Tag Archives: IPA

Will Walk for an IPA or Two or Three

My daughter Lisa is prepping for the Avon Walk in Houston on April 20 & 21, 2013. It is 26 miles on day one and the strong and fit walk another 13 on day two. We have been walking together four or five times this past week. Today we decided to do a triple digit day – it wound up being 11 miles out at Lake Houston Wilderness Park. The park is a bit of wilderness heaven that is relatively unknown. Eleven miles is about 5 more than our previous best distance…..but it turned out to be a great walk, trek, hike and challenge. The park is amazing and filled with wildlife. While walking we saw 2 coyotes, a bald eagle soaring overhead and a wild sow with 8+ piglets crossing the road in front of us. I carried several cameras on this walk but only captured images of the sow and piglets.

Here is mom....look closely and you can see she has been nursing the mob following behind her.

Here is mom….look closely and you can see she has been nursing the mob following behind her.

Unfortunately I missed the line of little ones following mom...not familiar with the continous shooting function on the Nikon J1....I know now!

Unfortunately I missed the line of little ones following mom…not familiar with the continuous shooting function on the Nikon J1….I know now!

The walk was scenic and fortunately devoid of mosquitoes – a real blessing. Just past the 5 mile mark on the Ameritrail Loop was a little lake ringed by Cypress trees – the photo doesn’t do it justice. At the turnaround area we discovered a guy in a little “boat” with a trolling motor casting for ??????? fish of some sort.

Beautiful reflections across the water. The Cypress trees were just awesome....click to view larger!

Beautiful reflections across the water. The Cypress trees were just awesome….click to view larger!

Tiny boat but probbaly perfect for that part of the lake.

Tiny boat but probably perfect for that part of the lake.

We were thirsty upon returning home……brief stop at the Kingwood Town Center Farmers Market – fresh sourdough and some grass-fed Beef

T-bone steaks. Yum – and the piece de resistance was the trio of IPA’s during the dinner prep, grilling and dining.

The Celebration form Sierra Nevada was my favorite the other two were dang good!

The Celebration from Sierra Nevada was my favorite the other two were danged good!

http://www.houstontx.gov/parks/ourparks/lakehoustonpark.html

Lisa is getting close to her fundraising goal so if you are inclined to help her out click the link below.

http://info.avonfoundation.org/site/TR/Walk/Houston?px=6400511&pg=personal&fr_id=2180

Drink Local & Drink Responsibly

TTFN

Bishop

Homebrew and Venison Burgers – life is just too damn good!

Last night I made a variation of my famous hamburger recipe using some ground venison from a deer my son shot a few weeks ago. To aid in the process and because I didn’t have to drive, I had 2 pints of my IPA, just an OK IPA but still drinkable, and two pints of my Dirty Honey Blonde Ale, it gets better the longer it sits. It has just a hint of a banana flavor from fermenting too warmly at 75-76 degrees F. I need to solve that problem for future batches(CFO must approve the expenditure though). The current batch of pumpkin ale has benefitted from cooler temperatures and I chose yeast that works well at that temperature.

The burgers – the last grilling effort resulted in burgers that tasted great but did not hang together as well as they should have. This time around I used 2 lbs. of venison, two eggs, A1, Worcestershire, Lawry’s Seasoning salt and Garlic salt. I put the eggs and sauces in a blender for a bit to mix them well and added to the meat. Seasoned, mixed well and formed into 6 – 1/3 lbs. Bambi burgers. They were just simply awesome and made better by the pleasure of my homebrew.

Burgers almost ready!

Burgers almost ready!

DSC_2377

Dirty Honey Blonde Ale needing my attention.

Sizzling away. They smell so good!

Sizzling away. They smell so good!

In the kitchen now - Burgers were great!

In the kitchen now – Burgers were great!

Drink local or make your own!

Drink Responsibly!

