Have a beer with your meal

EVERY food lover knows the classic combinations of food and drink - champagne and oysters, pinot noir and monkfish, and claret with roast beef.

And of course, expensive restaurants are only too willing to help diners make the perfect match between wine and food, with a sommelier on hand to guide customers.

But now restaurants are being urged to introduce diners to a new range of combinations: food and beer.

The Campaign for Real Ale is offering restaurants suggestions to match ales, porters and stouts to their dishes, in a bid to make beer the drink of choice with dinner.

In a move that will end forever the association of beer and liquid lunches, Camra has drawn up its own list of real ales to liven menus at home and in restaurants.

It also solves the problem of what to drink with favourite Indian and Chinese dishes, traditionally a minefield for the wine-lover, by suggesting specially brewed beers that will go with the spiciest of dishes.

And it has also urged pubs to produce "beer lists" as well as wine lists, which will tell drinkers enough to let them match their tipple to their dinner.

As part of the make-over, it is urging pubs to offer "tasters" of beers when customers order food, and "tasting notes" on bottles that would explain what the drink could be matched to.

One small brewer is taking the idea even further, by producing beers in larger bottles which it says are designed to be shared.

The move comes amid growing concern among brewers that British drinkers are abandoning beer in favour of wine - especially as dining out booms.