Explain this to me.

Today, I went to get a smog check so I can (finally) register my car in California. Allow me to rant about that for a minute. In Maryland, the emissions inspection involves you driving your car up, having the inspector look at your dash board, and pressing on the gas and brake at the same time. The longest part of the process is waiting your turn. Here, I had to take the car to a service station. I got there at 3:45. They told me it would take 45 minutes, and to come back at 5. Hello? That's an hour and a half. They also charged me 80 bucks. Needless to say, California and I were not on very good terms by the time I got out of there.

Anyway, the only place I could go to kill time was the grocery store, but I didn't actually have any groceries to buy. So of course I hit the beer aisle. Their selection wasn't stellar (it rarely is), but I ended up with 1 bottle each of Rogue Dead Guy Ale, Lagunitas Wilco Tango Foxtrot Jobless Recovery Ale, and Stone Ruination IPA. At 4:45 I took my selections to the register, deciding I'd given the car people more than enough time to finish my inspection. That's when it got weird.

The checkout guy checked my ID and asked if I was having a nice day. I said "Yes, how about you?" He said "It's almost over. Wish I was going home with 3 beers." Okay, fine. Then he asked "Are you in the military?"

I'm not. My brother is, but that has nothing to do with anything. I said no and smiled. But I wish, oh how I wish, that I'd asked him why he asked.

Because why DID he ask? The only information he had to go on was my appearance, the fact that I'm from Maryland (he saw my ID, remember), and my beer selection. I was wearing jeans, black wedge sandals, and a floral top. I had on makeup; I carried a purple purse and pulled my credit card out of a hot pink wallet. I don't think any of that screams military. I don't think Maryland has a significantly higher percentage of soldiers than anywhere else in the country. So what was it about my beer that made him thing I was military?

Am I missing something? Was it just because one of my beers was named using the phonetic alphabet? Someone please help me out here.

My Answers

Thanks everyone for the answers to the survey! And by all means, if you haven't had a chance to respond yet, please do.

As promised, here are my answers.

1. What's in your fridge right now? (I mean beer. You don't have to list the full contents of your fridge. And no cheating. This is a scientific survey, not a contest for biggest beer snob).

I have one Red Hook Long Hammer IPA, one Mendocino Spring Seasonal Bock, and one Kona Brewing Co Pipeline Porter.  Clearly it's time for a beer run. I also have the aforementioned Mike's Lemonade and Smirnoff Ice, but those don't count because I have no intention of drinking them. Finally, I have 2 cases each of homebrewed Pilsner and Cream Ale. Those aren't in the fridge, though.

2. If money was no object, would your answer to #1 be different?
I don't think so. In my recent effort to always try something new, I've paid a lot less attention to price than I normally would.

3. For regular, weeknight, sitting-in-front-of-the-TV drinking, what's your go-to?
My husband and I usually keep Lagunitas IPA and Guinness around. I'll typically have one of those, or whatever we happen to have the most of. I'm also a fan of light, crisp lagers, especially in warmer weather. So I may start keeping Pilsner Urquells or Warsteiners around.

4. If you're going out to eat, what kind of beer do you order?
I gravitate toward imperial stouts or strong IPAs. If those aren't available I'll take whatever craft beer is on draft. If that's not available, I go with wine or liquor.

5. If you're having a big party, and are stocking large quantities of bottled beer, what do you buy?
We'll generally get a case of Sierra Nevada, a few six packs of various craft beers, and 6-8 big bottles of Duvel and Chimay.

6. If you're having a keg party, what do you buy?
Yuengling.

7. If you're having a small dinner party (say under 8 people), what kind of beer do you serve?
Same as 5, but we skip the Sierra Nevada and probably grab only 3-5 big bottles.

8. If you're at someone else's party, and their tastes run more toward Busch and Natty Light, what will you drink willingly, and what will you not touch no matter how much fun everyone else is having?
My dad and father-in-law are both Busch drinkers, though my dad's tastes have turned more toward Corona in recent years. I'll drink Corona only when there's lime available, and I'll have a Busch every now and then just for fun. I won't touch Coors Light, but I'll drink Bud or Miller in emergencies.

9. Does cost factor in your beer purchasing decisions? If so, what would you buy if it wasn't?
Brickskeller in DC has a beer on their menu that costs $148. I want it. In general though we buy what we like and not what's cheapest.

What do you drink?

There's a lot of talk (read: snobbery) among beer people about what makes a good beer and what is and isn't worth drinking.

