For the past 47 months beer bloggers have been coordinating on a single topic to blog about on the first Friday of the month. This phenomenon is called The Session, which was started by Jay Brooks of Brookston Beer Bulletin and Stan Hieronymus of Appellation Beer. The topic of 47th installment of The Session, hosted here at Beer 47, was Cooking with Beer. The following is a recap of what the participating bloggers had to say about the subject. This subject brought out 21 bloggers and it made me very hungry reading all of these great blog posts.

Update (Jan. 18, 2011): The next Session will be hosted by Simon at The Reluctant Scooper. The topic will be Cask, Keg, Can, Bottle? Simon asks beer bloggers to talk about the container from which the beer is dispensed and how it affects the beer, if at all.

Stan Hieronymus shared on of his favorite brewpub recipes for Stilton Cheese Soup. This is a recipe that did not make it into a recipe book collection that he and his wife (Daria Labinsky) compiled, called The Brewpub Cookbook. This particular recipe was fromGreat Lakes Brewing in Cleveland, Ohio. “It’s rich, with a powerful, sharp Stilton flavor.”

Delran, NJ: Mel and Ray give us a recipe for Pulled Pork in Kolsch Sauce with Sauerkraut. It looks quite tasty and I wonder if you could make this in a slow cooker? The recipe calls for Kölsch but they also give some other good recommendations. “Your best bets are probably kolsch, anything Belgian (especially dubbel), brown ale, malty English beers and sweeter stouts (perhaps even a coffee stout).”

Germany: Barry hasn’t written a post for The Session in ages but couldn’t resist this topic because he tries to use beer in his cooking as often as he can. He provided a recipe for Black Beer Chili made with Schwarzbier, specifically Köstritzer. “I like adding beer to things. In small quantities, like in the chili below, it adds a little depth, a touch of sweetness, and a little bite. Too much, and it might dominate in the wrong way, especially true with bitter beers.”

Kent, United Kingdom: Mark also loves cooking with beer and provided 6 links to some of his favorite recipes, which all sound great. He goes on in detail about a recipe he enjoyed for Scotch Eggs and Beer Mayonaise and even provides some tips on how to make it. “Some people seem to think that cooking with beer is a terrible waste, but I’m not one of them. I love how it adds a different depth to food, how parts of the beer’s make-up come through in unique ways.”

Washington D.C.: Thomas tells us about a recipe called beer rice which calls for Budweiser. “From prep to eat, it’s no more than 60 minutes … And, yes, that’s a Bud in my blog.”

Belmont, CA: Derrick writes his post about drinking beer while cooking but warns us to be careful while we’re doing it because those knives are sharp. “When cooking, drinking a beer that pairs well with what’s on the menu helps me to focus better on what I’m preparing.”

Fredericksburg, VA: David creates a virtual meal of dishes made with beer or dishes that pair well with beer. On the menu: Red Pepper Crostini and Olivada, served with Heavy Seas Red Sky at Night, Slow Cooked Pale Ale Spicy Beef, and Beeramisu. David says the following about the spicy beef dish, “This simple recipe has become a staple in our household. It’s a crock pot recipe, so it is easy to prepare and it especially fitting for those days when we know we’ll be needing a quick dinner that evening.”

Southeast Pennsylvania: Although Steph doesn’t cook with beer very often, she provides a few suggestions and recipes for using beer in your food. Steph suggests braising meat such as beef and sausages, beer bread, and beer ice cream. “Play around with different styles — light, dark, mild, bold, malty, hoppy, low-alcohol, high-octane, whatevs. If it sucks, learn from that and try something different next time. If it’s awesome, revel in your culinary genius!”

UK: Simon writes about a few successful experiences with beer in food but focuses on the problems that you can encounter when adding beer to your dishes and why those problems occur. “I have some real issues with beer as an ingredient. Because I’ve had too many great-sounding dishes that wasted good beer and too many basic dishes that buggered up the very notion of using beer as an ingredient.”

