Beth's Cafe

Let me start off by saying that I am crazy and I have eaten the 12 Egg Ham & Cheese Omelette 4 times, and succeeded 3 times... The 4th, I finished everything but the Hash Browns and toast. One night I was watching a Man vs Food Marathon and he gave me good ideas about places that I want to eat as well as grossed me out a few times with his "accomplishments".

Speaking of which, Chunkys Four Horseman Burger is exactly what I will be eating once I get some privileges in San Antonio... Look it up, they don't really have a website, at least I cannot find one. But imagine an insanely hot burger with Ghost Chili Peppers among others... I want! Apparently only 3 People have succeeded in this challenge. I plan to suffer through it :D

So, the thing that annoyed me about one particular episode is that he was in my back yard and failed at something I have done time and time again. I had to step up and beat him at his own game.

Another side note, I noticed that the host of the show was getting fatter and fatter as the show progressed. In the marathon, the earlier episodes, he was a pretty clean cut guy. Not big, but not small and had this pretty kick ass leather jacket. As the show went on, his jacket got smaller on him and he seemed to stop taking care of himself... and turned into a fat man HAH!



So here it is. The Southwestern Exposure. 12 delicious eggs, filled with chili, steak, salsa, sour cream, cheddar cheese, hashbrowns, on top of a bed of hashbrowns, and topped with toast... Sounds like an orgasm #INMYMOUTH

I started off pretty strong and it reminded me of the times I have done this before. This one was way bigger than before but I was pretty confident I could do it. Bite after bite went down and I was powering my way through it. My strategy was to eat fast, otherwise I would get full.



After being about halfway through, I knew I was screwed... I felt like I did after finishing 9 eggs of the other omelette. I then pulled out a full 6oz chunk that one would normally order alone at any other restaurant. That pretty much sucked. I haven't touched my toast yet at this point but I was just about finished. I ate that steak and kept attacking the eggs. It was sooooooooo gooooooood, but so painful hahah! Everyone there told me that since I made it this far I had to keep going but it was hard. I powered through just over half of what I had left and then pulled out another steak chunk...



It was at this time that I was done. Out for the count. After seeing that I almost puked in my mouth a little bit... I didn't though, I just accepted defeat and asked for my box... not that I really wanted to take it home either though. Nikkee drew this awesome picture of my failure and added the final words to it that showed the world how much I sucked :p



There seems to have only been like 3 eggs left... and 2 pounds of all the stuffing... I can't believe that I wanted a beer after this. One of my old college friends wanted to go next door to this Australian bar and I wanted to drink so Australian beer so this worked out perfectly. I don't know why I thought this was a good idea though... not that it ended well but it took me over an hour to finish the ONLY Australian beer that they had in the whole bar... and it was not even on tap... I think they should revoke the license on this place...



It was just a BMC bar that had some good beer, i.e. Full Sail, but I came there to drink Australian beer. I only had one and left. Oh, well. I do not think my body could have held anything else. Coopers Sparkling Ale was not that good... 2/5 at best. I just went home and lounged out since I was stuffed as hell after this. YAY ME!

Lucky Buddha

Yup... Lucky(Buddha). This is a beer that I only bought for the bottle. It is actually pretty cool. I was out on one of my, "Lets find some new beer" trips, and this is not one that made it into my cart by my choice.



Anyway, I cracked this open and was a little surprised but mostly thrown off. My first taste seemed to be a little sour and very creamy. That is not what I was expecting at all. As I went back for another taste, those same initial observations were still there but then I noticed a slight honey flavor and it moved toward the way of toffee.

I expected this beer to be a lot thinner. Maybe that creamyness that I was getting was messing with the beers mouthfeel. Another thing that I thought was a bit weird... It may have just been a bad taste in my mouth, but it seemed to have a slightly bitter finish... I don't have an explanation for that.

I would probably give this one a 2.5 out of 5. It was not bad... Well, there are others that I find worse. I would not buy this one again but I figured what is the worst that could happen from drinking it?... Exactly.

Cheers!

Brewing With A New Brewer

So today, Nikkee, Kyle, and I got together with Rachel. Kyle met her at a local homebrew club meeting and she was just about to do her first batch, so we figured we would catch up with her and help her out.


Rachel stiring her wort

It ended up being a good thing that we came. Not that she could not have done this first batch herself, but she was sold a ridiculous starter kit that would have caused her more pain than pleasure. She did not end up brewing with all of her own equipment but she is now on her way to nailing down her process.

The issue with me helping at the brew is I know nothing... NOTHING about brewing extract or partial mash. Call me crazy but besides the Mr. Beer kit that got me started all 26 of the batches I have done after that were All Grain. I figured if I was going to brew, I would not do it half assed... did I mention I live in a <500 sq ft 1 br apt?

