RealGravy

Wine, Beer and Cider Gravies

Pale Ale and Mustard Gravy

A lighter, brighter beer gravy where citrusy pale ale is kept in check by honey and a good spoonful of wholegrain mustard. Very good with sausages and pork.

  • Contains meat
  • pale ale
  • mustard
  • pork
  • sausages
Illustration of Pale Ale and Mustard Gravy
Prep
5 min
Cook
22 min
Total
27 min
Serves
4
Difficulty
Easy

Pale ale is the tricky one. Its hop bitterness gets much louder as it reduces, so you cannot treat it like a brown ale and boil it down hard. This recipe uses less beer, reduces it less, and leans on mustard and honey to make the hop character work for the gravy instead of against it.

Ingredients

Makes about 450ml, enough for four plates

Scale

Kit

  • Heavy frying pan
  • Whisk

Method

  1. Melt the butter in a heavy pan and cook the shallots over a medium heat for five minutes until soft and just golden.

  2. Stir in the flour and cook for a minute and a half. Keep this roux pale, since a dark roux plus hop bitterness is a hard combination to enjoy.

  3. Pour in the pale ale slowly, whisking as the foam rises and falls.

  4. Let it bubble for only four or five minutes, until reduced by about a third. This is deliberately a shorter reduction than a brown ale or stout gravy would get, because hop bitterness concentrates fast and a long boil would leave it harsh and grapefruity.

  5. Whisk in the hot stock and bring to a simmer. Cook for ten minutes until it coats the back of a spoon.

  6. Stir in the honey and the mustard. Both are doing balancing work, the honey against the hops and the mustard adding a sharpness that reads as savoury rather than bitter.

  7. Add the cream if you want a softer gravy, then the cider vinegar. Season and serve over pork chops, sausages or a roast chicken.

Tips worth knowing

  • 200ml is enough. Twice as much pale ale would be twice as bitter, and this is the one beer gravy where less really is better.
  • Add the mustard off the boil. Wholegrain mustard loses its punch and can turn slightly bitter if it is simmered for long.
  • For a non-alcoholic version, an alcohol free pale ale works perfectly and is arguably better here, since alcohol free beers tend to be less bitter. Otherwise use 200ml of stock with 1 tsp of lemon juice and a pinch of dried hops or a splash of tonic water for the faint bitter edge.
  • If it does end up bitter, a knob of cold butter whisked in off the heat helps more than sugar does.

Change it up

  • Add 100g of grated mature Cheddar off the heat for a cheese and ale gravy over chips or a jacket potato.
  • Swap the wholegrain mustard for English mustard and use half the amount for a fiercer version alongside sausages.
  • Add a sliced apple with the shallots and let it break down for a sweeter gravy to go with pork belly.

Keeping and reheating

Three days in the fridge and three months in the freezer, though the hop aroma dulls with freezing. Reheat gently and stir in a fresh half teaspoon of mustard to wake it up.

Questions people ask

Can I use IPA for gravy?

You can but reduce the quantity to 150ml and shorten the reduction further, and add an extra half teaspoon of honey. Modern IPAs are heavily hopped and concentrate into something genuinely harsh and resinous in a sauce.

Why does beer gravy taste bitter?

Hops. The bitterness in beer comes from hop acids and reducing the beer concentrates them while the alcohol and water boil away. Use a maltier beer, reduce it less, and balance with honey, cream or butter rather than salt.

What is the best beer for a light gravy?

A British pale ale, a golden ale or a wheat beer. All have some hop character without the aggressive bitterness of an IPA, and none of them will overpower chicken or pork the way a stout would.