Best Beer for Wine Lovers

Through the ages, beer has seen many changes from Meade and Guinness, to prohibition and craft brews. Everything you could ever want from your alcoholic beverage can be found or fashioned into an incredibly tasting brew that steals your taste buds away within every sip. That’s the awesome power that only beer and it's many variations can provide: an unusual mixture of flavors that range far and wide, to the exotic and domestic. Maybe it's for the love of beer, or maybe the liquid itself is just that versatile. It doesn't matter because the truth is beer and wine have gone together long since forever.

As is the case, beers and wines don’t usually mix nowadays, or even sit in the same category of alcoholic consumers, but there’s always the adventurous types who love to cross blend and try new things, even with favored alcohols. Here we have only but a few of the very best beers for wine lovers, and they sure do put the love of wine into your bottles of beer. That’s another reason why beer is such a treasured stout, it’s not just versatile, it’s almost seamless in the invitation of newer, classier tastes. Stop asking, "is it true that when you drink beer and wine you'll feel fine," and just start trying something new. Leave the red and white wine for the book club, and try these awesome flavors for a grape crushing spin of the brew variety.

Rodenbach Vintage 2015

Interestingly, this lovely beer pours with a red tint that is, like every single Vintage 2015, aged in barrels for no less than 2 years. This is how Rodenbach gets the eccentric fruit flavor while still blending the favored brew into the mix; barrel aging allows bacteria to consume the beer for a mesh of cherry, malt, and the multi-strain yeast with lactic ferments provided by the bacteria.

It’s among the best beers for wine lovers because it not just looks and tastes like wine itself, but actually feels good when consumed. That’s liquid pleasure if I’ve ever seen it, and among the few times you'll ever truly know your beer.

Boon Kriek Lambic

Spotted by its pure red label and inside liquid, Boon Kriek is a cherry twist on the familiar style in Lambic iterations. Based out of Belgium, Brouwerij Boon makes a fine malt that tastes like sour beer, but lies among the best beer for wine lovers for that subtle cherry flavor.

It's tart, but has this almond dryness to it that puts to shame any cherry wines you might enjoy. Questioning what one glass of wine does to your brain can simply be avoided by having a ruby red Boon Kriek Lambic and letting all your worries fade away. Flemish red anyone?

Oude Geuze Boon

Meshing the old and new, bringing together two Lambic melds of polar opposite ages, Oude Geuze Boon is a complex and acidic beer for wine lovers, but still worth the try after its no less than three year long aging. This is a strong blend of lemony and leathery flavors that bring a different feel to beer altogether.

Like a dry wine, Geuze Boon makes fruity, oak flavored beer taste like a rarified mixture of pure wisdom. It's a preferred staple among fermented malt beverages for all wine and beer connoisseurs.

Duvel

Appearing almost like a Red Strip bottle, the Duvel comes in as our Dutch Devil (that's what Duvel means in Dutch). It gives off the impression of being a pale ale, as the yellow-hued froths in the bottle, but Duvel tastes more like a warm and spicy mix. It's a different kind of beer for wine lovers, if not tempting to say the least.

Pairing with, or simply tasting similarly to Pinot Grigio, Duvel also smells rather devilish too. When eyeing craft beers with a subtle wine-o twist in mind, I'd go for Duvel if not for the name and flavor, but for the overall surprise factor.

Cantillion Grand Cru Bruocsella

Not only does the bottle look like a sophisticated spirit or wine container, but the preferred glass of choice is also reminiscent of Stella Artois, another perfect beer for wine lovers in that it mirrors champagne beautifully. Cantillion, on the other hand, is nowhere even near Artois; for one it's more like a French Chardonnay, warm and citrusy with cheesy undertones, but there's also a limited amount of carbonation in it to keep the taste fresh.

As beers come, the Brussels-native Brasserie Cantillion was founded in 1900 and has served for the basis of bridging that gap between wine and beer for years. Grand Cru Bruocsella, for instance, has been rumored as "the missing link between wine and beer," which is enough evidence to point out its inclusion here. Plus, you don't have to worry about drinking too much; Grand Cru stands at a nice and easy 5 percent ABV count, less than some white wine iterations.

