Pairing wine and beer with FunGuy mushrooms follows the same rules as pairing wine with any other food. Sort of.

First, a little rule of thumb: with wines, you are always trying to balance the wine with the flavor of your dish. With beer, you try to contrast the flavors. So if you’re serving a rare New York strip, oozing blood and maybe still uttering a plaintive moo, you’re going to want a strong, bloody red wine to match the power of that strongly flavored steak. But if you toss a bacon and gouda quiche on the table—a dish that’s savory and luxurious—you don’t want a luxurious beer to go with that. You want a beer that cuts through the flavor, a crisp ale.

Mushrooms are earthy vegetables, but they are not like potatoes or carrots, whose flavor profiles tend to match best with white wine. Mushrooms are meat. You’re eating the flesh of a fungi. You want a red wine.

White button mushrooms have a flavor profile somewhere between the fragrant Porcinis or Morels at the steep end of the mushroom flavor chart, and the relatively mild oyster mushrooms, way at the bottom. But even here, we run into the magic of mycology. Mushrooms deliver their flavor differently depending in how you cook them. Raw mushrooms have a delicate flavor and can pair well with a burgundy or a Chianti. Sauté them and you’ve got a whole new flavor, deep, rich, and full. You’ll need a red that will punch you in the nose, like a Pinot Noir or a South African Pinotage.

What the mushrooms are cooked with makes a difference too. If you cook the mushrooms in a Spanish Tortilla, then the velvety egg goodness of the tortilla will determine the overall flavor of the required wine (a glass of Pinot Grigio or a fruity Belgian ale). A mushroom tart is nearly all mushroom, though the crusty tart pulls them away from the brink of true meatiness (a Zifendel blend, like the incomparable Menage a’ Trois; or a high hop ale).

Here is a chart that can help you pair your glasses and your FunGuy mushrooms.

Meatier Mushroom Dishes:

  • Strong Whites—Pinot grigio, an Austrian Grauburgunder, or a Semillon.
  • Strong Reds—Pinot Noir, Pinotage, Zinfendel, or a Chilean Malbec.
  • Beer—strong, hop flavored ales and IPAs, Belgian Wheat ales. Our favorite? Samuel Adams Nobile Pils

Lighter Mushroom Dishes:

  • Light whites—Chardonnay, a nice Riesling.
  • Lighter reds—Bergundy, Chianti, perhaps a sparkling pinot.
  • Beer—Porters and Stouts.

Of course, not simple chart can cover the spectrum of flavors a competent cook can coax out of FunGuy mushrooms. Start with the list we’ve given you and develop your own. Mix in different whites and reds until you become the sommelier andsavant of your kitchen. Cheers!

Photo from lindsey gee