My Beer Cheese Soup

Taken at Nonnie & Grampy's house in Highland, NY.
Terri - 9, Melody - 19, Stephanie - 10, Stephen - 3, Julie - 6 years old.

I have gone to several breweries and had beer soup. I love it! I like the richness of the beer with the cheese. A couple of my favorites is Phantom Canyon and BJ's Brewery both in Colorado Springs. Oh, not to forget Judge Baldwin's at the Antler's hotel usually has a good one too! As winter progressed on, I got a hankering for something different so I went to Phantom Canyon one day for a business lunch and had a bowl of this soup! On my way home from that meeting I started thinking that it cannot be too difficult to make and began experimenting with my own beer cheese soup recipe!

My Beer Cheese Soup:

1/2 stick of butter
1/4 cup flour
4 cups milk
1 bottle dark or stout beer
2 cups shredded sharp cheese
8 ozs crumbled and flavored Gargonzola Cheese (or flavored Feta Cheese)
1/2 cream

In a medium size soup pot melt 1/2 stick of butter. Sprinkle flour into pot and saute while stirring about a minute. Then add milk. Keep heat to medium high stirring every 30 seconds so as to not have the soup stick and burn. Once boiling, add the bottle of beer. Bring back to a slow boil then add the cheddar cheese and finally the Gargonzola cheese. I like this because it gives up a zip without being spicy to the soup. Allow all of this to come to a slow rolling boil, stirring constantly at this point

. Make sure that the Gargonzola cheese is completely melted. That will be the sign that the soup is ready to serve.

Serve with Pita chip or toasted garlic bread! Delicious!!!!