I now have my blog mainly at www.beerandbaking.com instead of this site. Please find me there!
Monday, October 1, 2012
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Goals Then and Now: My One Year Anniversary
It has been one year since I started the blog! My first post was about my horrible day waiting in line at Hollingshead Deli in Orange to get Russian River’s Pliny the Younger only to get to the front of the line when the keg got kicked. I then vowed to just eliminate the middle man and go to Russian River in Santa Rosa, CA and get some for myself.
Sean, Derek Bougie (Newport Brewing Company Head Brewer), Stephen Johnson (New Brew Thursday) and I decided to take a road trip up to Oakland and make it happen. We all jumped in Sean’s truck and drove up on Monday night. We stopped at a strange little bar to get a few drinks before retiring at our hotel for the night and drank Lagunitas IPA and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. It was oddly fun and we have some great inside jokes that resulted from that place #nightstephen.
Tuesday we drove from our hotel in Oakland to Santa Rosa, CA to the Russian River Brewery. Santa Rosa is beautiful with all the hills and greenery. It seemed like I was dreaming but we made it to Russian River. We were fortunate enough that there wasn’t a line when we arrived and were able to get a table. I probably had 5 to 6 Pliny the Younger’s while I was there, even though it’s something like 11%ABV. The beer is amazing. It’s piney, hoppy, sweet, and citrusy, with great carbonation. It’s a really good beer.
After several hours at Russian River we met-up with David (AKA: @DavidA330 / @thebeermule) and then it really was a party. We dropped our stuff at the hotel and headed to Bear Republic. Unfortunately Bear Republic was closed for remodeling and we were forced to go to another strange little bar down the street that had another limited craft beer selection. We drank Sierra Nevada Ruthless Rye and dirty martinis while playing shuffle board and pool. Derek had a friend who ran Malm winery close by so we retired to the empty winery for music, drunken debauchery and great wine. I have such a rough life.
The next morning, some memories started to come back to me. Apparently after the winery, we dropped off David and Stephen and went back to Russian River, then In & Out and then back to the hotel. Oh, and we picked-up some wine barrels from Malm which were now in the back of our truck. I must have had a really good time! Good thing Sean was driving.
We went back to Oakland to our hotel, which was right across the street from Beer Revolution which is a fantastic little bar that has bottles for sale as well as an extensive tap list. We walked in there and our eyes went wide and our consumer purchasing adrenaline was flowing, and we didn’t leave until we had a box of new beer to take back to the hotel. While we sat on the patio we enjoyed some 8 Wired I Stout which was really good. After Beer Rev we drove into San Francisco and went to 21st Amendment. This was a personal goal of Sean’s and we loved it. I drank some Lord & Master, 2 Lane Blacktop, and Allies Win The War! After that we went to Southern Pacific Brewing which was a new brewery with an interesting location. It’s a steel warehouse building built around the existing trees and equipped with tons of seating and some interesting food. They offer pickles and spent grain bread sticks, along with the typical fries and charcuterie. They were really cheap for the amount of food and beer you got. We then went to the Thirsty Bear and I had my first nitro ESB, which was really good. We then headed back to Oakland and went to our final stop, The Trappist.
A very fulfilling trip, needless to say. I really enjoyed all of it, and my only regret is not going to any good restaurants or food trucks whilst I was there. With all the brewery hopping all the food we ate was on-the-run junk food. New goal for next year: go back and visit Lagunitas and Monk’s Kettle and better restaurants. Sounds like a good plan J
Monday, February 27, 2012
Pasadena Beer Day
My sister was in town and we decided to spend the day in Pasadena. Besides the awful parking prices ($20 for 1 hour?!) we managed to find a spot and headed to stop number 1.
