Cooking with Rauchbier

Cooking with beer is far from a novel idea. In fact, I would contend that it is an essential skill in masculine cookery. But the use of beer in the kitchen extends far beyond dumping a Coors your chili. Selecting the proper brew for the dish takes some thought and can be a rather nuanced art (since I mentioned it, chili calls for an amber/red ale, along the lines of Leinenkugel's Red, Smithwick's, etc). I could ramble on about what styles are good for what, but my focus here is rauchbier, or smoked beer.

Rauchbier is simply German for “smoked beer.” It sounds more sophisticated for some reason to say it auf Deutsch, though I suppose it is more appropriate to only apply it to truly German examples. The style originates in Bamberg, where maltsters traditionally kilned freshly-malted barley over smoky beechwood fires. More recently, smoked beers have found an audience among craft beer enthusiasts and are becoming much less obscure. Try an Alaskan Smoked Porter if you get a chance. The rich smoked character of these beers makes them excellent for use in cooking certain meats. I like to use a good rauch/smoked to cook pork “boneless ribs” (actually a strange transverse cut that largely includes loin). My procedure follows. Apologies to the recipe-oriented: I tend not to measure anything.

My two main ingredients are pork boneless ribs and a bottle of smoked Scottish ale I brewed recently. Combine these in a pot, add a splash of apple cider vinegar and some cayenne pepper. Cover and let marinade for at least an hour (beer, by the way, is on the acidic side, so is good for tenderizing meat), longer if you can stand it.

Boneless ribs need boiled to avoid toughness, so just boil it right in the marinade. This will also facilitate the absorption of more smoky beer goodness. Boil for a while, say 20 minutes, then transfer to a baking dish. I usually put a few rings of onion on top of them, cover with foil, then place in a 425 degree oven. 20-30 minutes will do it. This can, of course, be done on a grill as well, in which case it might be wise to reserve some beer as a mop. Either way, while the meat is cooking, continue to boil the marinade. Rauchbier reductions make an amazing sauce. Add a small bit of mustard to it, a little bit of garlic salt. Just keep boiling until it's reduced and thick. If you're adventurous, I've included pureed habañeros in the sauce with great success. When the meat is done, let it rest for a while (you'll probably still be making the reduction anyway). Then plate and spoon some of the sauce over it. Pair this dish with, yes, a smoked beer.

For curious homebrewers, here are the ingredients for the smoked Scottish ale (though I'm too lazy to look up the amounts in my notes): Cherry-smoked malt, Golden Promise malt, 120L crystal malt, carapils, debittered black malt; glacier hops; wyeast Scottish Ale yeast.

Fruit Beers: How Much Fruit?

I recently decided to brew a cherry dunkelweizen in the near future. Seems like a good springtime beer; some cherry tartness should be a nice complement to the banana- and clove-like yeast esters and likewise balance the sweet malts. I scribbled out a sound base recipe for a dunkelweizen without too much trouble (see below). Now I just have to figure out how much cherry to use. And this is where I hesitate. Brewing with fruit is not something I do often. How much cherry flavor is appropriate in the finished beer? Furthermore, how much fruit is appropriate in a beer in general?

I usually have trouble with qualitative analysis of fruit beers. For example, consider an extremely overstated raspberry beer. One that both smells and tastes like fresh raspberry and nothing else. I like raspberries, so I may enjoy drinking it. But is it well-made? Not really. I can buy some raspberry juice or wine and accomplish the same effect. So while it may be a decent beverage, it is not an impressive beer. Balance is typically the hallmark of a world class brew, and these "fruit-bombs" are anything but balanced. But then the issue becomes the definition of "balanced." I think I've established that the base beer should at least be detectable, but at what proportion of base beer to fruit is the beer balanced? The usual axiom for spiced beers is that if the drinker can identify the spice, then it's too much (the cardamom in Stone Vertical Epic 07.07.07 comes to mind). Fruit beers, though, seem to have a different standard; they require more fruit presence. After all, eating plain blueberries is commonplace, but I don't know anyone that will eat a spoonful of straight coriander (dares aside).

Hanssens Oudbeitje, a nice fruit lambic
made with Strawberries.

Then there are lambics. These traditional spontaneously-fermented beers are usually musty and sour, and frequently include fruit to add a little bit of balance and complexity. Because of the strong flavors involved, lambics can get away with more fruit than other styles without becoming overwhelming. It's still possible to have too much, though. Most products from Brouwerij Lindemans are far over-the-top with fruit. Try a Lindemans Kriek and a Cantillon Kriek (both lambics with cherries) side-by-side and decide which one is better executed.

After all of this, I still haven't answered my initial question. The fruit in a fruit beer should be identifiable, but not overwhelming. There's still a lot of room for play between the extremes. I'll call this the zone of "open to interpretation." As for my cherry dunkelweizen, I think I'll choose the conservative route with the fruit. Present, but toward the background. We'll see how it goes.

Oh, and for the curious, here is the base recipe for the dunkeweizen:

68% wheat malt
25% dark Munich malt
3.5% chocolate wheat
3.5% Special B

~10 IBU worth of Mt. Hood hops for bittering only. Weihenstephaner yeast. Cherry (amount TBD) in secondary.

Cheers,
--Joe

Greetings

 As if there aren't enough beer blogs on the internet, I've gone and started my own. This will, more than anything, serve as an outlet for my musings on all things beer-related. Some might be useful, some might not. Hopefully it will at least be interesting. The range of topics will include beer appreciation, brewing, and abstract concepts (a fancy way of saying "drunken ramblings").  Thanks for reading.

Cheers,
--joe