TTFN

Bishop

Beer Travels

My beer blogging efforts have been pretty slim over the past month or so but that does not mean I haven’t thought about, dreamed about, consumed or made any beer. I have been traveling, primarily to Bakersfield California, home of Lengthwise Brewing. I am a big fan of their Centennial IPA. It is not crazy hoppy, just a great balance of the bitter and the aromas. I have visited the pub out in the Rosedale area three times during this past month. Besides their offerings they always have a few guest beers from the western US. One of the guest beers was the Hop Notch form Uinita Brewing in Salt Lake City, Utah. Good but not as good as the home town offering!

This past week I was in Paso Robles for two nights. My occasional workmate, Alan would have been right in his element. Paso is becoming one of the best red wine districts in the country. For Alan, the Paso area would be reminiscent of our experience in the Margret River area in Western Australia….great wines, no crowds and a great tasting room experience – The Paso winery for fun, great wine and great service is Tobin James. Isn’t this supposed to be about beer? Oh yes, Paso, home to Firestone Walker and that is the real story.

I have enjoyed the Firestone offerings for many years now but have never made the stop. This trip my partner was Murray and he does love his beer. We went to the Taproom Restaurant adjacent to the brewery. It was a great casual place, brewery themed and staffed by some great people. Tiffani was assigned to us and she was delightful, knowledgeable and provided outstanding service. I started off with the Taproom IPA. How would my kids text it?….OMG!!!! ….. That sums it up. The first thing that I noticed was the heavenly hop aroma before it even touched my lips, I paused, savored the aroma and then let my tongue enjoy the beverage. I then tried the Velvet Merlin, an Oatmeal Stout, recommended by Erica at the Courtyard Marriott hotel. It was pretty darned good.

Tiffani recommended the seared Ahi Tuna which Murray ordered and I chose the salmon. Both were excellent. The only question that went unanswered for the evening was which hops were used in the Taproom IPA. Tiffani didn’t know, the brewmaster had headed home 30 minutes before our arrival, Rob the manager also didn’t know and last but not least, Milt (capacity unknown) swung by and although very chatty, he didn’t know either! Tiffani brought by two small brandy snifters of a barrel aged DBA – oh my – it was superb. Now our interest was piqued and I asked about the Walker Reserve, Parabola, a barrel aged Imperial Stout – the 2011 was $ 55.00 for a 22 oz bottle and the 2012 was $ 35.00. We decide to go big! Before I could ask where I could buy it on the outside I was informed that I couldn’t…it has to be sold and consumed on site.

Parabola - Barrel aged Imperial Stout from Firestone Walker in Paso Robles, CA

Parabola – Barrel aged Imperial Stout from Firestone Walker in Paso Robles, CA – iPhone photo

It was absolutely outstanding. Murray noted that was akin to indulging in a very good Port after dinner. It felt so good in the mouth and the complexity of flavors was heavenly. All we needed was some good dark chocolate and it would have been complete. Note: Alan, the only non-beer drinking Australian I know, you would enjoy this “beer” – it really goes well beyond beer, We shared a glass with Tiffani, I hope the management won’t frown on her sharing a bit of this fantastic bottle!

A quick google search for the best barrel aged Imperial Stouts showed the Firestone Walker’s Parabola in first place amongst the voters and Goose Island from Chicago holding down the second place spot. I need to contact my nephew in Chicago to see if he can score a bottle or two for me!

I am drinking a test bottle of the Imperial Stout I brewed about 4 months ago. It is pretty tasty but will benefit from a few more months in the bottle. I will rack my Cinderella Pumpkin Ale to the secondary tomorrow. I have high expectations of this brew. Reading beer mags during the past week I discovered a brewing technique that I want to explore….. SmaSh brewing……single malt, single hop with a variation of maybe a single specialty grain…..could be an interesting experiment!

My young Imperial Stout - yum but has some time to go!

My young Imperial Stout – yum but has some time to go!

TTFN

Drink Local and Drink Responsibly!

