How to Host a Beer and Chocolate Pairing
Photo by author
By David Nilsen
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!
(if you want to host a beer tasting party, check out my guide here.)
The Plan
Great parties require planning, even if you’re planning on a casual event. Here are some questions to think through as you plan your beer and chocolate pairing.
How many people should you invite?
While you can have a fun beer and chocolate pairing with just your partner or a friend, the ideal size for this type of event is generally 6-12 people. It can work with more, but be careful about inviting too many people. You need enough space for everyone to be seated comfortably in the same room in your home, but most importantly, too large of a group can discourage some attendees from speaking up during the pairing. Pairings are interactive, and they’re most enjoyable when everyone gets to share their thoughts and opinions. Even if everyone knows each other and gets along, a large group can limit some of that. 6-12 is a perfect balance of enough voices to get a good conversation and range of opinions (and palates) while still being intimate enough to encourage everyone to participate.
Do you want a more casual or formal pairing?
You need to decide if you want a very casual hang-out where everyone sips and pairs different beers and chocolates as they talk, or a more structured pairing in which the entire group walks through each pairing together. Both are fun, but one is more freeform while one is more focused. The type of pairing you want to host will affect the beers and chocolates you choose as well.
A little later on, we’ll discuss possible formats for a more guided, structured pairing and how this can impact your beer and chocolate selections.
How long will the pairing last?
Plan on the pairing itself lasting about an hour, though your group might favor a little shorter or longer. Much longer and everyone’s palates will begin getting fatigued and people might start getting antsy.
How many beers and chocolates should you serve?
If you’re hosting a more structured pairing, I would recommend no more than 3-5 of each. If you’re doing a more casual pairing, this can be flexible.
One more thing: Let your guests know what to expect
Most of your guests will never have been to a beer and chocolate pairing before. You can send out printed invitations to make the event more special (or just a text or email) and include some basic information about the plan for the evening to demystify the experience for them. If you’re planning a more formal pairing, let them know what that will involve so they don’t feel intimidated, and ask them not to wear any strong perfume, cologne, or other scented products that will interfere with the sensory experience (seriously, you’d be surprised). Depending on the amount of alcohol that will be consumed, remind them to make appropriate transportation plans so they can make responsible decisions.
One last idea: Hire me to plan and virtually host your beer and chocolate pairing!
I’m a professional beer writer and Advanced Cicerone®, and I host virtual beer and chocolate pairings! Work with me to plan a perfect evening at your home for you and your friends. I’ll curate the beers and chocolates and work with you on sourcing them, send you tasting sheets to print, then connect via Zoom the night of the event to walk your group through a fun and educational pairing. You can get in touch with me here to plan your virtual beer and chocolate event!
The Goods
Your party is all about great craft beer and bean to bar chocolate, so how do you choose which beers and chocolates to purchase and where can you get them?
Which beers and chocolates should you serve?
There are over a 100 different styles of beer, and numerous varieties of bean to bar chocolate for your pairing, so how do you choose what to buy? It depends on whether you want a more guided experience with pre-selected pairings, or a more exploratory pairing for the purpose of finding great new combinations.
If you choose the latter, just pick an assortment of each and half fun experimenting to find your favorite pairings! If you choose the guided route, you can listen to the episodes of the Bean to Barstool podcast shared below where I’ve suggested specific pairings, or you can use the pairings suggested in some of the images on this article. →
A word on “bean to bar”...
Chocolate isn’t just chocolate. Not many people realize that most of the world’s cacao is grown, harvested, and processed with rampant human rights abuses, including child slavery. The craft chocolate or “bean to bar” movement uses only traceable, ethically-sourced cacao. Not only is this chocolate more socially responsible, but it is also made with far more nuance and quality than cheap supermarket brands. Bean to bar chocolate is definitely more expensive because of this, but the price is worth it from the standpoint of both flavor and ethics.
Where can you buy your beer?
If you’re near a craft brewery, you can generally buy some bottles or cans directly from the source, which is the best way to support these creative small businesses. However, if you want to use beers from multiple breweries, your best bet is to visit a bottleshop or liquor store with a good craft beer selection. These stores will often have helpful staff who can recommend beers to you as well.
Another option in many states is to order beer online. That’s right, a large number of states allow beer to be shipped directly to consumers at home! Check out sites like Drizly, Tavour, Craft Beer Kings, or Belgian-Style Ales (there are a lot more too).
Where can you buy your chocolate?
