beer
Also known as: Guinness Beer
A fermented beverage brewed from grain (usually malted barley), water, hops, and yeast; used in cooking for braising liquids, batters, and marinades as well as for drinking. Beer contributes malt sweetness, hop bitterness, and mild acidity to a pot, and its carbonation cooks off once it hits a hot liquid. Style matters more than price -- a dark, malty beer behaves very differently from a light lager or a hoppy IPA.
Buying guidance
Buy something pleasant enough to drink on its own; there's no need to spend more for cooking. Skip beers labeled heavily flavored, very sweet, or salted unless that specific style is wanted, and match dry versus sweet styles carefully, since residual sugar can throw off a braise or batter. A very hoppy, bitter beer can turn unpleasantly bitter as it reduces over a long simmer, so a malt-forward style is the safer choice for braising.
Substitutions
- Nonalcoholic beer -- closest match for malt and hop character without the alcohol.
- Beef or chicken stock plus a splash of vinegar -- reasonable stand-in as a braising liquid, though it loses the malty sweetness.
- Sparkling water -- in batters, supplies the carbonation lift without any beer flavor.
Tips & common mistakes
Beer foams up dramatically the instant it hits a hot pan or pot, so pour it in gradually, off the heat or over lower heat, rather than all at once into something already at a hard simmer, or it can boil over the sides.
Storage
Beer loses its carbonation within a day or so of opening, which makes it unpleasant to drink but doesn't matter at all for cooking, since the bubbles cook off in the pan anyway -- a half-finished, flat bottle capped and refrigerated is still perfectly good for a marinade or braising liquid a few days later.