This beer cheese sauce is delicious and easy to make. Its so good with soft homemade pretzels, or or our Pork Sliders. This can also be thinned a little and added to pasta as a sauce too.
Ingredients
4TablespoonsButter
3TablespoonsAll purpose flour
½teaspoonOnion powder
½teaspoonGarlic powder
⅛teaspoonSmoked paprika
1cupMilkheated to just below simmering
⅔cupDark beer I used Samuel Smith Nut Brown Ale
1teaspoonDijon mustard or whole grain mustard
1teaspoonWorcestershire sauce
2cupsSharp cheddar cheeseshredded
1cupSmoked gouda cheeseshredded
Instructions
In a medium sauce pan over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the flour, onion powder, garlic powder, and cayenne pepper. Cook for 1 minute or until the smell of the raw flour is gone and the roux starts to change color.
Slowly stir in the warmed milk and beer, whisk until smooth after each addition. Continue cooking over medium heat, add in mustard and Worcestershire, cooking sauce until thickening, but do not boil.
Reduce heat to low, then add cheeses a small handful at a time, and stir just until melted and smooth.
Serve with pretzels or chips or on top of pork -- whatever sounds good!
Notes
The cheeses should be added at a lower cooking temperature to prevent the sauce from becoming grainy.
Also, make sure the milk is lukewarm or warm but not boiling.
For this sauce, you want a wheaty beer, not an IPA (which is more hoppy). Hops equals bitter, which will make the sauce bitter. A lager, pilsner or ale works best.
Its best if you shred your own cheese, rather than pre-shredded. The pre-shredded cheese it has cellulose and makes the sauce grainy in texture. So to shred the cheese at home you can use a food processor to make it faster than manually shredding the cheese by hand.