Bourbon barrel-aged Imperial Stouts, Barleywines, and other styles are among the most prestigious offerings in craft beer, and they can pair deliciously with craft chocolate. David Nilsen here offers a guide for pairing bourbon barrel-aged beer with craft chocolate!

Belgian abbey ale styles like Dubbel, Tripel, and Quadrupel can pair really well with craft chocolate with just a little bit of planning. David Nilsen, author of Pairing Beer & Chocolate, walks through how to pair Belgian abbey ales with chocolate in this blog post.

Porter and Stout styles such as American Porter, English Porter, Oatmeal Stout, Milk Stout, Irish Stout, and some American Stouts can pair well with a wide range of craft chocolate bars, making them good to have on hand for impromptu pairings. The trick here is transcending the good pairings to find the great ones.

Fruited sour ales can pair wonderfully with craft chocolate. The fruit flavors and bright tartness of these beers can find harmony in many inclusion bars. Here David Nilsen breaks down how to pair craft chocolate with fruited Goses, Berliner Weisses, Wild Ales, and more.

Non-alcoholic craft beer can pair very well with craft chocolate, but it comes with both limitations and challenges. In this guide, Pairing Beer & Chocolate author David Nilsen gives guidance for pairing NA beer with craft chocolate.

Dark milk chocolate brings together to robust cacao flavors of dark chocolate with the slightly creamy, sweeter, and more approachable rewards of milk chocolate. They pair beautifully with several beer styles. Their creamy mouthfeel, medium intensity, and lack of sharp flavor edges makes them fairly versatile for beer pairing. Let’s look at some beer styles to pair with dark milk chocolate.

Pairing beer and chocolate isn’t always simple or straight-forward, so having types of beer in the fridge that can work with a variety of chocolate bars can be really helpful, especially when you’re starting out and just playing with pairing combinations. These are the styles we recommend to have on hand for home pairings, particularly if you’re just having some friends over and want to try some beers and chocolates together without too much strategy and worry. Between these, you'll be able to find a dance partner for the majority of bean to bar chocolate bars. 

IPAs are the most popular styles of beer in modern craft beer, but they aren’t the first beers most people think of for pairing with chocolate. While IPAs can pair beautifully with craft chocolate, it’s not an effortless pairing. IPAs present challenges that can lead to chocolate pairings with harsh, bitter, astringent, and/or clashing flavor qualities. In this guide, we’ll look at some common styles of IPA, discuss their sensory attributes, and discuss chocolates to seek out and chocolates to avoid when planning pairings with each.

The strong German lager style Doppelbock can pair beautifully with craft chocolate. Its rich malt flavors allow it to pair with several bean to bar chocolate types. Here’s Bean to Barstool’s guide to pairing Doppelbock with chocolate.

The favorite beer and chocolate pairings of 2023 from beer writer and Advanced Cicerone David Nilsen.

Pumpkin beer and craft chocolate can pair beautifully together! Here’s Bean to Barstool host David Nilsen’s guide to pairing pumpkin beer and chocolate, with specific bars to check out!

Belgian Witbier and Bavarian Hefeweizen are both standard strength wheat ales with expressive fermentation flavors, and while they hail from different national traditions, pairing guidance for both with chocolate is pretty similar. Let’s look at how these two similar styles of beer perfect for summer can be paired with craft chocolate.

The favorite beer and chocolate pairings of 2022 from beer writer and Advanced Cicerone David Nilsen.

Pairing beer and chocolate can be fun and delicious! David Nilsen of Bean to Barstool recently partnered with Em Sauter of Pints & Panels to create a beer and chocolate pairing infographic to get you started on chocolate and beer pairings! You can even order a high quality poster print of this graphic to hang on your wall!

Beer and chocolate can pair beautifully together and offer a never-ending variety of possible flavor combinations. Hosting a beer and chocolate pairing in your home can be a fun way to explore those flavors, learn more about your favorite indulgences, and have a new experience with your friends. Here’s how to make a beer and chocolate pairing party a success!