Meat Day

With Wonderful Beer Wife out of town for a couple of days, the men of the house declared it Meat Day.

It, of course, evolved into much more than that: target practice; Iggy Pop, The White Stripes, Hayseed Dixie and the Ramones as loud as we wanted; war movies; homemade, stoneground mustard  and ice cream. Kyle even stopped by for a beer.

But the original plan was simply to take this time  to fire up a batch of beef jerky (4#) and take our first pass at making sausage (breakfast [2#] and Polish [4#]).

By all measures, the project was a success. It was our maiden voyage where sausage was concerned and we made adjustments from batch one to batch two, as well as having refined our casing-stuffing technique. Using recipes that turned up on the Internet, we started with the breakfast sausage so we’d have something to eat for a late brunch and found them to be a little dry and lacking in fat, so in the afternoon, we fried a pound of bacon for a snack and added the grease to our Polish sausage mixture. We bought synthetic casings from our local butcher, but next time we plan on tracking down sheep casings for a round of bratwurst.

Breakfast Sausage (per 1 pound of ground pork)

1 tsp pickling salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp rubbed sage (I don’t think this is nearly enough)

1/8 tsp Ground ginger

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp thyme

1/4 tsp paprika

2 oz. cold water

We did the lazy man’s version in both cases, having just purchased ground pork and not running it through a meat grinder after mixing in the spices. We simply combined our dry ingredients in a bowl and then worked them into the meat until well incorporated (adding water at that moment). We then chilled the mixture for at least 30 minutes, and then stuffed by hand into our casings.

Polish Sausage (per 1 pound of ground pork)

1 1/2 tsp pickling salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp sugar

1/4 tsp marjoram

1/4 tsp garlic salt

a couple of drops of Liquid Smoke

Most of the fat from a pound of bacon

Same process as the breakfast sausage, chilling 30 min, then stuffing into casings. If it gets to warming up on you, you’ll want to take a break and chill it down again. You can smoke this at 130F for five hours, but we’re skipping that for this first experimental batch. I can’t speak just yet to how this one came out, as we’re having it this evening.

As mentioned above, we did a batch of stoneground mustard, which was both simple and pungent:

brewvana stoneground mustard

1/3 cup red wine

1/3 cup white vinegar

3 T black mustard seeds

1 1/2 T brown mustard seeds

1 1/2 T yellow mustard seeds

1 shallot, diced fine

Bash your mustard with the old mortar and pestle (or cheat with a spice grinder, which I’ll admit I did, even though I have a great stone mortar and pestle–I just pulsed it until it looked right). Stir in your other ingredients and cover in the fridge for 24 hours.  Whiz up in a mini-prep, if you wish, to the desired consistency.

This stuff is simple, pungent and wonderful, and I’m never buying mustard again.

Beef Jerky

I first made jerky long ago when I first got my food dehydrator. It was perfect and I wouldn’t have changed a thing, except I never got around to writing down the incredible marinade recipe I made up that day. This version is simple and not as good as the old one. Someday I need to give that one some deep thought and recover that recipe from the cobwebbed recesses of my mind.

4-5 # rump roast, sliced thin

1 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup rice wine vinegar

about a thumb’s sized piece of grated ginger

1 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp sesame oil

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

Marinade at least overnight. Stack on the food dehydrator. Rotate the trays every couple of hours for even drying. This batch went about 24 hours, and no, I didn’t get up in the middle of the night to rotate.

I don’t know what women do when their husbands go out of town, but the boys and I tend to get productive and masculine. Male bonding in the kitchen. The only question is, do we shower before she gets back tonight?

RIS Per Capita

I live just outside the small town of Corning, Iowa. At around 1,700 residents, it has the distinction of being the smallest county seat in the smallest county in the state of Iowa.

It crossed my mind the other day when Kyle informed me that he’d brewed his Russian Imperial Stout, that it’s quite possible that we might have the most homebrewed RIS per capita right about now: roughly 20 gallons, brewed by Goldy, Jimmy, Kyle and myself.

Then again I’m not good at math. Any way you pour it, I like the sound of four batches of black attack in such a small, out of the way place.