Helping out on this brew was kind of a learning experience for me as well. I've assisted on a couple of these before but it is totally not my thing. ALL GRAIN ALL THE WAY!


Adding LME

The brew day was pretty much event free, which is a really good thing considering stories of others first times and even my first time but it was so amazing seeing Rachel right after her first hop addition. First EVER! Remember, this is her first brew. Shes never even brewed with another. We caught it on video!


Listen to me in the background acting like I know what I am talking about... I had a few already. YAY BREWDAY!

(I kind of sound like an idiot while all of this is going on... I honestly did not know what I was talking about. I used electric before moving into the new apt and then used gas but I was boiling 7+ gallon volumes... not if that really matters... I have a propane burner now)

The only issue of the night was that the wort chiller Kyle brought over was not able to be used in the kitchen. Since we did not boil a full 5 gallons we just figured it would be best to top up with cold water to drop the temp... That did not work out so well. By the time we left the wort was still at 140 degrees or so. I wonder how long it too the wort to get to pitching temp.


Sorry Kyle, But I had to throw this one up too. You guys should have seen the rest... We found out his spoon is about 2 gallons off HAH!

After we left, we drove out to City Tavern in Culver City to meet up with a buddy, Kip. I found out some amazing new from him today and I really hope that it helps to get LA Aleworks off the ground. Two of their beers won Gold Medals at the California State Fair and they just got the notice!



I had just a few tasters while we were there, (and I heard they tapped something I really wanted right after we left), and I ate their grilled cheese sandwich... I don't know why I like them so much but I have always ordered the grilled cheese at the last few bars we went to.

I guess sometime earlier Kip brought the head chef some hops from his plant that he had been growing and is in its second year now. She pickled them and created a shrimp appetizer with them. Kind of wish I got a picture of it but it was pretty awesome. Tasting pickled hops was quite an experience.

I drank a Hefe from Taps, a Reserve Wheat from Telegraph, Blueberry from Marin, Renegade Blonde Kolsch from Iron Fist, and an Oyster Stout from Craftsman.

None of these brews really stood out to me. The Blueberry had a strong blue taste... not like blue berries, but a strong taste. The reserve wheat was interesting as well as the Kolsch. The Hefe was pretty good but yeah.

I was really looking forward/not wanting to drink the Oyster Stout. I wish I had more information about this beer. It was a very interesting one. It was not bad, but it did not seem like the typical stout to me. It was far more mellow. There was a bit of dark malt toastyness but it was overall very light. I really wish I knew more, or could find more information about this beer. I've heard of people drinking it before but and I didn't want it but I figured why not try it...

Hot Tamales!

Tonight marks my first venture into cooking with beer. Going through the cabinets while packing I found a whole mess of things that I purchased in order to do something with and then it never happened. So tonight for dinner is Chicken Tamales. I do not know if this was such a great idea being I've never even made regular Tamales but Oh, well.

I homebrewed a Nut Brown Ale a while back and I thought that sounded like a good candidate to mix with the rice and I have some Bootlegger Black Phoenix, a Chipotle Stout, that I thought would go well with the chicken being this is a Mexican dish.

I started cooking the rice first. Since I am going to be putting it inside of the tamale, I did not want it to be extremely hot while I was trying to handle it. I threw it in the rice cooker because I figured it would give me the same results as if I did it in a pot... Not just because I am lazy.



1 Cup Brown & Wild rice
1 Cup L's Nut Brown Ale

I then put the chicken breast in with the rest of my bomber of the But brown in order to marinate it for an hour. I intend on cooking it with a Chipotle stout so I hope this does not throw the flavors off too much. I assume it would help, but we will find out.

To make the Tamale outters (technical term) I used 1 pint of Black Phoenix, and 1 Pint of Chicken broth. I just threw everything together in a bowl, minus the baking powder and oil, and mixed it well. After it was all mixed I added the oil and the baking powder... Lets just say this smelled bad as all hell.

4 cups of Maseca
1 pint Black Phoenix
1 pint Chicken Broth
Dash of salt
Dash of garlic powder
Dash of onion powder
1 cup of oil
1 tbsp of baking powder

After pulling the chicken out of the marinade, I threw it in a pan and just cooked it as one normally would. I began cutting into smaller pieces once it would finally give and poured 8oz of Black Phoenix over that and let it sit over heat for about 10 minutes just higher than a simmer.



Once I pulled it off of the heat, I shreded up the chicken and tossed it with the Nut Brown Rice.



I took a sample of the mixture at this point and thought it was ok, just a little bland so I added some taco seasoning that we mixed up a while back. It added a bit of spice and I quite liked it at this point.

Now since all of this was a pretty last minute decision, I did not have corn husk... not that when I was even looking for them though I could find them. So I used Aluminum foil for this next step. I spreaded the outters on the foil and added the chicken and rice mixture.



