The Quick And Easy Fix To A Dish Made Too Bitter By Beer

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Incorporating a splash of beer into Indian dishes or stew adds a depth of flavor that can be otherwise difficult to achieve. Yet, beer can be a fickle beast when used in cooking. One common problem is that it can bestow unwelcome bitter notes. However, when The Takeout spoke with beer expert Karen Malzone, co-owner of Odd Bird Brewing in Stockton, New Jersey, she indicated all is not lost if your favorite beer imparts an unexpected astringent taste to your dinner.

It may seem intuitive to reach for something sweet to balance a bitter flavor in food, but Malzone suggested a different fix for better results. "Instead of adding sugar to balance out something bitter, try for acid, fat, or salt," she said. She attributed this advice to the culinary wisdom in "Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat," a cookbook every home cook who wants to strengthen their gastronomic game should have on their reading list. 

"What folks think of as 'bitter' in a beer is usually attributed to particular varieties of hops — [for] example, in an IPA — or malt that, while true-to-style, may be perceived as overly roasty, coffee-esque, or burnt," she said. Those characteristics, while they can come off as bitter, represent the backbone of the flavor in the beer. Adding sweetness may simply mask those flavors instead of complementing them as a fatty or acidic ingredient like a knob of salted butter or some rich stock would.

Some beers, such as IPAs and even their tamer American pale ale cousins, can boast a wide variety of flavors depending on the type of hops used during the brewing process. Karen Malzone explained, "Hops in one IPA may make it taste like pine, grapefruit pith, resin, citrus ... but different hops in another IPA may be tropical and floral, tasting with notes of papaya and honey." Both of these examples could end up making a dish bitter if the presence of hops is too strong. If sugar is used to suppress the astringency in the one that is already imparting sweet hints of papaya and honey, it could fix one problem while leaving you with an overly saccharine dish.

Of course, diluting the dish is another way to restrain bitter flavors, but Malzone isn't a fan of this approach. When asked if adding water to a soup or stew would be a good fix, she said, "I wouldn't. [...]  Adding water would thin it out, and it would then be weak and also bitter. Not so much fun." So, whether you're cooking with a hoppy IPA or a malt-heavy bock beer, incorporating a fat to combat bitter notes helps you achieve that depth of flavor you're looking for better than using one-dimensional fixes like sugar or plain water.