We love to to pair beers with cheese, breakfast, music and even philosophy. Basically, we take beer and something else we love and muse about the perfect partnership. But what about pairing it with something we used to love, er, make that someone – wherein the partnership has ended?

Whether you’re married, dating, single or divorced, much like your past is littered with dead soldiers, no doubt all the trials and tribulations – the Chutes and Ladders of your life – entail some ex-lovers. As the dutiful beer lover you are, you’re always looking for The Perfect Pint. Whether or not that parallels your search for – or discovery of – a permanent Significant Other varies person to person. Hopefully you’re not rating all of the latter like you do on RateBeer or in your 33 Beers journal.

While we’re all at different stages in our love lives and beer journeys, we each have that magical ex like a storied first experience with beer. (Unless you married your high school sweetheart and still only drink Sierra Nevada Pale Ale by the caseload). Maybe you can’t stop thinking about that amazing summer in Michigan drinking Bell’s Oberon with your lover by the lake. Perhaps there was an insignificant other: A one-night-stand as ephemeral as that peanut butter porter you sampled at a beer fest that you’ll never find again. It’s okay to recall exes as fondly as you do beers from a defunct brewpub or a trip to Bruges which you’ll never taste again (especially if you experienced them together).

Do memories conjure up a desire for a sweet stout or bitter pale ale? Does it make you think of a beer with a great body? Or one that’s pleasantly complex?