Cooking With Beer

I should really use Cooking With Beer as a tag instead of a title, because it's what I do.

I walk into a brewery, start tasting, and inevitably, the beers I really like are the ones I want to turn into a recipe.

Like right now. I'm drinking a Tripel from Legend Brewing. I'm sitting on the patio in the lovely, perfect warm sunshine, and all I can think is: banana bread. Or truffles. I can totally do chocolate beer truffles, right?

This Tripel hits you with banana right off. If I were going to drink beer for breakfast (what, it has grains and fruit and... okay, never mind. Ice cream is better for you.) this is the one I'd choose for a fruit-forward meal.

But - and yes, this is in the notes but it's totally true - on the third sip I got bubblegum. The kind of bubblegum wrapped in the paper with the comics on them. Or in the fake tobacco pouch.

It's the taste of I'm ten and at the skating rink on Saturday morning again.

I enjoy drinking beer; I really do. But I like cooking with it even more. I like coming up with wacky recipes that use beer and it's why one of these days I'm going to open up a restaurant where all I do is cook with beer.