The Best Craft Beers To Serve with Easter Dinner

It won’t be your grandmother’s Easter buffet.  Next to the piping leg of lamb, the scalloped potatoes and the creamed peas, is the centerpiece: several bottles of your favorite artisan beers. 

This year, we challenge you to step it up a bit and start a “hoppy” new tradition by serving some interesting craft beers. By offering a few terrific choices that your guests will love, the Easter Bunny may find that he has some stiff competition. We’ll help you kick off your shopping list with five excellent beers that will pair well with a traditional Easter feast.

Ryan and the Beaster Bunny

Experience the dark side of Easter with Evil Twin Brewing’s ‘Ryan and the Beaster Bunny.”  The beer is very real, but the makers are akin to the Gorillaz and the Tom Tom Club…it’s a phantom brewery in Denmark. The brewmasters describe it as “a fluffy and precious seasonal  beer brewed on the beautiful island of Fanø on the west coast of Denmark. It may sound like a true fairytale, but don’t be fooled by it’s cute appearance.”  I’d love to hear from anyone who has sampled this brew. From what I understand it’s available PA, NY and GA.

Image via Charleston City Paper (one of the few cities you can get this beer)

Hopworks Urban Brewery (HUB) Organic IPA

This 100-point beer (as rated by Beer Advocate) is straight from the beer capital of the U.S. – Portland, Oregon. Here’s what our LetsPour beer reviewer had to say about this IPA: Mellow, smoky malts underpin a torrent of Amarillo, Cascade, and Centennial hops in this headliner of Hopworks’ two pubs. Toasted biscuits, lemon rind, and caramel marry with creamy grains, sweet florals, and a hint of almond butter. An impossibly smooooth texture fans out on the palate and brilliantly presents these floral/herbal hops.

Image by Ryan, via LetsPour

Smuttynose Maibock

Smuttynose Brewing in New Hampshire has its own creative take on Germany’s traditional Spring  beer, the Maibock. Bocks tend to be darker, stronger variations of lager beer, but Maibocks, released in Spring, are lighter in color and medium- to full-bodied bodied and usually feature German “noble” hop varieties. The brewery says this Maibock hugely malty & subtly finished with a variety of continental hops. Really a perfect Easter beer that will pair nicely with dinner. And if the label is any indication, you’ll be a little frisky after enjoying it.

Image via The Beer Sessions

Celebrator Doppelbock

This one’s got Easter written all over it (see the photo from the brewery’s website, below). Crafted by Ayinger in Germany, this is a hearty, bottom-fermented, dark doppelbock that could actually replace Easter dinner.  Austrian Conrad Seidl, the self-proclaimed “Pope of Beers,” describes Celebrator as: “Almost black with a very slight red tone, a sensational, festive foam and truly extraordinary fragrance that at first summons up visions of greaves lard. The first taste is of mild fullness with an accompanying coffee tone, which becomes more dominant with the aftertaste. There is very little of the sweetness that is frequently to be tasted with doppelbock beer.”

 Image via Ayinger

Founders Dirty Bastard

Grandma might not be too happy to see this on the buffet, but for us, this Scottish ale would be made to feel right at home with our roast leg of lamb. This world-class beer from Founders is dark mahogany in color soaked in rich flavors of dark fruits.  This is a full-bodied, yet very drinkable ale is “so good it’s almost wrong.” Sorry Grandma.

 Image via Founders Brewing

Dogfather Imperial Stout

The LetsPour beer reviewer, Steve Body, labeled this stout from Laughing Dog “a dark you can’t refuse.” It’s definitely muscular, exploding on the tongue with one of the most unique flavor profiles of any American Stout; a veritable steak dinner in a bottle! Not for the faint of heart, this ol’ dog! Brewed in Idaho.

Image by Ryan, via LetsPour

So these are just a few of our favorites.  While the choices are endless, it’s nice to know that artisan beers are a welcome addition to any holiday meal. Who knows, maybe even Grandma is tired of sipping the sherry and is ready to embark on a whole new Easter adventure.