Bar/fly: De Groote Witte Arend, Antwerp

Beer matching at De Groote Witte Arend in Antwerp is a revelatory experience. Illustration / Rod Emmerson

You will be pleased to learn that beer can be paired with almost any dish, writes Charlotte McDonald-Gibson.

Tim Ferket is clearly wary of throwing me in at the deep end. There may be more than 100 beers on offer at his restaurant and an extensive menu of hearty Belgian cuisine, but he begins by offering me a glass of ale and a bowl of crisps. Having travelled to Antwerp to learn about pairing food and beer from an expert, I'm tempted to point out that a pint and a packet of chips hardly constitutes a revolutionary shift in dining habits.

But the simple starter turns out to be the perfect introduction to a revelatory evening. The bitter yet floral flavours of the strong blond ale, Hopus, counter the sweet spiciness of the pickle crisps, creating a fizzle of flavours on the palate.

If you're talking about combining or pairing beer and food, you can go three ways, beer expert Tim explains over five expertly matched courses at his Antwerp restaurant, De Groote Witte Arend. You can serve the beer that's in the dish, or you can try to reflect, or you can try to create an extra taste: so combine, reflect, and create.

After the crisps comes a glass of Antwerp's local De Koninck ale, with beef cooked in the same beer. This is an example of combining the flavours of the food and beer, but the taste experience is not as simple as you might imagine. The slow-cooking of the beef brings out the malty, caramel notes of the dark beer, while the De Koninck in the glass retains the slight bitterness from the burned malts. Consumed together, you start to understand the complexities and layers of flavours.

For another course, Tim pairs a dark, strong Trappist ale, Westmalle Dubbel, with rabbit, bacon and onions, again cooked in the same beer. Game is particularly well-suited to beer, its hardy flavours standing up well to the challenge of a good brew. A simple way to conjure up an appropriate pairing is to think about the sauce you might serve with a dish. Duck breast goes well with orange or blackberries, and so it is also well-suited to a dark, fruity ale.

With strong foods, it is crucial to find a beer that stands up to them. It is a concept that can be applied to that other British favourite, curry. Most of us are inclined to plump for a lager, its bland fizz washing away the spice. But a coriander-infused wheat beer such as Hoegaarden might be a better choice. That, explains Tim, will create a pairing in which the beer both reflects the food and creates a new flavour with the floral hints and spiciness.

The opposite is true, however, if you want to make a complex beer sing. To demonstrate this, Tim chooses Oud Beersel, one of the lambic beers brewed only around Brussels. The sour flavour created by leaving the vats open and letting the beer spontaneously ferment is akin to cider, and he serves it with mashed potatoes with bacon.

We end with something I am never sure about: beer and cheese. But then out came the Kriek, a fruity Belgian beer. It is the most revelatory moment of the evening, the strong cherry and hops flavours bringing out all the velvet qualities of a fine goat's cheese.

Towards the end of the meal I start mentioning random dishes to Tim to see if he can name a beer to match. Prawns: a sour beer to counteract the saltiness. Steak: a sweet beer to pick up the hints of caramelisation. The only dish I seem to be able to catch him out on is fast food. "If you go to McDonald's, it's a pity for the beer," he says. I'll drink to that.

- Independent