Local Events - Odds and Ends

Hulmeville Inn

Beer Week 2013

The Hulmeville Inn will be hosting a lot of good breweries for Beer week 2013. Below is the listing from their website. As soon as they post the tap lists, I will update them here.

Neshaminy Creek Brewing – Saturday 6/1 @ 12 noon
Barrel Aged Leon

Firkin of Coconut Mudbank w/ Samoas & Caramel Delight Girl Scout Cookies

County Line IPA, Tribute Tripel, Highwater Hefe, Trauger Pils, Mudbank Milk Stout & Croydon Cream Ale

DuClaw Brewing Sunday 6/2 @ 12 noon
Tap List TBD

Lavery Brewing Monday 6/3 @ 6pm
Tap List TBD

Cigar City Brewing Tuesday 6/4 @ 6pm
Tap List TBD

Arcadia Brewing Wednesday 6/5 @ 6pm

Heavy Seas Brewing Thursday 6/6 @ 6pm
Loose Cannon, Black Cannon The Big DIPA & Riptide White IPA

Shiner Brewing Friday 6/7 @ 6pm
Shiner Bock, Ruby Redbird, Wild Hare Pale & Bohemian Black

Weyerbacher Brewing Saturday 6/8 @ 6pm

2011 Insanity, 2011 Heresy, 2011 Quad & more

Sierra Nevada Southern Hemisphere Harvest

Southern Hemisphere Harvest

Brewery: Sierra Nevada

Style: American IPA

ABV: 6.7%

Availability: Summer

Bastards Verdict: This makes me sad, but I don't think I will be buying this one again. It's just too harsh for my taste. I wouldn't say this is overly hoppy, but it's the type of bitterness I just don't care for.

Pitch: In 2008, we launched the southern counterpart to our popular Harvest Ale, featuring fresh hops picked, dried and shipped from New Zealand within seven days of the fields. Southern Hemisphere is a south-by-north fusion that showcases the intriguing floral and herbal flavors and aromas of New Zealand-grown Southern Cross, Pacifica and Motueka hops.

Pours a nice light copper color with a large off white head. My allergies have been killing me lately so the aroma is hard to pick up. I'd hate to say it but it smells like soap, maybe with some citrus or lemons. Possibly some cinnamon. When tasting I get a spicy peppery kick with the alcohol showing up uninvited for a visit. There is a slight bitterness on the finish. There is some malty sweetness in there as well. Unfortunately for me it has the harsh hop bitterness that I don't care for. Don't get me wrong, I love hoppy beers but this one just doesn't sit we'll with me.

Elysian SuperFuzz

SuperFuzz ~Blood Orange Pale

Brewery: Elysian

Style: Pale ale

ABV: 5.4%

Availability: Summer

Bastards Verdict: Haven't had anything from Elysian in awhile and I'm glad I picked this one up. Nice different take on a pale ale and perfect for summer.

Pitch: Call it Orangesploitation. Is a mind-bending whirl of the aromas and flavors of blood orange and Northwest hops.

Pours a nice orange color with a medium off white head. Slightly hazy. The aroma is definitely citrus hops and, you guessed it, Oranges. Good carbonation with a nice sweet and hoppy bitterness to it. Almost like eating a tart orange. There is a nice orangey zest flavor on the finish. I am amazed at the bitterness, but it does not overpower the blood orange flavor at all.

Ommegang Fleur de Houblon

Fleur de Houblon

Brewery: Ommegang

Style: Belgian Pale Ale

ABV: 6.8%

Availability: Summer

Bastards Verdict: If you see this, pick one up, especially if you like Belgian ales with a twist. This is way better than their regular pale ale.

Pitch: Nothing is more evocative of summer than flowers, and the favorite flowers of brewers are hops. Fleur de Houblon ale is a rich gold color, with distinct floral hops in the aroma that follow through in the taste. The body and flavor are clean and dry, with pleasing complexity and spicy notes from our unique Ommegang house yeast.

Pours golden straw yellow with a slight haze. Large foamy white head. Real nice belgian bubble gum aroma. For a beer called Fleur de Houblon, I was expecting more of a hoppy nose, this has almost no hop smell at all. High carbonation slightly dry mouthfeel, with light sweetness and some of that good old Belgian spice. Very little hop bitterness up front but it does make an appearance on the finish. The interesting thing about this beer is, how after you sip, the bitterness takes it time and slowly emerges.

