Homemade New Year’s Eve Beer Dinner

Rather than battling the crowds on New Year’s Eve, Theresa and I decided to stay in this year and have a nice homemade dinner.  Naturally, being the beer geek that I am, I decided to do a homemade beer dinner.  I ended up going with a three-course meal, with a different beer paired with each course.

Course 1: Bruschetta Paired with Ommengang Witte

I decided to do a filling, yet light and refreshing, first course and went with a basic bruschetta.  To go along with it, I paired the delicate and refreshing Ommengang Witte.  The recipe for the bruschetta was really easy to make and I am definitely planning on doing this recipe again.  The recipe can be found here.

Bruschetta with Ommengang Witte

Course 2: Filet Mignon and Lobster Tail with Sautéed Asparagus Paired with Ithaca Excelsior! Twelve (Anniversary Ale)

You can’t really go wrong with surf and turf for the main course.  Not really much of recipe to post for this one.  Just season the steaks simply, sear/sauté, and serve.  Boil/steam and broil the lobsters.  Sauté the asparagus with some oil, garlic, salt, pepper, and balsamic vinegar.  I went with a bottle of Ithaca’s Excelsior! Twelve to pair with this.  This was a fantastic beer and went great with the steak.  It didn’t pair as well with the lobster, but as a whole, the pairing of the dish with the beer worked well.

Fillet mignon with lobster tail and asparagus, paried with Ithaca Excelsior! Twelve.

Course 3: Jalapeño Blue Cheese Cheesecake Paired with Homebrewed Wedding Ale

I went with a recipe out of the Stone Brewery book that I got in the fall for dessert.  This is kind of a weird one for dessert, but if you like blue cheese, this is an interesting dish.  Don’t fear the jalapenos – you de-seed the peppers before you chop them up and mix them in so there isn’t much heat from them.  The fruit added on top balances the blue cheese very nice.  Another good use for this dish is to use it as a spreadable cheese on crackers.  To accentuate the fruit topping, I went with a bottle of my Wedding Ale to pair with the dessert.  The cherry tartness in the beer worked well with the fruit on the cheesecake.  Something like a hefty stout with nice chocolate tones probably would have worked well here too. 



Jalapeno blue cheese cheesecake paired with Wedding Ale.



The beer lineup for the night.

Wedding Ale in Theresa's snifter glass.

Overall, this dinner came out awesome and was a lot of fun to do!  I am definitely planning on doing more beer dinners soon!  Give it a try!  Until next time, cheers!

Song of the Day: “Royal Oil” by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones

Beer of the Day: Thornbridge Hall Bracia

Wedding Ale

Wedding Ale is actually a beer that I brewed back in the Fall to give out as groomsman gifts and to age for special occasions and anniversaries.  The fact that it was part of the groomsman gifts is largely why I overlooked doing a post for this beer (didn’t want to ruin any surprises).  However, I felt this beer merited a post since its one of the more interesting beers that I’ve brewed in awhile.

I bottled Wedding Ale up in 22oz bottles, did a decent label, and dipped the tops of the bottles in red wax for a nice presentation.

Wedding Ale is actually based off of Charlie Papazian’s recipe Cherries in the Snow (from The Complete Joy of Homebrewing), just boosted a little and slightly oak-aged.  The boil was just like any other beer, except I added about ten pounds of tart cherries (in a mesh bag for less mess) at flameout.  Adding the cherries in the end of the boil, brings the temperature of the wort down to around 170F to kill off any baddies that might be in the cherries, without destroying the delicate flavors and aromas from the cherries.  After steeping the cherries and cooling the wort, I added the cherries into the primary fermenter with the wort.  I then racked the wort into the secondary with 4oz of American oak chips for three weeks. 

According to Papazian, this recipe should hold up very well to age, which will work great for drinking this brew on anniversaries with my beautiful wife!  My main departures from Papazian’s recipe is to boost the gravity a bit, oak age the beer to cut the tartness a little, and use canned tart cherries (tart cherries were out of season already by the time I brewed the beer).  The important thing to consider is to use canned cherries that are packed in water only, not pie filling, if you are considering doing this recipe without using fresh cherries. 

