Move over, merlot

According to the beer intelligentsia, a culinary crime is being committed in art galleries and restaurants across America: Cheese is being paired with wine. “[Cheeses] all work better with beer than with wine,” says Ray Daniels, Chicago Beer Society member and beer writer. His take is that unlike wine, whose flavors can contrast with cheese, beer can echo what’s in the cheese. He aims to prove that at the Chicago Beer Society Curds & Ale event on June 11 (get tickets now before they’re gone—see www.chibeer.org) with a dozen-plus top-notch cheeses and beers. We asked the CBS, headed by beer and cheese guru Dave Phillips, who is also the editor of the trade magazine Dairy Foods, for a sampling of the group’s favorite combinations.

A:Fuller’s 1845 Celebration Ale ($3.29/18.6oz at Sam’s Wines & Spirits, www.sams-wine.com) and Montgomery’s cheddar ($18.99/lb, Binny’s Beverage Depot Lakeview, 3000 N Clark St at Wellington Ave, www.binnys.com)
It’s the prototypical British pairing: a traditional English cheddar, made with the milk of the Montgomery family’s cows, with a classic English ale. “This is a terribly complex beer that has notes of dried tobacco, a full malt flavor and just a hint of citrusy hops,” Phillips says. “It’s a throwback to traditional British ales, and Montgomery is the kind of cheddar you would have eaten with those ales a couple hundred years ago.”

B:Bell’s Best Brown Ale ($7.99/6-pack at Binny’s) and Roth Kase Grand Cru Gruyère Surchoix ($18.25/lb at the Cheese Stands Alone, 4547 N Western Ave at Wilson Ave, 773-293-3870)
Ray Daniels’s default advice on beer and cheese pairing? “Get a brown ale. Brown ales go with damn near everything.” Broadly speaking, these ales have smooth, nutty, roasted flavors that will harmonize with aged cheeses without overwhelming them. The exemplary Bell’s Brown highlights the warm, toasted-nut character of Roth Kase’s Gruyère. Aged for more than a year, the Kase Gruyère is the only American-made version of the Swiss mountain cheese.

C:Rogue Shakespeare Stout ($4.99/22oz at West Lakeview Liquors, 2156 W Addison St between Leavitt St and Hamilton Ave, 773-525-1916) and Rogue Creamery’s Crater Lake blue ($19.99/lb at Pastoral Artisan Cheese, 2945 N Broadway between Oakdale and Wellington Aves, 773-472-4781)
These companies are both from the Rogue Valley in Oregon—hence the shared name—and although they’re different enterprises, the creamery has used Rogue’s beer to make a Chocolate Stout cheddar (available at Sam’s). So it shouldn’t be surprising that the powerful Crater Lake blue goes so well with the robust Shakespeare Stout: The beer’s alcoholic warmth and slight sweetness blends with the blue’s creaminess, while its brisk carbonation cleans up after the pungent cheese.

D:Westmalle Tripel ($4.49/11.2oz at Sam’s Wines) and Explorateur ($6.99/9oz at Sam’s Wines)
It isn’t a secret that Belgian beers are great with cheese; Trappist monasteries typically make cheese as well as beer. Try Explorateur, a sensuous French triple crème, with Westmalle’s Tripel, a potent beer that’s often called the classic Belgian Tripel (a word that’s reserved for the brewery’s strongest beer). The smooth, lush mouthfeel of Westmalle matches with the 75 percent fat Explorateur, while the beer’s spicy hoppiness cuts through that fat. If you finish both, you’re ready for bed.

E:Orval ($4.99/11.2oz at West Lakeview Liquors) or Goose Island’s Matilda ($9.99/4-pack at West Lakeview Liquors) and Cypress Groves’ Humboldt Fog ($20.99/lb at Whole Foods Lakeview, 3300 N Ashland Ave at School St, 773-244-4200)
A famously complex Trappist beer, Orval was the model for Goose Island’s Matilda. According to brew master Greg Hall, the Matilda took more work than any beer Goose Island had brewed before. Dry and fruity, its complexity isn’t diminished by the Humboldt Fog, an ash-layered goat cheese that’s runny at its ripest. “It’s a delicate like-for-like pairing,” Phillips says. “They’re both very complex.”

Tips from the trade for DIY pairing:
Fresh cheeses require lighter, more delicate beers. High-acid cheeses like cheddars go well with hoppier beers, like American pale ales. Aged cheeses usually call for more malty beers like brown ales and porters. And though fresh goat cheeses can be difficult to pair with beer, wheat beers will usually do the trick.

Ales, which dominate the American craft-beer market, tend to be better partners for cheese than lagers. American mass-market and imported lagers rarely have enough complexity to be interesting with cheese. Stick to chugging them solo.