I love pairing beer with holiday season desserts.  These deserts always have a resonating sweetness that helps them pair with just about any beer. The spices that are often used in these desserts also pair well with traditional German wheat beers and many Belgian beers.  In short, it would be really hard to find a beer that doesn't pair with a holiday dessert.

 Weizenbocks are BIG wheat beers, meaning they are BIG in taste and BIG in alcohol, usually 7% – 10%.   These dark beers are quite complex in aroma and taste, as well.  

The aromas in a weizenbock can hint at dark fruits like raisins or prunes as well as light banana and clove.  The weizenbock tasting experience can be just as complex with spicy clove, tart fruit (think cherries) and/or bready flavors present.  

This beer styule is all about the malt with little or no hop bitterness present.  The beer’s malt sweetness is balanced by it’s alcohol content, spicy flavors (from hops and yeast)  and carbonation. This medium to full body beer pairs well with grilled meats but I prefer to pair Weizenbocks with spiced desserts.

I paired this beer with a pumpkin roll recipe I found onAllrecipes.com. Scuttlebutt’s Weizenbock is a perfect pairing for this dessert.  The sweet caramel malt flavor matches the sweetness of the cream cheese frosting while the pumpkin and cinnamon in the cake mixture complement the clove spice in the beer.  While all these flavors are melding in your mouth a tart cherry flavor begins to emerge and helps to cleanse the sweetness before it can become too cloying.

This is the third installment in a new pairing series/collaboration with the website They Draw and Cook (TDAC).  TDAC is a truly inspiring website with hundreds if not thousands of illustrated recipes by artists from around the world.  As you can imagine each recipe’s style and content is as unique as the artist who illustrated it. TDAC is a “veritable who’s who” of artistic styles and recipes as you will find painted, collaged, drawn, and digital renditions of scrumptious salads, mouthwatering main dishes, decadent desserts and so much more! 

For this series, I have picked five recipes from a compilation book of recipes TDAC had published last year but you can also find them on TDAC.com.  I have picked one breakfast-y recipe, one salad, one appetizer, one main dish and one dessert AND paired each recipe with one and sometimes two different beers! 

Pairing beer with desserts (before I get any hate mail...I know calling tiramisu a dessert is a disservice) are a lot fun and actually quite easy. The hop bitterness is natural counterbalances to a dessert's sweetness and vice versa. Also, many beers have a residual sweetness which helps create a binding base layer. Sweet malt flavors in beer can range from caramel to bitter chocolate, as is the case in this pairing. 

This beer is a perfect pairing with tiramisu.  First, the roasted barley used in this beer adds a wonderful bitter chocolate/coffee flavor that resonates with the coffee liqueur and cocoa powder.  The beer's bitterness and dry finish also help balance the decadent cream and sweet ladyfingers. But, what makes this pairing so special is the "soft-smoke" flavor from the chicory.  When the two combine, it is almost a perfect match for the New Orleans specialty coffee, cafe au lait. Although, I don't recommend you replace your morning coffee with this beer!-)

I found this great, one minute long beer description by Dogfish Head's brewmaster Sam Calagione. So instead of reading my longwinded interpretation of this beer, I am gonna let him explain HIS beer to you. 

1. If you liked this pairing or love this recipe let the artist know and spread the love around. The artist and I would appreciate the extra publicity!

2. You can and should order this fabulous cookbook on TDAC.com.

3. These illustrations are copyrighted.  You may not use them for any commercial reason without express written consent from the artist.  You may, however, print them for your own use.  Click the recipe which will take you to TDAC and from there you can download a high resolution copy or print a copy of this recipe. 

American Stout

Examples:  Rogue Shakespeare Stout, Deschutes Obsidian Stout, Sierra Nevada Stout
Serving Temp: 45°- 50°
Glassware: Pint Glass, Mug

Aroma: Will be full of roasted malt, which gives it a coffee-like aroma.  There may also be hints of chocolate or cocoa as well as American grown hops.
Appearance: The beer will pour jet black and opaque with garnet highlights around the edges with a thick and a long lasting tan head.
Flavor: You can expect a lot of roasted malt flavors of burnt coffee or bittersweet chocolate.  The burnt flavors shouldn’t be unpleasant and are often quickly replaced by a much smoother and sweeter chocolate flavor.  Citrus or resiny hop flavors can be present.
Mouthfeel: You can expect a well-carbonated, medium to full bodied beer with a dry and slightly astringent finish due to the roasted barley that was used in the brewing.

Food Pairings: Cuisine: Barbecue. Cheese: buttery, earthy.  Dessert: chocolate. Meat: beef, shellfish, smoked, grilled, game.

HopHeadSaid: Beers in this beer style can span a wide range of body and flavors but this almost ensures you will find that perfect American stout to suit your tastes or food pairing.  I suggest pairing your favorite stout with a chocolate dessert.  The sweetness in the deserts will help balance the roasty flavors in the stout and the stout will keep the dessert from becoming to cloying.  The coffee-like roastieness is often a pleasant layer with sweets, as well. If desserts aren’t your thang, then try breakfast foods! Consider replacing your morning coffee with a stout, it has a similar flavor profile as the coffee and its carbonation will help to scrub those savory or sweet flavors off the palate.  I won’t even get into the slight warming sensation you get with the stout.

General description and suggestion: Winter warmers are meant to dojust that, warm you up! These full-bodied beers will often have pronouncedcaramel or molasses-like aromas and flavors as well as a warming alcoholpresence.  These beers also have a widerange of alcohol presence so be sure to check out the ABV before you pouryourself big ole pint.

Often times Winter Warmers or Holiday Ales, as they are sometimes called,are brewed with special spices such as clove or cinnamon.  These spices can make them a perfect forpairing with holiday deserts such as pumpkin pie. If you don’t see adescription on the packaging look at the brewery website or BeerAdvocate.comfor ingredients or taste descriptions.

