Beer is flexible, and beer choices are virtually endless. It's largely a matter of personal preference whether to emphasize contrast, complement, or cut. There are really no rules, but there are a few useful ideas for ways to start.
Pairing Beer With Sweet Sauces
Sweet bar-b-que sauces may offer the most options. If the sauce or marinade includes fruit, choosing a corresponding fruit beer will intensify the fruity flavors. For instance, Abita's Purple Haze is mildly raspberry, and would echo a berry-tinged sauce. Samuel Adams Cherry Wheat smells and tastes of sweet, dark cherries (although the cherry aroma is stronger than the flavor). There are beers with almost any and every fruit imaginable, including peach, apricot, cherry, blueberry, and even pomegranate, so matching a fruit flavor isn't difficult. Possibly the mostly intensely fruity brews are the lambics, but they're probably not for the faint of heart, and the sour bitterness may be too overpowering to truly go well with the meal.
Not interested in a fruit festival? Beers with strong yeast flavors are also a good choice for sweeter sauces, especially for lighter meats like chicken or pork. Try a wheat beer, a witbier or hefeweizen. Boulevard's Unfiltered Wheat will stand up to beef without overpowering chicken, and is a great refresher on a hot day, to boot. Flying Dog's In-Heat Wheat or New Belgium's Mothership Wit are also good choices with lighter meats and sweeter sauces.
Pairing Beer With Spicy Sauces
If a sweeter beer is good with a sweet sauce, then a heavily hopped beer must be great for hot and spicy sauces, right? Maybe, maybe not. An IPA might be a good choice to intensify the heat, but it is possible to have too much of a good thing. Extreme beers and double IPA's could be too hoppy or spicy, and might overpower the meal rather than complement. As the heat of the sauce rises, think contrast and cut.
Samuel Adams Boston Lager is a good choice with spicy foods; it has plenty of hops and is strong enough to stand up to big spices and dominant meats like beef. Shiner Bock also cuts the heat well, and Pilsner Urquell is a great choice for spicy chicken or pork. It's just malty enough to cut the heat, but its crisp bitterness doesn't overpower the meat in the process.
Pairing Beer With Grilled Meats
Grilled meats, such as steaks or burgers, can generally stand up to a pretty intense beer. Brown ales can go well with grilled meats, especially burgers. Perhaps surprisingly, a good stout is also a great choice for grilled meats. They're robust enough to stand up to the flavors of the food, and the sweetness of the roasted malts are a good complement to the fire-produced char of the meats.
No matter what beer makes the cut, it's time to fire up the grill!
