What are you drinking?

[Beer can]

This is a thread for those who love to drink, and or brew their own. Beer, wine, spirits. Recipes are welcome, whether it be for your favorite home brew beer or homemade wine or food, and favorite pairings. Myself I love beer and have been a home brewer for eleven years. My favorite pairing is beer and peanuts or popcorn, or beer and grilled venison tenderloin, but if yours is Sauvignon Blanc and oysters your welcome to join in the conversation. My favorite beers that I buy are Guinness Stout and Saranac Imperial Pale Ale, if yours is Coors Light or Budweiser your welcome to join the conversation.
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Cheers!

 

[Beer can]

While I've brewed may good beers from stouts to pale ales to wheat beers, I was reading one day about George Washington and how much beer he brewed, it was like a couple hundred gallons a month. He called it a "small beer" low in alcohol, around 2%.
I got the recipe right out of his personal diary, online. Here is a it is in modern English;
"To Make Small Beer
Take a large Siffer [Sifter] full of Bran Hops to your Taste. -- Boil these 3 hours then strain out 30 Gall[ons] into a cooler put in 3 Gall[ons] Molasses while the Beer is Scalding hot or rather draw the Melasses into the cooler & St[r]ain the Beer on it while boiling Hot. let this stand till it is little more than Blood warm then put in a quart of Yeat if the Weather is very Cold cover it over with a Blank[et] & let it Work in the Cooler 24 hours then put it into the Cask -- leave the bung open till it is almost don[e] Working -- Bottle it that day Week it was Brewed."
Of course I tweaked it to make a five gallon batch and it wasn't exactly his recipe. I used four 12oz bottles of Grandma's regular molasses, two ounces of Nugget hops 12% alpha acid for a 60 minute boil. Fermented with Danstar Nottingham dry ale yeast (my go to yeast I use all the time). Should have been about 2.2%abv. I brewed it a few years ago and don't have pics, but it was a darker light amber color, and the flavor was quite bitter, dry, drinkable but bitter. I would like to try it again soon. It was neat to brew and taste a 'beer' that our first President brewed and tasted.

 

[Beer can]

One of my all time favorite recipes using beer; Venison spiedies.
Spiedies are cubes of meat, chicken, beef, lamb marinated in either Lupo's or Salamidas speidie marinade. Grilled over a charcoal pit and served on a soft Italian small sub roll with fresh marinade drizzled on top. They were invented in Binghamton NY (reportedly brought by Italian immigrants in the 1920s)where they hold a Spiedie Fest and Balloon Rally every August since 1983. The spiedie and the Spiedie Fest were featured on an episode of Food Network's Unwrapped.
If your not from upstate NY, I guess they are similar to a kabob, without veggies.

I make them with venison. Two to five pounds cubed venison. Two packages Good Seasons zesty Italian or garlic and herb, dry salad dressing mix, I use one of each. Two beers. I like to use George Killian's Irish Red, I don't drink it often but the flavor goes good in a meat marinade. The beer foams so rather than mix the beer and dry seasoning together I just put the meat in a big plastic sealable container or good ziplock bag and mix in the seasoning and than top with beer. Shake it up, or mix it up a few times a day. Marinating times are up to you, and how hungry you are, but the longer the more tender. I usually let it set in the fridge for a week.
They are good put on skewers and grilled, especially over a wood fired grill. I prefer them in a crock pot, just dump it all in, marinade and meat. I serve them on steak rolls and ladle the marinade juice on top or in a bowl and dip it. mmm good.
Goes good with your favorite beer!

 

[perchie.girl]

@Beer can

Just poppin in.. I like spirits of all kinds... Mostly wine... I dont know If I have the patience for brewing....

But I love the idea of making your own Aperitf or dessert wine. Or just Kalua. My mom made some Rice wine when I was a teen fourteen hundred years ago. It tasted like whisky.... odd that....

She made it right in a gallon bottle that some wine had been in.. No distillation just rice and some other things and left to ferment... I wasnt a whisky fan at 13 but I tasted it... It was pretty strong.

I will hang here and be a bug on the wall for a while if thats ok...

deb

 

[perchie.girl]

Here is the first link on Rice wine that looks pretty dang simple

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f243/making-traditional-rice-wine-cheap-fun-different-361095/

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Rice-Wine

looks so easy I may give it a try... at home.


deb

 

[Beer can]

I've always wanted to make a rice wine or sake or some rice beer. I'll have to read your link again. Thanks for posting it deb.

 

[Beer can]

And by the way, just beer for me tonight, Labbat Ice and peanuts!

 

[perchie.girl]

I am only up to the IPAs so far.

Love Guiness and the stouts... Peanuts are soo good with beer.

Have to tell you my story about boiled peanuts and the drive through...

tomorrow when I can string my humorous thoughts together thoug.

deb

 

[Happy Dad]

My favorite pairing is beer and peanuts or popcorn, or beer and grilled venison tenderloin, but if yours is Sauvignon Blanc and oysters your welcome to join in the conversation. My favorite beers that I buy are Guinness Stout and Saranac Imperial Pale Ale, if yours is Coors Light or Budweiser your welcome to join the conversation.

My wife always thought I was crazy until she finally tried it. My favorite pairing is beer and chocolate. I'm more of your regular Lager guy. Officially I guess it would be American Adjunct Lager. My number 1 is good ole Budweiser. Next is Corona Extra (NO lime), MGD and PBR. But my most favorite beer is the one that is in my hand.

I do like trying the micro brews when we go out to eat and they are available. If no micro brews are available then I'll usually order a dry white with Pinot Grigio being my favorite. Or if none of those are available, give me a Bud draw. And if there is no alcohol available it means my kids must have talked me into going to McDonald's.

 

[Beer can]

Happy Dad, around here most stores started carrying a lot of different micro beers and unheard of imports, in single bottles you mix and match your own six pack for $9.99.
Kinda handy if you want to try something new. I love my homebrew, but only buy micros occasionally. Usually I drink cheap, I buy PBR 24oz cans every once in a while.
Beer and chocolate? Never tried it.
This one is real good if you like a stout, their brewery is about 40min from me, near the Baseball Hall Of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown NY.