Ladies of Craft Beer

Posted By: Guest

Guest Post by Maria Rainier

This is a great recipe for soup or you can cut the chicken stock by 4 cups and make beer cheese dip.

Beer Cheese Soup

Delicious!

Ingredients:
1 Stick butter or margarine
3 Cups chopped celery
3 Cups chopped onion
1 grated carrot
1 tsp. garlic salt
Salt and pepper to taste
8 Tbsp. flour (I use whole wheat)
6 Cups chicken stock (I make my own)
8 Oz. Cheddar or American Cheese
12 Oz. beer (I use Moose Drool)

Prep:
Sauté celery, onions and carrots in butter on medium-high. Add garlic, salt and pepper then slowly
blend in flour. Add chicken stock slowly while mixing. You don’t want to add it all at once or your
battered veggies will turn into mush. Bring to a boil and then simmer, slowly adding cheese. Heat back
to medium-high and slowly add beer.

Note: You want a flavorful craft beer, something that is going to add an additional flavor. I love to use
Moose Drool from Big Sky Brewing Co. in Missoula, Mt. I’ve made this into a cheese dip before too and
it’s delicious and perfect for a game. Enjoy!

Maria Rainier is a freelance writer and blog junkie. She is currently a resident blogger at First in Education and performs research surrounding online schools. In her spare time, she enjoys square-foot gardening, swimming, and avoiding her laptop.

Related Posts:

• “Gambero in Birra” aka Herbed Shrimp in Beer Sauce over Lemon-Parmigiano Linguine
• Pumpkin Beer Muffins
• A Meatloaf Aday
• Cellar Rats Brewery and Debonne Vineyards
• Hot Game Sausage Dip

Posted By: CSmith

This is a guest post by Cassi Smith, former host for Sackets Harbor Brewing Company and current South Carolina beer lover.

Competition between the wine and beer industry has harbored a snobs against the slobs sort of tone. Beer drinkers are the lower huddled masses against the higher sophisticated wine drinking class. However, the tone is beginning to change as the craft beer industry constantly brings more complexity to beers with ingredients such as nutmeg, ginger, chocolate, juniper, and even grapes.

What may be the most glaring evidence of this competitive break down sits east of Cleveland in Madison, Ohio. To the outside observer Debonne’ Vineyards looks and acts like a winery offering a variety of award winning wine, a warm fireplace, and friendly staff. But pure wine enthusiasts may argue that there are pests in the basement.

Through a window cut in the beer tasting room’s floor one can watch Cellar Rats Brewery operate in the basement of Debonne’ Vineyards making a variety of ales for craft beer enthusiasts. While a relatively small operation, they are making their name known throughout Northeast Ohio by working with other breweries in the area on collaborative brews. Cellar Rats boasts a seasonal selection of beers with Field Rat Wheat, Rat Tail Ale, and Rat Trap Lager offered year round.

Cellar Rats Brewery and Debonne’ Vineyards offers the perfect lunching option for friends or family members who stand firmly on either side of wine and beer industry divide. Once inside the winery, however, it may be difficult to acknowledge that such a chasm exists.

Related Posts:

• Craft Beer and Kids ~ It Can Be Done!
• All-Female Brew Collaboration Meet N Greet – Boston
• He Said/She Said #3 Dogfish Head Ancient Ales
• Women in Beer Series – Maggie Foley
• Running a Craft Beer Festival- What A Rush!

Posted By: Melissa

What does a mother do when her kids graduate from college, get jobs and become independent? Well, I knew what I didn’t want to do, that’s for sure. I didn’t want to be one of ‘those’ moms that my younger friends at work talk about…the descriptions were less than flattering, but basically I was not supposed to make my kids my hobby. No problem there, I said to myself. Happy to have raised two independent children into adulthood, I felt I had completed my role as a parent and was ready to just mentor as needed. My husband Jeff and I put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into raising two fairly well-adjusted kids and I wanted us to celebrate that achievement for a good long while. Yes, I needed a hobby that did not revolve around the kids. I needed one that Jeff and I could do together; one that would make our kids proud. So, I chose beer.

Actually, Jeff and I decided early on in 2010 that we wanted to do something based on our growing love of craft beer. We were going to search out beer festivals, breweries and beer pubs and bars and ‘taste’ our way around the country. Not a lofty goal really, and that was okay with us. We live and work in Central Florida, close to New Smyrna Beach, but we are originally from the South Jersey/Philly area. A road trip sounded like a perfect way to get things started.

