So Much Beer!

So, be warned, this is an absurdly long post. For your convenience, it's divided into three sections. Pre-Beer Dinner, Beer Dinner Beers, and then Beer Dinner recipes/cooking.

I decided this week, with some of my friends home and around, to host a beer dinner. This meant cooking with beer as well as having beer for tasting afterwards. And it was *awesome*, really just a great way to share beer with friends and have a fun evening.

Pre-Beer Dinner

So, as if this wasnt enough, my friends ended up coming in Tuesday to go to Max's. Never one to turn down Max's, I was thrilled at the prospect. I was even more excited when i saw that Allagash Black, a stout that I've been dying to try, was on their menu.

The beer pours dark into a Belgian beer glass (kind of like a giant snifter). Sadly, it really just wasn't that good. It tasted more like an ale than a stout. It was kind of watery, lots of dark chocolate and bitter coffee with some weird yeasty notes. Overall it just wasn't very good, being too thin and bitter, and not rich and hearty like most stouts. To be fair, as a Belgian stout it might be excellent, but I was not a fan.

On Thursday, before the dinner, I went for a run. Forgetting that I haven't been on a run in weeks, I went four miles, only to come back in paaaaain. To soothe my aching feet, I decided a bath was in order. A stroke of genius hit me, and I decided to have a beer with my bath.

It sounds like heresy, but it was perfect. A nice cold beer, a nice hot bath, and perfect relaxation. Try it some time and thank me.

I was trying Troeg's, a brewing company I'd never tried before. They're known for their hoppy beers, so I was a little wary. I cracked open their Dopplebock, and took a swig straight from the bottle. Delicious. It is a dark beer, full of flavors of chocolate and dark fruits like raisins or plums. Thd hop finish is nice and subtle, and accompanies some earthy mellow flavors and some nice caramel malts. It reminded me of a much more adventurous version of Yuengling's bock (which makes sense). Really though, just a delicious beer. Highly recommended for a nice brew to sip.

Beer Dinner Cooking
So, after this wonderful and relaxing bath, the cooking started. I was making Irish Stout Stew, Beer bread, and beer battered shrimp. The recipes are below if you'd like to try any yourself.

I was a little ashamed to realize I hadn't checked portions on the Irish stew, and added in a whole can of tomato paste, rather than the 2 tablespoons required. It turned out to be a nice spaghetti sauce, spicy and tasting of stout, but not really a stew. It went well over mashed potatoes though, so whatever. I also left out the onions and thyme, not being a huge fan of either. Definitely the most work of the evening, but delicious.
(http://allrecipes.com/recipe/beef-and-irish-stout-stew/Detail.aspx)

The beer bread was blissfully simple. I put it into a faaaar too small at first though, but thankfully The Lorax was there to help and got me to put it into a bigger bowl. After combining flour, salt, and beer, I poured it into a greased pan, baked it for an hour, and was treated to the best dish of the evening. The bread was hard and crusty on the outside, and warm and soft on the inside. You could also taste the beer just enough to enjoy it. Three philosophers worked really well, but now I *really* want to try it with other beers too.
(source: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/beer-bread-i/detail.aspx)

The shrimp was not easy, but was well worth the effort. The batter was beer and flour and sugar - I used Sam Adams Noble Pils, but you couldn't really tell. Thankfully my friend the Culinatior had a deep frying thermometer, so we could tell when the oil was hot enough. From there it was just dip the shrimp in the batter, drop them in the oil, flip them, and let them dry on a paper towel.

Overall the meal was delicious, was more than enough for the four of us who showed up, and cost me less than thirty dollars (and I had to buy flour and sugar, the heathen that I am).

Beer Dinner Beers
Finally, we reached the beer. It was quite nice after all the effort and cooking and the long day to relax and sip these beers. I really enjoyed each of them, but each for their own reasons.

I started with Brew Dog's Chaos Theory Ale. I was worried to see that this was classified as an India Pale Ale, but figured I'd get it out of my way. I was thrilled to find out that it was delicious. It tasted very much grapefruit mixing with hops for a nice combination, where neither overpowered. Not an incredibly complex beer, but one I was really surprised how much I enjoyed it.

