Beer and Stuff

My wife is making me blog about beer, so she'll know what kinds she can, should, and/or has already bought me. Will likely also post costumed ridiculousness, because that's what we do...

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Stone Stochasticity Project, Graniac. Photobomb by Elro. Delicious stuff, complex grain flavor and nice deep, robust hop flavor. Try it!

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Only a few hours left on this campaign!  Another book of delicious gluten-free food.  I've tried all of the recipes (some of them barely got photographed before I dug in!) and I love them all!

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Beyond Flour 2 - A Fresh Approach to Gluten-Free Cooking

Marie Porter returns with more of her smart, scientific, & creative approach to creating ridiculously delicious gluten-free recipes.

I've been busy lately shooting a lot of food photography for an upcoming gluten-free cookbook.  The photos are looking great, and all of the food has been delicious!  

If you or someone you know is gluten-free, definitely check out the campaign linked here.  Or, you know, if you just want to drool over the images you can buy it for that.  Scratch that, I guarantee you'll drool enough to start making these delicious recipes!

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This is it. This is seriously great stuff. Thick, sweet, malty, caramel, and hops. Nice hops, in guessing Simcoe since it reminds me of Bell's Hopslam. Grapefruit and pine notes is what comes to my mind. Seriously delicious stuff. I've never even heard of it, my wife brought it home as a surprise. Oh yeah, did I mention I have the best wife ever? So anyway, I sort of thought it was gimmicky, with the art on the can. I was not expecting this. I will definitely be buying this again, 10/10!

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I'm watching Star Wars II, which is the one where there's a lot of bounty hunter talk. So yeah, this beer seems appropriate. This is from Bellwood's Brewery in Toronto. It's a high ABV dark, rich, stout. Nice and creamy, intense but not overbearing, this is a good beer to keep sipping on. I would buy this again 8.8/10

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Sorry for the quick cell photo, I just got my photo studio back, but it's still a mess. So a while ago I reviewed a J. W. Lees beer and it got a perfect 10.0. Simply amazing stuff. This is a 2009, aged in port wine barrels, versus the last one aged in whisky casks. I'm going to keep this short since I'm on my phone, it's thick, starts out very sweet and strong, a nice port punch to the caramelized grain taste. It finishes without the sweetness, which isn't quite as good, but still very nice. Overall it's quite delicious, I highly recommend it. 9.3/10

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If I were a lady, I’d be a crazy cat lady.  We currently have ten cats in the house.  Eight of them are permanent masters, these two pictures were recently found in the garage and will soon receive a new home.  Ten.  Cats. In. The. House.  That’s a lot of cat litter.

If you’re interested in following the saga of our cats, we have a page on facebook called the Feral Fellowship.  See, we have a LOT of feral cats living in our garage, we take care of them.  Kittens, well we try to capture them and find them homes.  The adults, we spay/neuter them but unfortunately they cannot be tamed once they’re adults so we do what we can to help them survive comfortably.  Check it out at https://www.facebook.com/FeralFellowship

So anyway, when I saw this Cat Lady IPA from Bellwoods Brewery on a recent trip to Toronto, I just had to have it.  It’s 7.2%ABV and features cats on the label.  IPA.  Cats.  SOLD.

Despite the large foam head on there, I think this is perfectly carbonated.  I may have poured a bit fast, trying to get everything set up for the kittens to get set into the frame.

There were quite a few outtake shots, I’ve included a couple of really cute ones here.  Then BAM, I had both of them (almost) looking at me.  Close enough, we got it.  My awesome wife (who drove WAAAAY out of the way with me to get this) was helping to herd the kittens.

So how’s the beer?  Pretty good.  Not a lot of character to the base beer, but a nice crisp base it is, and you can taste the citrusy hops, not too intense on any particular note, I think this is likely a blend of hops.  Overall it’s a good beer, I do not recall what I paid for it, but I would buy this again if it were close at hand, I would not travel a long distance for it. 7.8/10

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Bent Brewstillery in Roseville, MN. I had one of those deal-of-the-day coupons for this, so today we went over to try it out. It's a cute place tucked away in an industrial area, but very close to a shopping center. The Nordic blonde is nice, not too sour, some pleasant floral notes on a clean base that has just enough character without overpowering it. I would buy this again, 8.5/10 Moar historical IPA, very light for an IPA. Sessionable, for sure. Nice bright citrus hop finish. Not too bitter, which is good because otherwise it would be out of balance. Nice for a hot day when you don't want to drink a thick, 10% abv drink but want hops. I would buy again, 7.5/10 London Export. Wow, definitely a lot more character than a lot of stouts. Chocolatey, ummm, I lack the ability to adequately describe the flavors but it's nicely complex. Pretty intense flavor, but light mouthfeel. That might be because it's on nitro. A dry bitterness lingers in the mouth, similar to after eating some very dark chocolate. Good stuff, but I am not sure if I would buy this again or not, since it lingers a bit too much for my taste. 7/10 Uber Lupin, black IPA. A nice sharpness is how I would describe this. This doesn't have the smokey, burnt taste that some black IPAs have, but that's good because those flavors don't work well with IPAs. Nicely balanced, fairly thin mouthfeel for an 8.3% beer. Black IPAs are fun because they sort of mess with your mind, since they're far lighter in taste than they look. At this point I'm on my ninth 5oz drink, so you probably shouldn't listen to anything I say. No fear, I have a sober driver. So anyway, this doesn't have the bright nose that the historical IPA did, but that's fine, I think this is nicely balanced. I would buy this again, 8.5/10.

