Sweet and Spicy Guinness Snack Mix

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Sweet and Spicy Guinness Snack Mix Recipe – delicious sweet and spicy snack mix with tons of cinnamon sugar, spicy cajun, and rich Guinness beer flavor for the perfect easy snack mix for your next party or gameday! Makes a great Christmas gift, too. 

picture of guinness snack mix with goldfish crackers, graham crackers, chocolate chips, sesame sticks, and spicy trail mix in a metal bowl
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Sweet and Spicy Guinness Snack Mix

I love delicious salty snack mixes – they are the perfect way to munch and crunch at parties or during a game – and everyone loves snack mix.

This recipe for Guinness Snack Mix gets it’s name because it is made with a Guinness stout reduction butter that brings a chocolatey, sweet, spicy, rich, and delicious kick to this snack mix that you won’t be able to resist.

This snack mix also features goldfish crackers, cinnamon toast crunch, spicy cajun mix, sesame sticks, and chocolate chips.

It is fabulously easy – just mix, top, and bake – and so addictive, you’ll wonder where your batch has gone quickly after making it.

This Guinness snack mix also makes a great Christmas or hostess gift – or the perfect gameday appetizer!

And don’t forget to mix up a big batch of this for Saint Patricks Day to serve with nice cold Guinness beer!

If you love this recipe, be sure to check out our delicious Maryland crab style Crab Corn – popcorn with old bay seasoning!

picture of guinness stout and guinness blonde at brewery in maryland
picture of neon light that says guinness time in a brewery

Visiting Guinness Brewery in Maryland

Guinness just opened their first brewery in America – right in suburban Baltimore. (Of course, I am sad they decided to open up the new brewery only after my parents just moved from Baltimore…)

My husband and I love touring breweries, and were thrilled to go check out the first ever Guinness Brewery in America while in Maryland this summer for my dad’s big retirement party festivities.

Since my husband grew up in Annapolis, and my parents lived in Baltimore for over 10 years, we were really excited Guinness opened in a place special to us – though we won’t lie and say we’re not bummed they aren’t closer to us!

While there are a lot of brewery (and distillery) tours that can be super boring, I have no problem recommending a visit to Guinness if you’re in Baltimore and looking for a fun night out – even if you don’t drink.

In summer the setup is perfect – with tons of tables, games, live music, and fun for visitors. It’s seriously a great space to hang out with friends and have a blast over delicious beers.

And the brewery grounds were family-friendly – my friend brought her new baby and it didn’t feel out of place since there were other kids, especially outside.

picture of guinness gate in maryland
picture of guinness blonde cans stacked

What to Order At Guinness Open Gate:

Guinness Open Gate features a small restaurant that serves amazingly delicious pub-style foods – but we ate in the downstairs bar, where you can order food from a table in the back left corner.

They gave us pagers to let us know when our food was ready – it came remarkably quickly and there were no issues in ordering (which I was really surprised by considering how absolutely packed the brewery was when we visited.)

Food is available for purchase in the restaurant, but also in the main tasting room bar and on certain nights at one of the many outdoor tables.

We went with a group so we tried a ton of the menu items, but our favorites were:

-Poutine

-Shrimp and Crab Dip

picture of cheesy shrimp and crab dip  in a basket at guinness brewery maryland

-Brussels Sprouts

-Guinness Snack Mix

-Chicken Fingers

picture of appetizers on a table at Guinness Brewery Maryland

I would recommend any of those appetizers – and still am dreaming of that shrimp and crab dip!

Tips to Make Perfect Sweet and Spicy Guinness Snack Mix

This Guinness Snack Mix is sweet and spicy and super easy – but there are a few tips to make sure it’s fabulous, every time!

-Reduce Guinness slowly to make a thick syrup like reduction.

This adds a ton of flavor to the snack mix – but needs to be given time! If you try to reduce too quickly, the reduction can burn or boil over in a pan.

Give yourself a bit of time to let it cook down – you can always reduce the Guinness ahead of time and keep it in the refrigerator in a tightly sealed container if you’d like to make this mix fresh for a party and don’t want to be doing all the work that day.

-Bake the snack mix after drizzling with sweet and spicy Guinness butter to crisp it up.

-Don’t add chocolate chips until after the snack mix has baked and then cooled.

This will melt your chocolate and make a big mess – save them for the very end!

How to Keep Snack Mix Fresh

To keep this delicious sweet and spicy snack mix fresh and delicious, store in an airtight container in a cool, dry place for up to one week.

If giving as a gift, pour into jars and add lid – be sure to write the date your snack mix was made on a small tag for your recipient so they know how long to keep it!

I also like to use my vacuum sealer to save leftover snacks I won’t eat in a day or two to help preserve freshness.

Sweet and Spicy Guinness Snack Mix Recipe

If you love this easy sweet and spicy Guinness snack mix recipe as much as I do, please give it a five star review and help me share on facebook and pinterest!

picture of snack mix in a metal bowl

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A bowl full of Sweet and Spicy Guinness Snack Mix.

Sweet and Spicy Guinness Snack Mix Recipe

Yield: 8
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 20 minutes

Delicious sweet and spicy snack mix packed with fan faorite chocolate chips and even goldfish.

Ingredients

  • 1 can Guinness
  • 2 tbsp brown sugar
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
  • 2 cups spicy snack mix
  • 1 cup goldfish crackers
  • 1 cup roasted almonds, unsalted or lightly salted
  • 1 cup cinnamon toast crunch cereal
  • 1 cup chocolate chips

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
  2. Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside. 
  3. In a medium sized pot, add guinness and cook on medium high until reduced by half, stirring occasionally to prevent burning or boiling over. 
  4. Stir in butter, sugar, and cayenne pepper. 
  5. Continue to reduce until mixture is about the texture of maple syrup.
  6. In a large bowl, add add other ingredients (EXCEPT CHOCOLATE CHIPS) and toss. 
  7. Drizzle guinness and butter mixture over snack mix, tossing gently as you do to coat evenly. 
  8. Add to baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake 15 minutes, until snack mix has absorbed the guinness butter mixture and crisped up a bit. 
  9. Remove from oven and let cool. When mostly cool, add in chocolate chips and toss again. 
  10. Serve and enjoy! 
Nutrition Information
Yield 8 Serving Size 1
Amount Per Serving Calories 361Total Fat 22gSaturated Fat 7gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 13gCholesterol 8mgSodium 280mgCarbohydrates 39gFiber 4gSugar 17gProtein 7g

Nutrition is automatically calculated by Nutritionix - please verify all nutrition information independently and consult with a doctor or nutritionist for any and all medical and diet advice.

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About Courtney

Courtney loves to share great wine, good food, and loves to explore far flung places- all while masting an everyday elegant and easy style at lifestyle blog Sweet C’s Designs. Sweet C's devoted to finding the best food and drinks you'll want to make or find, around the world!

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5 Comments

    1. Courtney, sounds amazing & definitely going to make! What “spicy snack mix” do you recommend? Thank you!!

  1. Instructions #4 says “stir in butter, sugar and cayenne pepper” BUT no sugar amount listed in the ingredient list. ??? This sounds really good and would like to try it. Please advise. Thanks.