Naja's Place 3rd Annual IPA Fest Recap

Sean and I went to Naja's Place for their 3rd Annual IPA Festival in Redondo Beach, CA on Saturday and I have mixed feelings about the experience. I LOVE IPA's and I was really excited that they were serving 70 different IPA's on tap. There was some major line issues when there was only two bartenders serving the whole place from one single-file line.  

 

The beer was pretty amazing. I had the Avery Maharaja Imperial IPA (10.54% ABV 102 IBU's) which pours an amber/gold color white head. I am surprised how subtle the IPA was and it just hits you a little in the back of your throat. I tasted a bit of grapefruit and orange honey which makes the hoppyness of this beer sneak-up on you. Sean had the Hair of the Dog Blue Dot Double IPA (7% ABV and 80 IBU's) which was gold with a white head with heavy lacing. It had a corn-taste to it with a nice mellow-hops finish. I liked both of these very much. The Avery was more of my style.

 

We also had the Stone Ruination Double Dry Hopped IPA (7.7% ABV with over 100 IBU's) which was fantastic, but I have come to expect as much from Stone. It pours gold with a white head and has a great mouthfeel. It does what I wanted all day, it was so hoppy it gave me a bit of a dry-mouth. It tasted of grapefruit and hops, and was incredibly light considering how strong it finished. I would drink this all the time. Sean had the Strand Black IPA (7.8% ABV with 85 IBU's) which was insanely dark with a white head. I said it's like "a chocolate-coffee ice cream beer" with hops. It was pretty amazing stuff. Not the beer to drink before dinner! Lastly, I had the Mad River Steelhead Double IPA (8.6% ABV ?IBU's) which was a cloudy-orange color with little white head. This was a bit on the sweet-side for me but it tasted clean and not overly-complex.

 

Anyways, besides the line issues the people in there were creepy. There was a group who wouldn't stop talking about condoms and Viagra next to us and I watched some guy smell another girls hair...that wasn't in her group of friends. I politely asked her if she knew those guys after they walked away and she said no. I told her she might want to stay away from those guys and she was very grateful and thanked me. Super creepy.  

 

  

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Stone Brewing Company’s Oakquinox – April 17th, 2011 10am to 6pm

It felt like Christmas Eve the night before Oakquinox, and my sleep was just as restless in anticipation. Upon arrival we received these modified bracelets that had 15 tabs on them which were to be torn off after every 3oz. tasting. We also received our 4oz commemorative glass and a t-shirt for about $50 each. I had also spotted the Deschutes woody in the parking lot!

 

The event was so well organized it was impressive. Stone’s always busy, but they were really packed on this Sunday. We asked "Dr." Bill Sysak how many tickets were sold and he said, “There were about 800 tickets sold and 50 more for media.” That’s a lot to add to the standard crowd at Stone! He said they also have the sour fest and I added that they have quite a few sour beers on the Oakquinox list and he said “sours were brought in to balance-out the heavy.” I am not a huge fan of sour beers but I have become more open to them recently and really enjoyed a few of them!

 

They broke-down the event into A, B, C and D sections. The C section was the outside bar which was separated into draft and bottles. The C bottle line was ridiculously-long (but unfortunately that’s where a lot of the beers I wanted to try was) but the A and B sections were down on the lawn and had virtually no wait. The D section was where the food was and probably the best pretzel I have ever had. Seriously, the best. It was really crunchy and warm and the whole-grain mustard sauce was a great accompaniment. It reminded me of the outside of a corndog so maybe that’s why I loved it so much?

 

Down to the beer! Between me and my boyfriend Sean, good friends Rooney, Nick and Lauren we tasted a lot of the beer on the list. Basically we tried all the beer on A and B list. One of the stand-outs was the Ballast Point Navigator Dopplebock in Brandy Barrels (10%ABV) which was very complex. Rooney said, “It’s like a rollercoaster, it drops and rises and then drops again and you’re still having fun.” It was brown in color, with a light head, with a malty caramel hoppy flavor which just hits all over the pallet. Another special one was the Great Divide 17^th Anniversary Wood Aged Double IPA (10%ABV) which was dubbed the “springtime in the forest” beer by me. It was woody yet light with a nice hops flavor (apparently on other non-IPA obsessed palates thought it was very hoppy) with a citrus and barley undertone.