Your city might have a chocolate shop selling ethical chocolate or even a local bean to bar chocolate maker. Supporting these local businesses is the best option if available. If you aren’t so lucky, chocolate can easily be ordered online directly from makers or from websites like barandcocoa.com.
If you hire me to run your pairing, I’ll take care of finding these beers and chocolates for you, making this way easier for you!
One fun option: Host a BYOB & BYOC pairing!
Have your guests bring the beer and/or the chocolate for the pairing! This works best for a more informal pairing. You can either let each person pick out something to bring, or you can assign them something specific to fit your theme. This gives the guests some ownership over the experience, and they’ll be curious what others think of the beer or chocolate they brought.
Because of the potential challenge of finding craft chocolate locally, you might want to prioritize providing the chocolate and having your guests bring the beer. Make sure your guests know the beers don’t have to be rare or “impressive”. This isn’t a competition and no one should feel pressure to pick a beer that’s “cool” enough to meet some non-existence social standard.
The Preparation
There are a few simple things you’ll want to have on hand for your pairing to make it an easy and fun experience for you and your guests.
Information about the beers and chocolates you’ll be serving
The specifics of what you need here depend a bit on the type of pairing you’re hosting. Regardless of whether your pairing is structured or casual though, you’ll want to be able to tell your guests the name of the breweries, beers, chocolate makers, and specific chocolates, each beer’s ABV (alcohol by volume), the style of the beer (this isn’t always on the can or bottle, so you can look it up online), and any additional ingredients in the beer or chocolate beyond the basics. This last point is especially important for people with allergies, as lactose, peanuts, and other allergens can be common in both beer and chocolate.
If you’re hosting a more organized pairing, preparing a little bit of information to share about the background of the breweries and chocolate makers, and even some simple tasting notes from the brewer or chocolate maker can help your guests understand more about what they’re enjoying. This information is often available online.
Tasting sheets or mats, and pens
This isn’t strictly necessary, but having your guests jot down some notes can be a fun way to help them keep track of their favorite pairings and compare tasting impressions with each other. This can be as simple as a blank sheet of paper, or you can print special tasting sheets with beer and chocolate information on them.
Water and palate cleansers
It’s always important to hydrate when drinking alcohol, even though your guests won’t be getting drunk during the pairing. Water will also rinse and refresh the palate so guests can appreciate the full range of flavors in each beer.
Similarly, having some simple, low-intensity snacks like bread, pretzels, or crackers on hand can help with refreshing the palate as well.
Tasting glassware and serving dishes or mats
For beer, you’ll need at least as many tasting glasses as the number of people attending, and some people elect to give each person more than one tasting glass so they can compare samples. Don’t use standard shaker pint glasses for this. You’ll only be sampling a few ounces of each beer, and this is best done in a wine glass, snifter, or tulip glass. If you don’t already have enough glasses, you can pick up suitable glasses used at a resale shop, purchase plastic versions at the store, or go all out and order appropriate glassware online.
In the end, the beer is what matters, so don’t stress out. You can use what you have, even if it’s not ideal. Better glassware will just elevate the experience.
For serving chocolate, you can use small plates or even print tasting mats with spaces for each piece of chocolate. You’ll want to serve just a small square of each chocolate to go with each sample of beer. To avoid everyone touching the bars of chocolate, you can cut them into pieces with a kitchen knife and use tongs to serve them. Just make sure to wait till after everyone has seen the unwrapped bars, because the molds used for craft chocolate can be beautiful to look at on their own!
Don’t forget to chill the beer before your pairing.
Depending on how much beer you need to acquire for your group, you might not have room to store it all in your fridge for a week or two. Just put it in there to get cold about an hour before the event and pull it out a few minutes before the pairing starts.
The Experience
Once all the planning and preparation is done, it’s time for your party! These steps will make it a memorable night.
A welcome beer and some beer & chocolate for hanging out after
From leading countless beer events I can tell you: people are happiest when they get to drink beer right away. Have a low-alcohol, light-bodied beer such as a Pilsner, Witbier, or Blonde Ale on hand and give guests a 6-8 oz glass as soon as they arrive as a welcome beer. They’ll love the gesture and loosen up a bit. You can even have a toast once everyone has arrived!
You’ll also want some extra beer and chocolate on hand for after the pairing if people just want to have a drink or two, nibble on chocolate, and relax. These can be extras of the beers and chocolates you’ll sample during the pairing (so people can have more of their favorites!), or something completely different. If you’re selecting and purchasing the beers for the tasting, this could be a great way to involve your guests—have them bring the post-tasting hangout beers.
