Homebrew Russian Imperial Stout - Part 1

Homebrew Russian Imperial Stout

The Goal.  I used Old Rasputin as my model for this brew,  a russian imperial stout with strong dark chocolate and dark roasted coffee flavors, a hoppy bite and a formidable ABV.  If your into chocolate covered espresso beans, your going to love the finish on this beer.

Armed with the valuable advice of the beer geeks at Stomp Them Grapes, I put together a recipe that included 9 lbs of liquid malt extract, 2 full steeping bags of grain and 4.5oz of cluster and challenger hops.

Things are looking and smelling pretty damn good.  Its closer to something I'd put in a coffee mug rather than a beer mug. 

Aerated, pitched and bubbling away in the fermentor.  I'm expecting this beer to finish in about a month and continue to improve through the winter.

Stay tuned for Homebrew Russian Imperial Stout - Part 2

2008 GABF &

The Great American Beer Festival has come and gone once again.  If anyone, or everyone out in Jersey is feeling more than a bit jealous, the GWBF is coming up in NYC.

This year an astounding 46,000 people attended the festival to taste 2,052 different beers from 432 breweries.  Yes, this is the largest beer festival in the country

It was a great surprise to find Sam Calagione personally manning the tasting line at the Dogfish Head table.  He brought World Wide Stout, Midas Touch, Palo Santo Marron, Red & White, and Theobroma....

So, while stories of corporate greed and limited accountability dominate headlines, the founder & president of one of the most successful craft breweries in the country is on the front line, splashed in beer and still hustling to serve a ravenous mix of beer geeks, casual drinkers, drunken frat guys and industry competitors.  I mean he literally stands behind his product.  Its a symbol of the passion that makes the craft beer industry in America so much fun and why local breweries and brewpubs deserve our support.  I hightailed it immediately to the Budweiser American Ale table but, as I suspected, Cindy "Ms Bud" McCain wasn't working the tap...

As cool as it was to see Sam Calagione, it was even better to see Randall.   All the 60 Minute IPA's were sent into a smaller version of this Dogfish Head invention, through a chamber packed with fresh whole leaf hops and into your tasting glass, providing the latest possible hop addition short of chewing on a bud.  The hop aroma and flavor was powerful but I'm still looking forward to trying it someday with a 90 or 120 minute.

Homebrew Pumpkin Ale Part 1

Homebrew Pumpkin Ale - Part 1

This Pumpkin Ale is my first attempt at a flavored beer. After tasting a few popular brands, (Buffalo Bills, Shipyard, DFH) I decided my goal would be a drinkable winter ale with warm pumpkin flavors, rather than a full fledged pumpkin pie experience.

I roasted fresh pumpkin and used a small amount of cinnamon, fresh ginger, clove, allspice and molassas.

After brewing, the OG was higher than I expected. I think miscalculated the sugar I got from boiling all that pumpkin and will have a higher ABV than I targeted.

Stay tuned for Part 2...

The Kitchen, Boulder CO

The Kitchen

This is rapidly on the rise as one of my favorite restaurants both for its liberal use of burrata cheese (this kind, not this kind) and its extensive beer & wine list. Plus, any restaurant that prominently features a huge chalkboard listing each of their purveyors gets automatic extra credit.

Below are pictures from our latest visit to The Kitchen Upstairs, a lounge and convenient pit stop enroute to Galactic and Chali 2na at The Fox Theatre.

A long wood fired flat bread covered with warm quercia prosciutto, gioia burrata and fresh basil.

On the left, wood fired pizza with fresh mozzarella and kalamata olives. On tap and in the photo is one of my personal FtW's, Russian River Brewery's Damnation Ale.

Thanks Rob and Emily

This is what remains of the marinade gifted to all the guests at Rob and Emily's wedding.

We hickory smoked 2 chickens and some boneless pork ribs for 2 hours.  We marinated and basted liberally with the special sauce.

Yep...

Breckenridge Octoberfest 2008

In an attempt to take a simple stroll through the quaint mountain town of Breckenridge, my parents and I unknowingly stumbled into their annual Octoberfest party.   It was festive, sunny, warm and, best of all, the mountains were showing a dusting above the treeline, a promise that ski season is on its way.  Without missing a beat, we shifted gears and jumped in line for a stein and beer tickets for some obligatory Paulener Octoberfests.  We also went on to enjoy bratts w/ kraut, smoked turkey legs, german sammy's, apple fritters, fresh made popcorn and my father even scored a bowl of his all time favorite mint chocolate chip ice cream. 

Labor (of love) Day

Beautiful!

Nothing like a good ol' fashioned clamussellobsterbake. I can honestly say that we outdid ourselves on this one. Every piece of seafood was perfectly cooked. Shop-Rite $5.99/lb. lobsters are the shit! See you next year Jonno & Koost.