So far, I have cracked a few bottles of this open around the holidays and for taste testing purposes.  The cherries left a very refreshing tart flavor and aroma, as well as a beautiful red tint to the beer.  The oak left a balancing, but not overpowering, oak flavor.  I am very happy with how the beer came out so far and I hope the flavors come together even more as it ages. 

I am planning to try this recipe again with fresh tart cherries when they are in season again and am planning to leave out the oak the second time around to do something closer to Papazian’s recipe.  It should be interesting to see the difference between the two versions.  Here is the recipe that I brewed.  Enjoy!

Wedding Ale

Batch size: 5.2 gal

Boil volume: 3.0 gal

OG: 1.063

FG: 1.016

Bitterness (IBU): 18.5

Color (SRM): 5.7

ABV: 6.2%

[Grains]

NB Gold LME    9.150lb    Extract    100.0%

[Hops]

Santiam 1.50oz 6.0% AA Pellet @ 60 min, 17.3 IBU

Santiam 0.50oz 6.0% AA Pellet @ 5 min, 1.1 IBU

[Yeast/Other]

American Ale yeast    1.0 unit(s), Yeast

Irish Moss    1.0 unit(s), Fining 1 tsp at 15 min

Tart Cherries    10.0 unit(s), Other 1 unit = 1lb, steeped at end of boil and put in fermenter for 5 days

Song of the Day: “Johnny Quest Thinks We’re Sellouts” by Less Than Jake

Beer of the Day: Boxcar Brewing Company’s IPA

Looking Back, Leaping Forward

Time for the obligatory retrospective on 2011 / goal setting for 2012 post.  2011 was definitely a massive year for me, complete with getting married and getting a new job.  It was certainly the most important year of my life!  It also was a great year for completing goals that I set for myself, especially on the brewing front.  I’m looking to keep that momentum going into 2012!

Goals from 2011

I did not meet my goal for fitness in 2011.  I had actually lost a fair amount of weight before the wedding – not the 20 pounds that I had set as a goal, but definitely around 10.  Then, I quickly gained that weight back and am now back up to about the same weight I was at last year.  Most of this can be attributed to me getting busy, falling out of the swing of working out, and having other priorities the last several months. 

On the brewing front, I actually exceeded the goals I set for myself last year.  I had set a goal of brewing 10 beers, and I actually brewed 16 different beers.  I was extremely happy to get that many in.  I learned a lot from all these beers and got to try out a lot of new ingredients.  It also helped me work out the kinks and let me experiment with ideas and see what worked well (dry hopping with orange zest in Theresa’s Ale) and what didn’t work as well (flavoring with roasted bananas in the mash in my Banana Bread Ale).

The other end of my brewing goal was to enter in at least one brewing competition.  I ended up entering four different beers into competition (three into Buzz Off, and one into the Preston and Steve Homebrew Competition).  I even managed to take home a blue ribbon in the English Pale Ale category for the Bass Ale clone that I brewed with my buddy Keith!

Goals for 2012

I am definitely planning on continuing the fitness goal theme and try to lose at least 10 – 15 pounds this year.  This will get be down to a weight where I want to be.  I really want to get back into hiking and I may even pick up a bike to keep in shape.  I will hopefully get back into running a little bit too to stay in shape (running is also a great way to exercise my dog Abby).

