Leftover beer...is that even possible?

August 30, 2009 5:04 PM

What are some good uses for leftover beer? A *lot* of leftover beer?

Last night, my roommate and I had a house party for her birthday. Due to a large misunderstanding, we ended up with 2 party balls of Bud Light (and a lack of a beer pong table, which probably would have eliminated the issue all together). We also had a lot of jello shots, hunch punch, and various hard liquors, and given that many of our guests don't really like beer, the party balls were largely ignored.

Because of that, we have a lot of beer left. About 3/4 of a party ball (about 60 8oz cups), to be specific. I made beer pancakes this morning for anyone still at the house, but that only used a few cups. I'm planning on making beer bread tonight, and my roommate and I are having beer (veggie) brats tonight. Beyond that...I'm clueless. We have no garden and no slugs to kill. We can't drink that much ourselves tonight. We need to return the tap to a friend of ours by Tuesday morning.

Basically: I need either recipes for using a LOT of leftover beer (keeping in mind that my roommate and I are both vegetarians) or some way of storing a lot of beer and keeping it good that doesn't involve keeping it in the party ball (no use of a tap after tomorrow),at least until I can cook enough to use it all.

posted by kro to Food & Drink (23 answers total)

Cook some brauts.
posted by geekhorde at 5:08 PM on August 30, 2009

Unless you're a vegetarian. DUH. Sorry. 2 year old was talking to me.
posted by geekhorde at 5:09 PM on August 30, 2009

Here! Beer!
posted by nosila at 5:15 PM on August 30, 2009

I'd modify a Belgian recipe - have you ever heard of Flemish stew?

Try this: chop up a bunch of onions and a load of mushrooms and fry slowly in oil in a large pot til softened and brown, stirring so it doesn't stick to the bottom. Throw in some chopped carrots and celery, maybe some potatoes, stri that round a bit, then use the beer as your "stock". Season as you want - I'd put thyme, salt, pepper, maybe some a bay leaf. It'll be halfway between French onion soup and Flemish stew...
posted by LN at 5:15 PM on August 30, 2009

wow, I clearly need to edit my posts more carefully. Stir it round, and, maybe a bay leaf.
posted by LN at 5:17 PM on August 30, 2009

Between beer batter (for pancakes or battering anything, really), beer bread, and veggie beer brats, you've probably got most of the vegetarian food options down. However, the beer doesn't need to be fresh or fizzy to use in cooking (except maybe the beer bread - I have made it succesfully with flat beer), so you could just pour as much of it as you can into some bottles or jugs and store in the fridge, using it for batter, brats, and bread over the next week or so.
posted by Dysk at 5:18 PM on August 30, 2009

Best answer: You could try freezing it in ice cube trays for future use. After thawing, I doubt it would be good to drink, but it would be ok for using in recipes.
posted by SuperSquirrel at 5:19 PM on August 30, 2009 [2 favorites]

I should have added - the amount contained in one or two cubes of an ice cube tray is a nice handy amount for recipes - usually a 1/4 cup or so.
posted by SuperSquirrel at 5:20 PM on August 30, 2009

Best answer: Beer cheese soup? This recipe calls for chicken broth, but I'm sure you could sub veggie broth. It also calls for Worcestershire sauce. I believe you can buy a vegetarian version of that.

You could make loads of it and then freeze it.

This cake sounds pretty delicious.

Here is another soup you could make and freeze.
posted by ephemerista at 5:26 PM on August 30, 2009 [1 favorite]

"We need to return the a tap to a friend of ours by Tuesday morning."

FTFY. You're welcome.

With that much beer at stake, it would just about be worth it to buy your tap lending friend a new tap, keep the one that you have on the party ball, drink the beer over the next 2 weeks at your leisure, and have a tap of your own for your next party ball gathering.
posted by paulsc at 5:36 PM on August 30, 2009 [2 favorites]

If he's a real friend, he will understand the importance of this issue and let you keep the tap for a little longer.
posted by chairface at 5:46 PM on August 30, 2009

chairface, unless (s)he has kegs that need drinking on the Tuesday. Beer trumps wantign a tap back, but beer doesn't trump more beer.
posted by Dysk at 5:48 PM on August 30, 2009

Mussels cooked with beer in lieu of wine. Freakin' awesome. Just one I do: 1-2 cans of beer, cloves of garlic, chopped up onion, bunch of butter, can of stewed tomatos; bring to a boil, add mussels, cover and cook for around 3-4 minutes.

Beer dip.

Use beer as a braise instead of basically anything else!
posted by shownomercy at 6:32 PM on August 30, 2009

shownomercy, I think you may have missed this bit from the OP:

keeping in mind that my roommate and I are both vegetarians...
posted by Dysk at 6:35 PM on August 30, 2009

Use 12 oz mixed in with 1 tbsp baking powder, 3.5 cups flour, and 1/2 tsp salt for an extremely easy (and customizable) pizza dough. You can make a huge pile of dough now and freeze it for later pizzas.
posted by mkb at 7:42 PM on August 30, 2009 [1 favorite]

Veggie chili with beer:

3 cans of beans, of various kinds (or fresh)
chopped onion
peppers (if you like them)
garlic
1 can of crushed tomatoes (preferably fire roasted)

Cook the onions down, add the garlic and peppers and whatever vegetables you want. When that cooks down, add the beans. Add beer until it reaches the desired consistency. Simmer for as long as you can stand it.

Additional seasoning suggestions:
cumin
salt
pepper
other chili powders (chipotle, ancho)
chipotles in adobo sauce
cocoa powder
cinnamon
smoked paprika
vegetarian bacon salt

You can make a double batch or more and freeze it for the long winter ahead. Each batch will take around 1 - 3 bottles of beer depending on the consistency you like.
posted by imposster at 8:19 PM on August 30, 2009

I'm by no means a binge drinker but, assuming you're college students, that really really doesn't seem like "a *lot*" of alcohol. By my calculations you're looking at the equivalent of a mere 17 pints or so of Scrumpy. Given you were partying last night you probably don't want another big one but why not invite a friend over and watch some cartoons - splitting it between three of you you should just get a comfortable buzz on.
posted by turkeyphant at 9:24 PM on August 30, 2009

Umm, drink it? It's not like an open bottle of wine, it won't go bad in a day or two. Make some room in the fridge, and enjoy having some draft beer on hand.
posted by wile e at 11:06 PM on August 30, 2009

Ahh, missed the beer tap thingy. Forget the friend, go rent a tap at the local beer distributor.
posted by wile e at 11:07 PM on August 30, 2009

I recently saw t-shirts that were dyed using beer. The results were awesome. I'd just combine general knowledge of beer stains with general knowledge of dyeing stuff (sorry, no link). Worth a shot, and you have a lot of beer to waste.
posted by alon at 12:26 AM on August 31, 2009

What the fuck? Unless it's some kind of special Holocaust tap that he has an emotional connection with, taps are taps. Tell your friend if he needs a keg in the next 5-10 days, to use the tap that the distributor gives you. Most times when you get a keg, the tap is free anyway except for a deposit, and maybe a couple of bucks "cleaning fee."

If your friend is not down with this, I would re-evaluate the friendship. You need to be able to drink your beer.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 4:52 AM on August 31, 2009

Have another party.
posted by craven_morhead at 8:16 AM on August 31, 2009 [1 favorite]

fill a kiddie pool and splash around in it.
posted by qbxk at 10:27 AM on September 1, 2009