Local Sips – April 2nd, 2011

The Drinkery in Londonderry lined up another batch of great wines to share with shop patrons and fans this week. Dessert wines specifically.

We started off with the Chocorazzle Delight from Grape Time Winery. Grape Time is a local vint-on-premises operation that uses kit wine products for both customer orders and retails sales. We are pretty sure this wine was made from the same Chocolate Raspberry Port kit we made some at home with last year. It is a good wine, but not something would live up to the Port namesake. My favorite was the Red Decadence from Washington State. It is dry for a dessert wine, well balanced, and projects incredible chocolate aromas and flavors. The Sweet Sunset, from California, is actually too sweet but it did have a winning aroma.

The last selection was an ice cider from Vermont. We have had it many times and enjoy it every chance we get. It was a bit of an oddball in this lineup, but solid nonetheless. On our way out we picked up a mixed pack of beers to have with pizza from a local join that got best of accolades in the Hippo Press. Margot’s review of the pizza will posted on Sunday.

On Saturday I was flying solo, Margot was gone overnight with her sisters, so what did I do? Went to a brewpub! I have had multiple tell me that the Portsmouth Brewery was a must do for a beer lover.

One of the things I love about brewpubs is the sampler. Portsmouth does it right and offers a 10 beer (2 oz each) sampler of all the beers they have on tap at any time. This night they were pouring 6 of their own beers and 4 from Smuttynose, another Portsmouth based brewery. I can’t recall if I have ever had any of the beers from Smuttynose so I am pretty sure all 10 beer s were new to me. Here is the lineup I ended up taking down:

Portsmouth Dirty Blond Ale
Portsmouth Grand Cru
Smuttynose Star Island
Smuttynose Finsest Kind IPA
Smuttynose Shoals Pale Ale
Portsmouth Imperial IPA
Smuttynose Old Brown Dog
Portsmouth ESB
Portsmouth Weizen Bock
Portsmouth Black Cat Stout

I found there to be a definite distinction between the Portsmouth and Smuttynose beers. The Portsmouth beers tasted smaller batch and like each ounce had gotten just a little bit more love and attention. I like beer with lots of character and the Portsmouth beers put on the charm!

The two I enjoyed the most were the Imperial IPA and the Grand Cru. The Grand Cru is traditional Belgian ale with distinct aromas and a nice clean finish. The Imperial IPA was exactly the amped up hop monster I was hoping for. I actually snagged a pint of this to enjoy up next to chicken tenders with mustard ale sauce and pastrami sandwich & fries. The food was also fantastic and even though it was restaurant week and a Saturday night, I could imagine this place would be busy all the time.

I grabbed a couple of 22oz'ers from the retail shop on the way out. They will also fill half gallon growlers to go at the bar. Love it!

The next time you are in Portsmouth and have time for a beer make sure and stop by the Portsmouth Brewery.
Cheers!

Jason

Boutari 2008 Santorini White

I had Greek wine for the first time last fall at the Second Glass Wine Riot. At that event Margot and I sampled both reds made from Agiorghitiko and whites made from Assyrtiko, the predominant grapes of each style in Greece. We also tried the Santorini Vin Santo made from indigenous grapes and quite similar to the classic Italian dessert wine. That isn’t much, and from small samples we didn’t gather much of a feel for the wines or the place they are from.

This week I opened a bottle of the Boutari 2008 white from the Greek island of Santorini. This dry table wine is made from the Assyrtiko grape. I found the nose to be much more fragrant than I recalled from the prior tastings. I picked up aromas of grapefruit, other citrus and savory herbs. The flavors are predominantly citrus based with some salinity and a minerality that presented itself like dry sandy soil. With generous acidity the wine stays fresh. The finish is clean and doesn’t linger. Growing conditions on Santorini are harsh, with intense heat and little rainfall, so a wine with this level of freshness and vibrancy is clearly a labor of love.

I captured my tasting and review on video as part of my “Interview with a Wine Nerd” series.



Cheers!

Jason

#WBW72 - Helping Japan

When I saw the theme for #WBW72 that was posted I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. I don’t have a lot of experience with Japanese food and don’t feel that I have discovered any local restaurants that would be worthy. Trying something new was the obvious conclusion, and I do that best at home.

The events that have unfolded after the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear concerns in Japan are heart breaking. On the one had you want to think that we have come so far as a civilization that scenes like we saw shouldn’t have been so easy to create. Then you remember exactly how powerful nature is and how small we really are. Unfortunately the people of Japan have a long road back to a place close to where they were before all of this, and there is only so much any of us can do to speed that along. But we can help. And reaching out and lending a hand becomes of symbol of what we have in common and what we share no matter how much or how little our support changes the reality as it stands. At the bottom of this post is a link to the Red Cross donation site where you can lend support to those in need.

The plan I crafted was to make Miso Soup and Vegetable Tempura at home, neither of which I have done before. Sake would be a generally obvious choice for pairing, and with that in mind I decided I would do something else; two things actually. I decided to pair a homemade Belgian White beer with the soup and a Gruner Veltliner with the tempura.

I am lucky to work right on the edge of Boston’s Chinatown so picking up ingredients I don’t usually stock at home would be reasonably easy. Many of the packages in the C-Mart are labeled with a combination of Chinese ( I think) and English so finding certain ingredients can be a challenge. I did alright and found my seaweed, bouillon, tofu, tempura flour, miso paste and green tea during my lunch hour.

I made a pot of green tea for us to enjoy while we cooked our dinner. I find tea to be a really great way to drink water, and if you drink tea with no caffeine and minimal sugar there really isn’t any downside. On these cool in-between days of later winter and early spring a hot glass of tea can make a big difference!

Miso Soup
(makes 4 servings)
4 cups water
2 tsp chicken soup bouillon
1/2 cup miso paste
1 tablespoon dried Wakame seaweed, soaked in room temperature water
1/2 cup cubed tofu
3 chopped green onions

Bring the water to a boil. Dissolve the bouillon into the boiling water using a whisk. Turn the heat down to medium-low and add the cubed tofu.

