Sometimes I feel sorry for dessert.

Restaurants and home cooks go to great lengths to come up with thoughtful beverage pairings for appetizers and entrees. But when it's time for dessert, our drink options are often limited to a short list of digestifs or coffee.

I don't know about you, but I think dessert deserves to be paired with something better than a shot of scotch, a pour of port or a cup of cappuccino.

Bring on the beer.

In what will be a semiregular installment of beer-and-food pairings in Hip Hops, here are some — broken down by beer style — designed to make your dessert more delectable.

Stouts and porters

With their deeply roasted malts and dark heft, stouts and porters are no-brainers to pair alongside chocolate desserts. I picked four with a range of flavor profiles to complement more than a simple slice of cake.

• Boulevard Dark Truth Stout: A new release from the Kansas City brewery's Smokestack Series, Dark Truth is a richly layered beer. Its ingredient list includes oats, wheat, rye, German hops and Belgian yeast, which present themselves in aromas of bread, spice, smoke and coffee. It is exceptional with dark chocolate.

• Southern Tier Choklat: This imperial stout tastes like a melted chocolate bar funneled into a beer bottle and dusted with cocoa powder. Sip this while eating something that goes well with chocolate but won't get lost in its sweetness — flavors like orange, mint and raspberry come to mind.

• Left Hand Imperial Stout: At a recent beer dinner at Dressel's Pub, I had low expectations for the dessert course, an ice cream float with this sinewy stout. Why? Because pouring stout over ice cream, while delicious (try it), isn't very creative. But chef Joe Hemp took the bold step of serving the float with some blue cheese crumbles on an accompanying plate. The cheese's sharp bite provided the perfect counter to the beer's dark-fruit sweetness.

• Maui Coconut Porter: I'm one of those people who does not care for the flavor of coconut, but in this beer, it works. Paired with German chocolate cake or coconut cream pie, this porter from Hawaii promises to deliver a tropical smile. It's worth the effort to seek out via trade or online.

Hefeweizens

Dark beers aren't the only ones that make memorable dessert pairings. I love the aromas of banana and bubblegum that come from the German yeast used in traditional hefeweizens ("hefe" is German for "yeast"; "weizen" means "wheat"). They're refreshing summertime beers, but that doesn't mean they don't play well with desserts.

• Hill Brewing Co. Hefeweizen: This version from Ferguson's new brewpub is big on banana and would really sing if coupled with bananas foster or a banana custard pie.

• Schlafly Raspberry Hefeweizen: This low-alcohol brew lets its raspberry and wheat flavors shine more than its yeast characteristics. On a hot summer night, you can do a lot worse than a cold one of these and a bowl of fresh fruit.

Lambics and sour beers

For anyone who's ever loved the super tartness of Sour Patch Kids or the bitter tang of rhubarb, do yourself a favor and start enjoying sour beers like these after dinner.

• Cantillon Kriek: Funky Belgian lambics fermented with cherries are known as krieks, and this one is a standout. Whole cherries are left to ferment in the beer for up to five months — long enough for even the pits to break down and dissolve. This bracing brew is perfectly harmonious with cherry or rhubarb pie or a flourless chocolate cake.

• New Belgium La Folie: A wood-aged, sour brown ale from New Belgium's Lips of Faith specialty series, La Folie has a green-apple tartness that begs to be paired with tarte tatin and caramel sauce.

Evan's Pick: Boulevard Dark Truth Stout

Lowdown • Dark fruit, bready malts and smooth coffee linger in this new Smokestack Series release that is 9.7 percent alcohol by volume.

Price • About $9 per 750-ml bottle.

Where to find it • The Wine and Cheese Place, 7435 Forsyth Boulevard, Clayton.