IOWA BEER ALERT: Iowa Beer Equality Law

Please take the time to contact ALL of the senators listed BEFORE Thursday, Feb. 4. SF 2091 was introduced into the Iowa Senate today, to help lift the abw limitations that Iowa brewers (and consumers) have to face. The amended version of this bill will be presented and voted on in the Senate State Government Committee this Thursday (tomorrow).

Call or email them and ask them to support this bill, which will allow Iowa breweries and brewpubs to manufacture and sell beer up to 12% abw, and allow wholesalers to distribute up to 12% abw, rather than the current distro through the state.

Stacie Appel (D, District 37), Chair

staci.appel@legis.state.ia.us

John P. (Jack) Kibbie (D, District 4), Vice Chair

john.kibbie@legis.state.ia.us

Randy Feenstra (R, District 2), Ranking Member

randy.feenstra@legis.state.ia.us

Dennis H. Black (D, District 21)

dennis.black@legis.state.ia.us

Thomas G. Courtney (D, District 44)

Jeff Danielson (D, District 10)

jeff.danielson@legis.state.ia.us

Dick L. Dearden (D, District 34)

dick.dearden@legis.state.ia.us

David Hartsuch (R, District 41)

david.harsuch@legis.state.ia.us

Jack Hatch (D, District 33)

jack.hatch@legis.state.ia.us

Wally E. Horn (D, District 17)

wally.horn@legis.state.ia.us

Pam Jochum (D, District 14)

pam.jochum@legis.state.ia.us

James A. Seymour (R, District 28)

james.seymore@legis.state.ia.us

Steven J. Sodders (D, District 22)

steve.sodders@legis.state.ia.us

Ron Wieck (R, District 27)

ron.wieck@legis.state.ia.us

If you live down my way, your reps are:

State Rep. Cecil Dolecheck (R), District 96

cecil.dolecheck@legis.state.ia.us

State Senator Kim Reynolds (R), District 48

kim.reynolds@legis.state.ia.us

If you live elsewhere, please contact your representatives and encourage them to support this bill.

Don’t put this off if you live in the state of Iowa; as we proved with Pop the Cap in North Carolina, your email, phone calls and letters do make a difference. NC’s House Bill 392 was signed into law on August 13, 2005. Make this Iowa’s year for a better beer life.

Peace and Pints!

J.

PS-thanks to Sean Wilson, Mr. Jones and Mrs. Robinson for inspiring  a Zep fan to get involved in something bigger than The Immigrant Song.

Granny’s Liquor Cabinet, part 2

Every winter I take a minor sidestep from the world of beer, and usually that means knitting a batch of my Grandma Johnston’s coffee liqueur recipe. This year I finally switched it up and made her peppermint schnapps recipe, something I’ve been wanting to try for a coon’s age, as they say around here.

I always give some thought to what a wonderful grandma she has been to me when I make one of her recipes, whether meatloaf (which is actually her mom’s recipe) or booze, but this year is even a little more pensive, as this is the time I’ve turned to her liquor cabinet since she passed away a little over a year ago.

If you give this one a go, please raise a glass to her memory.

Grandma Johnston’s Peppermint Schnapps

11 cups water

3 3/4 cups sugar

1 1/2 pints Everclear

1 oz. peppermint extract

Bring water and sugar to a boil, and then simmer 10 minutes. Let cool, then add remaining ingredients. Gulp as desired.

While I wouldn’t change a thing about her Kahlua recipe, I honestly think this could use a little more alcohol kick to it. Next time I’ll do her cinnamon version, just because I remember her making that once, and when I do, I’ll toss in two pints of Everclear and drop the sugar just a touch.

Dear GlennH20s

Thanks for the consistent supply of delicious beers from parts of the country both out of my reach and special in my heart.

We got into the persimmon mead you sent last night (and the last of your most recent shipment, I should add), and I noticed it that carried an effect–Michelle loves you even more than she did before. That was some tasty imbibe, friend. Thanks for thinking of me.

Your Beer Friend,

J.

Beer ticker syndrome project concludes (Q4 report)

Though this has been a delicious and bountiful beer year, the thespian in me is glad to see this performance come to an end. If you were wondering if I had Beer Ticker Syndrome, I can ensure you that I do not.

