Beer BBQ Sauce

There are a few essential components that come together in a beer barbecue sauce. Pretty much all of them stand for a type of ingredient that can include numerous substitutions. Together they balance and uplift each other and address the five basic tastes - sweet, sour, bitter, salty and umami (savory deliciousness). 

In addition, variations in mouthfeel contribute to those main ingredient groups and in result an exorbitantly large number of beer barbecue sauce flavors can be created. Such mouthfeel qualities are:

• texture (ultra smooth or not),
• consistency/body (thicker or thinner),
• heat (level of the intense spicy/burning sensation caused by the presence of Capsaicin)

The beer barbecue sauce we made as an example for this post uses a seasonal amber larger, a Märzen, brewed in a partnership between Sierra Nevada and one of our most favorite German breweries, Bittburger.

Beer BBQ Sauce Ingredients

Onion. Brings savory flavor and contributes to the texture and body of the sauce. 

Cooking oil. To saute the diced onion. 

Beer. Refer to the details in the next section for suitable styles. 

Brown sugar. Adds more depth of flavor than refined sugar can. Also consider Muscovado.

Organic ketchup. Adds acidity, sweetness and umami and contributes to the overall mouthfeel of the sauce by giving it body. Use an organic tomato sauce if you'd rather not go with ketchup.

Apple cider vinegar. Our preferred type of vinegar to cook with as it is not harshly acidic. 

Honey. Adds its unique type of sweetness and contributes to the consistency of the sauce. 

Cumin. A bit goes a long way and accentuates the overall umami in the sauce. You can use spices like smoked paprika or caraway instead. 

Garlic. We typically go with garlic powder, but you can also sauté minced garlic for about a minute, just before you add the beer (see workflow below).

Black pepper. Our preferred source of heat when we make a not particularly spicy barbecue sauce. 

Salt. Season with coarse salt and add it as needed after you've already made the sauce.

Beer Style Recommendations

In our humble opinion (which is however based on many, many batches of beer BBQ sauce made over the years), the best beer styles to use in homemade barbecue sauce are ones that will contribute malty, roasty notes, dark fruit and chocolate flavors and are not aggressively hoped or bittered by way of liberal use of roasted barley. 

Do not be afraid of a hoppier brew though, a moderate bitterness does act as a balancing act to sweeteners such as sugar and honey. 

We most often reach for:

• amber ales or lagers
• red ales (including red IPAs, mmm), brown ales, porters and stouts
• dark German beers such as doppelbock lagers or Altbier
• Rauchbier (German smoked lager) when we wish the beer to impart smokiness
• winter warmers with complex spice notes

Which is not to say that imperial or bourbon aged ales, citrusy ales or lambics such as kriek are not great contenders.

How to Make Beer BBQ Sauce - Workflow

A note on equipment first. Ideally use a wide and deep sauce pan because a wider bottom surface means faster reduction time.

A handheld immersion blender is perfect, especially in combination with a deeper saucepan (less splattering). If you do not have an immersion blender you can always blend the sauce in a food processor or blender, just be sure to allow it to cool down some. 

Step 1. Sauté onions in oil until softened.

Step 2. Add the beer (only a bit at first, to deglaze, it will foam once it makes contact with the hot saucepan), then add the rest and let the mixture simmer until reduced by about half. 

TIP: If you want the beer flavors to play a more prominent role, do not fear to increase the quantity of beer. You will simply need to wait longer until it reduces by half.

Step 3. Add the rest of the ingredients (except salt), stir and let the mixture simmer until it thickens. 

Step 4. Remove from heat and blend. Taste and season with salt as needed. Transfer to a container and let cool down before use.