I'm not a beer drinker, yet I love cooking with beer. I'm a huge fan of Eight Degrees beer. We've met both master brewers and we are good friends with Caroline Hennessy, the head of their PR and marketing, who happens to be married to master Kiwi brewer, Scott. Caroline is a food blogger too, and she introduced us to the Eight Degrees range a while ago. I love their Howling Gale Ale and if you've been to any of Caroline's food demos or beer pairing events, you'll know their Knockmealdown Porter beer is AMAZING for making chocolate beer brownies. The whole range is fab for cooking and whenever we are down in Cork, we make sure we make a quick pit stop at Michelstown to say hi and stock up on some beer.

When Caroline contacted us to ask for Mexican dried chilies, we ended up chatting about smokey chipotle peppers, one thing lead to another and a few months later, the lads in the brewery launched their Back to Black limited edition, which includes Aztec Stout, a deliciously smooth stout made with our chipotle chilies, vanilla, chocolate and a hint of cinnamon. The result is a rich, dark stout that leaves a nice hint of heat lingering in your mouth. We absolutely love it! Fab for cooking and baking!