Craft Beer Flavors in BBQ

Craft Beer Flavors in BBQ

By Lucy Saunders

Large brewers are well-known on the American barbecue circuit as major sponsors of the outdoor cooking competitions. Now, Chef Brent Wertz of the Kingsmill Resort in Virginia, a property owned by the Anheuser-Busch Corporation, has helped develop a line of grilling sauces bearing the Budweiser imprimatur.

“We offer the sauces as a way to enhance the flavors of our beer with food,” says Chef Wertz. “What makes the product special is the taste of Budweiser, blended with spices and seasonings.” And the signature smoke taste comes from a proprietary liquid smoke, made from spent beechwood chips used in the aging tanks in the brewery and then turned into charcoal.

It’s another way for the giant American brewer to build on the concept of cooking with beer and a trend that proves barbecue and beer work together in the kitchen, as well as at the table.

Overall interest in grilling and barbecue with beer is growing. Even People magazine recently featured a recipe for a grilled steak salad with the beef marinated in porter and Asian spices such as five-star anise and orange zest. Several brewpubs make their own house “beer-B-que” sauces, with delicious results. But few have attempted bottling the sauces, with the exception of Sprecher Brewery of Milwaukee, which sells a sweet BBQ sauce made with its root beer. 

That’s because the flavor of the hops in beer will intensify over time, making a bottled sauce more bitter. Hops often contribute a citrusy or spicy aroma to fresh ales and lagers, making the flavors complement the warmth and heat of ginger and garlic.

Fresh craft beer flavors in barbecue prepared at brewpubs accent both caramel and smoke flavors. For example, the Stone World Bistro & Gardens in Escondido, CA, features the Stone Brewing Co.’s smoked porter in a remarkable chili BBQ sauce made with pasillas, garlic and other spices. A tamarind and ginger ale marinade brings heat to the Stone Brewing Co.’s buffalo burger.

The malt in craft beer enhances browning of foods cooked over direct flame. For that reason, I use most beer-based sauces at the last minute, or cook over indirect heat for much of the cooking time, adding just a slight char in the last few minutes of cooking over open flame.

Asian ingredients also accent many styles of craft beer. For example, Pangaea Ale from Dogfish Head Brewing Co. of Delaware uses ingredients such as ginger to add spice and taste to the brew.  In Singapore, Fal Allen, head brewer of the Archipelago Brewing Co., uses gula malaka (palm sugar) and lemongrass in making an exquisitely drinkable brown ale called the Trader’s Brown Ale. Both would make delicious bases for marinades and BBQ sauces.

If short on time, Asian sauces such as hoisin and spice pastes such as black bean chili paste may be thinned with a bit of ale or lager to make a fast mopping sauce to apply to barbecue that cooks over low heat, such as pork shoulder.

Following are two recipes for Asian-style barbecue adapted from my new book, Grilling with Beer: Bastes, BBQ Sauces, Mops, Marinades & More, Made with Craft Beer ($21.95, F&B Communications, LLC, sold online at grillingwithbeer.com).

Lucy Saunders is the editor of beercook.com and grillingwithbeer.com, devoted to craft beer and cuisine. She has published 4 cookbooks, and is now working on a new compendium of the best of American beer and food. She is based in Shorewood, Wisconsin.

Recipe 1 Tamarind Apple Ale Glaze
This glaze is sweetened lightly with applesauce, but you could substitute the more traditional ground palm sugar.

2 ounces tamarind paste
½ cup water
½ cup unsweetened applesauce
8 ounces pale ale
¼ cup sesame oil
2 tablespoons hot paprika
2 tablespoons palm sugar or molasses
1 teaspoon vanilla

Break off a 2-ounce chunk of tamarind (about 3 inches) and place in small skillet with water. Cover and simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally to break up the pulp. Cook 10 minutes, cover and set aside for 10 minutes.

In a separate 1-quart saucepan, mix applesauce, ale, oil, paprika, sugar or molasses and vanilla.  Bring to a simmer over low heat. Add softened tamarind paste and pan juices. Cook and stir 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool to lukewarm. Press through a sieve with a wooden spoon to remove stringy seeds from tamarind. Use as a glaze during final 10 –15 minutes of grilling for pork, salmon, or chicken. Makes 2 cups.

Recipe 2 Pale Ale Ponzu Sauce

Typically, a ponzu sauce is made with sake, but here, a floral-hopped pale ale stands in. A splash of mirin makes it sweet.

½ cup hoppy pale ale
2 tablespoons brown sugar or palm sugar
¼ cup fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice (1/3 to ½ grapefruit)
1 tablespoon fresh-squeezed orange juice (1/4 orange)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons mirin
1 ¼ teaspoons cornstarch
½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
½ teaspoon black sesame seeds

Mix all ingredients in a small skillet and place over medium-low heat. Simmer and stir with a whisk until thickened, about 1 minute. Remove from heat. Use as a glaze for grilled salmon or swordfish. Makes 1 cup.