I went next to the Brooklyn Local #2, a belgian strong ale. It smelled a little of cider, and that taste was present at first. As it mellowed, it revealed a lot more dark fruits like cherries or plums, as well as some smoky flavors. I kind of wish I'd tried this during the dinner, as it seemed like it could've used some sort of meat dish to pair it with to make it complete.

I then decided it was time to try the stouts. I started with Rogue's Chocolate Stout, expecting it to be a little less of a desert beer. I like to think I was right, but it was by no means less tasty. Just as the name described, it was a chocolate stout. Milk chocolate and roasted hops were the tastes present throughout the beer, and boy they were delicious. Not everyone's favorite, and not the best chocolate beer I've ever tasted, but really good nonetheless. Very reminiscent in some ways of Brooklyn's Dark Chocolate Stout - it is everything that the name promises and nothing more.

Finally, I allowed myself to try Ommegang's Chocolate Indulgence. The wait was worth it. Strong dark chocolate up front, with a surprisingly spicy finish. A real desert beer, this was heavy and complex and delicious. I'm definitely glad I ended with it, or it might've spoiled anything that came after it.

To tell the truth, I'm a little beered out at present, but I'm sure that'll fade as soon as I get the hankering to try a new beer.

Until then - enjoy the beers, try the recipes, and tell me what you think!

-The Unabashed Ungourmet

Beer Thursdays

I wanted to title this something like "a post that isn't about stouts", but I feel like that joke was old before it was ever told in the first place.

I have to admit that I like having a night of the week that I often have a beer on. It's not locked in by any means, but it's often something to look forward to. I get to think about what beer I want to try in a given week, but it's also something to look forward to, and for me it's a reward that reminds me that the week is almost over.

Obviously many people drink several days a week, and I certainly do from time to time drink a few times during the week. But that's usually sharing a few beers with friends, or going out to a bar to be social. This is the enjoyment of sitting down, and taking the time to really taste and observe a beer.

I like to pair this with watching TV, as I'm already relaxed and in a good mood, and cracking open a delicious beer only adds to this. Conveniently, two of my favorite shows are on Thursday nights. The total experience is just really relaxing, which is nice. What about you, my faithful readers, do you have an evening you set aside, or do you prefer to test and taste as you go, whenever the opportunity occurs?

Anyway, this isn't just about me rambling. This Thursday I had the good fortune to still have a few bottles of Ommegang, specifically their Hennepin Saison. I'd heard excellent reviews of this beer, but was a bit wary as I've heard it's one of their hoppier beers.

It pours a very pale yellow, looking almost like water at first before settling in to a light golden color. The head is ivory white and thick. I actually swiped off a bit of the head, and found it thick as bubble bath (I can't think of a straighter analogy, sorry), and very bitter.

The smell was similar, light and crisp, hints of what might be floral scents? The taste though was really impressive. It was cool and refreshing, but full of light sweet fruits like pear. It had some hoppy bitterness, but it was very balanced and did a good job of rounding out the flavor and not overwhelming everything else. There were also some floral notes with some grains and citrus in the background as well.

Overall a really tasty beer. Not my favorite, as I'm still not a hoppy beer guy, but easily one of the better hoppy beers that I've tried. Suffice to say that I'd be happy to drink it again, but I might not seek it out. If you enjoy hops, give this one a try for sure.

SuperBeer

Sadly, this is not about a superhero who goes around giving out beer. Rather, it is one of my many bad puns :-P

So, the Superbowl. What a wonderful night. Great football, great food, great friends, what more could someone want? Of course, I could have done with a few less Budweiser commercials. I know there's nothing to be done for it, but the more I hear about them and how they try to put the competition out of business, the sicker I get.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm all about competition producing better products. But that's just it. Budweiser makes shit. Their regular beer is shit. Their light beer is shit. Their "craft" beer? Shit! I rue the day when I find my favorite brands have been pushed out by this giant of watery piss beer, behemoth of mass produced swill.

Ok, so enough ranting right? Well, I also cracked open one of my various bottles for this most joyous of occasions. Specifically, I decided that I needed to finally try the Brew dog Rip Tide stout that I'd been saving.

It pours without much of a head, rich and black. The smell is smoky and boozy, but not overwhelming. The taste continues with the smoky motif, and rounds it out with some delicious coffee, and then rounds it out with some sweetness, maybe caramel?

