What beer would work best as an appetizer for a four course meal? Soup, salad, main course, and dessert?
You’re gonna need to give us more help! What’s the rest of the meal like?
What kind of soup?
Main course?
Dessert?
Though it really shouldn’t matter, who are you serving too? Beer enthusiasts or just the general beer drinking public?
Can you only pick one style or can you serve one type with soup/salad and another with main/dessert?
Soup is corn chowder made with American lager, salad with strawberry mead dressing, pizza made with brumalt pale mild in crust, and brownies made with stout.
Beer enthusiasts.
Each course will have a different style.
I recommend the beer used to make each course.
Soup - IPA or Marzen
Salad - Hefeweizen
Pizza - Kolsch (but just about anything works if it’s plain pizza)
Brownies - Denny’s Vanilla Bourbon Porter!
Just one opinion.
By the way, what time is dinner??
Soup - saison
Salad - a kriek
Pizza - American or Czech Dark Lager
Brownies - Baltic Porter
Just my 2 Lincoln’s
My initial reaction is always that I would rather have wine or mead with a heavy meal followed by an amaro or whiskey because beer is so filling but I get the fun of it.
Corn Chowder: either a nice Czech or bopils with nice malt character and a crisp finish would complement the corn and creamy texture. If you have bacon in the chowder a nice choice would be a rauchbier. A west coast ipa would work as a counterpoint on the tastebuds.
Salad: Always the tricky pairing because nothing really pairs with vinegar. In this case you have a sweet element too. I guess I would go with the spirit of the course which is light and refreshing. If the dressing is on the sweet side a sour would work, if it’s more acidic a saison would be nice. Also, if the dressing is sweet definitely work in some bitter greens.
Pizza: A glass of duvel or a triple works here. I think people associate pizza with light lager but I actually think a single glass of a higher gravity beer replaces the more appropriate glass of Chianti better than a session beer. A double ipa or fruity neipa would work.
Brownie: People automatically go for the ultra heavy dark beer here. Don’t, people will be ready to puke by now. You want a counterpoint to the cloying sweetness that is a brownie, not more of the same. A cherry or raspberry sour is the correct answer here.
Great ideas for pairings, but that’s not answering Steve’s question. What I got was that he wanted a beer that would be an appetizer. I think somethimg flavorfull but light…maybe a saison?
I think you missed Reply #4.
Possibly they aren’t overloading everyone with food and the beer won’t be poured into a Viking style horn tankard?? 
Kolsch as appetizer in those tall thin glasses. Low alcohol is good for a beer dinner. Subtlety of kolsch will get lost later.
Nope, didn’t miss it and it doesn’t change my reply.
Good suggestion. That’s kinda the thinking behind my Saison suggestion.
I’d go with a pre pro pils to complement the corn chowder.
Saison or as someone mentioned Kriek with the salad.
Dunkel for the pizza.
For the dessert course serve a West Coast IPA to cut the sweetness.
Doh! I totally misunderstood the question. So the beer is the appetizer? Honestly, since it’s not paired with anything it doesn’t matter so much. If it’s higher gravity serve a small glass.
That is where I’m headed.
Cool. So you want pairings, not a stand alone beer?
The appetizer will probably be stand alone, but the other courses are going to also be made with the beer that they are served with.
So just a beer as an appetizer - I say Munich Helles or an English Golden Ale. You can’t go wrong with a Kolsch, either, as suggested above.