[Village Taphouse]

I'm a fan of "snacks" when I have beer.  Peanuts, pretzels, bar mix, etc.  I went to a store last night and saw something from the Ferris Nut company... a few different kinds of bar mix that I had not seen before.  I read the packages carefully looking for anything that suggested something sweet like honey roasted peanuts, etc.  Nothing on the package about that.  It said SESAME STICKS, SALT & PEPPER PEANUTS and ROASTED CASHEWS.  Great.  I buy a few of them and it's like 50% sugar-coated peanuts.  I don't know what it is but for me, "sweet" and beer do not mix.  I am not one of these people who are all about food and beer pairings and what brings out the best in each other, etc. so my guess is that there are examples where beer and "sweet" go together.  In my "pub" there are packs of all kinds of spicy, BBQ or smoky snack mixes and they're awesome with beer but if I see anything on the package that says SWEET, I'm out.  Let's hear some opinions on it.  Cheers Beerheads. 

[Bel Air Brewing]

Beer Nuts! Just the right blend of salty & sweet.

Cheese Sticks, Popcorn, Chips & Dip, Corn Chips & Salsa, Nachos, the list is never ending.

[Village Taphouse]

Beer Nuts are fine because they're not sickeningly sweet like some of these other things.  I actually emailed the company and explained my issue and someone got back to me saying "Right, the salt and pepper peanuts are actually roasted with sugar so that's what's sweet".  Duh.  Except they're called "salt and pepper peanuts" and not sugar-roasted or whatever. 

[BrewBama]

I can’t stand the smell of beer nuts. They turn my stomach.

I like peanuts or pretzels, wings, pizza, etc. with beer.

[Drewch]

Except they're called "salt and pepper peanuts" and not sugar-roasted or whatever.

Never trust the product name or description. Check the ingredients list.  Label designers love to slip in a "flavor" or "blend" in tiny font --- so your "honey" whatever is actually "honey flavor" whatever and actually 90% high-fructose corn syrup; or your "olive oil" is actually "olive oil blend" and actually 75% cheap canola oil.

That said and getting to your main point, sweet can go with the right beer, but most beers (even comparatively malty ones) are too bitter to mingle well with really sweet snacks, IMHO. But moderately sweet foods that are themselves well balanced can go well with beer. Think of the sweetness of the pork in a good bratwurst paired with a nice smooth lager.

Edit: fixed an autocorrect error.

[jeffy]

Except they're called "salt and pepper peanuts" and not sugar-roasted or whatever.

Never trust the product name or description. Check the ingredients list.  Label designers love to slip in a "flavor" or "blend" in tiny font --- so your "honey" whatever is actually "honey flavor" whatever and actually 90% high-fructose corn syrup; or your "olive oil" is actually "olive oil blend" and actually 75% cheap canola oil.

That said and getting to your main point, sweet can go with the right beer, but most beers (even competitively malty ones) are too bitter to mingle well with really sweet snacks, IMHO. But moderately sweet foods that are themselves well balanced can go well with beer. Think of the sweetness of the pork in a good bratwurst paired with a nice smooth lager.

I could write a lot about beer and food pairings.  I used to do an annual event called “Try This” that paired food and beer combinations.  For sweet and beer, try cheese cake and West Coast IPA.  It’s perfect.

[Drewch]

I could write a lot about beer and food pairings.  I used to do an annual event called “Try This” that paired food and beer combinations.  For sweet and beer, try cheese cake and West Coast IPA.  It’s perfect.

Be careful with that or pretty soon we'll be seeing Cheesecake IPAs as the next big thing alongside the milkshake IPAs and smoothie sours...

[Bel Air Brewing]

Beer and pancakes. For breakfast. In the morning! Yep, been there done that! And it’s good!

