While every craft brewer in America is busy trying to figure out how to shoehorn more hops into beer, a few savvy brewers have seen the light on the oven and understand there is only one flavor that a beer needs to achieve excellence. And that flavor is cookies.
You’re never too old for a milk mustache, but you’re old enough to deserve better. You’ve thought about dunking a cookie in the creamy head of a milk stout, but what if the cookie came preloaded in your brew? Here are five brews that let you dunk your taste buds in the new cookie beer trend.
Flying Dog’s Holiday Collection
We’re talking Imperial Hefeweizen and sugar cookies, Oatmeal Raisin Stout with oatmeal raisin, Roasted Peanut Brown Ale with chocolate chip, and Oak-Aged Hazelnut Scotch-Style Ale with ginger cookies. Flying Dog in Frederick, Maryland, draws inspiration from Baltimore favorite Otterbein’s Bakery with a quartet of brews intended to be paired with cookies. The Hefeweizen/sugar cookie combo, in particular (because of the way the sugar in the cookie rides on top of the bright pop of citrus) is why Maryland’s BCC (blood cookie content) is well above the national average.
Full Tilt Brewing’s Berger Cookie Chocolate Stout
We will some day look at Baltimore as ground zero of this whole cookie beer enterprise. And we will build a museum there with an amazing cafeteria. This Baltimore brew pours like ink and drinks like milk. It’s a smooth stout with a rich vein of chocolate.
Cigar City’s Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Brown Ale
When you go to breweries, one of the brewers is always a killer baker. Cigar City out of Tampa, Florida, must have a whole building full of killer bakers. Their brown ale smells like a cookie out of the oven with cinnamon and vanilla and a sweet pop of raisin. Even if you’re not an oatmeal raisin fan, this dessert beer would be welcome at your table.
Aftershock Brewing Co.’s Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Ale
A cookie brew made it on to the podium at this year’s Great American Beer Festival. The cookie ale from the brewery in Temecula, California, took bronze in the herb and spice category. There’s cinnamon sugar up front like you’d sprinkle on your breakfast toast and toasted oats on the end. This one really should have been named the ‘tipsy grandma.’
Ten Ninety Brewing Company’s Milk & Cookies
Even Santa wouldn’t make it through an Illinois winter without a bit of fortification. This sweet stout with a cracking ginger finish is made a little over an hour north of Chicago in Zion, Illinois. It’s got the body of milk and the spice of cookies and makes for a proper liquid dessert.
Build Your Own Cookie Beer Combo
Photo via Flying Dog/Facebook
Maybe you’re a purist or you simply live in a town that Santa (read: beer distributors) has not lavished with cookie-inspired brews. In that case, you’re going to have to fling open the pantry door and take matters into your own hands.
Every good cookie and beer pairing begins with a decision to buy more beer. It’s an adage that has been in effect since you got your brother’s old ID, and you shouldn’t jump ship in the midst of this new venture. You want more beer because some pairings aren’t going to work, but also because it’s more beer.
With a fully stocked fridge, you can now get down to business. And it’s here that you will have your National Treasure moment when you briefly look dazed like Nicolas Cage before springing into action. Everything you need to know to pair cookies and beer is on the label. Look for the latent notes in beers and find complementary or similar notes in the cookie.
Nut brown ales work well with fruit and savory cookies, and Hefeweizens and snickerdoodles are perfection. Try milk stouts, barrel-aged brews and porters with chocolate chip cookies. If you’re not a baker, grab an Oreo or a Pinwheel and an Imperial Stout. You’ll thank me.
Most importantly, just start eating cookies and drinking beer together. It’s how you’ll uncover magic, discover happiness and get in perfect shape to slip on the Santa suit this holiday season.