Nobody needs convincing that beer and cheese go together. Tangy Cheddar with an India Pale Ale (IPA). Buttery blue cheese with a malty doppelbock. Even nachos and a ballpark lager make the case. But the boom in craft beer and the blossoming interest in artisanal cheese have conspired to inundate us with choices. So many beers, so many cheeses, so little time.
If you’re satisfied with a tasty beer in your glass and a favorite cheese on the table, seek no further. But your pleasure will likely spike if you put some thought into the match. When you serve a toasty Märzen that echoes the toffee aroma in aged Gouda, or find a triple-cream cheese that mellows the bitter, roasted notes of a stout, you treat yourself and your guests to an experience. You also give the craft brewer and the artisanal cheesemaker their due by putting their wares in the best possible light.
Cheese & Beer aims to boost your enjoyment of both these favorites by steering you to some proven pairings. But, more important, this volume should equip you to continue the journey on your own by familiarizing you with the major beer styles and the kinds of cheeses that complement them. With so many expertly craft ed options available to fans of beer and cheese, every day brings the possibility of discovery.
In the pages to come, you will find the world’s beers grouped by style to give you a framework for tasting. Once you know what to expect from amber ale or Imperial stout, you can select compatible cheeses even for brews you have never tasted. A beer’s style—often stated on the label—tells you much of what you need to know: whether the beer is likely to be malty, fruity, or grippingly bitter; fiendishly high in alcohol or easy to drink; smooth as velvet or prickly with carbonation. Style is shorthand you can rely on to steer you to suitable cheeses; or, conversely, with cheese in hand, you can turn to the chart here to find beer styles that work.
But now the disclaimer. With few exceptions, beer styles don’t bow to any laws. Only tradition and convention dictate the appropriate bitterness for an IPA, the typical aromas in a saison, or an acceptable hue for American pale ales. Organizations like the Beer Judge Certification Program and the Brewers Association issue style descriptions as a reference for brewers and competition organizers. But brewers, especially American craft brewers, delight in coloring outside the lines, devising brews that no one has ever attempted and that may not fit neatly anywhere. Attempting to corral the world’s beers into categories is a crazy-making endeavor, as others who have tried it acknowledge. Just when you think you have a workable scheme, you find more beers that refuse to conform.
For competition purposes, style czars like the Brewers Association recognize dozens of distinctive niches. The more categories, the more medals. Even so, these beer-world chieftains have to revise the categories regularly to accommodate trends. New styles—such as Imperial IPAs—emerge over time, as brewers dream them up and consumers gravitate to them. Other styles fade for lack of interest or changing tastes.
Certainly the twenty-three styles showcased in this book don’t tell the whole craft-beer story. But they cover a lot of ground, focusing on the most widely available styles in retail shops. Like the major branches on a tree, they provide a structure, but the side shoots flesh out the scene. In brewpubs and in well-stocked markets, you will surely discover beers in styles that aren’t mentioned in these pages—rye beers, for example, or black lagers. To find good cheese matches for them, peruse this book for a beer-style sibling—a featured style with a similar mouthfeel and comparable levels of malt aroma, bitterness, and alcohol.
Exploring craft beers and the cheeses that love them is like a road trip with no destination. Consider this book your invitation to a lifelong adventure, a pastime that can add pleasure to every day. Even if you’re a newcomer to craft beer or artisan cheese, you will quickly develop opinions about pairings once you start paying attention. Keep on tasting (no hardship there) and trying to put words to the aromas, textures, and flavors you note. It may be helpful to hear what more knowledgeable tasters have to say, but don’t conclude that your reaction should be the same.
“Do not miss your own pairing experience trying to find someone else’s,” advises Adam Dulye, chef and partner at Monk’s Kettle and Abbot’s Cellar, popular San Francisco gastropubs. “What you taste, smell, and feel is unique to you.”