Bites And Brew Microbrew Revolution Makes Its Way To The Dinner Table, With Chefs Using Suds For Flavoring In Sauces And Desserts

There’s nothing like a good beer on a warm day - in a salad dressing, or a pasta sauce, or maybe a mousse.

As befits its traditional image as a basic, working-class beverage, beer’s appearances in food have been largely limited to hearty soups and bread batters.

But with today’s microbrew revolution producing a wide array of styles, adventurous chefs are turning to beer in the more sophisticated sort of dishes that were once the province of wine.

“It’s a new avenue for chefs,” says Dale Yates of Spokane’s Birkebeiner Brewing Co. “Before, it was always wine, wine, wine. But now there are all these interesting (beer) flavors out there that you can do a lot with.”

Yates recently used Birkebeiner’s Vienna cream ale as a base for a stir-fry sauce, and eventually plans to make almost all of his desserts with beer.

In Coeur d’Alene, Jimmy D’s chef/ co-owner Chip Thomas considers Thomas Kemper’s new white beer, with its orange and coriander notes, perfect for steaming mussels.

Thomas also poaches baby back ribs in the locally brewed T.W. Fisher ales and serves them with a bourbon barbecue sauce, for what he calls “boilermaker ribs.”

Because of its acidity, beer is a good marinade to tenderize meats, says Stann Grater of Hale’s Ales, who formerly worked as a chef. Just remember to take chicken or fish out after an hour or two, so the flavor doesn’t get too intense.

Smoked beer works well in barbecue marinades, adds Bob Ketcham of Jim’s Home Brew Supply in Spokane. Some of his customers soak wood chips in beer instead of water before grilling.

And one of the tastiest, and easiest - albeit odd-sounding - beer desserts is a stout float: a scoop of ice cream in a glass of rich, dark stout ale, typically accompanied by a brownie.

Some of the area’s most ambitious beer recipes have been rendered by chef Dave Hill at Spokane’s Restaurant and Pub.

Hill regularly hosts special beer dinners, four-course meals featuring products and speakers from regional breweries. A glass of the beer used in each dish is served alongside it.

Past creations include wild greens and spiced pecans with a Northern Lights crystal bitter vinaigrette, salmon marinated in Redhook’s honey stout and a white chocolate mousse using Rogue’s Maierbock.

“Whenever I drink a beer, I always try to think what food it would go well with,” says Hill, himself a home brewer. “I don’t think I’ve ever not thought of anything.

“If I think something, and my mouth tells me it’s a good idea, it’s usually right.”

Standard wisdom says beer should be paired with foods in much the same way as wine: lighter beers and white wines with more delicate dishes, heavier beers and red wines with more robust dishes.

There are exceptions to the rule. One of the more unusual combinations on Hill’s regular menu is an aioli - a garlic-mayonnaise dipping sauce - using Hale’s hearty Moss Bay stout.

“Sometimes, you don’t want to add a lot of liquid to something,” says Hill. “A small amount of a highly flavored beer will give you the same effect.”

But you can’t just pour any type of beer into any type of dish and expect satisfactory results.

“Beer has a more pungent flavor,” says Jerry Schrader, chef at Spokane’s Cannon Street Grill, who has started offering occasional beer dinners along with his trademark wine dinners.

“I would not put a nice stout in a marinara sauce,” Schrader says. “That doesn’t work. It’s not going to marry the flavors together. The citric acid in grapes marries perfectly, but beer and tomatoes don’t marry too well - sort of like Liz Taylor.”

Cooks need to use extra caution with highly hopped beers, whose bitterness intensifies during cooking.

“I made some lentil soup one time and I thought Grant’s Scottish ale would be perfect in it,” recalls Ketcham. “At first, it tasted wonderful, but as it cooked into the food there was an unusual flavor. I realized it was the hops. It was in every bite you took, whether vegetable, beans or broth.”

Says Birkebeiner’s Yates: “I do have to add sugar to recipes I normally wouldn’t, to smooth out the hoppy bitterness. But you don’t want to disguise it too much. You want people to really know there’s beer in there.”

More bitter beers work best in spicy, stronger-flavored foods. Hill used one of the hoppier beers around, Grant’s India pale ale, in a whole-grain mustard sauce with chicken.

Schrader paired Hale’s special bitter with green peppercorns in a cream sauce he put over smoked sausage and fresh herb pasta. Without the peppercorns, Schrader says, “You would have tasted a lot of beer.”

Brewpub chefs, like Yates, have one way around the problem: using wort - the basic liquid made from cooking malted grain, before hops are added - instead of finished beer.

“You cook down the wort to reduce it and get intense, grainy flavors,” Yates says. “You can taste it, but you don’t have to worry about the hoppiness.”

Yates has used wort in such desserts as a marsala sabayon over ice cream, a sorbet with a doppelbock sauce and a chocolate stout mousse, and is working on a wort sauce to serve with buffalo steaks.

There are even uses for the spent grain left over from making wort.

While it isn’t on his menu, Yates has experimented with using the ground grain along with semolina flour in pasta. “I had to cook it very al dente, because it fell apart easier than with 100 percent semolina,” he says.

And Bob Hancock, co-owner of Spokane’s Fugazzi bakery and cafe, is talking about using spent grains from Birkebeiner and other area brewers to make a series of special breads bearing the breweries’ names.

