Wait! Don't tip that half-drunk stubby of beer away - you can use it in your cooking.
Haha, don't worry. We know there's no such thing as a half-drunk bottle of beer. But there's a good reason to open a bottle simply to use in these dishes.
Beer makes food taste extra good.
It adds rich depth to savoury flavours, imparting a yeasty, nuttiness that's borderline umami. The alcohol in beer bonds with both fat and water molecules in your food, bringing the two together and allowing one to penetrate the other. This compounds all the flavours - especially their aroma. And we all know we do plenty of 'tasting' just through how good food smells.
Don't worry about the alcoholic content of your resulting dish. All that bonding and evaporating means most of beer's alcoholic content is sucked away during the cooking. Well, that's probably not the technical term for it, but you get the idea.
Here's a cheery bunch of beery dishes to get your party started. We promise you'll soon be under beer's influence.
These beer-braised lamb shanks are a much-loved island classic across the Balearic islands. Source: Rochelle Eagle
You slowly boil your wings in the beer and spices, cool and dust with cornflour, then deep fry to a colour best described as 'beer golden'. Source: Adam Liaw
Beer gives batter welcome lightness, crispness and crunch. Source: Rachel Tolosa Paz
This fragrant duck dish combines the sweet and numbing heat of Sichuanese spices with fresh aromatics, all braised together in a light beer sauce. Source: Adam Liaw
Nothing beats inviting some friends around for a flame-grilled feast and a cold beer. Source: Prue Ruscoe
Nothing warms you up faster than a hearty stew like this one. Source: The Washington Post
Poulet à la bière is a popular French classic that sizes up or down with ease. Source: Taste le Tour with Gabriel Gaté
What's your pick: chunky or minced beef? Source: Murdoch Books
This is how they like their bird in Xinjiang in the rugged northwest of China, where textures and flavours are bold and in-your-face. Source: Sharyn Cairns
This takes the Canadian classic of maple bacon a step further, exalting pork belly to flavour-jammed, finger-licking territory. Source: Andy and Ben Eat Australia, Food Network
Crisp, beer-battered broccolini scattered with coriander and spring onion would frankly be friends with anyone. Source: Danielle Abou Karam
The beauty is that the filling cooks in its own sauce, with minimal ingredients but maximum flavour. Source: Abrams
A corn-and-miso base is the bed that beer-soaked seafood rests gently on in this dreamy dish. Source: Danielle Abou Karam
The fishy version of the Portuguese francesinha, which is typically filled with steak and ham, covered in melted cheese and smothered in a spicy tomato and beer sauce. Source: Benito Martin
