Beer Cheese Dip is an easy appetizer that is perfect for game day or when hosting friends.
A combination of your favorite beer, a variety of cheeses, and delicious seasonings this recipe is a welcome addition to any appetizer spread!
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Holly’s Highlights For Beer Cheese Dip
- Flavor: This cheese dip has a bold flavor—the beer can be light or dark which will change the flavor of the dip.
- Difficulty: It’s easy to prepare.
- Ingredient Tip: Medium or mild cheese is not recommended, it doesn’t have enough flavor for this dip.
- Prep note: Shredding your own cheese will make the smoothest dip.
- Serving suggestion: Pair with warm pretzels, tortilla chips, or veggies like carrot sticks.
Ingredient Tips for Beer Cheese Dip
Cheese: Use a combination of sharp cheddar cheese and gruyere. While you can use any cheese, a mild cheese will have a milder flavor (and won’t pair well with a bold dark beer). I highly recommend sharp cheddar.
For the smoothest sauce, shred cheese from a block for this recipe. Pre-shredded cheeses will taste great, but the additives that keep them from sticking in the bag mean they do not melt as nicely.
Beer: Use the beer you like best!
- Dark Beer, like stout or malt, will produce a deep, slightly bitter flavor. Great for serving with your favorite bread.
- Light Beers like ales, pilsners, and IPAs will give a lighter flavor (this is my preference). These pair well with vegetables.
- Non-alcoholic beer works well in this recipe, too, and is great served with any dipper.
How to Make Beer Cheese Dip
- Melt butter, seasonings, and flour (creating a roux) RECIPE BELOW.
- Add beer and milk, whisking after each addition. It will seem thick and almost pasty at first, but as you continue to stir, it will smooth out nicely.
- Once thick and bubbly, whisk in the cheeses.
Holly’s Favorite Dippers!
I often make beer cheese dip for pretzels and serve it warm like a cheese fondue. But the dipper possibilities are endless!
- Bread: soft pretzel bites or pretzel sticks, tortilla chips, chunks of French or sourdough bread, soft breadsticks, and garlic crostini rounds are some of my favorites.
- Veggies: celery sticks, broccoli florets, cauliflower florets, carrots, zucchini rounds, bell pepper strips, and whole (cooked) baby red potatoes.
- Fruits: sliced green apples, pears, and grapes give it the perfect balance with sweetness.
Storing Leftovers
As with most recipes containing dairy, beer cheese dip does not freeze well. Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
More Cheesy Favorites
Did you make this Beer Cheese Dip? Leave a rating and a comment below!
Ingredients
- ¼ cup unsalted butter
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- ⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup milk
- ⅔ cup beer
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese 8 ounces
- 1 cup shredded Gruyere cheese or Swiss cheese, 4 ounces
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan, melt butter, flour, onion powder, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, and salt over medium heat. Cook for 1 minute.
- Stir in milk and beer a bit at a time, whisking until smooth after each addition. Continue cooking over medium heat, add in mustard and Worcestershire, cooking sauce until thick and bubbly.
- Turn off the heat and add the cheddar and Gruyere cheese. Stir until melted and smooth.
- Serve warm with vegetables, tortilla chips or soft pretzels.
Video
Notes
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Appetizer, Dip, Party Food
Cuisine American© SpendWithPennies.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Please view my photo use policy here.
I had so much of this left after using it for soft pretzels, I used the rest to make Mac and cheese. It was too delicious to waste!
9×13 baking dish:
Al dente box of pasta of choice
Mix in beer cheese
Topping: mix together a stick of melted butter and 1/2 cup bread crumb or panko
Sprinkle parmesan over whole dish
Bake 350 F for 20 minutes
Broil to make extra crispy
So yummy. My friend said it’s his new all time favorite mac and cheese. Try it!!
Note: I used fontina cheese instead of Swiss because that’s what I had.
Thanks so much for this tasty recipe!
This is amazing! The one thing to note though is, even if you used salted butter, to add 1/2 tsp of salt at the end. It really makes this dip so much better!
