Category: Food

Beer of the Week: The Alchemist / Ninkasi / Stone More Brown Than Black IPA

By Iron Chef Leftovers

More Brown Than Black IPA is a collaboration beer between The Alchemist, Ninkasi and Stone Brewing and was brewed in November of 2011. It comes in at a hefty 7.4% ABV and 80 IBU and was brewed with a veritable kitchen sink of hops (Super Galena hop extract for bittering, Nelson Sauvin and Delta for flavor, dry-hopped with a blend of Citra and Galaxy) and malts (Maris Otter Pale, Light Munich, Carafa III Special Dark, and CaraHelles) The notes on the beer from the Stone website:

Tasting notes, provided by Brewmaster Mitch Steele

Appearance: Deep brown, a bit hazy, with tan foam.
Aroma: Whoa! This beer is all about, resiny, piney, dank and citrusy hops! The first shot is intense blend of pine and orange rind, and then as your sense of smell just starts to recover, the dankness and resiny herbaceousness come through with hints of grapefruit. This is a powerful hop blend!
Taste: The hops also dominate the flavor of this beer. Orange and grapefruit rind take center stage in the flavor, followed by, you guessed it: piney / resiny notes. The beer has a modest body…not sweet at all…and has a lingering bitter, drying end. Beyond the bitter end there are light hints of roasted malt and chocolate in the finish.
Overall: The hop character in this beer is unique and very pronounced. Galaxy is a newer hop variety from Australia that we think has strong tropical fruit and stone fruit characteristics. Citra and Delta are newer American hop varieties — Citra possesses strong citrus and dank flavors, while Delta has a milder profile with melon and berry notes. And of course Nelson Sauvin from New Zealand has its intense namesake’s white wine notes along with—surprise!—more dank notes. They all blended together well in this beer, a tribute to one of our favorite styles.

The beer was available in 12 oz. bottles for around $4 at the end of 2011. The beer that I consumed had been sitting in the cellar since then and I figured it would be a good idea to break it out to see how it held up.

The beer pours dark brown with a brown head. Hops and citrus permeate the nose on this beer – there is no doubt that this is an IPA. Slight hints of malt play hide and seek with your nose, but they are definitely there. Citrus and resin dominate the palate but they are balanced with the malt and grain. A slight malty sweetness quickly yields to green hops, resin and earthy citrus in a very long and not at all bitter finish. At no point in this beer does the alcohol dominate the flavor. As the beer warms, a slight smokiness shows on the nose and briefly on the palate. I had this beer fresh and it was a complete hop bomb and I think it is still enjoyable despite the recommendation to drink it fresh. The beer is slightly more restrained in its aged form and I think more approachable to the average beer drinker who is just beginning to cut their teeth on very hoppy IPA’s.

This beer was great when I originally had it and great when I had it a year later, which is unusual for an IPA. The character on this beer is amazing and I really wish they would brew it again.

More Brown than Black gets 4 Kumbyas out of 5.

Minor League Baseball Returns to PDX

By Blaidd Drwg

Minor league teams have a habit of coming up with some interesting names. Currently, you have the Winston-Salem Dash, the Kannapolis Intimidators, Mahonig Valley Scrappers, Rancho Cucamonga Quakes (I love that name) and Lansing Lug Nuts, just to name a few.

For the 2013 season, minor league baseball is coming back to the Portland area in the form of the Hillsboro Hops. The logo?

Nothing like combining two of my favorite things; baseball and beer. I might be buying myself one of their hats when they are finally available. On an interesting side note, the Hops replace the Bears in the NW league. The humor of this – Yakima is actually the largest hops producing region in the country. Oregon, specifically the Willamette Valley (close to Hillsboro), is second.

Ooh! It’s so good!

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Back in my younger days when I still had my Iron Chef Training Wheels, there was no Food Network, no internet and cooking shows were primarily limited to PBS and starred such greats as Jeff Smith (The Frugal Gourmet), Julia Child, Justin Wilson (or as he called himself, Justiiin Wil-son, my first exposure to Cajun cooking) and Martin Yan (one of the funniest and smartest people I have had the pleasure of meeting). There was one exception – a 90 second segment that appeared on the local news every day called Mr. Food hosted by a man named Art Ginsburg. Mr. Food was a big geek and ended every one of his segments with the line “Ooh! It’s so good!”