Now, I liked this beer, and I definitely enjoyed this beer, and would buy it again. But I have to be honest, it kind of reminded me of a slightly less well done version of Belhaven's Scottish Stout. The comparison is a little unoriginal, what with them both being scottish companies, both being kind of smoky stouts. But I feel like it's a valid comparison.

Where the Belhaven stout is full bodied, the Brew dog feels a little flat and a little thin. Where the Belhaven coffee nicely flows into a sweetness, the Brew dog goes bitter, and then the caramel swings in. I want to reiterate, the Brew dog wasn't bad. The Belhaven was just excellent.

I also finally tried Ommegang's Witte, but I have to admit that by that point I might've been a little too far into my cups to accurately review it. We were taking shots every time the saints scored, and I don't do much hard liquor anymore.

However, I do remember a delicious beer. Not too far off the standard Wit bier (belgian wheat beer), but a tasty iteration of that theme. Strong notes of a cinnamon or nutmeg(maybe cloves?), backed up with some orangey citrus, and a nice undertone of wheat that wasn't overwhelming. So often in wheat beers, the wheat overwhelms almost all the other flavors, but this time the flavors held their own, which was nice.

It was kind of a nice beer to sip when I was trying to wind down, but there was a little too much excitement for that. I would enjoy this one a lot as a beer to drink with dinner, or on some calm summer evening, or even out at the beach. It's a very refreshing beer, and it was a little odd paired with burgers and jambalaya and winter and parties.

Overall though, definitely recommend it for anyone who likes Belgian wheat beers, or really just wheat beers in general. Might not be for everyone, but if you like Blue Moon then you owe it to yourself to give this bad boy a try.

Going to Max's this Thursday, so expect something good that evening. Til then!

-The Unabashed Ungourmet

Oh My Ommegang

I love Ommegang. I really do. I've had other Belgian beers, and just remain thoroughly unimpressed with most anything else (brewer's art aside). I was enjoying some of their delicious beers today with Mrs. Satan.

I cracked open a Rare Vos, a Belgian amber ale. Sparrow had tried this the week before and really enjoyed it, and I liked the sip or two that I had of it. Really, it's just fantastically drinkable.

It pours with a nice full head, an a light amber color. The smell is strong with fruity notes, maybe peach or orange? The taste though, blew me away. It was smooth and refreshing, but bursting with flavors. There was some lighter fruit, maybe apples or pears, and some darker fruits as well like cherries or plums. There were also spiced and floral notes, although I'm not good enough to discern them.

Really, I was expecting either full flavored or really just enjoyable, since a beer usually excels at one, but this one nailed both. It was delicious to sit and sip with a friend, but I could also imagine this being excellent with a range of meals, from a summer barbecue to a spicy Thai dish.

The bottom line? Try this one.

I also had the luck and joy of getting to try Pratt Street Ale House's Scotch Ale. I've been excited to try this one since it came out. I was worried because I heard how quickly it was selling, but I guess I lucked out.

And damned if it wasn't delicious. Smoky and dark, earthy flavors of peat and malts, with an interesting sweetness that felt like fruits. I'm not sure what, because it didn't taste dark like plums or grapes, nor was it light like an orange or an apple. Maybe some sort of berry, like a raspberry or something similar? There was also a little bitterness, which helped to ground the beer and give it an earthy flavor. Either way, absolutely delicious, and a great example of a Scotch Ale.

And yet, it wasn't even the best beer I had there. I also had the good fortune of asking after their Peeping Tom Porter. It was fantastic. It looked like a stout, but drank like a smoother ale, bursting with the flavor of roasted malts. The flavor profile was really nicely rounded out with chocolate, but mostly highlighted the roasted malts.

The Peeping Tom was easily one of the better porters I've had, managing to have all the flavor of a stout while maintaining the nice lightness and refreshing nature of an ale. Best of all, it didn't try to copy stouts, but created it's own flavor around the roasted malts. Really an excellent beer, which I pity everyone not from Baltimore for not getting to try.

Phew. That's a lot of beer, and there's only more to come. What a pity, right? Until next time!

-The Unabashed Ungourmet

Freezer burn and Ommegang

So, my beer for this evening was sort of tragic.

Not necessarily the beer itself, but the circumstances, and thus the end result.

So, it was the season finale for top chef, and I was going to be classy. I'd long ago purchased, and since forgotten about a prepared frozen gourmet do it yourself kit in the freezer. I'd made one earlier this year, a variant on chicken carbonara, and was suitably impressed.