Drain the seaweed and add to the pot. Simmer for several minutes. Turn off the heat and move the pot off the burner. Add the miso paste to the soup and whisk smooth.

Ladle into bowls and add the green onions. Serve immediately.

The soup was paired with a homemade Belgian White beer. I chose this pairing after seeing it pop up in a search for pairings with Japanese food. It caught my attention because it wasn’t something that was obvious to me, and I love to try new things. Believe me when I tell that this pairing worked beyond my imagination. The soup is salty and the creamy beer cut that salt incredibly well. The citrus and spices in the beer meshed in with the soup swimmingly and was a combination worth savoring.

When I crafted this plan I felt that by expanding my knowledge of Japanese cuisine and trying to some classic dishes at home I would be projecting a symbol of care and understanding in a small, but meaningful way. I hope this same bump in enlightenment is shared by all the folks involved in #WBW72. Who knows when roles will be reversed and we will be in need of the support of folks from afar.

The second part of our meal was vegetable tempura paired with the Durnberg 2008 Select Gruner Veltliner. First the wine review.

Durnberg Gruner Veltliner 2008

Light gold color, brilliant with a little sediment. Citrus & herbs showed up on the nose. I found citrus, green apple, minerality and a little spiciness in the mouth. Balanced acidity, with a clean medium length finish. I liked this Gruner but was surprised as the light amount of sediment in the glass. It didn’t affect my enjoyment of the wine, but I found it to be unusual. It presented itself as very food friendly with the balanced acidity that could go in different directions depending on the flavors in the food you paired with it.

For the vegetables we selected:
Asparagus
Avocado
Broccoli
Red Pepper
Sweet Potato

The choice of avocado was done very late in the game after I happened to see a tweet from someone who mentioned having avocado tempura and loving it some much. I’ll try that!

The tempura batter was 2 cups of the tempura flour and 1 & ½ cups of ice cold water. I read that the two keys to tempura are using cold, cold water in the batter to suppress the gluten development and making sure the surface of the items to batter and fry is dry before battering it. I put the water in the freezer 20 minutes before using it and laid all the cleaned and cut up vegetables on paper towels and patted them dry.

The cooking oil, I used a clear soy-based frying oil, should be about 360 degrees before you being to fry anything and once you begin you will need to turn up the heat a bit to maintain the temperature. The process of frying is a visual one, you are looking for a light golden color to the finished product. Laying the fried items out on paper to soak up the excess oil is another excellent step in the process.

We also made a simple dipping sauce for the tempura using Tamari soy sauce, rice vinegar, ginger and green onions. Just a little gives a nice zip to the fried vegetables.

Tempura is an art form and I am sure I didn’t get it as right as I will with more practice. What I can say is that it took longer than I thought to fry everything, but when it was done I was quite happy for the effort. The texture of the lightly breaded and fried avocado is pretty freakin’ amazing. That and the sweet potato paired with the wine were my favorites. The wine found solid matches with everything including the asparagus. Asparagus can be a tough wine pairing food, but I guess when you bread it, fry it and then pair it with a notoriously food-friendly wine you should expect to come up aces.

So it was with tempura in one hand and a well matched wine in the other that I sent kind thoughts of support to our friends struggling in Japan. To help them by supporting the mission of the Red Cross please use the link below to make a donation.

http://american.redcross.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ntld_main&s_src=RSG000000000&s_subsrc=RCO_BigRedButton

Cheers!

Jason

Light & Easy Pasta Bake

Very rarely do I make pasta at home. Margot is usually the one who does and that is maybe once per month. I never really developed an appreciation for it growing up and while I will order pasta when out at a good Italian restaurant, but I don’t often crave it and thus don’t make it at home. This makes Margot sad because she loves pasta, but she understands the issue; and there are many things she doesn’t regularly eat for exactly the same reason.

So it was with great surprise that I should want to make pasta and that I was going to scheme something up to use ingredients we had on hand to make something a little more than cooked pasta with sauce on top. My motivation was the open bottle of wine some new friends has left us.

What I ended up with contains most of what is in a typical lasagna but I used shells for the pasta. When everything was ready it was mixed together and spread into a baking pan and topped with parmesan cheese. It really was simple, and it turned out to be pretty light as well. Not a bad two-fer to get for a dish I don’t often make!

Jay’s Light & Easy Pasta Bake

1 lb ground turkey, browned & cooked through
1 box whole wheat shells, cooked according to package
1 white onion, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
8 oz light Ricotta cheese
½ jar spaghetti sauce
¼ cup + 2 Tbsp parmesan cheese, seperate (fresh grated or jar style)
1 Tbsp garlic paste
2 tsp frozen fresh oregano
2 tsp frozen fresh basil
Salt & pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 375.

Mix everything but the pasta and the last 2 Tbsp of the parmesan cheese in a large bowl. Add the pasta and mix well. Pour into a baking dish and spread as one flat layer. Cover with the remaining parmesan cheese.

Bake until golden brown on top.

I served this dish with some olive bread sprayed lightly with white truffle oil and a very nicely crafted Dolcetto wine made by some of our new winemaking friends. It really was a fantastic pairing, and I found that Dolcetto lives up to its reputation similar to that of Chianti for being an easy drinking and very food friendly wine.

Newsflash! I made pasta for a second time in the same week. You can only imagine how excited Margot was. My friend Wayne mine broke his collar bone skiing the same day as I made the first dish, and we made something a little different on Wednesday to take over for a visit. I saw a recipe for “Greek Mac and Cheese” at Kate’s Kitchen and remembered I had a wine from Santorini hanging around, so Greek dinner it was! We all loved the pasta, and Wayne & Meredith really appreciated not having to prepare dinner for one night. Wayne is getting around good, but he needs to try and heal up so his activities as an outdoor adventurer and musician are not permanently derailed from this mishap. I am going to review the wine in a separate post but head on over to Kate’s Kitchen for the recipe for “Greek Mac and Cheese”.

Cheers!

