As much as we like drinking beer, we like cooking with it too.  If you’re looking for a unique mustard to go with your beer brats this spring, try this beer mustard recipe.

Beer Mustard Recipe

• 1/3 cup yellow mustard seeds
• 1/4 cup brown mustard seeds
• 1/2 cup cider vinegar
• 1 cup dark beer, divided
• 3 tablespoons dark brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• 1/8 teaspoon ground allspice

Photo of the final product

Almost a year ago, our friend Joe wrote up his experience using spent grain to bake brewer’s beer bread.  He didn’t have great results, and ended up with an under-baked, not-so-great-tasting bread.    After a recent brewing session, I decided to revisit his experiment and see if I could make it work.  For the most part, I did.

The recipe is below, and I’ve annotated places where I think you could run into trouble.  Baking, like brewing, is science — there’s not a lot of room to mess around with the process or ingredients and still achieve what you want.  But when you combine the two to make this spent grain bread, there’s actually a lot of guess work that goes into it.

Also, keep in mind that different grain bills will obviously produce different tasting bread — I used a darker Amber that was 17% Belgian Special B, 17% American Roasted Barley, and 66% Crystal Malt 80L.

Brewer’s Beer Bread with Spent Grains Recipe

To start, you will need the following:

• 2 cups spent grain – wet-to-damp, but not soaking wet
• 1 cup of 100 degree warm water
• 1 packet of standard bakers yeast
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 4 cups of flour, +/- 1 cup depending on the wetness of the spent grain (see procedure)
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt (optional)
• Handful of oats (optional)

1. Dissolve the brown sugar in the warm water and add the packet of yeast.  Cover loosely and let sit for 30 minutes.
2. In a food processor or blender, make a spent grain mush.  Try to break down the husks as much as you can, but don’t over do it.  You want something closer to the consistency of smooth oatmeal than to grits.
3. Put the spent grain mush, 2.5 cups of flour, water/sugar/yeast mixture, and salt into a mixing bowl and start mixing. A Kitchenaid or something similar will save a lot of work, but you can mix with a spoon or hand mixer until it gives out, then start kneading by hand.
4. After you’ve combined the ingredients, you want the dough to be cohesive and not sticky — a slight tack is ok, but you don’t want it wet, and it should hold a shape without oozing or anything.  Keep adding flour until that happens.  I think I used about 4 cups, but the final amount of flour is completely dependent on how wet your spent grains were to begin with.  Knead it for a few minutes to allow for the gluten structures to develop — they’ll hold the CO2 from the yeast during proofing and baking.
5. Take the final dough and place in a clean, lightly-oiled bowl for 1-2 hours, until the dough has doubled in size.
6. Punch the dough and put it on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or some type of silicone baking mat.  You can also split the dough in two and put it in greased loaf pans, but I think it will lead to a soggier bread.  I prefer the boule-style approach.  Either way, scatter the handful of oats over the dough.
7. Bake at 375 for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

That’s it — instead of throwing the spent grains away, slather it with some Irish butter and eat it with Guinness beef stew.

From flickr user Paul-W

For those who love to home brew, Popular Mechanics compiled their top 10 homebrewing recipes and put them online.  There seem to be some great beers in there, and it starts with a must-brew beer from Sam Calagione.

We posted Sam’s recipe for Blood Orange Hefeweizen below, but be sure to check out all ten — there’s a nice recipe for a traditional British ale, and another German classic if you’re looking to get outside the American craft beer movement (which most homebrewers start from).

Blood Orange Hefeweizen

Extract Recipe

Beer Style: Hefeweizen with blood orange flavoring
Batch Size: 5 gallons
Original Gravity: 1.050
Final Gravity: 1.012
Bitterness: 17 IBU
Boiling Time: 65 minutes
Color: 12 SRM
Alcohol: 4.8% ABV

Ingredients

6.6 lbs. Light Liquid Wheat Malt Extract
4 medium size blood oranges
0.5 oz. Hallertau Hop Pellets (4.5% AA) boiled 60 minutes
1 oz. Saaz Hop Pellet (4.3% AA) boiled 20 minutes
0.5 oz. Hallertau Hop Pellets (4.5% AA) boiled 10 minutes
Wyeast 3068 or 3638 or White Labs WLP 300 or 380

Directions

Boil and add hop additions according to the schedule above. Peel the blood oranges and separate sections of fruit. Discard half the peels. Cut the remainder of peels and fruit sections into small pieces. Use a grater as you only want part of the rind. The white will add extreme bitterness. Heat fruit and peels in a half gallon of water to 160F and then turn off heat. Let the fruit steep as it cools. Cool the wort and steeping fruit to 70-75F and add to fermenter.

