When is the last time someone offered you a cold one with a slice of chocolate cake? If you are like most of us, the answer is probably never. Unless of course your host is Rex Halfpenny, publisher of the Michigan Beer Guide. We were skeptical of this whole beer goes with chocolate concept—after all, isn’t red wine the best partner for dark chocolate, especially for that anti-oxidant double whammy? These pre-conceived notions were dispelled when recently we had the good fortune to attend a beer & chocolate pairing event, sponsored by our good friends at Slow Food Detroit. Mr. Halfpenny put together a tasting menu that was combined the best of the familiar and the exotic and taught us all a great deal along the way.

Part anthropologist, part historian, and mostly passionate aficionado, Mr. Halfpenny is quick to point out beer’s supremacy to wine as a pairing option because beer is in fact food, and therefore much easier to match with other foods. He claims there is no way to make a mistake when matching beer and chocolate, and in the spirit of scientific investigation, we were eager to test this theory. The trick according to Halfpenny is to really know the flavors of the different beers and then finding a chocolate that will complement them. Our results were more than satisfactory and we did so enjoy the experiments that we thought we’d share them with you.

As you conduct your own exploration of the pairing possibilities, make sure you take the time to really taste both the beer and the chocolate. Notice how it sounds when you snap the bar into manageable bits. Let the chocolate melt a little on your tongue, and really think about how it feels in your mouth. Then sip the beer and hold it a little, letting it warm. In this way you can get all of your tastebuds engaged in the process, and you should be able to fully experience all the flavors (with the exception of umami, which is not present in either chocolate or beer)

And please be sure that you are using high quality chocolates. While we have a fondness for the Hershey bar, it really isn’t the optimum way to test these taste combinations.

Green & Black’s Organic Chocolate with Hazelnuts paired with Rogue Hazelnut

A fairly obvious choice given that both have “hazelnut” in their names, but notice how any semblance of bitterness in either literally melts away when they are consumed together.

Lindt Excellence Intense Orange with Goose Island IPA. ( Ed. Note: While not normally a fan of orange-infused chocolate, this pairing might make a girl re-think her previous point of view.) This bar is fairly dark, with chewy bits of orange peel and tiny slivers of almond throughout. The IPA manages to smooth the bitter edges of both the extra-dark chocolate and orange and at the same time enhance the nuttiness from the almonds in such a way that brings everything together almost symphonically. American hopped IPAs are preferred for this as American hops often impart a citrus-y or grapefruit quality.

IPAs also work well with spicy hot chocolates, like Dagoba’s chili infused Xocolatl bar with Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA. The hops and the spice can really stand up to one another.

Chocolate with caramel is a natural for beers made using a specific malt type called “caramel malt”, for example red and amber malty beers like bock lagers and Scottish ales. We especially like McEwan’s paired with Ghiradelli’s Dark & Caramel

The combinations are virtually endless. We hope you will take these suggestions and embellish them with your own favorite pairings. If you hit upon a particularly brilliant beer & chocolate mash-up, won’t you please let us know? Simply email us at info@plummarket.com and we’ll add yours to this article.

Thanks to Rex Halfpenny and the Michigan Beer Guide for inspiring us. For more information about Michigan beers & breweries, please visit his site: www.michiganbeerguide.com