Complement, contrast or both

For this year’s Thanksgiving Day meal, West Virginia craft beer fans will want to pair that meal with a delicious beer or two from a West Virginia brewery.

Whether your preferences run to lighter-styles or to more richly-tasting beers, WV brewers have something for you.

Thanksgiving Pairing Guide

Lighter tasting beer styles work well by contrasting with the richness of foods on the typical roast turkey feast table. The beer’s carbonation also clears and cleans the palate, making it ready for the next bite. (Blonde Ale, Pale Lager, Kölsch, Wheat Beer)

Richer, more flavorful beer styles complement the herbal-vegetal intensity and umami of the feast table and its components. They hold up to the overall high flavor impact of turkey dark meat, dressing, giblet gravy, roasted root vegetables, green bean casserole, and even pumpkin pie. (Saison, Märzen, Malty Browns/Reds/Ambers, Porter)

Either way, it’s hard to go wrong. Ideally, offer beers of two diverse styles and allow your dinner guests to sample each with their dinner plates. Beyond our suggestions, there are surely other beer styles that might ring your taste buds. Let you palate be your guide.

Check these resourses

Here are three links from BrilliantStream’s archives that will give you helpful ideas on pairing beers you will enjoy with your traditional Thanksgiving meal.

2022 – THANKSGIVING BEER-FOOD PAIRINGS YOU’LL WANT TO TRY

2020 – THANKSGIVING BEERS AND WISHES (Podcast)

2015 – THANKSGIVING DINNER AND WV CRAFT BEER

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WV beer pairs we’d like on our 2025 Thanksgiving dinner table

(from brewers with at least some distribution)

Logger Lager and Porter from Big Timber Brewing

Carillon Blonde and To the Place I Belong Farmhouse Ale from Weathered Ground Brewery

Argonaut Lager and My Friends Call Me Red from Short Story Brewing

Confluence Kölsch and Cell Block 304 Brown from Parkersburg Brewing

Stump Kölsch and Lefty Lucy Amber Ale from Stumptown Ales

Runaway Beer Truck Light Lager and Dark Knight Dark Lager from Berkeley Springs Brewing

Mr. Whiskers Lager and Corduroy Brown Ale from Köerber Beer Co.

Appalachian Bandido Lager and Boogercat Brown from The Peddler

Braxxie Blonde and 36 Parks Pale Ale from Greenbrier Valley Brewing

Charleston Beer Golden Ale and P-51 Porter from Fife Street Brewing