fennel rings & 3 philosophers

I went to the beer bourbon & bbq festival this weekend. It was just as awesome as it sounds. Oddly while I had lots of good bourbon the thing that most impressed me was a beer. Three Philosophers. I wasn't even really drinking any of the beer that night in order to save room for bourbon... and then all of a sudden at the very end of the night my friend insisted that I try a beer that he was drinking. Even after god knows how much bourbon I was impressed. We have since referred to it as the best beer ever. It's reallly good. It's belgian style, but brewed in upstate new york and a strange combination of things that sound weird, but somehow really work. So I decided that I needed some snacks to go with my beer and stumbled upon a recipe for fennel rings-- which seemed like one of the best ideas ever. I didn't actually use said recipe- I just made a standard beer batter (with natty boh- no way I was wasting the best beer ever) It's about 1.5 or 2 cups of flour, salt, pepper, paprika and a can of boh. Just slice the fennel bulb and push out the core- some of the pieces will stay in rings and some of them will be more like half moons. They will both be tasty. Dust lightly with flour and then fry until golden brown. They are so much better than onion rings and they go perfectly with the best beer ever.