Congratulations, Yuengling!

D.G. Yuengling and Son is now the largest All-American brewery, having just passed Boston Beer Co. in production a few weeks ago. Thankfully, Budweiser and MillerCoors do not count since they are no longer American companies and some of their production is overseas.

As a personal fan of Yuengling lager as well as Yuengling Black & Tan, I tip my glass to them. It is refreshing to see such a successful family owned & operated business.

-Mr. Beerd
Primary: Chilly FeBREWary Lager; Rastafar-Rye
Aging: Witch's Brew Double Pumpkin Ale; Edwort's Organic Apfelwein
On tap: Chilly Guestroom Lager; Dunkeldude; Shovel I.P.L.

Happy FeBREWary!

So I had a freezer bag of huckleberries hiding in the back of my freezer. Knowing that frozen berries always turn mushy after thawing (due to the destruction of cellular tissue in the freeze-thaw process), I decided to try an experiment that now will definitely become a new constantly rotating side-project to my home brewery... fresh fruit liqueur! (Legal notice: The method I am illustrating here is for information only. To my knowledge "freeze-concentrating" is not the same as distilling as it requires no still, and is thus legal. If you decide to do it yourself, it should be strictly for personal use and not for sale or distribution.)

This method works with almost almost any fruit or berry as long as it is not extremely acidic (i.e. don't try this with lemons) as it will be harmful to your precious yeast.

Step 1: Freeze your fruit, for a while so you're convinced the cells have no chance of surviving the next step.
Step 2: Thaw your fruit (or berries).
Step 3: Mix approximately equal portions of your fruit (by volume, not mass) with water and corn sugar.
Step 4: Bring up to a boil to homogenize your solution and to kill any pesky lactobacteria.
Step 5: Allow to cool to room temperature, then pitch some champagne yeast into it.
Step 6: Wait a few weeks for the fermentation to stop bubbling. Then wait a few weeks longer.

Step 7: Strain out your fruit-wine. If you want to just stop here, that's your choice. Mmmm.... wine.

Step 8: Pour into a vessel & stick in the freezer for a few days.
Step 9: The freezing point of alcohol and of juice are both lower than that of just water, so when you take it out to thaw, the alcohol and juices should thaw first before the water. It'll take some time, but pour out all of the good stuff you can even if it means towards the end it's looking water because you can repeat step 8 again for more Oomph.
Step 10: Imbibe responsibly! What was once around a 10-13%ABV fruit wine is now over 30%ABV. I plan on enjoying this drink with the person who so graciously gave me her spare huckleberries!

Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some new equipment to test out... all-grain batches of greater volumes of beer ahoy! Why is it that the only month whose name commands me to brew is also the shortest month?

Cheers,
Mr. Beerd

Primary: Shovel I.P.L.
Secondary: Witch's Brew Double Pumpkin Ale
Conditioning: Dunkeldude
On tap: Chilly guestroom lager; Slippery willy

The Irish Settler

This one is a straight cocktail recipe. I was after a boozy concoction that used Creme de Cassis a few nights ago and could only find a few recipes I had the materials for on hand. So I did what anybody in my situation would do - I adapted one of the ones I couldn't make to have my own invented cocktail.

The Settler (or Settler Highball)
2 oz Brandy
1 oz Creme de Cassis
Seltzer

Shake brandy and Creme de Cassis, then pour into a highball glass and add the seltzer

Not having any unflavored seltzer around, or any unflavored brandy, I opted instead for an Irish version. The result, the "Irish Settler," is delicious, aromatic, and definitely a keeper.

Irish Settler
2 oz Irish Whisky
1 oz Creme de Cassis
1/2 oz Orange Liqueur

Shake and pour into a small brandy snifter. The cocktail is purple, smooth, and has the botanical flavors of the elderberry and orange. Put another way, it tastes dandy, packs about 2 drinks worth of alcohol into a cup, and gets a nod of approval from my hardest-to-please taster.