As much as I loved the PBS shows, as a kid, Mr. Food was much more approachable – everything was relatively simple and easy to produce and you could send an SASE to the station to get the recipe (I did that a number of times) that came with really well thought out instructions on how to make the dish. I remember making several of them, some turning out well, some not so much.

I hadn’t thought about Mr. Food for years until a few days ago when I saw this posted. It appears that Art Ginsburg passed away on November 19th at the age of 81 after a battle with pancreatic cancer. That made me realize he probably had more of an impact on my early cooking interest than anyone outside of my family. In reading the story, one thing stuck out that I had no idea about:

he published 52 Mr. Food-related cookbooks, selling more than 8 million copies

These days, I don’t imagine that I would get anything out of those cook books, but I wouldn’t mind leafing through them just for nostalgic value.

Rest in peace, Chef, and thank you from both my 39 year old Iron Chef self and my 10 year old just learning to cook self – Iron Chef Leftovers might not have existed if it weren’t for you.

If you have never seen his segments, here is a more recent one to give you an idea of what they were like (and the guy looks the same as he did in the early 1980’s)

Beer of the Week: Sam Adams Veloren

By Iron Chef Leftovers

Sam Adams in the last few years has been getting back to its roots with producing some interesting beers on a limited release basis. One of those beers is Veloren – which is an almost dead style called Gose. What is Gose you ask? From the Sam Adams website:

A link to the ales of Saxony that have all but vanished, Verloren (translating to “lost”) is a peculiar yet captivating brew. This gose style (pronounced “goes-uh”), with its base of an unfiltered wheat ale, is light and refreshing yet also has a softness to it. Verloren’s flavor is brought to life by an unexpected touch of salt for a mineral quality, and coriander for a peppery spice. The result is an unusual and delicate brew that’s full of flavors to discover.

Our rendition of an old German style, Verloren is brewed with 50 to 60 percent malted wheat creating a fine haze, cloudy straw color, and crisp twang. The singularity of this brew however, comes from its soft creaminess, dry finish, and spices. The addition of salt creates a slight sharpness against the soft cereal character and enhances the other flavors around it, while ground coriander creates a peppery bite to enliven the brew.

I picked up this beer because, for the life of me, I can’t remember ever having tried a Gose. The beer ran $7 for a 750ml bottle, wasn’t particularly difficult to find (megamarts with a better beer selection should carry it) and comes in at 6.0% ABV and a very light 15 IBU. Gose is brewed with a bunch of malts, Saaz hops and salt and coriander are added in the brewing process.

This beer pour amber and slightly coudy, you would almost think you are drinking a strange colored wit just by looking at it. The nose consists predominantly of malt and sugar with some citrus and hints of spice and herbs in the background. Malt also dominates the palate, giving way to some spice with hints of sweetness followed by citrus and citrus peel in a very long finish. As it warms, sugar starts to compliment the malt without being over the top and hints of hop bitterness come out on the finish. I never really got any distinct salt in the beer, but that is probably the point, salt should enhance all of the other flavors without being a player itself.

Veloren isn’t the best beer you will ever try, but you should try it just because you probably have never tried the style. I don’t know that I would run out myself and buy it again, but if I was in the mood for something different, I probably would pick one up.

Overall, Sam Adams Veloren gets 3 Bubo virginianus out of 5.

How to Soften the Blow of a Bad Review

By Iron Chef Leftovers

I have never met Guy Fieri, but I really don’t like the guy who Anthony Bourdain once called “The Poochie of Food Network.” I have never been to any of his restaurants, so I can’t comment on if they are any good, but he recently opened a 500 seat monstrosity in Times Square in NYC. It seems that the place is terrible and has met with many bad reviews, including one recently from the NY Times writer Peter Wells (you can read that here – he actually gave the place 0 stars).

