Beer & Food Program

The Brewers Association Beer & Food Program works to provide resources for both brewery and culinary professionals to continue to strengthen and reinforce the power of beer and food pairing and help beer reclaim its place at the dinner table.

The self-guided CraftBeer.com Beer & Food Course, which is free to Brewers Association members, was co-authored by Adam Dulye, a Culinary Institute of America graduate and Julia Herz, former Craft Beer Program director and Certified Cicerone®, is the crash course in beer and food you need to help integrate the powerful combination of beer and food into your business.

This versatile course combines lectures, suggested readings, videos and tasting sessions to help you and your team understand the basics of pairing beer and food. This course was written to be self-guided, but can easily be integrated into your staff training and continuing education opportunities.

The Beer & Food Course Includes:

  • Craft beer history and America’s current beer market
  • Beer ingredients and the basic brewing process
  • How to taste, pour and present beer
  • Characteristics, flavors and food pairing notes on ten popular beer styles
  • Identification of off-flavors and potential issues at retail
  • Predicting, identifying and describing beer and food interactions
  • The basics of pairing beer and cheese
  • Pairing vocabulary through a tasting of five beer styles alongside common food ingredients
  • How to plan and execute a beer dinner


Incorporate the Beer & Food Course into Your Business:

  • Brewery staff training
  • Empowering waitstaff and bartenders to suggest pairings at retail
  • Front of house continuing education
  • Training to help integrate pairing elements at beer festivals or other
  • Tools to help you bring the beer dinner to your brewery

Free BA Member Download

Beer & Food Course Lecture Series

In order to provide multiple platforms for students, CraftBeer.com now offers four video courses that work in conjunction with the Professional Course manual to help students continue to develop their beer and food knowledge. These videos, hosted by Adam Dulye and Julia Herz, are not meant to replace the manual, rather the authors expound on concepts and give students the option to learn visually. Each of the video lectures is accompanied by a quiz, which students must pass with an 80% score in order to receive a certificate of completion. Each video can be purchased individually or as a bundle.

Let’s Talk Beer & Food!

Adam Dulye

Executive Chef for the Brewers Association and CraftBeer.com

303.447.0816

adam@brewersassociation.org