On the brewing side, I am not looking to significantly increase my production compared to last year.  I’m thinking that anywhere in the neighborhood of 15 – 20 different beers (which will not all be full batches) will keep me plenty busy.  Instead, I want to try to have a little more focus on building a bit more individual brewing style and really focus on technique this year.  I feel like a lot of my brewing efforts last year went into trying a bunch of different styles, trying some concepts that were in my head, and finding a handful of recipes that I want to repeat on a somewhat regular basis (at least annually).  I learned a whole lot by doing this – some good techniques, and some bad.  However, I do feel like a lot of my brewing this past year lacked focus, so this year I really want to take what I learned last year and expand on it.  I want to build better grain bills, make sure I have healthy fermentations every time (probably the most important thing you can do as a brewer), and have a little more focus and cohesion in my brewing portfolio.  That’s not to say I don’t want to experiment or branch out into more styles.  On the contrary, I most certainly want to experiment and branch out into more styles.  However, I want to make sure that I am approaching new styles and experiments in a well thought-out manner using the lessons that I’ve learned, and ensure that they fit in with my style as a brewer.  In other words, I don’t want to just wing it to get a concept out of my system.  Now, when you’re setting goals, you’re supposed to make them measurable and quantifiable so you can compare your actual results against your goals.  Obviously, I haven’t done that yet in this little rant, so let’s get down to the nitty gritties.

For starters, I want to use a yeast starter in all of my full batches of beer that are going to be over 5% ABV (which is most of my beers).  One of the things that I have neglected as a homebrewer, is the importance of pitching a healthy number of yeast cells into the beer.  Have a strong, healthy fermentation, reduces lag time, decreases off-flavors, and improves the overall quality of the beer.  Healthy fermentations make the difference between good beer and great beer.

On the competitive side, I would like to enter at least two competitions again this year.  Not only did I have a blast at the couple competitions I entered last year, but I also got some great feedback on my beer, which improved me as a brewer.  The more beers I can get feedback on from trained judges, the better.  While placing in these competitions would be fantastic, it’s a secondary concern to me – the main purposes are to network with other brewers and to get feedback on my beers.

I also want to brew at least three collaborations with other brewers this year.  Everyone has their own setup, techniques, and styles that they use in homebrewing.  One of the best ways to grow as a brewer is to collaborate with others and see how they do things.  I am by no means an expert brewer, so brewing with others will be a great learning experience and a great way to brew something that pushes my style further as a brewer.

I really want to get a bit more into cooking with, and pairing food with, beer this year.  Again, this one is tough to put into quantifiable terms.  I will set a goal to make at least three dinners that are four, or more, courses, pairing each course with a different beer.   Also, in general, I want to start cooking more with beer (i.e. using beer in marinades and in the cooking process).

Alright, enough talk about goals – go do something productive, like drink a beer!  (Which, by the way, if you aren’t drinking a beer while reading any of my posts, I don’t know how you get through my dry-ass writing.)  Cheers, and good luck with those resolutions!

Song of the Day: “Story of My Life” by Social Distortion

Beer of the Day: Witte from Brewery Ommegang

Reloading Homebrew Inventory and Brining Cornish Hens

Now that things are settling down a bit, I’ve had a chance to get back to brewing and cooking.  First on the list was to get a couple homebrews going to restock my homebrew inventory (which was desperately low).  The first brew on the list was a re-brew of my Ruination IPA clone that I did last year (with a few updates from last year’s version).  The second brew is a Chipotle Ale, which is a recipe I saw online based off a loose clone of Rogue’s Chipotle Ale.  I packed both of these brews into one weekend, a couple weeks ago.

Big brewing supply order to cover me for a few batches, and then some.

The Stone Ruination clone that I brewed last year is one of my favorite brews that I have made, and is one of the ones that has gotten the most positive feedback from friends and family.  This beer demanded to be re-brewed.  After making a few tweeks to the recipe (essentially, turning up the IBUs a bit), I had a pretty successful brew day (aside from spilling a little bit of wort when I was transferring it into the carboy, which dropped the potential alcohol level of the brew).  After fermenting for about a week, I transferred it to a secondary fermenter and am going to dry hop it with a couple ounces of Centennial hops.  After tasting a sample from the fermenter last weekend, I remembered why I love this beer so much – the bitter punch from the first addition of hops, the aroma from the finishing hops, and the clean yeast profile – all the signs of a great IPA.  I am also planning on splitting the batch and bottling one half as the regular Ruination, and dry hopping the other half a second time with an ounce of Citra hops and putting it into a Party Pig.  I can’t wait until this one is ready to drink in a few weeks! 

