8 Great Ways to Cook With Beer

Depending on the beer and the dish, beer can add flavors from bold and nutty to sweet and caramelized.

And it’s versatile.

There are ways to utilize beer in grilling, baking, battering, saucing and every other form of cooking you can imagine.

The basics of cooking with beer

Hops make beer natively bitter. But the malt in beer balances that bitterness with sweetness. Depending on what you’re making with it and what you’re making it with, you can expand that bitterness or elevate the sweetness. Honestly, the only limit to what you can cook with beer is your imagination.

Three rules for cooking with beer

Before you start, remember the only three rules for cooking with beer:

1. Always use beer you would enjoy drinking on its own. Your cooking deserves good beer, too.
2. Let the beer warm up to room temperature before adding it
3. Be safe when working with hot burners and ovens, boiling beer and glass bottles, including keeping an eye on your alcohol consumption while cooking

Here are eight great ways you can impress your crew by cooking with beer, along with some beer suggestions and recipes to try.

1. Fluffy deep frying

Home deep-frying aficionados know the secret to fluffy, airy deep fry coating is fizzy water like club soda or seltzer in the batter. But there’s a reason why “beer-battered” is the most well-known cooking method involving your favorite brew.

Replacing carbonated water with a light, fizzy beer not only infuses a subtle beer flavor profile into your food but helps make the batter crispier, airier and — obviously — lighter. Use your favorite light brew to make your batter or tempura both less filling and taste great.

Adding wheat beers, light lagers and light IPAs to the batter will give your fish and chips, fried green beans or onion rings that beer-bathed taste you’d expect from your favorite sports bar’s game day menu.

Beer suggestions: Victory Brewing Company Golden Monkey Belgian Tripel or Widmer Brothers Brewery Drop Top American Amber Ale

Try it: Beer battered fish

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. Kosher salt
• ½ tsp. Old Bay
• 1 12-oz. bottle beer
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 2 lb. cod
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Vegetable oil

Directions:

• Whisk flour, salt and Old Bay together, then whisk the beer and the egg in
• Let sit for 10 minutes
• Cut the fish into a dozen pieces, dry with paper towels and season with salt and pepper
• Add 3 inches of oil to a pot or pan and heat to 375 degrees Fahrenheit
• Coat fish in batter and drop (gently) into heated oil in small batches
• Fry three minutes, flip and fry another three minutes or until golden
• Dry on paper towels and season with salt and lemon

Recipe from Delish

2. Marinades for grilling

Hoppy beers are happy beers. And they’re the perfect brew for tasty, meaty marinades for beef, pork, chicken, whatever you wish. Beer can be a substitute for nearly any liquid in a great marinade, especially items like vinegar, Worcestershire sauce and wine.

Beer contains enzymes that help break down tough meat fibers, tenderizing the meat while also increasing the flavor by helping caramelize the exterior of the meat as it sears. It can also be added to barbecue sauce to bring out a bolder, smokier flavor.

And did you know that adding beer to your marinades might actually save your life, or at least make it healthier? Grilling meat over flame releases polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from inside the smoke from fat dripping onto the coals which absorb back into your meat. A Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry study showed marinating your meat in beer for four hours before grilling over charcoals reduced PAHs by as much as 53 percent.

Beer suggestions: Great Lakes Brewing Company Dortmunder Gold Lager or Guinness Brewery Black European Dark Lager

Try it: Marinated Boneless Pork Chops

Ingredients:

• 8 4-oz. boneless pork chops
• ½ cup olive oil
• 1 12-oz. bottle beer
• ¼ cup lemon juice
• 1 tbsp. fresh minced garlic
• 2 tsp. sea salt
• 1 tsp. each freshly ground black pepper, dry mustard and dark chili powder

Directions:

• Combine dry and wet ingredients (except pork chops) in a bowl and mix thoroughly
• Place pork chops and marinade in a 1 gallon Ziploc bag, close and place in the refrigerator for 4-6 hours
• Remove pork chops from bag and cook on preheated grill three-to-four minutes per side (to 145 degrees Fahrenheit)

Recipe from Omaha Steaks

3. Soup’s on

It’s very simple to add beer to soups and stews. It’s really all about replacing calls for chicken stock, beef stock or wine in a recipe with the appropriate beer. For thick beef stews, try an ale or a stout. Chicken- and seafood-based dishes can be enjoyed with a lighter wheat or amber beer. When brewing up some chili, add in a porter for a rich tailgate taste. Let your favorite Saison boil down when slow cooking French onion soup.