Specific description and suggestion: First, let me start by sayingthat this recipe tastes sooo good but it is sooo bad for you, as many holidaydesserts are. Also, you can save yourself a lot of time and effort with thisrecipe if you use the canned pumpkin mush but please don’t short changeyourself.  Mashing the fresh baked pumpkinwith a fork then whisking it until it is smooth gives this dessert a muchbetter texture (the best in my opinion) than canned pumpkin.  You won’t regret the time or the effort.

I love it when a single beer pairs so well with a recipe but I getdown right giddy when two beers fit the bill so well.  You will be able to find the Sam Adams mixed winter12 pack just about anywhere unfortunately but Trader Joes has a great price onthe Wassail this season. These two beers pair so well with desserts becausetheir residual sweetness and spicing makes them a dessert to begin with!   Theirspices resonate with the Pumpkin Crisp spices and their full-bodies enhance thecreamy goodness.  The cayenne pepperspiced pecans add fun little kick that will only linger until your next bite crisp.

Pumpkin Crisp

1 Sugar Baby Pumpkin or 32oz of can of pumpkin
4 eggs slightly beaten
3 cups evaporated milk
1 ½ cups sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp salt
1 (2-layer) yellow cake mix
½ cup butter melted
1 cup chopped and spiced pecans

Cut and clean pumpkin into thin slices and roast them in the oven at350° to develop an intense pumpkin taste and tender.  Poke with a fork to test. This could take aslong as an hour.  If you need to speed upthe process put slices in the microwave for a couple of minutes untiltender.

Put baked pumpkin flesh in a bowl (stand-up mixer is best) with whiskand beat on high until the pumpkin texture is smooth without any lumps.

Combine all but the last three ingredients.  Pour into a 13 x 9 inch baking dish.

Sprinkle dry cake mix evenly over the top of the pumpkin mixture.Sprinkle pecans on top of cake mixture. Drizzle melted butter over the top.

Bake for 350° for 1 hour

General description and suggestion:  Winter warmers are meant to dojust that, warm you up! These full-bodied beers will often have pronouncedcaramel or molasses-like aromas and flavors as well as a warming alcoholpresence.  These beers also have a widerange of alcohol presence so be sure to check out the ABV before you pouryourself big ole pint.

Often times Winter Warmers or Holiday Ales, as they are sometimes called,are brewed with special spices such as clove or cinnamon.  These spices can make them a perfect forpairing with holiday deserts such as pumpkin pie. If you don’t see adescription on the packaging look at the brewery website or BeerAdvocate.comfor ingredients or taste descriptions.

Specific description and suggestion:  First, let me start by sayingthat this recipe tastes sooo good but it is sooo bad for you, as many holidaydesserts are. Also, you can save yourself a lot of time and effort with thisrecipe if you use the canned pumpkin mush but please don’t short changeyourself.  Mashing the fresh baked pumpkinwith a fork then whisking it until it is smooth gives this dessert a muchbetter texture (the best in my opinion) than canned pumpkin.  You won’t regret the time or the effort.

I love it when a single beer pairs so well with a recipe but I getdown right giddy when two beers fit the bill so well.  You will be able to find the Sam Adams mixed winter12 pack just about anywhere unfortunately but Trader Joes has a great price onthe Wassail this season. These two beers pair so well with desserts becausetheir residual sweetness and spicing makes them a dessert to begin with!   Theirspices resonate with the Pumpkin Crisp spices and their full-bodies enhance thecreamy goodness.  The cayenne pepperspiced pecans add fun little kick that will only linger until your next bite crisp.

Pumpkin Crisp

1 Sugar Baby Pumpkin or 32oz of can of pumpkin
4 eggs slightly beaten
3 cups evaporated milk
1 ½ cups sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp salt
1 (2-layer) yellow cake mix
½ cup butter melted
1 cup chopped and spiced pecans

Cut and clean pumpkin into thin slices and roast them in the oven at350° to develop an intense pumpkin taste and tender.  Poke with a fork to test. This could take aslong as an hour.  If you need to speed upthe process put slices in the microwave for a couple of minutes untiltender.

Put baked pumpkin flesh in a bowl (stand-up mixer is best) with whiskand beat on high until the pumpkin texture is smooth without any lumps.

Combine all but the last three ingredients.  Pour into a 13 x 9 inch baking dish.

Sprinkle dry cake mix evenly over the top of the pumpkin mixture.Sprinkle pecans on top of cake mixture. Drizzle melted butter over the top.

Bake for 350° for 1 hour

General description and suggestion: Weizenbocks are BIG wheat beers, meaning they are BIG in taste and BIG in alcohol, usually 7% – 10%.   These dark beers are quite complex in aroma and taste, as well.  The aromas in a weizenbock can hint at dark fruits like raisins or prunes as well as light banana and clove.  The weizenbock tasting experience can be just as complex with spicy clove, tart fruit (think cherries) and/or bready flavors present.  This beer is all about the malt with little or no hop bitterness present.  The beer’s malt sweetness is balanced by it’s alcohol content, spicy flavors (from hops and yeast)  and carbonation. This medium to full body bier pairs well with grilled meats but I prefer to pair Weizenbocks with spiced desserts.

Specific description and suggestion: I paired this beer with a pumpkin roll recipe I found onAllrecipes.com. Scuttlebutt’s Weizenbock is a perfect pairing for this dessert.  The sweet caramel malt flavor matches the sweetness of the cream cheese frosting while the pumpkin and cinnamon in the cake mixture complement the clove spice in the beer.  While all these flavors are melding in your mouth a tart cherry flavor begins to emerge and helps to cleanse the sweetness before it can become too cloying.