Archive for August, 2009

Festival Volunteer Opportunities

Two upcoming local beer festivals are looking for volunteers. Here’s a way to support the fests, meet lots of folks, and also earn free admission.

The 10th annual Mid-Atlantic Oktoberfest will be held October 3 in Shirlington, VA. All volunteers will get a tasting glass, 10 beer sample tickets, and a t-shirt. Each volunteer will work a 3-1/2 hour shift pouring tasty malt beverages (Two shifts: 11:30am-3pm or 2:30-6pm). All positions will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis. Visit the Volunteer Information and Registration page for information.

The Northern Virginia BrewFest is a two day event, October 24-25, in Centreville, VA. Volunteers will be asked to perform many tasks during the event ranging from beer pouring, keg hauling, souvenir sales, and working at the gates. The volunteer times are broken down into two shifts per day (10:30am-2:30pm or 2:00pm-6:00pm). Each volunteer will receive entry into the event, a BrewFest T-shirt, a souvenir tasting glass, and 4 tickets for tasting during their non-working time at the event. Volunteer applications will be available after Labor Day at the festival volunteer page.

Beers of the Blue Ridge

The September/October issue of Blue Ridge Country Magazine has a feature entitled Beers of the Blue Ridge. Author Joe Tennis reports on the growing craft beer community in the Blue Ridge Mountains region. Blue Mountain, Starr Hill, Bull & Bones, and Devils Backbone breweries in Virginia are featured. Highland Brewery in Ashville, NC is among other familiar breweries mentioned in the article.

The article is not available online, so you’ll have to track down the magazine to read it. The article does give a nice introduction to the region’s craft beer industry. I talk to many people who are unaware of how many great breweries exist in Virginia. So anything that introduces more folks to these beers is certainly a good thing.

The Blue Ridge Country Magazine website is here. They also have posted an online guide to Blue Ridge Spirits.

Beers of the Blue Ridge in Blue Ridge Country Magazine

The September/October issue of Blue Ridge Country Magazine has a feature entitled Beers of the Blue Ridge. Author Joe Tennis reports on the growing craft beer community in the Blue Ridge Mountains region. Blue Mountain, Starr Hill, Bull & Bones, and Devils Backbone breweries in Virginia are featured. Highland Brewery in Ashville, NC is among other familiar breweries mentioned in the article.

The article is not available online, so you’ll have to track down the magazine to read it. The article does give a nice introduction to the region’s craft beer industry. I talk to many people who are unaware of how many great breweries exist in Virginia. So anything that introduces more folks to these beers is certainly a good thing.

The Blue Ridge Country Magazine website is here.

Mo’ Betta Bretta Batch #1 Final Tasting

Aroma – Terrific stone fruit aroma (peaches and apricot in particular). This would make a great base for a fruit beer with one of those. Luckily no sign of the oxidation that plagued the considerably younger bottle of Batch #2 I had a few weeks back. There is some musty/barnyard funk that this batch has always had, but it is just a subtle complexity compared to what it was when the beer only had a couple months in the bottle.

Taste – The flavor is very nice, lightly tart and crisp. The apricot carries over from the nose and is joined by some cherry. The flavor is just a bit sweeter than I recall, by now basically all of the bitterness has faded. A well rounded flavor that gets funkier as it warms (but never unpleasantly so). No malt character and just a slight breadiness from the malt.

Mouthfeel – The carbonation gives it some lightness, but the beer still has a medium body (probably from the oats). I remember it feeling a bit lighter in the past, but it is fine as is.

Drinkability/Notes – It was no chore to down the entire bomber on a warm evening. The combination of complexity and drinkability makes this an excellent beer. Maybe a bit past its prime, but still in very good shape considering that it is a pale, moderate gravity beer that was brewed 30 months ago. I had forgotten how good these 100% Brett beers can be, I’ll have to do another run of them sometime soon.

New Dogfish Ale House, Fairfax, VA

After missing the Brew Ridge Festival on Saturday, I was glad for the chance to make the drive to Northern Virginia on Sunday to visit the new Dogfish Alehouse. The Alehouse opened opened last week in Fairfax (Chantilly), Virginia. After picking up a friend, our first order of business was a visit to Norm’s Beer and Wine in Vienna. I wanted to find the latest installment in the new Mutiny Series from Clipper City, Prosit! – Imperial Octoberfest. Naturally, I was tempted to pick up a few other goodies while there.

That mission accomplished, we headed over to the Dogfish Head Alehouse. Arriving too late for the lunch crowd, but early for dinner, we were seated quickly. There were a few other diners present, but most of the crowd was seated at the bar. The bar is located on a sunken section in the center of the restaurant, with tables located around the perimeter. The noise from the bar is carried throughout the restaurant, making for a somewhat noisy atmosphere. It was apparent the folks at the bar where enjoying themselves.

My plan for the afternoon was to finally have a taste of Dogfish Head Theobroma. However, I noticed right away that Theobroma was not on the ale boards. Our server informed me that it had run out the day before. I was disappointed, but then opted for the Alehouse-only, 75 Minute IPA. The menu at Fairfax is the same as at the Fall Church location, and just as we did during our visit there, started with the Alehouse Wings (“Extra serving of blue cheese dressing please.”) Three of our party opted for the smoky, wood-grilled burgers. My son chose a pepperoni pizza. All of our selections arrived quickly, were tasty and well prepared.

We spent a few hours eating, drinking, and talking. The crowd built up steadily as the afternoon progressed. The service was attentive at all times and we never lacked for refills or having plates removed.