Second on the list – Chipotle Ale.  I decided to do an all-grain half-batch on this one, because if I mess up and put too many chipotles in, I do not want to end up with five gallons of beer that is too spicy to drink.  It was also a good opportunity to do another all-grain batch in my new mash tun.  This beer brewed pretty similar to any other beer, except, I added in about four small, de-seeded, home-grown jalapenos that I roasted/smoked on the grill this summer and then froze.  After chilling the wort down, I added in most of the pieces of home-made chipotles right into the primary fermenter.  After taking a sample from this beer last weekend, I’m pretty excited about it.  The peppers did not seem overbearing at all.  They actually added a subtle smokey flavor to this malty amber.  This one should be going into bottles next weekend and be ready to drink in early- to mid-January. 

Chipotle Ale on the left and Ruination IPA clone on the right.  I can't wait until these are ready to drink!

In addition to brewing up these two new beers, I also kept busy that same weekend by bottling my Bulldog Brew and my second mead.  The Bulldog Brew came out great and is now carbonated and ready to drink, which helped replenish my beer supply.  This rye amber came out pretty close to what I was going for – a well balanced beer with a great malt character from the rye, crystal, and chocolate malts that were used in brewing this ale.  I am also planning on doing a label for this beer with a picture of my American Bulldog Abby, hopefully to come out soon.  :-)  I also bottled up my second small-batch mead, which tasted great from the sample that I took.  More to come on this mead in a few months, after it has conditioned a bit.

Sample of my second small-batch mead, made with local honey.

Taking a cue from Beer Advocate, I decided to make a beer inspired dinner last weekend with Cornish hens and Sierra Nevada Kellerweis.  The dish was inspired by a recipe for doing a beer brine with a turkey that was published in the November issue of Beer Advocate.  The original recipe called for brining a turkey in Allagash Tripel, tangerines, water, honey, salt, fennel, bay leaves, thyme, and a couple other spices for a couple days before baking it for Thanksgiving dinner.  I modified the recipe a bit for a smaller scale and for availability of ingredients, swapped out the Tripel for a few bottles of Kellerweis (I had a bunch of Kellerweis laying around at home) and swapped out the tangerines for oranges.  After brining the hens, I baked the two Cornish hens in a crock with chunks of potatoes, carrots, garlic, and onions in the bottom.  The resulting hens were delicious and moist.  Some stuffing and the veggies from the bottom of the pan rounded out the dish nicely.  This is definitely a dish I plan on making again.  Here are a couple pictures from the dish.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the finished product (great move, John!) but you get the point.

Sierra Nevada Kellerweis - a fantastic hefeweizen to drink and to cook with.

The brine cooking up.

Cornish hens brining up before they got baked.

With the holidays upon us, I wanted to take a moment and wish everyone happy holidays!  I hope everyone has a great time with friends and family and enjoys some time off!  Raise a glass of craft beer to great friends, great family, and happiness during this holiday season!

Song of the Day: “Angels We Have Heard on High” by Bayside

Beer of the Day: Allagash Four

I'm Married!

As a lot of you already know, I got married on November 19^th!!!   I couldn’t be happier to be married to my beautiful wife Theresa!!!  She truly does make me happier than any other person ever could!

The festivities kicked off with the rehearsal at the church (Nativity BVM right in Media) and rehearsal dinner (at Iron Hill in Media) the night before the wedding.   It was really great to have some good quality time with our closest family and friends that helped get us to this point in our lives.  It really did mean a lot of have all of them involved, not only in the wedding, but in our lives in general.  For all of you those involved in the wedding, we really would not be the people we are today without you, so I want to give you all a huge thank you!  After a great celebration with all of those involved in the wedding itself, I headed back to the hotel to spend some time with the guys.  It was a lot of fun to see a lot of my buddies and family from out of town and have a few beers.  I don’t get many chances to see a lot of them, so it was really fun to spend some time with them.  It also helped to make up for some of the time we lost at the bachelor party because of Huricane Irene haha. 

The guys at the rehersal dinner (left to right): by buddy Zorro, by best man Tom, my brother Marty, my brother-in-law Harry, me, my brother Keith, my  buddy Matt, and my buddy Veggie.

