I'm going to go out on a limb and say that most people on this site like BEER (duh!) and that most people like cookies. So why not pair them for amazing goodness? My partner and I want to have a Holiday beer party where we pair cookies with different beers. Here are the pairings we are thinking right now. Crooked Stave WWBI - Cheesecake cookie Cadillac Mountain Stout - Bacon peanut butter cookie St. Somewhere Saison Athene - sugar cookies Stone Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale - gingerbread people Lost Abbey Deliverance - chocolate chip cookie Souther Tier Pumpkin - oatmeal cookie Based on the above beers are there any different cookies you'd recommend pairing? Trying not to do any cloying so let me know if any of these seem like too sweet of a combo. Thanks!
If I eat anything high in sugar or starch I lose any desire to drink beer. To me, beer is food. I'll mix it with meat or cheese but not much else.
You need a Milk Stout in the mix. It's a natural, right? Milk and cookies. Or too obvious? Anyway, how about Lancaster Milk Stout and Oreos?
This probably doesn't change your opinion, but we'll be having 8-10 people split each of the bombers so it'll be more like a 2-3 oz pours of each beer. We want to have people expand their beer tastes a little by trying styles they wouldn't normally try and still be able to drive home safely by the end of the night.
Good point!!! And we do love oreos (who doesn't!) I think it didn't make the list because we didn't have any milk stouts in our arsenal at the time. I'll have to seriously evaluate that as an option and see what milk stouts I can get a hold of out here in Kansas. Thanks!
If the cookies are sweet you'll need something substantial to stand up to them. Triple, dessert beer, big hops, etc.
I actually did this a couple weeks ago! I had Terrapin's Moo-hoo and some delicious chocolate chip cookies. It was great!
Back in the late 60's my dad would dip oreos in his dark beers and tell me it was chocolate stout. Now in his mid 80's he is still dipping oreos is his stouts.
I've paired Rogue Hazelnut Brown Nectar with Girl Scout Samoas and it was awesome, so I'm guessing it would go well with any kind of chocolate/coconut cookie.
This sounds phenomenal. Hazelnut Brown is one of the few Rogue beers I enjoy and I literally have to hide from co-workers selling Girl Scout cookies every year to prevent myself from buying a case of Samoas. Also, to the OP, I see you have access to Southern Tier...their imperial stouts are some of the sweetest beers I have had. See if you could toss Mokah or Javah in there. Creme Brulee is a little much for me, but a lot of people like that as well.
Thanks for recommendations, I totally agree about the Creme Brulee, probably not a bad one to split I just could never drink a pint of it. I actually don't have access to Southern Tier in Kansas but my partner just got some Mokah in a trade so maybe I'll ask her if she'd be willing to throw it in the mix. However, since neither of us have had it, we have to do our own personal tasting with that one
i had made some chocolate stout similar to Hooker's Chocolate Truffle Stout, and it was amazing with sugar cookies. Not sure on the availability of Hooker (Hartford, CT) in KS but Youngs Double Chocolate also works.
Not sure where you are in KS, but if you go across the state line, Royal, Lukas, and Gomer's all have ST beers. I'm not sure if there's any creme brulee floating around still, but I'm sure you could find it at one of those if you looked hard enough. As for your original post, I'd love to try some Founders Frangelic Mountain Brown with the Samoas mentioned above. I think that pairing would kill.
Great idea! I was thinking of a blonde brownie paired with a coffee stout. Pipeworks Hyper Dog has a very strong coffee flavor that might be a worthwhile addition to your tasting. Good luck!
I love eating a 1/2 of these badboys while I let an Imperial Stout or English Barleywine warm up on the counter for about 20 minutes...talk about feeling good... Cheers!
Thanks for all of the help fellow BAs. Based on all the feedback, here's what we've settled on. Wild Ales Crooked Stave WWBI (7.3%, 87 BA) and New Glarus Raspberry Tart (4%, 95 BA) with Cheesecake Cookies Stouts BCBS (15%, 98 BA), FBS (8.3%, 99 BA), and Stone IRS (10.5%, 97 BA) with Bacon Peanut Butter Cookies IPAs Lagunitas Little Sumpin Wild (8.8%, 91 BA) and Stone Enjoy By 12.21.12 (9.4%, 94 BA) with Chocolate Chip Milk Stouts Left Hand Milk Stout (6.0%, 88 BA) and Tallgrass Buffalo Sweat (5.5%, 85 BA) with Homemade Oreos (http://www.bakerella.com/homemade-oreos) Pumpkin Beers Southern Tier Pumking (8.6%, 90 BA) and Schalfly Pumpkin Ale (8.0%, 93 BA) with Oatmeal Cookies Our event is taking place on December 7th with 8 of our close friends so I'll have to let you know what the favorite pairing is. We ended up deciding on two/three beers per style just to experiment with how the nuances in the beer style effect the pairing.
Well I'm happy to say our event was a success here are the favorite pairings from each category: WWBI edged out New Glarus for the pairing, the New Glarus was a little cloying with the sweetness of the cheesecake cookie but the brett combined with the blueberries in the WWBI was an awesome combo with the cookie. I actually liked Stone IRS best with the Chocolate Truffle cookie that our friend brought, it brought out some chocolate notes in the Stone that I hadn't noticed before. Obviously the cookie was still good with BCS and FBS. Loved the Stone Enjoy By 12.21.12 with chocolate chip cookie. Great contrast in this pairing between the bitter and sweet. Left Hand Milk Stout definitely winner in this category. Something about the oatmeal in the Tallgrass sweet stout didn't go as well with the homemade oreos. And lastly, we decided to substitute out Freetail Realtile (chocolate chile stout) for the Schlafly Pumpkin and it was really good with the oatmeal cookies. There was some cinammon in the cookies that I think helped enhance the chile in the beer. Thanks for everyone's help, our friends had a really good time and I was happy that none of the pairings was a total miss. Cheers!
That sounds awesome. I rarely pair beer with sweets, but my favorite is Maudite with snickerdoodle cookies. Also, if you're into French pastries, a canele with a Tilburg's Dutch Brown Ale rocks.
Funny, how I was just thinking this and almost posted a thread close to this, no worries. Here's what I've had that I liked: Sam Adams' Holiday Porter with oatmeal raisin cookies Minhas' Heavy Lift Vessel with thumbprint pecan strawberry jam cookies Harviestoun's Old Engine Oil with dark chocolate chip cookies Bar Harbor's Lighthouse Ale with oatmeal raisin cookies Unibroue's Maudite with oatmeal raisin cookies Dogfish Head's Raison D'Etre with oatmeal raisin cookies I will warn you that it could just be my palate but some pairings could be too close in the sweetness to each other.
To be honest, when it comes to cookies and desserts, there is no beer on planet earth that pairs anywhere nearly as well for me as a glass of milk does. Sippy cup optional.
yum yum yum what a wonderful idea for a party ... I think sometime I might use this idea and have a holiday party myself. VERY creative, i hope you and your guests had a wonderful time! Thanks for this post and letting us know how it came out. I love stouts/ creamy/ milky beers/ desserts etc. great pairing ideas!
Try Backwoods Bastard with speculoos or any other spiced cookie like ginger snaps, it really is a perfect pairing.
