The Barley-Confection Synthesis: Tips for Pairing Beer and Halloween Candy

All Hallows’ Eve is fast approaching. An exorbitant trove of candy has been procured; the front yard is decorated with fiendish skeletons, gravestones and zombies. Perhaps you will be chasing around a few moppets veiled as Minions as they traverse the neighborhood streets in diligent search of sugar-coated treats. Alternatively, your evening responsibilities may include staying at home and doling out confectionary delights to ghoulish passersby. In either case, and with all of these painstaking Halloween preparations, it may have been easy to overlook one inexorable fact: you are destined to possess a large candy cache come All Saints Day. The confection inundation dilemma: what to do with it all? Fear not; there is still time to plan appropriately.

This week our expert beer panel hits the sweet spot with ten spooky beers that will pair brilliantly with your leftover Halloween candy. So dig through that candy bowl, extract the preeminent confections, and let’s get to work.

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The Enchanted Vinous Collective: Spooky Wines and Halloween Wisdom With Jorge Garcia and Kevin Keaveney

In Part I of the Enchanted Vinous Collective, I recommended a few bargain spooky wines to bring to your Halloween party that will simultaneously keep you in theme and a few extra dollars in your pocket. Win-Win. On certain occasions, however, you may require a high quality vino for your All Hallows’ Eve exploits. Perhaps you are attending a party hosted by your sommelier and oenophilic friend. In that case, a bargain wine just won’t impress. Or perhaps you prefer to indulge at home with a glass of wine and your favorite cinematic Halloween horror. We have you covered.

To inject qualified expertise into the Halloween dialogue, I sit down with Kevin Keaveney and Jorge Garcia (LOST, Hawaii Five-O), two consummate Halloween super fans and masterminds behind Skeleton Key Hawaii’s unparalleled haunt experience, Mummy: Curse of the Crypt. We sample a few spooky wines from the top shelf while discussing Halloween movies, music and events that are certain satisfy your ghoulish proclivities. Need some inspiration and recommendations for all things Halloween? We have it.

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The Enchanted Vinous Collective: Spooky Wines for Your Halloween Palooza

October is here. Let the Halloween excitement commence. It is finally time to adorn your long-anticipated, carefully-crafted costume for this year’s epic All Hallow's Eve Extravaganza. To accompany your glorious attire, some spooky skeleton cake pops and a bottle of wine should be a sufficient entry fee. So, what wine befits such an occasion?

This is not the night for serious wines. Proof is in the mirror: you are presently stuffed with pillows and outfitted in an uncomfortable body suit in vain attempt to impersonate everyone’s favorite Star Wars galactic gangster and crime lord, Jabba Desilijic Tiure aka Jabba the Hutt. You look sufficiently nonsensical; don’t confuse things further by toting a 2010 Cos d’Estournel.

Instead, go spooky or go home. In this post, I offer a few easy tips and recommendations for procuring the perfect vinous beverage for this year’s Allhallowe'en Palooza. Let's get creepy ...

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