Fried Beer

You receive a plate of fried, ravioli-shaped dough with a dark filling. You take a bite expecting meat and are met with the flavor of warm, rich stout. Welcome to the world of fried beer.

Fried beer is the brainchild of Mark Zable, who debuted his creation at the Texas State Fair in 2010 and won that year’s Most Creative award (an honor also bestowed to fried Coke in 2006). Even for those who might be skeptical of the culinary appeal, one has to admire the logistics of deep-frying a liquid. It would be easy to simply fry a beer-based batter, but fried beer keeps the brew—Guinness, to be specific—intact while frying the pretzel dough around it. This is no easy task. It took Zable three years to figure it out. Although he won’t reveal the exact recipe, speed is key. Each nugget of beer-filled dough should be deep-fried for no more than 20 seconds.

And just how does it taste? Zable says, “It tastes like you took a bite of hot pretzel dough and then took a drink of beer.”