How to Pair Chocolate with Beer

These beers are the perfect mates for dark chocolate. Cheers!

Chocolate might not be the first thing that comes to mind as something to enjoy with a pint. However, beer and chocolate have more in common than you think. In fact, much like red wine, the flavour profiles of different beers are often similar to the notes in dark chocolate.

Master cicerone Mirella Amato is the author of the award-winning book Beerology: Everything You Need to Know to Enjoy Beer…Even More, which includes a section on how to best pair beer with chocolate. Here, she offers her tips.

Lindt Excellence 78% Cacao Dark Chocolate + Russian Imperial Stout

78% Cacao Dark Chocolate and Russian Imperial Stout make for a robust and dynamic pairing. The stout’s high alcohol content and roasted grains match the intensity of the chocolate, along with its smokiness and rich, roasted flavours. The beer also has subtle sweet notes of prune and dried plum, which will complement the bar’s pecan and walnut flavours.

Try:

Bolshevik Bastard – Nickel Brook Brewing Co.

Impériale Stout – La Chouape

Breakfast Stout – Founders Brewing Co.

Lindt Excellence 70% Cacao Dark Chocolate + English Pale Ale

An English-style pale ale has malty sweetness and a bitter finish, which mirrors the well-balanced notes of 70% Cacao Dark Chocolate, without bowling over its subtleness, which a bolder, American-style ale might do. The beer’s nuttiness also pairs well with this bar’s vanilla notes, while its overall earthiness (which comes from English hops) highlights the chocolate’s fruity undertones of orange and dry cherry.

Try:

Red Racer ESB – Central City Brewers + Distillers

Best Bitter – Picaroons Traditional Ales

Lindt Excellence Orange Intense Dark Chocolate + Belgian Tripel

The higher level of sweetness in our Orange Intense Dark Chocolate naturally complements the sweeter character of a Belgian Tripel-style beer. The bar’s citrus notes and cacao enhance both the banana and orange flavours in the beer, resulting in a tasty, tropical finish. Any bitterness present in both will cancel each other out, highlighting only the fruit notes, as well as the toasted almond note in the chocolate.

Try:

La Tchucké – Broadway Pub

La Trappe Tripel – Koningshoeven

Chimay White Cap – Bières de Chimay