Alan suggests using Allagash Odyssey in a mushroom dish with shallots, onions, leeks, and a bunch of mushrooms. “My favorite thing? Odyssey by Allagash in Maine is the greatest beer for making mushroom dishes.”

Sean doesn’t really cook so instead he offers up his dream beer dinner. He starts the meal with sharp cheddar quesadillas, moves to a Kobe flank steak in a Flanders Red spiked sauce, and ends with a dessert of apple pie a la mode with an apple beer ice cream. “And since I do not have many beer dinners under my belt either, I can’t really comment on what works really well and what doesn’t. I do know a good amount about beer floats (but that really doesn’t involve cooking).”

Indiana: Jim made a dish called Cod Brandade, which he found in a recent issue of Beer Connoisseur magazine. Being that this is quite a complicated recipe, Jim provides numerous tips to make it successfully. “The end result is sort of like fancy fish sticks, well fish balls, sitting on top of really fancy ketchup. That might not sound great to you, but it sounds excellent to me.”

Phoenix, AZ: The folks at Beer PHXation found a few restaurants, local to Phoenix, that use beer in their food. The let you know where you can get beer bread, beer pizza crust, and an oatmeal stout shake. They’ve also listed a few places that have beer dinners. “We hope you will seek out these dishes and others throughout the valley that use beer as an ingredient and explore cooking with beer at home. Not only does beer deserve a place on the dinner table, it should not be neglected on the plate either.”

Raleigh, NC: Dierdre made beer cheese soup and even provides the recipe and it looks delicious. She made the soup with Sam Adams Boston Ale and served it up with beer brats and red cabbage. “It’s important to select the right beer for this soup. If you like light malty lagers (the industry giants) they will probably work well, but they won’t add much flavor.”

A Beer in the Hand is Worth Two in the Fridge – Session #47- Beer Brownies

Central Pennsylvania: Jay has experimented making brownies with stouts and porters and provides us with a recipe from stout brownies from CraftBeer.com. ” What makes eating a delicious stout brownie even better is that you can wash it down with another stout. If you use a milk stout for in the brownie, try Lancaster Milk Stout, I would think that milk would wash the brownie down as well as anything else.”

UK: Bob explains that he usually doesn’t like to waste good beer on food but has recently been using a botched batch of homebrew for cooking. He provides a quick recipe for making his tempura vegetables and the beer he chose was Adnams Spindrift. In the end Bob concludes, “To be honest, I don’t think using beer for tempura batter is the best use for your beer, especially a light a fruity number like Spindrift. Neither my wife nor I could detect any beery flavours in the batter, although I thought the beer actually went quite well as a pairing.”

Canada: Devoid loves cooking with beer and gives us a tasty chicken recipe for the BBQ. “I personally love to cook with beer. Some of the tastiest meals I’ve prepared with beer have been the simplest like Camembert cheese and beer melt.”

Bend, OR: Jon doesn’t really cook with beer so he tried something quite unconventional. He made a hot mulled beer that sounds very intriguing. Jon finishes by making a New Year resolution, “I think for 2011 I will start to do some in-depth exploration of cooking with beer. Beginning with some mulled beer this weekend.”

Joe is another blogger that like to have a beer while cooking and not necessarily using it as an ingredient in food recipes. He did try cooking with beer once and says, “Once I made a carbonnade with Westvleteren. What a damnable waste.”

San Jose, CA: Peter teamed up with a friend of his, Arie, to cook with beer, specifically beer bread. This is no ordinary beer bread, Peter tells us that Arie has been cooking beer for decades and you can tell by the photos alone. Peter does a great job of chronicling exactly how to make the bread, complete with photos. I can’t wait to try this out. “After having Arie’s bread, I can easily see how civilizations have been powered by the simple loaf.”

San Francisco, CA: For my contribution I made three different recipes, which I found from various sources: Norwegian lamb patties with spiced baltic porter gravy, Kölsch chevre spinach salad, and beer brats. I also discovered that you need to pay attention to the bitterness of the beer that you are using for cooking. “Be very careful of your selection of beer for your recipe. Try adding a little at a time and see how it tastes to make sure it doesn’t come out too bitter. If the recipe calls for a style that is not normally bitter, then stick with the maltier less bitter styles of beer.”

