MAY 1998

VOL.3 NO.5

In Praise of a Good Sausage

The Larousse Gastronomique lists no fewer than 28 different types of sausage, not including dry sausages such as salamis and mortadelas, and I'm certain that they have but brushed the surface of the vast array available to the sausage connoisseur today. Where my wife and I normally purchase our sausages, for example, they make their own in at least 18 different varieties; a number which includes but a few on the Larousse's list. And I would dare say that each and every one of them is at its best when cooked on the barbecue grill.

I suppose I like sausages so much because they pair so easily with beer. The basic hot Italian sausage, for example, is a natural with a moderately hoppy pale ale, so that the hop bitterness gently balances the spice without killing its flavour. And the bratwurst -- which, yes, I do enjoy grilling, even though many insist it should only be sautéed or poached -- is spectacular alongside a little brown mustard and a cold glass of märzen, with the beer providing the ideal complementary taste to the sausage.

The Spanish are hardly known for their beer, but their heavily spiced and seasoned chorizo sausage is wonderful when grilled to perfection and served with a pint of full-flavoured American brown ale, one blessed with enough malt to handle the garlic and enough hop to tackle the spice. The British version of that same style of beer, minus the heavy hop and big on the malt, makes for a delicious accompaniment to the richly flavourful lamb sausages my wife and I buy at our local butcher. And the "Oktoberfest" sausages we also buy locally, which are a sort of coarser, slightly spicy type of bratwurst, pair most flavourfully with the spice of an honest dunkel hefeweizen.

Of course, the most well-known and best-loved sausage in North America is the hotdog, served on a bun and covered with all manner of condiments, from ketchup to mustard to onions, grated cheese, sauerkraut, green or red relish or pretty much anything the mind and palate can envision. As a conveyor of condiments, the hotdog is a potential marriage partner for just about any beer -- as one Internet adventurer recently discovered when he asked the newsgroup alt.beer which brew would be a better match for a 'dog than his preferred Miller Genuine Draft, and was besieged with all manner of replies.

But insofar as we strive for completeness here at World of Beer, I decided to take to the task and attempted against all odds to determine what style of beer really would be best for a hotdog. I grilled up a pack of Oscar Meyer's, popped a few different brews, pulled all manner of toppings out of the cupboard and fridge and set to the puzzle. What I discovered was...that it just isn't a terribly good idea to eat that many hotdogs, with or without the appropriate beers.

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