 

A few other notable beers were the Alvinne Melchior 2009 (11.5%ABV) which had a citrus-almond-marzipan flavor and smelled like freshly-baked pastries. This was supposed to taste like mustard seeds but I didn’t get that taste at all. I would defiantly like to have that one again. The Big Sky Ivan the Terrible Imperial Stout 2010 (10%ABV) was fantastic dark beer with vanilla and agave smells permeating the air. One more notable beer was the Eagle Rock Populist IPA in Spanish Cedar (7%ABV) which was a very nice IPA. It was an easy-to-drink lovely break from the heavy overload of the day. I am excited for all Eagle Rock has to offer. A few not-so-great beers we had were the Ladyface Chardonnay Oude Blonde which tasted like watery apple cider and the Moylan’s Kilt Lifter in Apple Brandy Barrels which was sweet and watery green apple taste. All in all, it was a fantastic day at one of my favorite breweries, and the clock is counting down until next year!    

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Nigella Lawson Inspired Pistachio Soufflé on a Weeknight

On a weeknight, after a dinner of brown rice with parsnip and barbecue chicken, I felt like making a pistachio soufflé inspired from my Nigella Lawson book How To Be A Domestic Goddess. Some friends were over, so it was nice to be able to share the love. I love pistachios and you can get them de-shelled at Trader Joe’s really cheap so I usually have some handy. Soufflés are really not that hard, and only take about 30 minutes to make. Of course, I love to add/modify everything I make to suit my personal tastes! 

1oz soft unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing soufflé cups (I just use the spray J)
¼ cups super fine sugar, plus extra for dusting soufflé cups and 1 Tbsp for the egg whites
2 tbsp AP flour
5 oz or ½ cup of full-fat milk
4 large eggs separated
½ cup unsalted pistachios, ground)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp orange-flower water (didn’t use this)
5 large egg whites
pinch of salt
6 squares good quality dark chocolate (I used 70% dark chocolate infused with chilies)
6 ramekins or soufflé dishes (coffee mugs also work)

Preheat the oven at 375 F put in a baking sheet. Spray the soufflé ramekins and then dust them with sugar.

Put the flour in a saucepan and add a little milk, just to blend. Then, stirring (whisking), add the rest of the milk and ¼ cup sugar. Whisk over medium heat until it comes to boiling point, then whisk for 30 seconds and take off the heat, by which time it should be very thick. Let it cool a little and add the yolks gradually. Beat in the butter.
Add the ground pistachios and vanilla and mix well.

Then, whisk all 5 egg whites together with a pinch of salt until soft peaks form (use an electric hand mixer if you got it). Sprinkle over the tablespoon of sugar and then carry on until thick and glossy. Add a good spoonful (about a quarter of the whites) to the pistachio mixture) and mix until incorporated to lighten the mix. Now fold in carefully the rest of the whipped whites. I always split the mix down the middle then follow the bowl around a ¼ of the way around then flip it over, repeating moving the bowl around and around. Don’t be afraid of large chunks of whipped whites not incorporated into the mix!

Pour the mixture into each ramekin filling it about ½ way, then lie chocolate pieces on top and pour over the remaining mixture. Fill them to the top. Put all the ramekins on a baking sheet with the lip that’s easy to grab and then get them in the oven as quickly as possible so it doesn’t lose its heat. Immediately, turn the oven down to 350 F and bake for 12-15 minutes, when the tops will be scorched gold and risen high above the ramekins' rims. If you are daring you can broil the soufflés for about 1-2 minutes to get a nice crust at the end of baking. Remove from the oven, dust with icing sugar and serve immediately. But, they will burn your tongue if you are not careful. I have an oven that has a crack in the door and leaks heat and I got these to rise so it should be foul-proof! They were delicious and the spicy chocolate was just the flavors that I like together. It was savory, sweet, spicy, bitter, soft and crusty on the outside. Make it and tell me how it went for you! The pictures were taken again by the lovely Ali Winston.

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BastardSHOTz from Stone Brewing Company...Beer Gel?

So I may be the most gullible person on the planet, but this seems like craziness. Beer Gel? Has Stone Brewing Company gone crazy? Apparently not because they have set-up a twitter and facebook location for the promotion of this product. This reminds me of the Gatorade: Prime gel that I sometimes drink/eat before soccer. It's a strange thing, to not drink nor eat something. It's like astronaut food. I am yet, so curious of what this could taste like that I will definatley buy it. I love arrogant bastard beer, but it will be insteresting to have such a different texture and no carbonation. What do you think?  

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