NFL and Beer

Ahhhhh, one of my favorite times of the year. As an avid NFL fan, the draft is one of the best events. It's full of the unpredictability we know and love, as well as so many hopes for next season with new talent. Also, the chance to make fun of stupid coaches making dumb picks.

Obviously such an event deserves good beer and good food. Hold you horses though, we'll get there.

Earlier in the day, I went to Pratt Street Ale House, dying to try a concoction I've mentioned here before. It's half oatmeal stout, half cherry wheat ale. The result was a surprisingly delicious black and tan that tasted just like it's moniker: a chocolate covered cherry.

The beer looks awesome, with dark stout atop rich red-amber beer. The first sip is all chocolate and oats, but soon is filled with subtle flavors of sour cherry. Man this was a sippable beer, every sip producing a different flavor combination. Definitely loved it, would highly recommend it.

This wasn't the end though. I cracked open a bottle I've been holding for a while in anticipation - Rogue's Black Lager. Part of some new agricultural endeavor by Rogue, the beer pours black with a very cool dark brown head that looks like fresh cocoa. The first sip is all those flavors I've come to know and love - roasted malts, dark chocolate. The best part though is that crisp lager finish and light mouthfeel. A great exemplar of black lagers without being too adventurous, and definitely worth a try for any stout fans out there.

I actually only had half the bomber though, because the other half went to making more beer bread. Mmmmm, beer bread. This loaf ended up cocoa brown (shocker :-P), and was delicious like the last one - crusty on the outside, spongy and soft on the inside. Sadly though, the cocoa flavor was a little overwhelming and ended up tasting like it should've been part of desert rather than dinner. Tasty, but perhaps a little misplaced.

To be fair, it was also being used to dip into my latest creation. I decided that for this most high of NFL holidays, I'd try my hand at an old favorite, buffalo chicken dip. It's all the best part about buffalo wings - chicken, cheese, and hot sauce, without any of the bones or fat.

The recipe is pretty simple - although I probably could've used some shredded cheese and a little less chicken. The basics are take about a pound or so of chicken, cook it, cut it up, and toss it in with a package of cream cheese (1 8 oz. package), half a cup of hot sauce, half a cup of salad dressing (ranch or blue cheese), and half a cup of shredded cheese.

Tragically, I had no shredded cheese, and ended up cutting up string cheese. Don't mock me, I'm poor! Also, I ended up super rushed, and rather than baking the chicken (as I've been told is ideal), I tossed the chicken into a pot full of water, and luckily it came out fully cooked. Hooray for boiling! All in all, the dip was pretty successful, and actually a pretty big hit. Of course, it's hard to go wrong with cheese, meat, and hot sauce, so it wasn't a huge surprise.

That's all for now - hopefully your weeks are full of good beer. Until next time, Cheers!

Series of Sam (5 of 6)

So, this week was a little less awesome than most weeks. I decided to try two different beers, one which sounded interesting, and one which I had tried before, hadn't loved, but was willing to try again.

The first beer, Black Eye Ale, is a mix of Mendocino's stout and golden ale. The beer store clerk had a decent opinion of it, but online reveiws were not so favorable. I went into this one with mixed expectations, and was sad to find out that the online crowd seemed to have it right.

Unlike a good black and tan which is all the roasted flavor of a stout or porter and all the smoothness and lightness of an ale, it was kind of heavy, with weak tastes of chocolate and wheaty flavor. Really, it's not an impossible standard either, holding it up against Yuengling's black and tan. Really, even a home made black and tan of guiness and harp was better than this. It just tasted mixed and confused, with none of the excellent parts of either. Sad. Still, at 4 bucks for a bomber, I guess I got what I paid for.

The next beer was Sam Adams new spring beer, their Nobel Pils. Now, I admit to a bit of a grudge, as I was a huge fan of their old spring seasonal, the white ale. Also, i tried this beer before, and was pretty roundly unimpressed. However, I promised to try everything in that mix pack, and this wouldn't be any different.

The beer pours a light golden with a nice small head. The smell is all hops. Sadly, the taste was all hops too. Now, this shouldn't be a surprise. The beer actively describes itself as having all five "noble hops", whatever that may mean. But really, what with me still not being a huge fan of hops, I was frustrated by the lack of other flavors. I feel like it's also a characteristic of Pilsners to be kind of boring. I might be trying to the wrong pilsners though.

It was an earthy, herbal kind of taste, but only in the sense that it tasted like hops, rounded out by a hop bitterness. With nothing to balance out the hops, I feel like this beer isn't bad for hop lover who want a beer to sip, but otherwise steer clear.

Really though, it's just my comeuppance for having so much excellent beer all the damn time. Eventually you have a bad week. Did I mention last week at the bar watching the UFC fight I got to have Resurrection on tap? I really can't complain too much. Until next time!

-The Unabashed Ungourmet