Calagione owns Dogfish Head Craft Brewery in Milton, Del. Old is a Center City sommelier, consultant and director of wine studies at Manhattan's French Culinary Institute.

"Beer is more primal," he says, between sips.

"With wine, it's all about the acidity," she says, expertly swishing her glass at Restaurant XIX atop the Park Hyatt at the Bellevue. "Nothing can compare to its taste and diversity."

It's a Dogfish and pinot show.

Their act, perfected over five years, 20 drink-off dinners, and now the book He Said Beer, She Said Wine (Dorling Kindersley, $25), is pairing wines and beers with specific foods and judging which beloved libation is the winner.

A hard choice, but someone has to make it.

"Once we turned it into a contest, where people scored their choices, a war of the sexes, it just worked," Calagione says.

For the record, there's little war: Both beverage connoisseurs are 38, married to their high school sweethearts, and get along swimmingly.

He Said, She Said, with zippy photographs, recipes and ballots, pairs beer and wine with everything: pot roast, salad, sushi, hoagies, ham, ribs, pecan pie and, yes, a tuna salad sandwich (Neil Ellis Sincerely Sauvignon Blanc or De Ranke XX Bitter, a Belgian golden ale).

Which means their lunches are more lively than most Americans' midday repasts.

Beer Guy and Wine Woman will stage one of their tonier contests in the jeweled XIX Restaurant next Thursday during Philly Beer Week.

Wine Woman realizes she's at a distinct disadvantage as the challenger, pushing grapes in the midst of so much hops. Then again, Beer Guy competed two years ago at the Pittsburgh Wine Festival.

"It was like bringing a knife to a gunfight," Calagione says.

"Everyone has these preconceived misconceptions about what drink goes with what dish," Beer Guy says. "We're trying to make people look at beer and wine differently but in a fun way."

Wine Woman is unafraid to declare that a wine tastes "leathery." Beer Guy fearlessly compares a lambic to a "horse blanket." Their point is to be less of a snob about wine, and more open about good beer.

Tragically, in an era of great handcrafted beer and variety, 90 percent of all global beer is one style, pale lager, and 85 percent of all domestic beer consumption is pale lager from three breweries: Coors, Miller and Anheuser-Busch.

"And America happens to be the best producer of beer in the world. Look at all the great beers we have in our area - Victory, Yards, Sly Fox, Stoudt's. This is a great beer-drinking town."

"We're trying to get people comfortable enough to trust their own palates," Calagione says. And to be adventurous when they sit down to the table.

Beer goes effortlessly with green salad. Asparagus and artichokes, the jewels of the vegetable kingdom, go poorly with both beer and wine.