September 27, 2011

Makin' Cidah



Apples are coming in and the cider is flowing. I happened to get a gallon of fresh squeezed cider from a friend of mine whose mother in law has a few trees up north, or "up nort" as some say in these parts.

September 22, 2011

Notes on a Brewday: Harvest Season


We are in the midst of harvest season. In Minnesota, it comes earlier than elsewhere. Hop cones are flourishing, grapes are ripening. For us homebrewers, it means one last big warm-weather brew day.

September 20, 2011

Notes on a Brewday: Northwoods Double Porter

Seven grain mash, roasted grains ground in coffee grinder
Black ales are the adopted bane of homebrewers. It seems like from one's inception into homebrewing, the popular camp means to get us started on the campaign to disassociate dark ales from the idiom that these black liquids are 'thick and highly alcoholic'. Each of us is given that old Guinness recipe for Dry Irish Stout, with it's high percentage of flaked barley, and made to adhere to the gospel fermentation time frame that produces an opaque black refreshment that never fails either adjective.

September 14, 2011

Beer-braised beans


Last night I made another beer-related dish that I thought I'd share with everyone. It is extremely easy, but preserves the flavor of the beer quite well!

This recipe for braised pinto beans is ridiculously simple, which really allows the beer to come through in the final product. I made the beans using my pressure cooker, but canned would do fine as well.

September 1, 2011

Notes on a Brewday: St. Edhar 8


Ah, the middle ages.

What is it about monastic beers that's so evocative of older times? The time capsule-like nature of Old World breweries in cloistered communities? The romance of a religious order living outside the flow of secular time, preserving the traditions of brewing, manuscript illumination, healing, and so on and so forth, intact through the centuries?

Whatever.