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www.cheersonline.com 53 March/April 2017 • By John Fischer BACK 2 BASICS Wine and cheese are served together at seemingly every art opening, college dean's reception and cocktail party. I can't blame my fellow Americans for thinking that wine and cheese go together like peas and carrots. In most cases, unfortunate- ly, they go together more like pickles and butterscotch. I won't get into the technical side of this too much so that we can focus on the more reliable pairing of beer with cheese. But on the whole, white wines are better for cheese than red, and sweet wines tend to work the best—which goes against the common thought that dry red wine is meant for cheese. As for beer and cheese, one of the main reasons they go together is that beer tends to be more gregarious than wine in general, and a single beer can go with a broad range of different foods. You can get a bit more specifi c, though, and pair certain beers with specifi c cheeses. But fi rst, here are some basics. LIGHT WITH LIGHT, BIG WITH BIG The most important characteristic of a cheese regarding pairing is how light or rich it is, which is largely based on water content. Depending on how it was made, and how long it was aged, a cheese that has less water is, conversely, going to have more density and richness. Since the fi rst law of food/beverage pairing is body:body, a light, fresh cheese such as goat cheese should get a lighter, fresher beer like an American pilsner. But that same beer would taste like water if you served it with an aged gouda. For that cheese, a Belgian tripel would do the trick because of its subtle richness. And if you didn't catch on to the main trick here, body in beer is driven by alcohol level—more alcohol, fuller body. In beer, though, there is one more factor that deter- mines body, and that is unfermented sugars. Beers with unfermented sugar (such as the lactose in a milk stout) will be fuller-bodied, and able to pair with richer cheeses. THE FUNK FACTOR There are some pretty stinky cheeses out there, and most of them belong to a category called "washed rind" or "smear-rip- ened." They include real muenster (not the deli-counter version), limburger, epoisse, and my favorite American one, winnemere. These cheeses have an, ahem, earthiness to them that can be complemented by a similar character in the beer. The one that comes to mind immediately is geuze, a funky combination of fresh and aged lambic beers from Belgium. But malt can have its own kind of funk, so a malty beer like Scottish ale or Belgian dubbel could marry with the fl avors in the cheese. ONE LITTLE SECRET Strangely enough, acid in a beverage can actually counter- act acid in food. For instance, sancerre goes well with goat cheese from that area. Goat's milk is the highest in acid of the popular choices for cheese making, which is why it has that characteristic tang. Now with the recent rise in the popularity of sour beers, here's your chance to show off! I would put a Berliner weiss with fresh goat cheese (both light), but a lambic, maybe even a fruit version, with aged garrotxa from Spain. SPECIFIC PAIRS Here are some suggestions if you want to put together a pairing of fi ve cheeses with accompanying beers: Brie/triple cream bloomed rind with Belgian wit (wheat beer). The cheese might be a little rich, but is delicate in fl avor. The wit, with its subtle spicing and re- freshing nature, will wash it down nicely. Havarti and pilsner. The beer will have a bit more weight than the wit, and its crisp hops character will cut through the richness of the cheese. Beaufort/Pleasant Ridge Reserve with Oktoberfest. This is an aged, richly fl avored cheese similar to gruyère and a bit salty. The sweetness of the beer (also called märzen) plus its fuller body make it a lovely complement. Cheddar with IPA. For this to work, the cheddar has to be sharp—such as a classic, cloth-bound version—for the spiciness of the hops to marry aromatically. Also, the more aged cheeses will be richer, and the bitterness of the hops will cut through the fat and refresh the palate. (By the way, our IPA here at the CIA is called Cleaver…get it?) Big Blue with doppelbock. Blue cheeses tend to be salty and aggressive in fl avor. They need an equally pow- erful partner to stand up to them. Doppelbock is a strong, usually dark (dunkel in German) with quite a bit of both alcohol and residual sweetness—just the things you need to go toe-to-toe with a big cheese. So whether you want to boost business at the bar or restaurant by serving a beer-and-cheese course, or just want to experiment with this on your own, the rules above will be a good start. And remember, when you're eating cheese and drinking beer, not a lot can go wrong. John Fischer is a professor at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY, and a former wine director at several New York restaurants. PAIRING BEER and CHEESE