Disappointing… it’s very runny. I prefer a thicker cheese when making beer cheese. Bummer
Love this recipe.
It has become a holiday favorite
I’m so glad you’ve loved it Denise!
When I tasted this halfway through my cheese melt (extra sharp cheddar and Swiss); it was amazing. The tang (Dijon mustard) was finger-licking good! At the end it tasted like cheese-so it kept adding more of all the spices until it had that great tang again. This is such a great and easy recipe!
The sauce turned out okay. But there wasn’t a ton of flavor there, from either the cheese or the spices. Personally, I thought it was okay, but the “fake cheese” lovers in the house thought it was gross, so fair warning if you have “fake cheese” or “powdered cheese” lovers!
A friend of mine makes this but is spice averse so I was happy to try it with the cayenne. The only thing I subbed was adding evaporated milk instead of milk (I had some in the fridge I needed to use up). Make it nice and creamy. This one is a keeper!
This is so good! I used gruyère, extra sharp white cheddar and shiner bock. It’s excellent. Thanks for sharing!
I swapped out the cheddar for smoked gouda, SO good! Absolutely phenomenal and such a hit.
Hi! How far in advance can I make this?
Up to 48 hours should be okay Veronica! Enjoy!
Tried making this with some Sam Adams Octoberfest with good results, doubled down on Monterey and pepper jack since I had no cheddar on deck, but it was still really good!
Will probably be even better with some nice sharp cheddar, will definitely be making it again to try as it was intended.
Thanks for the recipe!
Your version sounds amazing! So glad you enjoyed this recipe!
Fantastic cheese sauce! Easy recipe because we had all of the ingredients and I was able to use the cheese we had – Colby jack and Sharp Cheddar with great results. We used it for chicken nachos and it was the best part of the dinner.
I really liked this recipe! I used whole milk with sharp cheddar and a mixture of Swiss and Gruyère cheese. We used a light hearted ale from laughing fish. We enjoyed it with pretzel rolls! Yummy!
Followed directions and got a liquid cheese. Not sure what I did wrong but I did it twice and no luck
I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy this beer cheese dip Alex. It is a dip that is designed to be thinner so it is perfect for dipping and dunking pretzel bites, tortilla chips, or whatever else you like!
I’m not sure how you measured the ingredients out but it was way to thick and stringy. 1 cup= 1 measuring cup or 1 cup = 8 OZ?. The taste was not there had to add more seasoning also.
1 cup of cheese weighs 4 oz, not 8 oz.
When it is said 8oz in a cup, this is a volume, not a weight (8 fl oz). If you used 8 oz (which is a weight) of cheese for each cup called for, the recipe would not work out well and would be too thick.
The measurement in the recipe calls for cups, the shredded cheese should be placed in a measuring cup. Hope that helps.
This is awful. Flavor isn’t even close and is too stringy.
I’m sorry this didn’t work out for you, how disappointing. I just made this again a couple of weeks ago and we really enjoy this recipe.
I’m not quite sure what you mean by “the flavor isn’t even close” but a stronger beer can have a stronger flavor. The cheese can also affect the flavor, a mild cheese can be overpowered by a strong-flavored beer (so we use a sharp cheese in this recipe). What kind of beer did you use? Melted cheese can be a bit stringy depending on the brand.
So easy and delicious! The whole family loved it!
It was delicious except for one little thing – I needed a lot more cheese because the beer/alcohol was overpowering. I used a light lager. But all it required was a bit more sharp cheese. Overall, very good!
Hi there! Your notes say that mozzeralla is used but I don’t see it listed in the actual recipe. Also is 2% milk ok or does whole work better?
Thank you!
Hi Claire, You can use all gruyere cheese or a combination of gruyere, sharp cheddar, and mozzarella for this recipe. 2% milk will work fine in this recipe.
Okay so it’s a good dip, but definitely load it up on the spices. I first made it and it tasted like melted cheese. I put it back on the heat and added more garlic and onion powder and that spiced it up a bit. Overall great recipe :-)