Category: Food

Beer of the Week: Stone Enjoy By 7-4-13

Stone Brewing has a great series of hoppy beers called “Enjoy By”. Basically, these beers are made to be consumed fresh and done so by the date on the bottle. These beers come out about once a month and are generally available in better bottle shops in a 22 oz. size with the price varying depending on the beer. This version of the beer was a double IPA and not exactly what you would call a small beer.

From the Stone website:

  •  Style: Double IPA

  • ABV:      9.4%

  • Bottled      On: 05.31.13

  • Enjoy      By Date: 07.04.13

You have in your hands a devastatingly fresh double IPA. While freshness is a key component of many beers – especially big, citrusy, floral IPAs – we’ve taken it further, a lot further, in this IPA. You see, we specifically brewed it NOT to last. We’ve not only gone to extensive lengths to ensure that you’re getting this beer in your hands within an extraordinarily short window, we made sure that the Enjoy By date isn’t randomly etched in tiny text somewhere on the label, to be overlooked by all but the most attentive of retailers and consumers. Instead, we’ve sent a clear message with the name of the beer itself that there is no better time than right now to enjoy this IPA.

130704_bottleThe beer pours golden orange in color with an off white head. Notes of lemon, orange and grapefruit dominate the nose with an ever so slight note of grain. The beer starts off surprisingly mild for a double IPA with a pleasantly light bitterness before reminding you that, yes, this is a double IPA and quickly moving into the intense citrus range with orange and grapefruit dominating with some citrus peel thrown in for good measure. Those flavors stick around for a long time before fading with a light resin on the back of the palate and a slight sweetness on the front mixed with the residual citrus notes still trying to fade. I wish the beer had slightly more balance as the intense citrus was nice but the bitterness came and went and there was some alcohol burn on the back of the throat which made the beer a little tougher to drink. Overall, it is still a fine double IPA and worth giving a shot.

Stone’s Enjoy By 7-4-13 was a blast triggering 3 fireworks out of 5.

Beer of the Week: Diamond Knot Calypso Pale Ale

By Iron Chef Leftovers

diamond-knot-brewing-coI really love the concept of the DNA Project that is run by Diamond Knot, North Sound and Anacortes because it gives you some insight how changing a small thing can lead to very different beers. The first DNA project in 2012 used the same yeast in 3 different beers. This year, they used the same grain bill and each used a different hop to produce a pale ale. Next time this rolls around, you should take a trip up to one of the 3 breweries involved to try this interesting experiment.  First up is the Diamond Knot Calypso Pale – brewed with Calypso hops. It clocked in at 5.4% ABV.

In case you are unfamiliar with Calypso, from a homebrew site, they are described as “Pleasant, fruity aroma, with hints of pear and apple.”

The beer pours golden orange in color with lots of grain and malt on the nose backed by light citrus notes. A hint of pleasant bitterness show initially quickly giving way to a strong grain bill with notes of tropical fruit (I got mostly passion fruit) interspersed. The finish is a long, slightly bitter pineapple/pear combination, lingering just long enough between sips to remind you what you are drinking. The tropical hop notes dominate the beer, but there is enough grain and balance in this beer to make it light and easy drinking and would be perfect on a warm summer day.

The Diamond Knot Calypso Pale starts the party and limbos in with a strong 3 steel drums out of 5.

Braised Pork Sugo

By Iron Chef Leftovers

One of the nice things about making pasta sauce is that it is a fairly simple process and can be used in a variety of ways. One of the things I tend to do with my tomatoes is to make a really simple sauce and freezing it so that I can use it as a base for a more robust pasta sauce later in the year. One of my favorite sauces is a sugo – a hearty sauce that I love in the cold of winter. It was part of one of my courses at a recent dinner party and it is a nice sauce to feed a crowd.

 

The Software

3 lb. pork shoulder, cut into 1 inch cubes

2 medium onions, finely sliced (about 2 cups)

3 carrots, peeled and cut into 1 inch lengths

3 celery stalks cut into 1 inch lengths

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1 can diced tomatoes (16 oz)

1 1/4 cup chicken stock

1 ¼ cup red wine

1 teaspoon minced garlic

5 cups tomato sauce

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon minced sage

1 teaspoon minced rosemary

2 teaspoons olive oil

 

The Recipe

Preheat oven to 275 degrees. In a dutch oven, heat one teaspoon of olive oil over medium high heat until just smoking. Add 1/3 of the pork and brown on all sides (about 4 minutes per side). Remove from the pot to a plate and reduce heat to medium and add 1 teaspoon of olive oil. Add onions and cook for 8 minutes until they start to become translucent, stirring occasionally. Add the tomato paste and cook for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Add celery and carrots and cook for about 10 minutes stirring occasionally. Add stock, tomatoes and red wine and increase heat to medium high until liquid comes to a boil. Add the pork and cook until the liquid returns to a boil. Cover and put in the oven. Cook for about 2 hours or until the pork is fork tender. Remove from the oven. Pull the pork from the liquid and set aside to shred. Take the vegetables and add them to a blender. Strain the liquid to remove the fat and then add to the blender with the vegetables. Puree until smooth (you may need to do this in a couple of batches). Add the puree and the pork back to the pot and combine with the tomato sauce, oregano, rosemary and sage. Heat over medium heat for 15 minutes, add salt and pepper as needed and serve over pasta.

