Features
Pairs: Bagels & Beer

Leave plain, low-fat and half-caf in the office break room and have an inspired breakfast with these decadent bagel, spread and beer pairings.

Everything bagel with vegetable cream cheese & Schönramer Pils: The kitchen sink of bagels (topped with poppy seed, sesame seed, garlic, onion and salt) meets a garden-variety spread with bell peppers, green onions, carrots, celery and onions. A grainy pilsner puts the bread back in the mix, while its crisp carbonation clears the mouth.

Cinnamon-raisin bagel with peanut butter & Fordham Doppelbock: With its raisin and bread crust, a classic doppelbock’s essentially the liquid version of a raisin-flecked bagel; but it’s not just more of the same when the cinnamon spice sparkles and sticky peanut butter locks all the sweet, gooey goodness on the tongue.

Plain bagel with honey-almond cream cheese & Ayinger Altbairisch Dunkel: Forget breakfast; unravel this Munich dunkel’s toast, sweet caramel  and nutty notes with the schmear’s almond and honey sweetness for an  utterly yummy dessert.

Onion bagel with salmon cream cheese & Paulaner Hefe-Weizen Natural Wheat: This bagel’s onion zing and salmon fishiness go from pungent to palatable with a hefeweizen’s pretty clove spice and lemon sweetness; the beer’s soft wheat draws out the bread, helping to muffle the mighty flavors.

Asiago cheese bagel with butter & Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale: The richest matchup we could muster, this bagel’s salty butter and sweet bread find common ground with the sip when the nutty Asiago cheese joins the beer’s nuttiness, before the flavor nosedives into sublime dark chocolate and roast.

Honey whole wheat bagel with sun-dried tomato cream cheese & Bison Honey Basil: Insalata caprese, anyone? The schmear’s tomato and the beer’s basil are Italian-kitchen-ready, but the sweet honey (in both the bagel and beer) keeps the taste out of salad territory.

Published November/December 2012
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