I'm sitting on the couch tonight with a Heineken, thinking that this is a beer I would probably never buy for myself (it's a leftover from a get together we had over the weekend). I have to admit, though, it's decently refreshing. As mass-marketed lagers go, you could do far worse. And I'd choose Heineken over Sam Adams any day, because I just don't like Sam Adams.

The thing is, I have better beers sitting in the fridge. I also have Smirnoff Ice and Mike's Lemonade that have been there since Thanksgiving and will not get touched until the person who brought them over visits again. If pressed, I would definitely call myself a beer snob. (I've already gone on record saying lambics are girly.) But good beer is expensive. Some people just can't spend 10 bucks on a 6 pack twice a week. And some can, but don't want to.

And you know what? When I opened the fridge today, the Heineken just sounded good. So there.


All of this leads me to my questions:

1. What's in your fridge right now? (I mean beer. You don't have to list the full contents of your fridge. And no cheating. This is a scientific survey, not a contest for biggest beer snob).

2. If money was no object, would your answer to #1 be different?

3. For regular, weeknight, sitting-in-front-of-the-TV drinking, what's your go-to?

4. If you're going out to eat, what kind of beer do you order?

5. If you're having a big party, and are stocking large quantities of bottled beer, what do you buy?

6. If you're having a keg party, what do you buy?

7. If you're having a small dinner party (say under 8 people), what kind of beer do you serve?

8. If you're at someone else's party, and their tastes run more toward Busch and Natty Light, what will you drink willingly, and what will you not touch no matter how much fun everyone else is having?

9. Does cost factor in your beer purchasing decisions? If so, what would you buy if it wasn't?

Leave your answers in comments. I'll post mine later, so as not to influence responses.

...and continues

I succeeded in getting both batches bottled this weekend.

The Cream Ale had a final gravity of 1.012, making the ABV 4.9%
The Czech Pilsner had a final gravity 1.014, but since I never got an accurate OG, I have no idea what that makes the ABV. Live and learn.

I managed to get 2 full cases of each beer; specifically, 12 22oz bottles and 24 16 oz bottles of each.

Now begins the two-week countdown. I'm pretty sure I'm more excited than my soon-to-be sister-in-law is about her wedding, which happens to fall on tasting day. (Just kidding. I don't think it's physically possible to me more excited than my sister-in-law.)

The whole situation went surprisingly smoothly. I cleaned my bottles with oxyclean, then santized them in the dishwasher. The rest of the equipment was cleaned with OneStep and sanitized with Iodophor. The only equipment needed were the bottles and caps (of course), bottling bucket, auto siphon, and bottle filler.

I hit a small snag when I realized that the bottle filler I have didn't fit on the spigot of my bottling bucket. Luckily, I had a 4-foot length of extra siphon tubing that fit on both the spigot and the filler. I think for my next bottling day, I'll cut the tubing to a few inches so the filler sits right below the bucket, though it wasn't that much of a hardship to have the extra length.

With the bottling bucket positioned right above my dish washer, I was able to fill the bottles very quickly. The first batch (Cream Ale), was done with the help of my friend Julie while my husband and her fiance watched UFC. I bottled the Pilsner today with the help of my husband. Since I had (some minimal) experience, it went slightly faster this evening than it did yesterday, and I spilled considerably less beer on the floor.

Now I need to get some kind of labeling system together so I don't confuse the two brews.

The bottling adventure begins

I started the day with the lofty goal of getting at least one of my two first batches of beer into bottles. My puppy and my husband had other plans.

I got as far as washing every beer bottle in my house, and sticking almost half of them in the dishwasher to sanitize. Then Herbert decided to go insane. She dragged. her. crate. all over the kitchen. Every time I put it back she'd wrap her fangs around a corner and drag. Even peanut butter--normally puppy crack--was ineffective.

Once I thought I finally had her settled down, my husband called and asked if I wanted to meet him for dinner. I never say no to food I don't have to cook. We went to an awesome Korean restaurant; the kind of place where they fill your table with kimchi and other fermented appetizers to the point that you're stuffed by the time your entree arrives.

We had OB beer with dinner, mostly because it was our only choice. It's a pretty nondescript lager, decent for washing down spicy food. The only noteworthy thing about it was that they served me a 22 oz bottle with a tiny little 8 ouch glass. It was delightful, like drinking apple juice at grandma's house.

When we got home, Herbert had somehow managed to move her crate while she was locked inside. Needless to say, I spent the rest of the evening watching her expend energy. She's finally asleep, but it's way too late for me to start bottling. The dishwasher has not been opened, so my bottles will still be sterile in the morning.

