Blending decades of brewing with food: Heineken’s master brewer shares what pairs perfectly with lager

According to Heineken Master Brewer Willem van Waesberghe, a Heineken beer pairs perfectly with sushi – but doesn’t pair well with straws.

The master brewer shared his advice for achieving the perfect pour, and how best to enjoy a Heineken, during a private beer tasting inside the Heineken Experience in Amsterdam.

There, in the city where Heineken was founded in 1864, van Waesberghe walked us through the various steps that go into creating Heineken beer, as well as the differences involved in creating Heineken Silver and the alcohol-free Heineken Zero. After describing the taste of Heineken as almost “glue-like,” van Waesberghe admitted that “good beers are difficult to describe”.

The acknowledgement may have to do with van Waesberghe’s background, as he told The Independent that he is a geologist by profession, a passion he spent most of his younger years cultivating. “I’m a geologist by profession. I went to university. I always wanted to become a geologist when I was small. And I worked as a geologist for a couple of years, but it was in the same area where my father was working and my father was a brewer,” he recounted. “So all my youth, I was listening to his brewing stories and all the things like that.”

According to van Waesberghe, it was quite some time before his love of rocks was overshadowed by his passion for brewing, but the discovery ultimately “changed” him. “It took me quite some years before I preferred beer over rocks, and that, that changed me,” he said.

Although van Waesberghe may struggle to describe why the taste of Heineken is so appealing, he and Heineken know good beer when they taste it, with the latter spending more than a century crafting the taste.

As for what pairs best with the lager, that depends on who you ask. According to van Waesberghe, who is the master brewer in charge of the “taste” of Heineken, a profession that he achieved after more than a decade of experience brewing beer, a Heineken is best when it’s enjoyed “cold on a sunny day”.

“For me, looking over some nice, nice sceneries, [that’s] perfect. But also, at home, the first beer when you come home after sporting or something like that is nice,” he told The Independent. However, he always recommends pouring the beer into a glass, “because the metal from a can can give you a different taste”.

“And then the glass is very clean – I hope it’s clean and it gives you exactly the taste we brew it for,” he explained.

Perhaps surprisingly, van Waesberghe, who personifies what one would expect a master brewer to look like, and isn’t afraid to acknowledge it, enjoys Heineken most when he’s drinking it while eating sushi.

“Personally, I prefer Heineken with sushi. This is my ideal combination,” he told us. However, he’s also partial to the taste of Heineken with spicy foods, such as Indonesian cuisine. “Spicy foods and beer is always nice.”

In addition to his preference, he also recommends the pairing to others who are looking for the perfect sip. However, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t enjoy a taste of the classics, which he said are also the perfect accompaniment. “Beer with chicken and fries is also very nice. And with fish and chips,” he added.

Ultimately, van Waesberghe said the only “wrong” way to enjoy Heineken is by having “too many”. Or by using straws. “Straws are also bad,” he confirmed when asked about the atypical method for consuming a beer.

When it comes to food pairings, it is perhaps the versatility of Heineken that makes it so popular in more than 190 countries around the world.

While Heineken’s master brewer prefers his beer with sushi, Chef Lee Tiernan, of London’s FKA Black Axe Mangal restaurant, finds that the best meal to pair with a beer is the one he and his team get to enjoy after a dinner service.

Tiernan, who hosted a dinner with Heineken in Amsterdam, told The Independent that it wasn’t hard to conceptualise the menu, because it was made up of things that he himself would eat after a night of working in the kitchen – which is when he most craves a beer. “It’s not wine, it’s beer,” he told us of the drink that he reaches for when dinner service is done.

“And I know what I like to eat when I’ve been on my feet all day. I’m knackered. I’ve been concentrating for a long time. I’m hot and need to unwind. A cold beer after a day like that is exquisite,” he said, adding: “And then you have something salty and fatty and spicy with that.”

As for the salty, fatty and spicy he craves, the menu consisted of unusual pairings such as smoked fish roe and pringles, spicy and numbing mushroom mapo tofu with rice cakes and pickles, and fish sauce-braised roasted lamb shoulder. Tiernan concluded the menu with a deep-fried apple pie.

The menu, and the one served at FKABAM, which boasts unpretentious kebabs and flatbreads, is exactly what Tiernan thinks people reach for when “they’ve been to the pub and had a few pints”.

“There’s a reason why kebab shops are so full at 11.30, 12 o’clock at night. People crave that kind of thing. And if you can do that in an elevated way, there’s nothing better to accompany a beer,” he said.

But the perfect meal to pair with a Heineken doesn’t have to involve a trained chef, as Tiernan revealed that one of his go-to dishes, which is perfect for any time of day, is fried rice.

“I really like fried rice. I love fried rice, it’s so versatile. You can have it for breakfast, lunch, dinner. You can put whatever you want in it and it usually works,” he told us, adding that he would “definitely recommend” the combination of fried rice and a cold beer to home chefs.

However, for those who lack cooking skills, Tiernan said pizza is the perfect alternative.

“The end goal of a beer and food pairing is that when combined, you end up with a more balanced flavour than each would be alone,” he explained. “That’s why Heineken is the perfect accompaniment for most dishes – its moderate body, light, fruity taste with a lingering fruit and balanced bitterness finish complements a huge range of flavours. My favourite ingredients to enjoy with a Heineken include fatty lamb shanks, spicy sausages and the umami flavours of fermented shrimp.”

Although van Waesberghe and Tiernan were in agreement that beer is a flawless accompaniment to a variety of dishes, Tiernan claimed that “we are sort of conditioned to think you have to drink wine with everything,” especially when eating out. He said that there are some meals that wouldn’t highlight the flavours of a beer, such as a beef bourguignon. “If you’re sitting down, you’re having a nice beef bourguignon, that definitely calls for wine,” he said.

But, according to the chef, a beer is usually the perfect way to start a meal.

As for how to pour the perfect Heineken, which is a key part to pairing it with food, van Waesberghe has a few recommendations: Hold the glass at the base, so it stays as cool as possible, tilt the glass at a 45-degree angle, and keep the head of foam perfectly balanced on the arms of Heineken’s iconic red star logo to the rim of the glass, because “the perfect pint should consist of 95 per cent beer, five per cent foam”.

“There is a true science behind the sip,” van Waesberghe said.