Try This Beer Mussels Recipe from Noble Creature Wild Ales & Lagers

From the yeasts that ferment its beers to the fruits that owners Ira and Marcy Gerhart harvest from their orchard, the emphasis at Youngstown’s Noble Creature Wild Ales & Lagers is keeping it local.

“We wanted to have not a simple menu, but a small menu, and make as many things from scratch as we could,” Marcy says. Marcy bakes desserts and breads, including her brunch staple — spent grain bagels. The brewery’s kitchen manager, Ryan Iwanejko, crafts pub favorites, including seasonal sausages and beer mussels.

Because Noble Creature doesn’t maintain year-round flagship beers, Marcy says the broth for beer mussels varies based on what’s on tap. “The Gerhartenhefen hefeweizen for sure is a beer mussel mainstay,” she says. “Right now we have Mother Shover, a lemon sour, so we use that and a little bit of Eleven, our English pale ale.”

Beer Mussels

INGREDIENTS
1 pound of mussels, cleaned
2 tablespoons butter or olive oil
1–2 cloves garlic, minced 1–2 stalks green onion, finely chopped, divided into white and green parts
1/2 cup Noble Creature Wild Ale
1/3 cup heavy cream Black pepper, to taste
Tarragon, finely chopped
Parmesan, freshly grated

DIRECTIONS
Add butter or olive oil to a lidded pan on medium-high heat with garlic and whites of green onion. Sautee for about 3 minutes, being careful not to burn the garlic. Add mussels to the pan, pour over 1/2 cup of wild ale and cover to steam the mussels. Steam for 5–7 minutes. Remove mussels from the broth and set aside. To the broth, add heavy cream, black pepper and tarragon. Reduce sauce for about 3 minutes. Add mussels back to the pan and toss to mix. Transfer to dishes and top with Parmesan and green onion tops. Serve with toasted focaccia for soaking up extra broth.

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Noble Creature Wild Ales & Lagers owners Ira and Marcy Gerhart (photo courtesy of Noble Creature Wild Ales & Lagers)

Need a few cooking pointers from the beer experts?

Dessert doesn’t have to be dark. While chefs often lean into the coffee and chocolate notes of stouts and porters for desserts, Marcy embraces sours to bring bright, fruit flavors to sweets. “I’ve made a champagne cake,” Marcy explains, “but I used Thin Lips, our cranberry-raspberry sour, instead of champagne — that was a nice, light change.”

Mind the malt. For her spent grain bagels, Marcy targets the mash from specific batches of beer for optimum flavor. “I usually get the grains from when Ira brews darker beers,” she says. “If I can get stout grains, it gives a roastier flavor.”

Savor seasonality. In the brewhouse and the kitchen, the Gerharts let seasonal produce lead, including homegrown pawpaws, raspberries and elderberries. “Being aware of what we have access to seasonally subconsciously drives what we do,” Ira says. “So if we have it, let’s use it.”

On Tap is for Ohio craft beer fans and is produced by Great Lakes Studios in partnership with the Ohio Craft Brewers Association.