Smoke Your Beer, Not Your Butt!

In my efforts to keep up with the amount of beer I produce in comparison to the amount of beer I actually drink, often times a good amount of my home brew ends up in the food I cook. Some of my favorite food in the whole world is smoked pork and BBQ. Since my charcoal fired outdoor smoker has taken up residence in my parents garage, I decided to try and take a shortcut or two to produce some pulled pork sandwiches.

Tasting Showdown: Cider vs. An Apple

Oedipus and Laius. Ken Griffy, Junior and Ken Griffy, Senior. Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader. And now, hard cider and apple.

Both have very good records. Hard cider, the boon of American pioneers, mainstay of farmers from New England to regular England, not quite as crazy as applejack, but just crazy enough to get the job done. Apples, the original temptation, Granny Smith to Honeycrisp, ward against doctors, the basis of some of our nation's most iconic pies. Who would win in a taste test? To find out I sat down with a classic food pairing - an apple and a glass of cider - and evaluated each.

Flavor through a prism

When it comes to the chemistry of flavor, our foods and drinks are much more connected than you'd think. Any experienced beer taster can pick out the banana notes in some Belgian beers and hefeweizens. What about when a beer reminds you of chocolate, grapefruit, or toasted bread? Well, sometimes that's because it actually is that. When you strip a complicated flavor down to its prominent elements, you'll find that many of them are identical to those found in other foods.

Panadería Norteña

When life gives you lemons... make a shandy! When life gives you undercarbonated beer? Bake with it!

Vlaai met witbier

Cooking with beer can be a real challenge, due to the fact that beer is often one of the only sources of bitterness in a person's diet. Bitterness is a taste that is rarely considered desirable in cooking, as it tends to invoke a negative response on the palate. Part of the reason may come from the primal association of bitterness with poison. Conversely, many animals seek out sweetness, because sweetness often indicates fat, sugar, and protein - all the things we find desirable in our diets.

Seasonal Ingredient: Rainbow Chard

Almost every fruit and vegetable is available year-round. Buy in-season, however, and you get produce at its peak of flavor and nutrients. In January and February, rainbow chard is readily available. Other chard tend to be available during the summer months, but the flavors do not vary much.

Am I suggesting brewing with a green, leafy beet? Yup. Sure am. Forget the Reinheitsgebot! Below is a recipe for a beer that doesn't utilize hops, instead beckoning on bitterness extracted from chard stems in a small quantity of vodka that is added to wort post boil (just kidding: there is no boil).

Kinderweiße Cheese Fondue

Serves 8

Eat Your Beer Like A King

There are many ways to consume beer. Sometimes, we drink it out of a pint glass, other times a ram’s horn or a beer bong shaped like a skull. I, sometimes, consume beer out of food. Ever make a beer solely for eating with brats? I have. In Wisconsin, beer and brats go hand-in-hand. Or maybe brat in-bun-in-hand with beer in-the-other-hand.

Seasonal Ingredient: Clementines

Almost every fruit and vegetable is available year-round. Buy in-season, however, and you get produce at its peak of flavor and nutrients. In January, clementines are readily available.

Simple

"Simple isn't the same as easy," someone once wrote about Luther Perkins' guitar playing. In any art where the craft of production is vital to the outcome - music, brewing, cooking ... - the prospect of stripping things down and going minimalist is exhilarating and risky. Uncluttered sparseness is kinda scary in an era of big, bombastic, over the top beers.

New Year's Champagne Cake

Start the New Year right: with champagne cake!

NB MKE is 7 Dog Years old!

It was a Saturday in November and about 3,614 degrees warm at Northern Brewer Milwaukee...

Seared Strip Steak with Beer Braised Greens and Nut Brown Reduction

Serves 4 Entree Portions

Steamed Mussels with Saffron-Dubbel Broth

Serves four appetizer or two entree portions

Iowa, here ye are

This past March saw Iowa legislators with, essentially, across the board support for a law allowing breweries in our friendly southern neighbor state to brew batches up to 12% ABV. Another antique blue law given a brief burial in the fields outside some hard working Iowa microbrewery, and a spring of hopeful inspiration for homebrewers, current & prospective.

Beer Waffles

Everyone loves waffles and pancakes for breakfast on a lazy weekend morning, perhaps after enjoy a few too many homebrews the night before. So here's a twist on a hair-of-the-dog theory, add a bottle of your favorite homebrew to this quick and easy waffle batter for a nice twist on an old favorite.

Cooking with the Belgians

I want to start by saying that this is the best cookbook I've ever bought.

Why beer tastes so good with food

As the long summer days of grilling and enjoying your hard labors of spring brewing approach, here's a little food for thought.

Mmmm...... pork........mmmm...... beer....

I love food, and I love beer, and as a homebrewer I love to incorporate my homebrew into my food.

Something to try

I was recently browsing my library of cookbooks, searching for inspiration for beer-friendly recipes.