Beer is obviously mostly water, which makes it perfect for slow cooker soup and stew recipes (or any slow cooker recipe). As the beer cooks slowly, it acts as stock to keep your solid ingredients moist and hoppily-infused and the brew flavors enhance the liquid’s flavor profile. But don’t stop with slow cooking. Beer is a perfect ingredient for cooking in your super-trendy Instant Pot pressure cooker, too.

Beer suggestions: Deschutes Brewery Mirror Pond American Pale Ale or Rogue Ales Rogue Dead Guy German Maibock Ale

Try it: All-Wisconsin Cheddar and Beer Soup

Ingredients:

• 2 sticks butter
• ½ cup each finely chopped onion, celery and parsley
• 1½ cups flour
• 2 qt. beef broth or stock
• 2 cups milk
• ⅔ of 12-oz. bottle beer
• 2 tsp. liquid smoke
• 1 tsp. red pepper sauce
• 3 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 3 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Directions:

• Sauté the onion and celery in melted butter for five minutes over medium heat until soft but not brown
• Add the flour and stir while heating an additional five minutes over medium-low heat. Do not let the flour stick or turn brown.
• Smooth the mixture by slowly adding the beef broth and stirring. Do the same with the milk.
• Stir in the beer, liquid smoke, red pepper sauce and Worcestershire and bring to boil
• After reaching a boil, remove from heat and stir in the cheese until melted
• Return to heat to just below a boil, stir in parsley and heat a few more minutes
• Season (and sauce) to taste and serve immediately

Recipe from Widmer’s Cheese Cellars

4. Braise be to you

If beer is great for searing meat and beer is great for slow cooking meat, then it only stands to reason that it’s great at doing both in the same dish by braising! In fact, beer can be applied to every step in the braising process.

There are three main steps to braising, and all can be enhanced with beer. First is browning, which, as shown above, can be boosted by using beer in your marinade to tenderize the meat, as well as add a flavorful caramelization while searing.

Next is deglazing or, in other words, creating a sauce by adding your favorite light beer to the used sauté pan and stirring to loosen up those tasty fond bits from the bottom.

And lastly, finish up your beer creation by submerging the seared and glazed meat in your favorite brew and simmering the liquidy mixture in a tightly covered pan in the oven. With the beer, your dish will remain both brown and tender, and infused with a great beer taste, from fruity to smoky depending on the style of beer you choose.

Beer suggestions: Oskar Blues Brewery Dale’s American Pale Ale or Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing Chile Chocolate Russian Imperial Stout

Try it: Beer Braised Short Ribs

Ingredients:

• Cooking oil
• Salt and pepper
• Vegetables: onion, garlic, celery, carrots
• Herbs: bay leaf, thyme, sage
• Flour
• Tomato paste
• Brown sugar
• Beef broth
• A bottle or two of beer

Directions:

• Pat dry the short ribs you’ve already marinated in beer and season with salt and pepper
• Brown the short ribs on all sides in a sauté pan and set aside on a plate
• Roughly chop the vegetables, cook in the same pan about five minutes until soft
• Deglaze the pan with beer, add tomato sauce and flour, stir and cook for one minute
• Mix the beef stock with more beer to taste and pour in pan
• Add in the herbs and stir in the brown sugar
• Add the short ribs back into the pan, making sure they are submerged entirely in the liquid mixture
• Tightly cover and cook on low in the oven until tender

Recipe from Craft Beering

Talking beer: “As a marinade for meat, fish or seafood, it tenderizes. In roasting, baking or broiling, beer is used to baste the foods or as an ingredient in the basting sauce to impart a rich, dark color and highlight the gravy. Used in place of water as the simmering liquid, beer brings out all the richness of the meat and vegetables. As a baking liquid, it adds a lightness and buoyancy to biscuits, pancakes, cakes and a variety of homemade breads.”The alcohol evaporates in the cooking, leaving only the delicate flavors to intrigue the diner.” – The Beer Institute

5. Something fishy

On first thought, fish may seem too delicate for cooking with beer, but for the most part, anywhere you cook with wine, you can cook with beer. Fish can be marinated in a beer-infused mixture as above, sautéed in a light layer of beer or even slathered with a light glaze made with your favorite smoky or citrusy beer. If you have a great fish recipe that calls for wine, substitute it with an appropriate beer!