Jason

Bottling the 2010 Dandelion Wine

Last May I set out to make dandelion wine again. I shared my initial experiment in 2009 and what I was doing in 2010 with my windfall of fresh VT dandelions in my post "For The Love of Dandelion Wine" early that month. This time I was making a full 6 gallon batch which would net me about 30 bottles. I knew from the first batch in 2009 that it would take some time to clear and patience was a virtue in letting it do so. So it is now almost 1 year later and it is as clear as it is going to be and ready to bottle.

Two weekends ago I cheated and took two bottles off the top of the resting carboy and served them at our charity wine tasting. It was a hit and something most of the guests had never had before.

If you have never had dandelion wine before, and it can be made in many variations, it is difficult to describe. It is part leafy greens and part citrus, and mine has just enough sweetness to blend the bitter elements into a light fruity and refreshing warm weather wine. In the glass it has a light straw color and a pungent aroma that you know must be some type of plant.

During this past week's #winechat I was given the link to a source of a video about dandelion wine. It is the story of a woman who lives off the grid in Wyoming and amongst other things she does to sustain herself, she makes dandelion wine. Her ingredients, process and passion are on display during the 7 minute video. Her process is not all that different than my own and it made me smile. I noticed she used raisins in her wine. I haven't done that in my dandelion wine, I have in other fruit wines, and I know exactly what that would do and must try it the next time. The additional body and grape wine characteristics would certainly take it up a notch. She also used ginger and a combination of orange and lemon, which again seems like a worthy experiment for this year.

We will be up at the house in VT several times again this spring and I sincerely hope I can bring home at least some dandelions to make another batch. I look forward to trying some recipe alterations and continue what is becoming an annual tradition in my little New England home winery.

Here is the video about Miss "V" and her dandelion wine.

It's Time for Dandelion Wine


This video came from the Wyoming 2011 Short Film competition. Make sure to check out the other entries and vote for your favortie at the contest web site.

Cheers!

Jason

Wine Stories for #winechat (recap)

I hosted my first successful Twitter chat. It came out of #foodchat a few weeks prior when the topic was wine. The interactivyt amongst the group on the topic of wine was compelling to me. Before the chat ended several folks said they were having so much fun that they wanted to chat wine again. Really? Will it be that easy?

Twitter chats can be difficult to pull off if you don’t get people on board ahead of time, and that means your network needs to be pretty good sized and/or you get help. I was lucky enough for both to smile on the first edition of the chat.

I picked “Wine Stories” for the first month’s topic. I was hoping it would allow people of all levels of wine appreciation share interesting wine anecdotes from their lives and lay a foundation for return Tweeters and growth potential. And I think it worked.

I had a series of questions prepare as do most well executed Twitter chats. I did get through all of them and the responses were a fun read.

1. What is your favorite wine and why?
2. Share something you didn’t know about wine but were shocked to find out when you did.
3. What is the most exotic location that you have enjoyed a bottle of wine in?
4. What is the farthest you’ve travelled to find a particular bottle of wine?
5. What is the most unusual wine you have ever had?
6. What is the best wine and food pairing you have ever experienced?
7. Who is your life is the best person to drink wine with?
8. What is the most useful piece of wine-related advice you have ever received?
9. Share a wine-related goal of yours. Try this wine, make wine, visit this region, etc.
10. In three words sum up “Wine Stories” on #winechat.

I did take a transcript of all the tweets leading up to and during the chat so I can give you some stats about the participation in the event.

• There were about 400 tweets during the two and a half hours the chat ran.
• 30 tweeps contributed those 400 tweets with a core group of about 10-12 that were very active during the entire chat.
• About half the group had a glass of wine in front of them and shared what they were drinking.

As with most chats with a Q&A format there will be notable answers that give the event great context and maximum enjoyment. Here is what I found.

• Question 1 generated mostly responses about red wines including, Napa Cab, Amarone and Chateauneuf-du-Pape.
• There most interesting response for Question 2 was from @alawine with “that there are more sulfites in orange juice than red wine.”
• The Question 3 & 4 responses came from all over. France, Sweden, Hungary, the corner store and whatever was around when feeling a bit lazy.
• Unusual wine? @tmvwinery got Question 5 rolling with “Garlic Wine in Iowa - even got a tour of it being made. After tasting it, I said I'm done & need a beer.”
• Question 6 generated all sorts of responses but @CowlickCottage threw out the following to make us all think of what we might be missing. “I'm surprised no one has mentioned the great relationship between chocolate and wine.”
• Question 7 has a few answers that come quicky to mind, but @kermode nailed it with “easiest question ever - my husband!”
• For Question 8 @deblovespinot shared this saged advice, “take your time,learn listen,taste,compare your palate will catch up”. I agree!
• The Question 9 answers had mostly to do with visiting wine regions in France.
• The best signoff from Question 10 was “Wine enhances discussion” from @happyhourmary.

Join us at the end of the month for #winechat. It will held on the last Tuesday of each month at 8PM EST. The topic for the April hasn’t yet been selected. If you are interested in hosting a future wine chat please let me know.

Cheers!

Jason

Super Sunshine Starter Strawberry Smoothie

Mornings typically end up being busy days for me. Cleaning up the kitchen, blog posting, making the coffee and possibly prepping for that evening’s dinner; sometimes I don’t end up with much time for breakfast.

Enter the smoothie. They are so easy to make. With the early morning spring sun showing its face, fruit smoothies taste even better.

They taste sort of like dessert, but generally don’t have excess sugar that is hard for the body to handle. My favorite combination is banana, strawberry, vanilla almond milk and orange juice. For this recipe I used strawberries I picked at Sunnycrest Farms in Londonderry, NH where I live. My wife and I picked them in June of 2010 and they are excess from what we picked to make our award winning strawberry wine. We froze them the day we picked them and take them out of the freezer in small amounts as we need them. Sunnycrest is only a few miles from my home. It is an understated farm with extraordinary produce. We buy a variety of fruits and vegetables in every season from them. We have used their berries and cherries in wine, cider, pies, desserts and of course, smoothies.