It has been a major drag recording every single beer that I have tried throughout 2009–and I haven’t even been taking notes. How do those beer Raters and Advocates do it? It just goes to show that we all have different strengths and interests. Ticking is not for me.

Certainly, I try all I can and pay attention to them, but recording them for posterity and or a shot at Beer Drinker of the Year or some kind of bragging rights is simply not on my to-do list. Ticking takes away from my enjoyment of the experience, my own private brewvana.

After close scrutiny to my imbibing habits, I concluded 2009 with the following statistics:

Quarter 1: 123 beers tried

Quarter 2:   76 beers tried

Quarter 3: 263 beers tried

Quarter 4:    46 beers tried

Total Beers for 2009: 510 beers (serving sizes ranged from 2 oz. to several gallons)

As I expected, the number dipped in the final quarter, but I still proudly buried Glenn’s best guess of 400 beers for my final tally. Early in the year, I was doing a fairly good job of keeping track of what was a new-to-me beer, as well as homebrews vs. commercial beers, but to offer statistics on that would be silly at this point. Q4 saw, I think, only eight different homebrews, and perhaps 29 new-to-me beers, but my enthusiasm for anything better than an accurate total diminished months ago.

It’s been a fun little project, but I’m glad it’s over.

If you enjoy this made-up Beer Syndrome crap, click here.

Renovating brewvana HQ

For about two years, we’ve had this catch-all room, which has been known as “office,” “library,” “study” and “the future pub.” Being snowed in for a couple of days last week built the time into our schedule to complete the task.

The room is now known as Sam & Bull’s Publick House. It’s the taproom for Mongrel Brewing Company and brewvana headquarters. It’s outfitted with an eight-foot bar, two taps (and occasionally a third down in the basement), a weak selection of booze (but we do have Templeton Rye), and a blast of my personality on the walls, ranging from Shakespeare to Zeppelin, Joan Jett to my Gramps, Butch Cassidy to Paul Simon, Gene Simmons to Johnny Cash, Tom Petty to Flogging Molly. And lotsa books and tunes. It’s sorta eclectic.

But what about Sam and Bull? I’m sure they’d both roll over in their graves, but Sam is Sam Stearns, my Great-great grandfather. My Grampa Wilson had Sam’s portrait hanging in his basement when I was growing up, and he always used to tell this story about old Sam heading out to Wyoming for awhile. On his way out, he stumbled across Sitting Bull, who challenged him to a wrestling match, because he looked “full of piss and vinegar.” Sam proceeded to whip Sitting Bull soundly and went on his way. As he returned through the same neck of woods on his way back to Iowa, he crossed Sitting Bull’s path again, and offered a re-match. Sitting Bull would have no part of it. Family lore, it is, and I’ve done enough reading about Sitting Bull to know that it didn’t happen. Still, it’s a fun story, and when I inherited the picture at my grandfather’s death a couple of years ago, I immediately bought a print of Sitting Bull and hung them side-by-side. Knowing my family, I’d guess that Sam didn’t drink, and while I know that fire water did/is doing little good for Native Americans, “Sam & Bull’s” sounds good, and represents a piece of me.

Organizing this room has done wonders for other parts of our house: a closet, or living room and especially the kitchen, which was overflowing with superfluous glassware. It’s provided a usable work space and clears our table of the all-to-often look of a cluttered desk. The desk that we didn’t much use is now organized and a better space in another place for bill paying, etc.

Aside from freeing up clutter from other parts of our home, there are two great benefits. For quite some time we’ve lived a good hour and a half from a decent pub. Now, we have an inviting space right here at home, not the “someday I’m going to put a bar in that room” version of a fun drinking space. I look forward to inviting friends over to enjoy it with us. The other positive is that my writing notebooks and ideas are all in order. My bar is my desk, and I’m sure I’ll sit down to that. All these backburner projects are likely to surface, and I’m excited about getting some writing on track.

Now if Wonderful Beer Wife would just let me trade our dining room table for a pool table…

Monochromatic with a splash

Sometimes meals are monochromatic, right down to the beer involved. That’s why I keep Tom around. He adds a splash of color to my life. And to my silly photo shoots.

The chow: brats, sauerkraut and fried potatoes.

