Looking for a soup with a little bit of personality and a whole lot of yum?! This beer cheese soup is definitely up to the challenge! Loaded with hearty vegetables, a generous amount of sharp cheddar cheese, and your favorite beer - I mean, what more could you want on a cold winter’s day?!
This cheese beer soup recipe is thickened with a milky roux and then topped off with rich and meaty diced sausage and sauerkraut.
Get those soup bowls ready because this cheddar and beer soup is going to have your family and friends lining up for it in no time!
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❤️ Why you'll love this recipe
- Since this soup stores so well in the refrigerator and freezer, it’s a great option to make ahead for those chilly winter days when life gets too busy to make a meal from scratch!
- Beer cheese soup is, in my opinion, an unashamed celebration of the love for cheese! This recipe certainly isn’t shy when it comes packing in those cheesy quantities which is what makes it so addictive.
- It’s the perfect pub-like soup to serve the family or friends when rallying around your favorite sports team from the comfort of your home.
You can really have a ton of fun experimenting with your favorite beers in this cheesy beer soup and even create a beer theme by serving your beer cheese soup with beer bread or cheesy bread!
🛒 Ingredients
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Note: The full list of this Beer Cheese Soup recipe ingredients with their amounts and options are listed in the recipe card below.
- Low-sodium chicken broth
- Dark beer
- Yellow onion
- Celery
- Carrot
- Worcestershire sauce
- Tabasco sauce
- Paprika
- Dry Mustard
- Unsalted butter
- All-purpose flour
- Skim milk
- Sharp Cheddar Cheese
- Smoked precooked kielbasa - may use Polish sausage
- Sauerkraut
- Fresh Italian parsley
🗒 Instructions
Note: This is an overview of the instructions. The full instructions are in the recipe card below.
- In a large Dutch oven or stock pot, combine liquids, vegetables, and seasonings.
- Simmer over medium-high heat for 10 minutes to extract the vegetables' favors. Don't cook them until they turn mushy--it's nice having some texture in a cheese soup.
- Make roux in a saucepan by melting butter over medium-low heat, then stirring in flour.
- Cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
- Whisk in warm milk.
- Stir and gently simmer for another minute to eliminate any "floury"flavor.
- Increase heat under stock and bring to a boil. Add roux-thickened milk to the stock and whisk vigorously to prevent lumping and scorching.
- Bring the soup to a simmer, then turn off the heat and add the cheese all at once.
- Again, whisk vigorously until the soup is creamy and smooth.
- To serve, ladle into bowls once the sausage garnish is ready to be added.
- Sauté sausage in a dry skillet over medium-high heat until brown.
- Add the sauerkraut and cook until the juices evaporate (about 4-5 minutes). You are now ready to stir in some parsley and garnish each bowl of beer cheese soup!
🔪 Equipment
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You’ll need the following items to make this recipe successfully.
- Dutch oven or soup pot
- Medium-size skillet
- Whisk
- Tongs
- Liquid measuring cup
- Dry measuring cup
- Measuring spoons
- Vegetable/Cheese grater
- Non-skid cutting board
- Sharp knife
🤔 FAQs
These are the questions we are most frequently asked about making Cheddar Ale Soup recipe.
Beer cheese soup is pretty much exactly how it sounds - it’s a soup with two hero ingredients: beer and cheese! It’s thickened with a milky roux and loaded with hearty vegetables and seasoning for a mouth-watering experience.
Yes! That being said, most of the alcohol in the beer is burnt away from the heat of cooking so there’s definitely no way that you’ll ever get a ‘buzz’ from the amount of beer added to this cheesy beer soup.
It’s completely up to you which brand and make of beer you add to this cheese beer soup recipe. I recommend adding your favorite drinking beer. Just keep in mind that richer flavored beers will create more intense flavors in the soup so you may want to start by using a light beer the first time you make this soup.
If the soup has curdled, it’s most likely that you didn’t whisk the milky roux into the heated stock vigorously enough which would lead to lumping and curdling. As soon as the roux and stock have combined, it’s important to keep the soup on a lower heat to simmer. Having the soup on high heat all the way through could also contribute to curdling.
👩🏻🍳 Tips
- It’s always best to use cheese from a block instead of pre-shredded cheese. It melts and tastes better than pre-shredded cheese.
- If you want to get fancy with serving this beery cheese soup, consider garnishing each bowl with fresh herbs (either parsley or thyme), a swirl of mustard oil, and a dollop of sour cream or goat cheese!
- You can blend this soup for a smoother consistency but then you may need to blend/puree it in batches (making sure to cover the lid with a paper towel or cloth to prevent overflow) until very smooth.