Super Sunshine Starter Strawberry Smoothie

1 frozen banana
1 cup frozen strawberries
6 oz vanilla almond milk
4 ounces orange juice

Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Serve in a pint sized glass.

Cheers!

Jason

Talking Torrentes

I vaguely remember the first time I had Torrentes. I was at a small wine tasting put on by a local wine distributor and it was presented as something new they were carrying, but no information about it. I sipped it, didn’t think much about the wine and actually forget the name of the grape until the Second Glass Wine Riot in Boston last year.

At that event I came across the Yellow & Blue (Y+B) Torrentes 2009 and remembered what had been lost after my first experience. I actually went to find my wife and dragged her back to the table to try it. Huge aromas of flowers, peaches and melon get to you before you even get your nose all the way to the glass. It is light with lime that kicks in and stays with you through the finish. This is the signature of this style of wine.

We ran into the Y+B again this year at the Winter Wine Spectacular. I went to get a taste as soon as I saw it. I would call it my favorite of the ones I have had to date. It is also organic and comes in an eco-friendly container.

At that same event I also got to try the La Puerta Torrentes. Another hugely aromatic example of this type of wine. The La Puerta had a smooth finish and the citrus along for the ride.

My favorite Torrentes experience though was last Saturday. I picked up a bottle of the Alamos Torrentes 2009 to review and then share with some friends. I was pretty confident most of them would have never had it. As a wine educator these opportunities are a great way to connect people with new wines. Here’s what they said:

Cindy – “mmmmmm” and “crisp & refreshing.”

Chris – “Bright & lively. Would go great with shellfish or summer salad with ripe tomatoes.”

Wayne – “Lime sherbet. Crisp with a nice fruit quality.”

Missy – “Would be great with BBQ chicken!”

Everyone really enjoyed it and most people said they would look for it again. My job is done here.

I captured my review of the Alamos Torrentes in a short video embedded below.



Cheers!

Jason

Thank You for Supporting the Relay For Life

( Margot, 2nd from right, and some of the ladies who supported us. Patty trying to coax Jeanette's daughter into the picture. )

In early Feburary with Foodies Giving Back I shared the story of my cancer fighting team of volunteers and fundraisers. We don’t rest on our laurels. No matter how successful we might have been we are always back in a new year with a new mission and goals at least as big.

We are underway with our fundraising and one this that is different this year from last, is that I will be using my blog an Twitter to solicit support from beyond my local area. The fight against cancer is important to everyone because cancer has or will affect everyone’s life directly or indirectly. That is a sad reality to grasp, but we are here, we are fighting, and we will win! We must have HOPE!

If you would like to support the fight against cancer with a 100% direct and tax-deductible donation please use the link below.

http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR/RelayForLife/RFLFY12NE?px=1344507&pg=personal&fr_id=39884 (2012 link, updated just in case people wander through. Please donate!)

We (Margot and I) held a wine tasting at our home last weekend to raise funds and thank many of our long time donors for their continued support. It is a causal affair, wine, snacks, some drawings for prizes and good conversation. We raised $800 through invitations and attendance at the event. If you attended and/or donated we thank you so much. If you haven’t donated yet, we hope you will consider it. As I told the assembled guests, we know where the money goes. We have met people who have benefited from the programs and services of the American Cancer Society right here where we live. We can see how the money we (you, us and everyone involved) raise reduces suffering and saves lives.

This year we were lucky enough to stumble on prizes that we wouldn’t have easily secured on our own. The folks from Our Cook Quest arranged to the have prizes from their recipe contest that didn’t draw enough participation to complete. We added a bottle of our Strawberry wine into the mix and we were off!

I find myself at a low point with the availability of homemade red wine so it was also a stroke of luck that Dave & Robyn, new winemaking friends of ours, are primarily red drinkers and had 3 styles to share with us. I was so excited to showcase someone else’s wine at our event as well. And from the feedback and my own tastings the Shiraz and Dolcetto were excellent examples of their styles and very pleasing to drink. Thanks Dave & Robin!

We opened bottles of our Strawberry, Unoaked Chardonnay, Viognier, Dandelion, Jalapeno, Riesling Ice Wine and Pinot Grigio. We also had a bottle of our Amarone (red) to put out.

For snacks we went with primarily heat-and-serve, but I did make the Cheese Straws again. Grafton Village Cheese picked up the tweets and the recipe is making the rounds through their fans as we speak. We also put out veggies and cheese & crackers. Our friend Amy tackled the sweet angle with thumbprint Russian Teacakes with raspberry jam in the middle. They were so good!!

Drawing Winners

Fine Cooking Grill It! & Pasta Fresca – Missy G

Ancient Fire Strawberry Wine – Amy & Brian W

Fine Cooking Breakfast & Cuccina Rustica - @eatingwmeaning

Amanda Hesser NY Times Cookbook - Amy & Brian W

In The Kitchen With A Good Appetite – Cyndi M

Fine Cooking Soups and Sandwiches, Cuccina Fresca & 15 Minute Meals – Robyn D

Much thanks to Our Cook Quest and the supporting sponsors for the prizes. They definitely attracted some attention and were a nice spin for this year’s event.

Will the Survivors Rule! team eclipse $10,000 again this year? I don't know. I never do, and then something happens and we seemed to get there. I do know that to reach that goal takes support from lots of people, including you. Thank you for supporting us.

Sadly 1 in 2 people will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime. I would like to say that the work we all do today will radically change that, but I can’t stop long enough to figure that out. This battle rages on and we need your help.

Cheers!

Jason

The Ancient Fire Wines Facebook Fan Page

On Saturday and Sunday I tweeted and posted about the cheese straws that I had made again. Wouldn't you know it, @GraftonCheese saw the tweets and asked if they could post the picture and recipe to their Facebook page. Of course you can! I'd love for more people to see and use the recipe.

That got me thinking. I setup a fan page for Ancient Fire Wines on Facebook last year but hadn't used it much. I am betting I should. How do you use your own Facebook fan page for your food blog? Do you just post links to your blog entries or do you post exclusive content only on Facebook? How much fan interaction do you get? Is is better or different than on the blog site?

