Chocolate and Beer?
Love chocolate? Love beer? Pairing beer and chocolate will lead you down an exciting road to discovery. Not to mention add zest to any get together with friends, office parties, special dinners and family celebrations.
How about a beer and chocolate pairing for one of your events?
My family’s interest in craft beer has led us on an active and fun journey of chocolate and beer pairings. You can’t go wrong trying different combinations. There are lots of exceptional and delicious beers to choose from, as Connecticut has established a reputation for making some of the nation’s best craft brews.
Many top quality, superb breweries dot the map. See CT’s Beer Trail for more information. If you live outside of New England, seek out your own local breweries. Mass marketed beer certainly has it’s place, but not for our purposes here. The same is true for chocolate. Seek out smaller, quality chocolate makers for your pairings.
Of course, we would love to have Plum Brook Chocolate be a part of your pairing fun and so we offer the following suggestions (just a tip of an iceberg really) to get you started on your own journey. It’s a great way to support your local craft beer industry, taste great chocolate and add zest to your gatherings. Many of these beers pack a punch, so try sharing a bottle among friends as you move through different pairings.
A Basic List
American Double and / or Imperial IPA: We found the extraordinary Two Roads “Road 2 Ruin” paired with our Caramel Latte blissful. This big, hoppy brew has plenty of bite. The caramel’s sweetness and the espresso-salt dusting perfectly compliment the bitterness and hoppy flavor. Not an espresso fan? Our Salted Caramel should work just as well. In general, pairing caramel with a hoppy beer should provide a nice contrast.
American Pale Ale: Try City Steam Brewery’s Blonde on Blonde. Brewed with German and Cascade hops, it touches of sweetness up front and finishes with floral, bitter hops which should interplay well with our Ginger Rum Truffle. The ginger and floral compliment each other and the truffle’s overall mellow profile should round out the flavors.
Not a true APA, but Willi Brew’s Certified Gold is another choice for our Ginger Rum Truffle. The bright, golden ale’s german hops aroma are floral and well balanced and mingles well with the truffle flavors.
Stout: New England Brewing Co.’s Imperial Russian Trooper is a bourbon-barrel stout that will be fabulous with big fruit flavors. Our Raspberry Truffle’s vibrant flavor and tartness balances some of the stout’s prominent bourbon flavor and pops it’s dark fruit notes.
Imperial Porter: Thomas Hooker describes their Imperial Porter as “Full bodied..hints of roasted coffee, cocoa with a generous hop finish…smooth yet complex”. A match made in heaven with our 72% Double Dark Truffle? You decide! The truffle’s silky smooth meltdown followed by an intense chocolate flavor that lingers will interplay with the porter’s roasty malt flavors. And it’s delicate profile provides overall balance with this full bodied beer.
If you’ve never thought about pairing beer and chocolate before, what better time than now? For yourself, your guests or as a unique gift of various local brews and chocolate for your hosts.
Just send an e-mail or give a call and specify the Beer Taster’s Box. We will fill one of our boxes with truffles designed for your beer pairings. Suggestions included!