Pairing Coffee Beers with Craft Chocolate
by David Nilsen
Coffee beers are awesome.
Just like cacao, coffee origins can have such nuanced flavors and aromas, and these can be further diversified and expressed by how the maker chooses to roast them. Because breweries and coffeeshops and roasteries are often critical parts of their local communities, collaboration between them is a frequent outpouring of that cooperative spirit, allowing both to explore new flavors and reach new audiences.
You can learn all about pairing beer and chocolate in my book Pairing Beer & Chocolate!
Like beers brewed with cacao, some nuance is necessarily lost in the process of adding coffee beans to beer, as the flavors of the beer and its ingredients interact with the subtle coffee flavors. That said—and I know this may be heresy for a site focused on craft chocolate—I do think the coffee can maintain more of its nuances in a finished beer, allowing origin to play a significant role in these beers. MadTree Brewing in Cincinnati, for example, released a 4-pack of identical Porters every winter, each brewed with a beans from a different Ohio roaster, and tasting them side by side drives home the variation that is possible when brewing with coffee.
The majority of beers brewed with coffee are Porters or Stouts. The dark malts that are used in these beers share many flavors in common with coffee because the roasting process for both coffee beans and dark malts (and cacao beans) generates many of the same flavors. Coffee is an easy companion to the roast profiles of many of these beers.
That said, lots of interesting beer styles can be brewed with coffee, from IPAs to sours to Imperial Stouts. Here in Ohio, pale, standard-strength beer styles like Cream Ale and Blonde Ale are commonly brewed with coffee, a phenomenon I wrote about for Vinepair a few years back.
In this guide to pairing coffee beers with craft chocolate, I will largely focus on standard-strength styles where the coffee is allowed to shine, rather than either high-alcohol beer styles or styles with other bold flavors (like the IPAs and sours mentioned above) that can overwhelm the coffee character.
So let’s talk about pairing coffee beers with craft chocolate!
Challenges—Coffee beers of the type we’re focusing on here can be quite light-bodied, and can easily be rendered thin by the wrong chocolate. The chocolate must also achieve the balance of supporting and complementing the beer’s coffee flavors without overshadowing them.
Avoid when pairing—With some exceptions (see below), it is general best to avoid white or low-percentage milk bars, as their creaminess can ironically make the beer seem thin. Conversely, high-percentage or otherwise bitter or acidic dark bars will generally dominate these beers.
Pairings to Check Out
Bars with sweet, mild tropical fruits like banana and coconut—The fruits in these bars won’t overwhelm the coffee, nor do they have much acidity to upset the pairing. Instead, the gentle tropical flavors of these fruits will complement the coffee and add some nuance.
Example: Wolf’s Ridge Daybreak is a 5$ ABV Coffee Vanilla Cream Ale from Columbus, Ohio, and its popularity is what first kicked off the prevalence of pale coffee beers in Ohio. This light coffee beer needs a delicate but cheerful pairing, and Manoa Mai’a Banana 70% provides that. The combination is simple but lovely, with the lightly nutty coffee providing a banana nut dessert impression, but without the strong sweetness. Pair these during brunch and drift away to the tropics.
Dark bars with peppermint—I’ve always loved the combination of mint and coffee, and I think everyone loves mint chocolate, so a standard -strength Porter or Stout brewed with coffee paired with a dark chocolate bar made with peppermint can be an easy treat.
Example: Alematic Hey Joe Coffee Stout from Huber Heights, Ohio, is brewed with Namesake Coffee Kenyan AA Kariani beans. Pairing with Videri’s Peppermint Crunch bar gives the impression of a roasty mint latte with low bitterness. This isn’t a complicated pairing, but it’s a delightful way to start a weekend afternoon.
Bars with maple sugar—This a comforting combination that evokes cozy weekend breakfasts. Maple and coffee are just meant to be together.
Example: Sonder Kato is a Blonde Ale brewed with Ethiopian coffee roasted in house by Sonder’s own Script Coffee. Paired with Somerville Chocolate’s White Chocolate with Maple Sugar, the latter is highlighted, allowing the maple to come forward and bring out a bit of the beer’s malt sweetness, while the coffee is expressed like lightly maple-coated toasted nuts.