There are very few desserts that go so perfectly with beer as crème brûlée, whose rich custard and vanilla base is the perfect stage for citrusy hops to perform on.

Of course to get to it you have to break your way through a delicious mantle of brittle caramel topping. If there’s one sure-fire recipe for success in food and beer pairing it is finding harmonies with toffee flavours. The malt in beer does it brilliantly (whereas wine simply can’t compete).

So what’s the best type of beer to enjoy with crème brûlée? I thought I’d take my inspiration from this handy beer and food matching chart produced by the Brewers Association in the USA.

It suggests a double/imperial IPA will do the trick, I assume because the thick sweet topical fruit flavours can handle the custard and caramel while the edgy hops ensure it doesn’t all get too sweet and sticky.

Unfortunately I didn’t have a double IPA in the house so I picked the closest thing I had  – Modus Hoperandi, a 6.8% US IPA that flirts on the edge of an IPA and its stronger cousin.

Here’s what you need to make approximately 10-12 ramekins of crème brûlée:

12 egg yolks

4 dl cream

6 dl milk (and make sure it’s whole milk – none of that skimmed nonsense)

160 g sugar

2 vanilla pods (it’s not a proper crème brûlée unless you use real vanilla pods, period!)

And here’s what you do:

Heat the oven to 180 degrees.

Pour the cream and milk into a saucepan and heat gently. Split the vanilla pods with a knife and scrape the seeds into the saucepan.

Add the sugar to the egg yolks and lightly whisk. Pour into the cream and milk and vanilla mix and whisk.

Coat the ramekins with melted butter and fill with the mix. Place them carefully in an oven tray and fill it with water until it reaches approximately halfway up the side of the ramekins. Place in the oven for around 40 minutes.

Remove the ramekins and let them cool.

Sprinkle each ramekin with sugar and use a butane torch to caramelise the topping. If you don’t have a torch you can always place them under a grill until the sugar melts.

And there you have it. The perfect beer dessert to enjoy with a big US IPA.

Except it was anything but.

The combined sweetness of the crème brûlée’s fluffy vanilla custard body and crunchy melted sugar topping totally overpowered the sweetness of Modus Hoperandi, leaving it tasting sharp and thin and exposing its boozy bad side.

Oh well. Sometimes you learn just as much about how beer and food combines when something goes wrong as when it goes right.

I’m still a little sceptical about the BA’s advice and so next time I make crème brûlée I’ll try enjoying it with a Scotch ale, a dopplebock or maybe even a barley wine.

What would you choose?