This creamy, salty, and smooth pub-style beer cheese dip is an easy appetizer recipe that’s ready in 15 minutes. Flavored with lager-style beer (or your favorite style), garlic, smoked paprika, a bit of dijon mustard, and lots of cheddar cheese, this robust dip is extra flavorful and awesome with homemade soft pretzels, fresh artisan bread, pitas, or celery.
Inspired by a trip to a brewery up in Vermont, I threw together this beer cheese dip over the holidays. I adapted it from my spicy nacho cheese sauce and didn’t have any intention of sharing the recipe on my website. After the first batch disappeared in 10 seconds and the second batch was gone in .02 seconds, I had a feeling I was onto something that couldn’t possibly be kept secret.
This Beer Cheese Dip Is:
- Ready in 15 minutes
- Wildly robust with deep flavor
- Extra smooth and creamy
- Pub-style and a snack you’d find at a brewery
- Flavored with smoked paprika, garlic, and the slightest bit of dijon mustard
- Totally customizable to whatever beer you enjoy
- The best friend of soft pretzels everywhere (or soft pretzel bites!)
We LOVE THIS STUFF and you’ll be pleasantly surprised how quickly and easily it comes together with basic kitchen ingredients. It’s quite possibly the perfect party food, Super Bowl snack, holiday appetizer, or “let’s indulge” Saturday night activity.
Beer Cheese Dip Video (2 Minutes)
I didn’t snap many step-by-step photos of this recipe since the entire process is on the stovetop, so I filmed a quick how-to video instead. It’s really important that you see the base of the dip come together. The combination of butter and flour is called a roux and forms a thick paste before we add the remaining ingredients.
10 Ingredients in Beer Cheese Dip
Each ingredient has a job to do. I don’t recommend substitutions.
- Butter: Melt 2 Tablespoons of butter to begin. You can use salted or unsalted. No need to bring it to room temperature first; the butter can come right from the refrigerator.
- Flour: 3 Tablespoons of flour soak up the butter and create a roux, a thick paste, which is the base of the entire dip.
- Whole Milk or Half-and-Half: In a slow and steady stream, whisk in milk or half-and-half. The mixture will look chunky at first, but will come together as you continue to whisk over heat.
- Beer: Whisk in your beer of choice. See Best Beer to Use in Cheese Dip below.
- Worcestershire Sauce: The remaining ingredients are for flavor. Worcestershire sauce adds a deep and unbeatable flavor. No replacements here. Just a small amount provides big flavor, just as it does in crab cakes, black bean burgers, and chicken meatballs.
- Dijon Mustard: Want this to taste like beer cheese dip from your favorite brewery or pub? Add a bit of dijon mustard like we do with ham and potato casserole or even deviled eggs. This dip does not taste like mustard—my husband does not like mustard and loves this. Without it, the recipe tastes like it’s missing something.
- Garlic Powder: Adds flavor.
- Smoked Paprika: Even more flavor.
- Salt: Flavor flavor flavor.
- Cheddar Cheese: I like using a combination of white cheddar and regular sharp cheddar cheese, but you can use all of either. The most important step? Freshly shredding your cheese at home. Store-bought pre-shredded cheese is much drier than freshly shredded. You need the freshest cheese for this dip!
Just use a box grater for the cheese. This kitchen essential comes in handy when you need shredded cheese for cheese bread, carrots for carrot cake, grated frozen butter for scones, apples and carrots for morning glory muffins, zucchini for zucchini bread, and more.
How to Make Beer Cheese Dip
- Grate the cheese. Set aside.
- Melt butter on the stove, add flour, whisk in milk, then whisk in everything else.
- That’s it, you’re done.
The sauce is thin when it comes off the stove, but will thicken after a few minutes.
Best Beer to Use in Beer Cheese Dip
Low maintenance and no-fuss, this creamy cheesy dip tastes awesome with a variety of beer. I prefer to make beer cheese dip with a German-style beer or a local lager. The deeper the flavor of the beer, the more robust the dip will taste. The dip tastes like the beer you use, so use your favorite. Pale ales or wheat beers add a more mellow flavor. (Still delicious!)
I would just avoid fruity beers like orange or berry flavored.
What to Serve with Beer Cheese Dip
- Soft Pretzels (pictured—these are SO EASY TO MAKE)
- Soft Pretzel Bites (shown in the video)
- Soft Pretzel Rolls
- Artisan Bread or any crusty bread
- Celery, broccoli, cauliflower
- Fresh pita or pita chips
- Crunchy crackers or hard pretzels
Honestly, what can’t you serve with this stuff?!
More Party-Friendly Recipes
- Crab Dip (Maryland-style)
- Seasoned Pretzels
- BBQ Turkey Meatballs (serve with toothpicks)
- Cold Veggie Pizza
- Corn Black Bean & Avocado Salsa
- Bacon Wrapped Cheesy Stuffed Jalapeños
- Pepperoni Pizza Dip
- Cranberry Pecan Cheese Ball
Beer Cheese Dip
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 6 minutes
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: about 2 cups
- Category: Appetizers
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: German
Description
Ready in under 15 minutes, this crowd-favorite appetizer is creamy, salty, savory, and filled with flavor. Serve with homemade soft pretzels or the variety of foods listed above this recipe.
