Your favorite beer & cheese combination ?

[mapsnrop]

Hello,

I'm having a beer & cheese party this month, and I was wondering if anyone out there had any favorite combinations of beer & cheese?

Ideally beers & cheeses that are somewhat easy to find in Western Canada !

[fmed]

Here are some notes from Rick Green (CAMRA) on a Beer and Cheese pairing they did at Salt (Vancouver) a few months back (I didn't attend):

http://urbandiner.ca/2009/02/24/biere...

Most of the specific recommendations are for Unibroue beers and Quebec Cheeses, but he gives good pointers on how to pair beer styles with types of cheese.

[grayelf]

Coincidentally, there was a link to this article on the same page as your post: http://www.chow.com/stories/11086?tag...

[Bob Mac]

Good suggestions fmed and grayelf.

Must confess that admittedly being a bit of a "cork dork" I initially drew a blank when beer was substitued for wine in conjunction with cheese but the first article made some intersting suggestions. I do not drink as much beer ....have to save at least some liver function... as I do wine but the Unibroue products are ones which I do enjoy and they should be available.

[fmed]

Thanks Bob Mac.

A beer and cheese event can end on a sweet note too.

Imperial Stouts with a chocolate pudding cake (coffee cheescake and sticky toffee pudding can work very well too depending on the sweetness of the beer), Fruit Lambics (eg Framboise, Krieks) with cherry or raspberry creme brule, the Unibruoe Ephemere Pommes or Poire with membrillo...etc. I haven't really found a dessert that works well with Bitter....maybe a burnt caramel cheesecake?

I have had a Stout Float with vanilla icecream that was surprisingly good!

[fmed]

I just noticed that this thread moved over to the General Chowhounding Topics board. Shouldn't this be in the Beer Board perhaps?

[TomSwift]

One of my favorite combinations is Bass Ale and the sharpest Cheddar (7-10 years) I can find.

[im_nomad]

If you can find one, I found a Jalapeno Ale at a nearby microbrewery that went fabulously with most any cheese ! Same goes for the Chipotle beer i've tried (but can't recall the name of sorry)

[Caroline1]

It probably won't help you much for y our party,, but my favorite beer and cheese combination is bock or steam (dark) beer with cheese pizza. It's the ONLY time I drink beer!

[LauraGrace]

I think that bottle-conditioned beer and wild-yeast beer are both naturals with cheese.

Saisons, flemish ales, sour ales, and the like have a sort of "funky" character that works beautifully with goat cheeses (esp. mature ones) and washed-rind, stinky cheeses.

Aged hard cheeses -- I'm thinking a really old gouda or similar -- are nice, imo, with something like a Baltic porter or some other roasty, complex, high-alcohol dark brew.

Rich, buttery, fatty cheeses that are milder in flavor... I'd go with an ESB or an English-style IPA, with a good hop character but not overwhelming. Unless you're serving it with fruit or jam or something. Then I'd do a brown or red ale with a fair amount of malt to balance the hoppiness.

WRT Unibroue beers in particular: I'd advise not doing more than one. They use, I believe, the same yeast strain in all their beers, which is lovely if you're having one kind but gets a bit dull if you're having more than one.

[kattyeyes]

How about serving beer cheese soup? There are recipes aplenty out there...or you could try this reuben soup, which is a riff on beer cheese soup. I'll be making it again in the very near future. It is REEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLYYYY quite tasty.
http://www.chow.com/recipes/19715

[Lenox637]

Belhaven Brewery's St. Andrew's Ale and Lincolnshire Poacher from Neal's Yard Dairy.