Pairings

Beer with cheese

Cheese is fat, salt, and sometimes a lot of aroma. One beer will not cover a whole board. Carbonation and bitterness cut fat. A little malt sweetness balances salt. A beer with no bubbles and no bitterness sits on the cheese and both taste dull.

Taste the cheese first, then the beer, then both. If the beer vanishes, it is too shy for that cheese. If the cheese tastes soapy or metallic, the beer is too bitter or too roasty for it. Move along the board rather than forcing one pint to do everything.

Beer styles that work

Bitter or pale ale with cheddar
A firm, sharp cheddar wants a beer with a proper bitter finish. The hop bitterness meets the cheese's sharpness, and the fizz clears the fat. A best bitter is the ploughman's pour. A pale ale works if the cheddar is mild. Very tropical hops can taste odd on a clothbound cheddar. Keep them for a younger, milder block.
Wheat beer or saison with soft cheese
Brie, camembert and other bloomy rinds are rich and a bit earthy. A lively wheat beer or a dry, peppery farmhouse ale cuts that richness and the higher carbonation keeps the rind from coating your mouth. Low bitterness matters. A harsh IPA makes soft cheese taste bitter.
Porter, stout or a stronger ale with blue cheese
Stilton and other blue cheeses are salty, sharp and aromatic. Sweetness and roast in a porter, or dried-fruit malt in a stronger brown ale, balance the salt. You only need a small glass. A pale lager next to a ripe Stilton tastes of nothing. This is also where a barley-wine-style ale earns its place, in a short measure, not a pint.

If you are not drinking beer

A cocktail

Whisky and soda

Best beside hard, aged cheese, where oak and caramel meet salt and crunch. Poor beside a ripe soft cheese, where the spirit tastes hot. For a mixed board, pour the whisky with the cheddar and the last of the blue, not with the brie.

Without alcohol

Sparkling apple

A dry sparkling apple juice has acid and a little tannin, which is why cider country eats cheese with apples. It will not copy a porter with Stilton, but it cuts fat on cheddar and soft cheese. Sparkling water is the fallback when the cheese is very salty and you want nothing sweet at all.

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Questions

What beer goes with cheddar?

A best bitter or a moderate pale ale. Bitterness matches the sharpness and carbonation cuts the fat. Save sweet, dark beer for blue cheese.

What beer goes with Stilton or other blue cheese?

A porter, a dry or slightly sweet stout, or a small glass of a stronger malt-forward ale. Salt in the cheese needs a little sweetness or roast in the beer. A pale lager is too shy.

What should I drink with a cheese board if not beer?

Dry sparkling apple juice for most of the board. A whisky and soda only really earns its place next to firm, aged cheese.