The Type Of Cheese You Should Use To Make Beer Cheese

Beer cheese is a dish that makes a case for itself right off the bat, isn't it? Beer and cheese are both wonderful in and of themselves, but when you combine the two into a hot, gooey bowl of goodness and dip a pretzel into it, who could say no to that? Certainly not us — but what cheese should you get if you wanted to make a bowl of the stuff at home? We talked to Molly Browne, education director at Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin, and she gave us a few different options to consider.

"For beer cheese, you want a firm cheese that melts well," Browne said. "Traditionally, cheeses like young cheddar, fontina, and gruyere are good melting cheeses." The same qualities that make gruyere your go-to cheese for French onion soup — its balanced ratio of fat and moisture, as well as its pH levels –  make it, and other cheeses like it, perfect for beer cheese. 

Browne made sure to rep for some recipes that include some of the best Wisconsin cheeses out there, including a warm dip made with cream cheese, Meister Banana Pepper Jack, lager, and a kick of cayenne pepper, as well as a creamy braised onion number made with sour cream, mayonnaise, Widmer's Cheese Cellars Aged Brick cheese, and an ale or hard cider.

Maybe you've only seen beer cheese served at your neighborhood bar and grill, but Molly Browne assures us that it's a cinch to make yourself. "The best thing about beer cheese dip is that you can make it in 10 to 15 minutes at home," she said. "It's basically mixing beer with ingredients for flavor, reducing it down a bit, adding the cheese until it's melted, then serving it warm or refrigerating it to serve cold." Just make sure you avoid these ten mistakes when making the homemade pretzels to go with it, and you'll be golden.

What if you don't have any of those fancy blocks of cheese to shred? Will a bag of pre-shredded cheddar suffice? Well, yeah, but Browne said it would be a good idea to shred it yourself. "You can absolutely use pre-shredded cheese to save time, but you may get a little more flavor and texture from a hand-grated block," she explained. Just as pre-shredded cheese isn't the lasagna hack you might think due to it not melting as easily, it might also cause problems for your beer cheese.