The wedding day was a gorgeous autumn day and was perfect for a wedding.  Around 2pm, I found myself standing next to the priest in the beautiful church watching Theresa walk up the aisle to me.  I don’t think I’ve had butterflies in my stomach like that ever in my life! :-)  After a beautiful ceremony, we were married and couldn’t be happier!!!  After posing for a few pictures at the church, the party began in the limo on the way over to Penn Oaks for the rest of the pictures and the reception.  After doing all of the pictures, we were able to relax and have an amazing time at the reception with some of our closest friends and family.  And I can honestly say, I really don’t think I’ve ever danced so much, or had such a good time in my life!  It really was an incredible night!  Here are a few pictures from wedding day:

Theresa and I with Father Belle during the ceremony.

Theresa and I walking down the aisle as husband and wife!

Theresa and I dancing in the middle of the dance floor - this is pretty much where we were most of the night :-)

Oh, this happened a few times throughout the night.  Veggie and I just like to get down on the dance floor!

Thank you so much for all of you who were able to get us to this point in our lives!  Thank you to everyone who was able to share the big day with us, and thank you for your thoughts and prayers to those who were not able to make it to the wedding!

On the Monday after the wedding, Theresa and I flew out to San Francisco for our honeymoon.  Neither one of us had been out to the West Coast in our adult lives, and we had heard lots of great things about San Fran, so we decided to go out there for our honeymoon for ten nights (all those Marriot reward points from my consulting days really paid off).  After settling in to the hotel the first night, we set out to see the sights in the city the next couple days.  After hoping on and off tour buses and walking all over the city for two days, we had seen a lot of the main sightseeing attractions in the city itself, including the Golden Gate Bridge.  Next, we got to have a very non-traditional Thanksgiving by doing a Wine Tour of Sonoma and Nappa Valleys.  As it turned out, there were only three wineries open that day, and we got to see all of them – Jacuzzi (owned by the same family that invented the Jacuzzi hot tub), Cline Cellars, and Hagafen (a kosher winery).  We had a blast on the tour and our tour guide, Vladamir, was awesome!  In keeping with the non-traditional Thanksgiving theme, we had a great dinner in Chinatown. 

The next couple days after that were filled with exploring around Chinatown, Fisherman’s Wharf, and riding the cable cars.  We also had a chance to have some really good seafood at the Wharf.  If you ever find yourself around here, I definitely recommend getting clam or crab chowder in a sourdough bread bowl – its incredible!  To cap the weekend off, we did a really cool night tour of Alcatraz on Sunday.  It was a lot of fun to see this historic prison all light up at night (which was also a little creepy in places).  It also provided some of the coolest views of the city from the top of the island.

Monday brought a cool trip up to the ancient Redwoods in Muir Woods and the beautiful town Sausalito.  On Tuesday, we decided to get a little further outside of the city and rented a car to drive down the coast.  Although it was a very foggy day (which there are plenty of in San Fran), we were able to get South of most of the fog and get some absolutely incredible views of the Pacific coast.  I have never seen anything quite like it – the crashing waves against the cliffs really was breathtaking to see! 

On our last full day there, we did a brewery tour of the very famous and traditional brewery at Anchor Brewing Company.  It was really cool to tour the historic brewery and to see the equipment they use to keep with traditional brewing methods (including using open coolships as the primary fermenter for all of their beers).  For our last dinner in San Fran, we went out with a bang and went to an awesome Italian restaurant called Zingari (a big thanks to the Director of Operations at the JW Marriot who hooked us up with the reservation and a complimentary bottle of wine with dinner!).  After a long day of travel back home the next day, Theresa and I were both ready to be home and relax for a few days before returning to the work grind.

We went to some very cool places when we were in San Fran and I figure I should sum up some my favorite restaurants, breweries, and wineries that we had a chance to experience while we were there, in case you ever find yourself in San Fran looking for a solid place to go or drink to have.  Here they are in no particular order:

·         Zingari Restaurant – Probably one of the best steaks I’ve ever had.  And I love steak.  The service and food were incredible.  The bruschetta we had as an appetizer was incredible, and both of our entrees (the filet and the seafood ravioli) were perfect.