For this evening, it was port wine steak with a pepper coating, along with rice and vegetables. I was excited.

For this special occasion, I was even cracking open the first of my Ommegang sample pack. I've always enjoyed Ommegang, and was excited to do the same tonight.

The beer, I decided, had to be somewhat dark and filling, if it was to compliment the meal. I settled on Ommegang's Abbey Ale, a dubbel.

It poured well, but I was little sloppy and it resulted in a bit of a head. The head itself, a nice tan color, was impressively thick.

The first smell is a pungent and complex combination, very dark, but spicy.

It tasted of spices, nuts, and maybe a some dark fruits, with a nice hop note. At first I found the hops to be a much in the aftertaste, but I figured since it was meant to be drank with a meal, the meal would help.

Much to dismay, a single cut into my steak revealed that it had long since succumbed to freezer burn, and was useless. So very sad.

Luckily the rice, with a mushroom risotto, was an excellent compliment to the beer. As I expect, the earthy notes from the mushrooms and vegetables mixed extremely well with the beer's darker, richer notes, as well as mellowing the hop influence. The beer is meant to be enjoyed with savory meats, so they claim, and I can only imagine it might have been even better.

My overall impression was a spicy dark beer, with a complex flavor array. I think there was some taste of a sweet dark fruit, like a plum, or a raisin. There was also a nice nuttiness or bread flavor that combined with the spices, but I couldn't necessarily separate it. I could also taste some dark, rich flavors like a rum or a brandy, as well as a cocoa at the end. It was all complimented with a nice hop flavor.

Overall a very enjoyable beer. I can imagine that it would've been even better with meat, and so I'm going to try it with that next time.

-The Unabashed Ungourmet

P.S. - The brewery identifies flavors of cinnamon and licorice, which both fit nicely with the spices and the darker flavors. Intriguing!

An aside, and more beer!

So, I promise I'll stick to my format, but a brief side note.

Turkey is a surprisingly easy to use meat. A little healthier than beer (who cares?), and more importantly a little cheaper. It's also a pretty bland meat by itself, so it absorbs other flavors well. It's less fatty, so you'll need to use a little oil or other fat-type-thing to make it adhere while cooking, but it's well worth it. I recently made turkey meatballs and a turkey burger, and they were delicious :-D

Also, sauteing garlic. Tougher than it seems. It needs a much higher temperature, but also burns unfortunately easily. I'm working on ways to make it work, but I'm 0 for 1 on the "throw it and butter into a pan at the same time" idea.

But what do these things have to do with burgers and beer you ask? Nothing! But this is my blog, so suck it. I will occasionally tangent off about whatever cooking thing I'm trying. Feel free to skip it if you are terribly offended.

Back to the point, more catching up!

The first beer I'm recounting was the Three Philosophers beer. I had been aching to try this since I heard about it. I studied a lot of philosophy in college (hahahahah oh god why?), and thought the name was just too funny. Little did I know what I was in store for.
The brewer of this beer, Ommegang, is a New York brewer that makes Belgian style beers. For those who don’t know, they tend to be a bit fruity, a bit spicy, and somewhat strange.
Three philosophers was all of that, in delicious form. The spices were palatable without being overwhelming, and worked well with the fruits to create a very interesting and entirely unique taste. I do not have a complex enough knowledge of beer to appreciate all the flavors, but I can tell you this much: this beer is way smarter than you. The best you can do is acknowledge that, and enjoy it anyway.

Also; a second, and sadly worse beer. This account will discuss a most unusual beer, which has greatly vexed me. I was out at a local bar, and saw that they had a Crème Brule stout. It sounded delicious, and I decided that I needed some. The first sip was fantastic. It smelled like the delicious desert, and I enjoyed it. It was the first beer I tried by Southern Tier, and I was suitably impressed.
But then, alas, it turned on me. The sweet smell became almost cloying, and made the beer taste more and more bitter. Combined with the potent alcohol content (something close to 9%), I was eventually struggling to choke down the bitter, alcoholic beer, all its former glory gone.
It may be my taste buds are just not mature enough yet, but this beer was altogether pretty bad. It started great, but the smell was in too sharp of a contrast to the flavor of the beer itself. A sad, sad day for stout lovers.