Updated February 2024

Chocolate. Beer. For how delicious they both are, matchmaking their complex flavors can be tricky. Fortunately for you, we’ve got a cocoa confection for each of your favorite brews. Take this list for a spin, search by your beer or chocolate of choice, and find a combo that will make your senses sing. And if we may be as bold as some of the chocolates and brews, we suggest a virtual chocolate and beer tasting with this lineup.  You and your friends can thank us later.  Cheers!

Pale Ales + Chocolate with Fruit Flavors

With the delicate fruit notes that are common in pale ales, we recommend pairing these brews with a chocolate featuring a corresponding fruit flavor. When these similar flavors combine, they often offer an awesome boost that will enhance your whole experience. Yum!

Try it with: Oskar Blues Dale’s Pale Ale

Hefeweizens + Mexican Style Chocolate with Cinnamon

Light, crisp, and refreshing, we can’t help but want to pair hefeweizens with food that packs a little spice. If you’ve never tried Mexican chocolate with cinnamon (and sometimes chili pepper!), we highly recommend checking it out the next time you’re sipping on hefeweizen.

Try it with: Altstadt Hefeweizen

Pilsners + Milk Chocolate with Malty, Nut-Forward Flavors

Light, malty and a little like champagne, Pilsners are a perfect fit with any milk chocolate with its own dose of malted milk and nuts. The malty flavors play well together, the carbonation will cut through the richness of the milk chocolate and leave you with a palate full of happiness.

Try it with: Real Ale Hans’ Pils 

White Ales + Chocolate with Orange Citrus Notes

Raise your hand if you love white ales for their hints of citrus, clove and banana notes (raises both hands). Much like we often enjoy white ales with a slice of orange, we like to pair this type of ale with chocolate that incorporates citrus peel because it complements the beer’s own citrus and spice notes so nicely.

Try it with: Avery White Rascal 

Stouts + Dark Chocolate with Raspberry Notes

A big, bold beer like a stout needs a powerful pairing flavor and this one doesn’t disappoint. When it comes to stouts, we recommend the tart, sweetness of a dark chocolate with raspberry notes. The dark chocolate is bold enough to hold its own against the stout and the berry flavor shines through while amplifying the stout’s flavors.

Try it with: Dogfish Head World Wide Stout 

Imperial Stouts + Medium Chocolate with Nuts

Imperial Stouts call for medium chocolate to bring out some of the sweetness in this brew. We like the additional complexity of the nuttiness in chocolate to help temper the intensity of these big, bold beers that typically have a high ABV.

Try it with: Founders Breakfast Stout 

Oatmeal Stouts + Semi-Sweet Chocolate

Lusciously smooth and filled with roasted malts, Oatmeal Stouts make one heck of a combo with semi-sweet chocolate. With just enough bitterness to bring out the inherent sugars in the stout this pairing brings out the full flavors in both beer and the chocolate.

Try it with: Independence Convict Hill 

IPAs + Medium Chocolate with Salted Caramel

While we are huge fans of dark chocolate, you’ll want to steer clear of it if you’re planning on drinking an IPA because the pairing can be overwhelmingly bitter. That said, we HIGHLY recommend trying out your next IPA with a medium chocolate with salted caramel. The sweetness will offset the hoppy bitterness and the salt will add depth to the flavor.

Try it with: Odell Hazer Tag 

Porters + Dark Chocolate with Coconut

Porters are known and loved for their gorgeous dark color and rich flavors which parallel a lot of what we adore about chocolate. That said, when you add in the tropical nuttiness of coconut to the chocolate side of this equation, the resulting combo with the porter is paradise for your taste buds.

Try it with: Deschutes Black Butte Porter