Beer Tasting Party + Beer Cupcakes

This past weekend our court held it's 1st Annual Brew + Chew.

What is a Brew + Chew you might ask?

It is a beer tasting (brew) with finger foods (chew)

My neighbors Steph & Patrick hosted this party.

It was so fun! 

It will now be an annual thing on our court. 

I was in charge of desserts, so of course I had to make cupcakes.

I make A LOT of cupcakes/desserts for our court. 

Almost every court function (which is 1-2 times a month) I bring the cupcakes

Most of my cupcake & dessert recipes can be found in my Recipe Box on my toolbar.

Because this party was a Beer Tasting, I knew I needed to incorporate beer into the desserts!

I made 3 desserts.

Caramel Candied Bacon Beer Cupcakes

Corona Lime Cupcakes

Double Chocolate Stout Brownies

All the recipes are at the end of this post.

You're welcome :)

Here are some photos from the Brew + Chew.

 There were 14 different types of beer to taste. 

They were all wrapped up & labeled with a number so that you couldn't tell what kind of beer it was.

 We were each given a little notebook to rate each beer we tasted.

 And, we each had our own mini beer tasting mug. Mine had a teacher sticker on it since I am a teacher :)

 I am not much of a beer drinker. I only like a couple types of beer. (I prefer Lemon Drops or Wine over Beer). Out of the 14 types of beer, I only liked 2 of them. The other 12 were rated like this:

After everyone had tasted we lined up all the bottles & then revealed what they were!

Kevin and I started a wine tasting group almost 10 years ago were we do wine tasting with brown bags, so it was fun to do this with beer.

I forgot to take photos of all the food...there were 5 types of sausage,  pulled pork sliders, salmon sliders and more....so much good food!

Then it was time for dessert!

Top: Double Chocolate Stout Brownies

Left: Caramel Candied Bacon Beer Cupcakes

Right: Corona Key Lime Cupcakes

After dessert, it was corn hole time! 

I know I say this all the time, but I really, really, really love our court and our neighbors. I feel so fortunate to live on court like this. It is pretty unique and I don't take that for granted!

I highly recommend having a Beer Tasting Party. It would be really fun for a birthday party or for Father's Day! 

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Now for the recipes (there are 3 recipes for you!)

First up...Caramel Candied Bacon Beer Cupcakes!!
{Recipe slightly modified from here} 

Oh my goodness...the guys loved these!

Here is what you need:

For the cupcakes:
- 1 box Butter Cake Mix
- 1 12 oz bottle of beer ( I used an IPA although next time I will use a Pale Ale)

 - 2 eggs

For the frosting:
- 1 cup butter, softened (2 sticks)
- 1 box powdered sugar (1 pound)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 6 strips of bacon
- 1/4 cup sugar brown sugar

- Caramel Sauce

 Directions:

 Preheat oven to 350°F. 

Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners. 

Add cake mix, beer, and eggs to a large bowl. 

Beat with an electric mixer according to package directions. 

Fill cupcake liners three-quarters full with cake batter and bake according to package directions, generally 12 to 15 minutes. 

Let cool while you prep your frosting and bacon topping.

For the Bacon:

 Preheat oven to 400°F. 

Line a sheet pan with parchment paper or foil. 

Lay bacon flat on parchment and sprinkle with brown sugar.

Bake for 25 minutes or until crispy and browned. 

Set aside to cool.

After your cupcakes are cooled, frost them:

 Then I use Caramel Sauce (pre-made like you would put on ice cream) and I squeezed caramel onto the cupcakes. Then chopped up the candied bacon and added that as a garnish.

 These were divine!

Next up...Corona Key Lime Cupcakes

Here is what you need:

For the Cupcakes:

- 1 box of White Cake Mix

- 1 bottle of Corona

- 2 egg whites

- 1 T lime juice

- 1 T lime zest

For the Frosting:

12 oz cream cheese, cold

6 tbsp butter, at room temperature

1 T lime juice

1 T lime zest

4 cups powdered sugar

These were delicious!

 I will definitely be making these again....especially on Cinco de Mayo next year!

 *All of the alcohol burns off when you cook these, so you will not really taste or feel any of the affects of alcohol with these cupcakes*

The final dessert I made is these:

 Remember last week when I made Red Wine Brownies?

Well, I decided to try the same thing and make Beer Brownies.

I followed the directions on the box of brownie mix, but  instead of adding the 1/4 cup of water, I added 1/4 cup of beer. ( I used a chocolate stout beer)

I also added a cup of milk chocolate chips to the batter.

Bake the brownies according to package directions.

These were divine!

Have you ever been to a beer tasting party?

If not, you need to have one...and you have 3 dessert choices to make!

Enjoy!