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Weekend Cook: Beer-Battered Mahi with Screamin' Reels IPA
Serving suggestion — this is the dinner you cook at home. The can in the frame is our real Screamin’ Reels IPA can photography; the plate is a rendered picture of the recipe below.
The beer-battered mahi our weekend email promised
If you came here from our Screamin’ Reels email — this is the recipe, in full. You reeled it in (or Publix did); now let the flagship batter it. Cold beer straight into the flour is the whole trick: the carbonation is what makes a batter puff the second it hits hot oil, and it stays crisp instead of going heavy.
Screamin’ Reels is our West Coast IPA — 7% ABV, 75 IBU — and those hops ride along in the crust as citrus and pine. Batters, brines and marinades are where this can shines in the kitchen; never a long reduction, where 75 IBU concentrates into real bitterness.
Everything below is something you cook at home, on your own stove or grill, with a can you picked up at the store. Read it once, then get cooking.
THE BEER IN THE BATTER
Screamin’ Reels — West Coast IPA
7% ABV · 75 IBU
Why it works: cold, carbonated beer leavens a batter on contact with 375°F oil — that’s the puff and the crunch. Use Screamin’ Reels in batters, brines and marinades; skip long reductions, where its 75 IBU concentrates.
Ingredients
Serves 4.
The fish
- 1 lb fresh mahi (or any firm white fish), cut into strips
- ½ cup extra flour, for dredging
- Neutral oil for frying — about 2 inches in a heavy pot or deep skillet
The Screamin’ Reels batter
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp paprika
- ¼ tsp cayenne
- Cracked black pepper
- 1 cup Screamin’ Reels IPA, cold from the fridge
To serve
- Lime wedges
- Cabbage slaw
About the can. The batter takes one cup from the coldest can in the fridge — cold matters, because the carbonation is the leavening. A 12 oz can holds about a cup and a half, so the rest of the can is the cook’s.
Steps
- Heat the oil. Pour about 2 inches of neutral oil into a heavy pot or deep skillet and bring it to 375°F over medium-high heat. Give it 10 minutes and check with a thermometer.
- Whisk the dry mix. Flour, salt, paprika, cayenne and a few grinds of black pepper in a wide bowl.
- Whisk in the beer. Pour in 1 cup of cold Screamin’ Reels and whisk just to a pancake-batter consistency — a few small lumps are fine, and the batter goes to work right away while it’s still fizzing.
- Dredge. Pat the fish strips very dry, then roll them in the extra flour so the batter has something to grip.
- Dip. Coat each strip in batter and let the excess drip off for a second or two.
- Fry. Lower strips into the 375°F oil in small batches and fry 3–4 minutes, until deep golden. Don’t crowd the pot — crowding drops the temperature and the crunch with it.
- Drain. Lift onto a wire rack (or paper towels) and salt lightly while hot. Let the oil come back to 375°F between batches.
- Serve. Big squeeze of lime, pile of slaw, and eat them while they crackle.
Batter on the left of the whisk, fish in the oil — a rendered look at the frying step on your own stove.
A note for the whole table
The batter meets 375°F oil, so most of the alcohol cooks off in the fry — a trace always remains in a beer batter, and the one cup that went in is spread across the whole batch. This is a family dinner — kids at the table included.
Serve it with
- Screamin’ Reels IPA, cold — the same citrus-and-pine hops in the crust and in the glass.
- Fresh limeade or sparkling water with lime, for anyone not drinking — the same squeeze that finishes the fish.
Where to find the beer
Screamin’ Reels IPA is around South Florida — Publix and local bottle shops through Palm Beach and Broward counties — and it’s on tap at the taproom at 1701 W. Atlantic Ave, the first building off the I-95 Atlantic Ave exit in Delray Beach. Beer is a find-it-around-town thing for us; we can’t ship it, so online is apparel and gear only.
Taproom hours: Mon 1–7 · Tue–Thu 12–10 · Fri–Sat 12–11 · Sun 12–8.
Keep the weekend going
- What's on at the brewery — trivia, bingo, live music and the food-truck calendar: events at Saltwater Brewery, Delray Beach
- Best sellers — the hats and UV layers the crew actually wears
- The Boat-Day Duo — pair a trucker hat with a UV long sleeve and shipping is on us
Please drink responsibly.