We've Moved!

This blog has been a lot of fun, but for the time being, we are moving on to our new project: http://www.foodandbrews.com/.

Food and Brews contains much of the same content, and will be regularly updated with new recipes, food thoughts, beer reviews, and homebrew experiences. Please visit, and let us know what you think!

Cheers,

Elizabeth & Alan

Caldera IPA

Caldera Brewing's IPA

by Alan

As I was browsing around Whole Foods looking for something I haven’t tried, the Caldera cans practically burst off of the shelf with their brilliant colors. High end beer in a can? Who am I to judge until I give it a try!

Caldera's description: 
An American-style India Pale Ale brewed with plenty of body and an assertive hop profile. Malts: Premium Two Row, Munich, Crystal Hops: Simcoe, Centennial, Amarillo; Alcohol by Volume: 6.1%; IBU 94, SRM: 10.1

My tasting notes: 

• Appearance — Rich gold color with a light tan head, excellent head retention
• Smell — Citrus and floral hoppy smell with from herb notes, fresh grass. Some sweet malty smell
• Taste — Bitter hopiness up front, then the resinous hop flavor shines though. some good toasted malty flavor with it
• Mouthfeel — Crisp, well carbonated nice and smooth
• Drinkability — Great session beer, easy drinker for an IPA

This has made me a believer in the can. While I’ll never shy away from some inexpensive PBR or some High Life, it’s great to see some high quality, high flavor brews in the same light compact container. These will help make by baseball season full (and my wallet empty).
 
Extras:
$9.99 for a 6 pack at Whole Foods (prices may vary)

This brew would go perfect with some grilling, and the can is perfect for some outdoors action.

Paulaner Salvator DoppleBock

by Alan

Paulaner Salvator DoppleBock

I thought I would branch out and try something international and not an IPA. With so many options to choose from, I started with a lower price point and worked my way up. Low and behold, the $2.49 Pint of brew was called out my name.
 
Paulaners description:
"Paulaner Salvator is the founding father of all Bavarian stouts, and the originator of all "-ator" beers. With an alcohol content of 7.9, it is not only the strongest beer brewed by the Paulaner Brewery, but also has the most tradition: Paulaner Salvator has been brewed from 100% Munich malt to a handed-down recipe for 375 years. Today, it is the highest-selling "Double bock" beer in Germany.

Paulaner Salvator is dark, full bodied and strong, and wonderfully malty in flavour and aroma - a perfectly balanced, round, quaffable stout specialty."

My tasting notes:

• Appearance — Dark copper Amber with a tan colored frothy head. Low head retention
• Smell — Buttery sweet, Nutty, malts dominate
• Taste — The Munich malt shines, nice sweet malty flavor bread and honey. Crisp with some alcohol heat in the finish
• Mouthfeel — Crisp, full bodies, flavor stays with you all the way though. Nice warm drinker with medium to light carbonation
• Drinkability — with the alcohol content, I probably wouldn’t drink more than one in a sitting, but this is a tasty sipping brew. Great for some cold weather

Extras:

• 1 pint .9oz bottle, 2.49 at Whole Foods (prices may vary)
• ABV 7.%

Grab yourself a Bratwurst and some sauerkraut—this brew needs something with a fair amount of flavor to play off of. Any kind of grilling would be good, or some nice roast beef. Can’t beat the price.

Sierra Nevada 2011 Hoptimum Whole-Cone Imperial IPA

by Alan

Hoptimum, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.

For this beer, we really have to start with the label. Being new to home brewing, I picked up a copy of the Jan/Feb issue of Brew Your Own, and that's when I got my first glimpse at Hoptimum. The label just popped off the page, and I started keeping an eye out at local shops to see if I could get my hands on some of it. As soon as it was available I bought a couple bottles. I immediately drank one, and saved the second for a review.

Sierra Nevada's description: 
"A group of hop-heads and publicans challenged our Beer Camp brewers to push the extremes of whole-cone hop brewing. The result is this: a 100 IBU, whole-cone hurricane of flavor. Simply put —Hoptimum: the biggest whole-cone IPA we have ever produced. Aggressively hopped, dry-hopped, AND torpedoed with our exclusive new hop varieties for ultra-intense flavors and aromas.

