The beer-in-everything sandwich

Beer is a great drink but is it good to eat? I wanted to make a sandwich and find out.

What is this sandwich?

After a little bit of thought about the beer-sandwich concept, I reached out to a smart friend who works at a great Chicago-based brewery, named Dovetail Brewery, and we met up to brainstorm and just generally discuss beer and sandwiches.

Note: this is not a sponsored sandwich blog post, but Dovetail Brewery is a great brewery that I’m a big fan of and they did provide me with the beers for free to create these sandwich recipes.

Dovetail’s beers

I met with Jenny Pfafflin from Dovetail Brewery (we call her JP) and she and I put our heads together to discuss the beer options for this sandwich. I had a rough concept for a beer braised short rib sandwich using a beer cheese spread and we talked through the other options. JP, a brewer who is also an Advanced Cicerone, was very helpful in being a second opinion and a knowledge expert on Dovetail’s line of beers and beer flavors in general.

In short, I knew I was in good hands with JP when it came to discussing food and beer flavors.

In this sandwich blog post, I plan to write about each of the four sandwich components and then tell you which ones really stood out as must-make-again. But first, I want to write about some simple tips for cooking with beer.

Cooking with beer

If you’ve never heard of it, beer is a consumable liquid that is usually made from a hot porridge-like mixture of water and malted barley (or other grains) that has been cooled and then introduced to living yeast cells. The yeast consumes the sugars that are extracted from the mixture to produce carbon dioxide and generate alcohol. Because beer is typically made from a base of barley grain that has been roasted to differing levels of color and toastiness, beer will often have flavors that will be similar to bready or nutty flavors.

Another prominent ingredient in beer and its resulting flavors is hops. Hops are cone-shaped flowers that are used as additions in the brewing process and they add bitterness and flavor to the finished beer. Because of the bitterness that hops bring to beer, when you cook with beer in a sauce and reduce it, the bitterness should be amplified.

You should consider how sweet or bitter the beer is when applying it to a dish. If what you are cooking might be better with a touch of sweetness you should add a beer that leans malty because it could contribute caramelly sweetness as another layer to the recipe. A beer style like porter or stout could contribute chocolaty flavors or roasted bitterness to a dessert like you might taste in coffee. If the beer is hoppy and bitter you might want to use it to balance out sweet flavors.

Beer can also be added to batters that will be used for frying to make them lighter due to the bubbles or carbonation. A pilsner or lighter lager will often be used to create a batter for frying fish or onion rings to give them a super light, crispy exterior.

Beer is more than 90% water so you can experiment and treat it like water in a recipe. Just keep in mind that like beef or chicken broth, any reduction in the volume of beer during the cooking process will amplify the flavors.

Does food cooked with beer still contain alcohol?

I have often heard people on tv or YouTube cooking shows claim that the cooking process will “burn off” the alcohol or evaporate it leaving the dish alcohol-free and that simply isn’t true. Some of the alcohol will dissipate, but not all. This short blog post from a registered dietitian at Idaho State University gets into how much alcohol might be left in a certain type of dish after being cooked for a certain period of time. But the alcohol never fully disappears. This isn’t a big deal if you’re cooking for yourself (and you are an adult), but if you’re cooking for a group that you do not know well, you might just want to check that everyone is ok with a little bit of residual alcohol in the final dish.

Now that we all know some basic concepts about cooking with beer, we should talk about the four components that I used in this sandwich.

Sandwich component 1: Rustic hefeweizen loaf

First, since we’re making a sandwich, we need bread.

Dovetail Hefeweizen

Official Beer Description:
Easy to drink with a lingering, pleasant aftertaste. A rich, yolky-orange wheat beer, featuring the aroma of clove and fruit in perfect balance; refreshing with a hint of mandarin-orange-like acidity.
4.8% ABV

Long-time readers might not believe this, but I have only made beer bread once in my life before this sandwich and that was in the late 1990s when you were a baby. My first official beer bread turned out terrible and very dense because I didn’t do a good job of measuring the flour and then it was many years before I tried to bake bread again.