If you use Facebook for you social media networking come find us to see what is going on at Ancient Fire Wines.

 Go ahead and Like us on Facebook. You know you want to!

Cheers!

Jason

A Toast to Beer Week

I was bouncing around in a local Barnes & Noble a couple weeks ago on a mission to buy a gift for a friend’s daughter. As I walked by a section of books of local interest a book with the title “Brewing In New Hampshire” caught my attention. The book is a collection of pictures and historical information about the craft of brewing and its roots in the state. How cool!

It seems fitting then that I would finish Beer Week with reflection on the history of brewing in NH and give a nod to some of the breweries who carry this tradition forward in the 21st century. To do that justice I also offer my review of a wonderful and unique beer from White Birch Brewing, a relative newcomer to the NH brewing scene.

Strawberry Banke (Portsmouth) was the most likely location of the brewing of the majority of beer consumed by early colonists to what would become the state of New Hampshire. It was there that Capt. John Mason maintained stores that sold provisions, including malt. This was around 1635.

According to the book it isn’t known for sure who the first person was to brew beer in the state that was not also operating a tavern, the source of most beer available into the 1700’s. The credit is given to William Pottle Jr. of Stratham who made his brews available to several taverns in operation at the time. This was just before the American Revolution.

Fast forward to the mid 1800’s, and then into the 20th century, with the Frank Jones Brewing Company. Frank Jones is described as a business savvy and enterprising guy who became the most successful single brewer in the history of the state. At its peak the brewery’s production topped out at 165,000 barrels.

Considering all that Frank Jones accomplished at the time that he did and adjusting for current value, those are ultimately some big shoes to fill.

In the ten years that I have lived in New Hampshire I have enjoyed beers from many of the breweries in operation in the state, and have been lucky enough to be an early drinker of some of the newer one to come online. While I haven’t visited the all (trust me I am working on it) I have found so many great beers produced right here in my proverbial backyard. Last year at the NH Brewers Festival I had my first tastes of a great IPA from Flying Goose Brewing and a cask aged Imperial Stout from Moat Mountain Brewery.

My favorite new brewery in the state is White Birch. I remember buying my first bottle of their Tripel at Jasper’s Homebrew & Retail shop in Nashua a few years ago. The yeasty aroma lifted off the white head in my tulip glass. The spiced and bready malt flavors were wonderful. With a higher ABV than many commercial beers one bomber was enough to bring a smile. I was hooked!

My Review of White Birch Indulgence

This beer pours pitch black with a dark brown head that dissipates at a moderate pace. Aromas of coffee, dark chocolate and coconut emanate from the glass. The sweet & roasty aroma is one of the most pungent I have ever experienced. The fine carbonation helps to circulate the dark roasted chocolate malt flavors around the mouth. The depth and intensity of those flavors really is amazing. This is more than a porter and more than a stout which is exactly how it is described at the White Birch Brewery web site. This is a truly delightful beer, and an indulgence, one that I would not drink every day but will surely miss when I want it and there is none to be found.

I made a version of my Cherry Bomb (cherry cider and stout) cocktail with the beer. I didnt use a lot of the beer since I mean no disrespect, but it is just that damn good that I had to. It is definitely the richest and most exquisite incarnation of the cocktail that I have ever made.

One brewpub that I haven’t gotten to and hear great things about is the Portsmouth Brewery. I am hoping to make a trip out there next weekend and try the beers and the pub food. With luck my plans will stick and I will share my food and drink review with you the week after.

Do you know your own local beers? What local styles do you enjoy and do you seek out local beers when you travel elsewhere in the world? Share your stories in a comment.

Cheers!

Jason

Four Star Cheese Straws

I made the cheese straws again. This time I used Grafton Village Cheese Four Star Cheddar which I bought as bulk ends at the factory store in Brattelboro. There is nothing like getting a great product at a fantastic price. It didn’t need to look pretty because I was going to cook with it!

I made both a rosemary and a red pepper version this time.

Four Star Cheese Straws

12 ounces chopped Grafton Village Four Star Cheddar
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
½ cup wheat flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon crushed rosemary (batch 1)
or
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (batch 2)
2-4 tablespoons heavy cream

Set the oven to 350°F.

Place everything but the cream in food processor. Pulse until coarse crumbs appear. Add the cream by the tablespoon and process until the dough forms a ball.

Flour a rolling surface and a rolling pin. Separate the dough into two pieces and form each into a ball. Roll the first dough ball into a rectangle that is about 1/8-inch thick. Use a pizza cutter to cut 1/3 in strips along the short edge of the rectangle, making as many as can be. Carefully transfer the strips to a parchment lined cookie sheet, leaving at least 1/4-inch between them. Repeat with the second dough ball.

Bake the straws on the middle oven rack for 12 to 15 minutes, or until the ends are golden brown. Remove them from the oven and allow to cool on a rack.

We served these at our Relay For Life charity wine tasting and of course they were a huge hit again. I tried them with a couple different wines. The rosemary version was quite nice with my homemade un-oaked chardonnay. The red pepper version found a good partner with the Shiraz that our new winemaking friends Dave & Robin brought to share.

Cheers!

Jason

Beer Week Is Ending, But Not Before These Five Beers

Beer Week is slowly coming to a close. I will post again tomorrow with a great beer from a newer local brewery and some facts and information about the history of brewing in New Hampshire.

Earlier in the week I shared six of the eleven beers that my brother-in-law Bob and tasted through last weekend. I’m back with notes on the last five and another good laugh from Bob.

Sierra Nevada Glissade
Style: Maibock
ABV: 5.6%
Location: Chico, CA
Pour: Minimal head, moderate carbonation
Color: Yellow / gold and clear
Aromas: Citrus, grass, lightly malty – overall subtle
Flavors: Little bit of malt and piney hops
Finish: Mild bitterness and acidity, clean finish
Review: I picked this one because the bottle described it as a golden bock. I figured it would have a little more character than the light ales and lagers we also were trying but not be a true on bock that would have been too rich for the audience. Bingo! I would drink this casually, especially during this transitional time in New England between cold and warm weather.

