Recently I had an opportunity to do a tasting with 3 beers and some Brie, I wanted to do a comparison and see how I thought they matched up.
The Brie was nothing exceptional or unusual, the kind you can get at any Grocery store.
It was warmed and served with a Baguette which turned out to be a bit on the tough side.
The beers were all basic Pale Ales.

Hoptical Illusion a Canadian version of a Pale Ale, Liberty Ale, an American version of a Pale Ale, and Duchy Originals Pale Ale, a British version which I think is fairly close to the early Pale Ales.

So, let's start with the one I liked best and work our way down.

The Duchy Originals has an earthiness which seemed to blend nicely with the Brie, it's lighter hopes seemed to enhance the flavour of the cheese rather than compete with it and they seemed to finish off the taste, cleanse your palate and get me ready for another bite and sip.

The Hoptical Illusion, in this case I found that the cheese seemed to enhance the beer, rather than the other way around. The Amarillo hops seemed to add to the earthiness of the cheese but their citrus character might have been a bit too much for the Brie.

The Liberty Ale has a much more bitter hop profile with less citrus and tending more toward the orange peel than the lemon taste. I thought the bitterness was too much for the cheese.

From these tests I think that I would prefer Brie with a beer that has a more earthy hop profile and I want to try a few more Ales.
I'll keep on experimenting, I'm no expert at this but it is sure fun learning about what beer and cheese combinations work and trying to figure out why.

The wife and I spent a week at a cottage with my oldest daughter and her husband and children. The son in law likes beer but not really if you know what I mean. My daughter doesn't particularly like beer at all. I came up wth the idea that if I got some really nice cheese and some really nice craft beers we could do a tasting and see if we, (the wife and I), couldn't get them to see the light through the glass so to speak. I bought a sample pack of Mill Street beers. Here are the results.

Starting with the Mill Street Organic:

Devoid: Chevrai unripened Goat cheese is well complimented by the beer.
Smoked gouda doesn't work at all. It overpowers the beer.
Cranberry and cinnamon goat cheese is a match made in heaven. I wanted it all to myself.

Beerbabe: Unripened goat cheese and this beer are a good match.
Smoked gouda doesn't work at all.
Cranberry cinnamon is a very good match. The sweetness of the cheese cuts the hops in the beer beautifully.

Pamelah: Goat cheese and the beer: Yummy!
Cranbeery cinnamon goat cheese and beer: Yummy!
Smoked gouda and beer: Not yummy.

Dirtypoolwater: Unripened goat cheese and beer: Good.
Smoked gouda and beer: Bad.
Cranberry cinnamon and beer: Good.

Mill Street Coffee Porter:

Devoid: Smoked gouda and this porter compliment each other very nicely.
Asiago cheese brings out the coffee flavors very nicely.
Unripened goat cheese is a definite no no. The flavors fight.
Aged blue cheese is by far the best with this.

Beerbabe: Smoked gouda is not bad. It neutraizes the flavor of the beer. (Devoid: WHAT!!!).
Smoked jarlsberg is not a good combination.
Blue cheese is the best. Asiago is a nice combination. Cinnamon cranberry is not bad.

Pamelah: The darkness scares me. I don't like this beer.
Smoked gouda is good but the beer is bad. The cheese makes the horrible beer taste less horrible.
Asiago is a good cheese - Who wants the rest of my beer.

Dirtypoolwater: Don't like this beer and none of the cheese's go good with it.

I have tried 3 different smoked beer with smoked Gouda and all three went really well together.
The Schlenkerla Marzen was almost too overpowering for the cheese at first but I found that the cheese actually seemed to "mellow" the beer a bit and make the pairing better than either on it's own.
I had a "Holy Smoke" from Churchkey brewing with the smoked Gouda as well, it seemed to match up even better, the two seemed to work off each other and compliment each other very well.
Any time I have some smoked beer around I am going to make sure I have some smoked Gouda to go with it.

Peroni Nastro Azzurro and asigao cheese are not quite a match made in heaven but darn close. This Italian beer did not impress me at all but when I had my second bottle with the cheese and plain thin vegetable crackers topped with Beerbabes home made pepper jelly it tasted just fine. It's amazing what good eats will do to the flavor of beer.