I did ok with this loaf though, because once you have some experience baking, using beer in a recipe instead of water is pretty much the same thing.

Adding beer as the liquid to a bread recipe should, in theory, work just fine as long as the measurements are correct. Beer is composed of more than 95% water so from the standpoint of moisture, they can be used fairly interchangeably in baking. For this recipe, I used my rustic sandwich loaf and swapped beer 1 for 1 (by gram weight) with the water in the recipe.

I added hefeweizen to this recipe and while it produced a tasty bread, the beer flavor was very lost. I think in the future if I used beer in this recipe I would look for something maltier and maybe sweeter like a bock. I think I would save the hefeweizen for my glass.

Rustic sandwich bread loaf

Recipe Card

4 hours and 10 minutes

Rustic sandwich bread loaf

This rustic white bread loaf is baked inside of a Dutch oven. The main recipe requires instant yeast, but I have baked this same recipe using a sourdough starter—check the notes below the recipe for tips.

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Sandwich component 2: Altbier-braised short ribs

After the bread, I wanted the main component of the sandwich to be braised short ribs.

Dovetail Altbier

Official Beer Description:
Literally, the “old style” of German beers. Malty, bitter and balanced. A top-fermented beer that undergoes cold-conditioning for a crisp, clean finish. .3L served in a traditional stange for that true Altstadt feel!
4.2% ABV

Short ribs are a fairly tough cut of beef and they typically are best when cooked down. You can accomplish this by cooking the beer at a fairly low temperature for a long-ish period of time, submerged in a flavorful liquid. This is called braising and it’s great to encourage the connective tissue in short ribs to break down and soften the meat.

I bought the wrong short ribs for this recipe but it worked just fine anyway. I wasn’t paying attention and I picked up flanken cut short ribs instead of a thicker English cut style. The cooking and recipe website, The Kitchn, has a pretty informative blog post about the two cuts of short ribs. The flanken kind is typically used in quick cooking situations like grilling, but they still work ok in a braise, there’s just not quite as much meat as you would like and they need a bit less cooking time because of their thickness.

Luckily I bought more than 4 pounds of flanken short ribs and I had plenty of meat, but the recipe that I used works with either type.

This beer-braised short rib recipe is a good one. I have cooked it a few times before and typically will use a non-hoppy lager or something like a brown ale. Dovetail’s altbier worked well because it brought malty flavor and while it is a little bit bitter from the hops, this recipe braises with the lid on, so the sauce doesn’t reduce enough for the hoppy bitterness to shine through.

I think the altbier in this recipe worked just fine, you could detect the slight bitterness from the hops in the final beef but like the bread recipe, the beer didn’t fully get a chance to shine here due to the long cooking process and the already strongly flavored braise. I probably could have adjusted that and used more beer and less broth, but that might have to wait for my next experiments.

Beer braised short ribs

Recipe Card

4 hours and 22 minutes

Beer braised short ribs

Juicy tender short rib meat is perfect for a grilled cheese or piled up on a bun with some crunchy slaw.

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Altbier-infused braising liquid for dipping

This meat braising recipe cooks the meat in a lot of liquid with the lid on the pot. This means there will be quite a bit of liquid left over when the cook is finished. You can and should store the meat in some of that liquid, but you can package the rest in the fridge and reheat it for dipping sandwiches.

Reserving and using that liquid for dipping turns this melty and beefy sandwich into something that’s even more decadent. Don’t do it if you are afraid of good things. If you’re ready to try it, you can microwave 1/4 to 1/2 cup of the liquid (remove any solidified, orange-colored fat on top of the stored liquid first) or heat it in a small pot while you are cooking the sandwich. Serve in a small cup or ramekin for dipping and you’re all set up for a great time.