We kicked off the ‘Year of the Beer’ tour by driving up I-95 to Philadelphia for a little vacation that just happened to correspond with Philly Beer Week this past June. We hit Victory, Yards, Triumph and Philadelphia Brewing Company and too many bars to list during our 10 days home. Oh, and we made sure to bring some beer back to Florida with us. Our SUV was filled with coolers of growlers and cases of excellent Philadelphia brewed beers, which we coddled for that 1000 mile drive home. We filled up our beer closet (a converted linen closet) and then popped open the growlers with our kids. They are craft beer enthusiasts as well, and think our hobby choice was a good one, mostly because we end up giving them a lot of beer.

During that long drive back home to Florida, we couldn’t stop talking about those Philly brewery visits and how much we enjoyed tasting the variety of craft beers the area had to offer. Somewhere on I-95 in South Carolina, we decided our missions would be to check out the Florida breweries and beer pubs in our area. We wondered if Florida had anything that could even come close to the delicious craft beers of the greater Philadelphia area, so we set our sights on a few that were within driving distance of our home in Central Florida.

2010 saw more than one visit to Cigar City Brewing in Tampa, as well as a stop at Dunedin Brewery in the nearby Dunedin/Clearwater area. Since our kids live in Jacksonville, we hit Bold City Brewery and the newly opened Intuition Ale Works this past fall. Each brewery was unique in its own right and the beer offerings were varied and enjoyable.

Cigar City Brewing in Tampa is, by far, one of our most favorite places to go when we are in the Tampa/ Clearwater area. They have a nice-sized tasting room and bar area adjacent to the brewery. They don’t serve food, but we saw a few folks who brought in their dinner from area restaurants and ate while they enjoyed one of CCB’s many fine brews. The tasting room was filling up fast and it had a relaxed vibe which made it extremely easy to sit and taste each and every beer on tap. We ordered a flight and tasted their Jai Alai IPA, Madura Brown Ale, Cubano Espresso Brown Ale, Marshal Zhukov’s Imperial Stout and my preferred CCB beer, Oatmeal Raisin Cookie – and yes, it tastes as good as it sounds. CCB always has a few guest brewery selections on tap and that night they offered Swamp Head Wild Night Honey Cream Ale and Dunedin Brewery’s Apricot Peach Wheat Ale. (Swamp Head is out of Gainesville – they are next on our list to visit). Brewery tours are typically by appointment, but at our last visit there, one of the employees announced that a brew tour would start in 5 minutes. We got in line and enjoyed a fairly quick but informative tour. We did learn that CCB is going to have their yearly party to celebrate the release of Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout [Editor's Note: quite possibly my favorite beer ever!] on March 12th. This release is limited to 3000 bottles and the tickets go fast with a limit of 4 bottles per person. I am pretty sure Jeff is going to add a bottle to his beer closet.

Overall, we’ve had a fun year and the thing that I’ve found most interesting in tasting almost 100 different beers during 2010 is that, regardless of beer style, each brewery has its own, very specific taste or fingerprint when it comes to how they brew their beer. Now, this may not be that much of surprise to those folks who are seasoned craft beer drinkers, but I found it to be a pretty amazing part of our journey this past year. Perhaps the best part of our new hobby is that our son and daughter and their significant others have the same love and passion for craft beer drinking as we do. Our son, a math teacher, has never sounded as eloquent as he does when he describes the taste of a newly acquired bottle of craft beer. Our music teacher daughter just returned to Philly to visit some old friends and proudly sent us pictures – not of her with her girlfriends – but those of the beers and bars she hit along the way. So no, our spare time does not revolve around our kids. But they want to do things with us that we both enjoy. What more could a mom want?

Related Posts:

• Front Range Brewery Tours on Living Social Denver
• Running a Craft Beer Festival- What A Rush!
• Craft Beer and Kids ~ It Can Be Done!
• Cellar Rats Brewery and Debonne Vineyards
• All-Female Brew Collaboration Meet N Greet – Boston

Posted By: Guest

Guest post by: Sandra Colucci Reda

As a woman, you may have been asked to describe the most memorable day of your life at one time or another. Some of you may have answered, “my wedding day”, “the day I gave birth to my child”, “the day I got engaged” and although I could continue giving sappy examples of answers, I won’t. The truth is, I have experienced engagements, marriages and birthing children and although they were happy and memorable moments in my life, nothing can compared to the RUSH that I experienced on April 24, 2010 – Sandy Reda’s most memorable day. (Sorry kiddos, just please finish college and get on another person’s payroll, soon, if possible). OK, enough sidetracking, let’s get back to talking about utopia.

