7x beer and cheese pairings you’ll want to try!
Cheese is delicious. Beer is delicious. Combining the two? Great idea! Because beer and cheese go incredibly well together. Cheese specialist Annelies and beer sommelier Arvid tell you everything about why the two pair so well in the booklet Beer and Cheese. The booklet also contains lots of combinations that work incredibly well—and we’re revealing a few so you can get started right away.
There’s a beer to go with every piece of cheese. Which one depends on the cheese’s flavor and texture. Beer pairs especially well with cheese because of the carbonation and alcohol, which cut through the richness of the cheese. Of course, it doesn’t matter which cheeses you put on the cheese board for a beer-and-cheese tasting, as long as you enjoy them!
Goat cheese with a Tripel Karmeliet
Tripel is a fairly strong style of beer with an alcohol content between 7% and 10%, as well as more carbonation than many other beers. The carbonation rinses away and cuts through the richness of the goat cheese. Karmeliet also has a floral, honeyed aroma—and those two flavors happen to pair perfectly with goat cheese.
Manchego with an Oedipus Thai Thai
This is also a tripel beer, but it’s made with coriander and lemongrass. Fresh and full of flavor, in other words. It’s especially the flavor of the lemongrass that pairs well with Manchego. Choose a cheese that’s only 6 to 7 months old, though, because an older Manchego can be too intense for this beer.
Camembert with a Saison Dupont
Many cheeses pair well with this king of the Saisons. Camembert is one of them. The Saison works well with the creamy flavor and texture of this French cheese because it’s spicy yet fresh.
Brie de meaux with a Bãrbar Blond
Barbar Blond is, as beer sommelier Arvid explains, an aromatic beer with aromas of malt and honey. Its carbonation level is high, but that’s precisely why it pairs well with cheese. The soft cheese can sometimes have a barnyard flavor, but that’s exactly what goes well with Barbar Blond.
Emmentaler with a La Trappe Blond
La Trappe Blond is a fresh, floral beer. The flavor? Sweetish, slightly bitter and a touch sour. Emmentaler cheese often has a sweetish, slightly sour flavor too, which is why the two make a great match, in addition to the beer’s intensity.
Roquefort with a Kasteel Donker
Roquefort is a blue cheese with a fruity, nutty flavor and, of course, a spicy finish. Kasteel Donker is full-bodied, sweet, spicy and slightly bitter, making it a good beer to drink with a piece of one of the best-known blue cheeses.
Young matured cheese with a Gulpener Korenwolf
Of course, cubes of young matured cheese are a must on a cheese board (or at a traditional Dutch birthday party). Korenwolf is a soft, spicy wheat beer and a real thirst-quencher. The beer’s slight acidity pairs well with the creaminess of almost any young matured cheese.
Title: Beer and Cheese
Author: Arvid Bergström and Annelies van den Ende
Price: €18.50
Publisher: Koken Met Krullen
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