Sandwich component 3: Smoked beer cheese spread

Short ribs work great with cheese, so I tackled that component next.

Dovetail Rauchbier

Official Beer Description:
Our version of the Bamberg classic. Dark with reddish tones and an off-white head of rocky foam standing above the rim of the glass; as you bring it to your nose, you feel like you are eating a chocolate bar in a smokehouse, full and rich with generous hopping to balance the flavor of beechwood smoked malt.
5.3% ABV

You probably already know, but smoked cheese is a good thing, especially for snacking. This recipe isn’t using smoked cheese, it’s using cheddar cheese mixed with smoked beer. Dovetail’s rauchbier brings a big flavor to this spread that’s great for crackers, tortilla chips or even used as a spread in a sandwich like the one I’m writing about.

The other ingredients in this recipe are Worcestershire sauce and Dijon mustard which both bring contributing flavors to the final spread. The full recipe can be made in a food processor if you have one or with a bit more chopping and mashing, you can make it with just simple tools as well.

This spread really shines with the smoky beer flavor. If you like smoked cheese, like a gouda, you will really enjoy this cheese spread. I have made this recipe with other styles of beer, but this was the first time I used rauchbier and I really think it took the whole thing to the next level.

Smoked beer cheese spread

Recipe Card

15 minutes

Smoked beer cheese spread

Adding a rauchbier to this cheese spread brings smoky flavors to an already great topping for crackers or a solid addition to your next grilled cheese.

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And some extra cheese

The smoked beer cheese spread introduced a lot of flavor to the sandwich but after I tried it the first time, I felt the sandwich needed more cheese so I shredded some regular unsmoked gouda and added that to all future sandwiches. This is a melt after all, so it needs to be extra melty.

Sandwich component 4: Kriek pickles

With all the beef and cheese, this sandwich needs some acid. So I made some pickles. With tart beer made with cherries.

Dovetail Vignette Kriek

Official Beer Description:
Spontaneously fermented in the Belgian lambic tradition but with Chicago microbes and 2300 pounds of fresh Balaton cherries from Michigan.

Chicago’s first commercially produced Kriek. Spontaneously fermented over two and a half years, in the Belgian lambic tradition but with Chicago microbes and 2300 pounds of fresh Balaton cherries from Michigan.
6.5% ABV

I’ve made a few batches of pickles for this sandwich blog. Usually, my go-to recipe is a quick pickle which uses vinegar to bring the acid to the party and doesn’t require the fermentation process to get involved. The pickle recipes that I have shared and use typically use a fairly equal amount of water and vinegar to be used as the base for a brine that typically includes sugar, salt, and various other spices.

My thinking for this Kriek pickle recipe was to replace the water + vinegar with a lambic-style beer which is mostly composed of a watery liquid that is typically very tart like vinegar. I didn’t want to add any extra vinegar because I knew it would overwhelm the beer flavors. I did add sugar and salt which both helped to make the finished pickles very enjoyable and not too tart to enjoy.

This is a simple quick pickle recipe with only four ingredients (one of them water) and it will really let the flavors of the beer shine through. The lambic-style beer I used was a cherry or Kriek version. I did not make a straight unflavored lambic pickle version using this recipe, but I have no doubt it would work. This particular beer that I used did have some additions of cherry from the Dovetail Kriek to make the pickles even more interesting.

I was happy with these Kriek pickles. JP acted like she was too.

Kriek lambic-style pickles

Recipe Card

25 minutes

Kriek lambic-style pickles

This tart and fruity pickle recipe brings a bit of funk to what would be a normal basic pickle. You can use a plain lambic as well, it just won't have the fruity flavors.

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Sandwich assembly process

First priority when getting started with the build process of this sandwich is that you’re probably going to be dealing with room-temperature meat at best. For all the times I made these, I was pulling the short rib meat right from the fridge, so we had to heat that up.

