Fried Drinks and Fairgrounds

I know the information I’m about to share may not necessarily be “new” information, but I was waiting for the appropriate occasion to add in my two cents. There’s been a great deal of coverage online given to the country-wide state fairs that took place mostly in the month of September and the ungodly amounts of fried deliciousness served up on an annual basis.

I’ll get back to what caught my eye the most in just a second as I digress to another story.

I had been waiting to write a blog post about the state fair phenomenon until after I went to New England’s coveted Big E fairground for the second straight year. I had a trip planned for a rainy-looking fall evening, but my adventure got sidetracked in order to make a work trip into NYC for the afternoon. I could have gone that Sunday, too, but was enveloped by the massive amounts of football to be watched on TV.

Alas, while sitting at the bar on Sunday night, drinking an Otter Creek Oktoberfest, the discussion of the Big E came up with the bartender. To my dismay, I learned that that very evening was the last day the Big E was running for the year. :(

I had looked forward to sharing my Big E adventures on the blog with you and, in turn, sharing the fascinating news I had learned of weeks prior about the addition to the Texas State Fair’s annual fried food contest – fried alcohol!

As this article from Slash Food said it best:

“This year’s contestants have batter-dipped their way into whole new territory with two new concoctions: Fried Beer and the Deep Fried Frozen Margarita.”

Umm…yes please!

Checking back in now at BigTex.com , I discovered that Fried Beer ^TM took home the award for the Most Creative entry to the Choice Awards contest. The beer is filled in a pretzel pocket and deep fried – one bite and it seems to be that the beer comes pouring out, to “serve as a dipping sauce”.

So questions I’m still fumbling over:

• How Much beer is actually inside the deep-fried batter?
  
• Is, for example, an IPA going to taste different in the batter than a Pilsner or other light beer?
  
• What then would the ABVbe of a fried beer morsel? I'd think, with all that dough absorbing the beer, it would take quite a handful of these to even get a buzz...
  

As for that Deep Fried Frozen Margarita – well, I can’t even begin to grasp that concept yet. But I’m sure as heck going to give it a try when the state fair rolls around next. Ah, the musings from working in the beverage alcohol industry…

Cheers!
SJ

(Photo from friedbeer.net)