Fermentation

Pitch your yeast and fermet for about 10 days at 70-75F.

From flickr user insidethemagic

The wildly popular Harry Potter books feature a drink — the alcoholic nature of which is purposefully vague — called Butterbeer.  In the Harry Potter theme park in Florida, you can actually buy this Butterbeer, though it very clearly doesn’t contain alcohol.

But Butterbeer has actually existed for hundreds of years, dating as far back as a recipe book in 1594. That Butterbeer actually calls for ale. And it’s warm.  So, along with mulling your beer this winter, why not try Butterbeer too? The recipe is below.

Read the rest of this entry »

From flickr user Ahd Child

Sure, things have gotten crisp, but not too crisp for cold beer.  And if you’re going for cold beer, why not have it in ice cream?  It’s not like it’s some kind of pumpkin hopsicle or something.

This ice cream is actually more like a version of pumpkin pie ice cream with a little beer thrown in, and “a little beer thrown in” is something I think we can all support.

The recipe, from the Brewer’s Association, is below.

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From flickr user skeggy

With college football starting tomorrow night, we posted a recipe for beer batter pretzels earlier today so you could be at least a little prepared before the season begins.  But you know what goes with pretzels almost as well as beer?  Cheese dip.  And if you’re going to eat cheese dip, why not make it beer cheese dip?

Fortunately, the Brewer’s Association has this covered, and has helpfuly provided a recipe for hefeweisen beer cheese dip.  We’ve pasted it below, and will likely be making it along with our beer batter pretzels.

(And yes, it says it serves 40-50 people, but we plan to cut back proportionally.  4 pounds of cheese seems like a little much.)

Read the rest of this entry »

From flickr user ~Prescott

We’re huge — like, really huge — college football fans here at Lautering, so tomorrow night is essentially a holiday at Lautering HQ.  To celebrate, we’re going to be drinking beer and eating these beer batter soft pretzels as we watch Ohio State take on Marshall to start the season.

The reciepe is as follows:

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup warm water (not hot)
• 1 (1/4 oz) pkge active dry yeast
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp kosher salt, divided
• 1 cup brown ale (any kind), at room temperature
• 3 3/4 to 4 cups all purpose flour
• 2 cups hot water
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated
• 2 tbsp butter, melted
• honey mustard OR any other mustard for serving
• Pretzels can be kept in a ziplock or air tight plastic container without refrigiration for several days. Just warm up in the microwave for a few seconds.

Process:

• Place warm water in a lg. bowl, sprinkle with yeast. Let stand 5 min.
• Add sugar, oil, 3/4 tsp. salt, ale and enough flour to make soft dough. (add 3 3/4 cups first, then see if you need more. You can always incorporate more while kneading)
• Place dough on lightly floured surface. Knead 6-8 min., or until smooth and elastic. Place in lightly greased bowl and cover. Let rise in WARM place until doubled in bulk, about 60 min.
• Punch dough down. Divide into 12 pieces.
• Roll each piece into a rope, about 20 inches long. If you want soft pretzels, make your rope thicker; if you prefer them lightly crunchy, make your rope really thin. Both types of pretzels on the pictures above were made from the same dough.
• Shape rope into pretzels.
• Combine hot water and soda in a shallow container or a pie plate. Dip pretzels into solution and place on lightly greased baking sheet. Take care not to burn your hands.
• Cover pretzels loosely and let rise in WARM place for 15-20 min.
• Brush with beaten egg. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 tsp. salt. (use more salt if desired). Then sprinkle with parmesan cheese.
• Bake in preheated 425F oven until lightly golden, about 15 min.
• Brush with melted butter. Serve with mustard.

Just so you know: our loyalties lie entirely with the Buckeyes, and we’re unrelenting in that.  But, we think these pretzels go with just about any game this week — even if you root for “that school up north.”

