Chocolate University Online

In the opening post of this series I mentioned that there are three categories of beer that pair well with chocolates.

The third group of beers include pale, bitter beers, such as India Pale Ales.  These also tend to do well when paired with chocolate…

India Pale Ale was created in the 1820’s for the voyages between England and India.  The three month voyage would have to cross the equator twice.  So not only was the journey long, but it was also quite warm.  Since time and high temperatures are bad for beer preservation, typical beers sent to India arrived in very poor condition.

The Pale Ales however were brewed to last up to a couple years.  First, the beers are higher in alcohol, a natural preservative.  The higher the alcohol content, the longer beer will survive.  So the beer is made with a lot of barley malt so the increased starches become sugars and then ferment into alcohol.

Second, more hops are used.  Hops, the flowering cone on the hop plant, are also a natural preservative.  They make the beer bitter and impart a floral aroma.  The more hops you use, the longer the beer will survive, but it will also become more bitter.

With these two factors combined, the beer could better survive the long, warm voyages.  Strong, malty, alcoholic and bitter are ways to describe this style.  Such beers tend to pair well with malt-flavor truffles, gourmet malt balls, and even a variety of chocolate and nut combinations.  The malty flavors pair well together even though the bitterness of the beer and sweetness of the malt are opposites.  This creates a contrast that works quite nice.

Pairing chocolate and beer is easier than pairing chocolate and wine, and the outcomes of the pairings are more predictable with beer than they are with wine.  Try it for yourself!

Sue Langstaff, a member of the Primal Chocolate Club, has contributed this series about chocolate and beer pairing.  Her company Applied Sensory, LLC offers analytical sensory services for the wine, brewing, and food industries.

In the opening post of this series I mentioned that there are three categories of beer that pair well with chocolates.

A second group of beers are the Belgian-style ales… 

These beers are typically amber to brown in color, with high alcohol content (often greater than 8%) and are usually quite fruity in their aroma.  Candy sugar (like a hard rock candy) may be added to the barley malt to increase the alcohol level without darkening the color or making it too malty.

The beer style is flavorful, yet smooth.  The yeast used in these Belgian-style ales has a lot of underlying fruit tones, especially among the Trappist-style dubbels (doubles).  As a result you might notice caramel, layers of banana, apple, apricot and peach, with cinnamon, nutmeg, or clove spices.

Fruit-flavored Belgian Lambic beers pair well with 60%+ cacao dark chocolate.  The tartness of these fruity beers pairs nicely with the not-too-bitter dark chocolate.  For an extra wow factor, combine any berry-flavored truffle or chocolate bar with dried berries and amber ale. 

Amber ales are made from barley malt that, in some cases, is called “caramel malt.”  This malt doesn’t really taste like caramel, but it does have an inherent sweetness and can give a nutty flavor.

Sue Langstaff, a member of the Primal Chocolate Club, has contributed this series about chocolate and beer pairing.  Her company Applied Sensory, LLC offers analytical sensory services for the wine, brewing, and food industries.

In the opening post of this series I mentioned that there are three categories of beer that pair well with chocolates.

The first group for pairing includes dark beers such as porters and stouts…

These beers are made using a good deal of roasted or burnt barley malt.  In fact, one of the burnt barley malts is even called “chocolate malt.”  It doesn’t really have any chocolate in it, but rather the malt has been roasted or kilned until it acquires more of a chocolaty color.

“Chocolate stout” is a name brewers will sometimes give to certain stouts that have a noticeable dark chocolate flavor through the use of chocolate malt.  In some cases, to give a real chocolate flavor, the beers are brewed with a small amount of actual chocolate; this can impart a powdered cocoa flavor or a creamy, dark, bittersweet chocolate flavor. 

Brewers will also use a good deal of pale malt and some caramel malt in making porters and stouts.  These beers provide roasted, toasted, caramel and coffee-like flavors that match well with any chocolate, especially a caramel truffle, a chocolate turtle with caramel and nuts, or a caramel-infused dark milk chocolate bar. 

Strong stouts, especially Imperial stouts, can provide perfect matches to chocolate desserts.  Classic dry Irish stouts such as Guinness are not a good match because they don’t have the proper intensity.  Another stout that doesn’t work well is a Cream Stout.  It’s simply too sweet due to the addition of lactose, causing a conflict with the sweetness of the dessert.  Instead, you should find a beer that offers a little break from the sweetness of the dessert.

Sue Langstaff, a member of the Primal Chocolate Club, has contributed this series about chocolate and beer pairing.  Her company Applied Sensory, LLC offers analytical sensory services for the wine, brewing, and food industries.

When most people think about pairing chocolate with an alcoholic beverage the product they usually consider is wine.  However, there are components in wine which can make these pairings difficult and often unpredictable.

Tannins in red wine can make dark chocolates seem more bitter, and the acidity in wines often does not  balance well with the chocolate.  Because of the variation in wine styles, even within varietals, it’s often difficult to generalize about ideal wine and chocolate pairings.

This is not the case for beer!

Beer is every bit as complex as wine, perhaps more so.  There are more than 60 recognized styles of beer.  Styles of beer include stout, porter, India pale ale, bock, Oktoberfest, amber ale, lager, and many more.

While each style is unique, most brewers create beers within the style guidelines for that beer type.  Beers within a style are recognizable cousins of each other, unlike wines within a wine varietal.

One of the things that makes a chocolate and beer tasting great is the fact that it is unusual, yet it works!  Even people who say they don’t like beer, often do like chocolate so everyone can enjoy the event.  Serious beer aficionados can find toasty, caramel, toffee, roasted, chocolate, coffee and fruity notes in beer.  All these same notes can be found in chocolate.

Through years of experimentation, beer drinkers have discovered that a number of different beer styles can pair well with the unique flavors in, and sweetness of, chocolate.

Three general categories of beers usually do well when paired with a range of chocolate selections.  We’ll take a look at each of these categories in upcoming posts.

Sue Langstaff, a member of the Primal Chocolate Club, has contributed this series about chocolate and beer pairing.  Her company Applied Sensory, LLC offers analytical sensory services for the wine, brewing, and food industries.