The color: yellow-goldy-brown.

The beer: Metropolitan’s Dynamo Copper Lager. Wonderful Beer Wife brought back a sixer after a recent trip to Chicago, thank goodness.

The vessel: a 35-cent thrift store dimpled mug that my boys gave me. Beer tastes better in it, for the thought and enthusiasm of the gift.

Every time I have brats with beer like this I smile. They work perfectly together. If  scrumptious were an emotion, that’s what I’d be feeling. Dynamo is a tasty beer. Just flippin’ good. Vienna and Munich and Perle and Hallertau and intent. According to the website, “the best time to enjoy Dynamo is when you’re thirsty.” I’d agree.

Long, lost beer friend

Sometimes a beer life is good, and sometimes a beer life gets better. Imagine my surprise when I discovered a long, lost elementary school friend a few months ago on Facebook. Imagine my delight when the dude turns out to be a homebrewer. Matt Newberg. He was tall, loved the Pittsburgh Steelers, his birthday was/is October 3 (it’s funny the things you remember) and he had a cute little sister. We had a good time growing up–at least until he moved away after fifth grade.

I asked Matt to do a guest post, because I thought it would be fun to take a look back and share an old friend with my new friends…though I’m pretty sure he made some of this stuff up:

Matt and J., pre-beer friends from the good, old days.

Christmas, and winter in general, always makes me think back to my childhood in the big city of Villisca, Iowa (population about 1,000 in those days, I suppose).

Back in the day, snow was fun.  I mean all we had to do as kids was build snow forts and sled and have snowball fights.  I remember one day a girl in our class came to the bus stop with wet hair, and by the time we got to school, it was frozen stiff.  The smell of frozen hair laid on that old radiator in our classroom at Nodaway School will forever be with me.  There weren’t many of us–maybe 30 or so in our class–a good size if you ask me.

One of my best friends was this kid named Jason Wilson.  I still have a good sized scar on my left knee from a failed jump over a big wheel at his house.  I remember his house well.  Many a day we spent trading baseball cards and dubbing Hall and Oates from one tape recorder to the other.  I remember he had a capped tooth and a cute little sister.  His mom seemed super cool and I was oh so envious of his Schwan’s soda making system.  The Schwan’s man was a big hit in Villisca–I ate a lot of chicken strips and ice cream from that delicious delivery service, but I never could talk mom and dad into the “make your own soda” kit.  I guess it was no real surprise when, through the magic of Facebook, I reconnect with Jason and discover him to be a fellow homebrewer.

Somewhere along the way Jason became Jay (one of my favorite episodes of The Simpsons is when Homer discovers his name is not Homer J. Simpson, but rather Homer Jay Simpson), I got fatter, and we both got a lot older.  I moved away from Villisca in 1984 at the close of our 5th grade year. Pretty tough to say goodbye to a few of those guys.  We made the occasional visit back, but the last time I saw Jay, we were, I believe, juniors in high school. My grandfather, who lived around the corner from Jay, died sometime around February–I just remember it being cold when a carload of my friends from the old days stopped to take me out for the night.  We wound up at a garage party drinking what I’m sure was Busch Light, and Jay dancing on a table in his underwear.  Busch Light has not passed these lips in a long time.

Golf course construction has been my career choice for the last decade-plus. For the first several years of that stint, I traveled the country quite extensively building and remodeling courses and sampling an ever increasing number of regional and just plain new-to-me beers.  Not really sure when I really got interested in trying new beers–to that point it had been cheap, mass produced garbage, but that is what I thought beer was supposed to be.  Dos Equis, Corona, and Rolling Rock were as adventurous as I had gotten until 2001.  I was working in southern Indiana and found a liquor store with a whole wall of beers and a “build your own six pack” section–the first I had ever seen.  What a great concept, I thought (and still do think).  That is when my love of beer turned passionate.  I was introduced to Three Floyds Brewery–Robert the Bruce and Pride and Joy in particular.  Wow–that is some good stuff!  I tried nearly every beer on that liquor store wall that year and haven’t stopped since.  Every new state I went to work in brought a whole new menu of regional brews to try. The only problem I found is falling in absolute love with a brew (i.e. Three Floyds) and then moving somewhere it is not available.  I used to stop in Indiana to pick up a few cases on my way home for Christmas every year, but haven’t traveled home the last few years . I live in Florida now-no longer travel for work and have been brewing for about three years.