Bishop

Just One Beer at a Time

Thursday night October 25th I was in Long Beach at the 555 East Steakhouse. As advertised – very good steaks but I had been wanting a local beer to compliment the meal. It seems like there are lots of San Diego beers, Northern California beers but LA is barren when it comes to local beers. I quizzed the waiter….he had to check, seems like wine is their thing at the restaurant. I was in luck, they had a new offering from a small brewery just up the road in Torrance, CA., called the Strand Brewing Company. I had a pint of the 24th Street Pale Ale. I was pleased with the aroma and it had a pleasant drinkable taste. So I had another! I did a little research….for some reason LA is way behind the craft brewery craze in my home state. Strand Brewing is a good representative of what LA needs more of.

I flew home to Houston, arrived a little after noon, repacked my bags and headed off to Baton Rouge. 283 miles later I pulled into the Fairfield Inn on Essen! My son Ben met me and suggested we dine at Twin Peaks. I was expecting a Rocky Mountains theme and it was more like Le Gran Tetons – if y’all know what I mean( that is really a lie, I knew exactly what Twin Peaks was all about). Anything to make the young lad feel good. I barely noticed the scenery! I tried the house brew – Naughty Brunette. It was Ok.

Saturday night found us at the Kona Grill for a meal before catching the movie Argo….decent movie, suspenseful but you knew they were going to get out…. The poor young gal couldn’t pour a beer. I tried to coach her but she didn’t get it….oh well. No sushi for Ben nor me either. Just one beer – she forgot my second beer so she only had one chance. We did eat fish…Ben is growing up, no bacon cheeseburger this night…. sea bass, couscous and some interesting vegetables.

Sunday Brunch at Chimes just off the LSU campus. A noon start….Ben needed some beauty sleep. An amazing selection of beers on tap and in bottles. I had an IPA from NOLA Brewing, the Hopitoulas IPA – best beer of the weekend. They serve Imperial Pints so one was enough before the long drive back to Houston. The breakfast/brunch at Chimes is just simply outstanding! I am looking forward to an excuse to go back so I can do a proper critique of the offerings! I just need a driver and a bed!

This week at home, I had to sip on my homebrew IPA….so good!

My IPA in a St Arnold’s 12 ounce glass…..trying to stretch it out a little longer. I have 6 L remaining of the original 18 L batch.

Grilled some chicken the other night along with a Karbach Hopidillo in hand – this local brewery is so good! Last night I chilled one of my Imperial Stouts…..it has been bottled maybe 6 weeks. it was a little early but I just had to know. I bottled about 6 – 12 ounce bottles as the sacrificial offerings. It was good but I know that it will just get better with age. December 1st is the next scheduled sampling.

Just finished that little 12 ouncer of my IPA as I sit here tapping the keys and listening/watching the CMA Awards…..life is just so damn good!

Drink Local

TTFN

Bishop

Beer Braised Chicken – Brown Ale Braised Chicken

My plate, sans my pint of homebrewed IPA

Dear Denise, Thank you for thinking about your Brother. The recipes you passed along are going to be a hit.

I tried the “Brown Ale Braised Chicken” – that is the official title for the recipe. My sister found several recipes in the October issue of Better Homes and Gardens…. in a section labeled, “Cooking with Beer”. Life doesn’t get much better than that!

I had a left-over mini Newcastle Brown Ale keg in my refrigerator that need to be consumed…I used almost a pint for the recipe, there was about a pint and a half left that helped me through the labor of preparing the dish.

I will have to admit that I altered the recipe just a bit…The ingredients for the rub were not sufficient to coat the 8 chicken thighs. I am also of the opinion that the size of the chicken thighs Better Homes and Garden had in mind for the recipe do not match the offerings found in my local Texas supermarket. The 8 thighs I purchased weighed in at 6.8 pounds! I have a large deep sided skillet and it was full to the brim!

I will provide the recipe as prepared.

