Craft Beer & Brewing recommends cookies and stouts. Photo via beerandbrewing.com.

It’s always a fun time of year when the Girl Scout Cookie craft beer pairings come out. I was a Girl Scout for many years (like, the most years — all the way up to the Gold Award, the highest honor in Girl Scouting — that’s right, I am that cool) and the posts that pop up every winter leave me both salivating and nostalgic.

Craft Beer & Brewing always has a well-produced (and I trust, well-tested) list of Girl Scout Cookie pairing selections, and their 2016 rendition is no different. The key takeaway is that basically any GSC (that’s Girl Scout Cookie) will be delicious with basically any strong stout, but there are certain nuances to be attune to. Like…

When pairing cookies with beer, you may ask yourself the following questions:

“What will best showcase Thin Mints’ chocolate with a hint of mint?”
Turns out, a stout made with chocolate and mint.

Examples:

• Perennial Artisan Ales 17 mint chocolate barrel-aged stout
• Shipyard Mint Chocolate Stout
• Bootlegger’s Brewery Mint Chocolate Porter

“What about the chocolate-covered, peanut-buttered Tagalong?” 
As fate would have it, an imperial stout brewed with nuts.

Examples:

• Stone W00tstout brewed with pecans, wheat & rye
• Brooklyn Brew Shop Peanut Butter Porter
• Terrapin Cinnamon Roll’d Wake-n-Bake brewed with coffee and cinnamon, featuring buttery, nutty flavor (not actual nuts)

“Hey, what about me — I’m gluten-free!”
Eat the gluten-free cookie with a gluten-free beer. Let us know how that goes.

Point is: pairing cookies and craft beer is not an exact science. In fact, though science is assuredly involved, no beer and food pairing is a Cicerone-only calculation. You don’t need to leave your choices to the experts — or worse, never even attempt a pairing for fear of “not doing it right.” (Although, expert advice can be essential at times, like when you’re trying to cook with beer on Thanksgiving).

Try different things. Seek out the suds that best suit your taste buds.  And the next time you find yourself reaching for a GSC — or any chocolatey, nutty, crunchy, toffee or coffee-flavored dessert — skip the espresso and consider the delicious alternative of a smooth, creamy espresso stout.

Cheers,
BeerAffair