·         Nick’s Lighthouse – A delicious casual seafood restaurant right on the Bay.  The oysters and the chowder were awesome.

·         Jacuzzi Winery – A really nice boutique winery in Sonoma Valley.  It is owned by the same family that invented the Jacuzzi hot tub and a bunch of other patents.  Since they produce smaller quantities and focus on quality, their wines are incredibly flavorful and aromatic.  I highly recommend the Merlot, the Nero D’Avola, and the dessert wine in a chocolate shot (not included in the tasting but definitely worth the $2).

·         Tropisueno  – An awesome authentic Mexican restaurant in San Fran.  Their carne asada and pollo asada were both incredible.  If you’re looking for a really good Mexican dinner and a restaurant with a really cool vibe, check this place out.  The margaritas are great too!

·         Franciscan Crab Restaurant – This place has some outstanding food and has a very nice atmosphere.  I highly recommend their tureens (which is kind of like a seafood stew in a tomato broth) and the sizzling seafood platter. 

·         The Stinking Rose – If you like garlic, eat at the Stinking Rose.  The whole menu and theme of the restaurant is shaped around it.  Their garlic humus is really good (hope you don’t mind garlic breath) and their Italian meatloaf and lasagna were incredible.

·         Anchor Brewing Company – A vacation wouldn’t be complete without a brewery tour, and Anchor Brewing is definitely a cool one to check out.  They use some different equipment (like coolships) than a lot of other breweries do because of their more traditional nature.  One of the other cool things about this brewery is the fact that it is their main production brewery so you get a chance to see pretty much every part of the process, including the bottling line.  While in San Fran, don’t just restrict yourself to their most popular beer, Anchor Steam (which is relatively easy to find in other parts of the country), and branch out to some of their beers that are less-widely distributed.  Make sure to check out their Liberty Ale and their seasonal (I liked their Christmas Ale a lot).

·         Speakeasy Ales and Lagers – A San Francisco brewery.  I had a chance to try a couple Speakeasy beers while out to dinner in San Fran – Prohibition Ale and Big Daddy IPA.  I particularly enjoyed Prohibition Ale.  Check these guys out if you get a chance.

Here are some pictures from San Fran:

Theresa and I at Jacuzzi Winery.  This place had some awesome wines!

Anchor Brewing Company had an awesome tasting room with all sorts of old beer signs and brewing memorbilia from, not only their company, but from a bunch of other old breweries from all over the country.

The jellyfish all lit up in their tank at the aquarium at the Academy of Sciences.  This place was really cool with an aquarium and a self-contained rain forest.

One of the butterflies in the rainforest section of the Academy of Sciences.

Me in front of one of the old walls on Alcatraz.



Alcatraz at night while we were approaching the dock on the ferry.  This was definitely one of the coolest things we did while in San Fran!



 

Desert wine in an edible chocolate shot glass at Jacuzzi Winery - well worth the extra $2!



Me in one of the ancient redwoods at Muir Woods.  I've never seen trees so tall and straight in my life!



The Golden Gate Bridge on one of the foggiest days we were there. 



This is one of the gorgeous views that we had when we were driving along the Pacific Coast.

Theresa and I on the Golden Gate Bridge.  This was on one of the beautiful afternoons that we were there.  The fog would usually clear off by the afternoon most days that we were there.

Well that about sums up the wedding and honeymoon, and now its back to reality (returning to work after being out for two weeks is not fun haha).  I am hoping to be updating this blog a lot more in the coming months and hopefully finally get around to posting some brewing recipes and other goodies up.  I have some brews coming up that I am very excited about and I am planning on brewing like crazy the next couple months (I desperately need to re-stock my supply of homebrew), but more on that in the next post.  Until next time, stay frosty.