[Village Taphouse]

One of the flavors I got was "Smoky BBQ".  Corn sticks and cashews and a really great flavor overall but again... half the bag were these sickeningly sweet "candied peanuts".  I poured the bag into a bowl and just picked around them.  I guess I wanted to know if it was unusual that I didn't care for these with beer.  I do remember being with a group (it may have been my kids) and I would pour a handful of a mix into my hand and throw the candied peanuts on a plate and someone else was all "Wait, you don't like these?  These are the best part!" so maybe it's just me.  Usually on these bar mixes the label says it all "honey roasted peanuts" or whatever.  This label seemed deceptive in that they called the peanuts "salt and pepper" when they're really not. 

[jeffy]

Fish tacos and amber lager

[fredthecat]

generally hate "sweet/smoky BBQ" flavours, cheap beer nuts, hate dried/sweetened cranberries (pure cheap filler)

re: Beer and pancakes - i have been so tempted to for some reason indulge and have a single beer/drink in the morning some day, but i havent done this in i dont even know how many years. i need to some day soon.

re: ingredients - it's a complete scam. honey for example is horrendous. it's so easy to get true, locally sourced real honey, but it gets as low as bee farms in china feeding sucrose directly to bees, which they turn into "honey". this is then sent in bulk (i am certain this happens in canada, dont know about the US) to canada, mixed with a small amount of canada honey and the package will say "honey - made in canada", even giving some specific city in canada to add authenticity, ie. the place of packaging. this is not hearsay, i have confirmed this does happen, at least when i heard about it a few years ago.


i rarely eat with drinking beer. if i do, it would be something dry and definitely not sweet. ie. nuts, salted nuts or salty, hard pretzels. again thats like 2% of the time i drink. i tend to drink a bunch then eat a small meal after. idk.

if im drinking soju or vodka in a social setting ie. your friends/coworkers pour your drink glass and you cheers, i will definitely be eating a full meal. raw fish/meat, pickled fish, spicy meats braises, BBQ meats/fish, stews, etc.

[hopfenundmalz]

German Lagers and Pork.

[Kevin]

Keeping with the OP's topic of snacks I like a little chocolate with porters and stouts. Peanut M&M's may just be my favorite.

[Megary]

Sweet is out, period.  Doesn't work with beer.

Salt is the key for me to enjoy a snack with beer.  I think it's the perfect balance to the bitterness.
So pretzels or plain potato chips would be my go-to when I get the munchies.  Corn chips in a pinch.

If it was even remotely healthy, the greatest meal ever would be a hot dog, salted soft pretzel and beer.   

[Village Taphouse]

Sweet is out, period.  Doesn't work with beer.

Salt is the key for me to enjoy a snack with beer.  I think it's the perfect balance to the bitterness.
So pretzels or plain potato chips would be my go-to when I get the munchies.  Corn chips in a pinch.

If it was even remotely healthy, the greatest meal ever would be a hot dog, salted soft pretzel and beer.   

As always, you and I on the same page.  This is really what I was getting at... sweet with beer doesn't work for me.  The chocolate with porter or stout I understand but I rarely drink those.  Last night I had an English Bitter going.  I guess I just wonder why this snack mix company went so far out of their way to "hide" that these candied peanuts were in there.  On the front of the bag is a 1 or 1.5" "window" so you can see into the bag but it's sort of translucent... you can see what's in there but not really.  Had I seen these things through the window I would have put them down.  It sounds weird but I found these at Menard's, btw.  For the uninitiated, Menard's is a Midwest version of Home Depot that started in Wisconsin, I believe.  My local Menards is HUGE and not only has all the home improvement things you could ever want but there is a "food" section too with coffee, breakfast stuff, snacks, water, soda, candy, etc. and the snack area is giant... lots of chips, peanuts, snack mixes, Chex mix, etc. and that's where I found these.  Specifically called "CRAFT BEER SNACK MIX" and with the claim on the back WARNING:  THIS SNACK MIX IS MEANT TO GO WITH REALLY GREAT BEER or something like that.  Not.