Food & Beer Culture

What food pairs with Piedmont's beer? With vitello tonnato, cold veal in tuna sauce, a pale lager works well: it rinses away the fat while leaving the sauce untouched. Against bagna cauda, a hot sauce of garlic, anchovies, and oil for dipping raw vegetables, a dry beer holds its own.

Things get trickier with agnolotti del plin, small stuffed pasta parcels, and with tajarin, thread-thin egg noodles served in autumn with Alba truffle. A Grape Ale with good acidity can offer freshness against the richness of butter and egg. Brasato al Barolo, beef braised in red wine, on the other hand, calls for a dark beer with roasted notes.

Cheese belongs to the region too, like Toma or the pungent Castelmagno. A beer with fruit and acidity suits these well, standing up against the cheese's saltiness. Sweetness comes from the hazelnut hills: the Tonda Gentile is a delicate hazelnut found in gianduja, the chocolate paste that originated in Turin.

There's no classic beer cellar here. People gather in the osteria or in beer bars that, in Turin and the Langhe, often sit right alongside the wine list and the kitchen. Beer is poured in small and medium sizes, known as piccola and media. The region's great festivals belong to cheese in Bra and to the Salone del Gusto in Turin, both supported by Slow Food. Craft brewers show up there too, pouring their draft beers alongside winemakers and cheesemakers, proving that here, beer sees itself as part of the kitchen.