Beer and Cheese:
It's Better Than Wine and Cheese

It's widely assumed that wine and cheese are compatible friends. They're paired together so routinely that phrases like "the white wine and Brie crowd" can be used to define a social set. But all is not well in this friendship.

Not many folks realize that beer and cheese have far more in common than wine and cheese. Both are simple and nutritious, each born of Graminae and carefully nurtured in an ancient fermentation process. Of course, the beer aficionado must be forgiving of the fact that cheese residue remaining on the lips will crash the finest head formations of any beer. If you can put up with that inconvenience, you'll find that most beer styles are quite compatible with most cheese types.

The same cannot be said of wine and cheese. Naturally, some wines do go well with some cheeses, but the pairing is much trickier.

The marriage of milk and grain is a melding of fat and carbohydrates--calories compounded by more calories. This is not a diet for the weak hearted nor for weight-loss champions. Deal with it. Remember, losing weight is fun only if you have some to lose.

It is fascinating to consider that both beer and cheese are the result of ferments. That of beer produces alcohol, while that of cheese produces acid. Not to worry; both processes have matured over the centuries. Early beer was dark, overbearing and sometimes wild, whereas cheese evolved from a sour, semi-solid mess. Your beer, in those times, was limited to what your local brewer could produce, and the same was true of cheese. You took what you could get or could make yourself.

Over the centuries, beer has become the sophisticated and wide-ranging delight that we know and love. In recent years, large companies may have reduced the brewing process to the lowest levels conceivable in their attempts to satisfy the most people possible. Despite that, modern beer is undergoing a revolution in which the old styles are being brought back and new styles are evolving. Beer is alive and moving right along.

Cheese, too, has undergone a similar revolution. Cheeze Whiz and Velveeta are no longer the epitome of mass-marketed cheese, any more than "lite" beer is that of the beer industry. Small American cheese makers are undertaking the manufacture of ever more obscure cheese types from across the world, just as craft brewers have revived ancient artisanal brewing processes.

Moreover, like beer, cheese comes in many forms. Cheese ranges in density from very soft and gooey to relatively hard, and can be made from the milk of dairy cows, sheep and goats. Although rare, cheeses have also been produced from a wide-ranging bestiary, including such oddities as yaks, reindeer, camels, water buffalo, and even zebras. These are creatures on which one can barely imagine locating udders, let alone milking them. Indeed, there is a story of cheese made from the milk of manatees, although it strains the imagination to envision a method of milk extraction from that water-bound species.

What these milk-producers have in common is that they are all vegetarians--grass and grain eaters. Grass is indeed the common element for the relationship between beer and cheese.

Milk Types for Cheese

Most cheese is made from dairy cows' milk. Cows are milked twice a day; cheeses are usually a blend of morning and evening milkings. Milk is higher in fat early in the calving cycle and at the end of the lactation cycle. High-fat milks are preferred for cheese making, but cheese can also be made from skim or partially skimmed milk, which may be pasteurized or unpasteurized.

Goats' milk is popular. It is very high in fat content and freer of pathogens, so for that reason it is usually not pasteurized. Nanny goats have high yields and short lactation periods. Chevre (goats' milk cheese) is usually strong and full flavored.

Some cheeses are made from ewes' milk. Sheep thrive in harsh conditions, and ewes' milk allows cheese making in geographic areas where cattle would not survive. The sheep lactation period is shorter than that of cattle and far more seasonal. These cheeses are usually sharper than cow cheese.

Fat Content

The higher the fat, the more vitamins A and D, and the higher the calorie count. Fat content is given as a minimum percent of the dry matter; thus, low moisture cheeses of a given weight have more fat than the same weight of high-moisture cheeses.

Rinds

The cheese rind, when there is one, is usually distinctive and there are many variations. Dry natural rind is formed by the curds at the edges of the cheese as it dries out. This is tough, hard and thick. Soft bloomy, white rinds have a growth of mold from sprayed Penicillium spores on the surface. These rinds are white when fresh but darken with age. They may or may not be eaten, as desired. Washed rind cheeses are washed with water, brine, wine or beer, and sometimes they develop a bacterial growth that varies from yellow to dark red. These rinds are often smelly and rarely eaten. Sometimes cheeses are encompassed in rinds not originating with the cheese itself. Such rinds can be of herbs, leaves, wax, or even ashes.