Kona Brewing Company Pipeline Porter

We're not going to talk about Syracuse. We're not.

Instead, we're going to talk about the only thing that could soften a blow like that: beer.

I sat down to enjoy(?) the game with a Pipeline Porter. My local grocery store has a very limited selection of craft beers, and this one was by far the most interesting. It's brewed with 100% Kona Coffee, which in my opinion is some of the best coffee around. Here's what I thought:

Appearance - Very dark, nearly opaque brown, with hints of scarlet when held to the light. There's almost no head on this, which I generally consider a disappointment with dark beers.

Scent - The coffee aroma is unmistakable, and wonderful. Other than that, there's a hint of sweet maltyness and little else.

Taste - Again, lots of coffee. The flavor really hits at the back of the throat. Still, the malts come through enough that I don't feel like I'm drinking a flavored beer.

Mouthfeel - Full bodied. It's smooth, almost creamy with very little carbonation.

Drinkablility - I'll be 3 deep by the time this post publishes. It's good for relaxing in front of the TV after dinner. Not necessarily something you want to drink with a meal or in a hard-partying environment.

And We're Back

I had a fun, though not exactly relaxing weekend away. Planes, road trips, and sleeping in a different place every night can take a toll. It was also not a very good beer-drinking weekend. With the exception of one trip to 1311 in Pittsburgh, which has a very decent selection of craft beers and imports, it was a strictly mixed-drink kind of trip.

On top of that, I came home to find my husband had exhausted the limited selection we had at home. Looks like it will be a wine night for me.

The good news is that my first two brews are just about ready for bottling. The Pils has been conditioning at 35 degrees for just about a month, and the cream ale looks like it's done just about all the fermenting it can do. I have quite the bottling adventure coming up.

Serendipitously, today's post over at Mike's Brew Review is all about cleaning bottles. This is a great blog for beginning brewers. He's just gotten into brewing himself, so everything is written from the perspective of someone who's still experimenting with their process. On top of that, Mike is a web designer by day, so the site is beautiful. I love his illustrations.

I'm not gonna lie, bottling is a process that has intimidated me since I first cracked open my copy of How to Brew.  But according to Mike, it's not going to be as hard as I think. Thank God for that.

Vacation

St. Patrick's Day is a serious holiday for us beer-lovers right? So it's in that spirit that I'm taking the weekend off. Actually, I'm taking the weekend off for a trip to PA to go to a bachelorette party for my wonderful sister-in-law-to-be. I'm not sure what the internet situation is going to be out there, and I have a sneaking suspicion that the beverages of choice are going to be more of the frilly pink umbrella variety (not that there's anything wrong with that). If anything noteworthy happens in the beer-iverse, I'll try to get a post in before next Tuesday. Otherwise, never fear! I shall return.

The upside of this absence is that my sister, who will be at the party, has some actual web design skills. I'm going to see if I can guilt her into making this place look like a real website. 

Of course, this whole situation leaves me wondering about what I'll do for future vacations. After all, in a few short weeks I'll be taking off again for the actual wedding. And that will only be the first of three that my husband and I have on our radar (so far).

So, I'd like to open up the blog to guest posts. What kind of guest posts, you ask? Good ones. You can submit anything really. A beer review, a homebrew recipe, a funny story about beer, whatever you want. As long as it's original and isn't full of grammar, punctuation and spelling errors, I'll probably publish it. I'll also promote you relentlessly to my 6 blog readers and 14 twitter followers. Hey, we're growing!).

If you're interested in guest posting send an email to thebeerb1tch at gmail dot com. Otherwise, see you Tuesday!

Another Awesome Blog

Do you like food? Are you constantly on the search for fun recipes, great restaurants, and all-around interesting information about eating? My friend, Heather, runs the blog Devouring DC, which is--wait for it--a food blog based in our nation's capital. She writes about her own cooking adventures as well as area restaurants. If you happen to be living in or visiting DC, you need to check out her restaurant reviews. But even if you're not from the DC area, you'll find plenty of awesome stuff to read about over there. For example: Why do my teeth feel funny when I eat spinach?, and How can I get more bacon in my alcohol?

Heather is a fantastic cook, so when she posts a recipe, you have to try it. Believe me, I've eaten enough of her food to know you can't go wrong. And if you ask nicely, she may just start posting pictures of her adorable doggies (happy birthday, Lelu!).

