Pub Cheese Dip is a fun and flavorful dip to serve as an appetizer or starter at a party! Sharp cheddar cheese, cream cheese, spices, horseradish, bacon, scallions, and beer make up this mouth watering pub cheese recipe!
Serve with pretzels or other dippers for a fabulous game day spread!
Beer Cheese Dip is an easy, spreadable, zesty pub cheese great for serving with soft pretzels, crackers, carrots, celery sticks or chips!
Beer Cheese Dip! One of my favorite things about going to a pub or brewery is the pub cheese. I like the dip itself, but I also LOVE the soft pretzels. Soft pretzels are my weakness.
Make sure you PIN Easy Pub Cheese for your next party!
If you’ve been to the gourmet cheese section at your grocery store, I’m sure you’ve seen tubs of overpriced pub cheese.
Usually flavored with beer or wine, the whole concept of cheese spread was developed in England by pubs that didn’t serve whole meals, but wanted something extra with their pretzels and chips that was cheap and easy.
Fact: Some say it was discovered in Irish pubs… but who knows…
What is pub cheese?
The origins of pub cheese make it laughable that it is now considered gourmet and so darn expensive. Pub cheese gets most of its flavor from the alcohol and cheese selections, so choose wisely.
Beer cheese dip became even more popular after Brittany and Jax of Vanderpump Rules decided they wanted to start their own beer cheese company. I saw a huge spike in Google searches after those episodes aired!
Little fact about me…. I am a total Andy Cohen, Bravo super fan. Since I work from home, I keep it on in the background and refer to the characters as my “friends”. They basically replace any workplace colleagues and water cooler talk I miss from being in an office and around adults.
Although I usually prefer to sip on a light beer, I use something with more body and flavor for cooking.
PRO TIP: If you are serving to children or pregnant woman, you can simmer the beer prior to adding to burn off alcohol or just substitute with water. Allow to cool before combining into mixture.
If you prefer to not use alcohol at all, you can substitute water, but be mindful this will directly impact the flavor, so you may want to add more horseradish or other spices.
Although cheddar is the standard for pub style beer cheese dip, you can also change the flavor by using a different type of cheese, even flavored cheese like a horseradish cheddar or another artisan blend.
Serve your Pub Cheese Dip with hard pretzels, soft pretzel bites, chips, crackers, celery or carrot sticks or with a fresh baguette. You can even make things a little fancier by serving in ramekins for individual appetizers.
If you liked this beer cheese pretzel dip, check out these other easy party dip recipes:
- Dunkaroo Dip
- Blooming Onion Dip
- Pizza Dipping Sauce
- How to Make Mexican Queso
- Olive Oil Dipping Sauce for Bread
- 7 Layer Dip
- Hibachi Dipping Sauces
- Maryland Crab Dip Recipe
- Versatile Mustard Dip
Caramelized Onion Dip Recipe
Creamy Spinach and Artichoke Dip
Hot Caprese Dip
Tools for making Pub Cheese Dip:
Ramekins– I like giving folks their own individual sauce cups. Then you don’t have to worry about double dipping!
Ramekins are also great for ingredient preparation and baking mini soufflés.
Mini Food Processor– I use this thing daily! It is by far my most used kitchen appliance, it is small and I throw all the parts into the dishwasher, well except the base and cord, of course!
Questions you might about about how to make homemade pub cheese:
My dip came out watery, not thick, why?
I get this question A LOT, but I also get plenty of folks who have successfully made the dip as pictured. My recommendations are:
- Pulse the mixture, don’t pulverize it
- Make sure you aren’t adding too much beer (use a measuring cup!)
- Drain your horseradish so it isn’t soupy
- Use a full fat cream cheese with some body and thickness.
Can I freeze beer cheese?
I suppose you can, but I don’t typically like cream cheese bases when they thaw. They tend to get a little watery and the flavors muted.
Can I make pub cheese ahead of time?
Sure! Make it up to a day in advance, just make sure to stir before serving.
How long does pub cheese last?
