbourne’s] Prahran Market – Gary’s Meats,” says Reeves. “You want something like that, where you know you’re getting quality.
“I’d go a beef sausage, but if you really want something fancier, then maybe go with a pork-based sausage.”
Chicken with a fruity mid-strength
“Tropical fruit is always a good combo with grilled chicken,” says Reeves. “You’ve got that nice charred flavour, and the fruity acidity in the beer goes really nicely with juiciness of the chicken.”
The Main Squeeze Session Ale is a passionfruit-and-guava-flavoured mid-strength drop. Reeves likes to pair it with a butterflied barbequed whole chicken, served with a sweetly spiced house-made peach chutney.
“Main Squeeze is relatively light on the palate, so a grilled chicken matches nicely,” he says. “Butterfly it so it’s easily cooked, and brine it to retain its juiciness.”
Lamb with a big IPA
“Lamb lends itself to herbaceous accompaniments, and the characteristics of a big IPA like Metamorphosis really play into that,” says Reeves. “The beer has the bitterness you need to clean up the palate and cut through the fattiness of the lamb.”
Metamorphosis is the lighter of Kaiju’s two core IPAs, but it still packs a punch with a 6.7 per cent ABV and 80 IBU. Reeves says its grassy, pine-y characteristics deserve to be paired with grilled lamb chops and lashings of tzatziki.
Veggies with cider
When it comes to barbeque, beer doesn’t always have to be paired with meat dishes. Reeves appreciates a crisp cider – such as Kaiju’s Golden Axe – as a post-beer palate cleanser, and when it comes to matching it with food, he keeps it light with a grilled vegetable salad.
“You take some grilled zucchini and red-capsicum strips, and toss them with crumbled Greek feta, cumin and olive oil,” he says. “It’s a nice warm salad with plenty of salt, which goes beautifully with the sweetness of the cider.”
This article is produced by Broadsheet in partnership with Dan Murphy’s. Dan Murphy’s find the lowest prices then beat them – that's their lowest liquor price guarantee.
Get it in time for Christmas! Dan's makes it easy to shop your way with express delivery, standard delivery and pick-up. Terms and conditions apply. See here for more details.
