Cellar & Stove: Troegs' "Nugget Nectar" and Pork Sausage-stuffed Bell Peppers

Welcome to another edition of "Cellar & Stove." Today, I'm going to be making stuffed peppers and pairing it with a delicious beer from Troegs. However, there's a twist: today's recipe is a bit of a shortcut from the usual - I substitute ground beef (the usual) with chopped hot Italian sausage.  And the recipe changes quite a bit since I'm precooking the sausages. I'm also kicking it up a notch by adding into the rice some chopped dried arbol chiles, seasoned black beans, garlic, and a tiny bit of turmeric. I like it very spicy!

First thing's first - hollow out those peppers!

Next, I'm boiling the peppers for a few minutes while the sausages cook. Also, the rice takes a while so it's important to start that up, too. It's actually white rice, but the turmeric turned it yellow.

So let's talk beer - I want to pair a beer with this dinner that brings out the flavor but also not overpower it. That always should be the goal of any pairing, wine or beer. But with that in mind, sometimes you want to highlight (or de-emphasize) a particular flavor. For today's dish, the goal here is to offset the super spicy peppers with a moderately hoppy beer. I want the hops to cut through the oils in the food.

So I've chosen Troegs' "Nugget Nectar", a super-hoppy 7.5% ABV imperial amber ale. The flavors are going to work well, and the alcohol content is going to be enough to go toe-to-toe with those hot chiles.

Hop notes on the aroma with a nice orange-colored pour. A little bit of sour citrus aromas, but not very noticeable.

It's a strong amber ale, full of hops taste. The beer is hopbacked with whole Nugget hops flowers, which imparts a strong and slightly floral hops flavor. It's actually less bitter than I expected, but still full of hops taste.  I liked the strength and the slight bitterness, and there are some piney / fruity flavors on the aftertaste and finish.

The peppers turned out a little less spicy than I had hoped, but still delicious. And the beer complimented it well - I enjoyed having that spice / hops balance. A maltier beer would have been a little too weak, I think, to stand up to the heat in the dish. It turned out to be a great pairing!