During his 10 years working in the craft beer industry, Samuel Merritt reached the frustrating conclusion that "a lot of people selling beer didn't know a whole lot about beer." So he decided to do something about it.

In 2006 Merritt founded Civilization of Beer, which aims to "promote, through education and appreciation, the responsible enjoyment of high-quality craft beer in the context of our rapidly changing culinary landscape."

To reach this goal, the Civilization of Beer offers training to culinary professionals, consulting to restaurants and bars, and corporate and private beer appreciate events. Merritt is also one of only 95 people to have been officially certified as a beer cicerone.

A beer cicerone is analogous to a wine sommelier. That in mind, we asked Merritt if he could educate our readership on some simple beer and food pairings.

Read on to see what he came up with.


Hamburgers
"The best beer to drink with a hamburger is a Vienna-style lager or a Märzen lager," Merritt told Asylum. "Some really good examples of there are Sam Adams Boston Lager, Brooklyn Lager and Blue Point Toasted Lager."

"There is a lot of caramelizing going on with burgers," he explained, "And that marries perfectly with the caramelized flavor that you get with these particular beers."

Spicy food
"When you are eating spicy food you need a big beer to stand up to it," Merrit told us. "So usually with food that has a kick, I tend to guide people to the hoppier stuff like the American pale ales or India pale ales, because those are spicy too."

Among the pale ales that will enhance spicy foods, Merritt recommends Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Lagunitas IPA, and Dogfish 60 and 90 Minute IPA.

Lobster
According to Merritt, "Lobster goes well with wheat beer – either the traditional German Hefewizens or, my favorite beer with lobster, Belgian-style light ales."

"Belgian wheat beers like Hoegaarden are a bit dry, and that contrasts nicely with the rich sweetness of lobster meat,' he added. "There are also a couple really good American wheat beers that will work well with lobster: Allagash White and Ommegang Witte in particular."

Dessert
When we asked Merritt if there were any foods beer goes well with that most people don't realize, he offered up deserts:

"I use the fruited lambic beers a lot for deserts," he told us. "Brands like Cantillon and Lindemans make raspberry and cherry lambics that go really well with cheesecakes or anything chocolate. I would say my ideal desert and beer combo would be a cherry lambic and a cheesecake."


Beer and cheesecake. That's something we're definitely going to have to try. If you have any food/beer pairings you'd like to recommend, let us know in the comment section.