Related Posts

• Blogger Roundup of Cooking with Beer for The Session #47
• Cooking with Beer: Lamb Patties, Kölsch Salad, & Beer Brats for The Session #47
• Cooking with Beer, Announcing The Session #47
• Round Up for The Session #30: Beer Desserts
• Beer Desserts for The Session #30
• Announcing The Session #30: Beer Desserts
• Smoky Maple-Porter BBQ Sauce

A few weeks ago, I announced that Beer 47 will be hosting The Sesssion #47 and the topic is Cooking with Beer. For my contribution to this topic I chose to find a few recipes, cook them, and report the results. I made three dishes: Norwegian lamb patties with spiced baltic porter gravy, Kölsch chevre spinach salad, and beer brats.

Norwegian Lamb Patties with Gravy

When I first came up with this topic for The Session #47, I was browsing the September 2010 issue of the home brewing magazine Brew Your Own [Amazon] and there was an article about cooking with your home brew. One recipe that caught my eye was the Norwegian Lamb Patties and Gravy made with Baltic Porter. Based on what was available in the pantry, I made a few minor changes to the recipe. For instance, tapioca starch instead of corn starch and olive oil instead of rendered fat. The beer that I used for this recipe was Victory Baltic Thunder, a double baltic-porter with a sweet malty flavor, high alcohol content, brown color, and some bitterness. I was actually not expecting the flavors that I experienced from this beer. It didn’t seem very porter-like and it lacked many characteristics that I would expect from a porter, like roastiness. Victory Baltic Thunder seemed more like a double-brown-ale or barleywine with some added bitterness.

Norwegian Lamb Patties with Spiced Baltic Porter Gravy Recipe

This is a modified version of a recipe by Sean Paxton that appeared in the September 2010 issue of Brew Your Own magazine.

• 1 lb. ground lamb
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup milk
• 4 oz. Baltic porter (preferably room temperature and flat)
• 1 tsp. sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. cracked black pepper
• 1 large yellow onion, chopped
• 2 tbsp. all purpose flour
• 1.5 tbsp. tapioca starch (or cornstarch)
• 2-3 tbsp. olive oil

• 2-3 tbsp. all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. ground clove
• 1/2 tsp.  ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ground allspice
• 1/2 tsp. fresh ground ginger
• 1 cup Baltic porter (preferably room temperature and flat)
• 1 cup hot beef stock

In a bowl mix lamb, egg, milk, 4 oz. porter, salt, and pepper. I really didn’t want to clean even more kitchen tools so instead of using the Kitchen Aid mixer for this step, I mixed the lamb patties by hand. It worked out fine but I really had to whip them up with my hands quickly to get the right texture. Next time I would definitely use a mixer. You want the mixture to be light and fluffy.

Next, in a pan, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Make patties about the size of silver-dollar pancakes (a little larger than a silver dollar) and put the patties into the oil and cook until browned on each side. The patties should have a nice brown crusty appearance but not burned. After the patties are cooked on each side, to keet them warm, remove them from the oil and put them in the oven at 300ºF.

Reduce the heat on the pan, add 2-3 tbsp of flour, and whisk until the flour has absorbed. My mixture turned out to be a dark brown color but the recipe says that it should be light golden brown. I probably also added too much flour at this point. I recommend adding 1 tbsp. at a time until you get the texture you want. Next, add the spices, cook for about a minute, and then add the porter and beef stock. Cook for about 5 minutes to reduce, burn off the alcohol, and cook out the flour flavor.

This is the point at which I discovered that the gravy did not turn out as expected. It was extremely bitter.