 

Notes

This recipe is better if you make it a day ahead of when you want to use it. I use an even split of marsala wine and dry red wine, but just about any red wine will work in this recipe. You can adjust the amount of tomato sauce depending on how much sauce you like. If it is too thick when you serve it, add a bit of pasta water to it to loosen it up. This would also be nice with a bit of red pepper flakes added to the initial braise.

Beer of the Week: NW Peaks Chair Pale Ale

By Iron Chef Leftovers

The counterpart to the recently reviewed Silver Pale from NW Peaks is the Chair Pale, a Belgian style pale, and one which Mrs. Iron Chef was looking forward to. According to the NW Peaks website, the beer may still be available in growlers, so if you are so inclined, you should see if they still have it.

From the NW Peaks Website:

The name. The mountain. Chair Pk is an intimidating mountain right off Snoqualmie pass. It heads the alpental valley and is a popular technical winter climb offering both ice and steep snow routes. All around Chair is a winter playground with “the chair peak circumnavigation” one of the most popular backcountry ski tours in the area.

The Beer. Chair is Belgian style pale ale. We used the Ardennes™ yeast strain to introduce the typical fruity esters (banana) and spicy phenols (pepper) typical of Belgian beers. The Belgian characters dominate the beer, but are supported by a nice hop character. The fruity and floral notes of Amarillo and NZ Saaz hops complement and support the Belgian character very nicely, resulting in a drier, crisp belgian style pale ale.

Malts: Pale, Pilsner, Vienna, Wheat, dextrin. Hops: NZ-Saaz, Amarillo, Cascade. ABV: ~5.25%

 

untitle8dThe beer pours golden yellow in color (and is hazy, which is not an indication of any issues) with a classic Belgian nose – clove, banana and yeast dominate the beer. The beer has a slightly hoppy bitterness on the initial sip but that fades quickly into the flavors that you would expect from a Belgian – coriander, yeast and banana linger for a long period of time before finishing in a slightly sweet and bready finish. Complex and well-balanced, Chair Pale drinks easily and is a nice change of pace from the hop heavy NW Pales that you commonly find.

NW Peaks Chair Pale Ale takes a seat at the table with 4 rockers out of 5.

Beer of the Week: Populuxe Solstice Pale Ale

By Iron Chef Leftovers

imagesCAAR87MMToday’s beer takes us in the way back machine 6 months to a warmer and sunnier time in Seattle – June, specifically the summer solstice*. I had forgotten about these notes as they are buried in the middle of my notebook, but Populuxe brewed a pale ale to celebrate the Fremont Solstice Parade, with the beer aptly being named Solstice Pale Ale.

The beer pours hazy yellow in color with light orange and citrus peel on the nose. The initial taste yields light notes of grapefruit followed by mild grassy/resin notes from the hops (they used Chinook and Simcoe) before finishing with a pleasantly light bitterness. The beer has great hop character on both the nose and palate, but that character is restrained wonderfully giving you just small amounts of bitterness and a nice complexity that allows you to appreciate the grain character of the beer and pick up on the subtle flavors the hops are providing. Very easy to drink and a beer you could easily have more than one of, it was clean and refreshing, perfect for a nice summer day.

Populuxe Solstice Pale Ale strips down and rides in with 4 naked bicyclists out of 5.

 

*if my memory serves, it was cold and foggy the morning of the Solstice, but did become nice in the afternoon.

Beer of the Week: Elysian Superfuzz Blood Orange Pale

By Iron Chef Leftovers

fuzzI am a sucker for blood orange anything – I just really love the flavor. Back during the Beers of the Apocalypse series, Elysian brewed a blood orange IPA that was outstanding, so I couldn’t wait to try their blood orange pale ale – Superfuzz. The beer was available on tap and in 22 oz. bottles; the review is for the bottled beer.

The beer pours hazy orange in color, reminiscent of a hefe it is so cloudy, with lots of grain and malt on the nose coupled with hints of orange and orange zest. The beer tastes much milder than I was expecting with light grain quickly transitioning in to like orange and very little hint of hops. The orange does linger for a long period of time, finally finishing slightly sweet before fading quickly with an ever so slight bitterness. The beer lacked dimension – it had a dominant orange flavor but lack any supporting cast to go with it and probably could have used a bit more aggressive hopping or more citrus peel as some bitterness would have cut the sweetness and grain notes. I feel like this beer was drinking a hefe rather than a pale ale, so I was expecting more depth of flavor from the beer.