1. Haven Gastropub – Pasadena: The inside of Haven Pasadena was gorgeous. There was exposed brick, leather, and copper, everything that would make for a fantastic neighborhood hangout. The big windows and skylights make this place inviting yet cool. It’s ok that we wanted a beer at noon on a lovely Saturday afternoon, said the décor. No judgment here. The beer list was on massive LCD screens (convenient for updates) and I ended-up ordering the Holiday Sucks Lagunitas beer. Although, I promptly gave them crap for listing it as a strong ale on their board because it’s clearly a double ipa. It says so on the label! The food was excellent. I had the flatbread with squash, goat cheese, mustard greens and crispy panchetta. I love how the squash looked like cheese because it fools your mind while eating it.
Sean fell in love with the pork rillettes appetizer, which was like cured pork that has the texture of tuna, served in a mason jar with sourdough bread and mustard. He also got the Haven burger, which was good but messy. The beer selection was impressive and the food was on-point so keep it up Haven Pasadena!
2. Lucky Baldwin’s – Sean and I haven’t been here before but this was on our “beer bucket list” of places to visit. I have to say, it didn’t disappoint. They had a large list of beers at good prices and the atmosphere was relaxed and enjoyable.
If I lived in Pasadena, I am sure this would be our weekly spot. I got to have a 2005 Old Guardian by Stone Brewing Co. while I was there…who the hell still has that on their menu at a decent price no less?! Why aren’t the owner’s hording that away in some crazy cellar to save for a high roller or something? Beer-geek-out moments aside, I think another trip to Lucky Baldwin’s is in order, if not to just get one of their awesome beer glasses for my collection.
3. Venturing astray from Pasadena, we descended upon Eagle Rock Brewery – Eagle Rock is not the easiest place to find, especially if you are not familiar with LA. Once we discovered the location, we leaped out of the car and happily skipped to Eagle Rock. Eagle Rock Brewery not only met my expectations, but exceeded them by a mile. The freakin’ prices were so damn good! I footed the bill for me and my beer buddies, Mark and Christy Henry (brother and sister) and Sean and Seth (my sister’s boyfriends’ brother) and it only came to $50 and we each had 2 beers. Each beer was $5 in case you’re bad at math. Not only are the prices amazing, but the beer was so good. I had a cask beer which didn’t change the price, and enjoyed every bit of that beer. Bonus – they had some breathtaking bottles for sale in a small standing refrigerator where we procured some Evil Twin bottles. Sean made a girlish scream when he saw Evil Twin. It was so cute.
4. Lastly we went to Wurstküche Restaurant for some sausages. I have been there before when it was busy, but it was soooo busy on a Saturday night. No matter, we waited in line, found some fun “Man Beast” signs to photograph, and chatted until we could order. I ordered the rattlesnake with peppers and truffle oil fries. It was divine, as I had expected. I think my nostalgic side loves the writing on the paper table cloths the best. They are equipped with a small yet impressive Belgian beer selection to make any beer geek happy while stuffing sausages in their mouth. Yes, I just made a sausages-in-mouth reference, you are so welcome.
Has anyone else made a day of somewhere local and wants to share? Let me know! I highly recommend all these places, and perhaps you might just spot me in line for more at Eagle Rock Brewery sometime really soon.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Twitter Baking Challenge: What would you make with Karl Strauss Off The Rails?
I was enjoying a Karl Strauss Red Trolley Ale Off The Rails(8%ABV, 80 RB) the other day, and was then messaged by Karl Strauss on twitter asking what I would make with Off The Rails. Challenge Accepted.
Full of ideas I went to BevMo thinking it would be easy to spot and hurry home with dreams of sugarplums floating in my head. Walking into BevMo I was asked five times if I needed help so I relented and said, “Ok, do you have Karl Stauss Off The Rails?” “Why, yes! It’s right here,” said the over-enthused salesman. We walked to the Karl Stauss area but alas, there was no Off The Rails. “Oh, that’s strange, I thought we just got some,” the salesman moaned. “No worries, I will just have to get something else,” I smiled knowing that an additional beer trip was going to be in order to find Off The Rails. To my surprise it was actually hiding in plain site on the end of the row next to the Ninkasi. “Oh pshhhh, that guy didn’t know anything…” I muttered under my breath as I placed one in my basket. Thinking that I might want more than one I grabbed another bomber and headed to the register.
