Cooking With Beer: IPA Queso Dip

With the big game right around the corner, you need a great dip in order to really set your party up for success and there is no greater dip than a queso dip. Gooey, melty, and spicy the perfect queso dip can be the cornerstone for your party and by adding beer… it is all the better. Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I have been working on perfecting this recipe for the last few years. Tinkering with spices, beers, and peppers to ensure that this recipe is perfect in every way. Now that I have cracked the code for the perfect beer cheese dip I will share it with you.  

When it comes to the beer, an IPA will be your best bet and not just any IPA will do the job. This is a job for the New England IPA (e.g. hazy boi). West Coast IPAs will make the dip too bitter, while East Coast and English IPAs won’t make much of a difference and the juicy hop of the New England style is perfect. When it comes to ABV I would stick to 5% to 7% as any higher will give the dip a weird boozy taste. For me, using ‘Julius’ from Tree House Brewing has been the perfect beer but if you cannot get ‘Julius’ any beer that follows those guidelines is perfect.

Now here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:

¼ cup canola oil

2 poblano peppers

1 jalapeno pepper

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon onion powder

½ teaspoon chili powder

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 tablespoons flour

1 cup whole milk

½ cup IPA beer

2 cups shredded extra sharp cheddar cheese

1 cup shredded monetary jack cheese

1 cup shredded low moisture-full fat mozzarella cheese

1 roma tomato

salt and black pepper to taste

 

Method:

Roughly mince the peppers being sure to de-seed them. I like to keep some of the veins of the jalapeno for the spice but if you do not like a lot of spice just remove it all. Using half of the canola oil (about two tablespoons or so) sauté the peppers until softened using a large sauté pan. Then add in all of the spices and stir for about one minute or so until the spices are fragrant.

Next, add in the rest of the oil and stir until all of the peppers and spices are coated. Then add in the flour to start the roux. Cook out the raw taste of the flour for a few minutes until the flour is light golden brown and then add in the milk in stages roughly ¼ of a cup at a time. This will ensure that there are no lumps in your roux. Once all of the milk has been added stir until thickened and then add in the beer ¼ cup at a time.

Once the beer has been incorporated and thickened as well, add in the cheddar cheese. After the cheddar has melted slightly then add in the monetary jack and mozzarella and fold in until melted. Once the cheese has melted add in your diced and de-seeded tomato and gently fold in.

Finally, you can transfer your dip into the serving tray or serve in your cast iron pan. Optionally, you can put this under the broiler to crisp up the top if you’d like as well.

New Brew Thursday: 'Jjjuiceee Machine' from Tree House Brewery

Happy New Year everyone! Or Hoppy Brew Year if you please. One of my new years resolutions (aside from the usual one of losing weight) was to write more. Not only because I love to blog but because there are dozens of new breweries to visit, new recipes to experiment with, and new beers to try. So, when I saw that Tree House had brewed a new batch of ‘Jjjuiceee Machine’ a beer that I have been dying to try I knew I had to trek up to Canton for some cans and let me tell you two things. 1. Going to Tree House on random weeknights after work for a pour and cans is one of my new favorite things and 2. This beer is insane.

‘Jjjuiceee Machine’ pours into the glass with a deep and hazy orange with a nice white head. It has complex notes of orange, mango, and tropical citrus that battle each other for nostril supremacy and the nano-second one gets the upper hand the other two pounce to take it back. The taste? Sublime. Now, to be fair, ‘Juice Machine’ is one of my favorite offerings from Tree House and I am a little biased but this beer is insanely delicious. The initial pillowy-soft taste of mango perfectly transitions to a big, juicy, hoppy bitterness with a subtle taste of orange and tropical fruit. It then gives way to a long bitterness that lingers on the middle of the tongue.  With a thick and luxurious mouthfeel the coats the entire palate you’ll be able to taste every part of this beer. Clocking in at a dangerous 8.6% ABV you’ll be at the bottom of the glass before you start to feel it. ‘Jjjuiceee Machine’ is nearly the perfect DIPA in every way and quite possibly not only my new favorite from Tree House but one of my top favorites overall!

TL;DR: ‘Jjjuicee Machine’ from Tree House? Yeah, it’s alright.

New Brew Thursday: 'Bigger Peach' from Tree House Brewery

 Aside from walking their picturesque grounds and picking up my cans, one of my favorite things about visiting Tree House is their draft offerings. Not only because of how good Tree House is on draft but because they are constantly adding offerings that add variations to their classics. Whether it is adding guava or pineapple, adding oreo or marshmallow these are the things that make visiting Tree House all the better. Now, with them adding dried fruit to their IPAs and other additives you can take those rare delicacies home and there is no finer example of this than ‘Bigger Peach.’ A variation of ‘Very Hazy’ with you guessed it… Peach.  

‘Bigger Peach’ pours into the glass with a soft orange color and a nice white head. The sweet notes of peach hit you right away and hit you with wave after wave of their sugary sweetness with the slightest of hints of candied orange on the very back end. The taste? Exceptional. While I am a little biased as ‘Very Hazy’ is one of my absolute favorites ‘Bigger Peach’ takes the peach flavor of the Haze line-up and cranks it to 11. The sweetness of the peaches hits you right away but then gives way to a slight bitterness that lingers ever-so slightly on the middle of the tongue. With a thick mouthfeel it coats the entire palate with sweet peach and a soft bitterness. Clocking in at a dangerous 8.6% ABV you’ll be 90% though the glass before it you start to feel it.

