Marinating with beer

With the grilling season just around the corner, I was thinking of different things I wanted to try. Has anyone marinated chicken or pork with beer? I think it could produce some tasty meats on the grill.

It's delicious!

I like to marinate chicken/pork in a stout with some garlic, pepper, and a bit of soy sauce. Let sit over night and toss on the grill. Heaven!

I've found that meat tastes better marinated in the darker beers, but that's just me. You could also make beer brats, of if you're going the rib route mix up a beer-bbq sauce. I don't have my recipe on hand but you can pull a couple up from google.

I usually try and find a way to mix up some beer/booze in most of what I cook, lol.

yeah it works good, just marinaded a steak with some green stout that I had to try (2 week mark sample). Good eats!!

Yeah beer brats are awesome :rockin:
I'm just trying to figure out what kinds of beer would be best suited for chicken. I LOVE beer can chicken and usually use some kind of regular beer (Budweiser) with worcester, garlic and spices. This year I'm going to change it up a bit and use darker beers for a try. Ribs might be delicious too!

Dark beers work well if they are light on hops.

I love IPA's etc., but for cooking, the bitterness doesn't usually work.

I use my Habanero Ale almost exclusively as a marinade. It is good, but it was an experiment. It is super spicy. I use it to make wing sauce, or to marinate scallops. Delicious!

I made some corned beef with my Russian Imperial Stout. Pretty much any meat will be good with a stout marinade.

We've used beer in a lot of different foods. Just about any kind of beer for a fajita marinade, guiness and bud for brats , Belgian beer stew. I'll put beer in the water pan on the smoker. There's really no limit

cheezydemon said:

Dark beers work well if they are light on hops.

I love IPA's etc., but for cooking, the bitterness doesn't usually work.

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I second the avoidance of any beers with high AAU or lots of hops flavor and aroma that may be converted to bitterness as it is cooked. The worst thing I ever tried with beer was simmering brat's in an IPA. For some reason, thought the aroma would come through, but nope, just Bitter.

I third that. I usually keep IPA's around.....no dice in the cooking department. Stouts/Porters (and especially the smoked variety) seem to work fantastic. I know Stone's restaurant uses their smoked porter in everything, from sauces to mac and cheese. I would also like to give a shout out to using dark beers in stews. A tender beef stew using an Irish stout can be wonderful.

5 Is Not Enough said:

I second the avoidance of any beers with high AAU or lots of hops flavor and aroma that may be converted to bitterness as it is cooked. The worst thing I ever tried with beer was simmering brat's in an IPA. For some reason, thought the aroma would come through, but nope, just Bitter.

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i cooked a ton of brats in an IPA/APA mixture with a tons of onions at a party last year and i didnt notice the bitterness coming through...maybe i got lucky....i wont try it again with all these negatives.

You have got to try the "Chick-Can"... it is awesome. We have used several beers from a can but you can use bottled beer if you transfer it to a can.

Has anyone tried using malt extract straight? You could roll some meat in egg and then roll it in the DME and grill it, or maybe braze the chicken with some liquid extract mix.

atarlecky said:

Has anyone tried using malt extract straight? You could roll some meat in egg and then roll it in the DME and grill it, or maybe braze the chicken with some liquid extract mix.

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You need to find one of these old books!



Most of the old brewerys stayed alive during Prohibition by continuing to produce malt extract for cooking. While at the same time putting "warnings" on the cans telling people not to mix the extract with water, hops and yeast...as if anyone could really make beer with malt extract, water yeast and hops!

ScubaSteve said:

A tender beef stew using an Irish stout can be wonderful.

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Or a pie... HMMM Steak and Guinness Pie...

I use Apfelwein for everything. Brats, chicken, beef, and especially pork!
Any meat that IO grill or smoke is marinated with HB/Apfelwein.

Here's a good brine to use w/ poultry or pork. Brining times vary depending on the cut of meat used.

Brine
4 cups hot water
¾ cup kosher salt
¾ cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 tablespoon coursely ground black pepper
6 bay leaves, crumbled
2 X 12 oz. bottles/cans cold dark beer
1 tray of ice cubes
2 cups cold water

Just made an awesome strip steak. I don't have a grill, so I broiled it in the oven. Took about a cup of my Zebulon Pike Porter, some brown sugar, garlic, salt, and some spicey mustard and marinated the steak for about 2 hours in the fridge. Then preheated the oven to broil, cooked it for about 4 min on one side, flipped it cooked it for another 3 min, flipped it again, cooked it another 2 min. Came out a perfect medium rare, and was super tender and flavorful.

malt extract is used in large amounts in the pharmicudial industry...used as filler

I have a corn beef & cabbage recipe,

1 corn beef, packet of season that comes with it, 1 miller lite.(trust me) let sit for three days..... start your grill sear corn beef then a transfer to hotel pan add plugard buter, some killiams & seal pan with aluminum. braze till almost done add more butter & cabbage let cabbage steam...........serve with irish soda bread...

Domestic American pale lagers like coors light work really well for brats. Low on hops, and you get the beer flavor. You can get it for cheap, and save your homebrews to wash down the brat!

funkybassmannick said:

Domestic American pale lagers like coors light work really well for brats. Low on hops, and you get the beer flavor. You can get it for cheap, and save your homebrews to wash down the brat!

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Any HB recipe that didn't turn out quite the way you wanted makes a great cooking beer, too. You loose the subtle nuances and intensify the base flavors when you cook with it. For instance when I had a batch of oatmeal stout that overattenuated, making it a bit thin and watery to enjoy on its own, it became my go-to cooking beer until the keg kicked. Beer brazed porkchops and onions, brats, every conceivable marinade, what was mediocre in the glass turned into heaven in the kitchen/on the grill.

I also tend to mix my Apfelwein recipes a bit large 5.5-5.75 gallons, when I keg 5 gallons I save the extra in a growler/carafe and plan a series of chicken/pork/seafood around using the still leftovers. My parents did a pork loin in some I gave them off the last batch and they said it was heavenly.

I use beer exclusively for my roasts in a crock pot. Makes the best gravy hands down...On a side note my first Mr. Beer batch that needed nothing but time (had I only read around on here first...) made just as good of a roast as any other beer I've used.

anytime i cook ground beef for something (tacos, sauces, etc) i press out the fat and replace it with beer. turns out fantastic every time. no more grease dripping down your arm, but twice the flavor of the fat alone.
i also marinate/baste/beer bbq sauce nearly everything i grill with beer.

I like to marinate chicken in a sauce I make from porter & huckleberries. You can also use blue berries if you want. It turns the white meat dark, but it's really tasty. Just freeze 2 cups berries in a 1 gallon ziploc bag for a day or 2. Then thaw those berries & mash them with your hands. No need to get your hands in there, just squeeze them through the bag, or leave them in the bag & mash them against the counter top with your hands, just be sure the bag is sealed well.

Pour about 20oz. of your favourite porter into the bag with the berries, I originally made this with Samuel Smiths Taddy Porter, but even a stout will work. Mix well & add your chicken pieces, reseal the bag & place in the refrigerator for at least 3 hrs. Turn the bag at 1.5 hrs. I've let this marinade for as long as 2 days, but I think it's best at about 3-4 hrs. Regards, GF.