Ingredients
- 2 Tablespoons (28g) unsalted butter
- 3 Tablespoons (24g) all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup (180ml) whole milk or half-and-half*
- 2/3 cup (160ml) beer*
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 and 1/2 cups (315g; 10 ounces) shredded sharp cheddar cheese (see note)
Instructions
- First, make sure your cheddar cheese is freshly-shredded and ready to go. Set aside for step 4.
- Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the flour and whisk together until a thick and clumpy paste forms, about 1 minute.
- In a slow and steady stream, whisk in the milk. After it’s all added, continue whisking until it slightly thickens, about 1 minute.
- One at a time, whisk in the remaining ingredients.
- Remove the cheese dip from heat and pour into a serving dish. Sprinkle with extra cheese, if desired. The dip will be thin right off the stove, but will begin to thicken after a few minutes. It’s delicious warm or room temperature.
- Cover and store leftovers in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Heat over stovetop or in the microwave before serving again.
Notes
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Box Grater | Saucepan | Whisk
- Whole Milk: Whole milk or half-and-half is best for a thicker dip. You can use 2% or lower fat (or non dairy) milks, but keep in mind that the dip will be very thin.
- Beer: You can use your favorite. See Best Beer to Use for Beer Cheese Dip in the post above. For a non-alcoholic version, use my Spicy Nacho Cheese Sauce. You can control the spice in that cheese dip recipe.
- Cheese: I recommend cheddar cheese in this recipe, but you can use another relatively harder cheese such as pepper jack, gouda, or colby cheese. Avoid very soft cheeses. For best taste and texture, shred cheese off the block yourself with a cheese grater. Pre-shredded cheese is drier than freshly shredded. If you have extra cheese, shred a bit for garnish on top of the dip for serving.
- Spice: If you want to add spice, stir in a bit of hot sauce or cayenne pepper after the dip comes off the stove. Taste, then add more if desired.
Love this recipe! So great as-is, but if you want to make it vegetarian you can take out the Worcestershire and substitute with 1/2t of soy sauce and 2T grated Parmesan. Also delicious.
Please help! My wife and I just returned from kentucky and are obsessed with beer cheese. I’ve tried making this twice and it never turns out. I’ve done low and slow, hot and heavy…..it just doesn’t work for me. I knew going into it that there would be a learning curve. No matter what the cheese will not mix. I get a pile of cheese at the bottom and liquid on top. I’m giving this a 5 star rating because I know it will work somehow but unfortunately my cooking is 1 star.
Hi Bram, we’re happy to help troubleshoot. Are you using a fresh block of cheese (shredded) or are you using pre-shredded cheese? It’s best to use a fresh block of cheese and shred it yourself; pre-shredded cheeses will not melt down as smoothly. Otherwise, overcooking is usually the main reason cheese sauces split or separates. If you try again try turning the heat down on your stove a bit so that you are only heating it enough to melt the cheese. Hope this helps!
This recipe was so quick and easy to make and it turned out better than any beer cheese I have ever had! I did a half and half mix of white cheddar and an extra sharp Wisconsin cheddar to get the classic orange color. I used whole milk and a blonde ale we had on hand and it worked well. A tip for the vegetarians – O Organics brand Worcester sauce is vegetarian! I use it to make a vegetarian version of Sally’s black bean burgers and it is a key ingredient for vegetarian home cooking. I made the dip with Sally’s soft pretzels for an Oktoberfest themed dinner and even though it’s only the second time I have made any sort of yeast recipe they turned out perfectly!
Mine came out extremely watery. Shredded my own cheese, used whole milk.
This turned out absolutely horrible. I followed the recipe to a tea. The cheese was thick. Almost gelatinous.
Hi Shawn, we’re so sorry this didn’t turn out for you. It sounds like the sauce could have been over cooked a bit. It will thicken off the stove, but you can always rewarm it as needed. Be sure to use freshly grated cheese off the block (rather than pre-grated cheese) for best texture, and you can use a lower fat milk in the future for a thinner sauce. Thanks for giving this one a try!
This is perfect and I had no problems with it breaking or gritty. I used fat free half & half, I shredded my own cheeses, and tonight we are having it on steak sandwiches!
Definitely have plans to make this recipe on our next campfire night, along with homemade soft pretzels. I saw some comments about cheese separating so thought I’d share a hint if helpful that I found when googling beer cheese dip. Add sodium citrate. 1 tsp per 8 oz of cheese. Can find on Amazon.
This was amazing . I used sharp cheddar and the flavor was fantastic. Despite the “can’t sub anything for Worcestershire (not vegetarian), soy sauce worked great
Hey Madison, if you are in the US you can try O Organic’s version of Worcester sauce – it’s vegetarian!
Made this for a party that has been rescheduled for 1 week
later. Will it keep for the week? Not sure that it will freeze well
Hi Becky, cover and store beer cheese dip in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Heat over stovetop or in the microwave before serving again.
