Pancake Day 2015
Pancake Day is a great day all round. And last year, Andy Hamilton made it even more interesting,when he tried different craft beers in his pancake batter to discover 'Which beer makes the best batter?'
As a pancake fan and brewer, who better to conduct this research?!
Photograph: Andy Hamilton, published in The Guardian.
The three Saugatuck Brewing Company beers all had very interesting and unique results. Read the whole article here
Oval Beach Blonde Ale, Saugatuck Brewing Company, Michigan, USA
Beer characteristics: Fairly delicate in flavour, much more like a German helles beer. Cut grass, an edge flavour of honey and some butterscotch.
Cooking: The batter was quite light and crispy, similar to a traditional crepe. This would go well with almost anything, but it doesn’t bring anything amazing flavour-wise. It could easily be substituted for a cheap lager. I enjoyed this more as a beer.
Neapolitan Milk Stout, Saugatuck Brewing Company, Michigan, USA
Beer characteristics: A very complex stout – the first taste and smell was unquestionably of Neapolitan ice-cream.
Cooking: The colour changed, the pancake became a chocolatey brown and the ice-cream flavour held. This one makes the ultimate sweet pancake, and would go with any fruit, chocolate or ice-cream.
ESB, Saugatuck Brewing Company, Michigan, USA
Beer characteristics: Tastes as a good ESB should: hints of Seville marmalade, with a lingering caramel sweetness and a surprising nuttiness.
Cooking: These made a very crispy batter. The sweetness of the malt came through nicely and was reminiscent of sweet ham. A perfect match for a meaty, savoury pancake.
Pancake Day 2016
This year, Saugatuck has brought out their Backyard IPA in the UK so we're definitely going to try that one out ourselves and see what kind of batter it makes.
The most exciting thing, however, is this...
Some bottles of Saugatuck Blueberry Maple Stout have been sent to our office and to say we're looking forward to drinking them/making these pancakes is somewhat of an understatement!
We'll keep you posted.