Such a great way to start the season.  Here’s to 12 weeks of Saturday beer!

From Flickr user Jefferey Beall

Much of the country has seen record-breaking heat this week, and beer has long been a favorite way to cool off.  But some are starting to take it a step further with the “hopsicle” — a popsicle made with beer, simple syrup, and some form of flavoring.

Now, the thing about the hopsicle is that it looks like your standard can of Tecate: Red. Cylindrical. Icy cold. Except the barman-witchdoctors at Diablo have taken the “icy” bit quite literally, injecting the beer with simple syrup and lime juice, jamming a wooden stick into the hole of the can and then putting it in the freezer. For four days.

The result is a genuine beer popsicle, which the bartender must saw in half with a serrated steak knife (or samurai sword) to open. Then it’s up to you to push the wooden stick upward to dispense the hopsicle in true Push Pop style, and decide if you want your savory sweet frozen joyride bathed in tequila as well (note: you want this).

UrbanDaddy writes about a bar in New York launching this Tecate version, which makes you wonder about stray bits of sharp aluminum, but the idea has been out there for some time.  DC-area restaurant Rustico (which is owned by the same group that owns the renowned ChurchKey), had to get Virginia to change their liquor laws after running into trouble with the beer popsicle concept three summers ago.

Dogfish Head Chateau Jiahu (Brad Horn/NPR)

NPR’s All Things Considered recently covered the release of Chateau Jiahu, Dogfish Head’s newest beer using an ancient recipe.

Dogfish Head brewery is known for making exotic beer with ingredients like crystallized ginger or water from Antarctica, so it might not sound surprising that one of its recent creations is a brew flavored simply by grapes and flowers. It’s not the recipe that makes this beer so special; it’s where that recipe was found: a Neolithic burial site in China.

Chateau Jiahu is a time capsule from 7,000 B.C., but to hear Dogfish Head owner Sam Calagione talk about what beer was actually like back then, it’s not the kind of thing that makes you say “Hey, pass me another ice-cold ancient ale!”

NPR posted a worthwhile radio segment, including an interview with Sam Calagione.

The Philadelphia Daily News ran an article yesterday about a common winter problem: cold beer isn’t always the best drink after you’ve just shoveled the driveway.  The solution?  Warm beer.  Apparently this was common back-when, though I think it’s worth pointing out that warm beer wasn’t a solvable problem — there was no electricity, and there were no refrigerators.  Winter was probably the only time when you could actually enjoy a cold beer.

Anyone who has tried to untie frozen boot laces while his or her face is dripping with sweat will recognize the conundrum. Grab an ice cold pilsner, and you might be visiting the E.R. for frostbite. Suck down a heavy-duty barley wine, and they’ll be treating you for heatstroke.

For centuries, the solution was hot beer.

In the cold months, taverns commonly served warmed tankards. At home, a kettle of beer with mulling spices was always steaming. When the wind gusted and the firewood was scarce, at least you could warm up with a potent cup of heated ale.

“Not only did they prefer their beer hot,” writes beer historian Gregg Smith, “they were convinced it was good for them.”

I know a lot about beer and different types of beer, but I’ve never even heard of mulled beer.  Mulled wine, yes; beer, no.  The article mentions a Belgian, Liefmans Glühkriek, which is actually meant to be served hot.

After digging around a little more, it turns out this isn’t as crazy as I thought it was.  The Japanese are already into it, though, in fairness, they’re into all sorts of weird food and drink that I wouldn’t touch.  I found this recipe for mulled beer, which calls for a “decent-quality beer” and an egg, which has me questioning it from the start.

It’s gotten a little colder on the east coast, and spring is on it’s way, so I’ll try it on a couple of bottles and report back…probably without using an egg.

• 12-16 oz decent-quality beer (the contents of your average bottle or can of beer)
• 1 chicken egg, separated
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1 pinch ground ginger, or 1 slice (sometimes called “coins”) of ginger 1/4″ long
• 1 pinch ground nutmeg
• 1-2 pinch(es) cinnamon, or 1″ section of a cinnamon stick
• 1 pinch ground cloves or 2-5 whole cloves
• 1 tablespoon honey

Thermometer photo from Veganbaking.net under a Creative Commons license.  As a thank you, I’ll leave out the egg.