The process of pairing beer and chocolate
While tasting any artisan food or drink involves the same basic steps (discussed below), pairing beer and chocolate involves a few extra considerations.
- Taste the chocolate first. This will allow the chocolate to begin to melt at body temperature, releasing its aromatics, before the cooler beer is introduced.
- Just take a small sip of the beer rather than a mouthful. This will prevent the beer from overpowering the more delicate textures of the chocolate. The saying in beer tasting goes, “Coat your tongue, don’t float your tongue,” and that applies here too.
You can listen to the episodes of Bean to Barstool linked to earlier in this post to hear way more about the details of the pairing experience!
Using your senses to taste and pair
Any kind of tasting—beer, wine, coffee, cheese, chocolate, or something else—is about way more than just our taste buds. All of our senses are engaged by the experience of tasting in a thoughtful way. Here are some ways to do that during your pairing.
- Look at the appearance of your beer and chocolate, noticing the beer’s color, clarity, and foam and the chocolate’s color, mold, and texture. Also take a moment to admire the label artwork for both and pass them around so everyone can see them.
- Smell the aromas of each before tasting. Most of our perception of flavor is really from our sense of smell, so get your nose engaged from the beginning!
- Taste the beer and chocolate to experience their flavor, which is actually made up of both taste and aroma, making note of the influence of all the various ingredients.
- Feel the beer and chocolate in your mouth, noting texture, smoothness, consistency, and any other aspects.
- Hear the thoughts of the other people involved in the tasting, learning from their impressions and offering your own.
You can learn more about the tasting process in Episode 24 of Bean to Barstool below.
If you’re hosting a more structured pairing, you can tell the group the name of each beer and chocolate before opening them and provide a bit of information about each. Then you can guide them through the process of tasting each chocolate and beer and pairing them together, and give them a minute or two on each step while they experience the pairing and maybe take notes. Then you can ask them for their thoughts about it when they’re done.
With a more informal tasting, you can tell everyone what the beers and chocolates are before the pairing begins and offer a few pointers on engaging all the senses (as explained above), then open the beers, put the chocolates on serving dishes, and let people relax and pair through them on their own, talking as you go.
Important things to remember to make this fun for everyone
Everybody’s thoughts count
You’ll have people at your beer and chocolate pairing with varying levels of beer and chocolate knowledge. You might have some complete newbies, and you might have some seasoned experts. It’s important that no one feels intimidated about sharing their thoughts. There are no wrong answers when it comes to sharing your own tasting notes and impressions, and make sure everyone knows that before you start. Hopefully you don't invite any jerks, but it can be worth reminding everyone to be considerate and accepting of other people’s impressions.
You can all learn from each other
We all come from different backgrounds and have had different sensory experiences based on our cultural, racial, religious, ethnic, geographical, and even socioeconomic backgrounds. When we taste beer and chocolate together with open minds, it can be an opportunity to learn from each other, to expand our sensory vocabularies, and to gain a better understanding of our friends and their cultures, as well as sharing our own. This is part of what makes tasting and pairing beer and chocolate in a group like this so much fun!
You can listen to Episode 16 of Bean to Barstool to learn more about this dynamic. Dr. J. Nikol Jackson Beckham shares how tasting beer can be used to bridge divides between people of different identities, and what she shares can be applied to any food or drink.
The Extras
Here are a few last details to keep in mind to put your party over the top!
Set the scene
You can host anywhere in your home where you have room, such as a dining room table or the living room, but wherever you decide on, setting the scene a bit can make the experience more relaxed. Put on some pleasant background music that won’t be too distracting, and use gentle but adequate lighting. Avoid scented candles or incense, as this will interfere with the tasting experience. If you have outdoor space, consider an al fresco beer and chocolate pairing!
Take some photos
Be sure to snap a few pictures of the group (having everyone toast the camera can be a fun group shot), as well as some candid shots during the pairing, and encourage your guests to do the same (just make sure everyone is okay with being photographed). You can send these to your attendees after the event as a way to remember the evening. If you and your friends are on social media, you can even create a shared album or use a unique hashtag to keep them all in one place.
Arrange for transportation
Make sure people know before the event how much beer will be served during the tasting itself (generally the samples add up to about one drink), as well as additional drinking options before and after. That way people can make informed and responsible decisions about how to get home if the plan is to let loose a little afterward.
Hire a guide
One last time—I love getting to guide people through the process of tasting and pairing great beer and chocolate. Get in touch if you want me to ensure a great virtual beer and chocolate pairing experience for you and your friends!
