5 Creative Ways to Cook With Ohio Craft Beer

With a career that spans beer-forward restaurants and brewery kitchens, chef Chris Olexa combines his passion for beer with inclusive cooking that accommodates most dietary needs at Nocterra Brewing Co. Audubon in Columbus. When using beer in recipes, Olexa explains, “I think about how the beer will pair with what I’m doing, what I can do to change its final form for desserts and how I can utilize it in dressings or other processes.”

Chef Olexa's top five tips for cooking with Ohio craft beer:

1. Reduce beer into syrup: For this technique, choose beers with fruit flavors. Olexa reduces Nocterra’s California Swell Line, a blackberry and raspberry gose, to create a syrup perfect for drizzling over angel cake French toast.

2. Make beer mignonette for oysters: Sours shine in this application. Mix beers from the Nocterra’s Proxima barrel-aged sour series with shallots and quality vinegar to create a distinctive mignonette sauce for oysters on the half shell.

3. Bake brownies with beer: Baking with beer isn’t new, but move beyond traditional beer bread by incorporating beer into desserts. Choose a dark stout to replace water in brownie recipes, pairing it with cocoa powder for added depth and complexity. 

4. Craft beer mustard: While beer cheese is common at breweries, beer mustard offers another delicious option for pretzel dipping. Olexa combines Rip Stop hazy IPA with whole grain mustard and brown sugar to create a “funky, less
tart but citrusy mustard.”

5. Experiment boldly: Don’t shy away from unexpected combinations. One of Olexa’s most successful creations blends reduced dark lager with demerara sugar and aquafaba (liquid from canned chickpeas) to make a mousse. This unconventional dessert has become popular at events and accommodates most dietary restrictions. Follow the recipe to try it for yourself. 

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Vegan Mousse
Serves a party of 15–18

Ingredients
1 pint Terra Cova Baltic porter
½ cup brown sugar
1 cup water, as needed
1 cup aquafaba (chickpea water)
⅛ teaspoon cream of tartar
½ tablespoon vanilla bean paste
1 quart berry coulis
30 ounces berry jam
Dark chocolate shavings, for serving

Directions

1. Combine Terra Cova Baltic porter and brown sugar in a pot. Simmer to reduce by half.

2. Once reduced, add water in a 1:1 ratio to the reduced syrup and put it on a roiling simmer until reduced by half again.

3. While the sauce reduces, whip the aquafaba into soft peaks.

4. Once the sauce is reduced, slowly add sauce, cream of tartar and vanilla bean paste to the aquafaba. Continue to whip.

5. Once peaks are whipped to the desired consistency, gently fold berry coulis into the whipped aquafaba.

6. Portion 2 ounces of berry jam into the base of small ramekins or other serving vessels. Layer whipped aquafaba onto the jam. Top with dark chocolate shavings to serve.

Ohio On Tap is for Ohio beer lovers and is produced in partnership with the Ohio Craft Brewers Association. View a digital version of Ohio On Tap 2025.