Stout/Porter Cheese Pairings

Pairing Cheese with Stout/Porter - It can be a challenge to pair cheese with Stouts and Porters; their bitter, cocoa-like flavors tend to overwhelm even the strongest of cheeses. Shy away from bitter cheeses, and instead embrace the salty, sweet, and creamy. We propose pungent soft-ripened cheese, blues, and washed-rinds to serve alongside.

About Stout/Porter - Stouts are dark brown to pitch-black Ales produced using a mixture of roasted malt and roasted barley. Like coffee, the dark color and intense smokey, chocolately flavors are directly proportional to the kiln time - often, the grain will be kilned to such a degree that it resembles charcoal. The Stout style (originally “Stout Porter”) originated in Ireland as a variation on Porter and first found large scale popularity in London during the 1730s. It was often substituted by the working class for a square meal. Porter, brewed entirely with malted barley, came into fashion some time later as a more easy-drinking alternative to Stout. Both Stouts and Porters can range from very sweet to bone dry, with alcohol contents from 4.0% to 7.0% or higher. Today, Stouts and Porters are enormously popular among US craft brewers and virtually all brewpubs and regional microbrewers produce one or both as year-round brews.