Pairing Beer and Cheese

By Janet Fletcher with the San Fransico Chronicle

EXPERT MATCHES

The following pairings are based on suggestions from beer experts Tom Dalldorf, Garrett Oliver, Lucy Saunders and Mark Todd and have been tested at the table...

With: Young, fresh, tart cheeses such as fresh chevre, mozzarella and crescenza
Try: Wheat beers such as hefeweizen, Bavarian-syle weissbier and Belgian-style witbier; pilsners.

With: Humboldt Fog and other goat cheeses with a little age
Try: A Belgian-style saison such as Ommegang Hennepin or Saison Dupont.

With: Garrotxa and other aged goat cheeses with some caramel notes
Try: Sierra Nevada Stout or similar dry, creamy stouts with coffee and chocolate aromas.

With: Lamb Chopper and other mild, medium-aged sheep's milk cheeses with sweet, cooked-milk notes
Try: Fat Tire, Red Tail Ale or similar amber ales well balanced between malt and hops.

With: Ossau-Iraty, mature Pecorino Toscano and other aged sheep's milk cheeses with pronounced salty, nutty flavors
Try: Lost Coast Brewery Downtown Brown or other brown ales.

With: Soft-ripened triple creme such as Seal Bay, Pierre Robert or Mt. Tam
Try: A Belgian-style saison such as Ommegang Hennepin or Saison Dupont; a dry kriek or other fruit beer.

With: Aged Gruyere, Comte or other aged Swiss-style mountain cheeses
Try: Anchor Porter, Rogue Shakespeare Stout or other sweet, mellow porters or stouts with chocolate, caramel and roasted coffee notes; brown ales.

With: Montgomery cheddar or other classic English-style cheddar
Try: McEwen's IPA or other pale ales with abundant hopping; Anchor Steam.

With: Munster Gerome or other washed-rind cheeses with strong earthy aromas
Try: Chimay Grande Reserve (blue label), Red Tail Ale or French biere de garde, such as Jeanlain or La Choulette Ambree.

With: Saenkanter or other aged Gouda with pronounced caramel notes
Try: Anchor Porter or other gently sweet, mellow, rounded porters; or nut-brown ales or amber ales.

With: Stilton or other mild to moderately piquant blue cheeses
Try: Old Foghorn Barleywine Style Ale or Moylan's Barleywine Style Ale. Serve barley wine at cellar temperature.

PAIRINGS POINTERS

Although you'll find many happy matches that break the following rules, these guidelines are a good starting point for thinking about beer with cheese.

-- Pair delicate beers with young, fresh cheeses.
-- Pair malty beers with nutty, aged cheeses.
-- Pair highly hopped, bitter beers with tart, sharp cheeses, especially cheddars.
-- Pair strong, sweet beers with blue cheeses.

EXPERT OPINIONS

Lucy Saunders on washed-rind cheeses: "I really like some of the darker ales, porters and stouts with those. I like that bready character that you get with a darker ale with a lot of chocolate malts in it, where the hops' bitterness isn't overwhelming. You want the aromas of the cheese to come through."

Mark Todd on triple cremes: "My personal favorite is cherry kriek, Belgian cherry-flavored beer with sour cherries. Or any of the decent Belgian tripels that are high in alcohol content but have bright crispness. Chimay Tripel does well with high-fat, mild-flavored cheeses."

Garrett Oliver on aged Goudas: "They tend to have a big caramel kind of flavor underpinning. They match up with brown ale or amber ale that has a lot of caramel flavor."

Garrett Oliver on brie de Meaux: "It can be tough. You've got to be careful not to use something with a lot of hops. I had a competition in Denmark with a sommelier, and I won the round with a stout that had some chocolate in it. It wrapped itself around the cheese very nicely and worked its way into the mushroom flavors."

Garrett Oliver on blue cheese: "I tend to go for stronger beers, beer with some residual sugar, like strong stouts and barley wines. I'm a big fan of port, but a nice aged barley wine and Stilton disappear into each other. It's a really beautiful match."