Life is Too Short to Drink Cheap Beer

So on my latest trip to the liquor store, I picked up a six-pack of Warsteiner Premium Verum purely for nostalgic reasons. See, back when I was just a wee beer b1tch of 22, I worked a brief stint as a waitress in a German restaurant. The food wasn't particularly good, but the owners made it a point to stock a large variety of Bavarian beers. In this particular little suburb of Washington DC, we probably boasted the best beer list in a good 10 mile radius. And of course, the clientele, who were mainly a Bud Light kind of crowd, had a lot of questions about all the different choices.

Although the overall work experience at this restaurant was one of the worst of my life, I will credit them with being the first to inspire in me a real interest in beer. It was there that I learned the difference between ales and lagers, and I could even explain the difference in flavors between a Pilsner, a Dunkel, a Marzen and a Weizen (we always had one of each on tap, though the specific brands rotated).

I still have the pin that I wore on my apron, given to me by the distributor from Warsteiner: Life is too short to drink cheap beer. I thought it was an awesome slogan. Still do. So that's what I was thinking when I picked up that six-pack on Saturday. Warsteiner definitely lives up to it's claim of not being cheap (over 9 dollars for 6 beers), though I don't believe it's the beer I'd choose for my last meal.

So, without further ado, here is my review of Warsteiner Premium Verum:

Appearance: Clear and golden. Nice two-finger head of pure white, and it stuck around for a little while.

Smell: The first thing I thought was "this is what beer smells like," by which I mean, "this is what mass-marketed American light beers smell like." It had a bready smell that I assume came from yeast, and some hoppiness to it. Otherwise it's pretty generic. To keep with the nostalgia theme, it will bring you back to frat parties and family reunions.

Taste: A little sweet, almost no bitterness. There's a floral flavor that sets it apart from other pilsners.

Mouthfeel: Very carbonated, which I like. Light and crisp, but with very little bite and almost no aftertaste.

Drinkability: Very. It's got a very low alcohol content, and the general flavor of the kind of beer you drink by the case. If you're trying to wean yourself off the aforementioned mass market American lagers, this is a good place to start. If you can't stand the mass market American lagers, you'll probably want to stay far away from this. I'll put it this way. You probably don't want to serve this at your next cocktail party, but if you've got the cash you can easily replace your Bud Light with this at your next beer-pong tournament. Your players still won't puke and you can feel all nice and beer-snobby.

Brew Weekend!

Note: My camera and computer are on the fritz, so while I planned for this to be a pretty post with pictures, it's going to have to wait. Hoping to update later in the week.

So my kits from Northern Brewer arrived on Friday, and I was champing at the bit to get started. I ordered an American Wheat Beer, Cream Ale and Irish Stout. I also have a Double IPA kit waiting in the wings.

Initially, I wanted to start with the Irish Stout. It has great reviews over on the Northern Brewer website, and, as I've already documented, it's one of my favorite types of beer. However, that particular brew takes about 6 weeks to be drinkable, while the Ale and Wheat would be ready in 4. I'm traveling east to see the family in 4 weeks for my little brother's wedding, and I kinda wanted to bring a bottle or two to show off, so the stout was out of the running. (The IPA is a 3-month-er, so that one's not even in the running at the moment.)

Lo and behold, I found my decision made for me when I opened the brew kits. 2 of my yeast smack packs were nice and flat, and one was already inflated. It looked like the Cream Ale yeast had gotten knocked around a little in transit, so I had a limited amount of time until the yeast was no longer viable (or so I thought...)

So, Saturday morning I set out to brew a nice Cream Ale. The day started with a trip to Beer and Winemakers for a new airlock (mine had an unfortunate mishap with the garbage disposal) and some more Iodophor. I cannot say enough good things about this shop. If you're a brewer in the SF Bay Area, you've got to give these guys your business. I mentioned my yeast woes to them, and they told me if I had any problems to give them a call and they'd open up (they're closed Sundays and Mondays) to get me a vial of yeast if what I had didn't work out.

So, confident that this brew would be more successful than my last (which is still conditioning in secondary, btw), I headed home and got started.

I learned 2 important lessons with my first brew:
1. Make sure you have plenty of boiled and chilled water.
2. You can never have too much ice.

So my first step was to boil 4 gallons of water. That sat on the counter with a lid covered in plastic wrap (can we say obsessive about sanitation?) until it was cool enough to pour into the carboy.

