From Elise. I used a regular cabbage intead of savoy since they were all out when I was at the store. I only had half a pound of hot Italian sausage which is fine since I'll eat it with sandwiches. Minced and sliced onions, white beans, fairly simple and straight forward stew. I thought it was really good.
Terrible pour. Cannot do my no-tilt pour on a tulip glass.
I've been staying off the Belgians for a while for various reasons. Wanted to give this a go so I can start moving on from St. Bernardus, but I still have a Watou left. Light, crisp, hay flavor, very mild and refreshing. Seems a little thicker and less effervescent than I'd like in a tripel.
My tripel is still way darker than this.
Coincidentally, I had some stromboli on hand that I had made. Not as good as the stromboli. The chips are pretty bland and nondescript. Disappointing.
I had been debating whether I wanted to add a cheese sauce to the apple and cheese pie I was planning on making. I figured cheese and apples go well together so I could merge some pairs transitively. I found that Elise actually has a recipe for this and hers uses ricotta (with a lot of other cheese) mixed in with egg. I skipped the feta and only topped with shredded white cheddar. With a single pie crust, it comes out fat and protein heavy which is good since I can pick a carb of my choice at breakfast.
Four of my planned five experimental batches settling out. The Nesquik-based meads have cleared up quite nicely and I racked those. The Liquid Sex is also fairly clear, but I decided to let it sit for a bit longer while I waited for the Leap Year to ferment a bit longer. The Leap Year has been unusually slow. The cake at the bottom is not nearly as substantial as the others, and there's still a stream or two of bubbles coming up from it. Using it to start another may not be a good idea. Besides, I also read that reusing yeast cakes after high gravity brews is not recommended.
I did taste the two meads I racked. Pretty harsh and bitter at the moment. I'm a little concerned since they both measured 1.000 gravity. I didn't have a hydrometer then, but the first batch of AOCC mead I made was pretty sweet still. I used Fleischmann's yeast for that. These batches used Red Star champagne yeast. I wonder if it's an issue with the yeast as my first cider batches were also extremely dry.
I wonder if I can backsweeten with extra honey. Hopefully, it mellows out more, and that won't be necessary. I'll go ahead and rack the Leap Year onto a vanilla bean, but I'm not sure how to proceed next. I could use part of a packet of champagne yeast to start the 5th batch. Or I could just use Fleischmann's since that turned out well. Also thought about carbing some mead. Might just end up brewing up a 5-gallon batch of general purpose mead for various infusions and carbing.
Addendum: I finally got around to racking the other two meads. I did a pour instead of siphon but I was pretty careful with splashing so I figure I'm ok. The cocoa mead had a sweet cake stuck at bottom. I did figure out why my leap year mead had still been bubbling. It has apparently carbed itself. It foamed a bit when I racked, a little more when I dropped in bits of a vanilla bean that I was using in some sugar (along with a bit of sugar). So that's interesting. I didn't taste any of it, but I did get a whiff of some serious alcohol.
Never made a a bolognese sauce so I tried the one from Closet Cooking. I used a lot more celery and carrots since I don't eat many vegetables and minced them myself instead of running through the food processor. Turned out pretty chunky. I thought it was weird to use both canned tomatoes and tomato paste. Should be a better way to do that. Pretty tasty. Camera is way busted now.
Forgot to take pictures. Had a cut of chuck roast I wanted to use. I can't remember the last time I had bulgogi. I don't remember how my mom made it, but in restaurants it's usually done on a grill or maybe on the those copper stoves in-table. My friends had told me his friends make do sometimes using a George Foreman so I wanted to try it. 2:1 soy sauce and sugar, lots of garlic, crushed or minced onion, sesame oil, Asian pear, and honey. I didn't add the pear or honey and I think it would have been better with it. The Foreman works fine, if a bit small.
A beer blend that I saw. Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout and Breckenridge Vanilla Porter. Roughly 1:2 works as Black Chocolate is a robust beer. Pretty good. Interested in beer blends.
From Deb. I subbed 2 eggs and a cup of water for the cup of oil, an alternative to applesauce or melted butter. I didn't have 8" pans which I have no discovered is pretty critical as 6-7" Pyrex dishes are not as well suited. The cake turned out a bit sponge-y, firm skins, and not as moist as I would have liked. I was a little short on the peanut butter but the frosting turned out well enough.
Hadn't seen anything like a small batch IPA before so I had to pick up a bottle.
A bit nondescript in the nose. Not much lacing. Labeled as double hopped, but I've had much hoppier brews. Excessively malty, viscous, but not particularly sweet. Moderate hoppiness, brief but clear floral, lingering bitter on the finish. An imperial IPA without the hop load. Overall, not worth the money.
On BA, it looks like a lot of other people's experiences had strong aromas and heavy hoppiness. Maybe I got a lesser batch, and I wonder about the batch size and the variance between batches.
I saw this when I first arrived here four years ago. I thought that I would try it "next time". "Next time" kept getting deferred and then it just disappeared. For four years. Apparently, they lost license to distribute over here or something. In any case, it turns out it's back. Not missing out this time. Thought about it, almost bought two.
Tasted straight sipping. Strong juniper nose. Smooth, oily mouthfeel but finishes with but a sheen. Woody, slightly sweet, grassy and fresh but well-blended and developed. Cool on the palette.
I didn't get much in the nose at all, kinda disappointing. The turnover on these is probably not very good. Taste was massive malt, dissolving into bitter herbal something. I found it more hoppy than any other notion. I've had clearer ginger bite from ginger sodas. Disappointing on the ginger side of things, but a well-balanced malt bomb. Cute owl.
