Beer of the Week: Speakeasy Double Daddy IPA

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Living on the west coast means an abundance of double and imperial IPA’s tend to be available and it also means that I want to try any new ones that enter into the market. When Speakeasy became available in Seattle and one of the available beers was their Double Daddy IPA, a beer which I have tried and liked in previous trips to SF, I figured it was time for a review. The beer was from a 22oz. bottle.

From the Speakeasy website:

Doubling down on malt & hops, Double Daddy raises the stakes. With its good looks and no-limit style, DD takes the pot every time.

Style: Imperial India Pale Ale

Release Date: January, 2003

Alcohol Content: 8.5% by volume

Malts: Pale malted barley, English Munich Malts

Hops: 4 Varieties of Pacific Northwest Hops, 3 hop additions, including dry hopping

Yeast: Speakeasy Ale Yeast

Tasting Notes: Copper color. Huge hop aroma. Bitter, hoppy and warming alcohol on the palate. Finishes incredibly dry and clean for such a big beer.

The beer pours amber in color with a white head. Lots of citrus and grapefruit on the nose with grain and some floral notes hiding in the background. This beer is a major hop bomb – slightly bitter with juicy grapefruit and orange peel dominate with a long finish that contains hints of grain in addition to the hop character. Some green hops and resin become present in the middle of the finish as the beer warms, which was surprising but not unpleasant and an nice addition to balance out the citrus a bit more. The alcohol is well integrated and not noticeable, making this an easy drinking beer for any hop head.

Double Big Daddy is a find double IPA, and one that will hold up in the crowded NW beer market.

Speakeasy Double Daddy IPA slides into the party with a solid 4 zoot suits out of 5.

Son of a….

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Rene Redzepi is coming to Seattle on November 18th and will be hosted at a meal cooked by Matt Dillon and Blaine Wetzel.

In case you aren’t aware – Redzepi is the chef at the #1 restaurant in the world Noma in Copenhagen.

Dillon is one of the best chefs in the Northwest and is a James Beard Award winner.

Wetzel cooks at the Willow’s Inn on Lummi Island, used to cook at Noma and is considered by many to be one of the most underrated chefs in North America.

Details aren’t available, but the info is here if you want it.

EarthBox Update — October 7, 2013

by A.J. Coltrane

Previous post here.

I harvested all of the remaining peppers after work tonight. It came to eighteen pounds — fourteen pounds of sweet peppers and four pounds of hot peppers. The six sweet pepper plants had a box to themselves this year. The three hot peppers were less than half as productive — they wound up sharing a box with the lemongrass and shiso, each of which got monstrous. To make it even tougher, they were planted on the shadier end of that box. The hot peppers and bell pepper would have done a ton better in their own box, or with short, less “sun demanding” stuff. (The bell pepper was shaded by the lemon cucumber, we got one bell pepper out of that plant.) Live and learn. I’ve been saying that a lot this year.

Did you know earwigs will eat holes into Jalapenos? Who knew? Jalapenos of all things…

Today’s pepper harvest. The hot peppers are in the sheet tray. The six sweet peppers are arranged as they were in the box, with the best sun hitting the right side, then the bottom row in the late afternoons:

Left column, bottom to top – Gypsy, Tequila, Banana (yellow, was trapped under the shiso), Anaheim.

Center column – Gourmet, Lipstick (an apt name), Jalapeno

Right column – Cute Stuff, King of the North

The King of the North before harvest:

Continue reading “EarthBox Update — October 7, 2013” →

Beer of the Week: Populuxe Ate2Four Plum Porter

By Iron Chef Leftovers

A few months back, Populuxe brewed a plum porter which I was very much enamored with. Since it was just about plum season, I offered them up the plums off my trees, which they took me up on. In exchange for the plums, the kind folks at Populuxe let me name the beer. I bounced around the names for a while and I finally decided to name it after my house number – 824. Being the deranged mind that I have, I couldn’t just use the number, so I decided to engage in a bit of word play – hence Ate2Four. Hey, it may not be the best name, but I get a kick out of it, and my goal in life is to crack myself up, so tough.

