Assuming That Someday

 Food, Miscellaneous  No Responses »
Jul 212010
 

Assuming that someday I will create a really nice India Pale Ale via my home brewing efforts, I must make myself one of these (among many other things) to go with it:

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Extracting the hoppy goodness.

That beautiful set up was at Eola Wine Company recently and filled with Cascade hops to help the visitors that evening enjoy Terrapin’s Hopsecutioner in an entirely different way.  Well, at least we were told that Cascade hops were in there and based on the flavor I did believe what we were told.

If any of you are wondering what exactly you are looking at, it is a version of a randalizer.  I say version because the original “Randall the Enamel Animal” was an invention from Sam and the folks at Dogfish Head (years ago) and the picture is of one based on that original stainless steel design.  Actually it looks almost identical to the pictures I have seen of those used elsewhere, so I suppose this one could have been ordered through Dogfish.

Regardless, the vessel on top is filled with fresh hops and the beer is filtered through that mass of hops on its way to the glass.  That process essentially dry hops the beer on the spot, or perhaps more accurately fresh hops it.  The alcohol in the beer strips some of the oils from the leaves on the way through and (obviously) you end up with them in your glass.

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The Wife went with a nice flight of craft beers.

In this case we got a more resin laced, spicy version of Hopsecutioner (in my opinion).  Nothing at all wrong with that!  The beer is great on its own, but it was nice to drink a different version of it.

That was good enough reason (for me) to be at Eola Wine Company that evening, but it was also a release event of sorts for El Wey Salsa which we received a jar of with each pint of Hopsecutioner.  How sweet a deal is that?!  I was going to enjoy the beer anyway, but some (very good) salsa as a bonus certainly did nothing to hurt our enjoyment of the evening.

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Salsa anyone?

Thanks to Emily and Ian for giving The Wife and I the heads up on the glorious combination of beer and salsa for the evening!  Also a big thank you for this . . .

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Oh so tasty!

 Posted by Lucas at 7:00 pm  Tagged with: , ,

Beer Festival In Ybor

 Breweries, Events, Travel  No Responses »
Mar 082010
 

There are not many things that I would choose to do over watching a Syracuse Orange men’s basketball game, but the opportunity to go to the Florida Brewers Guild Beerfest in Tampa is apparently one of those things.  It was probably a good decision, now knowing that we (yes I use we in this case) lost and I likely would have spent the afternoon miserable at home otherwise.  The festival at least gave me an environment that I could not possibly be miserable in. So you might ask what do you do in preparation for such an event?  The answer, of course, would be to have your comrades over to the house for a bacon cake and coffee breakfast before piling into the car for the 90-minute drive.  There is nothing like a nice healthy breakfast of bacon and eggs (in cake form) to start the day off right.  There were certainly no complaints from Gregg, Wayne, and Joe.

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Of course there are pecans and apples in there as well to round things out!

We arrived well in advance of the start of the event via an earlier than necessary departure time and the driving skills of Chauffeur Joe.  There was more than enough time to walk around the Ybor City area of Tampa a bit and also enough time that we would have considered (what I think was called) the urban race that was going on in the vicinity.  Now we still don’t know what the race exactly entailed, but it seemed to be a lot to do with a costume party mixed with a scavenger hunt.  It looked like a good time, so maybe next year.

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The trolley was on purpose, the finger was not.

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This area was less than busy.

There was also plenty of time to grab a bite for lunch before getting to the beer sampling, so we headed to Tampa Bay Brewing Company for some food and, well, a beer.

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Just the type of decor I appreciate.

The event started at two and though it was only a few minutes after that when we exited our lunch location, the plazas were already packed and the line at the check-in was down the street of people yet to enter the fray.  I am not going to say that we cut to the front of the line, but since we had a limited window for beer sampling lets just say we didn’t wait very long in it!

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Just one half of the action early on.

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What is a beer festival without this?

A few familiar faces were found among the crowds as I ran into Tom the Beer Guy multiple times during the day.  I have to thank him very much for suggesting the event (as I would not have known about it otherwise) and for having some Toasted Coconut Porter on hand to sample again.  Though I had no real expectations going in, it turned out to be bigger and better than I thought it would be.  It will be going on the calendar for next year for sure.

At the end of the day for us I was also able to meet up with (now award winning home brewer) Mike Melton and a few of his friends at Tampa Bay Brewing Company.  It was nice to get to catch up with a really nice (beer) guy. It was a fast and furious afternoon and part of an evening.  We definitely all had a great day and I thank the boys for joining me for the fun.  I have some interesting video to share as a way to experience the crowds without having gone to the festival so this will simply be the first of two parts of recapping the event.