I thought homebrewing would help ease the withdrawals of all the delicious beers not available in Florida.  It has been a fun and exciting hobby for me and I have recently turned my wife from a beer hater to a beer lover (well, a beer liker, anyway–I’ll keep working).  I still use extract with specialty grains, but hope to move into all-grain eventually.  I’m glad I have an old friend I can call on for help and advice.   Cheers and happy new year!

An anchor for New Beer’s Day

Melding Jamie Oliver, Indian nuances and brewing on New Year’s Day

Some people were feeling a little rough on New Year’s Day. With luck in my court, I was good enough to spend the day brewing. Quality, not quantity, after all. My extract-brewing cousin Matt came down for the weekend and we fired up a few beers, some cheese, and whatever else came to mind in an easy to put together way. New Year’s Day was all about brewing the Munich dunkel, and bumping Matt up to all-grain (and tutoring Todd–who’s got his first batch on the horizon.)

My buddy Todd came over in advance of his first brew day--his equipment is on the way!

But it was the morning after. If you’re like me, you buy celery pretty much once a year. And after you’ve sorted your dressing, you have some left. Day after Thanksgiving Bloody Mary’s are good, and use up excess celery. But here we were with another good Bloody Mary Day, friends gathered and the need to put a lager in the fermenter.

But what to eat? Yes, the perfect hangover food: kedgeree. I suppose I first heard of kedge after my Buzzin’ Cuzzin, Suzannah, brought be back the January 2004 debut issue of Delicious magazine on her return from what must have been a semester studying in London.

My buddy Jamie Oliver fires up his New Year’s Eve plan in said issue, and I’m pretty quickly all over this one, as it truly sounded a good post-imbibe chow. Michelle didn’t believe me; she was wrong. Along with with day-after cask ale, kedge has the brewvana stamp of approval for Hangover Goodness.

Huh?

For those unacquainted, what is kedgeree? Kedgeree is an Anglo-Indian rice and delicious-ness addled dish, inspired, it would seem, by Indian kitchari (though it’s spelled a million other ways).

Kitchari is an Indian Indian comfort food used to purify digestion and cleanse systemic toxins, according to Yoga Journal. Basically, it consists of basmati rice, dal, ginger, cilantro and a flexible handful of soft, lovely spices. Kitchari means “mixture,” and this dish can take a number of forms, depending on your healing needs. Ayurvedic (Indian science of life) medicine says it’s simple, nourishing and easy to digest.

To me, this has hangover cure written all over it.

The Anglo-fied kedgeree incorporates smoked haddock and eggs. Jamie’s wowed me, though I’ve tweaked the recipe some to meet my needs. One, I don’t measure stuff in grams. Two, my fish choices in Iowa are sorta bass and bullheads. I’ve taken to using smoked salmon–though I saw tins of kippers, smoked herring, the other day and bought some for a snack, and I’ll quickly switch to that next time around. You can find it right by the sardines, which most Americans don’t really buy. My boys like to chow them on camping trips for the novelty factor, but the fact is: they’re tasty. I’ve thought about tossing in bacon, for the smoke and yum factor, though I don’t know if that will do as good a job of cleansing my system.

Anyway, here’s the flexible plan:

basmati rice, hard-boiled eggs, onions, butter, coriander seeds, cumin, black mustard seeds, fresh ginger, fresh red chilis, cilantro, fresh bay leaves, black pepper corns, juice of one lemon, smoked haddock

Whatever looks and tastes right to you. This ain’t no anal recipe. It’s good and good for you. I started the day with a Bloody Mary, then switched to Ommegang’s Hennepin Saison and Metropolitan’s Dynamo Copper Lager, and both were good matches, but you and I both know the saison really shined. However, maybe an Anchor Steam would have been most appropriate…at least if you’re into etymology.

PS–I’m curious what you Brits have to say on this one. I am but a humble American. Wikipedia says there are disputed sources that say the dish actually originated in Scotland. Then became popular with the English in India and returned to the UK. What the hell do I know? What do you know?