Resinous "new-school" and exclusive hop varieties carry the bold and aromatic nose. The flavor follows the aroma with layers of aggressive hoppiness, featuring notes of grapefruit rind, rose, lilac, cedar, and tropical fruit—all culminating in a dry and lasting finish."

My tasting notes:

• Appearance—Pours a clear golden amber with a foamy off white head. Great head retention
• Smell—No surprise here, lots of hops up front. Grapefruit notes, nice and floral
• Taste—Lots of hoppy bitterness, with a fantastic malty sweetness. Powerful hoppy flavor throughout with a clean dry finish. As you drink, the sweetness really shines and the floral notes come out more and more
• Mouthfeel—Smooth and creamy, medium light carbonation with some heat from the alcohol content
• Drinkability—This is a fantastic IPA for hopheads, not too cheap, and probably not too easy to find. If you can get your hands on some, I highly recommend it 

Extras:

• 24oz bottle, 9.49 at Whole Foods (prices may vary)
• Bittering units: 100
• ABV 10.4

I'm hoping Sierra Nevada makes this brew annually as a special release. They are doing some great things with their own proprietary hops, and I can’t wait to see what they come up with next. This was just an all around fun brew.

For a food pairing, you'll need something to be able to stand up to the bitterness. Any kind of spicy food would probably be the best although the hoppiness may enhance the heat a bit. Most BBQ beef would stand up great with this.

Russian River: Pliny The Elder

by Alan

Pliny the Elder, Russian River Brewing Co.

On most Wednesdays, our local Whole Foods gets their small shipment of Russian River. Sometimes we get some Blind Pig, sometimes we get some of their Belgian styles—Damnation, Salvation, and Redemption—but we almost always get some Pliny the Elder. I do my best to make it in for the shipments and get whatever might be new as well as some Pliny the Elder.

I couldn’t find a specific description of Pliny the Elder from Russian River Brewing's site—not that it needs one. Pliny the Elder and Blind Pig both fall into the heavily hopped California ale styles. If you're an IPA fan from California, you probably know this beer fairly well.

My Tasting Notes:

• Appearance—Brilliant gold with a bright fluffy white foamy head, perfectly translucent
• Smell—Fantastic floral hops with some citrus notes, Orange/Peach
• Taste—Some sweet maltiness before the hops smacks you in the face. Wonderful balanced bitterness with great hoppy flavor. The hops bring out some grapefruit citrus notes
• Mouthfeel—Very smooth medium bodied with perfect carbonation. Some light alcohol heat. Very well balanced
• Drinkability—This is a world class beer, I continue to buy this whenever I can get it

The folks at Russian River make some fine brews, and there will be many more reviews as I get my hands on more of them. Hopefully I can make my way up to the brewery sometime to enjoy some right from the tap.

Rogue Morimoto Soba Ale

by Alan

I'm a big fan of beer, and I have been a big fan of Morimoto since I started watching the original Iron Chef many years before they brought it to America. I had not heard of the Morimoto series of beers until the beer buyer at our local Whole Foods alerted me that they were getting some of the Soba Ale in stock. I've been saving this for week or two, and after a big sushi dinner with the wife, this seemed like the perfect beer to crack open.

Rogue Ales Description:
The delicate flavor of our roasted Soba brings a nutty finish to this light and refreshing ale. A perfect accompaniment to lighter cuisine.

8 Ingredients:

• Malts - Roasted Soba, Harrington, Metcalf, Munich & C-15
• Hops -  Crystal
• Yeast & Water - Rogue’s Pacman Yeast & Free Range Coastal Water
  

My Tasting Notes:

• Appearance - Light Amber, with some small bubbles. Not overly carbonated, nice and clear but very light head
• Smell - Earthy smell which makes sense with the Soba. Lighy sweet smell, peachy
• Taste - You can certainly taste the earthy buckwheat from the Soba, but its not off-putting or overpowering. Some lightly citrus tones, quite refreshing
• Mouthfeel - Smooth, Medium body, average carbonation, finishes dry
• Drinkability - Great pairing with some sushi, easy drinker and refreshing

I certainly enjoy soba noodles, and I'll be picking up another bottle of this for some warm summer days for a Soba dinner. If I could find it on tap or in the bottle at a Sushi restaurant I would gladly order one up. This was an interesting beer, very enjoyable.