Estrella Damm
Style: American Adjunct Lager
ABV: 5.2%
Location: Barcelona, Spain
Pour: Fizzy white head, compresses quickly
Color: Light gold
Aromas: Grains, corn and hops
Flavors: Grainy with some hop character. Has that mass produced skunky flavor. Some honeyed sweetness and a body a bit bolder than the typical domestic adjunct lagers.
Finish: Lots of carbonation to wash away flavors
Review: Ehhh. Wasn’t really worth the time and money. I can spend the same on a sixer of something that I liked or is new and have better luck. The honey flavor brought back the “honey-brown” joke (see the first post) which was a hoot!

When picked up the Estrella I was offered the anecdote that it was the first beer specifically created to pair with food. It turns out that Damm S.A. (the brewer) does make Inedit, a witbier, and sells it under that premise, it just isn’t the one we tried. I offered that anecdote to Bob and his response was priceless. “People have been drinking beer for thousands of years. Spanish beer wasn’t the first beer people ate with food!” I’d have to agree then that it is a big presumption. I haven’t had the beer in question, and now that I know it exists I just might have to go get some.

Full Sail LTD #5
Style: American Amber Lager
ABV: 5.6%
Location: Hood River, OR
Pour: Light brown head, moderate retention
Color: Copper, clear
Aromas: Sweet malts, nut and floral hops
Flavors: I picked up light brown bread, ginger
Finish: Clean with a bit of sweetness
Review: This came right down the middle for me. It was good and I would drink it, but I don’t thnk I would reach for it. Bob didn’t have much to say.

Belfast Bay Lobster Ale
Style: Red Ale
ABV: 5%
Location: Belfast, ME
Pour: Off-white head that hangs on
Color: Red / light brown
Aromas: Very light, some grains and malt
Flavors: Sweet malts, grains and definitely disconnected from light aromas. Slightly sweet
Finish: Crisp from the carbonation, nothing lingers
Review: Another good beer that I wouldn’t likely nab again. Just not my thing, nothing at all wrong with it though.

Weihenstephaner Kristallweissbeer
Style: Kristalweizen
ABV: 5.4%
Location: Freising, Germany
Pour: Massive head, tons of lacing and substantial small-bubble carbonation
Color: Light brown/gold, clear
Aromas: Banana, spices (coriander, cloves), grains, sweetness, yeasty
Flavors: Fruity, floral, with mild sweetness
Finish: Clove comes back on the finish
Review: I really dug this beer. This is a filtered hefeweizen and has many characteristics also found in witbiers. I would drink this anytime. I could see using this at a beer dinner because of the near champage like carbonation and breadth of aromas and flavors. We made pancakes with the leftover the next day and they were some of the lightest I had made in recent history.

The Weihenstephaner brewery is the oldest continuously operating brewery in the world. They are also the partner for Sam Adams in the production and release of Infinium we review last year not long after it debuted.

When we were done Bob was excited to have tried so many different beers and was dreaming of picking up some “honey-brown” when he got home. I was also happy to have found several new beers that I would grab for everyday drinking and few others that I would use in specific food pairing situations like the Weihenstephaner Kristallweissbeer.

Cheers!

Jason

Beer Sorbet & Google Recipe Search

We continue with Beer Week today with Beer Sorbet and some tech talk for food bloggers about Google’s new Recipe Mode.

I made a beer sorbet earlier in the week, or at least I tried to. It didn’t set so we drank it like a frozen cocktail. It was OK, but not what I was going for. I am in the process of making it again with a slightly re-jiggered recipe and process that should overcome the issues. I am going to use this recipe for an example of Google’s new Recipe Mode. Here’s some background on that.

Last night I had a vibrant exchange with several food bloggers on Twitter about Google’s new recipe mode. It started because I saw a tweet that said it was unfair to small bloggers. I asked to have that clarified because I wasn’t sure what the angle was, even though I was fully aware of the open debate on this new service and recipe posting requirements. It boiled down to small bloggers not having the time or skills to reformat recipes, old and new, into this format in order to have high ranking in the search engine.

Here’s my problem. Google's search engine is free to use and they don't charge for rankings. There has been plenty of debate about companies that spend money on SEO and trickery trying to gain and keep the top spots. Fair enough. We do still live in a world where money talks and people who think community trumps that obviously don’t even know their own communities that well. Google looks for and punishes offenders so it is as “fair” as it can be. Ad banners and stats monitoring breeds competition, and it can be fierce. I hear a lot of people say they do it because they love it, but then fuss over traffic and comments. Get real!

For food bloggers though, not having the time or skill to use a new service that comes along ends up being a choice. The service is free (I am going to keep saying that) so people have to decide if they want to participate or not. Not participating because you feel as though your creativity and style is where you want to focus is a solid personal AND business oriented decision. This doesn’t mean what Google is doing is unfair. You can’t have something for nothing and this age old rule applies here.

The debate rages on, but there are also solid examples and “how-to” posts that are supportive of how to make the choice.

Google Recipe Search - http://www.google.com/landing/recipes/
Food 52 - http://www.food52.com/blog/1838_googles_new_recipe_search
Bon Appetit Hon (rebuttal to Food 52) - http://bonappetithon.com/2011/03/24/a-rebuttal-to-food-52/
Dianne Jacobs - http://diannej.com/blog/2011/02/new-google-recipe-search-means-extra-coding-for-food-bloggers/
Meathead at AmazingRibs.com - http://www.amazingribs.com/blog/google_rich_snippets.html#example

That said, the issue of Google’s move being antithetical to food blog style and creativity is way overblown. And I know why. The format and examples of the new Recipe Mode are technical because it uses markup language (code for the non-techies) under the hood and it looks menacing. I agree that code can be a bear to deal with. I’m and IT guy and I live and die by being able to code for my customers. But that isn’t the end of the story. Guess what, some enterprising folks have already created helpers to ease some of the pain. And more will come. And then everybody will be doing it and taking it for granted! Oh, and did I mention this is all free and the format being put forth is almost entirely optional so the tags (code) you are required to use is a short list?

