This one is for us beer snobs, but it may also be helpful for those who don’t like beer at all.
We’ve all been in this situation: you throw a party, and one of your friends leaves behind a bunch of beer that you really don’t like. Maybe it’s light beer, and you only drink the craft stuff. Maybe it’s a wheat, and you’re more of a porter person. Maybe you don’t drink at all, and now there’s an unwanted case of beer in your house. Whatever the reason, you know this beer is going to sit in your fridge forever until you give up and throw it out months after the expiration date. If only there were some way to utilize it without drinking it.
Could you clean with it?

Hmm, it may smell good at first, but after a while… yeah, no thank you. Beer can be used to clean some surfaces (like cast iron), but as a general household clearer, it leaves something to be desired. That one’s out. Could you cleverly disguise it as something your girlfriend would like?

Yeah, no, she’s too smart to fall for that (which is one of many reasons that you love her after all). You could bring it to someone else’s party and leave it behind, but then people will feel the same way toward you as you do toward the person who originally left it at your party. There’s only one other option for those unwanted cans and bottles before we give up and dump them out.

No! Not that! I meant let’s cook with it!

Beer is a fun cooking ingredient since it adds moisture and flavor to a variety of recipes without adding a ton of alcohol or calories. For quite a while now, I’ve been switching out beer for the water in many of my recipes.
Need to add moisture to a chili?
Throw in a beer!
Need to create a tasty, seasoned broth to accompany some meat?
Throw in a beer!
Got literally anything stewing in a crockpot?
Throw in a beer!
And the wildest part is that every beer brings a different flavor to the table, so you can cook with pretty much any of them. One word of caution though: that whole “the alcohol cooks out” thing isn’t true of every dish, but the alcohol is certainly diluted to the point that it won’t have much (if any) effect. While my “Bad Baptist Chili” is certainly in the running, I think my favorite beer-related recipe is beer bread. After all, beer is kind of a liquid bread anyway, so it only makes sense to showcase beer’s flavor in solid form. The recipe couldn’t be simpler either:

3 cups of flour (sifted)
3 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon of salt
1/4 cup of sugar
12 ounces of beer
1/4-1/2 cup of melted butter

Stir these together into a batter, pour into a loaf pan, and bake at 375 degrees for an hour (varying by your oven’s temperature).
If you want a fluffier, almost cake-like bread, pour all the butter directly into the batter, but if you want more of a crust, set some butter aside to go along the sides of the pan and on top of the batter. Be careful when using this second method though. Butter burns easily, and I’ve had more than a few loaves come out coated with char even though they were perfect on the inside.

Every beer gives the bread a different flavor. Some darker beers (like porters and brown ales) produce a bitter bread that pairs wonderfully with sweet preserves. Lighter beers (especially pilsners) turn out an almost sour bread that is perfect with apple butter. There are all sorts of modifications you can make too. If you’re using Dos Equis or Tecate, consider throwing in some jalapeños. If you’re using Harp, toss in a handful of chocolate chips or even some green food dye for St. Paddy’s. If you’re using a hard cider like Angry Orchard, reduce the sugar and stir in a finely diced pink lady apple (which is actually what I’m having for breakfast as I type this). Sometimes, the simplest is best though; I don’t get to say this often, but in the context of beer bread, my favorite beer is plain old Miller Lite. As always, have fun experimenting with this recipe, and if you come up with some other tasty modifications, let me know! I’m happy to post them here, and I’d love to try them myself. Happy baking.