Monika Nógellová with one of the awarded Beermalade. (source: Sme)
It was her husband, international beer judge Imrich Nógell, who convinced her to try to make jam from beer. She had only made fruit jams to that point.
“It took him perhaps two years to persuade me until I finally tried it,” former bank manager Monika Nógellová said, recalling the first beer jam she made in November 2015. “And the very first attempt was a success.”
Since then she has produced this unusual delicacy, which they named Beermalade, from 95 different kinds of beers. And she keeps trying new ones.
Put beer into a pot and cook it
Both the recipe and the production method are unique in the world. People had only tried to prepare delicacies with beer as an added ingredient, like beer cheese or beer bread, or by other methods.
“Basically, you have to make it thicker,” said Nógellová. During this lengthy process, she adds only sugar and some pectin. So far, she has produced almost 15,000 jars of beer jam.
As the only recipe she follows when cooking is the rule of thumb, thus also Beermalade is about good estimation.
“I adapt the production of the jam to the particular beer, since individual beers have a different share of alcohol as well as different composition,” she says. “There are beers that are easier to make the beer jam from, and there are beers which make it more difficult.”
