Mixy & Chill

Theatre. This is the one-word answer I give people when they ask what’s so good about a desi (British-Indian) pub. By “theatre” I don’t mean there’s some-sort of avant-garde performance going on - although when India win in the cricket, dancing can break out - but there’s spectacle and this show is put on by one sizzling dish - the mixed grill.

For those of you unfortunate enough to not know what a desi pub mixy is then it’s a pile of marinated meats (and fish) cooked on a bed of onions. It’s an Indian take on an English classic: out with the solitary sausage (?), grilled tomato (??) and peas (???) and in with spicy lamb chops, shish kebabs and fiery tandoori wings. It’s the ultimate sharing platter and the meat comes charred with splashes of lemon juice.

I’ve made you hungry. Now I want to make you thirsty. Eating a mixed grill is similar to having a BBQ and I think reveals a great deal of what beers pair well best with darkened meats. My hunch here is that lager is for the unadventurous and you’re better pairing black with black. So if you’re after imbibing inspiration while firing up your BBQ then I’m here to help.

When you’re sitting in the garden on a hot day the last drink you think you’ll need would be an Imperial Stout with a 12% ABV. But in moderation I fully recommend Memory and Perception, from Finback, a New York brewery, with its coffee flavours. It possesses a maple syrup tone that would work well with smoky meats and its vanilla flavour would go well with charred chicken.

Image: Finback Brewery

Rock Leopard’s Everyday Stout (5% ABV) also has a very apt name and it’s perfect with indulgent meats as its milk chocolate, cocoa and mild caramel tones worked well when I tried it with blackened wings and paneer. In fact, its Tia Maria-like subtle finish acted like a digestif to my meal proving that there’s a lot more to this stout than you would imagine.

Milds are always linked to food-free sessions and the first desi pubs as they were traditionally drunk by foundry workers in the Midlands in their lunch breaks. Interestingly, their typically low ABV was a relic of the First World War and prior to this conflict they had a lot higher alcohol volume. Put simply, I think the beer’s misunderstood and can pair well with food.

Take Merakai’s Modern Mild (4.5%). The brown beer acted as a wonderful coolant for a hot (as in chillies) marinade that I fashioned with some lamb. Its surprising black liquorice flavour gives it a bitter-y aftertaste that I found went well with hearty meats - especially burgers - and its soft caramel tones paired perfectly with the caramelised onions placed on top of my patty.

Image: Merakai Brewing Co

One of the forgotten tastes in general, with BBQed meats and, in particular, when it comes to beer pairings, is umami - the Japanese word for deliciousness that equally applies to Indian food. You may find it especially in seared, soy sauce-marinated flesh but also its ubiquitous in tamarind desi sauces that go with grills.

The St. Stephans Bock by Zötler Brewery in southern Germany has a mild unami scent and its light nutty flavour mixed well with the brown sauces that can be doused over kebabs and wings. At 7.1% ABV it was a substantial and full bodied drink which is best shared around. 

The British weather is notoriously unpredictable so instead of getting a crate of lager it makes sense to buy a few dark beers, like I’ve mentioned, because you don’t know when you’ll be eating your BBQ outdoors or indoors. It can be frustrating to be an al-fresco chef in the UK but with these recommendations I’ve given you there’s plenty of warm comfort from a bottle (or can) of the dark stuff.

David Jesudason is a freelance journalist, he writes a weekly essay on Desi pub culture here davidjesudason.substack.com and you can read more powerful and superbly written pieces HERE on the Bangladeshi legacy of the British curry house to IPA’s colonial identity and more. Which led him to be named Be Inclusive Hospitality's Writer of The Year in 2022. His first book has just been released covering Desi pubs which guides the reader through pints, food and the culture of this British-Indian institution (available to buy at Hop Hideout). Not all the beers mentioned in the piece above are available, due to being specials. However you can follow David’s beer and food pairing principles to find plenty of other tasty beers in our online shop, buy UK beers HERE and imported HERE.