Because I am a gigantic klutz, I managed to drop one of my bags while putting my purchases in the trunk of my car. Bending down to inspect the fallen solider, out of the 8 or so bottles I purchased the only one that broke was the Off The Rails. Now I was really glad I bought two bottles.
With a renewed spirit, I unloaded at home and started baking. I decided to make Honeycomb Candy, even though I have never made any before. The directions seemed easy enough, so I dived right in.
Ingredients:
¾ cup sugar
2 tablespoons honey (I used Julian Wild Berry Honey)
2 tablespoons water
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2 tablespoons of Karl Strauss Red Trolley Ale Off The Rails
70 % Chocolate and Sea Salt (for covering candy and decoration)
Instructions:
1. Prepare a cookie sheet with a silpat or that has been greased.
2. Add the sugar, honey, water and beer to a saucepan. You can stir the mixture but you shouldn’t really need to.
3. Cook the ingredients over high heat, without stirring, until the mixture reaches 300 degrees F.
4. When the candy reaches 300, pull the pan from the heat and whisk in the baking soda. This will cause the mixture to foam up so once it’s incorporated be quick to pour it onto the baking pan. You might need a spatula handy.
5. Don’t mess with the mixture once on the pan, otherwise the bubbles will pop and mess with the candy.
6. Let sit for 15 minutes then put the whole pan in the freezer.
7. In the meantime, melt the chocolate (I used two bars or 1 bag of chocolate chips) and get a cooling rack ready.
8. Take the candy out of the freezer and smash into pieces (this is the really fun part). Then put the whole pan back into the freezer. The candy gets sticky and mushy if left in the open air for too long. Take a few pieces from the freezer and cover in chocolate and then sprinkle sea salt while the chocolate is still wet. Place on cooling rack to dry. Once dry, place cooled candy into the fridge until ready to serve. Repeat on the remaining pieces of candy.
Fun Fact: Try using different types of sea salt, I used Chardonnay Smoked Sea Salt which went really well with the candy.
These candies were a huge hit, and everyone who tried them loved it. The beer was malty and sweet with a hint of bitter which went really well with the caramelized sugar. I plan to make them again very soon. So drop what you are doing and make these, your family and friends will thank you!
Enjoy!
Monday, December 5, 2011
The Copper Door’s Commitment to Better Beer Bar
I was recently invited to a beer tasting at The Copper Door to try some amazing beers paired with some interesting and unusual appetizers. The event was themed “Belgium and Belgium Inspired Brews” with Joe Corona from the Wine Warehouse. The appetizers were provided by The Crosby, a local restaurant/bar, which were delicious and very adventurous.
The Copper Door is quite possibly one of my favorite bars in Orange County. It seems to be untouched by the “douchey-hipster” vibe that you get from practically everywhere else in Orange County, which is a very good thing. Sometimes you just want to go to a bar, and have a beer, and hang out and relax. Unfortunately most places don’t cater to that preference, or have a good beer selection. Lucky for you, The Copper Door has a stress-free atmosphere with a fantastic beer assortment to choose from. The design of the place reminds me of Belgium/German style design with a very long wooden table in the middle of the bar with wooden benches. The bar itself is underground, which might make reception for you phone hard to come by, but the feeling of stepping away from the norm of reality makes it worth it.
Arriving to the tasting, my fiancé and I sat next to Greg from OC Beer Blog whom I have met before and thoroughly enjoy. Greg might possibly have the best quips and tasting notes on the planet so if you spot him at an event you should follow him around with a recorder because the stuff he says is gold.
We arrived right before the pouring began and Joe started speaking about the beer. We tasted several beers, in a very fast paced-fashion, and talked about the differences in flavor, origin, and complexities.
Chimay Triple White (8%ABV, 99 RB) - Hazy honey in color and served with a medium white head. Light fruit, dough, yeast smell with sweet flavor of fruity esters and yeast. Good carbonation and a bitter, crisp finish.