Saison Dupont

A sort of French-Dutch (though, mostly Dutch) beer made from multi-strain yeast and acidic carbonation have made Saison Dupont a legend among farmworkers alike. Distributed in the Spring and produced all throughout winter, the lower-gravity beer was an idolized consumption of farmhands that made itself into a tradition; one that now stands as among beer for wine lovers.

Though I can't ever see a farmworker drinking wine, I still think the beautiful spices and complex blend of tastes in Saison Dupont make it an absolute legend still to this day. Miller High Life may call itself the champagne of beer, but let me tell you: Saison Dupont steals that title any day.

Smuttynose Wheat Wine

Aside from the brand name, wheat wine is delicious and deserves all the heralding it can get when it can get it; and in spite of the name, Smuttynose makes me even more intrigued. Based out of New Hampshire, Smuttynose Brewing Co. still makes some intriguing blends, but none are as amazing as their 11.9 percent ABV warm wheat beers, which are among the best beer for wine lovers.

Not once, but twice has the Wheat Wine flavor won gold in the Great American Beer Festival. It's got a wholesome mixture of both the fruity tastes inherent in wine, but also brings about the beer lover in you with that strong kick and darker overall tone. For wine lovers, there's that oak tone that's hearty and layers of dried fruits that make it an interesting blend altogether.

Westmalle Tripel

This is one of the most cherished (and probably the very first) Belgian Tripel, which brought an all-too familiar foamy, golden beverage that tastes like a candy sugar Pilsner malt. Westmalle Tripel doesn't taste too sugary, though, as there's a strong ale hint that gives the brand that traditional Belgian taste.

You won't find any other Tripel like it around, and neither does it matter if you like wine or prefer to consider yourself a beer drinker; Westmalle Tripel will always savor your taste buds, if not bring a multiple of surprises in every sip.

Lindemans Framboise

Lindemans has been around since 1822, so if anyone knows Lambic, it would be them, of course. They're also based out of the lovely Vlezenbeek in Belgium, the home of Lambic itself. Add those two facts up, and you get Framboise: a raspberry brewed barley and wheat beverage that's not too soft, nor too strong.

This craft beer is a must-have if you're a wine lover, for it blends barley, wheat, sweet tones, and just a hint of oak that makes a unique mixture that cannot be found anywhere else. Framboise looks like red wine, pouring with a burgundy-pinkish color like no beer I've ever seen before.

Gose Beer

Meet the most interesting and still best tasting alcoholic beverage that tops the list on most beer for wine lovers' lists: Gose beer, pronounced "Goes-uh." It's straight out of Germany and blended with tradition in mind (since, as most historians speculate, the 15th century).

It's been coined an historical oddity among world beers everywhere and is no different when tasted. Gose beer is a lot like trying a new wine in of itself, you almost get carried away with how unique and satisfying it is beyond most other examples of beer for wine lovers.

St Brenardus Abt 12

With, in my opinion, the most hilarious label design, St Brenardus is one of the few among beer for wine lovers that leans more toward the craft beer category more than anything. It's probably the highest ABV percentage at 10, shaming most wines out there and bringing every beer lover a nice smile to their face.

It’s rich and strong, like what you’d expect from a typical hard to find brew, but what many have come to love most about it is the chocolate and bread textures. Every sip is both warm and dark, just as you’d expect a dark malt to be—with an upscale merlot twist.

Gaffel Kölsch

Heiling from Cologne, Germany, Gaffel Kölsch isn't last on this list for it being the least of all favorable, nor is it at all any worse tasting either. Gaffel is, like all great beer for wine lovers, in its own class of craft. Friends of the Sauvignon Blanc will enjoy this one.

Meshing the sweet barley malt taste with wheat and fruit, Gaffel comes out almost on top at being a stand-in for wine, especially when you take into account the fact that it stands at a 4.8 percent ABV count. Like most, it comes with a dry finish that's robust and one of a kind.