How is it, you might ask, that the Wine Wench is writing an article about beer? Well, dear reader, I’ll tell you how it happened. As a frequenter of several cheese shops near my home, I was used to seeing information on wine and cheese pairings. This information was fairly specific: one cheese would be recommended for light, fruity reds; another for dessert wines; another for Bordeaux.

But in a number of shops and on a number of placards, I also saw cheese that was advertised as going well with beer. Just beer. Though my knowledge of beer is hardly encyclopedic, I found it difficult to believe that what might complement a pilsner would also befit a stout, or that an IPA and wheat beer were equal matches for a given cheese.

The hops and malt of beer are strong flavors in and of themselves. Good beer cheeses, likewise, are often distinctive. Therefore, much more so than with wine, the possibility of choosing a poor match—or at least a less-than-optimal one—when paring beer with cheese seemed likely. So, for the sake of my beer-loving brethren, in the name of the science of gastronomy and all that is good, I undertook a long course of research into matching beer with cheese. The tale that follows is what I discovered.

Mix or Match?
In general, when pairing drink and cheese, you have two options: complement or contrast. Complement is usually the easier of the two. For example, it doesn’t take a food critic to realize that Trappist cheeses, like Chimay and Orval, will go well with the beers that they are made with. You can also look at a region for a good match. If an area is famous for a certain type of beer and a certain type of cheese, chances are, they go well together. Brie, as popular in Belgium as in France, is a delicious pair with lambics.

But contrast, to my mind at least, is more interesting. A sweet but mild chevre stands out when paired with an IPA. If the chevre has cracked pepper or another strong seasoning or herb, the hoppier the IPA you can drink with it. For oily manchego, the famous cheese of Spain, a saison’s bready malt balanced nicely. Strong, sharp cheddar was the perfect pair for thick, coffee-flavored stout. Tangy blue cheeses work well with aged barleywines and anything bottle-conditioned.

Made for Each Other
It’s not surprising that beer and cheese make good partners. Both are made from fermented liquid acted upon by live cultures. Both are, at their best, handcrafted. So, in the same way that I wouldn’t expect you to sit down with a bottle of watery, mass-produced gener-ale, I hope you’ll look beyond the Kraft slices for your cheese. All over the world, artisan cheese making is enjoying a revival. Ask at your local cheese shop for some of these unique—and exquisite—beer companions:

Karaka — A semi-firm cow cheese from New Zealand, this has a nice tooth and melts beautifully. When paired with pilsner the combination created a gingery, almost apple-flavored taste on the palate.

Esrom — A washed-rind cow cheese from Denmark, this flavorful cheese stood up nicely to yeasty Trappist beers like Orval and Rochefort.

Leyden — A hard cow cheese from Holland, Leyden has cumin in it, making it a bit of an acquired taste. It took a while to find a pair for this one. I tried some Indian lagers that did very nicely—not surprising, I guess, when you think about the use of cumin in Indian food.

Dubliner — A semi-firm cow cheese from Ireland, this cheese combines the hardness of a cheddar with the nutty flavor of a Swiss and the sharpness of aged Italian cheeses like Parmigiano-Reggiano. Its range of characteristics went really well with the clove-banana-bubble gum aromas of a good wheat beer.

Tips for Tasting
Throwing a beer and cheese tasting can be a good way to experiment with different taste combinations and learn more about both beer and cheese. Here are some tips for making it a success:

Try to buy your cheese the day you’re going to eat it. Fresh is best. If you need to store it, wrap it in wax or butcher’s paper and then in plastic wrap or tinfoil. Be sure to store washed-rind cheeses separately, as they tend to take on the aromas of items they are stored with.

Set the cheese out 30 minutes to an hour before your guests arrive. As with other foods, refrigeration masks the flavors in cheese. Letting it sit at room temperature will allow its natural oils and flavors to come out; it will also soften cheeses like chevre and triple creams, making them easier to spread.

Choose a variety of cheese: something goat, something cow, something soft, something firm (is it just me, or is this starting to sound like a wedding?).

Put out small “tasting-sized” glasses (I used small juice glasses for my own experiments) and multiple types of beer, so that guests can experiment with different tastes and combinations.

Most hard and semi-firm cheeses can be tasted without the aid of crackers. But you will want crackers or thin slices of mild bread (a good baguette will do the trick) for the soft cheeses. I try to get water crackers or crackers that are only lightly flavored with salt and olive oil to keep the attention on the flavor of the cheese, though for the adventurous, there are a wide range of specialty cheese crackers out there, for everything from brie to parmigiano.

Most of all, have fun! The more you experiment, the more you’ll learn what you like.