Lefebvre Blanche de Bruxelles (4.5% ABV, 61 RB) – Light, somewhat hazy yellow color with a lot of head. The carbonation is high, and the mouth feel is widely varied. The tartness is nicely balanced by the malty sweetness. The major flavor profile is the coriander and orange.
Grimbergen Cuvée Ambrée / Double (Dubbel) (6.5%ABV, 88 RB) – This beer was a nice change from the light Belgians, with a chocolate and toffee flavor and dark in color.
Van Diest Früli Strawberry Beer (4.1%ABV, 24 RB) – I like some fruit beers very much, but I was not a huge fan of this one. It tasted like lipstick to me.
Allagash Black (7.5%ABV, 98 RB) - bitter coffee chocolate darker ale with lovely change in flavor profile as it warms. The fuller body and carbonation shines through with a hint of oats.
Unibroue La Fin Du Monde (9%ABV, 99 RB) – “The End of the World” beer. This beer is triple fermented with a blend of different yeasts which give it a very unique flavor and very mild alcohol burn. If you haven’t had this one, you should.
North Coast PranQster Belgian (7.6%ABV, 92 RB) - citrus noise and a hint of apple, subtle spice flavor and mild carbonation. The interesting thing about this beer is North Coast uses a mixed culture of antique yeast strains that results in a floral nose, a full fruity flavor and a clean finish.
Allagash White (5%ABV, 94 RB) - spicy and light flavor. It’s got a terrific yeast profile and has some hints of herbs which remind me of basil.
Chimay Bleue (Blue) / Grande Réserve (9%ABV, 100 RB) – This is one of my favorite Belgian dark beers. This is a Trappist style, bottle conditioned strong ale with varied sweet yeast and malty caramel flavors. This beer gets more complex the warmer it gets.
The beers were paired with:
German Tea Sandwiches: Fennel sauerkraut, head cheese, smoked gouda, sweet & spicy mustardon on pumpernickel bread.
Gruyere Cheese Tuile: Smoked sausage with Gooseberry marmalade.
Red Cabbage Tart: Beer braised red cabbage currants and carrot mustard puree on a dill puff pastry.
The appetizers were very interesting and good. I particularly liked the red cabbage tart because the carrot puree was very tasty, and the cabbage was delightful. That’s saying a lot because I don’t really like cabbage. The cheese tuile was also good, and I liked the smoked sausage.
Overall, it was a very enjoyable evening where I had great food and amazing beer with marvelous people. The Copper Door is in downtown Santa Ana, right on the corner of Broadway and 3rd street and are open Tuesday through Saturday between 8pm to 2am. Come and enjoy a beer with me there!
Holiday Rumpkin Pumpkin Cookies
In the spirit of the season, I made some pumpkin cookies with Avery Brewing Company’s Rumpkin Imperial Pumpkin Ale (15.9% ABV, 99 RB). Of course, I had to add more than just chocolate chips because I just can’t help myself which seems to be the perfect frame-of-mind for the indulgent holiday season.
I recently went to Julian with some friends of mine and my fiancé and one of the benefits of going to Julian is getting some of their amazing pumpkin butter. Trust me; it’s better than anything you can buy locally. Substituting regular butter in cookie recopies for “bedazzled” butter like: almond butter, pumpkin butter, etc. can really spruce-up a simple recipe.
Now, you can really use any type of pumpkin beer for this recipe but I chose Avery’s Rumpkin because it has a really unique flavor combination. The mix of oak, rum, pumpkin really pairs well with the cacao nibs, dark chocolate chips and pumpkin butter. The spice profile in the beer also complements the spices in the cookie, plus you get to have an amazing beer to drink while baking.
