Perfect Pairings....Beer and Chocolate

by Matt Demarco

Because Valentine’s Day is quickly descending upon us, I paired 5 readily available, highly rated beers with chocolates.  When it comes to pairing alcoholic beverages with sweets, beer often gets left behind. But when you think about it, it makes sense.  You love beer.  You love chocolate.  Why not enjoy both together? Beer pairs excellently with dessert as we demonstrated during the holidays with our cookies and beer pairing.  Maybe this year you can skip the flowers, forgo champagne, leave the wine corked and try some of these match ups.

Free Will Key Lime Lambic with dark chocolate covered cherry infused cranberries – Lambics are sweet and tart and pairing it with chocolate will actually take a little of the sweetness away. You can also pair Lambics with the fruit that is in them, for example, a cherry lambic with chocolate covered cherries. It will help showcase the fruit flavors in the beer. If you are not a fan of lambics, try pairing chocolate and fruit with Saisons.

Duvel with milk chocolate truffles – Duvel is a smooth, crisp Belgian strong pale ale that has a bitter bite balanced out by a malt sweetness and a mild spiciness from the Belgian yeast. The milk chocolate will help accent the delicate spice notes.

Deschutes Red Chair with spicy red chili infused dark chocolate – Spicy and hoppy are a match made in heaven. The hops will intensify the spicy before dousing the flames. Red Chair has a unique hop profile and it is a rollercoaster ride of hop flavors.

Duclaw Dirty Little Freak with dark chocolate covered pretzels – A chocolate coconut beer with intense flavors almost like a liquid Almond Joy. Adding the salt helps provide a balance between the chocolate and coconut flavors. This beer goes well with Samoa Girl Scout cookies too.

Evil Genius Purple Monkey Dishwasher with peanut butter cups – What’s better than a chocolate peanut butter beer with chocolate and peanut butter. It’s a no brainer. The peanut butter cups help bring the delicate peanut flavor in the beer to the forefront. Peanut brittle or Chocolate bark with peanuts or almonds would pair well also.

Yards Love Stout with dark chocolate espresso Malted milk balls – Love stout has a nice roasted character with hints of coffee and dark chocolate. To accent the chocolate and coffee notes I picked a combination of the two. Chocolate with caramel or nuts would also pair well.

Finally, when trying to do your own beer and chocolate pairings, pick the qualities of the beer you want to highlight and choose a type of chocolate to do just that. 

Enjoy your Valentine’s Day.  If by chance you find yourself without a significant other to celebrate with, we have a lot of high ABV beers that will help you ignore the chatter of lovebirds.

Cheers!