Eater.com, it all its wisdom, took some of the worst criticisms from Wells and in a shout out to Fieri’s feelings and in an attempt to soften the blow, added them to pictures of kittens. There is brilliance in this – I am going to have to remember this the next time I write a negative review on something. I highly recommend reading the review first then going here to see all the pictures, but here are two of my favorites:

 

 

 

Beer of the Week: Fremont Brewing Cherry Almond Dark Star

By Iron Chef Leftovers

I really like Fremont Brewing – they have great beers, a dedicated mission to reduce their carbon footprint and a really great tasting room located just a couple miles from the Iron Chef abode. One of the benefits of their tasting room is that they carry some one off beers on cask. The downside of this is that they tend to be very small production and are gone almost as quickly as they show up. A recent trip to the tasting room yielded a Cherry and Almond version of their very tasty Dark Star Imperial Oatmeal Stout. It was a blustery day when I visited so something dark was in order and how could I pass up a beer with two of my favorite things – cherry and almonds.

I couldn’t find any info on the beer online, so here is what the regular Dark Star is described as:

Roasty, chocolate tones swirled with oatmeal smoothness and dark as the night. The Dark Star crashes, pouring its light into ashes, so follow as the Lady of Velvet in the nights of goodbye. This one is too smooth…and at 8.0% ABV, dangerous.
Down & Dirty: 2-Row, Roast Barley, Crystal-60, Chocolate, & Carafa-2 malts with Flaked Oats and Magnum, Wilamette & Cascade hops. 8.0% ABV
Availability: Year-Round

This beer pours jet black with the faintest hint of cream on the head, and was served at room temperature. There is lots of roasted malt and grain on the nose with a background of almonds, so subtle that you may not notice it if you were not looking for it. Taking a sip of this beer is an experience – lots of malt and roasting coffee initially, giving way to almonds, chocolate and dried cherries in a very long and lingering finish, which is good, since this beer is a bit boozy and a couple will do you in. There was also a bit of bitterness in the initial few sips, which might be off putting to some, but I thought was a nice balance to all of the flavors that were in the beer, and the bitterness did eventually disappear. There is a pleasantly mild residual almond flavor that lingers on the tongue between sips, and overall the beer makes me think of an unsweetened cherry almond dark chocolate bar – so much so that I could actually imagine it in a solid form.

This version of Dark Star was a very fun drinking experience and wish it was more widely available. My only complaint is that I would have liked a bit more cherry flavor on the finish, but that is a personal preference as I love the combination of cherry and stout. Other than that, this was a great beer and you should rush down to the Fremont tap room if it does make another appearance.

Cherry Almond Dark Star pulls is a heavy 4 gravity wells out of 5.

Last Night’s Pizza

by A.J. Coltrane

Not the world’s most awesome title for a post. I’d guess most people would just “twitter” their pictures of the pizza.

First off though, a piece about Marv Albert at Grantland. Marv finally got to broadcast an NBA game from Brooklyn, which is where he grew up. As kids, Marv and his brothers would turn down the volume on the TV and do play-by-play of the baseball games. He’d lug a tape recorder to almost any sporting event and “call” the game. There’s this bit too:

“Kenny Sears’s stale jokes put the other players to sleep,” Marv wrote in the Lincoln Log in 1957. Now, fast-forward three decades. Remember when Michael Jordan hit six first-half 3-pointers in the ’92 Finals and gave that I-can’t-believe-it-either shrug? It’s often forgotten that the guy he was shrugging at — his co-conspirator, you might say — was the NBC announcer whom he liked so much that he’d feel hurt if he didn’t get asked for an interview. The guy MJ was shrugging at was Marv.

There’s more. It’s an interesting piece.

Onto the pizza. Before:

After:

 

Sopressata, sausage, red onion, mozz, goat cheese.

 

Beer of the Week: Elysian Brewing Maelstrom Blood Orange Ale

By Iron Chef Leftovers

In celebration of the potential end of the world (according to the Mayans), Elysian Brewing introduced their 12 Beers of the Apocalypse series – a monthly release of a really off the wall beer. The story from the Elysian website:

In a year-long run-up to the end of all time (according to the Mayan calendar), Elysian Brewing Company and Fantagraphics Books, both of Seattle, are releasing a series of twelve beers, issued on the 21st of each month in 2012 and featuring the label artwork of Charles Burns taken from his weirdly apocalyptic work “Black Hole.” The “Twelve Beers of the Apocalypse” will feature the creativity and unusual ingredients for which Elysian’s brewing team is known. What twelve beers would you brew (and drink) if you knew they would be your last?

