WHEN BEERVANA founder and chief executive Aaron Grieser refers to his company's multitude of craft beers as similar to wine when paired with food, he isn't kid- ding. At least that's the"hook the ever-expanding global cadre of microbrewers wants consumers to con- sider when buying their pricey beers. It's a sound plan given the worldwide expansion of wine consumption. Deschutes Brewery in bucolic Bend, Oregon, one of Grieser s main craft beer suppliers, has taken the wine connection to the next level, Deschutes founder Gary Fish met prominent Washington DC chef restaurateur Jose Andres several years ago when dining in one of his Spanish-Middle Eastern influenced estab- lishments in the nation's Capitol. The two traded stories about food, wine and beer and after a visit to Bend, Ore Andres asked Deschutesto come up with a few beers tailored to his menu. After numerous experiments, a blend of verbena, pink peppercorns and black lime ended up inabeer named Zarabanda, which, along with several other brews, Andres has featured with specific dishes at numerous sold-out beer dinners in DC. Never one to pass up a sales opportunity Grieser pre- sented two speciality beers for a small panel of Bangkok experts to taste last week including a Deschutes rarity branded Mirror Mirror. It's a double- malted powerhouse at 11.7-per-cent alcohol, dark slightly sweet and aged in used oak wine barrels-the wine connection again. Deschutes makes only a few hundred bottles of this"reserve" speciality and only in years they judge ingredients to be perfect.0f course it's suitable for cellar ageing. It's a natural for beef and kid ney pies and a range of stews steeped in what else but dark beer