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21 Great Uses for Beer

Published March 5th, 2008 in Other Uses for Beer | No Comments »

In addition to a dozen (or three) beer blogs, I subscribe to a number of personal finance blogs as well (who doesn’t want more money? more money = more beer). Every once in a while, they’ll post something about beer. Paul Michael happened to publish just such a post yesterday, so here’s a little reading (with some commentary by yours truly) while I try to work my way through the backlog of beer reviews I’ve built up…

21 great uses for beer:
By Paul Michael

Beer

I’ll make no bones about it; I love beer. (me too!) From a warm, nutty pint of English bitter, to an ice-cold Belgian lager, I’m all over it. But you don’t just have to drink beer straight from the bottle or jar (although that’s the best way to use it). If you’re feeling experimental, here are 21 (the legal drinking age in most states) different uses for beer, other than just pouring it down your neck.

1: Put it in your chili
One of the best ways to add flavor and a little extra liquid to a chili is with a nice bottle of beer. Use the darker beers, they have more flavor and add more punch. (Paul, give my recipe a try if you’re looking for a good one)

2: Make bread
My wife’s grandma is from Germany and she swears by a good loaf of beer bread. (A turkey sandwich on beer bread with a good ale…sounds like a perfect lunch to me!)

INGREDIENTS
1 12oz can of beer
2 1/2 cups self-rising flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
3/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted

 

 

 

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 375°F (190C).
2. Lightly grease a 9×5 inch baking pan.
3. In a bowl, mix the dry ingredients.
4. Add the beer and sugar, mix well, place in pan.
5. Top with melted butter.
6. Bake 45 to 55 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

 

 

 

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Beef Stew with Leeks and Beer

Published December 4th, 2007 in Other Uses for Beer | No Comments »

I mentioned a beef stew made with Celebration Ale in my last post. I thought I’d share the recipe here, as it’s quite tasty and reasonably easy to prepare. You can vary the beer in here to get different tastes; I’ve tried this with two or three and like the Celebration Ale the best so far.

Beef Stew with Leeks and Beer

  • 1 Tbsp olive oil
  • 1 ½ lbs beef tenderloin tips (yum), cut into small chunks
  • 4 c thinly sliced leeks (about 4 large)
  • 8 oz carton of sliced mushrooms—we like baby bellas, but others will work
  • 2 c sliced carrots
  • 1 Tbsp brown sugar
  • 1 tsp dried thyme
  • dash of salt
  • fresh ground black pepper to taste (at least ¼ tsp)
  • 1 (14oz) can of beef broth
  • 1 bottle of beer—experiment with different beers here
  • 2 Tbsp cornstarch
  • 2 Tbsp red wine vinegar

Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the beef and cook five minutes, or until browned. You may need to do the beef in two batches, depending on the size of your Dutch oven. Remove the beef from the pan. Add the leeks and the mushrooms to the pan; sauté for 3 minutes. Return the beef the pan and all of the remaining ingredients except the cornstarch and vinegar. Stir well and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for about two hours, or until the beef is nice and tender. With tenderloin tips, you’ll probably be done a little early.

Just before you’re ready to serve this meal, pour the beer you’ll be serving with it and let it sit and get some air for a couple minutes. Then mix the cornstarch and vinegar in a small bowl and pour it into the stew. Increase heat and bring the stew to a boil. Cook for three minutes, stirring constantly.

Serve with a good beer (or stop reading our blog!) and a nice warm bread. This is a great way to get rid of a cold or to warm up after a day in the snow.

This recipe is a slight modification of a recipe originally published in Cooking Light.

Give That Turkey a Brew

Published November 18th, 2007 in Other Beer Sites, Other Uses for Beer | No Comments »

BeerAdvocate.com has posted a nice article on how you can make your upcoming Thanksgiving dinner a little more beer-centric. Jason and Todd take their beer drinking very seriously and have done wonderful things for the beer community online (and off, if you live in Boston). For their latest wonderful thing, they offer “Give That Turkey a Brew! Holiday Recipes from BeerAdvocate.”

Included in the article are recipes for

  • Beer-injected Turkey
  • Cranberry Wit Sauce
  • Vienna Lager Wild Mushroom Gravy
  • Pumpkin Barley Risotto
  • Holiday Ale Cheesecake with Barley Malt Crust

We’re headed to Connecticut for Turkey Day this year, so I’ll have to pass some of those recipes on. I’ve had deep-fried turkey before, though not the beer-injected variety, and it was quite tasty. I think that the Vienna lager wild mushroom gravy sounds especially intriguing though. It’s pretty simple, but the mixed mushrooms sound oh so good.

Chili - Nothing Goes Better with Your Beer

Published February 6th, 2007 in Other Uses for Beer | No Comments »

Following Fyre’s lead, here’s my favorite non-drinking use for beer. This is a very good basic chili and can be customized to your heart’s content. Some of my past experiments have included adding other types of meat (the sausage didn’t go over too well, but I snuck some ground turkey in once and nobody noticed), different kinds of beans (currently I’m using one can each light red kidney, dark red kidney, and black), and of course, different peppers. Here goes:

  • 1 bottle of decent beer (your choice)
First, and most important, open the beer, inhale its aroma, and take a sip. You gotta have some fun when you cook, no? If it’s a really good beer, maybe you should open a second to keep you company while you work. Pour remaining beer into bottom of your chili pot (you do have a pot, right?) Now that you have the important part out of the way, the rest of the recipe follows:

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Beer, it’s not just for drinking anymore

Published February 2nd, 2007 in Other Uses for Beer | 1 Comment »

Beyond enjoying a good beer with dinner, I’m all for enjoying a good beer as dinner.  However, having to cook for a 13 year old boy means that a beer for dinner isn’t really an option.

I surprised the Boy one night with a recipe I found online for Beer Poached Salmon, since salmon is one of our favorite proteins.  I’ve doctored the recipe slightly for taste and to better cook on a stove-top.

Beer Poached Salmon (serves 2**): Ingredients:
  • 2 6oz fillets of salmon
  • 2  T garlic salt (or 1 1/2 T garlic powder + 1/2 t table salt)
  • 2-4 T brown sugar
  • 4 T butter
  • 1 small red onion (or 3-4 green onions)
  • 1 12oz bottle of beer (your choice)
Directions:
Using a large (10-12″) skillet, center fish in pan.  Cover with garlic salt, then with brown sugar.  Dot the fillets with butter.  Top with thin slices of red onion.  Pour beer into skillet (not over fish) to 1/8″ below the highest point of the fillet. Cook on medium-high heat for 8 minutes or until cooked through. **When increasing the recipe to serve more, use discretion.  The seasonings and beer will stretch, depending on the number of fillets used.  Seasonings as listed should be considered a rough guide per skillet, rather than by servings. 

Any beer can be used in this recipe, and I’ve tried several, all with great success.  My favorite so far in terms of taste has been Pete’s Wicked Strawberry Blonde, which complimented both the fish and the sugar, but there was a delicious irony that I found while using Bass to cook the salmon. 

So far, I have yet to find anyone who has tried this dish and didn’t like it - even among (gasp) non-beer drinkers.  It’s more of a question of whether or not you like salmon than whether or not you like beer (or even the beer of choice).

To round out the dining experience, I highly recommend serving the same beer that you used to cook dinner.

Bon appetit!