It started with a question: “Would anyone be interested in finding six beers to pair with Taco Bell favorites?”

My answer: Live Mas!

Now, normally my T-Bell eating is done after a night of beers, not as part of the very professional and high-class pairing you will see below. But, who am I kidding? I’d eat Taco Bell any day, any time.

So we bring you the best six beers to pair with six delicious Taco Bell treats.

 Yacht Party American Lager | Charles Town Fermentory

Paired with Nachos

No order from Taco Bell is complete without at least one item incorrect, so when I ordered the Nachos Bel Grande, I of course received just a plain 0.99c nachos. BUT DO YOU SEE THAT CHEESE, THO? I’ll take it (I do have five more items to eat after all). You’ve gotta start light, and this American lager from Charles Towne Fermentory does the trick. It comes in at only 4.2% ABV and is full-bodied with a little bit of lemongrass on the taste. This is a touch heavier than most lagers, which is helpful to cut through the nacho cheese.

CHS Fermentory is starting to get some accolades and remains one of the few craft breweries in Charleston, South Carolina. The Yacht Party is a great addition to your next boating or nacho adventure.

Slice | Crooked Run Brewery

Paired with Cheese Quesadilla

Is the quesadilla an appetizer or a meal? Really your choice, but I went with it second. Mostly so I could try Slice from Leesburg, Virginia’s Crooked Run. Crooked Run is an outstanding brewery, but sometimes their beer is hit or miss. Slice is a hit. This American IPA has strong hints of its eponymous citrus moniker, mostly orange. It is a bitter beer, not a light-drinker, so it drowns out the bland quesadilla with a full face-smash of Citra hops.

Everything Floats on Key Lime | Vasen Brewing

Paired with Soft Taco

The soft taco is such an underrated menu item — cheap, tasty, fulfilling. It pairs enormously well with the Everything Floats on Key Lime from the equally underrated Vasen Brewing. Vasen does an “Everything Floats” sour series with different fruits, this obviously being the tart, key lime version.

The taco paired perfectly with the lime in this beer. I imagined being at a Mexican cantina, squeezing fresh lime juice onto a fresh taco. Alas, I’m at my house Thinking Outside the Bun instead, but the concept is the same. Be careful, however, as this light, Citra-hopped sour packs a 7.5% ABV punch.

Taco Bat | Kings County Brewers Collective

Paired with Doritos Locos Taco

This was the most obvious pairing, and not just because Taco is in the name of the beer and Doritos Locos Tacos are insane. The DLT is overwhelming in flavor, with Doritos and sauce and beef and sour cream and God-knows-what-else, so it needed a powerful beer to hold the line.

The Taco Bat, a fruited, double-dry hopped, double IPA with pineapple, peach and lemon zest, done on Citra, Mosaic and Ekuanot hops, is the exact right beer to keep pace. It’s a beautiful beer from KCBC. Oh, and they produced it as a collaboration with Interboro Spirits & Ale, so put more points on the board.

YeeeHaaw NEIPA | Clown Shoes

Paired with 7-Layer Burrito

The 7-Layer Burrito. Food of the gods. So many things inside one beautiful roll of a medium flour tortilla. In this case, I went for the craziest can art I could find to go with the craziest burrito on the menu. It ended up being a good choice.

Clown Shoes Brewing is always a lot of fun, and the YeeeHaw New England IPA falls perfectly in their selection of heavily-hopped IPAs. While this really isn’t a typical hazy/juicy IPA and the hops show through a bit too much here, it’s actually a really good traditional version. It’s medium-bodied, piney, and delicious.

Pasty Dreams | Captain Lawrence

Paired with Cinnabon Delights.

I’ve been to Taco Bell probably 100 times (and still alive!) and somehow have never had these amazing Cinnabon treats. I will never make that mistake again.

The Pasty Dreams from Captain Lawrence is a smooth-drinking Milk Stout brewed on chocolate and coconut. The beer is just as sweet as the Cinnabon balls, so prepare for a sugar rush. Hopefully that will help combat the 8.5% ABV this beer hides under all that sweetness.

Author’s Word of Caution: I don’t recommend attempting all six Taco Bell items in one sitting unless you have a stomach of steel. 

Featured Photo Courtesy of Taco Bell

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