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And yet on Aug. 29, when Ploughshare Brewing Co.'s Matt Stinchfield joins Flatwater executive chef Jay Donaldson and "Iron Chef America" judge Mario Rizzotti at a multi-course meal featuring ingredients brought to Lincoln from Italy, Stinchfield is going to pour a couple carefully selected cold ones to go with the meal.

Wine drinkers, chill. It can be done. 

“Because beer is cooked and wine is not, that's one of the big advantages of beer pairings,� he said. “We can find similar cooked flavors in beer. So caramel, toasty, bread-y, coffee-like, chocolate-like -- all of those things are malt flavors. And we can find those in cooked foods and desserts like that.�

With most of the courses in this at-first-glance peculiar pairing, Stinchfield knows from experience which of Ploughshare’s drafts will shine. Risotto with baby shrimp and saffron? Easy -- serve a Belgian-style strong blond ale (The Devil’s Rope) with it.

“It’s a smaller course and a smaller pairing of a strong beer,� Stinchfield said. “That’s gonna really work.�

But a multi-course pairing can be, and should be, challenging, he said.

So before the event, he often hosts a little one for himself and perhaps another nearby palate. He considers some options for the courses that present the biggest challenges and pours a few flights -- from safe-ish bets to seemingly madcap notions -- to begin the quest for answers. It’s his pairing before the pairing.

“In the R&D process,� Stinchfield said, “there’s often not enough R.�

In advance of the Flatwater event, Stinchfield was focused on two of the courses that would be served -- a fried eggplant Parmesan appetizer and a tomato-cucumber-arugula salad with a balsamic dressing. Ploughshare’s kitchen crew whipped up some beyond approximate versions of the dishes while Stinchfield poured flights of his beer finalists for each of the two courses.

With each dinner pairing he agrees to participate in, Stinchfield plots a graph of the courses that will be served, the strength of the beer it’ll be paired with and the overall flavor impact -- on a scale of one to 10 -- that the combination of beer and food should create.

The finished version of this coming pairing has a slow build over the appetizers, a spike before the entrees and then a grand finale at dessert. Stinchfield said a successful pairing should leave diners with a similar feel to taking in a fireworks display, or putting on “Stairway to Heaven.�

With the Flatwater pairing, the salad has the highest flavor impact, at a nine. It was that course that presented the most challenges for him, too. 

“Here we've got tomatoes, fresh cucumber, arugula -- which is somewhat bitter, spicy, peppery -- and a balsamic vinaigrette,� he said. “So there's more acidity in this salad than some salads. There's no fruit component that I can bridge to with a sweeter beer. A hoppy beer like a pale ale will sometimes go with a salad if there's fruit or a citrus dressing.�

That was after sampling four beers -- the Farm Boy Cream Ale (an early American take on pilsners), Weathervane Witbier (a crisp number with some lemon peel and coriander in there), Schoolmaster Session IPA (a piney ale) and finally a beer brewed in the style of a fruity and bitter Belgian Orval. It's called an Orville.

With each, he tried a sip of it on its own, then a bite of food. After considering the tastes of each part alone, he tried them together and noted the differences that the combined forces created.

“One thing I notice right away is a nuttiness comes out of nowhere,� he said after trying the salad with the Farm Boy. “We’ve got a plan if we need it.�

The Weathervane and its citrus-y character work great with a crab cake, he said, but didn’t pop like the cream ale. Onto the next one, the Schoolmaster IPA.

“This one really brings out the cucumber,� he said. “There’s a hop characteristic in here that’s almost melon-like to begin with. Did you get that smoky finish?�

(Yes, I tried a few. And yes I absolutely got the smoky finish. It was totally unexpected given the flavors of the salad and the IPA on their own, and it lingered but also morphed. It was the wildest bite of salad I've had in some time.)

“I don’t know where that’s coming from,� he continued. “That’s what I love about a successful beer pairing -- there’s something new that’s being creating from the two.�

Then came Orville. The beer, he said, goes through two fermentations -- the second with a wild yeast. 

"It's essentially brewed with a controlled contaminate," he said. "So it's sort of like a blowfish. If you want the great sushi experience, you have to have the blowfish. In this case it won't kill you, but it might not be wonderful." 

There are notes of pineapple, peach and orange juice, he said, "which is crazy because no fruit ever got close to this beer." 

It was by far the most acidic of the four beers he tried pairing with the Italian-style salad. And together, it was like they hugged. The Orville, he said, was the winner. 

“That's exciting, because you're like, ‘really?’� he said. “At first you disbelieve it and then you become a real believer because some novel flavors get created.