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Quick review today, this us 5am Saint by Brewdog. It's a hoppy red ale. Holy crap this is malty! It's good malty, not like overbearing. Reminds me of an Oktoberfest with a lot of hops. The hops are a bit too bitter, somewhat out of balance. It is possible, however, that this is because it's older. I bought this from the clearance section, so who knows. I like it enough that I would try it again, to see if the bitterness is more balanced. 7.5/10

[celebrationgeneration]

Hedonistic Hops: The HopHead's Guide to Kitchen Badassery

Think Hops are just for beer? Think again! This fun cookbook will show you all KINDS of tasty food & beverages you can make with hops.

It’s GO TIME! The Kickstarter for my upcoming cookbook, #HedonisticHops is now live!   So please check it out, (hopefully!) back it, and spread the word … please and thank you!

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Hey beer lovers, every tried hops in FOOD?  It’s great!  My wife and I are developing a cookbook with recipes that have hops.  Err, scratch that, she’s developing the cookbook and I’m doing the photography.  A color photo with each recipe, I promise they’ll be drool-worthy!  Check out our kickstarter campaign and I’d love it if you back it!

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Hop GROWING season has started, but I’m already developing hoppy recipes for the eventual harvest.

This French Macaron recipe uses dried hops, so we were able to use some of last season’s haul… and it doesn’t take much!  When you use hops as a flavouring for cooking and baking, a little goes a long way!

Also, this recipe is inherently gluten-free! http://www.celebrationgeneration.com/blog/2015/05/26/hoppy-citrus-french-macaron-recipe/

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My wife develops AWESOME recipes using hops. Check this one out, it's delicious hop macarons!

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KITTENS.

This is Lagunitas Brown Shugga’, but let’s be real here, you saw the kittens first.  Okay, so we found some little bitty kittens in our garage and we’re taking care of them so they can have a better life than outdoors.  They’re in my photo room, so I am using their home as a table, for now.  As I was setting up for this shot, they start watching me and playing around, like kittens do.  Ok, swap to the zoom lens so I can get them in view.  I still set the focal point on the beer, but I think you’re focusing on the kittens.  WHO COULD BLAME YOU?  Sorry for the crap near the top of the scene, I just had to post the one with the cute little fuzzy belly sticking up, no matter what the rest looked like.

This is a 9.9% ABV (wheee!) beer, doesn’t say IPA on it but certainly tastes nice and hoppy to me.  There’s a definite brown sugar taste to it, which should not be surprising given the title.  It’s fairly strong, but the strong hops and alcohol round this out to be pretty well balanced.  I wouldn’t say I’d want brown sugar in all my beers, but this is good, a little different without being too weird or gross.  I like it.  

I would buy this again, 8.5/10.

KITTENS.

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Yeastie Boys Digital IPA. This one is from New Zealand, which is likely some if the reason for the high price (five dollars). I'm in the background there, hauling bricks for our yard project. So much work today, this beer is hitting the spot. My wife picked out a beer for me and took these photos (isn't that awesome?) Nice bitterness, good flavor, good beer overall. Well balanced, but lacks a distinctiveness that I would expect from a premium-priced beer. I would definitely buy this again if it were half the price, but I wouldn't pay this premium for it again. 8.2/10

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This is Ise Kadoya, a triple hop ale from Japan.  It’s unfortunately overcarbonated, but once it settles down it’s fine.

The flavor is really good, some nice caramel notes in the malt.  More malt flavor that most hoppy beers, which is a good thing.  The hops are nice, not too overpowering but definitely there.  Fruity kind of flavors, which goes well with the hops.  Overall this is definitely a winner, I would buy this again.  It was rather expensive though (over $6 for this), so when I factor that in I’m going to rate it a 8.8/10

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Moylan’s Hopsickle Imperial IPA. This is labelled a triple IPA, which is just marketing speech for “super hoppy.”  9.2% abv, It’s a nice IPA, I think it’s. blend of hops including some citrusy hops. Rich, thick, intense, yummy. I think there’s a little too much bitterness that lingers, but that can happen with these strong IPAs. I might buy this again, 7.5/10.

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I wanted to replicate the red sunset feel from the label of the bottle, so I aimed my backlight up at a steep angle, gelled it red, and let the light fall off fairly harshly.  I used a fairly dark gray background in order to get a deep red tone, if I had used white or light gray it would have looked more pink.

The is Epic Brewing’s Spiral Jetty, an IPA at 6.6% ABV.  It was a little foamy on the pour, but not too bad, and I wouldn’t say it’s overcarbonated.  It looks fairly dark red in the photo, but that’s because the red light is coming through the glass.  Really I should have separated the background more and used white light to come through the glass.

Fairly thick mouthfeel, nice strong intensity.  Lemony citrus hops that linger just long enough.  I would have guessed a higher ABV with the intensity, but it doesn’t seem out of balance so I am not saying that’s bad.

It’s a very good IPA, what can I say.  I don’t remember the price so I can’t factor that in.  I would buy this again, 8.3/10

[dungeonmastersdiary]

Thank You, Dad http://rage-comics-base.tumblr.com

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I think this is really sweet, a great way to remember someone.