My next step was cleaning and sanitizing all my equipment. Once the carboy was ready to go, I poured 2.5 gallons of the boiled water into it. The water was still hotter than it needed to be, but not hot enough melt the carboy. The extra water went in the fridge, and the carboy got sealed and stuck in the chest freezer until it was time to add the wort.

Next, I set 2.5 more gallons of water to boil. While the water was heating, I crushed the pound of specialty grains included in my kit, put them into a mesh bag, and steeped them for about 20 minutes. By the time I pulled the grains out, the water was at 170 degrees, and had turned a dark carmel color. By this point, the whole house smelled of cereal.

Once the water came to a full boil, I removed it from the heat, stirred in the 6 lbs of LME, then returned it to boil. The hot break took about 20 minutes, though the foam never completely disappeared. It was only covering about 2 square inches of the wort when I added the hops.

This kit only contained 1 hop addition, so I set the timer for 60 minutes and walked away. I know I'm supposed to watch the pot for boilovers, but I gambled that if nothing happened during the hop addition then I'd probably be fine--and I won. I'm not saying you should leave a pot of boiling wort unattended, but I like to live dangerously.

About 5 minutes before the end of the hour, I started to prepare my ice bath. We have a gloriously large sink, which I filled with cold water and about half of a 20lb bag of ice. As soon as the timer went off, I grabbed the pot and dunked it in. I added the rest of the ice as the original melted off and stirred the wort vigorously. I had the temperature under 100 degrees in less than 10 minutes, and down to 78 in another 15. This was a major improvement over my first attempt. The secret is in the stirring. You have to be careful not to splash any of the unsanitized ice or water into the pot, but as long as you keep the water level a good 2 inches from the lip of the kettle you should be fine.

I poured the wort into the kettle slowly, trying to keep as much sediment as possible out. The one downfall of stirring during the cold break is the patience it takes to wait for everything to settle before you pour. I confess that I wasn't too patient, and my ale is looking pretty cloudy.

After adding all the wort, I was still about a half gallon short. I used the reserve water that I'd stored in the fridge to top off the carboy. I took a sample for the hydrometer, and got a reading of 1.050, which appears to be reasonable for this brew. Finally, I shook the carboy up real nice and got ready to pitch the yeast.

Then, disaster struck. I swear, I have the worst luck with yeast. You'll remember, at the top of this post I mentioned that my yeast pack for this particular brew was already inflated when it arrived. I snipped off the corner, dumped the yeast in the carboy, and then felt the unmistakably intact nutrient pack still inside the pouch. I don't know how the pack inflated without the nutrients being released, but at this point I figured it was curtains for my poor cream ale.

Determined not to panic, I cut open the nutrient pack, poured that into the carboy, and gave the whole thing a good shake. The instructions on the pack said that it was possible to pitch the yeast immediately after popping the nutrient pack, though this method isn't recommended by most brewers I've talked to. I crossed my fingers and hoped that adding the yeast and nutrients separately would somehow magically work.

By the time I went to bed, about 3 hours later, there was no activity in the carboy. I sighed and figured I'd be putting in a call to Beer and Winemakers this morning. But when I woke up, there was a beautiful 2-inch krausen on my beer and it was bubbling away. Now, about 24 hours since pitching the yeast, fermentation is still going strong.

This is very exciting for me.

Welcome!

My guest review on Lost In the Beer Aisle seems to have brought me a couple-few new readers. As you can see, the blog is still very much in its infancy, but I have lots of big improvements planned (such as getting rid of the canned blogger template).

I hope you stick around and enjoy yourselves. If there's anything you'd like to see from this site (topics to cover, beers to review, more puppy pictures, etc.), let me know in comments and I'll be happy to oblige! In the mean time, bear with me as I figure out how to brew, how to review, and how to blog.

Made with Beer

I've recently become aware of the fact that some crazy people make soap with beer. Um, ew. Who wants to step out of the shower smelling like Sunday morning at the frat house? This is completely outside my realm of understanding. Why would you ruin perfectly good soap with perfectly good beer? Huh?

I'm all for using beer in cooking and even in mixed drinks. I am not for using beer in anything that can't be consumed. But this whole soap thing got me thinking. What other products out there are manufactured by misguided souls who don't realize that beer is for drinking?

Lucky for everyone, the Google tells me that there aren't many. Here's what I did find:

Perfume
At first, this sounds worse than beer-scented soap, but according to this article, the beer isn't being used to create the perfume's aroma. Instead, a company has found a way to use the waste products of beer making (barley, bacteria, etc) in place of petroleum in the perfume oil. So it's green perfume. Huh. Pretty cool, I guess.