The missing piece is for someone to demonstrate that the examples you see are a guide not a literal interpretation of exactly what every recipe has to be formatted like. They aren’t saying that, and food bloggers need to stop and think for a second about why they have gotten that impression rather than investigating how the creative and tech worlds meld here. I don’t know why anybody has to say this to people who use blogging platforms, SEO, ad banners, search engines, Twitter, URL shorteners, smartphones, etc. We use so much technology to be creative already, what’s the difference here?

I am going to take the long hand approach. That is to format my recipe as would normally format it in my post and then switch to HTML mode and make some changes to the recipe tags so that when Google scans it for Recipe Mode that it works. Ultimately a helper that could generate the different pieces in code so that you could copy and paste where and how you wanted would be even better.

You do need to add the style definitions to your blog’s stylesheet, but that is a onetime change and something that is done regularly by bloggers who want a pretty site. A complete list of all the possible tags exists for convenience. And get this, there is a test tool to allow to see what the preview for a recipe would look like and whether you have all the required information. This would seem to be a clear example of breaking down the barriers to this process. It clearly is a choice and not one with a burden that is too high for tech-savvy bloggers to bear in my opinion.

Homemade Beer Sorbet
(take 1)

1 pint bottle of homemade Trappist Dubble Ale
2 cups simple syrup
1 Tbsp Meyer Lemon juice
1  vanilla bean

Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean and combine with the first 3 ingredients.
Process in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Total time: 2 hours
Author: Jason Phelps
Published: March 25th, 2011
Dessert

It didn’t set even after being in the freezer for a long time. Why? Maybe too much sugar. I make 2X simple syrup and sugar acts like antifreeze. The alcohol doesn’t help either, but that was much less of an influence due to volume.

Now, some of you might look at the recipe above and say “I style mine differently and that format is too rigid!” What format? The above is how I post my recipes all the time. I added some tags for a more complete recipe for the search engine, but they don't really affect how my post that contains the recipe looks! Google’s required code is in there and it didn’t require me to change my recipe at all. Furthermore you could stretch the ingredients out over a whole post, instead of in a list, and the instructions could be paragraphs of steps intertwined with greatest prose ever to exit your fingertips. Google doesn’t prevent this. You can still be creative and get ranked.

Here is the recipe and process I am using for my second attempt.

Guinness Sorbet
(take 2)

1 14.9 oz can of Guinness Draught
1 cups simple syrup
1 Tbsp Meyer Lemon juice
1  vanilla bean

Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean and combine with the first 3 ingredients. Chill in the freezer for 1 hour, stirring twice. Process in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

>
Total time: 2 hours
Author: Jason Phelps
Published: March 25th, 2011
Dessert

The new recipe and process worked out much better. The amount of air that was trapped in the mixture as it froze is incredible. It is so light and creamy. I can’t wait to serve this to my wine tasting guests tomorrow! The taste is different between the Stout and The Trappist style beers. Both give me lots of ideas of other flavors to mix with different beer styles to create sorbets that could be used between courses and not just for dessert!

As I said above, a helper tool to facilitate some of the code generation and even plug-ins that hide all of that for you will go a long way to making this process seamless. And they will come. I am sure some enterprising IT foodie is out there right now improving on everything that has already been done overcoming the issues that remained. For now folks that don’t have the IT savvy to do this should keep an eye out for contributions from those who do and wait until it gets easier for them to participate. Don’t cry foul, this is a free service that is technology based. You can’t have your cake and eat it too!

Cheers!

Jason

Six New Beers for Beer Week!

Beer week continues today with a beer tasting I put together last weekend for one of my brothers-in-law and I.

Last weekend my sister-in-law Celeste and her husband Bob came to stay with us at the house in VT for the weekend. Bob tends towards lighter beers and his go-to is Bud Light. I think people should drink what they like so I am fine with that. I lean towards darker and hoppier beers and am not a big fan of the high-volume production light beers, so I don’t typically drink them.

Before I left for VT I stopped in at the Drinkery and picked up eleven beers that I hadn’t had (actually I realized I have had one of them) before. I went with blonde and pale ales, and lighter lagers specifically with Bob in mind. I picked selections from Germany, Spain, Quebec and from the East Coast, Central and West Coast in the US. They way I figured it, we could both sit down and drink slightly out of our comfort zone. We would each be coming from a different direction to beers that offer small production, light to medium body and flavors and something different. Margot and Celeste jumped in on the tasting as well and provided very positive feedback on a few of the beers. Here are the notes and stories from six of the them.

All of the pours were from 12 or 16 ounce bottles into small tasting glasses.

Cisco Brewers Whale’s Tale Pale Ale
Style: American Pale Ale
Location: Nantucket, MA
Pour: Thin white head that dissipates quickly, moderate carbonation
Color: Copper, almost clear
Aromas: Hops, honey
Flavors: Mild bread/yeast flavors with a hint of sweetness
Finish: Mild bitterness and citrus
Review: An easy drinker with moderate to low hop and malt influences. Refreshing but not overwhelming in any way. This was the first beer Bob mentioned a similarity to a “honey-brown” for. The full joke, which was on me, is a bit farther down.

Peak Organic Summer Session Ale
Style: Wheat Session Ale
Location: Portland, ME
Pour: Minimal head with quick exit, obvious carbonation in pour
Color: Golden with a slight orange tinge, clear
Aromas: Citrus, grains, greens
Flavors: Grains, mellow hops
Finish: Tart with a bit of a hop kick
Review: A great summer beer, and one that I am glad I picked up. I have only had Peak beers at tastings before, and not this particular one, so knowing it is out there will mean I will be picking some up once the weather warms. Bob, Celeste and Margot all agreed that this beer was a solid lighter drinking beer.

