Beer cheese is a smooth cheese dip or spread made by combining shredded or melted cheese with flattened beer along with various spices and seasonings. It's said to have originated in Kentucky where it's widely popular as a snack and typically served with crackers.
Fast Facts
Origin: Kentucky, USA
Made from: Cheddar and/or processed cheeses
Texture: Spreadable
What Is Beer Cheese?
Beer cheese is a form of cold pack cheese, sometimes called crock cheese or club cheese. It's usually made from processed cheese or a blend of cheddar and other cheeses along with spices such as cayenne pepper, mustard powder, and garlic. Flattened beer imparts flavor and helps provide a smooth texture, giving the mixture its name. It's usually orange, either from the color of the original cheeses or by adding annatto coloring, which is what gives orange cheeses their signature hue.
Beer cheese isn't a type of cheese, but rather is made from various cheeses. It's thought to have originated in Kentucky in the 1930s as a salty snack to serve at bars. The Kentucky version is traditionally made with German lagers, but today it is often made with IPAs, stouts, and other craft brews.
Beer cheese is typically served with Saltine-style crackers and also often accompanied by sliced carrots and celery sticks, much like the ones that are served alongside Buffalo chicken wings.
Pub cheese is another type of spreadable cold pack cheese that is sometimes made with beer, and the terms pub cheese and beer cheese are sometimes used interchangeably. But pub cheese isn't always made with beer. The Presidente brand of pub cheese, for instance, doesn't include beer. So technically, all beer cheese is pub cheese, but not all pub cheese is beer cheese.
Beer Cheese vs. Drunken Cheese
Another product that is sometimes described as beer cheese is a version of drunken cheese made with beer. This type of cheese is a solid cheese, usually firm or semi-firm, that is made by adding beer to the curds before pressing and shaping the cheese. The resulting cheese has a distinct flavor of beer and often a marbled appearance, depending on what type of beer is used. This type of beer cheese is a solid cheese, as opposed to beer cheese, which is a spread or dip.
How Beer Cheese Is Made
Traditionally, beer cheese is a cold pack cheese spread, which means that it's made by combining cheeses with beer and other flavoring ingredients without heating or melting the cheese, and it's served cold (although it can be warmed up).
To make beer cheese, sharp cheddar is combined with processed cheese or other young, soft cheeses such as Monterey Jack or even cream cheese, then mixed with flat beer and seasonings including salt, cayenne pepper, hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce, horseradish, garlic, and mustard. The combination is blended until smooth then chilled to let it solidify. Although it retains a slightly grainy appearance, its texture is actually quite smooth. In Kentucky, there's usually a mild version and a hot version.
Flat beer is traditionally used because beer cheese was originally made with leftover beer that had gone flat. If you're making beer cheese at home, it's a good idea to let your beer go flat first, otherwise it will foam up out of your food processor.
Some beer cheese recipes do involve melting the cheese along with beer and other ingredients, producing a cheese dip that resembles queso dip. It's melty and stretchy as opposed to cold and spreadable, and technically isn't a true Kentucky beer cheese.
If you can't find actual beer cheese, you can make your own at home using store-bought ingredients. Otherwise, use any other cold pack club cheese or cheese spread, with or without beer. Pub cheese is an especially good substitute.
Uses
In addition to serving beer cheese as a snack with crackers, pretzels, vegetable sticks, and other dippables, the spread can be made into soup or used as a topping on burgers and sandwiches. Beer cheese also adds flavor and moisture to baked goods such as breads and rolls.
Storage
Beer cheese should be stored in the refrigerator, tightly covered, where it will keep for three to four days. When buying store-bought cheese, simply leave it in its original container. Transfer homemade beer cheese to an airtight container.
Beer Cheese Recipes
Try making beer cheese at home or use beer cheese to make bread, soup, or fondue:
Primarily crafted from milk, butter, and melted cheddar, plus a bit of beer, the dip might lead some to wonder if it includes enough alcohol to feel a booze-induced impact. Rest assured, while beer cheese does contain alcohol, it's typically not enough to give anyone a buzz.