“They could offer the breads on their menus, and we could sell them here, too,” Hancock says.

It certainly gives “beer bread” a whole new meaning.

Beer shows up in everything from omelets to risotto, fajitas to flan in the “Great American Beer Cookbook” by Candy Schermerhorn (Brewers Publications, $24.95; to order, call 303-546-6514).

I made the following recipes for a dinner party using Fort Spokane beers - Blonde Alt in the soup, Border Run in the mustard, Red Alt in the red pepper sauce and Bulldog Stout in the chocolate pie - with superb results, accompanying each course with the beer used in it.

Greek Avgolemono Soup

A definite departure from the typical beer-cheese soup, this can be served either warm or as a chilled refresher on a hot day.

6 cups rich chicken stock

2 cups wheat beer

1/2 cup washed long-grain white rice

4 eggs

2 egg yolks

1/4 cup freshly squeezed and strained lemon juice (one large lemon’s worth)

Salt to taste

Finely minced mint and/or grated lemon peel for garnish (optional)

In large pot, bring stock and beer to a slow simmer. Add rice; cover and simmer slowly for 15 minutes. Turn off heat.

Beat eggs and yolks until frothy. Whisk in lemon juice. Stir 1/2 cup of hot stock into the eggs, whisking thoroughly. Slowly, stirring constantly, pour the warmed egg mixture into the hot stock.

Cook over low heat 4-5 minutes or until soup thickens slightly. Season, garnish and serve (or chill) immediately.

Yield: 8 servings.

Sweet-N-Hot Beer Mustard

Great with pretzels, in salad dressings and sauces and on grilled meats.

1/4 cup dry yellow mustard powder (preferably Colman’s)

1/3 cup flavorful beer, such as India pale ale, brown ale or dark Bavarian lager

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

Scant 1/4 cup sugar

1 tablespoon prepared horseradish

2 beaten egg yolks (or 1 tablespoon cornstarch)

Whisk together all ingredients except egg yolks. Cover and let stand 30 minutes.

Whisk in yolks (or cornstarch) and place in top of double boiler. Cook over medium-low heat until thickened, whisking constantly. Cool and keep up to three weeks in refrigerator.

Yield: About 1 cup.

Mustard Salad Dressing

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

4 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice

2 tablespoons sweet-n-hot beer mustard (recipe above)

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

1-2 cloves minced garlic

1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

Dried herbs to taste, such as thyme, savory, tarragon, oregano and basil

Whisk all ingredients together and let stand 1 hour before serving.

Yield: About 1 cup

Red Pepper Sauce

Try this on pasta, grilled chicken or steamed vegetables (I used a combination of the three). Don’t be alarmed at the amount of garlic; it sweetens and mellows when roasted.

10 large cloves garlic, unpeeled

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 cup brown or red ale

1 cube chicken bouillon

5 large red bell peppers, roasted, peeled and seeded (see note)

1/4 to 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1/4 cup fresh basil, finely minced

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon cayenne

Hot pepper sauce, salt and pepper, to taste

In small baking pan, toss garlic cloves with 2 tablespoons oil. Bake at 350 degrees until soft and golden; cool and peel.

Heat ale until hot. Add bouillon cube and stir until dissolved.

In food processor, combine roasted garlic, bell peppers, olive oil, basil, vinegar, cayenne and beerbouillon mixture until smooth. Season to taste. To serve, heat just until hot.

Yield: About 4 cups.

Note: Roast bell peppers on an outdoor grill, in a hot oven or under a broiler until skins start to turn black, turning often to char evenly. Put in a paper bag and seal; the skins will peel off easily when cooled.

Chocolate, Stout and Bourbon Pie

An easy-to-make example of the delicious synergy of stout and chocolate, with a bit of bourbon to boot.

Prepared 10-inch pie crust

1-1/2 cups brown sugar, lightly packed

1/4 cup flour

1/3 cup cornmeal

6 extra-large eggs

1-1/2 cups granulated sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

3/4 cup stout

1/3 cup fine bourbon (the sipping kind)

1 cup high-quality semisweet chocolate chips

Whipped cream to garnish

Beat eggs with granulated sugar until thick and light in color.

Stir together the brown sugar, flour and cornmeal; add vanilla, stout and bourbon, stirring to eliminate lumps. Fold in the beaten egg mixture and chocolate chips.

Pour mixture into crust and bake at 350 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes, until the center is set. Cool and serve with a dollop of whipped cream.

Yield: 8 servings.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Staff illustration by Charles Waltmire

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: Four-course beer dinner scheduled A four-course Hale’s Ales beer dinner is scheduled Sept. 12 at 7 p.m. at Cafe Grand, 1228 S. Grand. The menu includes baked brie and huckleberry chutney accompanied by razzleberry (raspberry) ale, salmon and rack of lamb with pale ale, gourmet greens with a honey-dijon dressing and Hale’s honey wheat, and a stout float. Cost is $25 per person, including tax and tip; call 455-7650 for reservations. The next beer dinner at Hill’s Someplace Else Restaurant and Pub, 518 W. Sprague, is scheduled for Sept. 19, featuring four beers from the BridgePort Brewing Co. in Portland: nut brown ale, Pintail extra special bitter, a caskconditioned stout and Old Knucklehead barley wine. Cost is $21 per person including tax and tip, with advance payment required; call 747-3946. - Rick Bonino