The One Type Of Beer You Should Never Pair With Hot Wings

Beer and hot wings are natural companions. Is there anything better than washing down spicy, sauce-coated chicken with a cold, refreshing beer? Nothing beats it — unless you choose the wrong beer. It may seem like a really dark, boozy beer would be a bad choice, but the one beer style that actually should be avoided may surprise you: the West Coast-style IPA. When people say "hoppy IPAs," these are the beers they mean. In contrast to juicier, hazy Northeast IPAs (NEIPAs), West Coast IPAs put the bitter pine and citrus rind notes of hops on full display in a crisp, clean body. 

This is part of what got the American craft beer movement going in the mid-2000s (though the style actually goes back decades). And it's still hugely popular today, both alongside food and on its own. While we'd recommend a West Coast IPA with a juicy ribeye steak and other meats, you could be in for an unpleasant surprise if you drink one with hot wings. Sure, an IPA and wings can still taste great, but if you're looking for a beer that will help make the heat more manageable, a West Coast IPA is not the drink to grab.

Take a sip of beer in the middle of a hot wing feast, and it won't be obvious at first that your choice of IPA may not be the best decision. This is because you'll get initial relief, as with any cold beverage. But just as there are scientific reasons behind why beer and hot food pair so well together, the same is true for why IPAs and hot wings are not the ideal match for most palates. First, it's important to understand that "hot" and "spicy" are not actually flavors like sweet, salty, and umami — they're mouthfeels caused by irritation to your taste buds and mucous membranes. More importantly, the hot sauce that makes wings so deliciously spicy contains capsaicin. This natural chemical compound doesn't dissolve in water, which beer contains a lot of. Water just spreads capsaicin around, so as soon as your mouth warms back up from your initial sip of beer, the heat comes roaring back more intensely.

West Coast IPAs make things even worse, though, because they also contain high levels of alpha acids from all the hops. Thanks to their bitterness targeting your mouth's taste receptors (which are already irritated by the hot wings), the heat often feels like it's amplified further. Ironically, this can make you just want to drink more beer to quench it, so it's like putting gasoline on a fire. 

While a stout beer or other dark, robust style may seem like the obvious bad choice for hot wings, these can actually balance out the heat and coax out even more flavorful undertones. Likewise, lager, pilsner, Kolsch, and Belgian styles are among the best pairings for hot wings for similar reasons — especially when it comes to providing immediate cooling refreshment. Even sour beers with their punchy tang have their merits as hot wing flavor enhancers. However, it's worth noting that all beers contain alpha acids and a high amount of water, so they're still a temporary fix to calming down the heat. These other styles just won't amplify it as intensely as a highly bitter, skyrocketing-in-alpha-acids IPA will. 

For a different twist, you may also want to consider pairing a milkshake IPA with hot wings instead. With high levels of lactose and sweetness in addition to hops, this niche style is likely to help balance out the burn better than its hoppy West Coast counterparts. Though none of this means that you can't get your favorite West Coast IPA with your next plate of wings. Some people like the extra heat and feel that a hop-forward beer helps accentuate what hot wings are all about. If anything, this just goes to show how important it is to know your own taste preferences, including how much heat you can tolerate.