Enjoy!

Revisiting Ouzo

It was a while ago that I first tried Ouzo - see the Satanic Cocktails post about it here - and I have been slowly working my way through bottle after bottle ever since. Most often I drink a tall glass of it as I cook dinner.

Take a quick read of Kerasma.gr for good info

Following Zane's experience in the Episode on Lesbos (Yes, I know I've mentioned that episode already), I pour a half a glass of ouzo on a few ice cubes and then add a few dashes of cold filtered water until it starts to emulsify. If 'emulsify' means nothing to you, watch the darn episode already! If three or four shots of 80º liquor is more than enough to put you over the edge before dinner, stick to a smaller glass.

To try out my ouzo in a few different and faster ways, I went for a few of these ouzo-based shooters. Overall, I still prefer a straight glass of ouzo, but since I have been taking more shots than mixing cocktails the last few months, these certainly did the trick.

World Famous TKO

One shot into the list I knew I was in trouble. The TKO seems odd by ingredient, but is smooth and warm. The combination of strong and herbal tastes in the tequila and ouzo was offset well by the coffee liqueur. After four or five of these, I started to have a little trouble getting the proportions right, and the taste suffered.

TKO
1/3 Tequila
1/3 Kahlua
1/3 Ouzo

When I'm taking a shot of a liquor I like, I tend to give it ever the slightest swish in my mouth. Contrary to a stiff shot of shitty whiskey or warm vodka, I like to treat a shot of something I enjoy sipping just like a larger than average swallow from a rocks glass. Whenever I try this with shooters I am a little wary - if someone has gone through the effort of publishing a recipe that doesn't always mean they have the slightest clue about whether something tastes good. I can't be the only one who's ordered or received some dishwater shooters in the past.

The Vulcan Mind Probe Shot was next - well technically I didn't make it past the TKO the first night so "next" really means a few days later in this case. Due to my trouble mixing smooth TKOs later into the night, I hoped that a recipe that's 1/2 and 1/2 ouzo and rum would be easy enough for my thick fingers to pour.

Vulcan Mind Probe
1 Part Ouzo
1 Part Rum

This works well as a double shot, though I would say the taste is anything but easy to take down. The combination of the black rum and ouzo I used made for a powerful taste that stayed in my throat. It was not especially pleasant, so I went back for more TKOs afterwards. In the end, I didn't really mind the powerful taste of bitter chocolate licorice I got from this, since by the time I'd had two or three of these, I was deep enough into my drinking night that it was fine.

Good luck trying some Ouzo. It's well worth it.

Rick Santorum - Beer Lover

This weekend unlikely GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum did something I wish more candidates would do. And he did it without the hilarious and pitiful result that Hillary had four years ago.

From Chicago Sun-Times

 Santorum went to Millstream Brewery in Iowa and waxed lyrical about beer. I appreciate a candidate who can actually taste a beer and decide if it's any good. I can't describe typical American Beer consumption as anything other than lazy. Why oh why would you settle for Miller/Bud/Coors every time when five seconds of tasting a six pack that's almost as cheap (and possibly cheaper based on alcohol content) will tell you what types of beer you enjoy.




As Santorum went on, he displayed one of my main issues with social conservatism - he's willing to think about some important things like beer and be totally thoughtless on others. At the bottom of the Huffington Post article, he bares his stripes: "Instead of the story of the prince and the princess, there will be stories about two princes." Yeah, because gay marriage being made legal (or, more precisely, it was declared in violation of the state's constitution to ban it) will totally make it so all children are corrupted by stories about gay princes. The creepy stories we already have definitely make all kids sleep with 7 dwarfs, wear glass footwear, and stay in castles with large hairy and violent beasts. Not to mention kleptomania induced sing-alongs with Robin-Williams blue genies. Stick to drinking beer Rick, you won't have my vote ever.