- If you’ve never made beer soup, it may be best to start with a milder beer since the beer flavor naturally intensifies as the soup cooks. If you choose a rich beer, it could be more bitter than what you expected.
📚 Variations
- For a vegetarian version, simply omit the chicken broth and sausage and use a vegetable broth instead. Increasing the butter in the soup can help to compensate for the lack of fatty sausage but isn’t necessary.
- While I love some texture in this soup from not cooking the vegetables till mushy, if you do have vegetable haters in the family then you may want to blend the vegetables using a stick blender which will create a smoother consistency.
- For a totally alcohol-free beer cheese soup, simply use a non-alcoholic beer instead.
- While I’ve only used sharp cheddar cheese in this recipe, feel free to add a mix of 2-3 different cheeses.
🥫 Storage
Store this beer cheddar soup in the refrigerator for up to 4-5 days. Reheat on low-medium heat till warmed throughout.
You could also freeze this cheddar and beer soup for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before reheating.
📗 Related Recipes
There’s never a better time to enjoy comforting and hearty soups than during the winter months. If you’re a fan of soup then you won’t want to miss trying my Copycat Outback Potato Soup, Roasted Butternut Squash Bisque with Bacon Bits, or Buffalo Chicken Soup - they’re good for the soul and make you forget the chill in the air!
Sticking to the cheese theme of my cheddar ale soup, I’m instantly craving a bite of this Impressive Cheese and Caramelized Onion Bread, Herb Cheese Stuffed Italian Bread, or even these Cheese-Stuffed Crusty Paninis!
🍽 Serve with
You’ll never go wrong serving any soup with Easy Homemade Soft Breadsticks. If you can find bread bowls in your local bakery or grocery store then consider serving this beer cheese soup in those - what fun!
And how about serving our Nana's Irish Soda Bread recipe with this Ale Cheddar Soup. Both would be perfect on St. Patrick's Day.
Since this cheese beer soup recipe is already quite decadent, you may prefer enjoying a light salad as a side dish.
📞 Chiacchierata (chat)
There are thousands of cheese soups out there so what makes this soup any different?! Well, I can tell you from having a couple of servings of this cheesy beer soup already that the addition of beer creates a depth of flavor that you just can’t beat.
I had a lot of fun testing different beers out for this soup as well as taking requests from the avid beer drinkers in my close circle. It just never disappoints!
What's new? Check out my All Our Way Store on Amazon. We'll be adding more items we love and use or wish we had to make cooking fun and easy.
📝 Recipe Card
This creamy and thick soup is decadently cheesy with a rich beer flavor and hearty vegetables.
Topping it off with diced sausage and sauerkraut makes this beer cheese soup even more of a delicacy - you’re guaranteed to love this cheese beer soup recipe, even if you aren’t big on soup!
If you love this recipe please give it 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.
📖 Recipe
Beer Cheese Soup
Equipment Needed
Ingredients
- 3 cups Low-sodium chicken broth
- 1 cup Dark beer
- ½ cup Yellow onion minced
- ½ cup Celery minced
- ½ cup Carrot peeled, grated
- 2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon Tabasco
- 1 teaspoon Paprika
- 1 teaspoon Dry mustard
- 6 Tablespoons Unsalted butter
- ½ cup All-purpose flour
- 2 cups Skim milk warmed
- Roux-thickened milk, above
- 1 lb. Sharp Cheddar cheese grated
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 2 cups Precooked smoked kielbasa or Polish sausage diced
- 2 cups Sauerkraut drained
- ¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
Instructions
- In a large Dutch oven or stock pot, combine liquids, vegetables, and seasonings.
- Simmer over medium-high heat 10 minutes to extract vegetables' favors. Don't cook them until they turn mushy--it's nice having some texture in a cheese soup.
- Make roux in a saucepan by melting butter over medium-low heat, then stirring in flour.
- Cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly, then whisk in warm milk. Stir and gently simmer another minute to eliminate any "floury"flavor.
- Increase heat under stock and bring to a boil. Add roux-thickened milk to the stock and whisk vigoursly to prevent lumping and scorching. The stock will be dark, but will continue to get lighter when the cheese is added.
- Bring the soup to a simmer, then turn off the heat and add the cheese all at once. Again, whisk vigorously until the soup is creamy and smooth.
- To serve, ladle into bowls and top with sausage garnish.
Sausage Garnish
- Sauté sausage in a dry skillet over medium-high heat until brown. Add sauerkraut; cook until juices evaporate 4-5 minutes.
- Remove from heat, cover, and keep warm.
- Stir in parsley just before serving.
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