Spice & Beer

The Regency in north London was originally set up as a members’ club in 1991 but don’t be mistaken into thinking it was an exclusive joint. The licensing authorities didn’t trust a bunch of Gujuratis who descended from India but moved to the UK from Kenya in the 70s and made them operate a member-only policy with blacked out windows - ghettoising their business. It was a huge success despite this and fast forward to 2023 and now the Regency offers the dining splendour of a decadent East Africa where fiery curries and sizzling grills are so popular that evening bookings are now a must.

Most crucially your dining and drinking - there’s a bar where uncles sit - experience has been expertly curated so even the smells are important. A wooden-shack-style open kitchen pumps out dishes and the spice aroma it produces mixes in with a sandalwood, vanilla and cloves scent which is wafted into the air with incense sticks.

This is a desi pub (a British-Indian boozer) which offers something different and instead of the usual industrial lagers you can have a Rothaus pilsner with your food. Sadly, most other desi pubs offer the beer range you’d expect in a local curry house despite the food being a step up from the British institution that relies on pre-made sauces and colourings. Cobra’s marketing of lager as the ideal pairing with a hot dish, though, has meant most people believe it - or Kingfisher - to be the best match with a saag, korma or karahi. 

As the Regency’s incense sticks show, spices can - and should - be delicately balanced with other flavours. So when you’re eating a curry it’s important to consider what spices are in it and match them with a beer which has corresponding tones. For this I think pale ales are excellent especially if the different flavours in the drink are subtle as they really can bring out the spice in your food. (It’s worth noting that often people will often call curries “spicy” when they mean “hot from chillies” and here I’m talking about spices you will find in your cupboard like cumin, coriander, fenugreek and cinnamon.)

Belgium-inspired Single Fluffy Rabbit (or SFR 5% ABV) brewed by Sheffield’s Saint Mars Of The Desert is a great example of this subtlety. Delicately fragranced with a range of floral (elderflowers), citrus (lime) and fruit (strawberry, lychee) tones it can work with a lot of Indian dishes that are finely balanced. Anything citrus-y, lime-y would complement dishes that contain ajwain (or carom) which has a thyme-like taste - fish pakoras often use this and, in fact, any spiced fish dish would work perfectly with SFR. 

Unbarred x Bird & Blend: Amazonian Zing Beer (2.5%), is a collab between the Brighton brewery (the former) and a tea company (the latter) that specialises in loose leaf tea blends. The low ABV Berliner Weisse (which isn’t a pale ale but then rules are meant to be bent, right?) means it’s perfect with drier meals and the lemongrass and ginger flavours will dovetail with any dish with cardamom - I particularly enjoyed it with a chicken biryani. 

Abbeydale Brewery’s Moonshine may have a daunting name but it’s actually a sessionable 4.3% classic pale ale. It had a pleasant citrus flavour - again great for fish or even marinated chicken, like tikka pieces - but the standout subtlety of its grapefruit tones makes it even more versatile as a pairer. Grapefruit is a bitter taste on my palate so it worked well with turmeric - found in most curries, especially deeply coloured ones - and any dish with amchoor (mango powder) common in certain aubergine dishes or samosas. 

None of the three pairings are based on hard and fast rules and - above all - I recommend experimenting with different beers with different spices. It’s time to look past heavily carbonated lagers and embrace the subtlety of craft pale ales. If it’s spicy - go pale!

David Jesudason is a freelance journalist, he writes a weekly essay on Desi pub culture here davidjesudason.substack.com and you can read more powerful and superbly written pieces HERE on the Bangladeshi legacy of the British curry house to IPA’s colonial identity and more. Which led him to be named Be Inclusive Hospitality's Writer of The Year in 2022. His first book has just been released covering Desi pubs which guides the reader through pints, food and the culture of this British-Indian institution (available to buy at Hop Hideout). Not all the beers mentioned in the piece above are available, due to being specials, however Abbeydale’s Moonshine is a regular beer and can be purchased HERE. However you can follow David’s beer and food pairing principles to find plenty of other tasty beers in our online shop, buy HERE.