Kentucky has claimed beer cheese as its own creation, dating back to the 1940s, but bars, pubs and restaurants today use it as a dip, soup or incorporated into premium mac ’n’ cheese dishes, using all variations of cheese and beer.

Beer cheese has grown on menus as diners gravitated to comfort foods during the pandemic, and on the heels of the craft beer boom in recent years.

The endlessly customizable dip feels like a splurge, but also can travel relatively well, which makes it ripe to expand on menus as more choose to order restaurant foods from the comfort of the couch.

Market research firm Datassential reports that 42% of the population knows it, while 24% have tried it.

Click through the gallery to learn more about this Flavor of the Week and see how one restaurant is using beer cheese on its menu.