It comes as no surprise that many trick-or-treating festivities are being cancelled nationwide this Halloween. Many neighborhoods are foregoing the up close and personal interactions for the sake of safety. For kids, this means missing out on the thrill of running from door to door, collecting an assortment of loot and making mental notes of which homes to avoid the following year. For parents, it means no late night candy-tax raids from the bowl of goodies. But if you’ve already invested your hard earned cash on a bag of fun-sized treats, don’t let them go to waste. Pick up a few of your favorite beer singles and pair them with Halloween candy for a seasonal tasting.
We’ve done several beer tastings in the past such as beer and doughnuts, and cheese with different styles of sours. These tastings always make for an entertaining afternoon with friends. This Halloween, we put several different candy and beer pairings to the test. The list of possibilities is exhaustive, so just use our list as a guide. Then, tailor your own tasting to your preferences and what you have on hand.
The Halloween candy
There were no costumes or door to door exploration to collect our mix of fruity and chocolate fan favorites. We scattered the sugar across our table to pair with the beers and all featured candies would be a prize for any trick or treater.
For our tasting, we chose Reese’s, Snickers, M&Ms, KitKat, Twix, pull-n-peel cherry Twizzlers, Skittles, and Swedish Fish.
Beer
Without any predetermined pairings in mind, we headed to our local libation shop to pick up eight distinct styles of beer to pair with our eight different candies. How to decide which beer pairs best with which candy? We thought back to our school days and went with a two column matching quiz format. After trying each of the beers and each candy, we chose one beer that we thought paired best with one particular candy.
The styles of beers chosen were sour, porter, stout, IPA, pilsner, Oktoberfest, hefeweizen, and Belgian brown.
Oktoberfest
For this style we selected Saranac’s Octoberfest Lager.
“Toasty. Malty. Octobery. An authentic German-style lager passed down through four generations. One sip will send you straight to Munich.”
Matt’s Favorite Pairing : KitKat
Megan’s Favorite Pairing : Twix
Stout
For this style we selected Bell’s Kalamazoo Stout.
“Named after the city where it all began, Kalamazoo Stout is one of our most classic recipes. This smooth, full-bodied stout offers a blend of aromas and flavors of dark chocolate and freshly roasted coffee, balanced with a significant hop presence.”
Matt’s Favorite Pairing : Reese’s
Megan’s Favorite Pairing : KitKat
Porter
For this style we selected Yuengling’s Hershey’s Chocolate Porter.
“Yuengling and Hershey joined forces to bring the best of both worlds to their fans with a limited-edition Yuengling Hershey’s Chocolate Porter. Yuengling Hershey’s Chocolate Porter is a fresh take on Yuengling’s 200-year-old Dark Brewed Porter.”
M&M’s Favorite Pairing : M&M’s were the undeniable best pairing for this Hershey Porter. It was also noted that the cherry flavor of the Twizzlers complemented the chocolate of this porter very nicely!
IPA
For this style we selected Peabody Heights’ Bizarre Ride West Coast IPA.
“A bright and juicy West Coast IPA with minimal bitterness. Hopped with Magnum, Southern Cross, and Citra for a smooth ride cause things have been bizarre enough”.
This one seemed all too appropriate for 2020.
M&M’s Favorite Pairing : We both paired Snickers with this brew as the best companion.
Pilsner
For this style we selected Silver Branch’s Gold Line.
“Classic American Pilsner was created by immigrant brewers who brought their lager-brewing know how to the USA and adapted their skills to local brewing grains and hops. Gold Line is made with locally-produced barley and malted corn and American hops for a crisp, quaffable summertime lager.”
Matt’s Favorite Pairing : He cheated and chose Snickers, again. Must have been hangry.
Megan’s Favorite Pairing : Twizzlers
Hefeweizen
For this style we selected Antietam’s Hager-Weiss.
“Brewed with 100% German ingredients, this refreshing wheat ale is unfiltered and unfettered. Subtle clove and banana flavors make this a complex beer of character.”
M&M’s Favorite Pairing : Swedish Fish. They swam happily into our bellies via this pils.
Sour
For this style we selected Sierra Nevada’s Wild Little Thing.
“This slightly sour Wild Little Thing has just the right smack of tartness for serious refreshment, while guava, hibiscus and strawberry lend fruity-sweet depth and a bright pop of color.”
M&M’s Favorite Pairing : This slightly sour ale paired perfectly with all of the fruity candies, especially the skittles.
Belgian Brown
For this style we selected Leffe’s Brown.
“Leffe Brown is an authentic abbey beer. Both its deep, dark brown colour and its full, slightly sweet flavour can be ascribed to the use of darkly roasted malt, making every sip just as exceptional as the last.”
Matt’s Favorite Pairing : Twix
Megan’s Favorite Pairing : Reese’s
Final Thoughts
This might have been the most enjoyable Halloween activity of 2020. We were the only two participants in our beer and candy party, but it would be great to share with a few friends.
One or two of the pairings may have been slightly forced just because of the format we decided to go with. If you know of any better pairings please let us know in the comments!
Cheers friends!
Megan & Matt
Comments
Great idea and sounds like fun. I feel like I would agree with a lot of your pairings, the sour and skittles is a no-brainer, and I think I’d agree with Matt for the Reeses/Stout combo. Thanks for a fun share, M&M.
Great article!