Then you fold it, etc, etc, I've had tamales before so I knew what they looked like which made things easier.

The only thing left to do after this was to steam them. So, I got a pot of boiling water and steamed them for 75 minutes. YAY! Bored! So I decided to make something else. This had no beer in it.


Ingredients
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup masa harina
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 cups frozen whole-kernel corn, thawed
1/4 cup cornmeal
1/3 cup white sugar
2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Directions
1. In a medium bowl beat butter until it is creamy. Add the Mexican corn flour and water and beat until well mixed.
2. Using a food processor, process thawed corn, but leave chunky. Stir into the butter mixture.
3. In a separate bowl, mix cornmeal, sugar, cream, salt, and baking powder. Add to corn flour mixture and stir to combine. Pour batter into an ungreased 8x8 inch baking pan. Smooth batter and cover with aluminum foil. Place pan into a 9x13 inch baking dish that is filled a third of the way with water.
4. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven F (175 degrees C) oven for 50 to 60 minutes. Allow to cool for 10 minutes. Use an ice cream scoop for easy removal from pan.


It was an overly complicated process and I found the recipe at allrecipes dot com or something or another. It is damn good, but... well, I won't get into that.

Here is the final outcome.



I thought it looked really good, but there was only one way to tell...

I was not impressed. HAH! The inside was the best part. I've had tamales before so I know I like them. These ones just seemed to have a strange flavor. It could have been the beer or it could have been my base recipe. I mean, they were edible but I ended up removing a lot of the outters and only eating the chicken and rice. Maybe, I made them too thick as well. They were kind of bready and not enough stuffing. O well, I wanted to do it and I ate it. Case closed. That corn stuff was really good though.

A Growler Hunting I Will Go...

I just want to start off by saying, "Happy Anniversary To Me!!!!!!!!!!!"


Anyway, Now that that is over with, Since I guess this anniversay is about me. I want to go get a few Growlers. One from Stone, The Lost Abbey, Bootleggers, and The Bruery. There are others I want but I guess that will have to come another day. Actually thinking about it, trying to get to all of those locations in one day is pretty ambitious... So, why not turn this weekend into a BEER WEEKEND!

I kind of have this Bucket list of things I want to do/places I want to go before I ship off to BCT and since I got all dorky into beer this past year they all pretty much revolve around that.

1. Go To Eagle Rock Brewing Co.
2. Go To LadyFace Ale & Brassier
3. Go To Stone Brewing Co.
4. Watch Ghost Busters.
5. Eat A 12 Egg Omlette
6. Go to Sierra Nevada (hopefully for beer camp)
7. Go to Deschutes... etc, etc.

There are several other breweries and events on there that I want to go to but that list can go on forever. I only have a couple of months left so I have to pick and choose... though, I am doing some that didn't even make the original cut.

Details later.

Beer Camp

Ahhh, Beer Camp. In the craft brew world this has been a topic of discussion since the new variety pack was released. Even more so since Sierra Nevada announced that entries were being accepted for that Golden Ticket allowing one to come to the brewery and have a mystical time partying and drinking with Oompa Loompas. At first I just shrugged off the idea with thoughts like, “I would never win. What is the point of me entering?”, but after seeing numerous tweets from Sierra Nevada that there were literally only 10 entries, I figured what is the worst that could happen?

I am currently going through a major transition in my life, from that of being a Civilian and becoming a Soldier, and what better way to sound off the past than to get myself in the running for this competition. Shortly after I dedicated myself to doing this, I started thinking up ideas for the script. I thought I had the perfect idea, completely dorky and sure to get some attention. But then SWMBO, AKA Nikkee, had something way better up her sleeves. She wrote out the majority of the script one day while I was out for a run and as soon as I got back she began constructing the costumes.

So I am kind of a Super Hero nut… and use a lot of spandex whenever I wear a costume… This brought on the creation of HopMan! He would die for a good brew and fights for those who are against that fizzy yellow beverage that is often passed as beer and the corporate clutches of the evil Bun Light!

I strutted my stuff for a while wearing The HopMan Uniform and then figured it might be a good idea to plan a few things out. We figured the house would be the easiest place to shoot this thing and we could be done with it in no time. We assembled the last of the props and blocked out the whole scene. We had a few issues but once we worked through those, everything was ready to go.

The video is available Here. I hope that you all get a chance to watch it and that you enjoy it as much as I had fun making it. I really hope it catches the attention of the judges. That would be beyond amazing. The event takes place, literally days before I leave for Basic Training. Though this leaves us with one question, Will Craft Beer prevail? Or will Bun Light continue to keep us blinded from the truth? Find out at Beer Camp! (hopefully)

Hooah!