Education
February 25, 2021
When people think of the perfect food to drink beer with, chili is at the top of most people’s list. It’s honestly a perfect pairing. Not only does beer work to cut the heat and spice of a proper bowl of red, but the residual sweetness in most beers nicely complements the caramelized meat. Since it’s the perfect thing to drink with chili, plenty of people consider adding beer to their chili recipe, but which beer style should you choose?
For the majority of people, the answer is simple. Whatever is in their hand when they’re cooking it! The typical choice is a pale lager, but does it make the chili taste great? I put it to the test, along with a few other beer styles to find the best option.
Over the course of multiple weekends, I made the same batch of chili using a variety of different beers as a braising liquid. I made an extremely basic recipe, using cubes of beef (chuck) browned in oil (ok lard), tossed in chili powder* and then in goes the beer. The full chili powder recipe and instructions are below.
TRIAL & ERROR
First up, as a baseline, I made the basic recipe with only water, and it was fine! It was very clean. Obviously, it didn’t add anything, but it didn’t detract. However, I know there are flavors in some spices (and tomato, if you’re using them) that only activate in the presence of alcohol, so I figured I could get more with beer.
So next I chose a pale lager. I used Flyway PILS. It was a little better than water, but it didn’t add a memorable flavor. But, it stayed out of the way and was a perfectly adequate choice, but c’mon, we’re beer knerds. We can do better!
A lot of people swear a stout is the best choice for chili. I certainly enjoy drinking our Black Robusto Porter with chili, so how would a dark beer taste? I already added a bit of cocoa to the chili powder, which seems like a natural fit, so I brought home a crowler of Drakonic Imperial Stout. Unfortunately, this was a bit of a disaster. The stout overwhelmed the flavor of pretty much everything. I went back and tried ½ water and ½ stout, but it was still too strong. Maybe if you don’t want to taste the chilis? Add ¼ cup less?
Although that didn’t work out, I still wanted to try and get the malt character of the beer to mesh with the chili, so I tried Drake’s Amber. The sweet caramel notes and underlying roastier malt notes seemed to really be a perfect complement to what was going on in the chili, but the results were similar to the stout. The malt just overwhelmed everything.
I gave a hoppy beer a whirl and tried Denogginizer Double IPA, but that was a flat mess. The underlying sweetness was nice, but the bitterness was not at all good. The bitterness concentrated, and the hop flavors I was hoping would complement the spice either boiled off (likely as those flavors are volatile) or just clashed.
THE WINNER
So at this point, I’m thinking maybe pale lager is the real go-to, but not being happy with that as an answer I took a shot at using Drake’s Hefeweizen. This turned out to be the big winner. The underlying sweetness somewhat melded with the brown notes on the beef, while that little bit of clove-y spice note blended nicely with the chili powder.
I suppose if I were designing a beer to use in chili, it would be high abv with a touch of caramel malt and minimal hops. Maybe a Belgian Dubbel would fly? But I’ve used Drake’s Hefe a few times in chili now, and I think it does a fantastic job.
JOHN’S CHILI POWDER RECIPE
*chili powder for 2 lbs meat:
– 4 dry & toasted Guajillo chilis
– 2 dry & toasted Ancho chilis
– 2 dry & toasted New Mex chilis
– 1 tablespoon Mexican oregano
– 1 teaspoon toasted coriander seed, ground
– 1 teaspoon toasted cumin seed, ground
– 1 teaspoon garlic powder
– ½ teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder
CHILI COOKING INSTRUCTIONS
- Take 2lbs of beef stew meat (I generally use chuck roast, but I’ve had great luck with Tri-Tip and brisket too). Cut it into chunks. I like to do an uneven dice with pieces ranging anywhere from an inch-and-a-half down to half-and-inch. The small chunks generally break down completely and add thickness/texture/body, while the bigger cuts still give you something to chew on.
- Brown in batches in oil or lard. Add the chili powder to the hot oil at the end (to bloom the spices), and toss in the meat, their collected juices, and the beer, not quite to cover, maybe 3/4s of the way up the meat. Be sure to scrape the bottom of the pan!
- Simmer 2ish hours (you want the big pieces of meat to be all but falling apart). If you HAVE to add beans and/or tomatoes, add towards the end of the cook.
