If you have a Korean or Japanese market near you, they are available. We buy these here all the time. And they are very good! But for some reason, the ones I purchased at 7-11 and Family Mart in Akasaka (a suburb of Tokyo) were wicked good. Awesome rice crackers, with just a hint of heat, and salty peanuts to die for!
Those orange, banana-shaped things are in a lot of the mixes I buy. I will pick stuff up locally, on Amazon or nuts.com… lots of good stuff. I probably got this way from being dragged into stores by my wife. Places like Homegoods, TJ Maxx and World Market are “mostly boring” but they will have little snack sections and you’ll find stuff you’ve never seen before. Before you know it, you’re addicted to exotic snax and beer! :D As long as the snax don’t have any candied peanuts in them! I do have a Korean market near me. I should probably see what they have. I saw a drinking show (THREE SHEETS) when the host went to Korea and he was drinking Cass beer. When I went to the local Korean market I found Cass there and bought some.
I have always believed that the thing that goes best with beer is another beer.
One of us had to say it.
In the end, I realize there is war in Ukraine and gas is $5 a gallon so sweet peanuts isn’t much of a reason to be outraged. I have buds who always snack on something when they drink beer. I have some buds who do not and they generally don’t have snacks around their house either so if I’m invited over it’s kind of funny… I bring beer and snax and put whatever snax out that I brought and OF COURSE they snack on them. So maybe they don’t buy them because they know they’ll eat them. 
I think the title to this thread should be “What snacks go with light lagers.”
Or, what light (Leicht) lagers go good with snacks?
it’s pretty different from when i was drinking in my 20s, where i’d want to bring some kind of snack or plan a meal/pot luck thing if drinking a lot with friends, because everyone would want to munch. nowadays, i just want to minimize total unnecessary calories going into me, while still enjoying as many beers as i can.
I fast from food on certain days. But a beer or two is always consumed. That keeps the total calories down, while still enjoying a good beer.
The comments was made that “nothing sweet” and while I agree with that in principle I have to admit that I was once charged to come up with a beer pairing with Girl Scout Cookies at my brewery years ago.I detested the idea at first but after a while I actually found that there were some surprising pairings that brought out or highlighted some of the flavors in the beer–or the cookies.
I’m a strict milk and cookies guy (or maybe coffee or tea depending) so don’t get me wrong. I’m going in for a pretzel over a cookie with my next pint without a doubt. However, it was eye opening.
Something else that pairs nicely with beers…cheese! Almost any quality cheese, but especially a Dutch Gouda, or different cheddar cheeses from The Netherlands.
When having guests over for a gathering, we always set out several large blocks of cheese, and allow everyone to slice up various samples to go with the beers on tap.
The wine people tend to be wrong in their assessment that cheese works best with wine. Beer’s carbonation helps rinse the mouth and accentuate the cheese flavors.
I’m sure this is true and I like to stay open-minded on things like this. But in an everyday situation it’s going to be a salty snack that goes with beer.
The cheese thing is true too. Generally I’m NOT reaching for cheese but if it was a party and the host had a table full of crackers, cheeses, etc., I wouldn’t hesitate to grab some cheese and wash it down with beer. It’s salty after all. I’ve been out to dinner and had beer and then someone at the table orders a large dessert and I end up with a fork full of tiramisu or cannoli or something… that last gulp of beer is pretty much ruined, IMO.
I am in the salty snack, not sweet, not with a big meal camp. I have never gone to those multi course beer pairings just because I feel beer is too filling to go with most meals.
That being said there are some exceptions. I almost always get a Taj Mahal or Kingfisher at an Indian restaurant and generally think beer goes better with spicy food than wine. Often a lager is the best choice. I certainly sometimes have pizza with beer but it’s just that I like to drink some beers while tending the pizza oven. If the pairing mattered to me it would be red wine with pizza.
We make a great nut mix with our own hot sauce and bitters that goes great with beer. It’s not at all sweet but has just a bit of honey or maple syrup and butter wuth the spices and tossed with the freshly roasted nuts. That combo makes everything stick to the nuts.
Another thing I like in the late afternoon with a beer this time of year is radishes with butter and a sprinkle of maldon sea salt. It’s delicious and light. I especially like the elongated french radishes for this treatment.
Hard cheese with a lot of crystallization with some crusty bread and mustard work too.
An even better choice with Indian food is a Scottish 80, like McEwans; the malt really works well to cut the heat.
I can see that but I have a thing about not enjoying being full so a lighter beer works for me. Also, it’s not about cutting the heat, I just think some beers like lagers, pale ales, and lighter IPAs play well with heat.
I think the reason sweet doesn’t work with most beer is that the beers are intended to be dry and any residual sweetness on the palate is generally unwelcome. For me, the exception here is estery/phenolic beer like Belgians and hefeweizens. Even though the beers are typically dry, the fruit and spice compliments desserts pretty well. Apple spice cake or gingersnaps paired with a dubbel or dunkelweizen is pretty damn good. I’d imagine dried fruit would match up pretty well, also. Sweet isn’t horrible with English ales to me, but I’d still prefer a salty snack with them.
Otherwise, the tried and true work well. Pretzels, nuts, cheese, bread and meats all go well with most lagers and ales. I particularly prefer cheese with bitters and milds. I think the lower carbonation is creamier and less prickly, which works well with the cheeses I like. Chocolate, particularly dark chocolate, plays nice with porters, stouts, and brown ales.
I like to keep Beer Nuts hot bar mix on hand: https://beernuts.com/collections/hot-bar-mix
I stopped at my local Korean grocery store on Friday and found these…
They’re slightly weird and not exactly my favorite but they’re quite good. Strangely, each piece DOES have a slightly sweet thing going on but they’re saltier than they are sweet and the level of sweetness is nowhere near that of these candies peanuts I mentioned.
I have seen these before, either in Japan, or perhaps in a local Asian market here. They are quite good, and go well with almost any beer.