Anchor Brewing Anchor Steam Beer
Style: CA Steam Beer
Location: San Francisco, CA
Pour: Medium off-white head that sticks around, well carbonated
Color: Amber colored, and almost clear
Aromas: Bread, yeast, herbs/grass
Flavors: Slight sweetness wrapping malty/bready flavors and some citrus
Finish: Mild aftertaste, some hop aromas linger
Review: A well put together beer, but not one that jumps out and grabs me. Bob said “honey-brown” again!

So we got about half way into the tasting and I noticed Bob kept comparing the amber and sweeter beers to what I clarified was the JW Dundee Honey Brown beer we find in some stores out our way. I realized that while it was true for some, he was messing with me. OK, I finally got it and it is pretty funny. I got a good laugh from the joke when we took a break and he broke out a Bud Light. I asked if it tasted like a “honey-brown” and he said “no, and actually it tastes like shit!” Celeste joked that I may have broken the Bud Light monopoly in the house.

Boulder Brewing Sweaty Betty
Style: Blonde Wheat Ale
Location: Boulder, CO
Pour: White head that escapes slowly, average carbonation
Color: Straw/yellow and clear
Aromas: Citrus, clove, banana, yeast
Flavors: Wheat/grains, lemon, creamy with a little head in the sip
Finish: Citrus zip at the end lingers
Review: This was another favorite, and for Celeste especially. She said something about it being saucy like her. Or at least I think she said that… She also said she would buy it just for the label which strengthens Margot’s long help theory that women by alcohol based on the label. I would definitely drink this beer as a lighter option to my normal malty/hoppy selections.

Ballantine XXX Ale
Location: Woodridge, IL
Pour: Small amount of white head, passes quickly.
Color: Pale gold color
Aromas: Mild, a little hop and a little grain
Flavors: Again quite light, a little malt and a slight hop bit
Finish: Clean and simple
Review: This beer is better than many of the big commercial competitors that it can be run up against and for that I have some laying around and plan to make a clone of this beer in 2011. It really isn’t anything special, but Bob did agree that is a bit more flavorful than Bud or Coors. Margot had has this before and bagged on another taste.

Unibroue Blanche de Chambly
Location: Chambly, Quebec
Pour: Thick white head and plenty of carbonation
Color: Dry straw color
Aromas: Yeast, citrus, spices, mild hops, slight sweet
Flavors: Sweetness in the nose is not in the body. Tart with honey and orange flavors
Finish: Bitter orange and clove
Review: I love the Unibroue beers so when I spotted this one I knew it had to be included. Bob was “ehhh” on it and I was not at all surprised. It is a lighter style of beer, but with the yeast, citrus and spices it doesn’t lack character which can take some getting used to.

I had a lot of fun discovering some new beers and figuring out that much of the brewing world can be boiled down to “it taste like a honey-brown”. Bob and I definitely has fun with this and the best quote of the day has yet to be shared. Come back at the end of the week for the other five beers and more goo laughs.

Cheers!

Jason

Kate the Great Day, Portsmouth NH

( Kate The Great, Russian Imperial Stout )

We continue Beer Week with a guest post from a local NH beer blogger. Take it away Brian!

Hey there! I'm Brian from Seacoast Beverage Lab (www.SeacoastBeverageLab.com), a beer blog I write based in Portsmouth, NH. I come in peace and not to convert you all to beer drinkers but to cross interests and learn from you as well as you hopefully open your minds to trying some great beer. Jason and I have been talking back and forth and I asked him to write a post about wine to my beer drinking readers, introducing them (and me) to the world of wine. I hope you stop by for a good read. I am always open for comments and suggested. Below is post about one of the biggest days of the year involving beer and it happens in my town. Kate the Great Day. Enjoy!

( No, it's not the American Idol concert. It's for beer! )

One day a year, Portsmouth NH turns into a madhouse. Not it’s not the time the Tall Ships dock in town, or the first day the decks are open, it’s all about beer. I am of course talking about Kate the Great, a Russian Imperial Stout brewed by Tod Mott at the Portsmouth Brewery. Why would people go nuts over a beer on one day out of 365? Long story....

For starters and probably the most obvious, the beer is really good. I can attest that it is the best beer I have had. Now I haven’t been exposed to many of the world’s unique beers but I know a good beer when I taste one. Next is the hype. Beer Advocate, a magazine focused on reviewing and reporting on beer, in 2006 or 7 rated this beer as the #1 beer in the US and the 2nd most sought after in the world. This of course gets people to literally fly in when Kate is released. The beer is only brewed once a year for no reason other than the hype (I believe). There are so many other great beers that the Portsmouth Brewery has that they want to keep the taps rotating in and out with everything from their Milk Stout, Dirty Blonde, Wheat Wine, Saison, Winter Rye, Wild Thang and their ridiculously hoppy and good 5C’s IPA, and many many more.

( Ahh, the food & beverage bloggers workspace! )

I had the opportunity to be in the thick of it this year for Kate Day as their official live blogger. In previous years people would line up as early as 12am to have the chance at purchasing 1 or 2 of the 900 available bottles. This year the game changed as they released 10,000 scratch tickets at $2 a piece with a chance to win one of 900 bottles. The beer community was a little shaken up, but it didn’t stop the hype. 12am on the dot, 2 people were in line waiting to be the first to taste Kate the Great from the taps. By 9am there were about 200 people in line and when the doors opened at 1130, the lined wrapped around the street and into the public garage, a real sight to see.

Talking to people trying it for the first time, the response is identical, they love this beer. Some people take it more serious than others, but those willing to make the trip have a story to tell. It truly is a great beer and a beer event worth getting up crazy early to go to.

( Getting ready to pour the new batch. )

( A hopping bar in the middle of the day! )

As a wanna-be wine drinker, I wonder to myself what is the Kate the Great of the Wine community? Do you all take wine as seriously as beer drinkers? I am as far from a snob as possible but I take great pride and appreciation in the work that goes behind a great beer. What makes wine so “great”?

Check out my live coverage of this year’s Kate the Great day here: http://seacoastbeveragelab.com/kate-day-2011-live-blog/

Thanks for reading wine drinkers!!

Cheers,

Brian