Ingredients:
2 ¼ cups of all-purpose flour (I added a few dashes of pumpkin pie spice and extra cinnamon and ground nutmeg to the flour)
½ teaspoon of baking soda
1 stick of softened butter (unsalted)
6 tablespoons of pumpkin butter (can use regular butter if pumpkin butter not available)
¾ cups granulated sugar
¼ cups packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon of coarse salt (use vanilla bean salt if you have it)
2 teaspoons of vanilla
2 large eggs
2 cups of 60-70% dark chocolate chips
1 cup of cacao nibs
1 cup of roasted & chopped hazelnuts
Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and whisk together the flour and baking soda in a separate bowl.
2. Put both types of butter in an electric mixer with the paddle attachment and add the two sugars. Beat until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add salt, vanilla, and eggs and mix until combined. Add the flour mixture and mix only until combined and no more.
3. Take off the mixer and using a spoon or spatula add the chocolate chips, nibs and nuts and mix until evenly distributed in the dough.
4. Using a larger spoon or cookie scooper (looks like a smaller ice cream scoop) drop little cookie mounds onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Place either 6-8 mounds on the sheets and no more. Bake 10 to 12 minutes, rotating once in the middle, until golden brown on the edges. Let the cookies cool for five minutes on the baking sheets, then transfer to wire racks. Cookies are great for the first few days but can last for about a week.
Happy Holidays from me to you!
Thursday, October 13, 2011
From Washington to Portland and Back: My Epic Beercation
For beer bloggers, myself especially, any vacation I go on typically turns into a beercation. No matter where I go I try and seek out the good places to go and the great beer to try. Recently I went to Vegas and was so frustrated by the lack of good beer swimming in a sea of domestic crap. Not all vacations are doomed for lackluster beer options! A few weekends after Vegas, we flew to Seattle, Washington to visit my sister. Flying in on a Thursday night, we were ready to go out and get started with our beercation on Friday.
We started our beercation at a poker tournament at a local casino in Kirkland where I hung on for a few hours but ultimately a bad string of cards took me down. Sean, my fiance, was uncharacteristically knocked-out in the first few minutes of the tournament and promptly went to play black jack and work on his All American Badge on Untapped. After the casino, we stopped by Black Raven Brewing Company in Redmond for a few drinks before lunch. I was shocked and fell instantly in love with Black Raven. I am used to seeing breweries in business parks, but never are they as big with as much seating as Black Raven. This is supposed to be small? No way! There was at least 10 or more tables and a bunch of seating, and I loved that all their tables and chairs were re-purposed wood with natural edges...it was a lovely touch. No matter how awesome and obsessed I was with the internal feel, all that really matters is how the beer tastes. I tried their Trickster IPA which was 7% ABV with 70 IBU's and it was pretty fantastic. It was a very drinkable IPA with a great floral biscuit flavor so it comes at no surprise that it won NABA 2009 Silver Medal - Strong Pale Ale category. This is a great local spot so if you are in the area you need to stop by - it's worth it!
Later that day, I convinced my sister to take us to Epic Ales because I have heard lots of positive things about them. Little did I know, it was the smallest tap room I have ever been to! It was probably a 9x10 room and a little counter with four taps and 22oz. bottles to purchase. The brewer, Cody Morris, was behind the counter and had two beers on tap but offered an additional taster for us out of a personal growler! Now that's what I call passionate! His beers are so interesting and innovative and prove to be true to the title of craft beer being that all the beer is made mainly by him in small 31 gallon batches. We tasted the Solar Trans Amplifier which is a Whitt with ginger and chamomile that has a nice crisp taste. Another beer we tried was the Cinco Plantas brewed with Epazote which a mexican tea leaf that has similar characteristics of tarragon and fennel. The last one we tried was the Partly Cloudy (from the growler) which was a summer seasonal that had some nice melon (cucumber?) and citrus flavors. We bought La Mesa Negra to take home which was a dark beer with some awesome sour notes. Bottom line: Epic Ales are bravely doing some seriously interesting things and don't seem to have anything I would categorize as boring. Check out their facebook page for event updates including their new "gastropod" beer dinners!