Can it be frozen? Made a double batch snd have leftovers
Hi Lori Beth, absolutely. Thaw in the refrigerator and re-heat on the stove until warm & smooth.
This was delicious! I ended up adding a little cayenne to mine to give it a little spice which took it up a notch to be, in my opinion, the perfect beer cheese flavor. I will try and thicken it up a bit next time, it was a little on the runny side
Finally a restaurant quality beer cheese dip! We always order pretzels bites and cheese dip and we now can make it at home. Definitely suggest following the recipe to a “T”. As you state in your comments, don’t leave out the dijon mustard just because you’re not a mustard person. Totally agree with this. My only thing I tweaked was I used 3 T butter to get a creamier roux. This dip even goes with Tortilla chips. Enjoy!
Re-did recipe with an Octoberfest beer what a difference as opposed to a winter lager!! Turned out very good but still added cayenne pepper for a kick…. Beer makes all the difference for me
I used a winter lager beer & followed recipe exactly. We found it bland so I had to add more of the spices in recipe & Cayenne pepper to give it flavoring…. Then it had some flavor.. kinda disappointed but the use of immersion blender was a plus.
Question – can this sit in a croc pot??
Hi Monica, we haven’t tried this, but you can try serving this in a crock pot/slow cooker set on the lowest setting to keep it warm. Let us know if you try it!
Followed the basic recipe -changed the cheese to a mix of sharp and white cheddar and had to use stone ground mustard but it tastes fantastic. Don’t judge but I used Miller Lite beer as it happens to be my favorite session beer and the only other beer in the house is Great Lakes Christmas Ale and I didn’t think that would pair very well. Shout out to the reviewer who suggested the immersion blender as my final product was just a touch gritty. After a good round of blending it developed into a smooth beautiful cheese sauce. Wish I could post a picture it’s so pretty!
Loved it so much Im doing it again. This time with sourdough discard for some tang. Thank you!
Absolutely perfect – didn’t have time to make the pretzels so we used (gasp) store bought…but this recipe was amazing. Will double it next time for a hungry crowd 🙂 !
Used a blend of sharp white and mild yellow cheddar, both from Trader Joe’s, and a local german style pilsner. Didn’t have butter or milk so I used olive oil 1:1 and planet oat original. Came off the stove really thick like melted mozzarella but good for dipping once cooled. Great recipe overall!
This turned out so good. I used Guiness beer and it was very tasty.
Great recipe! I used store bought sharp cheddar cheese and IPA beer, came out sooo good! I coated the cheese with corn starch before and it came out silky and delicious!
Can’t wait to try this recipe!! I have to say that every recipe I have tried of yours has been amazing AND your tips are so so helpful!! Five cookie tips… I’m 52 and just hearing these!! It’s like a great mystery has been solved! Ha!! And your instructions and explanation about brown butter… thank you!!!
So glad you’ve been enjoying our recipes, Alison!
This was perfect for our office St Patrick’s Day celebration! I double the recipe (except the mustard) and used Guinness + Cabot Extra Sharp. So delicious. Pro tip – if you have a stick/immersion blender, this is a great time to use it! Run it through the dip after everything is in and it will be completely silky and smooth.
Thank you so much for the tip! Mine was a little more gritty than I wanted. I used the immersion blender and it was so smooth and creamy!
Made this for Valentine’s Day. Pre-shredded sharp cheddar was all I had and it worked just fine. 1/4 tsp cayenne in addition to smoked paprika. Also used gluten-free flour to thicken. Good old PBR for the brewski.
What a wonderful recipe and I’ll be making this all year and forever! Thank you!!!!!
Paired this with Sally’s pretzel bites! Leftovers reheat easily. I used Cabots sharp white cheddar and Bud Heavy and was very tasty! It was a little gritty at first but I just kept on low heat and kept stirring and stirring.
Literally Amazing. I used Guinness for the beer and did not skimp on buying some really good sharp cheddar. The only thing I changed was warming the beer before pouring in as someone mentioned. Perfect consistency. Taste was so yummy. Huge hit. I paired with Sally’s pretzel bite recipe which is also amazing. Good with tortilla chips or toasted sourdough.
Came out fantastic! Used Leffe brown belgian ale, cabot seriously sharp cheese, guldens stone ground djon.
I also let the roux cook a bit til it got slightly browned.
If you’re going to a party with more than two people I’d highly recommend doubling the batch!!
I loved this recipe! Sooooo easy to make and so delicious!
Help! We tried to make the beer cheese dip twice and both times the sauce broke. I consider myself a pretty good cook so I don’t know what went wrong! I have made cheese sauces many times before. Anyone else have a problem and any ideas for me?
Hi Jenny, Sorry that this sauce is giving you trouble! Overcooking is usually the main reason cheese sauces split or separates. If you try again try turning the heat down on your stove a bit so that you are only heating it enough to melt the cheese.
If you use half and half it will break if you get the temperature too high. I only use heavy cream or milk.