‘Bigger Peach’ is a dangerously delicious beer, and you NEED to try it.

Rhode Trip: Grey Sail Brewing

(The next part in a multi-part series as we complete the Rhode Island Brewer’s Guild Passport. To learn more about the passport and download the app click HERE) 

In my last post, I discussed venturing out of our immediate location to visit new/different breweries and that in visiting those breweries we can be greeted with something truly amazing. This past weekend I made the trip to Grey Sail Brewing down in Westerly and while I have been there before, it is a brewery that I love visiting and if you have not been there, you should.

         
                                    

Grey Sail Brewing is a two-building operation, one building hosts the brewery with can, bottle, growler, and merchandise sales and the other hosts the taproom. While the brewery is in a standard warehouse, the taproom is an old Westerly mansion with the beer garden in the side yard. I have always stated that the best breweries remind you of drinking at a friend’s house and I have to say that drinking at Grey Sail is like drinking at your rich friend’s house. The space inside the house is really quaint, it is where the service bar is along with a few rooms with tables for indoor drinking. However, it is the outdoor beer garden that is truly a thing of beauty. It has several tables under a tree providing ample shade, along with more picnic tables underneath a long overhang. Both areas over look a vibrant lawn and beautiful water fountain that convey a sense of peace and calm. Near the picnic tables is a wood-fired pizza oven that pumps out some of the best wood-fired pizza you have ever had.

The Beer? Fantastic! I first grabbed a flight of a few of their offerings along with one of my favorite Grey Sail beers and they were all great. ‘Hazy Ho’ was light with a nice juicy hop, ‘Hazy Day’ the unfiltered Belgian had a nice malty taste with a lingering finish, and ‘Adrift’ was hoppy with a lingering bitter finish but ‘Captain’s Daughter’ stole the show. ‘Captain’s Daughter’ has been a staple in the Rhode Island beer community for years and has been prominently featured on draft lists across the state and it has served as my ‘Go-To’ Double IPA for years. I know this beer, I love this beer, and it is awesome both on tap and from a can. However, having fresh ‘Captain’s Daughter’ from the brewery is a life changing experience. The juiciness from the mosaic hop plays beautifully with the citra hop and leads perfectly into the piney flavor from the chinook hop and has a nice long finish. If you like ‘Captain’s Daughter’ you owe it to yourself to visit the brewery and try it fresh. Additionally, for those who may not like craft beer, they have mixed cocktails and hard seltzers from the distillery next door that are also phenomenal.

While Westerly is well off the beaten path for many of us, it is an absolute must visit to thoroughly enjoy the Rhode Island craft beer scene.

Grey Sail Brewing is located at 63 Canal St. Westerly, RI 02891. For more information about their offerings and the brewery click HERE.

Part one: Long Live Beerworks

Part two: Buttonwoods Brewery

Part three: LineSider Brewing Company

Part four: Taproot Brewing Company

Part five: Community Bruin (CLOSED)

Part six: Shaidzon Beer Company

Part seven: Moniker Brewery

Part eight: Six Pack Brewing

Part nine: Lops Brewing

Rhode Trip: Lops Brewing

(The next part in a multi-part series as we complete the Rhode Island Brewer’s Guild Passport. To learn more about the passport and download the app click HERE) 

Now I have written about my “Rhode Islander quirks” before, but one of the big ones is complaining about driving anywhere that is more than 15 minutes away. Now I have gotten better as the years have gone on and now it really only applies when traveling inside the state but it is still one of my, and many other peoples, quirks. This quirk exists because here in the Ocean State we are cursed with so many good options within five to ten minutes of our immediate location and it is often hard to venture out (insert TLC ‘Waterfalls’ joke here). However, it is when we venture out that we find new and equally amazing places. None more so than Lops Brewing. Located in Woonsocket it is more than 15 minutes from where I live but it was worth the trip.

Lops Brewing is located on the first floor of a multi-story building that might actually have some apartments above it. It also has an outdoor patio. While we went back in late March and were greeted by a small snow squall it was still very nice and dog friendly, so Mr. Bradley had fun as well. Inside is a slightly narrow tap room with several tables and a service bar with incredibly friendly staff. Classified as a Nano Brewery, a concept I am learning more and more about, it has that perfect feel of a small local bar with a nice warm feeling to it.

Now all of the positive aesthetics do not mean anything if the beer is not good. But here, the beer is fantastic. While I cannot remember specific tasting notes on all of them, all of the IPAs were fantastic with the session IPA being one of my favorites. However, the big standout and I mean BIG standout was ‘Breakroom Snack’ their peanut butter and jelly porter. While peanut butter stouts/porters are quickly rising up my power rankings I have always found that PB&J stouts and porters are a bit off, but not this one. With the perfect peanut butter taste up front that perfectly transitions into a nice sweetness that rounds things out and doesn’t linger too long it was an absolute treat.

While I do not get to Woonsocket often, I can now safely say that each time I go there I will be stopping at Lops.

Lops Brewing is located at 122 North Main St. Unit 1A Woonsocket, RI 02895. For more information about their offerings and the brewery click HERE

Part one: Long Live Beerworks

Part two: Buttonwoods Brewery

Part three: LineSider Brewing Company

Part four: Taproot Brewing Company

Part five: Community Bruin (CLOSED)

Part six: Shaidzon Beer Company

Part seven: Moniker Brewery

Part eight: Six Pack Brewing