Welcome to the April edition of “Cooking with Beer”! Once again, I am featuring a beer that DuClaw Brewing sent me. This month DuClaw sent me one of their spring beers, Funk.
DuClaw Funk is a blueberry citrus wheat ale. It’s a traditional American wheat ale with Meyer lemon and blueberries added. With a light refreshing taste and an ABV of only 5%, this is the perfect summer session beer. Take it with you on a summer picnic, enjoy it by the fire pit on a summer night, or simply grab one after a hot afternoon mowing the lawn. Whatever the summer occasion, this beer makes a great accompaniment.
As far as recipes go, we decide to do something a little funky (pun intended) this time. A friend suggested we make pancakes and we ran with the idea. In fact, not only did we make pancakes, we made syrup. And bacon. Mmm, bacon…
The DuClaw Funk made for a light and tasty pancake and we created a wonderful syrup by reducing Dirty Little Freak, a Coconut Caramel Chocolate Brown Ale. We added some maple syrup and a bit of sugar to the reduced beer and came up with a tasty syrup that would work on any pancakes. Then we baked the bacon with it. OMG! So good.
Serve your pancakes and bacon with a glass of DuClaw Funk and you have the perfect post-race brunch!
Ingredients
- 2 Tsp Baking Powder
- 2 Tbsp Sugar
- 2 Cups Flour
- 1/4 Cup Canola Oil
- 1 Egg
- Pinch Salt
- 1 Bottle DuClaw Funk
- 1 C Blueberries, fresh or frozen
- 1 Bottle DuClaw Dirty Little Freak
- 1/2 Cup Maple Syrup
- 2 Tbsp sugar (maple or regular)
- 1/2 Tsp Dijon Mustard
- 1/4 Cup Beer Syrup
- Black pepper
- 1 lb thick cut Bacon
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine dry pancake ingredients.
- Once combined, make a well in the center and add oil, egg, and beer.
- Stir well and then gently fold in the blueberries.
- Heat a skillet over medium heat and ladle about 1/4 cup of batter onto the skillet.
- Cook until underside is medium brown, flip and cook about one more minute.
- Simmer beer until it reduces by 1/3.
- Add syrup and sugar and keep warm while cooking pancakes and bacon.
- NOTE: Be careful not to reduce the beer too much as it can get bitter.
- Heat oven to 350*.
- Line a baking pan with parchment paper and lay out bacon in a single layer.
- Bake for approximately 10 minutes.
- While bacon is baking, mix syrup and mustard.
- Remove bacon from oven, flip, and pour off excess fat.
- Glaze with syrup/mustard mix.
- Grind pepper over bacon, to taste.
- Return to oven and bake until your desired crispiness.
Disclaimer: I received the beer and compensation from DuClaw Brewing. All opinions and recipes are my own.


That does look yummy! Minus the bacon 🙂
Deborah @ Confessions of a mother runner recently posted…Get On The Ball-Full Body Stability Ball Workout
Still gotta say doesn’t sound appetizing to me. And since I don’t drink, I’m not about to go out and buy beer to make pancakes!
But hey, whatever floats your boat. 🙂
Judy @ Chocolaterunsjudy recently posted…I’m a lucky girl: TOLT
OHHH YES! Those looks sooooooo delicious!!! Pancakes kick butt!
GiGi Eats recently posted…We’re “Pretty Happy” About These Recipe!
I would have never thought of beer in my maple syrup, but it sounds delicious! I can hardly wait to try this recipe. Visiting from VA Bloggers and thanks for sharing!
Susan recently posted…Hawaiian Potato Mac Salad