Next time you’re serving cheese, serve it with beer. Photo Courtesy of Cabot Creamery.

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May 2006

Product Reviews / Main Nibbles / Cheese-Butter-Yogurt

Matching Cheese With Beer & Wine

Pairing Wine With Is Classic, But Beer Is Equally Great

Most people immediately think “wine and cheese,” but what about beer and cheese? Its heritage is equally as old and even more solid: both was historically made on the farm by the housewife, whereas viticulture and winemaking was a specialty craft.

Not only do beer and cheese have an ancient heritage, but some cheeses actually have flavors that pair even better with beer. Quite a few cheese experts feel that, by its structural nature, cheeses are more harmonious with beer than with wine: the nut and caramel aromas found in aged cheeses are also present in malty beers like brown ales, stouts and porters. Beer is also much less acidic than winemaking a pairing with creamy cheese more harmonious.

For sure, Belgians, those great beer-makers, have been enjoying their cheese with beer, not wine, since the Middle Ages and before. And as Garrett Oliver, brewmaster at the wonderful Brooklyn Brewery and author of The Brewmaster’s Table points out, unlike wine, beer is neither intimidating nor expensive. In other words, you can pretty much afford to buy one bottle of everything and experiment to find out which matches sing to you.

In general, lighter beers like pilsner and wheat beers complement mild cheeses; but the reverse is not true: an intense beer with an intense cheese is just too much of a good thing. It’s better to seek moderation, e.g. a more mellow beer with a big, complex cheese. As with wine pairings, there are no hard-and-fast rules: the only rule is what you like. But here are some guidelines:

Young, fresh cheeses (Chevre, Mozzarella) go best with lighter beers
Sharp cheeses (Cheddar, Colby) go best with highly hopped, bitter beers
Aged, nutty cheeses (Asiago, Gruyere) demand malty beers
Blue cheeses (Roquefort, Stilton), which go well with sweet wines, also require sweet beers

While our goal here is to introduce beer and cheese matches, we’ve also provided wine pairings for reference and comparison.

Cheese	Beer	Wine
Asiago	Malty Brown Ales	Barbera, Chianti, Rioja
Blue Cheeses	Barleywine Style Ale (Old Foghorn, Moylan’s), Trappist Beer, Stout	Sweet Wine (Roquefort & Sauternes, Port & Stilton)
Brie, Camembert	Belgian Blond Ale	Champagne, Chardonnay
Brie & Camembert (Very Ripe)	French Bière de Garde (Jeanlain or La Choulette Ambree), German Kolsch, Stout	Hard Cider, Red Bordeaux
Brie, Camembert (For Dessert)	Stout	Champagne, Chardonnay
Cheddar, Mellow	Pilsner-style lagers (e.g. Pilsner Urquell)	Bordeaux, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot
Cheddar & English Farmstead Cheeses	Pale Ale (with lots of hops)	Ruby Port
Chevre	Belgian Lambics	Sauvignon Blanc
Chevre (Aged)	Belgian-Style Saison (e.g. Ommegang Hennepin, Saison Dupont)	Chardonnay, White Burgundy
Chevre (Aged With Caramel Notes)	Creamy Stouts*	Chardonnay, White Burgundy (oaky)
Colby, Gloucester	Brown Ale
Feta	Wheat Beers	Light White Wines
Fresh Cheeses (Burrata, Chevre, Creszenza, Mozzarella, Teleme)	Fruit Beer, Wheat Beer (Hefeweizen, Weissbier, Witbier), Pilsner	Champagne, Sweet White Wine
Gouda	Amber Ales, Nut-Brown Ales, Porters	Amarone, Shiraz, Zinfandel
Gruyere	Malty Beers: Bock, Munich Dunkel, Oktoberfest	Grenache, Pinot Noir, Syrah
Havarti, Gouda, Monterey Jack	Hoppy Pilsners	Beaujolais, Pinot Noir
Mascarpone	Fruit Beer, Porter or Stout	Marsala
Mimolette	Barleywine Ale, Bière des Flandres, Vintage Ale	Late Harvest Pinot Gris, Late Harvest Zinfandel, Sweet Vouvray
Pecorino	Amber Ale	Chianti
Parmigiano-Reggiano	Amber Ale, India Pale Ale	Barbera, Barolo, Lambrusco
Provolone	Pale Ale	Cabernet Sauvignon
Sheep’s Milk Cheeses (Mild to Medium-Aged)	Amber Ale	Full Reds, Sweet Hard Ciders
Sheep’s Milk Cheeses (Aged, Salty, Nutty)	Brown Ale	Full Reds, Sweet Hard Ciders
Swiss-Style Mountain Cheeses (Comte, Emmental, Gruyere)	Bock Beer, Brown Ale, Dark Lager, Oktoberfest Beer, Sweet or Mellow Porter or Stout*	Country Wines
Stilton, Roquefort	Barleywine Style Ale, Belgian Ale, Stout	Port
Triple Crèmes	Belgian-Style Saison, Belgian Tripels, Fruit Beers (try Kriek, cherry beer or Kriek Framboise, raspberry beer)	Barolo, Brunello, Champagne
Washed Rind Cheeses - Mild e.g. Livarot, Point l’Eveque	Darker Ales (Rodenbach Red Ale) French Bière de Garde	Alsatian Gewürtztraminer, Pinot Gris, Riesling, Normandy Cider
Washed Rind Cheeses - Strong, e.g. Epoisses, Munster	Trappist Beers (Chimay Grande Reserve), Porters, Stouts	Alsatian Gewürtztraminer, Pinot Gris, Riesling

* Look for chocolate, caramel and roasted coffee notes, e.g. Sierra Nevada Stout

For a deeper discussion of why these pairings work, read “Beer and Cheese Pairing Ideas,” by Owen Ogletree.

Cheeses For Beers


Cheeses For Brown Ales. U.S. brews like Pete’s, Rogue, Sierra Nevada and Brooklyn Brewery plus Samuel Smiths and Newcastle from the U.K., all go great with this assortment of farmhouse Cheshire, double-aged Gouda, and more. Click here for more information.	Cheeses For India Pale Ales. Boisterous and spicy India pale Ales call out for robust and subtly spicy cheeses: Scottish Cheddar, Grana Padana, Provolone, Piccante, Montasio Festivo. Click here for more information.	Cheeses For Porters. Take an international cheese tour along with a creamy glass of porter. Enjoy Le Maréchal from France, Knight's Vail from Wisconsin, Cashel Blue from Ireland, and Danish Tilsiter. Click here for more information.

Learn More About Beer


The Brewmaster’s Table: Discovering the Pleasures of Real Beer With Food, by Garrett Oliver, brewmaster of the Brooklyn Brewery, one of America’s great craft brewers. A must-read for anyone who loves both beer and food. Click here for more information.	Stephen Beaumont's Brewpub Cookbook: 100 Great Recipes from 30 Great North American Brewpubs, by Stephen Beaumont. Round out your beer-and-food pairing library with this volume by an award-winning beer writer. Click here for more information.	Jay Harlow's Beer Cuisine: A Cookbook for Beer Lovers, by Jay Harlow. Harlow, a former restaurant chef, is a popular cooking teacher and writer in the San Francisco bay area. The dishes are modern and sophisticated yet easy to make. Click here for more information.