Non-alcoholic craft beer can pair very well with craft chocolate, but it comes with both limitations and challenges. In this guide, Pairing Beer & Chocolate author David Nilsen gives guidance for pairing NA beer with craft chocolate.

Dark milk chocolate brings together to robust cacao flavors of dark chocolate with the slightly creamy, sweeter, and more approachable rewards of milk chocolate. They pair beautifully with several beer styles. Their creamy mouthfeel, medium intensity, and lack of sharp flavor edges makes them fairly versatile for beer pairing. Let’s look at some beer styles to pair with dark milk chocolate.

Pairing beer and chocolate isn’t always simple or straight-forward, so having types of beer in the fridge that can work with a variety of chocolate bars can be really helpful, especially when you’re starting out and just playing with pairing combinations. These are the styles we recommend to have on hand for home pairings, particularly if you’re just having some friends over and want to try some beers and chocolates together without too much strategy and worry. Between these, you'll be able to find a dance partner for the majority of bean to bar chocolate bars. 

IPAs are the most popular styles of beer in modern craft beer, but they aren’t the first beers most people think of for pairing with chocolate. While IPAs can pair beautifully with craft chocolate, it’s not an effortless pairing. IPAs present challenges that can lead to chocolate pairings with harsh, bitter, astringent, and/or clashing flavor qualities. In this guide, we’ll look at some common styles of IPA, discuss their sensory attributes, and discuss chocolates to seek out and chocolates to avoid when planning pairings with each.

The strong German lager style Doppelbock can pair beautifully with craft chocolate. Its rich malt flavors allow it to pair with several bean to bar chocolate types. Here’s Bean to Barstool’s guide to pairing Doppelbock with chocolate.

Belgian Witbier and Bavarian Hefeweizen are both standard strength wheat ales with expressive fermentation flavors, and while they hail from different national traditions, pairing guidance for both with chocolate is pretty similar. Let’s look at how these two similar styles of beer perfect for summer can be paired with craft chocolate.

Many Belgian beer styles pair beautifully with craft or bean to bar chocolate, and the beers of Trappist brewery Chimay exemplify this. Here’s a guide to pairing Chimay’s Belgian ales with craft chocolate!

Bean to Barstool’s Pairing Beer & Chocolate zine is a 70-page, full-color zine provides all the information you need to begin pairing craft beer and craft chocolate on your own. The zine provides basic information on how beer and chocolate are made and how to taste them properly, then explains the process for pairing the two and how to plan and lead your own pairing at home. 54 pages of style-by-style guidelines and recommendations provide careful instructions for picking the right chocolate to pair with each beer style.

Beer and chocolate can pair beautifully together and offer a never-ending variety of possible flavor combinations. Hosting a beer and chocolate pairing in your home can be a fun way to explore those flavors, learn more about your favorite indulgences, and have a new experience with your friends. Here’s how to make a beer and chocolate pairing party a success!