BFFs

Favorite beer and cheese combos from those in the know

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As a duo, beer and cheese aren’t quite as unusual as, say, Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart. Even so, it’s a pairing that still requires some instruction to help people discover its perfection.

“Wine and cheese is a big industry, but if there’s one thing that beer was made for, it’s cheese,” says Josh Ruffin, beer manager at Brasserie V and a "Certified Cicerone."

Wisconsin is blessed with both, and locals can try their own pairings at the Isthmus Beer and Cheese Fest or an upcoming beer and cheese pairing class at Firefly Coffeehouse in Oregon on Feb. 10.

Sara Hill, national sales manager for Hook’s Cheese in Mineral Point, has been hosting beer and cheese pairings for more than a decade, mostly in her time as manager of cheese education and training for the Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin.

“What I loved about doing pairings is people would say, ‘I don’t really like beer,’ but they loved it with the cheese,” she says. “Or maybe there was a kind of cheese they’d never try but they really liked it with beer. They really were made for each other in so many ways.”

The magical link, Hill and Ruffin say, is carbonation. It makes the flavor of the cheese pop and clears the palate.

Hill has kept copious notes on favorite pairings, but one stands out most: Roelli Cheese Haus’ Dunbarton Blue with Lake Louie’s Warped Speed scotch ale. And while hoppy beers like IPAs can sometimes make a pairing tough, she finds that Ale Asylum’s Hopalicious goes well with Hook’s Triple Play Extra Innings or Carr Valley’s Casa Bolo Mellange. Both cheeses are made of cow, goat and sheep milk.

“With the three milks, you have the complexity of the milks, you have the age, you have the butterfat and that picks up some of the hoppy notes and mellows out the beer,” she says.

Big beers like big cheeses, and that’s what’s behind two of Ruffin’s favorite pairings. Certainly 3 Floyds’ Zombie Dust is pleasantly yet assertively hoppy. Ruffin finds it’s tamed well by Hooks’ 10-Year sharp cheddar. A potent blue, Point Reyes’ Bay Blue, is a fine match for Central Waters’ Reserve Bourbon Barrel Stout.

“They’re on parallel paths,” Ruffin says. “They have the same level of assertiveness and complement each other.”

Mark Knoebl, brewmaster at Mount Horeb’s Grumpy Troll Brew Pub, has hosted cheese pairings at the pub and at the Kickapoo Country Fair. A favorite pairing for him uses one of his beers — Erik the Red, a malty amber ale — and Carr Valley apple smoked cheddar, a sweet, mellow cheddar rubbed with paprika.

“The paprika meshes well with the caramel notes of Erik the Red,” Knoebl says. “The two complement each other well.”

Anna Thomas Bates, co-owner of Landmark Creamery, is thrilled with the way another amber, Potosi Brewing Company’s Cave Ale, meshes with Landmark’s Tallgrass Reserve, a buttery, creamy cow’s milk cheese.

“It’s a really good cheese beer,” she says, adding that she also likes Giant Jones Brewing Company’s pale weizenbock and its banana/clove notes with two more delicate Landmark sheep’s milk cheeses, the Petit Nuage and Brebis.

Jennifer DeBolt, general manager at the Old Fashioned, has hosted beer tastings at the restaurant and has a number favorites. One is New Glarus Brewing’s Fat Squirrel, a brown ale, with BellaVitano Gold, a parmesan-style cheese. She likes another New Glarus beer, Wisconsin Belgian Red, with Bleu Mont Dairy’s bandaged cheddar, and particularly likes Holland Family Cheese’s aged Marieke goudas with Central Waters’ Mudpuppy Porter.

“The aged gouda works better than the young,” DeBolt says. “You have to get the crystalized, sweeter cheese. It matches the sweetness of the beer.”

And for all the fancy beers and cheeses that are out there, DeBolt admits that sometimes the basics do the trick just fine.

“Deep-fried cheese curds go with any beer,” she says, “but I admit I’m partial to Schlitz.”

[Editor's note: This article has been corrected to note the Ruffin's title is "Certified Cicerone."]