Nutty gouda cheese, whole grain mustard, sweet paprika, and a pinch of spicy cayenne come together with sour cream and full-flavored festbier in this Oktoberfest Beer Cheese. Dip, dunk, and drizzle away!
I recently visited Big Elm Brewing where I enjoyed a frosty draught of their Das Boot Fest Bier. 10/10, it was delicious. So I grabbed a pack (ok a few…) to bring home and knew I wanted it to be the star of a recipe.
I was already dreaming up this Oktoberfest dinner of Pretzel Crusted Chicken Schnitzel served with German-Style Sautéed Red Cabbage and figured a beer cheese sauce would be just the thing to round things out.
Now, authentic German beer cheese-called obatzda-is much more like a thick dip or spread. I wanted mine loosey-goosey silky-saucy though. So instead of cream cheese, I went with sour cream, and where other recipes call for just a bit of beer, I upped my proportion in order to get things to a more fluid state.
More beer also equals more FLAVOR--yay beer!--which pairs perfectly with my crispy pretzel crusted schnitzel or, let's face it, just about anything you feel compelled to drizzle it on.
This Oktoberfest Beer Cheese sauce is nutty, oniony, creamy, and cheesy with a sweet malty finish thanks to Big Elm's delicious Festbier. If you live in New England, give them a visit or look for their brews in your local stores.
ingredients for oktoberfest beer cheese
ingredient notes & swaps
- Festbier is a malty, toasty brew that has a nice balance of bitterness to sweetness. Many breweries turn out a festbier and other German-style beer options towards the end of summer and early fall, but if you can't find one, any amber lager would make for a good replacement. Since the beer is a forward flavor in this cheese sauce, make sure you choose one that actually tastes good on its own!
- As the dairy base, I use a combo of oat milk + sour cream in my sauce. Oat milk, because it's just generally what I have on hand because I drink and cook with it a lot. Sour cream, because it has a thinner texture than the typically used cream cheese and a tangy flavor is reminiscent of traditional German dips and sauces. If you don't have oat milk you can definitely use another plant milk (except coconut!) or regular whole milk.
- The texture of your beer cheese sauce will be greatly affected by the type of shredded cheese you use. Gouda has the perfect buttery taste and melts easily, but you could use other options like Edam cheese or Gruyere. This guide to German cheese and dairy is a treasure trove of information if you're looking for other substitutes (or if you just want to get lost in reading about cheese, in which case, you are my people 💛).
- I recommend using whole grain or coarse mustard, as they will give your beer cheese a great texture and appearance. Dijon would be an okay option in a pinch!
Oktoberfest beer cheese
Nutty gouda cheese, whole grain mustard, sweet paprika, and a pinch of spicy cayenne come together with sour cream and full-flavored festbier in this Oktoberfest Beer Cheese. Dip, dunk, and drizzle away!
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: about 2 cups 1x
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- ⅔ cup festbier, or lager
- ½ cup oat milk
- ½ cup sour cream
- 2 cups shredded gouda cheese, at room temperature
- 1 tablespoon mustard
- 1 tablespoon minced fresh chives
- ½ teaspoon sweet paprika
- ⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- Salt and black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat.
- Whisk in the flour until combined with the melted butter.
- Cook the roux, stirring constantly, until it bubbles and smells nutty, about 2 minutes.
- Whisk in the oat milk until blended, then gently stir in the festbier. Continue cooking over medium heat, whisking often, for about 2 more minutes until the sauce thickens up a bit.
- Reduce the heat to low, then add the sour cream and whisk until smooth. Stir gently over low heat for a minute just to bring the temperature of the sour cream up a bit.
- Add the shredded cheese and continue cooking and stirring over low heat.
- Keep stirring until the cheese is melted and the sauce gets nice and smooth. It's important to keep the heat well controlled here so that we don't break the dairy ingredients, but you can increase the heat slightly to help the cheese along if needed. Keep stirring until smooth and creamy!
- Remove your cheese sauce from the heat and stir in the mustard, minced chives, paprika, cayenne, and salt and black pepper.
- The paprika might clump up a bit when you first add it, but keep stirring and it will smooth out. Serve as desired!
Notes
- When you go to reheat any leftovers, make sure to warm it gently over low to medium heat and whisk frequently. If the cheese sauce warms too quickly, the dairy ingredients may split, causing the texture to turn grainy.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Category: sauce
- Method: stovetop
- Cuisine: German
Nutrition
- Serving Size: ¼ cup
- Calories: 279
- Sugar: 1.8 g
- Sodium: 826.6 mg
- Fat: 20.8 g
- Carbohydrates: 5.6 g
- Fiber: 0.2 g
- Protein: 15.7 g
- Cholesterol: 77.4 mg
dig in!
Enjoy & let me know what you think 🌙 💛