It was a rainy day, but no one really seemed to care…we were inside! People around me were smiling and the energy that I felt from these people is really indescribable. Some of these humans were friends, most were strangers, but they all somehow shared the same energy. On this day in 2010, a perfectly executed plan came together. My face showed a grin for so many hours, I almost felt like my mouth would stay goofy looking permanently. Why was I deserving of this moment? What made me so special? I was able to forget about menopause for awhile and glow like a human glow stick. Why, you may ask? Well, I will tell you why…because I was the Event Coordinator of a first annual craft beer festival! What a rush. Oh yea, me, Sandy, a woman that loves craft beer, organized a successful Real Craft Beer Festival called The Big Tap In. We had gallons and gallons of craft beer, unique and specialty casks, millions of laughs, many great conversations with brewers and craft brewery owners AND we raised over $22,000 for a local non-profit organization. We had a sold out crowd of over 1200 people and virtually no trouble.

Whew, can I duplicate this “most memorable day of my life”? You bet I am going to try…April 30, 2011 is the Second Annual Big Tap In. It will be kind of like giving birth to kid number 2, you know what to expect, sort of. You love number 2 as much as number 1 but the love is different. The event will be different, but it will be loved just the same.

By the way, ladies, if you have never been to a craft beer festival, make sure you put it on your bucket list to do at LEAST once per year, more would be better. Take notes. Learn about styles and your favorites. Oh, and if you want to plan an event or already have, let’s share stories and ideas. TheBigTapIn@yahoo.com – @VETastingLounge on TWITTER – Sandra Colucci Reda on Facebook!

Related Posts:

• Craft Beer and Kids ~ It Can Be Done!
• All-Female Brew Collaboration Meet N Greet – Boston
• Cellar Rats Brewery and Debonne Vineyards
• Wanted: A Samantha Brown of Craft Beer
• Something is Brewing in Texas Legislature

Posted By: Lisa Grimm

Guest Post By Lisa Grimm

To the pre-small-person beer geek, the notion of how to continue to enjoy great beer may seem a rather abstract one – after all, you can always get babysitting, right? In reality (unless you have handy and generous local relatives), it’s not quite that simple (nor cost-effective) – but combining family time and great beer is still eminently possible; it just takes a little maneuvering.

The good news is that many craft beer venues are reasonably family friendly – if they appreciate good beer, they usually appreciate good food, and good food is something everyone can enjoy (and just because you’ve become a parent doesn’t mean you need to resign yourself to fast food). But that’s not to say you’ll be greeted with universal joy by bringing your baby to a very ‘bar’ craft beer bar, regardless of how well they sleep through your meal; also, thanks to our nation’s unnecessarily-complicated alcohol laws, there are some places where it’s illegal, even if you just want to pop in to buy a single beer.

But before you give up and plan to spend all of your quality beer time or the next several years at home with your personal bottle list, take heart – brewpubs are your salvation. Most brewpubs welcome kids, typically with their own menu (and high chairs) – and kids love checking out brewing equipment. We can always rely on our local brewpubs, Victory, Earth Bread + Brewery, Iron Hill and Dogfish Head, for kid-friendly service and great food, and going for a brewpub tends to serve us well when traveling as well – we’ve had very positive experiences at Schlafly, Pike Brewing, Elysian, McMenamins, Issaquah Brewhouse, Church Brew Works and more; it’s an easy option when on the road.

While brewery tours at brewpubs are good fun and well worth the trip, going for full production brewery tours is something kids enjoy as well – they get to look at cool machinery, mom and dad get to sample some of the products at the end of the tour. Another option is homebrewing – keeping the little ones away from the brewkettle can be a challenge, but older kids can ‘help’ with bottling – it’s a good excuse to get them to actually wash their hands, and they’ll learn a little bit about chemistry (and the importance of sanitation) in the process.

Of course, there are plenty of restaurants that also happen to be great craft beer bars that will welcome your little one – we rely on TJ’s, Teresa’s Next Door and Smokin’ Betty’s locally, and have found some great places in other cities as well. And more and more ‘bar’ bars are setting aside time for new parents and their babies; Local 44 has a moms-and-babies happy hour, and our former Brooklyn neighborhood had many similar options from which to choose – truly, nothing is more sanity-restoring for frazzled parents of a newborn than enjoying a pint or two with others in the same boat (not least because for most of the moms, it’s the first time in many long months they’ve had the opportunity).

