Best Instant Pot Beer Cheese Soup

Instant Pot beer cheese soup is a great German meal that’s sure to be a hit in your house too. Served with pretzel rolls, it’s our favorite.

Ninja Foodi Beer Cheese Soup

Yes I have made and shared a ton of Instant Pot soup recipes here on The Typical Mom blog. Some are healthy and others are just pure comfort food (don’t count the calories, just enjoy it). This is one of those. Grab some pretzel rolls and just dig in y’all.

You can make this in any electric pressure cooker you have including a Crockpot Express or Ninja Foodi works well too. If you wanted to make this on the stovetop you could follow our broccoli beer cheese soup instead.

Beer Cheese Soup with Ground Beef

You could cook any type of protein you wanted to add into this but sausage is my choice. Milder would be beef whereas lower in fat would use ground turkey or chicken (that has less flavor though). This is what you’re going to need to make this ultra comfort food:

1. Spicy ground sausage – I use Jimmy Dean, yes you could omit but OH MY is this a great addition. Ground beef works too
2. Olive oil
3. Diced onion
4. Garlic
5. Beer
6. Lots of cheese
7. Dijon mustard – add more or less at the end to your liking, I like more than my hubby
8. Milk
9. Half and half
10. Green onions can be sprinkled on the top

Then for a thickener at the end you can make a sort of roux by mixing cornstarch or flour with a bit of liquid. Take note though that the longer it sits the thicker it will become. Leftovers will likely need more broth stirred in before warming.

Beer Cheese Soup Instant Pot

As far as what beer to use, I light a lighter version. For more of a German soup you may want a darker style. Believe me, even with this lighter version you can definitely taste it. Here are a few questions you might have before you get started:

Since there’s not really any pressure cooking going on to cook this, you could easily make it on the stovetop too. You’re only using the saute function to brown the meat, warm ingredients and thicken at the end.

Broccoli Beer Cheese Soup Instant Pot

You could add small frozen broccoli florets in there too. An option. Not all people want meat in it either. If you’d rather have a vegetarian version you can definitely leave the sausage out. I love the spicy nature of the Jimmy Dean style I buy and think it adds a lot of flavor.

Of course always remember when you saute meat that you should deglaze at the end. That means to scrape off the pieces stuck to the bottom of the pot. If not you may trigger the burn notice.

And the amount of shredded cheese will vary quite a bit depending on your taste buds, we like a lot. Sharp cheddar is what we like but you could use a mild cheddar cheese too.

Pressure Cooker Beer Cheese Soup

You should adjust the amount of mustard you add as well. I like a lot more and stronger flavor than my husband. Dijon is best. Some have used mustard powder in their recipes but I just don’t think that’s the same. There is no high pressure timing required for this. Here’s a quick rundown, you can print recipe below

1. Set pot to saute and add olive oil, ground sausage and diced onions. Brown until sausage is no longer pink and onions have softened.
2. Add garlic and cook 1 more minute together. Turn pot off now.
3. Pour some of your beer into the pot.
4. Use wood spatula to deglaze and scrape any stuck on meat off bottom of the pot.
5. Pour in rest of beer. Set to saute again.
6. When it bubbles add mustard and gradually add shredded cheese. Stir until it is melted.
7. In a bowl whisk together milk and flour until smooth. Wait until it bubbles again, then add flour/milk mixture. Stir so it doesn’t clump up in soup.
8. Then add half and half and stir. Allow to bubble. If you like it this texture turn pot off and serve. If you want it thicker add some of your hot liquid from pot into a bowl with cornstarch.
9. Whisk until smooth and add that back in. Allow to bubble and thicken and serve.

It doesn’t take long to make this at all. Serve as a light lunch, appetizer or dinner served with pull apart bread.

That’s right, you don’t even have to secure the lid or use the pressure cooker function for this. I just used saute to meld all the flavors together and thicken at the end.

What goes well with beer cheese?

I think you really only need some bread in air fryer with this to make it a complete meal everyone will love. The most popular is this 3 ingredient beer bread of course!

Whether you choose air fryer garlic bread, simple dinner rolls or just throw some refrigerated biscuits in the oven. They all work well for a quick meal.

Does beer cheese need to be refrigerated?

Once it has cooled down to room temperature you should store in airtight containers and store in the fridge. Then reheat in a microwave safe bowl in 30 second intervals stirring in between cook times. This is how to freeze soup if you need to save it longer too.

We have also made beer cheese dip that is fantastic and always a hit with a crowd. Store this covered with plastic wrap covering the top entirely so it doesn’t dry out exposed to the air when cooled down.