Stout Tasting - Snack/Food Pairings?

I’m hosting my first larger stout tasting (15-20 bottles, BCBS, Surly, C/KBS, Darklord, etc) - wondering if anyone had recs on food/snack pairings, etc? This won’t be a dinner, just hanging out → I’m the “amateur” beer guy of the group, the rest are “pros”, so gotta bring my A game

appreciate your thoughts, thank you
E

Oysters

Personally, I like dark chocolate and pretzels. Plenty of cheeses also work. I’d also have some non-stouts in the lineup to break things up. The high alcohol and heaviness can get tiresome. I usually go with a sour or fruit beer of some sort to break things up.

Salted potato chips…

desserts, a chocolate bread pudding works because you have some bulk but also sweetness.

Salted potato chips sound good for contrast and resetting the palate, but I’d also want something lighter. Chocolate and other desserts would make me not want another sip of stout. The beers you’re talking about have so much richness, calories, and in some cases, sweetness, that I’d be trying to counter that, not add to it. Pretzels and mustard seem like a great choice, maybe along with crackers/vegetables and hummus. A tasting like this is a lot different than having 6-8 ounces with dessert.

Appreciate all the comments, thank you
E

At professional tastings, the only food on the table is oyster crackers. They work pretty well as palate cleansers. You might want to have a nice top-notch Pilsner (Hill Farmstead or Suarez come to mind) on hand so when folks get tired of all that over-the-top crap, they can drink something rational.

Rick- something else also comes to mind; when are you going to send some beer to the east coast?! Cheers!

Pilsner?
prep some Pelligrino. If you’re gonna make folks drink watery Pilsner crap, might as well serve them water! :wink:

Kidding aside, where can we find heater Allen stuff to try in Seattle besides Scott T’s house?

Not a complete list, but hopefully Rick can provide other locations. and, yes, I usually have at least a few HA bottles at my place [cheers.gif]

Bottles & occasionally draft beer - Bottleworks (Wallingford), Teku Tavern (SLU)
Draft beer - Brouwer’s, The Masonry, Slowboat Tavern

Been to brouwer and Masonry and haven’t seen Rick’s beer… must be a rotational thing?

but Teku Tavern is close to work… perfect… thanks Scott!

Cheesecake.

Stilton for the imperials