Clothing
Crazy Shirt sells t-shirts dyed in beer. But scientists in Australia have taken that idea one step further. By converting the bacteria in fermenting wine to a film of "scum," they've developed a fabric that could potentially be used to make clothing. The only roadblock is that the fabric falls apart when the scum is dry...so, bathing suits maybe? I know that this one is technically made of wine, but the article does state that the same effect can be had with fermenting beer.

So that's all great, but I think I'm going to stick to drinking my beer. And I think you should too.

Pyramid Thunderhead IPA

While grocery shopping today I picked up a couple six-packs of beers I've never tried. Since the selection at Safeway isn't nearly as good as the one at BevMo, I didn't have much to go with.

My first pick was Pyramid Thunderhead IPA, because I like IPAs. They've got a brewery in Berkeley (along with Seattle and Portland), so I'm in keeping with my recent local beer theme.

To be honest, I don't have a whole lot to say about this beer. It's mild, and drinkable in that it doesn't have any of the strong flavors that might turn you off. But overall I find it fairly lackluster, and I've definitely had better IPAs.

My detailed thoughts:

Appearance - It poured a pretty light amber, with just a slight haze. A small but steady stream of bubbles rose to a 1-finger head, but that narrowed to a very thin cap within 2 minutes.

Smell - Very light. I asked my husband for help on this one given my well-documented problems with this category. He detected a little fruityness, and something herbal. All I smelled was beer.

Flavor - It's like a toned down IPA. There's very little bite and no complexity. There's flavor there, it's just very muted.

Mouth Feel - There's enough carbonation to leave a tingle on your tongue. I won't call it light-bodied, but it's definitely lighter than expected.

Drinkability - As stated before, this is drinkable the way Bud Light is drinkable. There just isn't enough flavor there to slow you down.

Guest Review!

UPDATE: link added below!

So, unsurprisingly, there's a pretty strong community of beer lovers hanging out on Twitter. Since I started this blog, I've found and started to follow several prominent beer bloggers and tweeters.

One of my favorites is Lost in the Beer Aisle (www.lostinthebeeraisle.com, @Lost_in_beer).* Here you can find great reviews of all kinds of beer, all from the perspective of a casual enjoyer. Lost is funny and knowledgeable, but not at all snobby.

So, when I saw a tweet asking for guest reviewers, I jumped at the opportunity to both hone my skills and start really connecting with all the beer lovers out there. I submitted a review of Lagunitas IPA (preview: I love it), that you can see here. This guy deserves lots of credit, and all my readers (both of you!) should check him out.


*I have many other favorites as well, all of whom I will showcase and link to in the coming weeks.

Nothing Better

...than a good beer and a romance novel: two of my (many) weaknesses.

The beer in question is Anchor Porter. Can you tell I was on a local beer kick on my last trip to Bev Mo? The San Francisco brewing company has a pretty good selection, and between the Steam, Liberty Ale, and Porter I had a very nice weekend.

You've seen my thoughts on Anchor Steam and Liberty Ale. I didn't include a review of the Porter before because it's such a completely different beer. It's also my favorite of the three.

I drink it straight from the bottle, because it's less to clean up. Much easier to toss a bottle in the recycling than to hand wash another glass, right? I can tell you this is a very dark, nearly opaque black color, with hints of red when held to the light. (I poured one of them, okay?) The smell is nice and strong, (which is good for my weak little scent receptors), and includes molasses, hints of coffee and something fruity. The flavor is as close to perfection as you can get in a dark beer. It's not too weak, and not overly bitter. You can taste the fruitiness--maybe raisins or some other kind of sun-withered deliciousness--along with the coffee. The internets tell me it's thin-bodied, whatever that means. I find it smooth, with a similar creaminess to a Guinness, but more flavor. Bottom line, this is a beer I could drink anytime, anywhere and be perfectly happy. 

This evening, I happen to be pairing it with Daring to Dream, by Nora Roberts. For the uninitiated, Nora Roberts is a Goddess among romance novelists. Her stories have more heart than any other romances I've read. And I've read a lot. A whole lot. Daring to Dream is the first in the Dream Trilogy. I have read the series no fewer than 5 times, and it continues to be a go-to when I'm in the mood for a little escapism or between trips to the library. The story is about Margo Sullivan, the disgraced former-supermodel who returns home to rebuild her life, only to find that love and family are far more important than the material possessions she's been chasing after for a decade.

