There is more than one way to celebrate International Beer Day. You can go hunting for the most popular beer and do a beer crawl, or if you are a cooking enthusiast, try to cook something with your favorite beer.
I decided to add a few expert tips to my tiny cooking knowledge, from Chef Michael Swamy and the Executive Chef, Sanjay Mitra, at Best Brews, Four Points by Sheraton, Pune.
There are as many types of beer as different combinations with the usual beer ingredients. However, we never had many choices here until now, and India Pale Ale that came with the British has been the staple for as long as I can remember.
This fermented bitter drink provides a unique taste to the dish and chef Mitra advised that you will get the most flavorful dish if you marinate the meat in beer overnight.
Best Brews at Four Points by Sheraton is the perfect place to spend a couple of hours with your friends and peers at the end of the day. The mellow lighting and typical Pub-style environment along with the lounge seating can help you relax, chat and taste the amazing beer cocktails mixed by their Master mixer Abhishek Shevade.
Some of us just love the bitter taste of beer. That is what we yearn for. And I always liked the bitter ones over the sweeter or light ones.
Abhishek shared his concoctions that were infused with various combinations of fruits and spices that gave the beer a unique taste that could complement the type of cuisine you are planning to try.
The beer cocktails were high on flavor. A nice change if you love beer, but would like to experiment a bit with your taste. We started the evening with a shot of Espresso mixed with beer which was strong on the coffee flavor, but also had a hint of fermented beer taste. This one surely is for coffee lovers who cannot have enough from the office coffee machine.
Hey, don’t forget, we were there for the food (wink). Chef Mitra made sure that we didn’t go far away form the taste of beer on this International Beer Day.
He had an awesome chicken recipe for us, and I don’t think there was a single individual in the room who wasn’t awed with what chef Mitra had up his sleeve.
The Drunken Beer Butt Chicken. We have beer-bellys, chickens get . . . The simple spiced chicken, marinated in beer adds a unique flavor to the Paprika-herbs-olive oil mixture. With a long marination time you can get the flavors to permeate to the bone and have the juices keep the chicken moist.
I loved the taste of the spice-beer marination and chicken was cooked so perfect that it literally dissolved in your mouth as it came off the bone. I can’t wait to get my hands on the mix and shove one in the oven.
But you gotta have beer! Abhishek came up with a couple of more concoctions to make beer interesting. Someone who wants to drink beer but is put-off by the bitter taste will love these flavorful drinks.
For the Star & Stripes, Abhishek’s beer of choice was Peroni, which was infused with Star Anise-Apple-Peach mixture. The delicate taste of Peroni ensured that the fruits and spices were not lost. Abhishek also shared with us that it is best to use light flavored beers when making such mixtures, and whenever you can, drink draught beer instead of the bottled one.
Our education in cooking with beer went up again when Chef Michael Swamy from Le Cordon Bleu showed us the perfect way to cook Ale Cooked Lamb. Chef Michael showed us how to marinate with delicate fruit flavors and Pale Ale of your choice and grill the Lamb Shanks in a pan. The shanks were then topped with the rest of the marinade cooked and used as sauce.
Four Points by Sheraton on Nagar Road, Pune is a great choice for people visiting Pune as well as those who come here on business trips. All the hotel rooms adhere and maintain the quality standards at Sheraton and Starwood Hotels worldwide. Once in the hotel, guest will get the familiar feel of the Sheraton hospitality and comfort, which is consistent throughout the chain.
International Beer Day or not, the Dimpled mug with the bubbly golden nectar is perhaps the most nutritious drink you can have at the end of the day. Next time you want to experiment with your beer, Abhishek at Best Brews will not disappoint you.
So head over there, buds!