The August release was the Maelstrom Blood Orange Ale. I love blood orange, so I had to try this one. The description from Elysian:

Down, down, down Maelstrom will go, pulling the hapless beer enthusiast in with a beguiling blend of blood orange, Northwest hops and sweet orange peel. Stray to close and you may not escape the currents of this tender trap. Blood orange provides tartness and the blush of a brazen sea, Citra and amarillo hops from the Yakima Valley offer bite and aroma, and orange peel suggests a little something else on the wind. Maelstrom is brewed with pale, Munich and Dextri-pils malts bittered with German Northern Brewer and finished and dry-hopped with Citra and Amarillo.

The beer comes in at a hefty 7.25% and is available in a limited release in both 22 oz. bottles for around $7and on tap. I poured mine from a bottle.

The beer pours a cloudy light orange in color with a white head, very reminiscent of a hefe. Hints of hops, blood orange peel and malt dominate the ones on this beer – if you did not know what you were drinking, you might think it was a funky IPA. The initial sip yielded very little character (it may have been a touch too cold) with a hint of grain and a hint of hops, but subsequent sips build up, first with a slightly sweet, orange juice punch, turning into slightly bitter orange peel which lingers for a few seconds before fading. The finish is a bit tannic but very interesting with a lasting bitterness of orange peel and hops that linger well after the sip. The bitterness becomes slightly more pronounced as the beer warms, but it is more enhancing rather than detracting from the overall experience.

One thing that I did try with this beer was pairing it with a classic flavor combination to orange – chocolate. Paired with a single origin Tanzania, 72% chocolate (it had a fruity flavor profile), the beer is enhanced to pack an incredible orange punch and becoming very IPA like with significant presence of hops and notes of bitterness. The chocolate really enhanced many of the flavors that I loved about this beer.

Assuming the world does not end, I would love to see Elysian bring back this beer. It was fantastic; definitely one that I would want to drink if I knew that it was going to be my last one.

Maelstrom Blood Orange Ale gets a sacred 4 blood sacrifices out of 5.

Long Cold Fermentation Baguettes

by A.J. Coltrane

Baguettes inspired by Rose Levy Beranbaum’s The Bread Bible. One of her recommendations for rustic loaves calls for combining all of the water with an equal weight of flour, then letting that marinate in the refrigerator for up to three days. (A poolish.) I targeted 63% hydration for the baguettes, and I wanted two loaves as an end product. 600 grams of flour is about right for two shortish baguettes, so:

Poolish:  378 grams refrigerator water, 378 grams AP flour, 1/16 teaspoon Instant Dry Yeast. Mix with a spatula, cover the bowl, and let rest in the refrigerator for 3 days.

The poolish after three days.

One hour before you are ready to combine the rest of the ingredients with the Poolish, remove it from the refrigerator.  Note the fabulous shower cap. Another idea that I picked up from interweb forums. It should help cut down on the plastic wrap use.

Fashionably coiffed. Note the Space Invaders cutting board lurking in the background.

 

Add 222 grams of AP flour to the Poolish, as well as 12 grams of salt (2% of the total flour weight) and 1 teaspoon of Instant Dry Yeast. Knead in the mixer for 6-8 minutes at low speed until the dough is smooth. Cover and let rise one hour. Divide the dough into two pieces and let rest 15 minutes.

Post-shape and pre-rise.

Shape into baguettes, cover, and let rise 1.5 hours. Slash the loaves.

Slashed. I really need to get better at that technique.

 

Place a baking stone on the middle rack and a sheet tray on a lower rack. Put three ice cubes in the sheet tray and set the oven to 425F.

They came out a little paler than I would have liked. I think the flavor suffered a little bit as a result.

Load the loaves into the oven and add a couple of ice cubes to the sheet tray. (I’m still working on figuring out how many ice cubes to use and the timing, though this combination got high remarks on the finished bread crusts the first time I tried it, and it’s about what the guy at the Restaurant Supply Store recommended. It seems like a good place to start.)

The crumb. I was visualizing a more open hole structure. To get there I may need to increase the hydration, or use bread flour, or just work the dough a little more. Probably all three.

I think the end result was fine but not exceptional. I need more practice. Fortunately this is one of those things where nobody minds eating the experiments, and even the less than ideal loaves still taste pretty good.