Beer Beginnings, Issue 3 - Blackberry Wheat Ale

by Alan

I'm trying to take my small amount of home brewing to something I can put more of a personal touch on, however, I still had a few more Mr. Beer Hopped malt extracts. It may not be the degree of difficulty of other brews, but my Mr. Beer experiences have ended up with some pretty good beer. The Blackberry Wheat experiment was fairly odd, and from the start I wasn’t sure what I was going to end up with. Here's how it went down:

• 1 Can 19.4 oz Mr. Beer Golden Wheat Malt Extract - 5-minute boil with 1 liter water
• 1 Can 19.4 oz Mr. Beer "Whispering Wheat Weizenbier" added after boil
• 1 Can 15 oz Oregon Fruit Blackberries - Pureed with a hand mixer added after boil
• 1 packet SafBrew WB-06 Dry Wheat Yeast

It was a very simple recipe to work with, and the fermentation was fun to watch. It was bubbling and foaming like crazy - it even bubbled out the top of the keg. It clogged-up the airlock a bit, which was slightly difficult for bottling, but it all worked out in the end.

I've tried a couple bottles now, and it’s certainly different. I'm surprised how much blackberry nose and flavor came out. I know there are a lot of purists out there that wouldn’t dare use fruit, but I'm just a beginner and I enjoy the odd experiment or two. This was my fourth batch of homebrew and I’m having a ton of fun!


Wife's Notes:
It turned out fruity, but held a good beer flavor. I will definitely drink this again - it will be great on a warm afternoon!

Island Brewing Company Blonde Kölsh style Ale

by Alan

Before our horrible Sant Barbara weather hit - two days of light rain - I stopped by to pick up a few brews for the weekend. Given our nice warm weather at the time, I was feeling summery and went for something lighter and local. 

Island Brewing Company's Description:

A Kolsch-style ale brewed from five different types of malt, with a liberal dose of Czech Saaz hops. The result is one of our most popular ales and a nice balance of lingering malt flavors and a subtle hop finish. So light and smooth the first glass invites a second.

1st Place, 2004 CA State Fair
4.8% Alcohol by Volume 

My tasting notes 

• Appearance - Golden clear yellow with a nice foamy white head, fizzy
• Smell - Crisp slightly spicy smell of the Saaz hops, slightly sour and somewhat earthy
• Taste - Crisp, lightly hopped with some citrus/lemon character and a sweet malty flavor
• Mouthfeel - Nice and light, with a somewhat dry finish
• Drinkability - Easy-drinker, great for a summer day at the beach, or head to the Carpinteria for a few pints. Would be a great session beer

I think I need to head down to Carpinteria to try some pints on tap. This was an easy-drinker, and I cant wait to try some more Island Brews.

Green Flash Hop Head Red Ale

by Alan

One of my first stops at the 2010 Santa Barbara Beer Festival was the Green Flash tent. I was still plenty sober and the already-long line early in the day looked like a good sign. The couple  beers I tried were excellent, but it’s awfully hard to judge things from a day with so much beer. Since then I've been on the lookout for any Green Flash beer on tap at restaurants or anywhere else I might be able to find it. One of my favorites that I keep coming back to is their Hop Head Red Ale.

This San Diego Brewery appears to be on the forefront of beer trends. I've also seen some of their Belgian inspired Ales around, but Green Flash seems to be known for having very hop driven beers. I'd say it's somewhat like Stone Brewing or a number of other San Diego beers. Being somewhat of a hop head myself, I'm all for it.

Green Flash's Description: 
"Resinous hop character and bitterness balance the rich caramel malt base. We took it a step further and Amarillo dry-hopped the brew to 45 ibu's, creating refreshing and savory hop flavors and aromas. Is it red IPA? That's your call."

My tasting notes:

• Appearance - Deep red-amber beer with some nice carbonation; pours with a thick foamy medium tan head
• Smell - Powerful hoppy with its strong Dry-hopped Amarillo right up front; nice malty smell behind all those hops
• Taste - Wonderfully bitter with hops all over the place; nice smooth malty backbone behind the hops; you can taste all the layers of hops within
• Mouthfeel - Thick, bold but goes down quite smoothly; the bitterness from the hops leaves a nice dry finish
• Drinkability - I love hoppy beers and I could easily drink a few of these. Not super high, but not exactly light at 6% alcohol, I'll probably be doing most of my drinking firmly planted on the couch (newsflash, I do that anyway)

Overall, this is one of my favorite regular drinking brews. The only problem I have is that this was the last of my 4-pack.