Elysian Superfuzz flashes back with a disappointing 2 bell bottoms out of 5.

Ed. Note: I did try this beer on tap and thought it was much better (don’t have tasting notes though). I so I picked up a second bottle and retasted it. Here is what I came up with:

The second bottle had a huge amount of sediment in the bottle. Light notes of citrus and hops on the nose with mild hints of citrus oil and grain supporting it. The beer starts off with a mild bitter component of orange peel before moving quickly into the pale ale, grain and hops and finishing quickly with notes of burnt orange and orange juice. The blood orange component is there, just more on the back of the palate as the beer fades out. It was better than the first bottle but not as good as the beer on tap, so the redux does a little better with 3 huggy bears out of 5.

The moral of the story? If you want to drink Superfuzz, do it on tap. You will be happier for it.

Beers of the Week: Epic Ales/Odin Sage and Chervil

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Sage and chervil, two wonderful culinary herbs, but not something that you would associate with beer. Sage really tends to pare itself well with fats, and is most tasty when sautéed with butter and pumpkin ravioli. Chervil is a relative to parsley and is wonderful on salads, lending notes of anise to the dish. Because of the Iron Brewer competition at Beverage Place Pub, Odin and Epic got to use these two herbs in a head to head competition.

Epic Ales – the beer poured hazy yellow in color with strong notes of Belgian yeast, sage and pineapple in a surprisingly complex nose. The initial taste was much drier than I was expecting with light notes of black licorice balanced with a slight sweetness. The beer then builds on the sage component, starting out hidden before a long but subtle incline before being joined at the end by some light citrus. The Belgian notes are a background player throughout the beer and this beer is surprisingly well balanced without the herbs dominating the beer or the Belgian flavors dominating the herbs. Given the Belgian treatment, I guessed it was Odin and I was wrong.

Epic’s version of the beer sunned itself with 3 window boxes out of 5.

 

Odin – The beer poured golden yellow in color with heavy sage and grain on the nose and very strong yeast suggesting a pilsner. The beer starts slightly sweet before giving way to a distinctive and pronounced herb flavor – you can definitely taste both the sage and the chervil in this beer, but is still maintained the pilsner like character of the beer, providing a nice crisp balance. The beer finishes long with hints of salt and sugar while still managing to be balanced and slightly dry. This beer had a much more pronounced use of the herbs while still balancing that with the beer character, and I thought that this beer would have been perfect with a grilled chicken breast because of its herb component.

Odin’s version of the beer cultivated a solid 3 Anthriscus cerefolium out of 5.

Both of these beers were well done, but I picked Odin’s as my favorite and so did the crowd.

Beer of the Week: Reuben’s Blood Red Orange Rye

By Iron Chef Leftovers

untitled2There are very few flavors that I love more than blood orange, but the track record in having beers that included it are spotty. Some have been good (Elysian) and some not so good (also Elysian).  I was excited when Reuben’s decided to do one as part of a Seattle Beer Week event – their track record on beers has been outstanding and if anyone was going to do it right, it was going to be them. So I rushed down to the brewery to try the beer.

The beer poured more pink than red, almost the color of pink grapefruit juice. Lots of mild citrus and grapefruit juice dominated the nose, reminding me of something that I could not quite place. The initial taste was slightly tart and sweet with mild fruit character. There were definite notes of blood orange in this beer but it completely overwhelmed the rye, no easy task, to the point of having to really look for it on the finish. The beer lacked balance and integration of flavors making it more like drinking fruit juice than beer as the hops and rye character of the beer were almost completely lost. It was still an interesting enough beer to be worth trying and probably could have used a bit more bittering from hops to balance out the sweetness of the blood orange and to add more depth, but it definitely falls into the miss category for Reuben’s, which was bound to happen at some point.

Maybe my expectations clouded my judgment on this beer, but it could have used more beer character and less fruit character to make it more interesting.

Reuben’s Blood Red Orange Rye peels out of the picture with a disappointing 2 sour oranges out of 5.

Baby It’s Cold Outside

by A.J. Coltrane

Previous post here.

It’s been getting down into the 20’s at night. The brussels sprouts are decidedly unhappy about it:

112213 brussels

I decided to hedge my bets and harvest them before they started to look even worse:

112213 brussels cut

The cool-weather herbs and vegetables in the plant house seem no worse for the wear:

That's beer in the saucer. No luck yet.
That’s beer in the saucer. No luck yet. (L-R:  Pak Choi, Parsely, Cilantro, Spinach)

On the bright side, slugs hate the cold too.