BrewDog’s Dinner: 5am Saint, Punk IPA, Tactical Nuclear Penguin

You can find out more about the new Equity for Punks IV share offering and make an investment in BrewDog here: www.brewdog.com/equityforpunks

The awesomely talented beer and food writer Mark Dredge from the UK's second best beer blog http://www.pencilandspoon.blogspot.com/ has honoured all the little scamps here at BrewDog by writing this guest BrewDog Dinner Blog:

BrewDog’s Dinner: 5am Saint, Punk IPA, Tactical Nuclear Penguin

If you, beer lover, have made just one New Beer’s Resolution then it should be to spread your love for beer. One of the best ways to do that is by cooking someone dinner, opening bottles and letting them see for themselves why beer is so damn tasty. This is that dinner, matched with 5am Saint, Punk IPA and the show-stopping finale of Tactical Nuclear Penguin.

The more I drink 5am Saint the more I love it. It’s the juicy amber body and all those hops which are fruity, floral and fragrant but which refrain from exploding in apocalyptic bitterness on your tongue. It’s also a fantastic match for chicken liver pâté, that classic of starters. I packed the pâté with fresh herbs to echo the huge hopping and had sweet and sour chutney spiked with chilli. I loosely followed one of Gordon Ramsay’s pâté recipes and fucking hell it was fucking delicious with the beer: the pâté covers your tongue with richness, the chutney is a sweet counterpoint, then the beer adds some magic by lifting and refreshing the palate; the fragrant hops match the herbs and the chutney spice and the berry/bready sweetness holds it all in place, amplifying the good bits like a wonderbra. This is a combo to win round any nay-sayers.

Next is roast chicken and Punk IPA. But this ain’t just any roast chicken; this is a BrewDogged roast chicken, so you need to Punk it. The beer is fantastic with earthy spices, fragrant coriander and lime and tropical fruit sweetness. You need to pimp your chicken with garlic, ginger, turmeric, cumin, coriander, chilli and paprika, rubbing them into the skin, and stuff some lime inside the bird with fresh coriander. Put all this on a bed of potatoes and sliced onions and cook so all the meat juices are sucked into the roasties. On the side you need veg: roast chopped carrots with cumin and when they are almost done add chopped mango, lemon juice and honey and roast for another 10 minutes. Perfect. The Punk dives straight in, attaches itself to the fragrant spices, tickles them and lifts off in a new direction, leaving its quenching finish wanting more of that succulently spiced chicken.

For dessert you need a rousing finish and Tactical Nuclear Penguin blows the doors off. The only thing you really need to serve with it is friends; it’s a beer to drink, share and talk about. And for that reason alone it’s a perfect dessert beer. Originally I wanted to do the obvious – flame grilled, whisky-glazed Penguin steaks (who said dessert has to be sweet?) – but penguin meat is surprisingly difficult to find. Instead go for the school dinner classic bread and butter pudding and use whisky-soaked raisins, which become little boozy bombs and echo the warmth of the Penguin. For the custard I used one of those fresh and fancy supermarket pots because, frankly, making custard scares my balls inside (it’s the fear of scrambled eggs). If you are of a better disposition then make your own and add a few glugs of stout to it (Riptide or Paradox rock in custard). If you are lazy and use a pot then warm it up and add some beer to thin it out. Tactically paired, the finished match goes Nuclear: boozy dried fruit, chocolate and gentle smoke in the beer with beer-custard-soaked bread and drunk raisins. A p-p-p-perfect end to a meal.

Get some friends around, get the beers in, sort the food out and scare some normal people with awesome bottles of BrewDog. If none of the above grabs you then instead of the chicken liver pâté try fried prawns and sweet chilli sauce or a mushroom pâté. Alternatives for chicken include spicy belly pork, thai green curry or fish and chips. And for the Penguin, maybe Baked Alaska(?) or just a big fuck-off cigar. Eat, drink, share, talk, enjoy.

If anyone wants recipes then email me – markdredge@gmail.com

You can find out more about the new Equity for Punks IV share offering and make an investment in BrewDog here: www.brewdog.com/equityforpunks