Cooking with beer - Winning Beers

We all love to drink beer, but did you know you can also eat beer? Well, kind of…beer has been an ingredient in various foods for at least hundreds of years and can add great flavour to your next meal. In this article we’ll look at making food using beer – including a few great recipes you can try at home!

The flavour of beer

Beer is a surprisingly versatile ingredient. Each style and brand of beer in cooking will bring something different to the recipe.

For fried foods you can use a cold lager to add lightness to a batter without imparting too much hop flavour. This is a particularly popular way to fry fish but can also be used for shrimp, squid, chips (french fries) and just about any other fried food you can imagine.

For grilled meats on the BBQ a quick (1 hour) marinade in beer can really tenderise your meat. There is actually some science behind this: the alpha acids from the hops and tannins from the malted grain help break down the meat fibres and make them soft for cooking. Depending on the beer you are using, you can also impart a beautiful caramel colour and flavour to your meat.

Beer can also be used to add a real depth of flavour to your soups and stews. A good rule of thumb is that the darker your soup, the darker the beer. Next time you’re making a pot of chilli con carne, consider replacing the stock with a bottle of dark stout or porter. It will really add a nice richness to this hearty meal.

The natural yeast in beer is also helpful for baking. There are countless recipes for bread available that use beer instead of yeast. The carbonation of the beer also gives a light fluffy dough that is different to bread made with a powder yeast.

Steak and Guinness pie

At the time I’m writing this, it’s a chilly winter’s day – perfect weather for a pie! If you’re reading this from the US or other countries, you may not realise that us Aussies love a savoury pie and in my opinion, a steak and Guinness pie is one of the best you can get. It’s rich, hot and comforting – perfect for a cold day.

Link: Steak and Guinness pie recipe

Unsurprisingly, my choice of beer to drink with this dish is Guinness. Get yourself a can of the black stuff or better yet, find a pub that has the pie from the kitchen and the pint on draft. This dish can be made with any any other quality stout or porter.

Beer cheese

Beer cheese was completely unknown to me until a recent trip to the United States where it is a popular dip. It is usually served at bars with snacks like soft pretzels, fried pickles, chips and just about any other bar food. Beer cheese is uniquely American and is thought to have originated around 100 years ago in Kentucky.

Link: Beer cheese recipe

Beer cheese can be pretty heavy so I like to cut through it with a nice sharp beer like a hopped lager. A macro lager like PBR or Bud Lite goes well with this dish.

Beer can chicken

Beer can chicken was all the rage in Australia during COVID lockdown. I only ever made it once and I must admit it was a lot of fun. If you’re unfamiliar with beer can chicken, you basically put half an open beer can upright in a roasting chicken and the beer keeps the bird nice and moist. There is growing evidence to suggest that the BPAs in the lining of aluminium cans leeches into the meat. This is the reason I stopped cooking them – but one beer can chicken (probably) isn’t going to kill you.

Link: Beer can chicken recipe

What to drink with your beer can chicken depends on how you season your bird and what beer you use. I usually opt some something crisp like a wheat beer in the summer and something darker in the winter

Beer battered fish and chips

Is there anything better than sitting by the beach with a steaming hot packet of fish and chips? If there is, I don’t want to know about it. The quality of fish and chips can vary greatly but if you use fresh fish, double cooked chips and a lovely beer batter, you can’t go wrong.

Link: Beer battered fish and chips recipe

With my fish and chips, I usually like to drink the same beer that I made the batter with. My go-to is a Coopers Green (Pale Ale). This beer makes a great foamy batter and is very crushable on a hot day.

I think the best fish for frying is the Australian flathead. Its long firm fillets are the perfect size and shape for frying. Any fish with firm white flesh will fry nicely if your oil is hot and you don’t overcrowd the pan.

Recipe: brewhouse crackers

If you brew beer and don’t know what to do with spent grain, this is the recipe for you. These crackers are great for your next charcuterie board or even as part of a nourishing lunch. Most of my spent grain usually goes to my neighbours chickens but I always save a bit for these awesome crackers.

Link: Hop and Grain Cracker recipe

These crackers are great with cheese and meats in a charcuterie board. I also like to use them as “lunch crackers”. You can add some toppings like salad, ham or tuna and it’s a good dose of carbs to keep you going. My favourite thing to add to the crackers is cream cheese, smoked salmon garnished with lemon and a little bit of dill. Spent grains are a great source of fibre and carbohydrates and will keep you feeling full.

CHECK OUT: This Review on Home Brewing Software; BeerSmith, a system that can assist any professional or home brewer throughout their brewing journey.

Cooking with beer is almost as fun as drinking beer. Next time you’re looking for something to cook for dinner why not have a look at some of these recipes. Remember, cooking beer evaporates the alcohol out of it so these dishes are suitable for all ages.

Cheers!