John from My Family Finances wrote a guest post on this blog back in July called “You Really Can Just Add Vodka and Save Money“. This was a pretty popular post because (do I even need to say it?) vodka + saving money = awesomeness x 100.
We had some left over beer in the fridge from having some friends over awhile ago and neither of us are huge beer drinkers. Being thrifty, I set out to find out what I could do with this beer other than drink it.
Here’s what I found out:
Cook Chicken With It
This is something that my mom has been doing for awhile, and it’s absolutely delicious!
You can make a beer can chicken with extra beer.
This requires a full roasting chicken, a can of beer (still in the can), and your favorite herbs. Pour out about one quarter of the can of beer (or drink it – its up to you), add some herbs to the can and sit the chicken on top of the can, putting the can inside the cavity of the chicken. Put on a barbeque (hopefully a large one) and roast until done.
This makes the chicken come out tender and delicious.
You can also cook other meat with beer, as a marinade.
Use As Hair Volumizer
Apparently beer is also great as a hair volumizer. After washing, while your hair is still wet, warm up some beer and soak your hair in it for 5 minutes.
Rinse out thoroughly (you don’t want to smell like a pub).
Should the smell be too much for you, add some nice smelling oils to the beer before warming it up.
This should also help your hair feel soft and bring back some of it’s natural shine.
Make Your Cookware Shine
Apparently beer is great to make metal shiny, as it is slightly acidic. Just like polishing with any other shine-making substance, dip a cloth into some beer and polish your cookware.
It will give it back it’s gleam and even remove some of those tough-to-remove, baked on spots.
If the cookware is seriously spotty, soak in warm water and beer for awhile prior to shining.
Settle Your Upset Stomach
I think this one is more widely known, but you can settle an unsettled tummy by drinking beer.
The carbonation helps it feel better, and of course, because you’d have to drink the beer to do this, the alcohol may help a bit as well.
Just don’t drink too much; this will have the opposite effect!
Can you think of any other uses for beer?
Beer can chicken is amazing! Even better if you BBQ it.
Ha these are all very interesting! Will have to try these.
I did not know some of these, but did about the chicken…which makes it quite tasty. We use it to make beer bread from time to time. Depending on which beer you use it can be really good.
Don’t think I need alternate uses of beer, but thanks for the ideas anyway! 🙂
lol, I am pretty sure my husband would second your comment.
MarieG LifeSimplyBalanced.com
I’ve always wanted to do a beer can chicken. If you ever end up making one, post pictures!
I had beer can chicken on the BBQ once, amazing flavor!
Didn’t know about the pots and pans, I’ll have to give that a shot!
Also, the best part about cooking with beer is drinking it and cooking with it 🙂
Yummmm! Beer battered chicken strips are the best! Especially if you get them from an authentic restaurant, they taste so good!
Beer can help an upset stomach? I’ve never heard of this before ..
Use it for chicken, but just don’t use it for eggs! In the 60’s my grandfather had to watch the kids while my grandmother had to travel for some work-related training. He made the mistake of pouring beer in the scrambled eggs and they turned green!
I like dumping a beer over chicken in the crock pot and adding a bit of BBQ sauce. It ends up so tender!
I might have to take a stab at some pots and pans with beer. Gives me an excuse to open one 🙂
I can see cooking and even cleaning with it, but I am not as convinced about using it in my hair. Maybe I should try it, you never know, but this one may not happen for awhile…
Thanks for the tips!
MarieG LifeSimplyBalanced.com
Ooh, timely post. I have a ton of beer left in my refrigerator but I rarely drink it, particularly on my own. I’m definitely going to try it as a volumizer, but I’ll also have to look into some recipes.
I’ve been wanting to try beer can chicken for a while now! Seems like it would be really good 🙂 I’m actually thinking of making my own beer for Xmas gifts and having my gf make cool labels. A nice frugal but thoughtful gift IMO.
Oh I use it to settle my stomach alright lol. Great post and oddly enough I remember my sis using beer on her hair. I didn’t quite get it nor did I want to ask. I thought it was some new trendy thing the ladies were getting into lol, now I know different. Glad to see you took that bottle of beer to the next level but I’ll save the pot shining for vinegar and water and the beer for moi! Cheers mate.. Mr.CBB
I have used beer on my hair before, it makes it very shiny. That’s the only I have tried though. I hate the smell of beer so I probably wouldn’t use it on anything else.
I don’t even drink beer. Not a fan. Hopefully we don’t ever have any extra laying around the house to use haha.
I’ve used beer in cupcakes and other baking before! Fun post!!!
Never tried the beer can chicken, but I’ve heard it delicious. Maybe the next time I’m at my parents house so we can try it on the grill. We make beer bread (using a mix from pampered chef) and it’s so good.
I always had a strange fascination for beer can chicken, and never actually made it, it’s back on my list, thanks for the reminder! I mainly use beer for the yeast (when not drinking it), it makes crepes lighter and raises dough pretty well.
I can’t believe that nobody has mentioned beer cheese soup. So yummy! I think that beer cheese soup may be an upper Midwestern thing but you could always Google a recipe for it. Also, beer bread is delicious.
Beer also makes your milk come in after having a baby. You of course need to drink it but your milk comes in right away and is plentiful. LOL!
I guess I should clarify that you only need to drink about 1/2 a beer to have your milk come in (not that you’re having a baby now or anything).
With the right crowd, smelling like a brewery might be a big huge win.
I’ve always been nervous about trying the hair thing in fear of the smell. You have to drink it, but beer is also good for athletes who are experiencing muscle cramps.
I’ve heard of the Beer BBQed chicken, but we’ve never had a BBQ big enough to try it out. Left over beer isn’t really a problem in our household anyway. 🙂
Whatever you do – can’t go wrong with adding beer to anything. I even have a recipe of cookies based on beer that contains yeast and makes the dow rise. I like your tip of using beer for your hair. I am going to try that one! Thanks!
Beer should be a part of your staple diet. It’s cheap, tastes great and really hits the spot after mowing the lawn!
Are you going to try it in your hair? If so you will have to let me know how it goes.
We’ve used beer to marinate steak and it comes out yummy too. I’ve also heard that it can help unclog clogged drains, but I think my beer-drinking friends would kill me if they ever found out that I wasted a perfectly good beer on a drain problem…
I know it’s good for drinking, but hair volumizer? I can only image the looks you’d get walking around with the wafting smell of old beer. I might have to try it, just for science.
We use beer in soups- C made an excellent bratwurst & cheddar chowder not too long ago where we added beer to the base. Turned out excellent.
I cook with beer quite often… Though the washing the hair makes me hesitant. People might mistake me for a drunk. ^__^;
I can attest to the use of beer in the garden. Pouring some in a dish or small bowl and leaving it near peppers and tomatoes attracts the unwanted slugs away from the plants. They will sip beer all day and eventually die as a result. Another fun idea for the garden is to take a clump of moss, smash it up in a blender and mix it with beer. Pour it wherever you want to grow moss and you will have a ton more than when you started.