When I sampled the lamp, however, before putting it into the oven, it had a really nice flavor and texture with a hint of sweetness from the beer and just tinge of bitterness. The lamb patties, on their own, were actually very good and my wife and I enjoyed them as leftovers the next day. The gravy, however, was much too thick, extremely bitter, and not very good at all. It smelled nice, a bit like spiced apple cider, but it wasn’t quite salty enough and the bitterness was overwhelming. In order to fix the problem, I kept adding sugar and salt until the gravy tasted okay. I added much more salt than sugar and although I didn’t record the amont I added, it seemed like a lot of sugar with a reasonable amount of salt.

I attribute the extreme bitterness of the gravy to three things. First, the crusty stuff in the pan after I took out the lamb patties was a little dark and charred, the lamb patties, however, tasted fine so this maybe only added a small amount of bitterness. Next, the total volume of the spice blend, to me, seemed enormous for the amount of gravy being made. I would use a similar amount of spice in an entire 5 gallon batch of beer. To test this theory, I licked some left over ground spices and it was indeed bitter. Finally, the beer that I used was much more bitter than I expected. I should have looked up some reviews of Victory Baltic Thunder to understand the flavor of the beer. I should have also realized that being a double-style beer, it would have higher IBUs to balance the sweetness of the beer. I think the beer was the true culprit but the other factors certainly contributed.

Beer Brats and Kölsch Chevre Spinach Salad

Since my first attempt at a meal made with beer was a limited success I wanted to try again with two more recipes. I also wanted to do something that would be somewhat quick to make. I looked through Sam Calagione’s book Extreme Brewing [Amazon] and found an interesting recipe for Warm Pilsner Chevre Spinach Salad. Next, I scoured the internet for a beer brats recipe. A found a few variations that were basically the same as the Beer Brats recipe on About.com and it only required four ingredients: cooking oil, bratwurst, onions, and beer.

Since the beer brats would take only a few minutes to make, I made the Kölsch Chevre Spinach Salad first. I also wanted to allow the dressing time to cool down from boiling hot to warm before I used it in the salad. The original recipe called for a pilsner style beer but I couldn’t find any craft Pilsner at my local Whole Foods so I picked up a 22 oz. bottle of Kent Lake Kölsch-style Ale made by Iron Springs Brewery in Fairfax, California.

Warm Kölsch Chevre Spinach Salad

• 4 oz. dried cranberries
• a bunch of spinach
• 4 oz. chevre goat cheese

• 1 cup almonds, chopped (or sliced)
• 1/2 tsp. ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp. fresh ground nutmeg
• 5 oz. honey
• sugar to taste
• 12 oz. of Kölsch beer, (preferably room temperature and flat)
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 3 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil

First, dry roast the almonds, cloves, and nutmeg over medium heat in a pan. I used the pan in the photo below. Stir or toss so that the spices don’t burn and cook until the almonds are darkened. Set aside. Pour the honey into the pan. The gooey texture of the honey will become much more watery when it hits the heat. The original recipe calls for a lot of demerara sugar so I just added sugar a little bit at a time to taste. Cook on medium heat until it simmers. Next, add the Kölsch and cook until it simmers. Then, add vanilla and olive oil. No, it won’t explode when you add the oil but be careful anyway. Simmer this mixture until the volume has reduced by about half. Turn off the heat and let cool from boiling to warm. Crumble the cheese and put it with the spinach and cranberries in a bowl. Pour the warm dressing in the bowl and toss to coat. Serve immediately.

The salad came out delicious and it was by far the best of the three recipes that I made. I let the dressing cool down just enough to only wilt the spinach a little bit. Since I mixed the chevre goat cheese before I added the dressing, it mostly melted and become a part of the dressing so I crumbled a little on top before serving. Although, it was very tasty like that, next time I would add the cheese last and quickly toss it just before serving. Even doing this, some of the cheese will likely melt but I’m thinking you’ll have a few more big chunks to enjoy. I would definitely make this dish again.

For the beer brats, I wanted a beer that would work well with the sausages, that I’ve had before and that I knew would not be bitter. I selected Moose Drool Brown Ale from Big Sky Brewing Company. I changed the recipe slightly by using only three bratwurst instead of six. I picked up the bratwurst at Whole Foods where they are fresh made, as you can see in the photo.