Sweet & hot HOPickles

Here is the recipe for my take on hopped pickles. As always, I rarely measure stuff so these are
estimates. I just made a batch using these numbers so I will let you know how they turn out.

6 Kirby cucumbers
3 Tbsp Salt
3 Cups Water

1 1/4 cup Apple cider vinegar
1 Cup Sugar
2 tsp peppercorns
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp mustard seed
1 tsp coriander seed
6 whole Simcoe hop flowers
6 Turkish hot peppers (Aci Biber Turşusu)  فلفل مخلل حار

Add water and salt to bowl, stir to dissolve.
Slice the Kirby's and put in bowl. Cover and put in fridge for at least 3 hours or so.

When Kirby's are done, pour vinegar and sugar in small pot on medium heat and dissolve sugar. Bring liquid to boil and add all the ingredients except the Kirby's. boil for about two minutes.

Turn heat down to simmer, add Kirby's and stir. Allow to simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Let pickles cool and then pour into jar. Put on lid and refrigerate. You can eat immediately but they get better in about a week or two.

Your house will smell like vinegar, so be prepared for that.

Enjoy.

Grilled skrimps with Sierra Nevada Stout hot pepper glaze

So I decided to take a break from beer reviews and post an awesome recipe I just created for dinner. This stuff is awesome! (May have gone a little overboard on the hot peppers)

24 Medium size shrimps (shelled and deveined)
8-10 oz. Sierra Nevada Stout beer
1 small onion
8 small Turkish Hot Peppers
2/3 cup sugar
1 heaping tsp Hoisin Sauce (kikoman)
1/2 tsp black pepper corns

Pour the beer and the sugar in a small sauce pan over medium heat to dissolve the sugar. While that is simmering, slice the peppers and add to pot with the seeds. (Keep an eye on your pot for boil- overs)

Cut the onion in quarters and then slice. Add to the pot. Add the hoisin sauce and the peppercorns. Bring liquid to boil for about two minutes or so being careful of boil-overs.

Turn the heat down and simmer. I don't have an exact time for this, probably close to 20 or 30 minutes stirring occasionally. The sauce will start to thicken slightly and foam up. (Consistency of real maple syrup) At that point it is done. The onions and peppers should be clear. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Clean the shrimp, pat dry with a paper towel and salt, pepper. Then place in a ziplock with the rest of the beer. Just enough to cover. Remove the air and seal bag. Start up the grill.

Put the shrimp on the grill and coat with sauce, flip and repeat until shrimp is done. Probably around 3 minutes. Serve shrimp with extra sauce. (Make sure to use a separate bowl of sauce for coating the raw shrimp)

Enjoy.

If you try this recipe, please let us know how it turns out. Also, this sauce was really hot, the heat was hidden well behind the sweetness, but hits you at the end. I probably would use less peppers. I would say one jalapeño with seeds would probably do the trick.

Southern Tier Live

Live

Brewery: Southern Tier

Style: American Pale ale

ABV: 5.5%

Availability: Year round for 2013

Bastards Verdict: A very nice pale ale and at 5.5%, you can have a few.

Pitch: Beer is made by creating a liquid rich with fermentable material. This ‘wort’ is moved to a fermentation vessel where yeast, a living organism, is added. Yeast swims around the fermenter gobbling up the soluble sugar and converting that energy into alcohol. Imagine the feeding frenzy of millions of tiny yeast cells eating their way around a big fermenter. It’s a volatile and active environment. During this time, the beer is literally alive. Just prior to packaging, we add a little yeast to the clear beer for a secondary fermentation. This helps to add carbonation, remove oxygen, and prolong shelf life.

Pours a nice golden straw color with an orange hue and a nice white head. Its got a good hoppy citrus aroma. Live has a nice citrus-y bitterness to it. Not too much, but not too little either. well blended between bitter and sweet and finishes a little closer to the dry side. Some bitterness sits on the back of the tongue on the finish. A very nice sessionable pale ale.