The resulting cheese has a distinct flavor of beer and often a marbled appearance, depending on what type of beer is used. This type of beer cheese is a solid cheese, as opposed to beer cheese, which is a spread or dip.
Fruity wheat beers pair especially well with cheese! Dark Beers: Stouts and porters also make a great beer cheese sauce, but are best paired with a sharp, funky cheese that can stand up to their strong, rich flavors. Super-hoppy IPAs: If you love this style of beer, go for it.
Can I serve beer cheese dip to kids? It's a little tricky. Most of the alcohol cooks off, leaving just the beer's flavor behind. While some residual alcohol could remain, it's a very minor amount.
Beer cheese is a cheese spread most commonly found in Kentucky. Similarly named cheese products can be found in other regions of the United States, but beer cheese spread itself is not widely distributed.
Pub cheese is a type of soft cheese spread or dip prepared using cheese as a primary ingredient and usually with some type of beer or ale added. While beer cheese is made with beer, pub cheese can be made without alcohol. Pub cheese is a traditional bar snack in the United States.
Roughly speaking: Beer cheese sauce, bourbon caramel and other sauces brought to a boil and then removed from the heat typically retain about 85 percent of the alcohol. Diane, cherries jubilee and other recipes that flame the alcohol may still have 75 percent of the alcohol.
The longer you cook, the more alcohol cooks out, but you have to cook food for about 3 hours to fully erase all traces of alcohol. A study from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Nutrient Data lab confirmed this and added that food baked or simmered in alcohol for 15 minutes still retains 40 percent of the alcohol.
Is it safe to eat? Our ice packs keep the temperature cold for 3 days. If the beer cheese arrives within the 3-day window, it is perfectly safe to eat.
I will say you have to like hops if you're going with an IPA because it does add a bitterness to the cheese as well. An amber ale or a hefeweizen would be good choices as well. Whatever beer you choose, the flavor will come through, so make sure you enjoy drinking it on its own.
The powerful flavors of beer and cheese have to meet in the middle. For this one it's best to use a German lager (such as Heineken), which is somewhat mellow, to match the intensity of the sharp Cheddar cheese.
Its smell is so strong that otherwise, you run the risk of it permeating the other foods in your fridge. We hope that you've enjoyed our exploration of this strong cheese. If you are a beer lover, why not try our Beer Collection?
These days, the popularity of beer cheese reaches far beyond Clark County. You can find beer cheese on menus from South Carolina to California – each with their unique twist! And the Queen of England was spotted boarding a plane in Lexington with several tubs in tow after a recent visit.
I used Fat Tire because that what I had on hand, but Budweiser, Bud Light, Coors Light, and Miller Lite are all good options. No need to use anything fancy! What brands of cheese do you recommend? For the Cheddar, you can use a good supermarket brand, like Cabot or Tillamook.
Rest assured, while beer cheese does contain alcohol, it's typically not enough to give anyone a buzz. For starters, the ratio of the beer itself depends on the recipe you're following — and you can choose one that has less alcohol if you are concerned.
Beer cheese differs from pub cheese in that the latter doesn't necessarily contain brews, but beer cheese falls under the pub cheese umbrella. If you're alcohol-free or just not a fan of the boozy flavor, a different type of pub cheese may be what you're looking for.
Recommended Products. Beer cheese soup itself is believed to have originated in the United States, specifically in the state of Kentucky. The soup is often associated with the popular beer cheese spread in the region.
2 tbsp of beer cheese (Charlie's) contains 80 Calories. The macronutrient breakdown is 13% carbs, 66% fat, and 21% protein. This is a good source of calcium (15% of your Daily Value).
Isovaleric acid is an organic compound that contributes an unpleasant cheesy and sweaty foot character to beer, hence its classification as an off-flavor. Commonly associated with old, oxidized hops, isovaleric acid can also be produced by certain wild yeast and bacteria, making it a good indicator of contamination.
Beer cheese has a history as spicy as its flavor. According to legend, it all started in the late 1930s on the banks of the Kentucky River near Winchester.
Watch the Heat: If your heat is too high when you add in the cheese, it can cause the sauce to break and become grainy or gritty. To avoid this, make sure your sauce is hot but not quite bubbling when adding the cheese.
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