Food & Beer Culture

What do you eat with beer in Alsace? The classic is flammkuchen, known in dialect as flammekueche: a wafer-thin flatbread topped with crème fraîche, onions, and strips of bacon. The cool lager cuts through the fat and cream, while the delicate hop note still comes through.

Choucroute garnie also has its place alongside a glass of beer. This hearty dish of sauerkraut with sausages and pork pairs well with a fresh lager, which balances out the acidity and salt. In Alsace, wine often shares the table too—both belong to the cuisine.

Baeckeoffe is a stew of potatoes and meat that cooks slowly in the oven; the wine goes into the pot, while the beer stands alongside in the glass. A robust Munster, a washed-rind cheese from the Vosges, pairs well with a pretzel and a lager that isn't too bitter.

The word brasserie means both brewery and a restaurant serving food throughout the day. In Strasbourg, in Schiltigheim, and in the villages along the Wine Route, brasseries and winstubs share the same guests: wine at one, draft beer at the other.

Most people drink a demi, perhaps a pinte later; you raise your glass with “Santé.” There's no festival celebrated here just for beer, but a table set with flammkuchen and fresh draft beer can be found almost everywhere in Alsace. Those who drink slowly and eat alongside it will taste more in the end than someone who simply empties the glass—true for a demi as much as for a pinte.