Beer Thanksgiving

For those of you just now thinking about Thanksgiving Dinner, and wondering—with all the turkey and dressing, and mashed potatoes and gravy and green bean casserole and sweet potatoes and cranberry relish and pie and also pie followed by pie—wondering where does the beer fit in?

Well. I'm glad you asked. First of all, Western Washington state is blessed with a number of small brew pubs. One of them, Boundary Bay in Bellingham, Washington, has a fabulous video starring Boundary Bay's own Ben Glass showing how to infuse a Turkey with beer (in this case Boundary Bay's fabulous Blond Ale), and roast it.

Boundary Bay Brewing Co. Blonde Ale Turkey Recipe from bbaybrewery on Vimeo.

And then there's another recipe showing how to make beer-based (Blonde Ale again) gravy here. That means you can beerify your potatoes, and dressing, which leaves the question of beer-based stuffing. Now, this is a recipe I haven't personally tried (yet) but Beer Examiner Charlie Papazian has a really nifty looking stuffing recipe that calls for a "smoked" brew and chili powder—and yes, I will be trying this one very soon.

Now, I'm very fond of dark beers, especially porters and stouts, and one reason I like them is that they often have a lovely chocolate quality—especially the ones made with chocolate. Modern Domestic (Jenna Huntsberger) has a super recipe for rich homemade chocolate stout ice cream. It's a lovely dessert on it's own, but I think it's got great merit as a topping for pumpkin pie.

And then the next day, you can serve turkey sandwiches with your favorite beer (I suggest maybe a Laguinitas IPA) and start making turkey beer chili.