The following day we drove from Kirkland, WA to Portland,OR to visit as many Portland breweries we could in one day without getting too drunk. Sounds easy, but it takes some finesse because it's really easy to get carried away when surrounded by so many great places to try. Armed with my list of hopeful visits, we started at Upright Brewing Co. This was the one out of all of them I was the most excited to visit because they are so hard to get in Orange County. The brewery is downstairs in a celler of a business building, which threw me off at first, but I really enjoyed the atmosphere and the "secret society" feel going on down there. We tasted the Alphaphylactic Hop, Four, Five, Six, Offen Weisse, Engelber Pilsner and Flora Rustica. The one I liked the best out of all the tasters was Flora Rustica. It was flavorful and light and simply amazing. Also, I am pretty sure I spotted @SamuraiArtist getting cut barrels from Upright when I was on my way in. I was too chicken to talk to him though. Didn't want to have that awkward "I'm your friend on Twitter" conversation, I just wanted to get my hands on Upright beer.
The second place we went to from there was Hair of the Dog Brewing Company. This completely stole the show. The tasting room was nice and open with the garage-door roll-up wall (that seems to be very trendy in Portland and Seattle) and a bunch of stuff that you can order from the menu. Sean was immediately drawn to the 2008 Cherry Adam from the rare bottle list. We settled on that and four tasters each. I tried the Doggie Claws, Fred, Adam, and Ruth. They were all very good but Holy Crap was the Cherry Adam from the Wood 2008 amazing. It had a nice tart flavor with oak-infused alcohol burn. Needless to say, were were getting pretty hungry and Hair of the Dog's menu looked good so we ordered the pickled plate and the meat plate. It came with crusty-rustic bread and (best thing that I am now obsessed with) unsalted butter with sea-salt on it. Can everyone copy this please?! I now want sea salt on all my butter bowls that come with bread.
The third place we stopped was Cascade Brewing Company where I had their Cherry Lemon Quad which was really good. Their tap room was different because they literally had barrels that they were pouring from in the walls. I had met-up with some friends so I didn't get to try everything we ordered but from what I heard they make some amazing stuff. I am kinda upset I didn't get to try the Bourbonic Plague. From there we noticed there was a street fair going on and decided to stop by. We ended-up stumbling upon a Rogue garage sale where they were selling cases of their beer for ridiculous prices. Basically I had to hold Sean back, but that didn't prevent him from buying like 4 or 5 cases. From there we went to Rogue's Pub location in downtown Portland where I had their Raspberry Lambic floated on their Chocolate Porter which was fantastic. I am can't really enjoy a huge glass of Lambic but paired with a chocolate porter was heavenly. Also, I had a blend that was inspired by a Snickers bar which really came close to the real thing. Sean also bought way to much stuff because he spotted the Single Malt Whiskey and the Dead Guy Whiskey so needless to say it was an expensive day. From there we went to the Whiskey Soda Lounge (same owner as Pok Pok) and feasted on their amazing chicken wings and pad thai and oysters. Those chicken wings are seriously addicting! After eating we took the long 4 hour drive back to Kirkland.
The following day we went to Vashion Island for a Butchers benefit hosted by Skillet and Farmstead Meatsmith at Island Meadow Farm. There was an awesome video made which you can view here. We brought the majority of the Rouge beer that we had bought the day before, which was a huge hit with all the guests who came to the event. The event was a gathering/celebration for Farmstead Meatsmith who was recently funded on Kickstarter to start educating people about proper butchering techniques via free webisodes. A bunch of people who funded the Kickstarter campaign attended as well as the friends and family's of Skillet and Farmstead. The island farm where it was hosted was beautiful and buzzing with life. It was truly a perfect end to a grand vacation.
But wait, that's not all! The following morning my boyfriend proposed to me so I am now engaged! Sorry guys, I know you were hoping to seal me away, but it's too late and you lost your chance. We have tentative plans to have a destination wedding in Ireland! So I went to Washington with a boyfriend and flew home engaged...how things change.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)