Story by Janice Veteran • Staff Photojournalist

When some people think of beer, they may think of tailgating or parties of some sort. However, beer is becoming the best known secret to spice up cooking. There are several new printed books and e-books out on cooking with beer. Also, cooking with beer will give you more recipes than you can cook in one semester.

Sean Paxton, professional chef and home brewer, designed the dinner menus for the annual Homebrewers Association’s website, homebrewchef.com, which has recipes and offers aide to aspiring beer chefs.

As you may know, there are several different types of beers on the market. Most people know of the ones made by the mega-breweries that are light in color and flavor (typically a Pilsner style), but there are also the malty beers that impart a different flavor. You may or may not like to drink these types of beers, however you will find that when you cook with them, they produce far different flavors to food than their tastes as a beverage.

Beer can be used in almost every type of cooking there is: appetizers, soups, stews, breads, entrees, sauces, spreads, glazes, meat marinates, breakfast foods and desserts. You name it, and there is a recipe for the dish that includes beer. Used properly, beer turns the most ordinary foods into exceptional party fare. Beer works great as a marinade for beef, chicken, pork, fish or seafood. In roasting, baking or broiling, beer is used to baste the foods or as an ingredient in the basting sauce to reveal a rich, dark color and high- light gravies.

The better you know and understand beer, the better the application of beer in your meal. It is the perfect ingredient for your meat marinade because it is much less acidic than wine, vinegar or citrus juices, which are typically used in BBQ sauces and marinades. It will tenderize the meat without breaking down the texture as rapidly as the more powerful acids. Also, the balanced flavors in beer means that the other herbs and spices will not be overwhelmed by acetic notes. Also, it is typically less expensive than wine.

Malty beers can be used as a replacement for liquid ingredients such as water in cookies and breads. Pale Ale or IPA style beers have an up-front bitterness that works well with items you would normally cook with citrus juices. Instead of lemon juice, try an IPA. Baste your chicken in a pale ale. Have any left over beer that has gone flat? Your cooking doesn’t care. Add it in there.

David Myers, chef and Austin Community College culinary arts professor, said he recommends thinking about the food versus the flavors of the beer. A beef or pork dish can stand up to a malty beer, but a chicken dish would be overpowered and needs a lighter beer such as a pilsner or pale ale. There are many recipes where an imperial stout or a smoked porter is used in making a glaze or sauce for a beef dish.

Wheeler of Rogness brewer Dan Wheeler and his wife Laurie said they use beer in much of their cooking.

“The (512) Pecan Porter was great in chocolate pecan cookies,” Laurie said.

She said they’ve also tried using an extra special bitters (ESB) style beer in making caramels, Young’s Double Chocolate Stout in brownies, and have even heard of using Rogness Yogi Spiced beer in apple pie brownies.

“The Yogi has the winter spices usually seen in apple pie or pumpkin pie,” Laurie said. “Using the Yogi instead of the liquid, such as water, will give the foods some great flavors.”

If you need to bring a side dish to the adult Thanksgiving dinner, consider a spiced up cranberry sauce using fresh cranberries, fresh orange, coriander, honey, sugar and some witbier (a wheat beer mainly brewed in Belgium and the Netherlands). The witbier will bring out the citrus, sweet and sour flavors of the orange and the cranberries.

If your mother accuses you of drinking too much beer, remember that the alcohol does evaporate during the cooking process. It’s a science project and you are the scientist. Craft beer is about experimenting with flavor combinations — there are no rules.