The beer pars dark black with strong notes of chocolate and coffee on the nose. The beer starts out with some bold but not overpowering flavors of chocolate and coffee on the initial taste with a strong malt character. Those flavors linger before finishing with mild balancing notes of dried fruit and raisins that linger for quite a long time. Those notes are there but are not dominating the beer, so you may not recognize them unless you knew they were there. This beer is very well balanced and is not your typical fruit beer – the plums compliment the roasted coffee and chocolate notes of the beer, acting as a balancing flavor rather than a dominant one in the beer. Think of this one as a really nice brown porter with a supporting plum flavor instead of a plum beer that is porter based.

The other day, this beer was poured at Brew at the Zoo. The keg kicked in about 1 hour 15 minutes – helped along by it being the most interesting beer being poured at the list and was one of a small handful of dark beers being poured. For those who did not get to try this beer, it may be making a comeback in the fall. Check out the Populuxe Facebook site for their current tap list.

I am very happy to have contributed to the success of this beer and yes, I am biased, but the Ate2Four version of the Plum Porter was every bit as good as the original, copying its brother with a perfect 5 Xerox out of 5.

Beer of the Week: Reuben’s Brews Cask Conditioned Imperial IPA

By Iron Chef Leftovers

I have called Reuben’s Brews on of the 5 best breweries in the state in this space and that is not an exaggeration. They make some of the best hoppy beers in the state and they elevate those when they are on cask, a true treat for any hophead. The only unfortunate thing about the casks is that they tend of be a one-time deal. In the early days of their cask program, they gave the cask treatment to their Imperial IPA, a beer which I thought was outstanding to begin with. The cask version clocks in at 9.4% ABV and 100+ IBU.

The beer pours hazy orange in color with a touch of a fizzy white head. The beer is a major hop bomb on the nose with lots of citrus and grapefruit, which are much more pronounced then the regular version of the beer, and a slight resin hop character in the background. Drinking the beer brings a major flavor explosion – heavy on the grapefruit and citrus with a very long finish – a very mild, almost barely there bitterness plays hide and seek on the palate with the citrus and peel notes, adding a nice balancing contrast to the citrus flavors. The beer drinks like a much lighter beer with incredible balance – much smoother and more subtle flavors than the regular version of the beer, it is double dry hopped with Simcoe. Probably one of the 5 best beers that Reuben’s has put out.

Reuben’s Cask Conditioned Imperial IPA rolls in with a spectacular 5 barrels out of 5.

Beers of the Week: Anacortes Brewing/North Sound Brewing Maple and Smoke

By Iron Chef Leftovers

You may remember last week when I posted a terribly disappointing review of the Rogue Voodoo Maple Beer and I said the following:

I am willing to admit that I am not a huge fan of rauchbier, but I can appreciate the subtle flavors that smoke can add to a beer, lifting it up to a different plain. Stay tuned to next Tuesday where I actually review a beer that does this.

Well, lucky for you, I am going to keep my word and take it one step further, I am going to give you 2 beers that use maple and smoke well.

Back during Seattle Beer Week, Beveridge Place Pub in West Seattle held an Iron Brewer event. Basically a pair of breweries are given an ingredient that they have to use in a beer and then the two are put up head to head in a blind tasting with the winner receiving the most votes. In this case, North Sound Brewing and Anacortes Brewing were paired up together in this smack down. Here is what they turned out:

Anacortes Maple and Smoke – Amber in color with hints of brown depending on how the light catches it. Strong notes of maple and smoke on the nose, covering any other scents in the beer. Tasting it was a different experience; the beer was not as big as I was expecting, starting out slightly sweet with notes of nuts and malt and finishing up with a long maple syrup ending. There is very little smoke on this beer and it tasted like drinking a lightly smoked, maple glazed almond – all that was really missing was the salt. The beer was well balanced and easy to drink but I found myself wanting just a hint more smoke flavor to add more complexity.

The Anacortes beer fanned the flames with 3 roasters out of 5.

