Brandy Substitution

[beerocracy]

Anyone have experience substituting brandy or other liquors in a food recipe with beer? I'm thinking of making a spiced pork tenderloin recipe that calls for a brandy & cream reduction sauce and would like to substitute a beer for the brandy. Any thoughts on what might work?

 

[pjj2ba]

Welcome to the forum!

Sherry is a classic addition to a cream sauce. If you want to use beer for the reduction. Go with a brown ale or something similar. You want something malty, and not too bitter. If it is too bitter, the bitterness will concentrate and become overpowering

 

[david_42]

Beer works best if it can be added late in the process. As pjj2ba mentions, the bitterness concentrates.

 

[weirdboy]

Note: do NOT use an American Brown ale.
Something like a Newcastle would be fine, but an American Brown would be too hoppy in my opinion.

An Amber or maybe a Belgian Strong style would also work.

 

[beerocracy]

I was leaning towards a stronger lightly-hopped ale. I'm pretty sure the bottle of 120 in the fridge probably wouldn't be a good idea. Anyone think a tripel would work? I have a homebrew tripel on tap. The sauce probably wouldn't be as dark as with brandy but that's probably not a problem.

 

[thataintchicken]

Use a schwarzbier. Pork and German beer are intended for each other.