Ninkasi ReNEWAle 2011: Mason’s Irish-Style Red Ale

by Alan

My brother-in-law's girlfriend was kind enough to give me Ninkasi's SLEIGH'R Dark Double Ale as a Christmas gift, and I've been keeping my eye out for other Ninkasi beer since then. We recently had a Bev'Mo open in our area, and I was excited to see that they keep a couple different Ninkasi beers in stock. During my last visit I picked up a seasonal brew, the Ninkasi ReNEWAle 2011 version. It has been nice and cold, and we even had some snow on our southern California mountains, so this seemed perfect.

Ninkasi's description:
"A New Year a New Beer! Each year ReNEWAle will be something new and special to enjoy while winter runs its course. For 2011 we brewed a delicious Irish-style red ale that’s smooth and refined with a hint of toasted malt and a clean finish. A great beer for a new year, cheers!"

My tasting notes:

• Appearance - Clear Copper red with a light tan frothy head 
• Smell - very light aroma, the hops aren’t at the forefront like other Ninkasi beers I’ve had. Slightly earthy 
• Taste - Lots of bite, fairly bitter but light bodied beer with a dry finish 
• Mouth feel - thick chewy beer, a perfect smooth warming beer for the winter 
• Drinkability - Easy enough to drink, not a very high alcohol 5.2%, A couple pints in a pub or a nice 22oz by the fire on a cold night is perfect.

Overall, it was a good beer, and I'll be looking for more Ninkasi beers in the future!

Beer Beginnings, Issue 2 - IPA

by Alan

I have been drinking more than my fair share of IPAs in the recent months, and I thought I'd try out brewing one on my own. This was my first outside of any Mr. Beer type brews, but I am still using the fun little keg fermenter for housing the brew. I did make one addition, getting a better spigot and a bottling wand so I could bottom fill my bottles. The new spigot locks, which really cut down on thumb fatigue for the bottling process.

So here we go...

Fermentables:

• 1 lb. Milled Crystal 60L grain
• 1 Lb. 11 oz Gold Malt Extract
• 1 Lb. 5  oz Amber Malt Extract

Hop Schedule
21 g Chinook      60 Min
 7 g Simcoe         30 Min
 4 g Cascade       30 Min
 7 g Simcoe         15 Min
 7 g Cascade       15 Min
 5 g Chinook         0 Min
 5 g Simcoe          0 Min
 5 g Cascade        0 Min
 7 g Simcoe          Dry Hop 7 days before bottling
 7 g Cascade        Dry Hop 7 days before bottling
 
Yeast:

• 1 Packet Safale US-05 Ale yeast
  

Having no clue what I was doing with steeping grains, I read as much as I could on beer blogs, forums, and in my Joy of home brewing book I got for Christmas from my Mother-in Law. The more I read the more options I seemed to run across for the proper way to steep grains. The best I could figure, I needed to keep the grain below about 170 degrees and keep that consistent for about 20 minutes. I put my crystal grains in a grain sack, and heated up about a liter and a half of water with the sack of grains in it. The water quickly turned a nice red color. After about twenty minutes I removed the grains and removed the pot from heat.

Meanwhile in another pot I boiled up about 1 liter of water for the Hop tea. I tossed in the 21g of Chinook hops and the whole thing quickly started to foam up. Luckily I didn’t boil anything over, but it got pretty close. I got that down to a rolling boil and popped open a beer. With the grains and hop tea going, I felt it was well deserved. What better beer for a IPA brewing day, Russian River Pliny the Elder. Easily one of my favorite brews. Right, back to work. I kept adding the hops to the boil at the schedule I had written out. While that was going I added the Amber Malt extract to the water with the steeped grain when I had about 20 minutes left of the hop tea boil. With about 10 minutes left on the hop tea, I added the Amber Extract to the extract boil. At the end of the hop boil, I removed it from heat and strained the hop tea into the extract boil to remove all the spent hops. I also added the 5g Chinook, 5g Simcoe, and 5g Cascade (this time in a hop sack so I didn’t gunk up my beer too much). Everything was way too hot so I put the lid on my wort in the pot and plunked the put into my sink that I had filled with cold water and ice to try and chill it down.