Since we were on an “extended stay” we opted for couple of desserts. The brownie sundae was your typical combination of ice cream, brownie and chocolate sauce, and deliciously decadent. The other dish was the Dogfish version of bread pudding. The “pudding” was warmed, served with ice cream on the side and topped with chocolate sauce. Not your typical serving suggestion. The bread pudding was tasty, but the chocolate sauce seemed out of place. Perhaps I’m too much of a traditionalist. In any event, my son, who selected the dish, enjoyed it.

The drive home seemed all the longer due to the stuffed feeling from all the good food and drink, but we all enjoyed our visit and look forward to returning. (Maybe I’ll get that Theobroma next time.)

1st Brew Ridge Trail Music Festival – Total Success!

That’s the declaration from our friends at Nelson County Life magazine. And from all evidence I would have to agree. Despite having my ticket in-hand, (well, it was waiting at the will-call desk) conflicts on Saturday prevented me from actually getting there. I did follow the event via the photos and updates posted by Nelson County Life throughout the day on their Facebook page. The day started off with some rain but that soon cleared off. It was good to see the crowds growing as the day progressed. Jason Oliver of Devils Backbone Brewing, the host site for the event, told me “It was a great festival and it looks like it will be a yearly thing.” That’s great news and I look forward to attending in 2010.

See the Nelson County Life report here.

1st Brew Ridge Trail Music Festival – Total Success!

That’s the declaration from our friends at Nelson County Life magazine. And from all evidence I would have to agree. Despite having my ticket in-hand, (well, it was waiting at the will-call desk) conflicts on Saturday prevented me from actually getting there. I did follow the event via the photos and updates posted by Nelson County Life throughout the day on their Facebook page. The day started off with some rain but that soon cleared off. It was good to see the crowds growing as the day progressed. Jason Oliver of Devils Backbone Brewing, the host site for the event, told me “It was a great festival and it looks like it will be a yearly thing.” That’s great news and I look forward to attending in 2010.

See the Nelson County Life report here.

Have Ginger, Will Mix

How do you mix it up with ginger beer?

Chick-N-Brick

On a schedule of alternating weeks, last Sunday was Mike’s turn to decide what we would make for lunch. Chicken-Under-a-Brick is essentially butterflied chicken, pan roasted under something heavy so as to encourage a deep, crisp browning on the skin. A much quicker mode of cooking than, say, roasting a whole chicken, the butterfly cut levels out the flesh to cook evenly and quickly. Accompanied with a simple salad and some roasted roots, this Sunday’s lunch was comforting and filling without being too heavy for the summer heat.

If you have some extra time you can brine the chicken for an hour (which we did). The chicken was submerged in a solution of 1/4 cup of kosher salt and 2 tablespoons of turbinado sugar dissolved into 2 quarts of water. This process both seasons the meat and allows it to retain more moisture over the course of cooking leading to juicer meat. If you want to flavor the meat you could certainly add some crushed garlic, herbs, or spices to the brine as well, but with such a high quality free range chicken it didn’t seem worth it.

For Mike to prepare the chicken, Audrey had the pleasure of witnessing the sickening crunch of bones and spine removal a la Mortal Kombat (nerd alert: it was a Deadly Fatality!). Butterflying a chicken can be intimidating, but is actually a pretty simple procedure once you have done it a couple times. First cut out the backbone (this can be done either with a knife or kitchen sheers), then flip the bird over and apply pressure to the breast to flatten it (enter sickening crunch here). Finally flip it back over and make a shallow incision in the membrane that covers the keel bone that separates the breasts, and leaver it out with your finger. Such butterflying as this makes for much faster cooking as well as easy serving at the table.

Butterfly chicken can also be grilled outside, but in the heat of mid-August (and living in an apartment), we opted to stay indoors and make good use of the stove and oven. Dry the skin, then lay the entire chicken down in a lightly greased pan (we used cast-iron, but anything oven-proof would work) and set either two foil-wrapped bricks, or (as we did) a heavy cast-iron dutch oven, lightly greased, directly onto the exposed flesh. The pressure helps to keep the skin in contact with the pan, increasing browning and deliciousness.

After about 5 minutes, we began to smell the familiar waft of frying chicken skin, but we kept it there for a good 15 minutes total before performing an amazing feat of chicken-acrobatics. We moved the chicken onto a plate, drained out most of the grease from the pan, laid down the potatoes and carrots (any root vegetable could work here as well), and replaced the chicken, skin side up this time, on top of those (no need to replace the dutch oven/bricks this time as it goes into the oven which was preheated to 450 degrees).

Brush with a simple mixture of lemon/olive oil/garlic/red pepper flakes/black pepper. The brined bird will give up some salty liquid, so you may want to hold back on seasoning the vegetables until after they are cooked (in our case they needed a bit of salt).

Once the chicken hits ~150, go ahead and remove it from the oven and let it rest on a cutting board or plate. In our case, the chicken seemed to cook a little faster than the roots, so we poured off most of the liquid from the pan, and returned them to the oven until cooked through. To serve, we placed the carrots and potatoes in a bowl and topped the chicken with a good bit of chopped parsley.

While the chicken cooked we made a simple arugula salad, with a basic dressing of lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper (pretty similar to what was poured on the chicken). Being late summer, we of course could not leave the tomatoes off the menu, so we just chopped a couple of colorful ones to top of the dressed arugula.

Clipper City Heavy Seas Big DIPA

Clipper City Heavy Seas Big DIPA is the first in the new Mutiny Fleet series of big beers from Clipper City Brewing Company. I’m a big fan of Clipper City, especially their Heavy Seas line of beers, so I was excited to try this new addition to the lineup.