Beer and Chocolate!

A recent beer and chocolate tasting at my local Whole Foods yielded some cool results. Along with the usual suspects: Stout, fruit beers, creme brulee....a few interesting pairings were revealed. Both. good and bad

Ayinger Oktoberfest with its intense/nutty Munich malt and smooth drinkability paired well with a 365 milk chocolate hazelnut bar. Both are mild nutty flavors with a hint of smooth/rich decadence. This pairing, I'll look forward to next year when the Marzens are 'in season'.

Lake Louie Arena Premium, a US Pale Ale with its typical US hop balance, bitterness, malt backbone, and palate cleansing action paired extremely well with a 365 dark chocolate mint bar. The hop heavy flavors in a US pale tend to be on the citrus/pine/resin side, the min and hops complemented each other and added a minty fresh dimension to the beer. Since the bitter dark chocolate fed the bitter hops, the overall effect was that the bitterness increased in both, and the mint was stronger with the bar but was 'cleaned' off a bit by the hops in the beer and the voerall carbonation and body of the style.

Stone Smoked Porter with the Vosges Moe's Bacon bar- match made in heaven. Bacon, beer, chocolate, smoke- a bacon beer would have been too much but the chocolate in the porter is always a hit when paired with actual chocolate.

Not a fan of the overly sweet and cloying desert beer, Southern Tier's Creme Brulee (I know, heresy) but the extreme caramel lactose sweetness was actually cut by the Whole Foods bakery bittersweet flourless chocolate cake. Taken in small amounts, I could do this beer as long as I had something substantial and bitter to cut it.

Ale Asylum's Trippel Nova was overshadowed by the chocolate covered ginger (bulk). The ginger itself tasted great with the Trippel, the spices from the yeast spiced up the ginger and gave it a great kick, and the sweetness from the candi sugar and Pils malt added to the richness of the chocolate. Sadly, while the ginger confection fared well, the Trippel wilted. By itself, the seasonal beer from one of my favorite local breweries was low on hop balance and high on fruity sweet and spice: not a favorite.

Another nice pairing was the oak-aged milk stout Dragon's Milk by New Holland with the Ben and Jerry's Smores ice cream. The oak aged beer complemented the woody smores, the milk and chocolate in the stout were prefect with their milk and chocolate counterparts with the smores ice cream.