Beer suggestions: Red Stripe Jamaican Pale American Light Lager or Boulevard Brewing Company Ginger Lemon Radler

Try it: Jamaican Grilled Fish

Ingredients:

• 2 clean medium-sized red snapper filets
• 1 tbsp. onion powder
• 2 tsp. sweet smoked paprika
• 1 pinch dried thyme
• ½ 12-oz. bottle beer
• 1 sliced lime

Directions:

• Score the fish on both sides with a sharp knife
• Mix onion powder, paprika and thyme with half of your beer, pour over fish and rub into the scores and the fish cavity
• Insert the sliced lime inside the fish, cover in Saran wrap and refrigerate for 60 minutes
• Cook fish on a pre-heated grill or non-stick pan on medium-high for 15-20 minutes, flipping mid-way through
• Baste fish with remaining beer as it cooks until ready

Recipe from BBC GoodFood

6. The great beer bake off

Baked goods made with beer have been a staple for eons. For a long part of human history, beer was consumed rather than water because while untreated, bacteria-filled water could be quite, umm, deadly, brewed beer was relatively safe. So, it would be of no surprise to find that breads and pastries have been made with beer as the chief liquid for just as long.

Beer bread is a common appetizer in America’s sports bars and British pubs. Combined with the natural yeast, bread baked with beer makes a high-rising, fluffy loaf. Lighter style beers, even a highly-carbonated brew like Miller High Life, make for a fluffy, airy bread and dark beers produce a malty, bitter bun like the well-known Guinness Bread.

The same goes for dessert breads, including muffins and cakes, or even waffles. For extra flavor, adding a porter or a stout to a chocolate dessert enhances the chocolate notes. And baking with a flavored beer like a peanut butter porter or cherry wheat will give your baked good a slight hint of the sweet or fruity body.

Beer suggestions: Southern Tier Brewing Company Crème Brûlée Imperial Milk Stout or Lost Abbey Brewing Company Red Barn Ale Belgian Saison

Try it: Beer Brownies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• ½ tsp. Kosher salt
• 3½ oz. semisweet chocolate bar
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 8 tbsp. butter
• ⅓ 12-oz. bottle beer
• 4 room temperature eggs
• 1 cup each white sugar and packed brown sugar
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:

• Mix the flour and cocoa powder and set aside
• Melt the chocolate bar in a glass bowl over boiling water
• Melt the butter over medium heat until golden brown and pour over melted chocolate, then pour the beer into your chocolate and butter mixture
• Beat the eggs with the sugar for two minutes until thick and shiny
• With the mixer on low, alternately add the wet and dry mixtures to your egg and sugar mix
• Add vanilla extract and fold in chocolate chips
• Pour mixture into greased or non-stick 9-by-13 pan and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 40-45 minutes or until it passes the toothpick test
• Serve warm with milk (or milk stout beer)

Recipe from The Kitchy Kitchen

7. The obligatory beer can chicken

If you publish an article about cooking with beer without mentioning beer can chicken, the internet police come and arrest you. Originally created in Louisiana, the unique cooking style has spread to most parts of the U.S. The recipe, for the uninitiated, involves placing a half-full can of beer inside the chicken cavity, setting the beer-impaled chicken vertically on the grill (indirectly from the fire) and closing the lid to cook.

Also known as chicken on a throne, beer butt chicken, dancing chicken or drunken chicken, the process is said to make the chicken moister and infuse the bird with a subtle beer flavor from the inside-out, while allowing the rendered fat to drain away (though some argue the science is specious at best).

Beer suggestions: Bell’s Brewery Kalamazoo American Stout or Evil Twin Bushido Berliner Weisse with Yuzu and Chili

Try it: Beer Can Chicken

Ingredients:

• 1 3-to-4 lb. chicken
• 1 12-oz. can beer
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• Spices

Directions:

• Pile the charcoal on your grill on one side to cook indirectly and start heating
• Baste entire chicken with olive oil and dust with the salt, pepper and spices of your choosing
• Empty one-half to one-quarter of the can of beer (up to you how to do this) and, um, insert the can into the chicken
• Place the chicken vertically on the opposite side of the grill from the charcoal and balance on the bottom of the can
• Cover, cook for 60 minutes, turning it a quarter turn every 15 minutes or so until done and let rest for 10 minutes

Recipe from Bon Appetit

8. The best idea

The best way to cook with beer is to cook literally anything you want and drink a beer while you’re doing it.

Beer suggestions: Beer

Directions:

• Make dinner
• Drink beer while you cook
• Eat while drinking another beer

Related articles:

• Meet Your Neighbors With a Beer Tasting Party
• How Much Space Does It Take to Make Beer at Home?