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by snebbu

100 Ways to Use Beer in Food and Drinks #2: Bread

My quest for greatness moves onward to number two: beer bread. This one brings me back to the great nights of bar hopping in college and finishing the night strong at the local bagel shop. We all had or still do have, a place where the night closes out by indulging in a whole lot of carbs. Beer bread is a quick, easy, and cheap substitute for late-night bagels or pizza.

Last week we headed to my girlfriend’s shore house for a weekend of relaxing and getting some school work done. Luckily we picked up two Saison du Buffs and I had one left over. With featured ingredients like thyme, sage, rosemary, and parsley, it seemed like cheesy beer bread was a worthy use of the brew.

The nice thing about making beer bread is that there are so many ways you can customize it. You can use several different varieties of beer and can add a variety of additional ingredients to the bread if you want. The only things that must be there are the flour, sugar, butter, salt, and beer! Some say it doesn’t matter what beer you put in the bread. Wrong. You can taste it in the bread and you want to pick a beer that complements the rest of your “add-ins,” as well as whatever you are eating with the bread. General rule of thumb is to use ale (preferably pale ale) for savory and wheat for sweet. Dinner that night not only consisted of delectable beer bread, but also hummus, fruits, veggies and, obviously: cheese. With this in mind, the savory Saison Du Buff was the clear choice of beer.

by snebbu

Some Herbs in Your Beer? The Saison du Buff

Typically, we don’t dedicate full posts to reviewing just one beer, but this one is a unique craft beer that everyone should try.

What makes this beer so cool? Well, first, it includes herbs like thyme, rosemary, parsley and sage as ingredients. Second, three of the country’s best craft breweries joined up to collaborate on one beer. Dogfish Head, Stone, and Victory created a brew that I believe will satisfy all, and can be paired to just about anything. In fact, I challenge you to find a meal that this delicious beer does not sit well with.

Often times I have trouble describing a beer as “delicious” because most people associate that word with food. You call beers “strong” or “hoppy” or “full,” but not delicious. However, after drinking this brew, I’m hoping most will change their minds (especially those people who think it’s civilized to drink beer the color of piss).

in Drinks 2 comments

by snebbu

100 Ways to Use Beer in Food and Drinks #1: Pizza

In case you thought we were bluffing in our quest to make 100 foods and drinks better by adding beer, we weren’t. Here’s dish #1.

I like pizza. I love beer. So why hasn’t anyone thought to put beer in the pizza? Well it doesn’t matter now, because I did. I’ve long realized that homemade pizza (with store-bought sauce and crust) is better than delivery by a long shot, so homemade pizza with beer in it should be even better, right?

Last night, my girlfriend and I tried it out. I figured it would be cheese, broccoli, green peppers, and pepperoni, with a beer-spiked sauce. Then my wonderful girlfriend picked up a package of pancetta to add in to the mix. To balance that out, we went healthy with a whole wheat crust.

I had a batch of my “fuggly winter Belgian pale ale” and some Yeungling Lager in the fridge. At first I thought I’d use the lager, since it is a smoother brew with less of a hoppy flavor. Then I rethought, and figured the earthy tastes of the fuggles dry hopped in the beer along with the cinnamon I added to the beer would complement the pizza well. Plus, I brewed the “fuggly” beer myself. I figured there’d be more reason to brag if it was good with my own brew. It was.

in Cheese / Recipe 2 comments

by snebbu

100 Ways to Use Beer in Food and Drinks

Editor’s Note: New contributor snebbu joins ES to bring us a very epic, very ES series.

I caught the brew bug. Yes, I’m addicted to brewing beer. With this comes a snooty attitude towards “big beer” and using my “well-earned money” to purchase craft beer. So after a few brews, my fridge is rapidly filling up with bottles of my homebrew, along with craft beer and of course, there’s always a case of Pennsylvania’s pride — Yuengling. The problem is, the other day I opened the fridge door and realized my collection of beer was overfilling its allotted space, and without some good use, would spoil in time. Of course, the first thing that came to mind was drinking it all in one grand night of sitting on my couch and watching sports until reaching a drunken stupor. Then I figured I could use this in food, while drinking beer!

My mind began to wander — what foods could I put beer in? Is it limited to food, or can I mix it with some tasty drinks? In my opinion, beer can make any situation better, provided you choose the right make and variety. I couldn’t get this wonderful idea of complementing dishes and drinks with beer out of my mind. Fortunately, I’m taking a graduate level class on diversity and had the resources (three hours worth of hearing “you’re blind to your blindness”) to put together a list. This list begins my journey to attempt to make each and every one of the following 100 food and drink items better…with beer.

Check out the list, and let us know what other items you’d like to see cooked with beer. Then bookmark this page and return to see the results of our attempts to cook all 100 items on this list…with beer! Of course, feel free to play along yourself, and report back with your results.

The Ground Rules:

*I noted my disgust for big beer — the only rule I am enforcing is to use either homebrew or a favorite craft brew. Drink Craft Beer.

**It is assumed that while cooking/concocting these creations, you will be drinking beer.

The List – 100 Ways to Use Beer in Food and Drinks:

in 100 Ways / Drinks / Featured / Lists 10 comments