Six Cheese & Beer Pairings Not to Miss

I don’t have many regrets in life, but one would be that I didn’t discover beer sooner. I mean the good stuff, of course—the world’s great craft brews, which have so many flavor affinities with artisan cheese. I’m making up for lost time now and, like many converts, I want to share my epiphanies. Looking back through tasting notes, I selected a half-dozen peak experiences that, truly, you don’t want to miss.

If you can’t reproduce these pairings exactly, other choices in the same style should get you close. In recommended tasting order:

Lagunitas Pils with Capriole Julianna
Beer style: Czech-style pilsner
Cheese style: aged goat cheese with herbed rind

Grand Teton Brewing Sweetgrass APA with Vella Mezzo Secco
Beer style: American pale ale
Cheese: medium-aged dry jack

Pretty Things St. Botolph’s Town with Abbaye de Belloc
Beer style: Yorkshire dark brown ale
Cheese: aged Pyrenees sheep’s milk cheese

Firestone Walker Wookey Jack with Beecher’s Flagship Reserve
Beer style: black rye IPA
Cheese style: Cheddar

Russian River Brewing Damnation with Beaufort
Beer style: Belgian-style strong golden ale
Cheese style: alpine cow’s milk cheese

Ayinger Celebrator with Point Reyes Bay Blue
Beer style: doppelbock
Cheese style: mellow, buttery cow’s milk blue

Ommegang Three Philosophers with Beemster XO
Beer style: Belgian-style quadrupel
Cheese style: aged Gouda

Oops, that’s seven. Can’t help myself.