Cooking and Grilling with Beer

In the last couple of decades, beer has easily gone from the thirst quencher of choice for the working class to a status symbol for Yuppies and artisan brews for hipsters (an overgeneralization but to the point). As the very standing of the beverage has been elevated in our culture and culinary circles, beer drinkers and cooks have benefited.

Beer remains a staple of tailgating parties and barbecues alike. To some the very image of summer is a grilled burger and a cold beer. But I want you to tweak that image and make it a grilled beer bacon burger!

Cooking with beer is no different than cooking with wine--you are cooking the alcohol away. It may be more accessible for the regular cook, but don't think you can't get fancy or sophisticated, deep flavors. 

It may be cheaper in some instances, but always concentrate on using good tasting beer as your base (don't sacrifice flavor just because it costs less). So no Rolling Rock. Ever. You may use non-alcoholic beers, but as with drinking them, why would you? Why would anyone?!

Beer has a lower alcohol content than wine and a lighter flavor, making it more versatile. Beers can be separated into light and dark brews and they have distinct flavors and aromas that make each a natural complement to specific foods.

Wheat beers and lambics go well with chicken and seafood.

Ale, porter and stout are great with beef, lamb and pork.

Beer is a fantastic base ingredient in breads and pretzels. 

It's electrifying in desserts. Fruity varieties are excellent for creating trifles, sorbets, mousses and ice cream.

Click here for Craft Beer Ice Cream recipes!

My first experience cooking with beer was creating a tempura-like batter. The carbonation and sugars in the lager provided an even and airy (light) crust and golden finish, that browned very fast and required flash cooking. Beer batters work extremely well on chicken, fish and vegetables. For the vegans, beer-battered tofu is a thing.

I want to try beer-battered oysters for po' boys soon. We haven't had those in some time.

I beer-steamed mussels once, but one of us is allergic now so perhaps the next time we’ll try it with littleneck clams instead, or soft-shell crabs.

In winter stews, you can substitute a robust stout for red wine and the result will be an earthy, sexy, rustic, deep flavor that defines comfort.

Beer marinades have subtle flavors and also tenderize.

Recipes tend to be very specific about the types of beer to use. Unless you are well-versed with the properties of each brew you use, be careful with substitutions until you learn the tricks of cooking with beer to account for spices, sweetness, bitterness... For instance, in some cases if a recipe does not allow time to chemically break down the hops, then you’ll need to add sugar or honey to mellow out the bitterness.

As many forms of microbrews as there are available, there are as many cooking options. Each comes with its own flavors and bouquet. There’s a good primer here and here (Cooking with Beer from Kathy Maister’s startcooking.com and Cooking with Beer: Add flavor to your favorite recipes with a splash of brew from The Food Network).

A new Pinterest board will get you started with dozens of recipe collections, cooking tips, and links to beer blogs—which include foods from breakfast to dinner, from snacks to desserts, fish, meats and vegetables, grains and sauces. There is a little bit of everything in this board.

Finally, for you drinking pleasure: a beer-pairing chart. Embrace the brew. Cheers!