Beer Cuisine, Part Deux

Ohhhhh kay, I just got word of what my friend has planned for the tasting party. He was definitely busy, he's got 5 (count 'em, FIVE!) brews to be sampled. He sent me a description of each one, which I shall paraphrase. Aaaaand the ideas are rollin'! These are all PRELIMINARY ideas!! No passing judgments on my brainstorm session!

1. English Mild Ale -- ~3.5% ABV, dark english ale
Light-bodied, light to medium brown in color, lower carbonation
Very low hop flavor, but should be spicy and earthy hops with slight fruitiness. Very subtle chocolately/nutty taste, slight molasses flavor from brown sugar. Expected to be a very light fruity ale with enough dark malt backbone to make it interesting.
MY THOUGHTS: When I read spicy/earthy my mind immediately ventured into the cinnamon (spice) and oatmeal (earth) realm of desserts. The fruitiness kinda throws me off right now. When I hear fruitiness I usually think citrus but it doesn't sound like that's the case here. The molasses and nutty tones still make me think something simple (yet delicious) with oatmeal (maybe with a dash of cocoa infused in the dough/batter, etc.) may complement this brew. I still need to think about this some more, as I think even the texture of the cookie should contribute to the tasting experience.

2. German 'Altbier' Ale -- ~5% ABV
Color is copper to very light brown, with some red hues, high carbonation
Clean finish, 'grainy' German malts, spicy hop bitterness, lighter body with a very dry finish. Like a refreshing light German lager, but with a bit more color and flavor.  Flavor is slight bready and toasty, fine spicy/floral aroma.
MY THOUGHTS: Bready and toasty popped out at me, initial thoughts are of a sweet bread of some sort to bring those flavors out. Maybe something with toasted almonds or pecans... The spicy and floral can be added with some creativity... Maybe eclairs with a filling infused with toasted nuts... I'll need to ask what kind of floral tones we're dealing with...
3. English Extra Special Bitter (ESB) -- ~5.5% ABV
Clear orange/copper appearance with minimal head
Bready-tasting malts, and earthy hops, moderate fruitiness. Slightly caramel-sweet finish, but not overly sweet. Similar to #1, but higher alcohol content, more earthy hoppiness, lighter color and flavor. Bready, biscuity flavor on the finish.
MY THOUGHTS: Biscuity flavor draws my mind to shortbread cookies or biscotti, not a lot of sweetness to those cookies, which would complement the beer. If I were to make the cookies out of brown sugar vice white sugar it may bring out more of the caramel tones in the beer.

4. American Brown Ale -- ~5.5%
Dark Brown color, Medium body and medium to high carbonation
Nutty/chocolately, caramel malts, flavor typical of brown ales. Fair amount of citrus, tastes a bit like a dark, more-richly flavored Pale Ale.
MY THOUGHTS: Chocolate and orange. Somehow. But not a strong, uber sweet chocolate, maybe bittersweet chocolate at most.

5. Strong American Amber with Honey and Spruce -- ~8%
Very deep red color, Medium to full body, high carbonation, big creamy lasting head.
Strong hoppy red ale with piney/sprucey/honey flavor, balanced by loads of sweet caramel malts. Could be a wild card.
MY THOUGHTS: Honey and caramel, check. The pine... Hmmm. I am very intrigued and I think he's right that this could definitely turn out to be a wild card. It's a bold pairing but I like the sense of adventure. Something with pine nuts maybe? There's a bacon-y smokiness about pine nuts, which stimulates my imagination as to how it'd taste when mixed with caramel or molasses flavors. I think my dessert will be just as adventuresome as this brew.

Initial thoughts aside, I don't want to just whip up a batch of cookies for each beer. I'd like to think along the lines of cookies, bread, pastries, ice cream, maybe even a tiramisu type dish if I could get the flavor combinations right. I want to find balances of texture as well as flavor, I don't want the same cookie-cutter (pun intended) line up. So for this I will need to brainstorm more. And that quite possibly may entail experimentation. I can't wait.