North Sound Maple and Smoke – tan/orange in color with light smoke and hops dominating the nose on this beer and maple in the background if you go looking for it. Slightly sweet on the initial taste before yielding to some resin hops and grain and then finally finishing with a long, slow transition to light smoke and hints of maple – reminded me of smoking fish over maple but being some distance from the fire. Incredibly restrained with the use of maple and smoke – they are there and in balance with the other flavors, but don’t completely overwhelm the other notes in the beer. North Sound made a maple and smoke IPA.

The North Sound beer torched the competition with 4 bonfires out of 5.

A few things about this event – there were 6 beers (3 pairs of beers with different ingredients) and I thought the North Sound was the best of the 6. I was absolutely convinced the North Sound beer was brewed by Anacortes – North Sound is not known for their IPA and Kevin at Anacortes brews what I feel is the best one in the state. These beers go to show that you can brew something with smoke and not have it taste like you are eating a smoldering log.

A Beer Themed Amusement Park?

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Unfortunately only in the deranged mind of Stephan Pastis. From a string of strips from Pearls Before Swine:

EarthBox Update — September 30, 2013

by A.J. Coltrane

Previous post here.

A day late on the update this week. Yesterday was a triple-header of sports: Seahawks (on tv), Mariners (in person), and Sounders (raining hard in person). I’m still recovering.

This week the weather was cold, windy, and rainy. One day it rained as hard as I’ve ever seen it rain in Seattle. It was blowing sideways and running like waterfalls off of the roof. The temperature dropped down into the 40’s on a couple of nights. The peppers and tomatillos seemed ok with all of that. The tomatoes are finished for the year except for the Sun Gold plant. I believe we’re up over 200 pounds of stuff to date, so no complaints here.

On Friday I pulled all of the semi-ripe Roma tomatoes:

Today I pulled the rest of the tomatoes and almost all of the cucumbers. The cucumber plant is about toast (pic down lower in the post):

Continue reading “EarthBox Update — September 30, 2013” →

Beer of the Week: NW Peak Double Redoubt Red

By Iron Chef Leftovers

NW Peaks recently upped their number of taps from 4 to 7, which means more tasty beers to try. One of the new beers on tap is Double Redoubt Red, which is effectively the regular Redoubt Red with the recipe doubled. The Double clocks in at 7% ABV.

The beer pours dark red in color with lots of hops on the nose and a nice grain background. The beer starts out very malt forward and slightly sweet before moving into its hop character in the middle – somewhat hoppy but tempered by the malt and grain, making it just a touch smoky. The beer then finishes with a small amount of hop resin and a malty sweetness with an ever so subtle alcohol burn at the very end. Well balanced and slightly fruity as it warms, it is easily a beer that you could knock back several in one sitting.

My only complaint about Double Redoubt was the alcohol burn at the end; otherwise this beer is delicious and solidly put together, perfect for a fall day in the Northwest.

NW Peaks Double Redoubt Red removes all doubts with a self-assured 4 affirmations out of 5.

Earthbox Update — September 27, 2013

by A.J. Coltrane

Previous post here.

The basil has not been digging the cold and wet. I cut about 97% of it, leaving just a little bit to see how it does over the next couple of weeks. The seven plants provided 2-1/2 pounds of leaves on Wednesday and Thursday. At the QFC on Thursday they had .66 oz packages for $2.79. At that rate the 2-1/2 pounds represents $169. Crazy.

Wednesday at the card table:

Thursday:

I have no idea where the "Gretchen's" bag came from. I've never heard of it. I'm guessing a visitor left it behind. — I have no idea where the “Gretchen’s” bag came from. I’ve never heard of it. I’m guessing a visitor left it behind.

Thursdays proto pesto. It was divided up into sandwich freezer bags and frozen:

Success with basil is initially what showed us that the Earthboxes rock. I’d always killed it in the past, before the Earthboxes. It’s why we purchased ten more Earthboxes when we got the room. (That, and the only good place to plant anything at the house happens to be on a concrete slab in the back yard.) This year we planted four basil plants as early as we could, then four more mid-season. They were totally unfussy and almost care-free all year. The total yield was about 7 pounds of leaves. At the prices above ($4.22/oz), that comes to $472. Even at something like $1/oz, it’d still be over $100.

Woof.