Since this beer cheese recipe doesn’t have any additives or preservatives, it won’t last as long as the store bought versions. If kept refrigerated, it will keep for about 5 days. But I doubt it will last that long because it is so good!
Pub Cheese tastes great with everything from pretzels to potato chips. Also use leftovers to spread on a sandwich or make a killer grilled cheese!
Beer Cheese Dip Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups sharp cheddar cheese , shredded
- 8 ounces cream cheese , softened
- 1/2 cup beer , optional
- 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1-3 tablespoon(s) prepared horseradish* , drained and dry
- 1 tablespoon fresh parsley , minced
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- bacon , cooked and crumbled, for garnish
- scallions , chopped, for garnish
Instructions
- Place sharp cheddar, cream cheese, beer, dry mustard, cayenne, horseradish, parsley and sea salt into a food processor and pulse until blended. Mixture may have some small lumps.
- Refrigerate for 20-30 minutes before serving.
- Garnish with crumbled bacon and scallions.
- If you’ve tried this recipe, come and let us know how it was!
After reading through all the comments, I decided to take a slow approach…first putting about 2 tablespoons of horseradish into a small fine mesh strainer and pressing out any extra liquid with the back of a spoon. Then added that and the rest of the ingredients to my food processor – but only used 1/4 cup of a favorite dark beer. Like your instructions said…pulse only – everything incorporated very nicely and with just the right consistency – definitely not runny as some mentioned. At the end I added my chopped chives and fresh parsley (straight from the garden!) and after spooning everything into a bowl, topped off with the crumbled bacon and fresh green onions. Your recipe is spot on!
Thanks so much for following the instructions (wink, wink) and glad you enjoyed it! Most of all that you took the time to come back and let us know. <3
I put everything except the bacon and scallions in the food processor as directed. It became very smooth and not thick as the photo shows in the recipe. Also, the photo shows pieces of cheese and parsley, however mine came out very puréed and those ingredients aren’t very visible. I wonder If the cheddar and parsley were added in AFTER the processing it would have turned out more like the recipe picture.
Hi D. Watson! Did you turn on the food processor or did you pulse it? I can assure you that I followed these directions exactly to make the bowl you see here. I do know that people have had different outcomes based on how much beer they added and how watery the horseradish was. Did you refrigerate it before serving? It needs to firm back up a bit too.
I made my recipe with beer and no parsley as I didn’t have any parsley. The texture is runny and not firm and fluffy like the photo. Also, I only used 2T of horseradish and that is the most prominent flavor. I’m hoping it tastes better when I eat it with the pretzels. Don’t know if I will make it again.
I’m sorry to hear that 🙁
This came out perfect for me. I halved the recipe (regrettably after I tasted it). If anything it was a little thicker than I was hoping for as I was going to serve it with some fresh baked, soft bread. I thinned it with more beer (hooray beer!) until the consistency was what I was looking for. I love horseradish, so I used quite a bit and it’s got a delicious punch! Great recipe. Thanks for sharing!
Hi Quincy! Thanks for stopping by to let us know and I am SO glad you loved it. I agree, HOORAY BEER!
Good flavor, but ended up like cold soup!
Not a spread consistency.
I followed the recipe correctly and was so dumbfounded as to why it didn’t turn out thick and creamy.
Way less beer might have helped.
Cooking it did seem to help thicken it and it was yummy warm.
Never will use this recipe again though.
I’m sorry to hear this recipe didn’t work out for you. I make it quite frequently and have never had any issues. Maybe the cheese you used with a high moisture?
Can you forgo the beer altogether? What would be a substitute?
Hi Mary! I’d just use water or even white wine, white cooking wine….
Hi Mary! I’d just use water or even white wine, white cooking wine….
Followed this recipe to a T and it turned out incredible! I was skeptical about the amount of beer used as I didn’t want the dip to be runny, but it wasn’t a problem after all! Very creamy and flavorful on crackers. Definitely give this recipe a try if you own a food processer!
Looks so easy and delicious for any party! Nettie
Mmm mustard and cream cheese. What a treat 🙂