While that was cooling I filled the Mr. Beer keg to about 4 Liters with cold water, then poured in my slightly cooled wort (with hop sack). I poured more cold water to bring it up to its 8.5 liters and checked the temp. I was right around 75 degrees at the point and ready to pitch the yeast. I sprinkled in my Safale US-05 yeast, let it sit for about 5 minutes then stirred the hell out of it to aerate. Closed up the keg, put it in warm place, then I turned around the see the aftermath of the mess I had created. I was doing dishes and cleaning up the kitchen for about an hour after.

7 days later, 7 days before bottling. I cracked open the keg to just drop in another hop sack of 7g Simcoe and 7g Cascade for some aroma. It already smelled like a bucket of grapefruits.

At the time of writing this, it has already been bottled, and I am about a week away from giving it a try. Who knows what it will actually be like, but I can’t wait to try it anyway. So far, aside from all the dishes, this is getting to be a fun hobby.

Beer Beginnings, Issue 1

by Alan

In the late 80's my Parents opened a small microbrewery and pub. I was around 10 years old at the time, and a brewery meant little to me. At around 13 I began working at the restaurant; cleaning it up before school and helping out with the brewing process in the summers. I was there for every part of the brewing process from grinding the grain to bottling the end product; but I wouldn’t say I actually learned how to brew beer. My parents retired and shut down the operation about 5 years ago; I was plenty old enough to drink beer by that time, but I had just barely started to enjoy it.

It was for my 29th Birthday that my wife got us tickets for the first Santa Barbara Beerfest. That event was my big push into really liking beer, although I don’t think I could look at beer for a day or two after that one. Since that point I’ve been trying out almost any big brewery beer, weird beer,  craft beer, or anything I can get my hands on.  The beer budget is probably a little out of control, but I drink much less beer than I used to with the 24 packs of cheap stuff each weekend (not that I don’t enjoy the cheap stuff beer on occasion). 

For my 31st birthday, my Mom and Dad gave me a Mr. Beer Homebrew kit - basically it's a little two-gallon rig to have some fun with. My Dad wasn’t too stoked with the mention of something that looked kinda hokey coming from the 100 barrel system he had just a few years back, but my mom bought it anyway. I made my first brew a couple days after I got it. After two weeks of hanging out in the plastic keg, it gets bottled with some sugar for bottle carbonating, a day or two in the fridge and viola. I wasn’t wild about the flavor of that first bottle, it was kinda fruity not much backbone, and a cider-ish carbonation. Each bottle after in the next couple weeks just got better and better, and all I could think about was brewing more. Then, what to do after those first couple cans of Mr. Beer pre-mixed extracts were done...?

For Christmas, my awesome wife gave me three more cans of the basic Mr. Beer cans of malted hop, but I wanted to step it up a notch. The wife seemed kinda disappointed at the prospect of not just using what she gave me alone, but after much badgering either she just gave up, or I got through with my argument of doing all malt beer with the gift. I bought some quality yeast, hop pellets, and base malt extracts to do some homebrew. Yesterday was finally the day - I had got my box of goodies from northern brewer the day before and planned my kit for the first brew. 

• 1 Can Mr. Beer Canadian Draft
• 19oz Northern Brewer Gold Extract
• good water (don’t be shitty)
• 12gm Sterling Hop pellets
• ~6 Gm Safbrew T-58 yeast

Since I'm not doing any grain boiling or hop schedules, the actual brewing took about 5 minutes. I spent the majority of the time sterilizing the equipment before and cleaning after. Although I expect to spend much more time enjoying the end result, its about a month wait.

I have plans for another three brews, two with Mr. Beer extracts as the base. It's a far cry from brewing with my Dad's system, but the smells of the process really take me back. I'm remembering a lot more about the process I used to follow as a kid, and I'm having a ton of fun actually learning what each step means and reaping the benefits.

Have you ever home brewed? If so, do you have any tips or advice for a new-brewer?