Behold! Welcome to our definitive Girl Scout Cookie Beer Pairing Guide.
CraftBeer.com has always been a proponent of elevating your craft beer enjoyment by adding delicious food to the experience. We believe that the approach to beer and food pairing should be the same no matter if you’re enjoying a 42-day dry aged ribeye or a 4-week-old freezer-aged box of Thin Mints. A great pairing is when the combination improves the experience more so than the two elements apart.
We put together the below list of suggestions that we hope you will enjoy, no matter if you’re new to craft beer or the most ardent beer geek. Grab some beers, buddies and those iconic cookie boxes and work your way through CraftBeer.com’s Girl Scout Cookie Beer Pairing Guide.
Thin Mints + Dry Stout
In style, as in beer pairing, avoid being too “matchy-matchy.” However, the dark chocolatey wafer character shared in a stout and a Thin Mint cookie work so well to elevate the cooling of mint that it is a pairing taboo we’re willing to risk. It’s an all-black tux with a cool green pocket square.
Beer Suggestions
- Shooter McMunn’s | Lost Rhino Brewing Co. | Ashburn, VA
- It’s My Island | Pocock Brewing Co. | Santa Clarita, CA
- Shaft House Stout | Dostal Alley | Central City, CO
Caramel Delites/Samoas + German-Style Doppelbock
A cookie with so much going on for it, like the Caramel deLite’s toasted coconut, caramel and garnish of chocolate, needs a pairing to match the cookie’s intensity. Aim for a strong, malty doppelbock that lends complimentary flavors and a warming character that will help emulsify even the ooey-gooiest caramel.
Beer Suggestions
- Smooth Like Jazz | Revelry Brewing Co. | Charleston, SC
- St. Nigels’ Doppelbock | Front Range Brewing Co. | Lafayette, CO
- Delaminator Doppelbock | Rip Current Brewery | San Marcos, CA
Shortbread/Trefoils + English Pale Ale/ESB
Want the secret to dynamite beer pairings? It’s simplicity. Trefoils might not get all of the Thin Mint glory, and ESB isn’t commanding any lines of beer geeks, but when the two work off of their strengths they elevate each other so that the Trefoils box ends up in recycling long before the green box escapes the freezer.
Beer Suggestions
- Happy Amber | MadTree Brewing 2.0 | Cincinnati, OH
- ESB | Hillman Beer | Asheville, NC
- Bull Kelp ESB | San Juan Island Brewing Co. | Friday Harbor, WA
Peanut Butter Patties/Tagalongs + Belgian-style Quadrupel
All of that peanut butter will quickly coat your mouth. Instead of reaching for milk, pop the top on a Belgian-style quad, strong enough to cut through the nut butter and plenty of complex, fruity yeast notes to transform this into a fun play on peanut butter and jelly.
Beer Suggestions
- BJ’s Quad | BJ’s Restaurant & Brewery | Boulder, CO
- Kung Fu Smurf | Bastone Brewery | Royal Oak, MI
- Deduction | Taxman Brewing Co. | Bargersville, IN
Savannah Smiles + Berliner-style Weisse
The game plan of sweet and sour should not be difficult for anyone to understand. You’re hoping for the cookie and wheat to offer a solid backdrop for the lemon and bright acidity to shoot around on your palate like the lasers in your 1st-grade school picture.
Beer Suggestions
- Germophile | Rowley Farmhouse Ales | Santa Fe, NM
- Nevada Weisse | IMBIB Custom Brews | Reno, NV
- Athena | Creature Comforts Brewing Co. | Athens, GA
Peanut Butter Sandwich/Do-Si-Dos + American Brown Ale
Unassuming partners, but we all know once peanut butter and chocolate (malt) get together they know how to swing their partner round ‘n round then roll away to a half sashay. Now promenade!
Beer Suggestions
- Wallops Island | Rocket Frog Brewing Co. | Sterling, VA
- Groundswell Piloncillo Brown Ale | Groundswell Brewing Co. | Santee, CA
- Davy Brown Ale | Figueroa Mountain Brewing | Buellton, CA
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