Beer Brats Recipe

• olive oil, enough to cover the bottom of your pan
• 1 medium sized red onion, cut into rounds
• 3 bratwurst sausages
• 6 oz. of Moose Drool Brown Ale, preferably flat and room temperature

Instructions

Heat the oil in a pan over medium-high heat, add sausages, and brown them. Have the lid to the pan handy in case it starts to sputter and splash oil. Next, remove the sausages, they should be mostly cooked through. You’ll be adding the sausages back later. If needed, add more olive oil. Add the the onion rounds to the pan and saute them until they are translucent and golden but not brown. Add the bratwurst and the beer to the pan. Let the sauce reduce down until it is thick.<

The beer brats came out great. The sausage was cooked just right, tender and not dry. The sauce was sweet and rich from the onions and beer and it went great with the Kölsch Chevre Salad. There was still, however, just a slight tinge of bitterness, it wasn’t distracting but it makes think that I should have used a sweet onion, like a Maui or Vidalia. I really enjoyed this recipe and would definitely make it again and even try it with different styles of beer.

Final Thoughts

Be very careful of your selection of beer for your recipe. Try adding a little at a time and see how it tastes to make sure it doesn’t come out too bitter. If the recipe calls for a style that is not normally bitter, then stick with the maltier less bitter styles of beer. Even if the recipe calls for an IPA, I would stay away from double-IPAs or hop bombs unless the recipe looks like it will balance out that extreme bitter flavor. Just use a typical IPA like Lagunitas IPA, Sierra Nevada, or similar.

It also helps to choose a recipe from a reputable source, like the Home Brew Chef, Sean Paxton, or books specific to the subject. I have found that the food recipes in Sam Calagione’s book Extreme Brewing [Amazon] have all been very solid. Although I do wish his book had more recipes! If you find a recipe from another source, I would personally be wary of recipes that don’t include something sweet like sugar, honey, caramelized onions, roasted or sautéed garlic.

Finally, enjoy yourself while cooking with beer!

Related Posts

• Blogger Roundup of Cooking with Beer for The Session #47
• Cooking with Beer: Lamb Patties, Kölsch Salad, & Beer Brats for The Session #47
• Cooking with Beer, Announcing The Session #47
• Round Up for The Session #30: Beer Desserts
• Beer Desserts for The Session #30
• Announcing The Session #30: Beer Desserts
• Smoky Maple-Porter BBQ Sauce

Despite my claim that beer is under-utilized there are definitely some uses of beer in cuisine such as beer-can-chicken, beer bread, beer brats, and beer battered deep-fried foods. What else have you made or tasted made with beer?

Since the topic of Cooking with Beer is broad, I invite you to share any experience that you have had with beer as an ingredient in food or for cooking. I only ask that you be sure to include other dishes besides (or in addition to) dessert, the reason being that we have already discussed Beer Desserts for The Session #30. You don’t need to exclude dessert, just please do not limit your discussion to dessert only. If you need some more inspiration for this topic, here are some more ideas:

• Find a recipe that includes beer as an ingredient, share the recipe, cook it, and tell us the results.
• Talk about a meal prepared by somebody else (by a friend or at a restaurant) that used beer as an ingredient.
• What is the best dish you’ve had made with beer? The worst?
• What are some of the challenges in cooking with beer whether it be a savory or a sweet dish?
• What does beer add to a dish?

The Sessions is a monthly beer blogging event that invites any beer blogger to participate by writing their own perspective on a unique topic regarding beer. Each topic is announced one month in advance (sorry for being a bit late on this one) of the first Friday of each month. You can write your blog post in advance or on the first Friday of the month. Following the submission of your blog posts, as the host, I will write a brief wrap-up of each of the posts. The Session #47 will be the first one of the New Year on Friday, January 7, 2011. The Sessions was started by Jay Brooks of Brookston Beer Bulletin and Stan Hieronymus of Appellation Beer.