Song of the Day: “Stand by Me” by Pennywise

Beer of the Day: Namaste from Dogfish Head Craft Brewed Ales

There Is, In Fact, Life Outside of this Blog and Beer

Sorry folks, its been awhile since I’ve had the time (or, probably more accurately, the energy) to update this blog.  Considering I’m getting married in a little over a month (very excited!), it probably won’t come as a surprise to any of you that I probably won’t have many posts in any sort of consistent frequency until December.  However, I figured I needed to throw a post up here to at least attempt to update you all on my life the last month or so. 

Life in General:

Wedding plans have been coming together well, and we are getting closer to the big day.  I’m extraordinarily excited to get married to my incredible fiancée Theresa!  I can’t wait to finally tie the knot and go on our honeymoon to San Fran!  We have heard lots of great things about San Fran, and can’t wait to get away for 10 nights just the two of us! :-) 

Other than activities for the wedding, my life has also stayed busy from work.  We just got through a “go-live” where we switched a lot of business units onto the new SAP system we have been configuring and testing.  This is always a hectic time for any IT professional.  However, overall, it has gone pretty smoothly for my team.  Last week I was down at a major plant of ours in Texas to support the users as we switched over to the new system.  Although we did have some issues, there were certainly no more than a typical go-live.  Just enough issues to keep me busy enough to not really be able to do much in Texas other than work-related activities, but not so busy that I was working crazy hours.  It was definitely nice to get through this milestone.

Homebrewing:

So I haven’t really provided much of an update on my oatmeal stout or the pair of single-hop pale ales that I did a while back.  The end results of all three beers were very good.  The two pales gave me a good idea on how the two hops that I was trying out would work.  Of the two, I like the Calypso Pale Ale better (a nose of pear and apple with solid bittering and flavor capabilities while the Sonnet gave a profile more like a UK Golding).  I will probably not use either of these hops again in a single-hop beer, but I think they would both play well with others.  In fact, I am planning on using the Calypso again in a rye amber I am planning on brewing this weekend.  In the future, I will most likely use the Calypso for bittering and dry-hopping, and the Sonnet mostly for finishing and dry-hopping. 

I was very pleased with the way the Fork ‘N Knife stout came out for a first iteration of a house oatmeal stout recipe.  The roast flavor and aroma came through very nicely, the appearance is exactly the opaque black I was looking for, the head retention is great, and the mouth feel is solid.  Definitely some room for improvement though.  I would like to see it have a bit more body with a little bit more chocolate flavor rather than the coffee-dominated roast profile that it has now.  It also seems to be missing something in the middle of the taste.  The roasty finish is about what I want but there isn’t as much of a presence in the middle of the palate.  Overall, I am very pleased with this iteration, but I think it would be even better with a little tweaking to the grain bill.

Although I haven’t had all that much time to brew lately, I have been working on several recipes.  In fact, I will be brewing my first crack at my house rye amber this weekend (named Bulldog Brew).  I’m really excited to brew this one because I’ve been craving a solid amber ale to have on hand for awhile now and this will be the first time I will be brewing with malted rye.  Should be a very tasty brew.

By piecing together spare bits of free time at home, on train rides, and on flights, I’ve also managed to develop several new recipes and concepts that are all ready to brew when I get back from the honeymoon.   I’m basically planning on doing a whole lot of brewing this winter to test out a bunch of these recipes.  Among these recipes, I am also putting together a couple new series of beers that I am very excited about.  One of these will be an annual installment series, while the other will probably be a themed release every few months.  More on those later, but for now, here are the beers that I’m most excited about that are coming up in the next few months:

·         Ruination Clone – I originally did a clone of Stone Brewery’s Ruination IPA last December.  My version of Ruination and Theresa’s Ale are the two beers that I am most proud of the outcomes.  These beers are also the ones that got the best feedback from friends and family that tasted them – by far.  I figure, that pretty much means its time to re-brew this clone and try to improve on it with new techniques and equipment that I have acquired in the last dozen or so brews that I have done since I brewed Ruination last winter.  This time around, I am also planning on doing a double dry-hopped version (probably in a Party Pig), similar to Stone’s very limited double-dry hopped releases that they have done recently.