Margo grew up the daughter of a housekeeper on the Templeton Estate, home to the proprietors of a global hotel empire. Her best friends were Laura, the Templeton heiress, and Kate Powell, the Templetons' orphaned niece. Laura's older brother, Josh, always seemed to be getting the girls into or out of trouble. When he first came to Margo's rescue after scandal struck, she looked at it as an annoyance. By now, you know where this is going.

To save herself from financial ruin, Margo opens a boutique in which she sells all her old designer clothes and trinkets. Her friends go into business with her, and so solidify the foundation of love and support they'd been building since childhood. Love between Margo and Josh blossoms, but not without it's complications, of course.


So we've established a fairly typical romance novel plot. What makes the story great is, as I said earlier, the heart. I think the mid-90s represent the best of Robert's books. The Enchanted Series, the MacGregors, The Stanislaskis, I could go on. The key to these stories is the importance that Roberts gives to each character. In so many romances, supporting characters are boring and one-dimensional. For Roberts, it's not just the love interests who matter. The stories are about families, however traditional or non-traditional they may be. These are books where the sex scenes, however steamy and plentiful they may be, are not front and center. The real memorable moments are the quick banter between old friends, the periods of insanity that lead to major turning points, and the way romance smolders between the main characters for nearly half the book before anything, ahem, significant happens.


Bottom line, the entire Dream Trilogy is highly enjoyable. My favorite is the third, where Laura Templeton's story is told. But it's absolutely no hardship to read the first two before I get there.



Huh. Beer and Books is fun. I might make this a new thing.

Double Fisting

I'm trying to train my palette to understand beer better. I'm not the best of tasters (or maybe I'm just an honest beer taster), because when I'm drinking anything less similar than a Bud Light and a Guinness, I can't really tell the difference.

So tonight, I decided to try two similar beers side-by-side, so the differences would be more discernible. What I learned from the experience is that this only works for the first few sips. Because once you're about half-way through, the alcohol starts to take a toll on your senses. Please note that I finished both beers before writing this entry, and they may not have been the first drinks of the evening. So take what comes with a grain of salt...

The two beers I tried were Anchor Brewing Company's Anchor Steam and Anchor Liberty Ale. I purposely chose beers from the same brewery, that were close to the same style, thinking that would give me fewer variables in the flavor. This may have been a mistake: as I said, before I was half-way through, they really did start to taste the same.

The easiest way to tell the difference between these beers was appearance. I poured each from the bottle into a tall pilsner glass. Anchor Steam is a nice medium-amber color. The head was thick and frothy, but only lasted about 2 minutes, and was wildly inconsistent in bubble size. The Liberty Ale was a lighter gold color, and slightly cloudy. The head lasted slightly longer than the Anchor Steam, and the bubbles were much more consistent.

As far as aroma, I'm not going to get into all that crap about fruity notes and whatnot. Mostly because what I smelled was beer. The Anchor Steam had a stronger, breadier scent, and the Liberty Ale was more hoppy, but otherwise fairly bland smelling*.

The Anchor steam had a stronger taste than Liberty Ale. I don't mean stronger alcohol-wise. I mean the Anchor Steam was more bitter, and the aftertaste lasted longer than the Liberty Ale. Liberty was lighter, but crisp and still very flavorful. It didn't have as long or as strong an aftertaste as the Anchor Steam either. 

I will admit that I just don't "get" mouthfeel. It all falls under flavor for me. I can't tell you which beer is light bodied and which is medium bodied. I can tell you the Anchor Steam seemed slightly more carbonated, and the flavor seemed to fill my mouth more than the Liberty Ale. Is that what I'm supposed to be looking for?

Finally, as far as drinkability, I think they were both very good beers. The stronger, more bitter flavor of the Anchor Steam might make it less enjoyable for the uninitiated. But while I think Liberty Ale is a better "beginner" beer, I by no means find it bland. Obviously, I was able to drink both of these in tandem, so they've got to be pretty drinkable.** Bottom line, I've tasted better beers, but I wouldn't kick either of these out of bed.

*Full disclosure: I have a really bad sense of smell. Really bad. For this reason, I'm usually the one in our house that gets stuck with the task of cleaning up after the dog.

**Let's be honest, I don't let alcohol go to waste. Even if these were unpalatable I'd have finished them. But I would have complained about it, and I'm not; so you can rest assured that they're okay. 