I look forward to some great mouthwatering articles and recipes about cooking with beer!

Related Posts

• Blogger Roundup of Cooking with Beer for The Session #47
• Cooking with Beer: Lamb Patties, Kölsch Salad, & Beer Brats for The Session #47
• Cooking with Beer, Announcing The Session #47
• Round Up for The Session #30: Beer Desserts
• Beer Desserts for The Session #30
• Announcing The Session #30: Beer Desserts
• Smoky Maple-Porter BBQ Sauce

Normally the “Round Up” for The Sessions comes a day or two following the day of The Sessions. My Saturday after The Session, however, consisted of preparing and packing for a trip to Belgium and London, more on that trip later. First, the long awaited and much over due round-up. Below are all the blog postings about beer dessert that were sent in. There are over twenty links to blog postings and more provided below.

In my own post about beer dessert, I mention my experience with stout cake, stout chocolate pudding, and (pictured above) tripel-poached-pear dessert.

Steph Weber of brew.cook.pair.joy writes about which beers are best for making dessert and includes a recipe for Stout Crème Brûlée.

@rnast mentioned that Founder’s Brewery had a dinnder that included a beer float made with Bourbon aged imperial stout, French vanilla ice cream, and toasted coconut sprinkles. Included is a link to a photo of the dessert.

Eddie Glick of Beerdorks.com explains how much he likes root beer and vanilla ice cream but does not like root beer floats. On the other had he loves a beer float made with Founder’s Breakfast Stout and vanilla ice cream.

The Beer Nut claims to have cheated and wrote an interesting article about beers for dessert, as opposed to a dessert made with beer.

The Aran Brew blog writes about making a beer jelly using Liefmann’s Kriek and how surprisingly easy it was to make.

BeerTaster.ca also had beer for dessert and paired it with cheese and fruit. Beer and cheese is a wonderful combination. Maybe somebody should do this for a future episode of The Sessions.

Jasmine from Beer at Joe’s made a beer cream pie and included the original recipe with step by step details about how it was made.

Lucy Saunders from The Best of American Food and Beer has a great recipe for Peach Lambic Ice Cream. It looks like it’s time for me to get an ice cream maker.

The Bay Area Beer Runner made a raspberry lambic gelatin in a brain shaped mold, you have to check out the photo of the final product.

The writers at the I’ll Have a Beer blog made not one but four different beer ice cream flavors including the recipes.

Bathtub Brewery writes about various beer desserts that they have made and tried, contemplating the best types of beer to use with dessert.

Geistbear Brewing Blog prefers beer for dessert.

Matt C. from A Wold of Brews recounts various beer desserts that he has tried, such as beer floats, chocolate mousse made with Rogue stout, and a pairing of IPA and carrot cake.

Lew Bryson of Seen Through a Glass writes that he enjoys beer as dessert and recalls a few other beer desserts that he has tried.

Peter from BetterBeerBlog went all out and made an elaborate dessert of beer brownies and framboise sorbet.

Jimmy from Hop Wild provided a recipe for a beer shake with two recommended combinations of ice cream and beer.

Jay from Brookston Beer Bulletin provided a list of beer styles that great in or with dessert.

Matt Hendy alerted us that Emeril recently made an ice cream with Peak Organic Espresso Amber Ale.

Red, White, and Brew recounts some recent articles and experiences with beer desserts.

Brewed for Thought made a chocolate sauce out of North Coast’s Anniversary ale Rasputin XII and poured it over various desserts.

Bottles of Barley used a recipe from Beer Basics: A Quick and Easy Guide by Peter Lafrance to make a dessert called Naughty Gretchen.

The Homebrew Chef has eight beer dessert recipes on the recipe page. Rochefort 10 Crème Brûlée? That’s a strong and pricey dessert but sounds great.

