How to Pair Beer with Venison
- Will
- Sep 28
- 6 min read
After a long day in the woods—whether you've been climbing mountains, wading through rivers, or napping in a tree stand—there's nothing quite like a cold beer.
There’s something special about it—my mind goes to memories of deer camp or late evenings around a campfire. The refreshing first sip followed by stories and laughs; it’s a memory so many of us share. That first beer is such a great reward on its own, but it's even better when you're enjoying the wild game you worked so hard to get. Beer and venison are a natural pairing, yet one that's often overlooked. And while Coors goes great with a venison steak, it doesn’t have to end there.
With fall on the horizon here in Colorado, archery elk season is right around the corner. As thousands of hunters prepare to head into the mountains in the coming weeks, I decided to step back from my own training and scouting. I cooked up an elk steak and set out to find the perfect beer to pair with it to remind myself exactly what I’m working so hard for. While there’s no right answer to this question, there are pairings that work better than others, and I’m looking forward to figuring out what those are.
How to pick which beer to pair with food.
As an Advanced Cicerone, I've spent a lot of time getting to know the world of beer and food. Through hosting multi-course beer dinners, organizing pairing booths at beer festivals, and exploring less-than-traditional pairing ideas (like potato chips and beer)—I've learned a ton about how different flavors work together. When looking for the right beer to pair with wild game (or any meal for that matter), we need to keep some basic principles in mind.
Compliment - Flavors that exist in both the food and the beer. Think of having an espresso with tiramisu.
Contrast - Opposing flavors that can highlight one another in the beer and the dish. This interaction is really popular and easy to find. Think of how the bitterness of coffee plays with the sweetness of a chocolate cake or even the sweet tang of barbecue sauce works with smoked pork.
Cut - When one flavor or aspect of a beer removes or cleanses the palate of rich and fatty flavors from the food. Cutting is more of a physical sensation rather than a flavor and is often used with fried food; that's why schnitzel is so often served with lemon.
There are several other flavor interactions, but these are what I’ll be focusing on for this pairing.
Let's apply these principals
A great way to start is by looking at the dish first. Think about what the dish is, how it was prepared, and any key ingredients. A crucial concept in cooking that's particularly relevant to this pairing is the Maillard reaction.
Essentially, the Maillard reaction is a chemical process that causes food to brown when cooked.
This reaction is responsible for a wide range of flavors and aromas, from the seared crust on a steak to the sweet notes of caramelized onions. The bready flavors found in some brown beers are also a result of the Maillard reaction that occurs when the grain is roasted. Because both food and beer have this reaction, some pretty incredible flavor interactions exist when paired together.
Switching over to the beer side, you should consider if it's an ale or a lager, which hops were used, and what grains contribute to its flavor.
A helpful way to approach this is to work backward from the flavors in the dish. For example, if you're eating spicy Thai fried rice, you'll want a beer that can complement the nutty flavors and soften the heat. This means you should look for a beer that is malt-forward, slightly sweet, and not overly bitter.
Based on that profile, you'd want to look for a darker and more malt-forward beer. Great choices would be an American Amber Ale or a Munich Dunkel, both of which have the rich, malty characteristics needed to balance the dish. Keep in mind, this process is entirely subjective and my answer may not be the right one for you. When it’s all said and done, if you like what you’re drinking with the food you’re eating—that’s all that matters.
With basic pairing concepts out of the way, let’s get into the actual meal.
Full disclosure - I’m all out of venison and went to my local butcher to get this cut.
For this dish, I prepared an elk steak pan-seared in beef tallow and seasoned with a basic salt and pepper rub. To go along with the steak, I pan-fried asparagus and roasted some potatoes in the oven. Finally, I added some fat to the meal by making a simple sauce out of the tallow used to cook the elk.
I kept the seasonings mild to let the natural flavors of the food stand out. My goal was to highlight the earthy, nutty, and slightly sweet notes of the elk, along with the similar flavor profiles of the side dishes.
Going back to the Maillard flavors I discussed earlier, this dish is full of them from the seared crust on the steak to the browed asparagus. Those roasted flavors along with earthy notes dominate this dish, and I wanted to compliment those flavors in the pairing so I looked towards darker beers. So here are some specific characteristics I wanted:
Nutty, caramel, or bready flavors to compliment the Maillard flavors in the food
Something slightly bitter or effervescent to cut the fatty sauce
A little bit of a fruity tone to add a fun contrast to the dark and roasted flavors
With all that in mind, I went with three beers that I think would pair well with this dish.
The selection process
Altbier
I think an obvious choice would have been an American Amber ale; however, I wanted to experiment a little with Altbier. Coming from Düsseldorf, this cold fermented ale is brewed with darker grains resulting in a crisp and pleasantly bitter beer with notes of chocolate and toasted bread that compliment similar flavors in the dish.
Kölsch
The Cologne cousin of Altbier, Kölsch has a very similar flavor profile; however, it's brewed with a paler grain profile and lacks the darker flavors that Altbier has. Instead, it's a very bready and crisp beer with slightly fruity flavors coming from the ale yeast. I wanted to use the crisp and slightly bitter profile to help cut the fat while the fruity flavors add a little contrast.
Märzen
Another amber beer, Märzen was the only lager on my list for this pairing. Brewed with toasted grains, this beer has biscuity and caramel notes along with enough bitterness to balance it all out. Similar to the Altbier, the malt-forward profile pairs well with roasted and seared dishes; however, the clean lager fermentation leaves you with an exceptionally crisp and clean finish that allows the food to shine.
The results
After tasting, the Altbier was the best pairing for the dish. Its robust bitterness and roasted notes stood up well to the strong flavors of the meal. The Maillard flavors in both the beer and the food complemented each other wonderfully, and the slightly bitter finish of the ale cut through the rich, fatty sauce and elk flavors.
The Märzen came in second. It paired nicely with the elk for similar reasons, but its more mellow profile had trouble matching the dish's intensity, and many of the beer's subtle flavors were lost. I believe the Märzen would have been a clear winner if the elk were replaced with a less intense meat like duck or pheasant.
Finally, came the Kölsch. While the fruity notes from the ale yeast provided an interesting contrast to the rich, roasted steak and its pleasant bitterness cut through the fat, there weren't enough other flavors to truly complement the elk. While the pairing was enjoyable, it lacked the complexity and interest of the others.
Closing thoughts
There's no single "right" beer to pair with elk. Pairing is subjective, and while there's no absolute formula, the concepts we've discussed are a great starting point. The most important part is to experiment and find what you enjoy most.
So, what does this have to do with a data and analytics company? Absolutely nothing. At Backcountry Draft, we believe in helping you get more enjoyment out of the things you love—whether that's helping your company make better decisions through data or helping you choose the perfect beer for your next meal.
If you have questions or want to learn more about beer, hunting, fishing, or data, we'd love to connect!
