I feel very fortunate to live where I do in Tampa, FL, as there is a legendary German restaurant not even 5 minutes from my house; Mr. Dunderbak’s. Mr. Dunderbak’s is the place where I first dipped my toes into the waters of craft beer, and is where some of my fondest beer drinking memories were made with friends going back 20 years. It’s the first place I ever had proper German beer, it’s where I had my first porter, IPA, Eisbock, Doppelbock, Hefeweizen, Maibock, and many, many other styles. This place has over 50 beers on tap, and another couple hundred in their beer cooler, and then another 500 – 1,000 in their beer cellar. It is fair to say that this place is beer Nirvana if you’re in Tampa.
Aside from the unbelievable array of top-tier beers they have in-house (including their own creations), Mr. Dunderbak’s also has an equally epic menu that has some of the best German food I’ve ever eaten in my life. Their schnitzels are bigger than your head, and their Kartoffelpuffern (potato pancakes) are beyond a doubt the best you’ll ever eat. Aside from classic German fare, they also have their own home-made beer cheese soup, and yet again, Mr. Dunderbak’s is the first place I ever had it, and boy did it change my world.
Beer cheese soup is rustic, and simple, but packed with flavor, and is easy to make as well. There are plenty of methods one can use, and the the customization is effectively endless. It’s a wonderful canvas upon which to put your personal preferences into a dish. It doesn’t take too much time to make, the ingredients list is fairly short and inexpensive (most of which you likely already have in your pantry), and it yields a very large amount of soup for your effort, so you can feed the family multiple meals from one batch. It can just as easily be made vegetarian friendly (not vegan) or can be made into a meat lover’s dream. The limitations are really up to the limits of your own creativity.
As you can see from the picture above, I baked some homemade sourdough bread bowls for my latest batch of soup, but you can just as easily serve this up in a bowl by itself, or buy some bread bowls from your local bakery if you’re not into baking your own bread. I’m a fan of meat in soups, so I did add some bacon and chicken to my most recent batch, but again, you can add whatever additional ingredients you want to make it your own. At its core, it’s a stock – vegetable, chicken, or pork (you could use beef, but the richness might overwhelm the dish) with your favorite cheeses incorporated into it, some basic seasonings and vegetables, butter, flour, cream, and your favorite beer. It really is easy to make and light on the wallet.
I would suggest that not using a very dark beer would be ideal, again, just to balance out the flavors in the dish. You could use a pale ale, adjunct lager, amber ale, pilsner, whatever suits your fancy. I tend to pick a beer that has a relatively strong flavor profile over something really light. In my latest batch I used Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, and it worked beautifully with the other ingredients in the soup. For cheeses, just as with the beer selection, you can use anything you like, but I like a bold cheese in this soup, and I used a blend of sharp cheddar, swiss, and pepperjack. Keeping with the bold trend, I also added some jalapeños for extra flavor and a bit of heat. However you choose to make this soup your own, it’s going to be tasty, so have fun with it, and enjoy.
Ingredients:
1 finely-chopped, medium-sized onion (or a few shallots)
2 or 3 jalapeño peppers (optional)
4 -5 large cloves of garlic (minced)
10 TBSP butter (salted or unsalted is fine)
1/2 cup + 2 TBSP all-purpose flour
10 cups of stock (vegetable, chicken, or pork)
1 cup cream (normal or heavy is fine)
1 lb. shredded cheese (whatever kind you like)
1 TBSP freshly chopped thyme (or 1/2 TBSP dry thyme)
Salt (to taste)
1 TBSP black pepper
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
Parsley (fresh, chopped or dried) – for garnish (optional)
8 oz. of bacon chopped (can be skipped for vegetarian version)
1 lb. chicken thighs chopped (can be skipped for vegetarian version) – I used boneless/skinless thighs
1/2 tsp ground mustard seed
2 pints beer (or 2 1/2 12 oz cans/bottles if you don’t have pints)
Instructions:
- In a large pot, cook bacon over medium heat until crispy, then remove bacon from pot, leaving bacon grease behind.
- Add garlic, onion, jalapeños, black pepper, smoked paprika, and ground mustard seed (and thyme if fresh – if dried, do not add) to bacon grease and cook until tender/translucent. – If you’re making a vegetarian version, add 2 – 3 TBSP oil to pot over medium heat to cook the garlic, onion, jalapeños, black pepper, smoked paprika, ground mustard seed, & thyme (again if dried thyme, don’t add). If you use olive oil reduce heat to med-low.
- Add 1/2 of the beer, and cook until volume is reduced by roughly half.
- Add stock to pot, and bring to a simmer (you can increase temperature to medium-high to get simmering quicker, but reduce temperature again so that it’s a gentle simmer and not a rolling boil).
- While stock is heating to a simmer, in a separate saucepan, melt butter (medium-low heat) and add flour to make a roux. Cook while stirring constantly until lightly golden in color.
- Remove roux from heat, and stir into the simmering stock until fully incorporated (a large whisk works well here).
- Continue to stir occasionally until soup thickens (ca. 10 minutes).
- Add cream, cheese, and remaining beer to pot, stirring occasionally until back to a simmer.
- Continue to let soup simmer for 10 minutes (stirring occasionally).
- Remove soup from heat, and stir in bacon & chicken (or whatever meats you have if you’re adding them).
- Add salt to taste (optional)
- Soup will continue to thicken as it stands.
- Garnish plated dish with parsley (optional)
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