This works well when you’re making a melt though because the meat can get hot first and then it will help to warm up the other components inside the sandwich. In theory, this should ensure that the cheese inside the sandwich gets as melty as possible. I just warm up a small pot or skillet and add a big scoop of meat and warm it in a pan for about 5 minutes until things start to sizzle a bit. Stir it around for a bit and you can even have a little chef snack to see if it’s warm enough before you start the rest of the sandwich process.

Sandwich cooking/griddling process

Once you have the sandwich built, the cooking process is just like making a grilled cheese. If the meat was warmed, then you probably do not have to worry too much about the cheese melting or the interior of the sandwich getting warm, you just need to cook to crisp up the outside and turn it golden brown and crusty. This takes me about 3 minutes per side, but sometimes I cook it just 2 minutes and flip the sandwich a couple of times during the process, just to make sure I don’t overcook the exterior.

Once the sandwich is consistently golden brown on both sides, it’s time to serve.

I got beer-in-everything sandwich photos and a recipe

This was a fun sandwich to make. I once again want to thank Dovetail Brewing and JP for hooking me up and assisting with some thoughts and concepts to help pair the beers to the sandwich ingredients. I have created a full recipe for this sandwich with instructions for the altbier short ribs and smokey beer cheese spread included.

I was attempting to keep the recipe a bit less complicated so I did not include the hefeweizen bread recipe or the Kriek pickles. But I made sure that the pickle recipe is linked and available and I am encouraging anyone who finds the recipe to make sure they read this blog post to get all the details if they want to make the full sandwich. It’s fun and worth it if you are a big beer fan.

Both the pickles and the smokey beer cheese spread are easy recipes to make and I think they are the best of the four components. I made sure to create stand-alone recipes so you can make them by themselves if you don’t want to get into the full sandwich process.

Keep scrolling to see a bunch of sandwich photos and the sandwich recipe.

Dovetail Brewery beer-in-everything sandwich

Recipe

Dovetail Brewery beer-in-everything sandwich

This delicious sandwich is made from four components that all include a different Dovetail Brewery beer. If you want to make this sandwich, I encourage you to read the full sandwich blog post. This recipe does not include the Hefeweizen bread and I have linked the Kriek pickle recipe to keep things a tad bit more simple. But you can get all that info and more from the blog post.

Tags: beer beer cheese pickles short ribs

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by Jonathan Surratt (with Jenny Pfafflin)

Ingredients:

Altbier braised short ribs

• 3 pounds beef short ribs (English cut is preferred but flanken cut works ok too)
• 2 yellow onions chopped
• 3 tablespoons tomato paste
• 4 cloves of garlic diced
• 32 ounces Altbier (I used Dovetail Brewery Altbier - but choose something malty if possible)
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1 cup beef broth
• salt and pepper

Rauchbier beer cheese spread

• 8 ounce block of medium cheddar
• 8 ounce block of sharp cheddar
• 1 tablespoon worchestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• ¹⁄₂ cup Dovetail Rauchbier or another smoked beer (4 ounces)
• salt and pepper to taste

Sandwich assembly

• ¹⁄₂ to 1 cup short rib meat (from above)
• 2 Rustic bread slices (or sourdough slices)
• Rauchbier beer cheese spread (from above)
• Kriek pickles (or your favorite dill pickles)
• gouda cheese, shredded (or cheddar or Monterey Jack)
• 1 to 2 tablespoons butter

Direct Link to Recipe

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Directions:

Altbier braised short ribs: preheat oven to 350 F (175 C). 

Cut your short ribs into large pieces, I usually try to have one bone in each chunk which ends up with about 3-inch pieces. Liberally season each short rib piece with salt and pepper. In a large oven-safe pot or Dutch oven, brown your short ribs over medium-high heat until all sides are brown. This should take less than 10 minutes. If you have too many short rib pieces to comfortably brown, you may want to sear your short ribs a few at a time. When each piece has seared for a couple of minutes on each side, remove to a plate to rest.