Color

Natural cheeses range in color from white through all shades of yellow to dark chocolate brown. Color depends on length of ripening and the butterfat content of the cheese. The richer the original milk, the more golden the cheese. Sometimes artificial color is added. Some cheeses (for example, feta) are actually bleached.

Flavor and Aroma

Flavors and aromas range from mild to strong. Smelly doesn't always mean strong.

Tasting Cheese

Cheese sampling is done in much the same way as beer is tasted. Look, sniff, taste, evaluate and post-evaluate. Different cheeses are approached differently. For example, soft, semi-soft and blue cheeses are tasted by pressing them against the palate with the tongue(hard and sharp cheeses are tasted on the tip of the tongue.

What Beer? Which Cheese?

Yes, beer does indeed go with cheese; but beer and cheese combinations only appear to be simple. The reality is that, at times, this wedding can be perilous and difficult to manage.

Most cheese authorities agree that there are some eight different categories or styles in the world of cheese. Let us examine each to see what beer types will complement them.

1. Fresh, very soft cheeses are uncooked and unripe or barely ripened; coagulated with rennet or by lactic fermentation, or even by using lemon juice; and packed simply into tubs, crocks, or molded by hand. Some are very soft, even spoonable. Very soft cheeses include pot cheese, cottage cheese, cream cheese and ricotta Beer: These cheeses have low taste profiles and go well with more mellow beers such as American wheat beer, American lagers, amber lagers, and Munich lagers.

2. Soft, spreadable cheeses, such as Camembert or Brie, have bloomy rinds. Beer: These go well with Euro-lagers, pilsners, pale ales, porters and American fruit ales.

3. Semi-soft cheeses include many monastic cheeses and washed rind cheeses that are cured with brine, beer, wine or spices. Trappist cheeses and muenster are good examples, as are Gouda, havarti, Tilsit, Liederkrantz, Port-Salut and American, Colby, Monterey jack and similar cheeses. Beer: These all go with more energetic beer at the lower end of the hop rate, such as English brown ales, amber ales, golden ales, bitters, and Belgian pale ales, plus Vienna lagers, mellow bocks, or Oktoberfest brews, not to mention rye ales and Bavarian whites.

4. Semi-hard, sliceable cheese. Cheddar (there are many varieties, including white aged cheddar), Swiss, Cheshire, Tilsit, and other sliceable cheeses, such as Edam, Gruyere, emmentaler, Jarlsberg, and aged Gouda. Beer: Good sandwich cheeses go well with pilsners, extra special bitters and pale ales, plus IPAs, double bocks, strong ales and almost any Belgian ale, particularly wits and fruit ales.

5. Hard cheese. These are very firm, grainy, cooked and pressed grating cheeses, such as parmigiano. But they are also nice nibbley cheeses and need something heavy in a beverage. Beer: Strong ale or doppelbock, stout or porter.

6. Blue vein, marbled cheese, strong flavored and crumbly, including Roquefort, Stilton, Gorgonzola, and other blues, especially those from Wisconsin, but particularly including Maytag Blue from Iowa. Beer: Try stronger porters, stouts, and heavier dark beers, such as old ales, barley wines, and Imperial stouts. The latter matches Stilton especially well.

7. Goat cheeses--chevre--are usually a bit more flavorful than regular cheeses of similar types. Roquefort, romano and feta are good examples. We should note here that goat cheeses are at the cutting edge of popularity these days. Beer: Think IPAs, ESBs, American brown ales, stouts and porters.

8. Pasta filata are the stretched curd cheeses of Italy, such as mozzarella and provolone. Beer: They go well with Belgian wits, Bavarian whites, and heavier Bavarian wheat beers (doppelweizen).

Simple Cheese and Beer Tastings

This might be done rather simply by putting a good cheese board out, with samples of the eight cheese types. Allow your guests to choose from a wide-ranging beer selection. Guests could then sip and sample across the board to explore all possibilities.

Alternately, one might set a list of beers and then select cheeses to fit. These paired combinations are to be served one at a time. Both cheese and beer are best sampled in ascending order of strength and pungency.