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A little empty outside after teardown.

As a teaser to that second post and a close to this one I will list a few of the beer highlights for me:

  • Hunahpus Mayan Chocolate Imperial Stout from Cigar City – Very glad to sample this one since I will not be able to make the release party at the brewery this Friday.
  • Tampa Bay Brewing Company – Since I had never tried any of their beers previously and generally enjoyed them all.
  • Cream Ales in general – A style that enjoy but cont drink very often.  Offhand I remember TBBC and Bold City Brewery having nice ones.
  • Iniquity Imperial Black Ale from Southern Tier Brewing – A unique style for me and probably my favorite beer of the day.  I immediately went back for a second sample.

Stay tuned!

 Posted by Lucas at 10:24 am  Tagged with: , , ,

Benching and Beer

 Breweries, Travel  4 Responses »
Feb 012010
 

The official first post for “Great Divide Brewing Co. Month” will start with your regularly scheduled beer review tomorrow.  Discussing some of the product seems to be an appropriate way to start such an event.  So for today, I have for you another entry for “Food And Travel Monday,” which in the past has been respectfully referred to as “FAT Monday.”

As a first for The Wife and me, we awoke quite early on Saturday morning to head down to Tampa for a weightlifting competition.  We had a very good reason, as Cousin Adam was to compete in the bench press at the Raw Unity Powerlifting Championships that morning.  Certainly check out the site (and results) to satisfy your curiosity, but this is an occasion where I can let some pictures tell most of the story for me.

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Waiting on deck.

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You could sit one of me on either side of the bar.

The important part (as I am concerned) is that Cousin Adam set a meet record and won the lightweight division by lifting 363 pounds while weighing in at the 132-pound weight class.  Try to wrap your head around that for a moment.  Obviously a big congrats goes out to him and I know all of the family and friends there supporting him were more than proud.  By the smile on his face after, I would say he was pretty pleased as well!

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Collecting some hardware.

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Lightweight and Heavyweight champs

After leaving there late Saturday morning, our day continued to be excellent as I was able to visit Cigar City Brewing on our way back to Orlando.

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The welcome sign.

Fortunately, since we were there at about 11:01, they open their tasting room at 11 on Saturdays and since they had to unlock the door for us, maybe we arrived 59 seconds earlier than I thought.  One of the good things about being the first and only people there initially was that, as The Wife later put it, I could get “my beer geek on.”  For what turned out to be 90 minutes or so, we were able to talk all things beer with Mike Melton, about Cigar City and beyond.

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A brewery is a happy place for me.

As we worked our way through sampler paddles including Jai Alai IPA, Maduro Oatmeal Brown Ale, Blueberry Maduro, Winter Warmer, Oatmeal Raisin Cookie, and Berliner Weiss (guest tap) I was able to gain a lot of good information.  Visiting a brewery, hearing more of the back-story, and getting to meet some of the people almost always makes me appreciate the product even more and this was no exception.

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A few of the participants.

It is certainly tough chose favorites among a lineup of beers where none of them are bad, but I will say that if I had to choose only two to have again they would be the Jai Alai IPA and the Winter Warmer.  The Wife also really enjoyed the Winter Warmer (I believe referring to it as a “glass of awesome”), but her surprise co-winner was the Berliner Weiss.  Even though the Oatmeal Raisin Cookie really grew on me, I went with a growler of the Jai Alai to take home for future enjoyment.

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Some of the where the magic happens.

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Maybe there is a prize for drinking the contents of this bottle?

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You can always take some home with you.

I have gone on a bit longer than usual, but that should be evidence enough of how much I really enjoyed the entire day (also check out the recap from The Wife).  A big thank you to Mike for allowing me to bombard you with questions for a while and for giving me some excellent tips to help me with my home brewing experiments as well as providing additional inspiration to keep chasing my beer dreams.

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Say hello to Mike when you stop by on Saturdays

The things happening at Cigar City Brewing in the near future (and beyond) are very exciting, especially for me in Central Florida where we may soon see bottles on the shelves.  I would expect to see more awards and medals on their wall as the months and years pass.  The visit this weekend will not be my only one and if any of you have the opportunity, do yourself a favor and stop by to drink some good beer with some good beer people.

 Posted by Lucas at 10:14 am  Tagged with: , ,
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