Guinness Ice Cream Review

So, I had a chance to taste my ice cream, and I have to say the recipe needs some work. Flavor-wise, there is much too much molasses. Half of the called-for amount would probably still be more than enough. As it is, you wouldn't know the ice cream was supposed to be Guinness Flavored unless you were told.

I knew from the outset that I probably hadn't reduced the Guinness enough, and I was very right. The ice cream had a very icy texture, thanks mostly to the extra water in the beer. Next time around I think I'll use two bottles, and reduce them much further (just like the original recipe suggests). I'm hoping this will also help to intensify the beer flavor. Most of the alcohol will be cooked out during the reduction process, but it's the roasted barley flavor that I really want to preserve. That's what I get for cutting corners.

Also, while this particular recipe didn't call for heating the entire mixture, I think I may do that as well next time. Many ice cream recipes include this step, and I think it helps with the consistency. The ingredients separated slightly in the freezer, resulting in a bottom layer that was much more icy and beer-y than the top layer.

So, batch two will be attempted just as soon as I can procure myself a few spare bottles of the Good Stuff. I'll keep you posted.

Guinness Ice Cream

I confess, Guinness is one of my favorite beers. I know, there are plenty of other great stouts out there, but Guinness is my go-to favorite. I prefer the milder flavor of Irish stouts over more bitter imperials. Also I met my husband over a Guinness. And, Guinness brings back hilarious and fun memories of two crazy trips to Ireland. So I love Guinness, and I'm not apologizing for it.

But what do you do when you have one lonely bottle of it left in the fridge? It's not enough to drink (I go through Guinness like water...delicious, life-giving water), but you obviously can't throw it out.

That's the dilemma I faced this afternoon. Some would say, "go buy more Guinness," but I just stocked the fridge with a bunch of new stuff, and I'm just not in the mood for another trip to BevMo today. So, I hit the internet and found myself a recipe for Guinness Ice Cream. OhmyGodIcan'twait.

I adapted the recipe from here.

Ingredients:
1 bottle Guinness Draught
1 cup whole milk
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup sugar
3 large egg yolks
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons molasses

Directions:
Simmer Guinness until slightly reduced*. Whisk together egg yolks and sugar, add milk. Slowly add warm Guinness a few tablespoons at a time, while rapidly whisking the milk, egg and sugar mixture. Once about half of the Guinness is incorporated, you can stir the rest in a little faster. Add molasses and heavy cream.

Chill in fridge, then process according to the instructions on your ice cream maker. Once set, pour into an airtight container and chill in freezer for several hours.


Right now, mine is waiting in the fridge. The full mixture is over four cups, and my ice cream maker is only 1.5 quart capacity, so I might have to split it into 2 batches.

*Note that the original recipe called for one and a half cans of Guinness, reduced to 1 and a half cups. Since I only had one bottle on hand, I just reduced it less. We'll see if this has any implications on the flavor or the freezing process.  

Not My Fault

Yesterday we had a mini-power outage at the house. I say mini, because only about 2 rooms were hit. Unfortunately, one of those rooms holds all of our internet wiring, so blogging was not an option. I managed to fix it this morning, and we're back in business.

Note: This was NOT a simple matter of a tripped circuit breaker. I know I'm a girl, but I'm not too stupid to flip a switch. It's disconcerting how many people on facebook seem to think I'm completely helpless.

Anyway, back to the matter at hand. While absent of the distractions of The Internet, I used my spare time to read How to Brew by John Palmer. I'm working on a full review of this book, which I'll post when I've actually finished reading it.

I will say that so far I've found it to be a fantastic resource. The chapter on lagering, which I perhaps should have read before I started my pilsner, tells me that my brew may not be quite as far-gone as I'd originally thought. This is heartening, and I'm back to looking forward to tasting it.

That said, I've decided that this is the week to try something new, and I'm going simpler (and faster) this time. I'm thinking of trying an Irish Stout, as it's one of my favorite types of beers, and I've seen recipes that can be brewed in 4-6 weeks. At that rate, it would be ready at about the same time as my Pilsner. That could be fun.

Curses

I seem to have cursed myself with yesterday's braggy post about how great I've been at blogging regularly. Today was busy enough that I didn't get a chance to do anything beer-related. The good news is that the house is clean, my husband made a fantastic beer-can chicken dinner (I guess we did do something beer related), I caught up on some reading, and spent some QT with the puppy (who's looking a lot more like a regular dog now).

The Pilsner is safely conditioning at 35 degrees, and I'm planning a trip to the brew store this week to grab the ingredients for my next brew. What should I make?