german beer cheese--need i say more??

I've been trying to figure out what to do with all the leftover extra sharp cheese from my house warming party.  We ate the rest of the cheese that was left, but we just couldn't finish the cheddar.

Unless you're someone who really has a love for extra sharp cheddar, it's tough to find a use for it.  But I did!  I was flipping through an issue of Taste of Home and found a recipe for German Beer Cheese Spread. It looked pretty easy and I had all the ingredients (for once!), so I decided to make it.

I had this once at our favorite German place, the East Side Restaurant, but then they stopped making it for some reason.  I loved it.  It had a strong, sharp cheddar taste with a hint of beer. I hate beer, but I like it when it's used for cooking.

This was very quick and easy.  In fact, I made this while cooking the shells for stuffed shells.  The timer was set for 14 minute and that's about how long it took.  And that's only because I didn't have everything ready to go.  I had to measure the ingredients and mince up some fresh garlic.  If I had it all ready to go it would have taken maybe 5 or 6 minutes to do this.

This recipe made A LOT!  If you're having a party, great.  But if you're going to keep this in the fridge for snacking, you and whoever else is there had better really like German beer cheese.

How did it taste?  Very strong because of the extra sharp cheddar.  And it had a lot of beer flavor, which surprised me.  Many times when a recipe calls for alcohol it's not really discernible in the flavor.  But the beer definitely came through in this.

Here's the recipe if you want to try it:  German Beer Cheese Spread

Note:  I used Yuengling Premium beer because that's what we had on hand.  Bob LOVES Yuengling.