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[CortJstr]

I would not cook with any beer or wine that I would not be happy to drink on its own.

And I thought you were an Alton fan!

I DON'T EVEN KNOW YOU ANYMORE!

::runs to bedroom, slams door::

[Ben-San]

Chef Tako (http://www.8legged.com) agrees: good beer is not necessary to good beer-can chicken.

[Mantonio]

You're more likely to find smaller brands using bottles because it's not too hard to put caps on bottles relative to putting beer into a can.  You can have a bottle capper in your basement, but you probably don't have room for a cannery.  Smaller brewers tend to have higher-quality beer (or at least the perception of having it), so there's another knock against a can's reputation.

Home brewing is a hobby I've thought about taking up, but have never taken the plunge.  I think I hold off mainly because of the distinctly mediocre quality of friends home brew I've tried.  I did have an excellent stout an uncle made once and bottled himself, but that is one good time vs. dozens of parites where a friend would bring a little container of his crappy ale and everyone would feel obligated to drink it rather than the perfectly good Guinness or Boulevard we brought ourselves.

Ah, Pat's Hot Slug Ale!  You should have this thing where you throw those beers away.

[AlohaDawg]

not that beer bottle doesnt work, but you really dont want to be wasting good beer on this recipe. do you cook with really fine french wines? why cook with really good beers?

I would not cook with any beer or wine that I would not be happy to drink on its own.

I agree in principle here in that 'undrinkable' wine shouldn't be cooked with. But I wouldn't spend 40 dollars on wine and then cook with it either. It should be OK to drink, but it doesn't need to be the Shi-at.

Mostly I'm making sauces with wine. If the wine tastes shitty, the sauce tastes shitty, but the stock or glace you made is more important than the wine.  For beer can chicken, the same, you're basically boiling a bunch of flavorings and sending steam and essences up the chickens ass. I don't think the quality of the beer matters here, same with boiling the brats.

If you come to Hawaii there is this place called Pinky's close to the Marine Base in Kaneohe that makes a wicked good Beer Can Chicken.

[Choop]

Just as Emeril, Bobby Flay, Sarah Moulton, and Julia Child can, Alton can hold opinions entirely different from his fans. Me, for one. If an ingredient isn't worth it on its own, it won't be that good for cooking with.

Naturally, certain things like flour and curry are never good on their own, but that's where the exception proves the rule and provides the corollary: if it's good in several different recipes (curry) or when used in several different types of cooking (flour).

Try beer bread in two batches: one using Milwaukee's Best and the other using Harp, and you'll taste the difference.

[CortJstr]

We're also talking about volumes. When Alton ads a couple quick shots of wine to tomato sauce to get the alcohol-soluble flavors he uses crap wine. But when he uses a bottle+ of beer for chili or giraffe and chips he uses his drinking beer.

As a person who drinks neither beer nor wine I like to know when I can use cheap crap.