·         Smoked Porter and Hopbursted American Pale Ale – I am planning on doing a pair of ales for one of the themed series that I mentioned earlier.  I am planning on doing a smoked porter and a hopbursted (a technique where most of the hops get packed in towards the end of the boil) American pale ale.  These beers will be meant to be themed together and, as such, I am also planning on taking half of each batch and creating a blended beer in the secondary.  The result will be each beer alone and a blended beer.  Much more on these beers to come in a couple months.

·         Imperial Stout – Imperial stout is one of my favorite styles of beer and I figure its about time I take a crack at one.  Wait, I’m doing two?  Kind of.  I’m planning on brewing a full batch of imperial stout and splitting the batch in half during the secondary fermentation.  I will ferment one half out as a standard imperial stout, and the other half will get an alternative treatment.  I haven’t landed on a specific treatment yet but I am getting closer.

·         Chipotle Ale – I have been meaning to do a beer with hot peppers for quite some time now but just haven’t had the right timing to do it yet.  This summer I managed to let some of my homegrown jalapeños stay on the plant until they were red and grilled them up to get them nice and smokey and roasty.  I have four or five of these babies in my freezer right now just waiting for a malty home.  I have a recipe together that is rough clone of Rogue’s Chipotle Ale.  I’m very interested to do this beer and can’t wait to see how it turns out.  This is definitely one of those beers that has a chance of either being great, or really terrible.

Other Beer-Related Matters

As always, I have had some great beers over the last few weeks, but the craft beer highlight for me since my last post was definitely a Stone Brewing Company event that Pinocchio’s hosted in late September.  For the event they had a bunch of Stone kegs on tap, including a couple very limited edition kegs – a double-dry hopped Ruination, and their 15^th Anniversary Ale (both of which were incredible!).  In addition to the tap take over, they had a great special where you could buy a limited edition Stone Brewing/Pinocchio’s swing-top growler filled with any of the Stone beers for $25 (except the rarities which were a little more)!  Given the quality of the growler (which on a normal day would retail for $20 empty) and the quality of the beer, this was a great deal!  I also picked up a couple bottles of the Anniversary Ale. 

To go along with these great Stone beers, I also recently got a copy of Stone’s new book The Craft of Stone Brewing Company, which was co-authored by the two main founders of Stone and one of their PR guys to celebrate their first fifteen years.  The book contains four main sections: beer basics, the history of Stone including a beerography (pretty sure that’s not a real word, but oh well) of their releases from the last fifteen years, food recipes from their bistro, and a bunch of clone recipes for some of their beers, including some limited releases and collaborations.  I am through about half of the book and am about to get into the food recipes section.  The book is very interesting and entertaining and I am very excited to read through the recipes section and give a few of the dishes a shot (the ones that I have peaked at so far sound really good!) and try out a couple of the clone recipes.  This book is definitely a must for any Stone fan – especially if you like to cook and brew.

Perfect drinking and reading pairing - both in celebration of 15 years of brewing excellance from Stone Brewing Company.

Video Games:

I have also managed to piece together some time to spend on my other major hobby – video games.  I finally finished up Mass Effect 2 just in time to start playing Gears of War 3.  I just beat the single-player campaign a week and a half ago and I was very impressed with the game.  This is easily the best of the Gears of War trilogy and is a great conclusion to the series.  The story has a great pace to it and the gameplay mechanics are very smooth.  Additionally, the multiplayer modes are all a lot of fun.  Horde mode (where you and your buddies have fend off increasingly difficult waves of Locust) makes a triumphant return, as well as a new mode called Beast mode (basically Horde mode in reverse where the player is the Locust).  Even the Versus mode (their version of standard matchmaking which I was not a big fan of in the first two games) is a lot of fun in this installment.  All in all, Epic created an incredible capstone to one of the Xbox 360’s flagship game franchises.

Well folks, that’s basically the abbreviated version of the highlights of the last few weeks in the world of John Maynard.  I don’t really expect things to slow down until about December.  So, until next time, cheers!

Song of the Day: “Good People” by Jack Johnson

Beer of the Day: Stone Brewery’s 15^th Anniversary Escondidian Imperial Black IPA