When I volunteered for the August installment of The Sessions, I immediately decided upon the topic of desserts made with beer. I had recently purchased a copy of Sam Calagione’s Extreme Brewing [Amazon] and I had brewed Blood Orange Hefeweizen and I had made the Smoky Maple Porter BBQ Sauce so at that moment I was eager to try out a few of the dessert recipes.

I began my exploration of beer desserts not by making some desserts myself but by asking a friend of mine, chef Andrew Giddens of Muirwood Kitchen, his thoughts on beer desserts. I provided the beer, Anderson Valley  Brewing Company’s Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout, and Andrew made a stout cake topped with brandied  cherries in a rum sauce. The cake was fluffy and delicious and the flavor of the beer was discernible and added a nice roasty and sweet malt flavor to the cake. Thank you Andrew for the wonderful dessert!

Next on my list of beer dessert to sample was a recipe that I found on Epicurious.com for chocolate stout pudding with whipped cream. The original recipe is called Chocolate Guinness Goodness and according to Epicurious “was developed by Shane Philip Coffey, the chef at Alias restaurant on New York City’s Lower East Side” for a St. Patrick’s day menu. I decided that there are much more interesting  flavors in almost any other brand of stout than Guinness so I opted for a bottle of Beer Republic’s Big Bear Black, a robust and flavorful imperial stout.

Another change that I made to the original recipe was to add about 1 tablespoon of sugar to the whipped cream. The recipe call to add reduced stout to the whipped cream and the flavor of the stout is so roasty and bitter that it needed some sugar to balance the bitterness. Finally, I used Sharffen Berger 70% cacoa chocolate to make this a California beer dessert in every aspect.

This is a very simple recipe to follow and the result is a rich dense pudding with e fluffy off-white whipped cream that makes it look like a small glass of beer. The taste has tons of chocolate goodness and a hint of roasty and malt flavor. I think the sugar and chocolate, however, overshadows the flavors of the stout a little bit. Next time I might try to use just a bit less sugar to see if that will bring out more of the beer flavor.

Last, but certainly not least, in my beer dessert adventures was a recipe from Extreme Brewing for Tripel-Poached-Pear Dessert, a wonderful and fairly simple dessert of poached pears in a sauce made of a Belgian-style tripel ale. Since I was leaving for Belgium 4 days after I made the recipe, I decided to try the recipe with a Canadian tripel, Unibroue’s La Fin Du Monde, instead of a Belgian-made tripel. I halved the recipe and used vanilla extract instead of vanilla bean. The recipe is as follows:

• 4 ripe pears
• 5 oz. La Fin Du Monde tripel
• 3 teaspoons honey (from Xinjiang, China)
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 cinamon stick
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ¼ cup fresh mint leaves
• vanilla ice cream

First, I made some incisions into the bottom of the pears. I’m not sure what this was for but I did it anyway. I dropped the whole pears into boiling water for 45 seconds, which should have been longer for my pears were a bit under-ripe. Next, I dried, pealed, and quartered the pears.

For the sauce, first I poured some of the La Fin Du Monde into a glass and sampled it. Delicious! Then I poured the amount for the recipe into the saute pan and heated a bit before adding the honey, sugar, vanilla extract, and cinnamon stick. When adding the sugar and honey, I made sure to dissolve it in the liquid before proceeding. I brought the sauce to a boil and then reduced it to a simmer. When the liquid was thick enough, I mixed in the pears and simmered for another 5-10 minutes and then I removed the pears. Next, I added the mint leaves and cooked those in the sauce for about 1-2 minutes or about long enough for them to wilt and release their aroma. I removed the mint leaves and the cinnamon stick and the cooking was done.

I served the dessert with vanilla ice cream topped by the pears with everything covered in the tripel sauce. This dessert was delightful. The beer added a bit of malt sweetness but more than that added a clove spiciness and a hint of banana that is so characteristic of Belgian-style tripel ales. Since I had a glass of the beer while cooking the dessert, it was unmistakable that the beer was essential to the flavors of this dessert. I highly recommend trying this recipe, just be sure to use ripened pears.