While the addition of a child(ren) makes going to craft beer ‘events’ harder (and yes, you’ll often need a sitter for those), there are many fine options for continuing to enjoy great beer, as well as family bonding time – and when your children ask whether what you just ordered with your dinner is hoppy or malty (or both), you know you’re doing something right.

Cheers!

Lisa is a techie ex-archaeologist who blogs about beer at WeirdBeerGirl.com and horse racing at Superfectablog.com.

Related Posts:

• Cellar Rats Brewery and Debonne Vineyards
• Wanted: A Samantha Brown of Craft Beer
• Running a Craft Beer Festival- What A Rush!
• All-Female Brew Collaboration Meet N Greet – Boston
• Something is Brewing in Texas Legislature

Posted By: Julia Taylor

As the clock hit midnight and ushered in 2011, I resolved to reduce my carbon footprint in the new year and figured I start by applying the three Rs to brewing. Our weekend brew schedule included a Big Red Ale with an estimated ABV of 7.5-8%, so thought this was the perfect time to introduce a parti-gyle into the brew day. Parti-gyle is the English name of the traditional procedure of mashing grains with two (or even three) infusions of water, resulting in successively weaker beers. Each beer is run off to its own pot, or gyle, so is a great way to get different beers from one mash. Because the first runnings are strong with high sugar concentration, this method is particularly useful where one beer is strong and the other is weaker. Parti-gyle brewing is no more difficult than regular all-grain brewing, but does require a bit of figuring and calculating beforehand or on the fly if you want to hit gravities perfectly, but don’t let that stop your creativity.

This process requires that both beers have similar malt characteristics, so I planned an amber, similar to New Belgium’s Fat Tire, to complement the Big Red. After you run off the strong beer, you can also “cap” the mash. This is adding crystal, roasted, and toasted grains to the mash before putting in the strike water for the 2nd beer. There isn’t a standard calculation to determine how capping will affect the OG so focus on the taste characteristics and color. Since each beer goes into its own pot, you still have the freedom to vary the hop profile and yeast since boiling and fermentation are done separately. Here are some ideas for different mashes to yield strong / mild beers:

• Weizenbock / Dunkelweizen
• Dopplebock / Dunkel
• Imperial Pilsner / Classic American Pilsner
• Tripel / Belgian Pale
• Old Ale / Dark Mild
• Bock / Munich Dunkel
• IPA/ Ordinary Bitter
• Scotch Ale/ Scottish Ale
• Barley Wine/ Pale Ale
• Belgian Strong Dark / Belgian Abby Ale
• Maibock/ Belgian Pale
• Imperial Stout / Dry Stout

The first step in building your parti-gyle recipe is to determine your estimated original gravities. We determined that we wanted our big beer to come in around 7.5% and the second between 4.5-5% so we were looking for an approximate 1.075/1.045 split. Using Tom-O’s Parti-Gyle Cipherin’ Sheet we decided to go with an average (batch) original gravity of 1.065 (1.0780/1.0520 split).The average preboil OG was 1.0553 @14 gallons and this is the information that is plugged into Beer Smith or desired brewing software to determine the grainbill. Once you finalize your recipe enter the SRM into the parti-gyle spreadsheet and it will give you the color split for each beer. At this point you can determine if you want to cap the mash for additional color or flavor.

We know that our total grain bill is 28.75 lbs., water-to-grain ratio is 1.25 qt./lb., preboil volume is 14 gallons (from spreadsheet), and absorption amount is .2 so we can figure out the amount of water we will need for the initial strike and sparge.

To determine the strike water, multiply the grain bill by the water-to-grist ratio and divide by four to get the amount in gallons.

(28.75 * 1.25)/4=9 gallons of strike water

For the sparge water, add the total preboil volume and absorption amount minus strike amount.

(14+(28.75*.2)-9=10.75 gallons

Mash at the desired temperature and time, then completely drain the wort from the mash tun into the first boilpot (first runnings). Refill the mash tun with sparge water, and stir. Recirculate the mash and drain into the second pot (second runnings). You now have two boil kettles with two distinct beers so have fun with your hop and yeast selections.