  •   3 tbsp brown sugar
  •   1 tbsp chili powder
  •   1 ½ tsp salt – sea salt
  •   1 ½ tsp ground cumin
  •   1 ½ tsp ground black pepepr
  •   8 skin on chicken thighs
  •   3 tbsp oil –
  •   1 medium onion sliced
  •   2 stalks celery chopped
  •   8 small whole carrots with tops trimmed to 1 inch
  •   2 tbsp all-purpose flour
  •   1 pint of a brown ale
  •   1 cup chicken broth
  •   4 cloves of garlic peeled
  •   1 big handful of celery leaves chopped along with fresh thyme   – chopped

Preheat oven to 350 F. In a small bowl combine brown sugar, chili powder, salt, pepper and cumin. Use as a rub and let thighs sit 10 minutes.

In a large oven proof skillet brown chicken until skin is crispy. Remove chicken, drain fat reserving about 2 tbsp.

I the same skillet cook the onion, carrots and celery in the reserved fat until tender – 5 minutes or so. Stir in flour and cook for 1 minute. Stir in beer and broth until simmering. Return chicken to skillet, add garlic, cover and bake for 40 minutes.

Remove from oven and sprinkle the chopped celery leaves and thyme across the top. I enjoyed my plate with a pint of my homebrewed IPA….so good.

Out of the oven and sprinkled with celery leaves and fresh thyme.

TTFN

Bishop

Busy Brewing Day

The day was much too busy and much of it was my own doing. The Imperial Stout was a partial mash effort so there was that element of an extra step in the process – not much in the way of work, just time, patience and monitoring. I had trotted off to the store a few hours earlier and my ambitious nature kicked in – I decided to buy a brisket to smoke while the beer was brewing. A perfect excuse for another beer while heating up the  backyard.

All was going smooth until transferring the mash liquor from the kettle to the boiling pot. The bottom of the bag holding the crushed grain busted open. I sent quite a bit of the spent grain over into the boiling pot. I tried fishing out the grains and realized(American spelling) that I was not going to recover mare than about 70% of the grain. Ok, now lets hunt for my wire sieve. I couldn’t find it last time I looked for it so why would I think it would be different this time? “Call a friend” – and yes she had the answer to the question. I enlisted the help of my 17-year-old son…..giving him a start on a skill set that could make him a popular guy in college a few years down the road. (he has to wait until 21 to practice the trade)

I am a busy dude! Keep feeding the wood chips to the smoker, keep an eye on the brew pot, watch the timer for the hops additions, be ready to stir down the potential boil over when adding the hops and keep adding chips to the smoker….oh yes, try a new craft beer! I bought this new one more as a test for my wife. It is called Citra Blonde from Widmer Brothers in Portland Oregon. She did like it and I was pleasantly surprised!  I recently fell in love, a beer this time, with another Widmer beer, Rotator IPA – an ongoing changing recipe. Great concept! A bit like the Yazoo Brewery’s Hop Project!

Beer | Widmer Brothers Brewing  Take a look – first class website and a great overview of how to brew!

It was well after my planned finish time before I pulled the brisket, cooled the beer & pitched the yeast, cleaned the pots, sequestered the fermenter in a cool dark spot and sat down for a brief respite. this looks to be a stout stout….starting gravity of 1.093! I sampled the sweet wort after checking the gravity and the flavors a very interesting even at this early stage of the process. Aroma is nice – if it mellows/matures as I expect, it should be an awesome beer. I am still deciding what to do after transferring to the secondary……coffee – maybe, oak – that is a possibility and maybe oak that has been soaked in a decent bourbon, chocolate – hmmmm maybe not. I have 8 or 10 days to decide. Maybe I run a poll!

Poll Daddy Poll

Sitting back in the shade on the patio – the beer is boiling, the brisket is smoking and a cold beer in my hand.

The brisket – smoked for 7 hours. The thick end was cut off, wrapped tight in foil smothered with Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ sauce and 10 hours in the oven at 200 F.

That dark crust, enhanced with oak chipped from Jack Daniels bourbon barrels – the bourbon flavor/aroma was not noticeable in the meat but the smoke off of the smoker was pretty yummy! The brisket just fell apart….

TTFN

Bishop