Cocktail - Stinger

While this cocktail is listed as a nightcap, I find it has a lot of potential in other situations as well. The thing about how your mouth tastes late into a night of drinking is that you're too drunk to care that your barbecue chicken tequila rum beer milk breath is gross. Luckily, I recently came across the Stinger. It's simple to make and uses ingredients that will (at least for me) stick around for a while. Plus, when you're done, your mouth is fresh and your belly cool and settled. 

Stinger
1 Part Brandy
1 Part Creme de Menthe

Shake hard with five or six ice cubes; err on the side of less ice in the shaker. The sloshing, foaming consistency you want requires a harder shake and less ice. Pour into any rounded glass, ice and all.

Was reminded of this from The 10 Manliest Cocktails. I didn't like their recipe as much as I like an even proportion, but as Cocktail DB says, "NOTE: Vary proportions to alter sweetness level"

It's Pumpkin Time

Boo-zers! It is that time again... this year's hop harvests are wrapping up and the pumpkin harvest is beginning to crank up! But what to do with all that pumpkin... make some ale! The first ale that yours truly ever brewed was a pumpkin ale, and it is still a seasonal favorite, and not just because of my love affair with the Great Pumpkin.

This season, I am rising the Great one up from the patch with four different batches of pumpkin ale, just so he knows I've been patiently brewing and waiting for him all year long.

With that said, allow me to discuss with you some things that, to me, make the distinction between optimum red-faced pumpkin madness and just your regular old boozehoundery.

First and foremost: USE REAL PUMPKIN!
Disturbingly often, one will hear of people trying to get away with making a pumpkin ale that contains 0.00% pumpkin, and instead creating the flavor of a pumpkin ale with spices only. A few notable benefits of using real pumpkin include: higher alcohol content, thicker texture that is characteristic of a fine pumpkin ale, and extra badass points for using big vegetables in your boil.

I've spoken with some brewers who are afraid to use pumpkin because of all the mess it makes, and thus, don't know how to use it. Thus, here's a quick run-through of how to do it right:

a) Get pumpkins: small sugar pumpkins are best, but a medium size like the one pictured furthest to the right will do as well

b) cut into halves, remove seeds and guts
(optional) add pumpkin pie spice

c) bake skin-side-up on 375F for ~90min.
The flesh should be cooked now. Take it out
and remove the skin and the stem. Now, add
it to your beer when you start boiling*

*Boiling your pumpkin for 60 minutes is pretty standard, but you will lose all the pumpkin flavor and gain all its fermentable sugars and the thick texture. I have heard of people adding pumpkin at the last minute for flavor, but I cannot speak in favor if this latter technique.

With that out of the way, let us now delve into the rest of what makes a pumpkin beer unique... the spices!

Typical pumpkin beers include such spices as cinnamon, allspice, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. I'm always experimenting with when and how much, but generally using 1-2 tsp (per 5gal of beer) of your preference of spices in the flavoring-aroma stages of the boil (30-10 minutes left). Adding a dash of vanilla extract at bottling is also occasionally done, I'll be trying this for the first time soon. I have heard of people adding powdered lactose (non-fermentable milk sugars) after fermentation ends as well, to really thicken up the flavor, but I just don't have the heart to do it. Ultimately, it's a matter of pumpkin-y preference, so do what sounds the most delicious to you!

That is all of my gourd-derived wisdom for you libation-lovers today. Spend this October and Halloween drinking pumpkin ales and getting into drunken mischief; may the Great Pumpkin be with you!

Infernally fermenting,
Mr. Beerd

[primary: Palouse Pumpkin Porter]
[secondary: Big-Ass Pumpkin Beer]
[tap 1: Rye Pale Ale]
[tap 2: The Great Pumpkin's Ale]

The Maple Froth

A few weeks back I played a small but pivotal role in turning a relaxed picnic-dinner party for 35 into a 2AM affair. I overheard the host talking to a deputy host about how the wine was running low but he didn't have time to go get more. When the deputy replied with "We'll just wait to put out the last bottles, one per table with the main course" I cut in to offer my services on a liquor run.

Forty-five minutes later I returned with enough bottles of wine for the party to remain in full swing. With me also was the reason for this post, a bottle of maple rye. While the bottle was greeted publicly with derision by other guests, and privately by myself as well, I waited to open it until I got home. After a few drinks, I must confess I've added it to three or four different cocktails and found it to be an excellent rye whiskey variation.

Unlike the cheap-ass ginger brandy I bought earlier this summer, this is "not too sweet, ridiculously smooth." I couldn't describe it better than the Cabin Fever Homepage

The Maple Froth
5 oz Cold Black Coffee
5 oz Cold Milk
1 oz Cabin Fever
1 oz Coffee Liqueur
2 tbsp Ovaltine Powder

Fill a shaker halfway up with ice. Do not overfill. Pour ingredients into mixing glass - do not overpour these, as the cocktail will froth up and explode all over your mixing surface. Shake for a generous 20 seconds and then strain into a pint glass. I haven't yet mastered the pour on this one, I end up wiping the glass down with a wet rag before drinking because it bubbles up as you pour.

This delicious (and odd as hell) cocktail doesn't fit a category easily. It has a light flavor - with the ovaltine, liqueur and maple syrup all providing sweetness. The coffee and rye bite is offset by the sweet ingredients and the milk. I am a long time fan of a Redface White Russian, which this drink loosely resembles.

Redface White Russian
6 oz Vodka
2 1/2 oz Coffee Liqueur
24 oz Milk

Pour vodka and coffee liqueur into (clean) tall vase.  Add a few ice cubes for looks and fill with the milk. Suck it down like it's a glass of chocolate milk and you are a 7 year-old who just came in from playing outside all afternoon. Repeat.

Try a few of these with bourbon instead of syrup....

Inventive Brewing - "The Bacon Deluge"

An Uncommon Beer for the Uncommon Brewery. I don't have much to say about this other than that I love bacon, and I will be checking my end of the I-80 corridor for the pounders of bacon beer later this year. Expect an update when I get a taste - or get me a taste and I'll get you an update.

Cheers to inventive brewers.