You may have tried, or even made yourself, a few different savory dishes made with beer such as beer brats, BBQ sauce, beer can chicken, or beer battered chicken/fish. Beer seem to work well with this savory dishes but what about sweets and desserts? Beer may not be a common ingredient in desserts but when it is used properly, the results can be very delicious. A couple of desserts that I’ve tried making in the past have been beer brittle (pictured above) and stout chocolate cake. Another common beer dessert is a beer float.

For the August 2009 edition of the The Session, Beer 47 will hosting an online discussion about Beer Desserts. What beer desserts have you tried and liked? Disliked? What beer styles work well with dessert and which ones do not? Do you have any beer dessert recipes that you enjoyed and would like to share? To participate in the August 2009 Session, write a blog entry about beer desserts before August 7, 2009 and let me know about it by either leaving a comment here or sending me an email using the contact form. On August 7, I will post my own article about beer desserts while reading all of the other submissions. On August 8, I will post the “roundup” article with links to all of the beer blog submissions and a little summary for each.

If you’re not a blogger, you are still welcome to participate. Please feel free to leave a comment on this post about any of your favorite beer desserts.

For more information about The Sessions, check out The Sessions page at Brookston Beer Bulletin. It explains in greater detail  The Sessions and includes a complete index of all of the past Sessions. There are some great articles to be found in The Sessions.

In addition to tasting and making beer, I enjoy cooking and finding new and delicious recipes to try. When I purchased Extreme Brewing [Amazon] by Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head, I was very pleased to find several recipes that use beer as an ingredient. The first recipe that I decided to try was the Smoky Maple-Porter BBQ Sauce on p. 167.

I didn’t have any Belgian candi sugar so I substituted with Chinese rock sugar. I also reduced the amount of olive oil used. The following is the slightly modified recipe that I followed. You can see all of the ingredients in the picture above.

• About 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil or just enough to fry the onions and garlic
• 1 chopped white onion
• 4 cloves of chopped garlic
• 12 oz. of Sierra Nevada Porter (I flattened mine by leaving it out overnight in the fridge)
• 3 beef bullion cubes
• 1/2 cup of Chinese rock sugar
• 1 cup of maple syrup
• 12 oz. of tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon of liquid smoke
• 2 teaspoons of crystallized gingered chopped
• 1 teaspoon cumin powder
• 1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
• 2 teaspoons of black pepper

After preparing all of the ingredients, the rest of the process was simple and straightforward. First, using the olive oil, I sautéd the onions followed by garlic until lightly browned and not burned. If you burn the garlic, it will taste bitter. After the onions and garlic were cooked, I added the beer and brought it to a simmer. Next, I added the beef bullion cubes and the rock sugar. The bullion cubes reduced down quickly but the big chunks of rock candy were taking a while and I was starting to lose liquid to evaporation. After about three-quarters of the sugar was melted down and one-third of the liquid reduced, I added all of the remaining ingredients and mixed them well to produce a thick sauce. I let it simmer for a little bit and took it off the heat.

The end result is a very sweet BBQ sauce with a touch of smoky flavor. The spices give it some depth and interest and the cayenne and black pepper give it a subtle kick without being spicy hot. Some BBQ sauces can be a little too tart from using vinegar but this recipe uses none.

After making the sauce, I used it for three different meals. For the first meal, I made grilled BBQ chicken by simply spreading the sauce over the chicken, letting it marinade for about 30 minutes and then cooking it on the grill slowly. For the next meal, I used the sauce to make homemade BBQ chicken pizzas. I mixed a little sauce with the cooked chicken that I used as a pizza topping and also used the BBQ sauce as the sauce for the pizza. Finally, I made BBQ bacon cheeseburgers with onions rings.

If I were to make this sauce again, I would try to make it a little bit less sweet. I prefer a balance of flavors in my BBQ sauces and this recipe is heavy on sugar.  To reduce the sugar I would first crush up the rock sugar so I can add a little bit at a time and I would also start with half the amount of maple syrup and add more as I would see fit.