Add the chopped onions in the same pot that you browned your short ribs. You will want to cook them for about 5 minutes. 

After 5 minutes the onions should have softened a little. Add garlic and tomato paste to the pot with the onions and cook, stirring often for 2 minutes. 

Two minutes later, add the beer, Worcestershire sauce, and all of your beef broth. 

Put your resting short ribs back into the pan with all the sauce. Roll them around to coat. 

Place the pot in the oven for 3 to 3.5 hours to braise. 

Remove the pot from the oven and allow the short ribs to cool for at least 20 minutes before using it in a sandwich or storing it. If you're not ready for sandwich time, refrigerate and you will warm the meat back up when it's time. Separate the meat from the liquid into a sealable container and then add just a little bit of liquid back to the meat before storing it in the refrigerator. Then, you can reserve the braising liquid in another container to be heated up and used as a dip for the sandwiches if you want (see notes). 

Rauchbier beer cheese spread: if you have a food processor you can use the processor to shred the cheese. If you don't have a food processor you will need to shred by hand. 

If using a food processor: shred the cheese in the food processor and then switch to the blade attachment and add the shredded cheese back in. Add your Worcestershire, Dijon mustard, garlic, and onion powders into the food processor with the grated cheese and pulse a few times. The cheese mixture will probably start to ball up or become really thick. This is when you can start adding the beer. Pour the beer in slowly and pulse until you get your desired texture. 

If NOT using a food processor: Once all the cheese is shredded or blended add Worcestershire, Dijon mustard, garlic and onion powders with the cheese in a large bowl and mix with a heavy spatula or spoon to combine. Once everything is combined, slowly pour in the beer a little at a time and mash/stir everything together until you get a texture that is spreadable. You might not use all of the beer this way, so you can drink that part. 

Grab a cracker and taste and see if you need to add salt and pepper. 

Store in a bowl or container with a lid in the refrigerator for a week or two.

Now it's time to sandwich.

Reheating meat: add around 1/2 to 1 cup of short rib meat to a small pan over medium heat. Cook for 5 minutes or until the meat is nicely warmed. You can also do this in a bowl in the microwave if preferred. 

Sandwich assembly: shred about 1/4 cup of gouda cheese (or cheddar). 

Spread a layer of Rauchbier cheese on one slice of bread. Top with all of the warmed-up short-rib meat.

Add a few pickles on top of the meat and then top that with the shredded gouda. Close the sandwich up with the second slice of bread.

Grilling/griddling: preheat a large pan or griddle on the stove over medium-low heat. Butter the outside of the top of the sandwich. After the pan or griddle has heated up for 4 or 5 minutes flip the sandwich over, butter side down, into the pan. Cook for 3 minutes on the first side.

Add about 1 tablespoon of butter to the top of the sandwich while it is in the pan. After 3 minutes on the first side, flip the sandwich again, butter side down, and cook for an additional 2 to 3 minutes on the second side. Depending on the color of the bread, you may want to flip and cook again a couple more times until the outside of the sandwich is golden brown and crispy. 

Remove the sandwiches from the pan/griddle and allow them to rest on a cooling rack for 2 minutes before serving.

Serve and enjoy. 

Notes:

When you are heating up the short rib for making a sandwich you can also heat up some of the reserved braising liquid to use as a dip to serve with the sandwich if you want. This will put things over the top and make for a much fancier sandwich experience. 

Oops…

Damnit.

I did all the work for this sandwich over multiple days, with a bunch of photos (as you can see above) and somehow I still managed to forget to get some Dovetail beer cans into the background of the final sandwich photos. So I did what any person who has a company-issued version of the Adobe suite would do. I whipped up this terrible Photoshop down below. You can use your imagination and this obviously edited photo to put all the pieces together in your brain.

Make sure you squint your eyes and this is sort of what it should have looked like…

Check back next week

Next week we’re traveling to Brazil and getting cheesy with a sandwich that every content creator on the internet has already made. What can it be?