Recipe

Grain Bill

Mash @ 154 F

22.50 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US

1.25 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt – 40L

1.25 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt – 60L

1.25 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt – 80L

1.25 lb Caramunich Malt

1.25 lb Munich Malt

0.20 lb Chocolate Malt

Big Red (First Runnings)

OG-1.077 FG-1.019 IBU-25.4 ABV-7.6%

Boil-60 minutes Pre-Boil Volume-7 gallons

0.50 oz Warrior @ 60 min

0.50 oz Warrior @ 10 min

0.50 oz Warrior @ 0 min

1.00 oz Warrior-Dry Hop 14 days

American Ale Yeast II (Wyeast Labs #1272)

Red Light (Second Runnings)

OG-1.052 FG-1.013 IBU-23.3 ABV-5%

8 oz. Cara Amber Malt

2 oz. Chocolate Malt

Boil-60 minutes Pre-Boil Volume-7 gallons

1.00 oz Cascade @ 60 min

1.00 oz East Kent Goldings @ 20 min

1.00 oz East Kent Goldings @ 0 min

Safale-US-05-I packet

Related Posts:

• Got Wood!
• Choosy Moms Choose Beer
• All-Female Brew Collaboration Meet N Greet – Boston
• A Beer Drinking Woman in a Beer Man’s World
• Join the Ranks! Contribute for Ladies of Craft Beer

Posted By: JOConnell

Dressing/Stuffing – Inside/On the side – Bread/Cornbread/Wild rice – Pepperidge Farm Herb Seasoned/Oven-dried bread

Whatever it’s about it’s all good. I personally grew up calling it stuffing whether it went inside the bird or not and my mom always used the Pepperidge Farm package, adding little else. That is still what I think T-Day should taste like. Thanksgiving is all about childhood memories for me but every other day of the year I’m happy to experiment. This recipe is a bit of both, I do start with the package of PF Stuffing but add both traditional and unique ingredients.

Wild Mushroom Brown Ale Dressing

1-2/3 oz/0.105 lbs Dried Wild Mushrooms

3 bottles Brown Ale of choice (I used Avery’s Ellie’s BA)

1-1/2 sticks Unsalted Butter

3 stalks Celery -diced

1 Med. Onion -diced

1 package Herb Seasoned Stuffing

2-4 slices Multi-grain Bread – toasted and cubed into 1/2 inch pieces

1/2 tsp of dried or 1 tsp of fresh Thyme

1/2 cup Pumpkin Seeds – toasted

Reconstitute the dried mushrooms in 2 bottles of the brown ale on low-med heat. Allow to cook and reduce as you put the rest of the stuffing together.

In a large saute pan melt one stick of butter and add onions, celery and a pinch of salt. Stir and cook, about 5 minutes, until translucent. Adding the salt is a chef’s trick to when you want translucent veggies and not browned. The salt brings out the liquid in them reducing the chance of browning. (It works the other way too, if you want them browned do not add salt until they are the color you want.) Melt an additional 1/2 stick of butter into the veggies this is optional but adds more moisture and yummy goodness. Set to the side.

Preheat oven to 350 deg.

Lightly butter the bottom of a 13 x 9 baking pan and blend the herb stuffing and the cubed multi-grain bread together. Add the celery and onion to the bread, getting all the melted butter, stir well then sprinkle with thyme and black pepper.

Drain the mushrooms from the liquid but retain both. Roughly chop the mushrooms and add to the stuffing pan. Add the liquid all over the bread and gently stir to get each cube moist. Stir in half the pumpkin seeds and sprinkle the rest onto the top.

Cover the 13 x 9 pan in aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes. Then remove the cover and bake an additional 15 – 20 minutes until the middle is hot and there are some crispy pieces on top.

An additional note: Since I made this dressing early so I could share it with you I’ve decided to do something different for Thanksgiving Day. I’m going to bake it inside apples. I’ll take some small apples, core them, brush them with a mixture of melted butter and honey. After stuffing each one with the dressing I’ll put a dollop of goat cheese on the top then bake at 350 deg. for 15 to 25 minutes. Wish me luck that it will be as yummy as it sounds!

Happy Carbs with a side of Turkey Day!

Posted By: Wenchie

Known to most as The Beer Wench, Ashley is a self-proclaimed craft beer evangelist and social media puppeteer on a mission to advance the craft beer industry through education, inspiration and advocation. When she is not preoccupied with the craft beer revolution or her addiction to the Internet, Ashley seeks pleasure from food (whether it be cooking or restauranteuring), artisan spirits, boutique wines, fine cigars, anything water related (especially sailboats), and college football (she bleeds Scarlet and Gray for The Ohio State University). You can find her musings at Mutineer Magazine or Drink With The Wench.