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!
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