What's The Best Beer To Pair With Chocolate Desserts?

When thinking of the perfect pairing for a square of dark chocolate, you might automatically think of wine. This is a great, classic combo — but if you're not a wine fan or want to switch it up, try beer. Yes, effervescent, hoppy beer is the unlikely companion that can be sipped on alongside artisanal chocolate, triple chocolate cake, or turtle brownies. 

This combination may seem sacrilegious to oenophiles, but beer is every bit as suitable a pairing for chocolate as wine, with a wide range of flavors and tasting notes to choose from. When pairing chocolate desserts with beer, it's possible to be incredibly accurate when matching the flavors up because there's so many styles to select from. Pairing wine with chocolate, on the other hand, can be trickier, as the tannins in wine can overpower confection easily.

In general, you'll want to pair harmonious flavors together. A lighter beer will go nicely with lighter chocolate, while heavier, darker beer will be best alongside bolder chocolate desserts. Stick with higher-quality chocolate bars and desserts — less sugar and more flavor are ideal.

When in doubt, go for stout. It's almost as if this beer was made to drink with a dessert — the tasting notes found in both stouts and chocolate often overlap. They both can have notes of toasted nuts, dried fruit, malt, caramel, vanilla, and coffee. In fact, chocolate is often a tasting note of stout beers. Stouts and chocolate can both be categorized as bitter or sweet — it's fun to do a pairing of opposites for a unique tasting experience. 

Stouts can be used as an ingredient to enhance a rich chocolate cake with deep flavor; it would be a shame to pair such a robust cake with anything besides this beer! A sweeter stout — like an oatmeal or milk stout — is a rapturous complement to fudgy brownies, helping enhance the chocolatey flavors. Classic dark chocolate bars with about 65 to 75% cacao are good with a balanced American stout. Note that dry stouts are not necessarily the best match for pairing with desserts. 

Dessert stouts are a category of their own; these tend to be on the sweeter side and are made to mimic the flavor of desserts like s'mores, pie, tiramisu, and cookies by brewing with certain ingredients and adding flavorings. Serve these beers with the sweet treat they're inspired by, comparing how the flavors match up as you sip.  

Hefeweizens are German wheat beers with a lovely golden color, often providing tasting notes of baking spices like clove, cardamom, and nutmeg, and hints of banana and bread. It doesn't seem like the most likely candidate for chocolate desserts, but this beer can pair well with milk chocolate bars and sweets. The creaminess and mellow sweetness of milk chocolate is a good match here because it won't overpower the more subtle notes found in Hefeweizens, and allow the spicy and fruity flavors to take center stage. This is true vice versa — a dark or strongly flavored beer can easily mask the softer flavors of milk chocolate. 

Try a milk chocolate mousse or tart as an indulgent dessert pairing alongside this beer. The effervescentness of the beer can help cut through some of the starchiness of treats like chocolate-dipped biscotti, shortbread, or mini pretzels, and allow more of the desired flavors like saltiness and butter to come through. Enhance the tasting experience of the naturally occurring spice notes in Hefeweizens with a milk chocolate bar infused with spices, such as Mexican hot chocolate or gingerbread spices. For something a little more out of the box, chocolate-dipped banana slices are a creative way to amplify the banana notes of the German wheat beer.

Brown ales are similar in appearance to a lighter stout, but have more of a malt-forward flavor. These mild, easy-to-sip-on beers are never very hoppy, and have subtle chocolate, caramel, nutty, and dried fruit tasting notes. This pleasant beer is a good choice to serve alongside chocolate caramel desserts, bars, and truffles. 

Caramel brings sweet, buttery, toasted, and nutty flavors to the table, naturally complementing the lightly sweet, malty flavors of brown ales. Similarly, tasting notes of some brown ales, like American brown ales, are caramel and chocolate. Sometimes, these beers have a slight earthiness, dryness, or bitterness that can help cut through the richness and strong sweetness of chocolate caramel desserts.

Chocolate bars or truffles with caramel are easy to find; in general, opt for a dark chocolate base instead of milk chocolate if possible. Dark chocolate will ensure that the treat isn't overly sweet when paired up with a brown ale, which is not a sweet beer. For something more decadent, go for caramel turtle brownies or millionaire bars. Note that alongside sweeter desserts, bitter and dry notes of the beer will become more noticeable. Chocolate caramel desserts with the additions nuts, such as walnuts and pecans, are also complementary as many brown ales have nutty tasting notes. 

Pale and blonde ales are most often recognized for the flavor of the hops, but these beers can often also have overlooked fruity and floral notes. These beer styles are easy to sip on, and have a slight sweetness from malt. To draw on the light fruity and floral flavors in the ale, choose a fruit-infused chocolate dessert to pair alongside it. The type of chocolate is important here — dark chocolate can often be too strong, but a lighter dark chocolate may work. The bright, fruity, light, and hoppy flavors can help cut through the density of chocolate and enhance the fruit flavors. Desserts that use milk or white chocolate with fruit are going to be the most ideal for this pairing. 

The easiest way to create this match is by corresponding the fruity chocolate dessert to the tasting notes found in the beer. For example, many pale ales have citrusy and tropical fruit flavors — go for candied oranges dipped in chocolate or a chocolate bar infused with mango. Strawberries dipped in white or milk chocolate are a treat that pairs well with these beer styles. A fresh fruit and chocolate bar snack board is a creative way to do DIY pairings, nibbling on different combinations while sipping on a pale or blonde ale. 

Many of these pairings have been relatively straightforward, pairing lighter chocolates with lighter beers, and darker chocolate desserts with darker beers. We had to give you something that breaks the rules: Dark lagers and white chocolate. More of an "opposites attract" pairing – the beer is dark and toasty, while the dessert is light and sweet. This lager style isn't as dark as stouts or porters, so it won't overwhelm the white chocolate. Rather, it complements the creaminess with roasted flavors — kind of like a toasted marshmallow or the crackly burnt sugar top of crème brûlée. 

A high-quality white chocolate bar is important for this pairing. Because there is no bitter cocoa to balance the sweetness, less sugar is better. Although it contains no cocoa powder, there is cocoa butter, which also comes from the cacao pod. In good white chocolate bars, you should be able to taste the subtle notes of floral or fruity from the cocoa butter, and a fresh, clean, creamy flavor from other quality ingredients. 

Outside of a white chocolate bar, other desserts can be used for this pairing. White chocolate cranberry bars or a raspberry white chocolate cheesecake are good candidates. A crisp dark lager can cut through the thick creaminess of these desserts without masking the flavors. Pretzels are a beer's best friend, so white chocolate-covered pretzels are a simple treat to make and pair alongside this beer. The truth is, it's hard to go wrong when pairing sweets and suds.