Magda Autumn, Drinks, Polish food, Winter

Mulled beer

There is so much going on right now, but on the other hand, nothing really changed.
It is somewhere between autumn and winter, days are shorter, but the Christmas lights are on.
It’s dark and cold so I started to have more excuses to stay at home and eat something nice and comforting instead of going out. However after a few weekends in I started to miss the sky, sea, fresh air and sunlight. This morning it was bright and crisp, really good weather for a walk.
walk clontarf-2

On Tuesday I joined “From spoon to screen: the whys and hows of food blogging” meeting. I must admit I missed bloggers’ meetings. There is always this vibrant buzz around them and you want to run and cook and blog more and better until you get home and you are tired and you get stuck watching Masterchef Australia and eating whatever was in a fridge.
Keep an eye on The National Librarie’s website as this event was part of a series ‘The Kitchen Archive’ that focuses on how recipes and culinary skills have been communicated through the centuries in Ireland, so there are more interesting events to come.
But the more I think about the blogging less I know. Do I know what my voice is? Who are my readers? What I really want to say? I don’t know the answer to those question. I know that I enjoy writing and taking photos. I love blogging because I get to know fantastic people because I cook better food.

walk clontarf-1

Thanks to Simone and the photography and styling challenge she organized I finally decided to post a recipe for my favorite hot alcohol drink for winter.
I really don’t understand why mulled beer isn’t as popular as mulled wine. I love mulled beer and I also treat it as kind of medicine. You see whenever I feel like I’m getting a cold I fix myself a mulled beer. It is hot and spicy so it will warm you up, it has honey and we all know that honey is good for you and it’s much better than an onion syrup my mum used to make me drink. And remember you can drink it even when you are totally healthy.

Mulled beer

For the purposes of this post I measured the amounts of ingredients, usually I just mix in a few my favorite ground spices – cinnamon, ginger and cardamon and some honey. The goal is to get a drink that is sweet and spicy.

Another version you may try: Add raspberry syrup instead of honey. My boyfriend likes adding a slice of orange before drinking, however, it’s definitely not my cup of tea.

Ingredients

  • 2 lager beers
  • 2 1/2 Tbsp honey
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 5 whole cloves
  • 1-cm long piece fresh ginger, sliced
  • 1/2 tsp ground ginger
  • 1 whole star anise
  • 1/2 tsp ground cardamon
  • pinch nutmeg


Directions

Put the beer into a saucepan with the spices and honey and heat slowly, don’t boil it. Taste and add spices and honey to your liking. Pour through a sieve into thick glasses. Enjoy 🙂