Category Archives: beer

by | September 18, 2012 · 6:00 pm

Ladies at Ladyface: 16

This month’s Ladies at Ladyface: The Fermentables and Comestibles Education and Tippling Society meeting came at the perfect time for me. The past few weeks have put me in a wonderful tailspin and all I wanted and needed was a good beer, delicious foods and a night with a bunch of fellow beer-geek ladies.
We had a beautiful view sitting outside on the patio, drinking up the last rays of sunlight that streamed through the screens on the warm end-of-summer day.
That view was okay too.
Janelle brought a loaf of spent grain bread she’d made using the remnants of an imperial stout and black IPA. The bread was soft, dense, chewy and had a subtle sweetness that tasted like more. I grabbed the recipe from her – look for it in an upcoming blog! I feel a baking binge about to occur.
Speaking of Janelle – she brought little Avery to join as well. She’s getting so big!!! I caught this picture right before she completely zonked out at the table. Avery is fitting right in with our group.
It was Oktoberfest/German beer night! Everyone brought a German-style beer and a little info or history about that style or beer.
Cyrena brought out an alestake – Alewives (women brewers/pub owners back in the middle ages) would hang a pole with brush attached to the end would hang over their doors to signify where the brewery was.
They were also sometimes called witches for their “potions” they brewed. Add that the the broom above the door and you’ve got a Grimm Brothers’ tale in the making!
I’d ordered a Blind Ambition amber before I’d seen the array of beers on the table and pretty much stuck to this glass with a few 1/2 ounce tasters of the German beers here and there.
Franziskaner Weissbier – my second favorite weissbier to date next to Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier. I’ll miss the heat of summer only for the memories of sipping these sweet, musty wheat beers tinged with hints of banana and bubble gum.
To balance out the booze I ordered Mary’s Farm Chicken from Ladyface’s new fall menu – ale-brined and roasted chicken with potato puree, glazed cipolline mushrooms, oyster mushrooms and natural ale juice. Drool. Delicate, bursting with flavor and falling off the bone. I’ll be finishing the other half of this tonight. Hooray for take-home boxes!

I ended the evening by splitting the bread pudding with Janelle, but was too busy shoveling it down my gullet to take a picture. It was awesome. That’s all you need to know.

Another successful meeting with the ladies! Next month will be all things pumpkin – pumpkin beer, baked pumpkin goods, pumpkin everything. It’s tradition to overdose on everything pumpkin in the month of October – get cliche and stereotypical and join in on the fun!

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by | September 5, 2012 · 9:36 pm

Patty Melts and Beer Studies

Some of the random things I’ve been doing this past week:

One of my nostalgic favorite places to eat: The Waypoint Cafe at the Camarillo Airport.
My parental unit and I used to go here at least once a month when they lived here to enjoy a greasy meal and watch the planes taking off.
The place has been spruced up since the last time I was here. The interior was all gussied up with new tables and booths and a polished bar. Luckily, their menu was still the same.
The patty melt. A must-have to fulfill grease-laden desires with deliciousness. This pairs perfectly with a chocolate malt.
If your finger aren’t dripping butter after each bite, your patty melt just wasn’t prepared correctly. These don’t have that problem.

The only problem I had was that they also had a cheesesteak as a special on the menu… What’s one to do?
One of the many benefits of having a dining companion. Order both…
…and halvsies! When both diners are craving unhealthy sammiches overflowing with beef, everyone wins!
I’ve also created a Beer ‘n Wings group. I went with Kevin and John to scout out the place for our first meeting. Shockingly enough, the local Hooters has craft beer on tap! Stone, Sierra Nevada and Dogfish Head were among the selection. The boys seemed to enjoy themselves there, so I knew it would pass with other members of the group. I enjoy awkward things – going here is one of said awkward things I enjoy.
I headed up to Santa Barbara to get some Cicerone studying done with my buddy Grayson. Of course we had to stop at Island Brewing since it’s on the way up.
Some very kind gentlemen at the bar bought me a Blackbird Porter on nitro, just to be nice. It MAY have been as an apology for telling me that I looked like I was sixteen. That could’ve been it too…
Grayson and I made a terrible mistake and stopped by Keg ‘n Bottle in Isla Vista. My wallet hurts. Those three in the middle would be the 08-10 Vertical Epic series. I have 11.11.11 waiting in my closet to join them in consumption at the end of the year. Black Xantus is simply an amazing robust barrel-aged Imperial Stout and Sucaba looked cool and got good reviews on BeerAdvocate. I repeat – my wallet hurts.
We finally buckled down and got to studying. Feel free to steal our supersecret study secrets.
I also got classy for dinner. Surprising discovery – Cup o’ Noodles pairs deliciously with Valkyrie California Alt!
After a night full of creating a syllabus, “tasting” delicious beers, mourning the sorry states of our respective wallets and studying the malt and hop profiles of different styles we kept it cheap and gourmet. Breakfast Burritos a la Grayson. Scrambled egg stuffed with sauteed bell peppers, onions and crispy bacon wrapped up in a warm tortilla with cheese. Simple and freakin’ delicious!
To restore some mental health after the busy night, we took a stroll along the beautiful Santa Barbara coastline.
Not too shabby of a place to live, Gray.
Not too shabby at all.

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by | July 17, 2012 · 8:43 pm

Ladies at Ladyface: 14

Last night was our fourteenth meeting of Ladies at Ladyface: The Fermentables and Comestibles Education and Tippling Society! Time really flies! Meetings ten, eleven, twelve and thirteen on the links!
My craft beer girl Janelle (picture from our first visit ever to Enegren Brewing Company) brought something extra special to last night’s meeting.
World, meet little Avery – Janelle and Andrew’s five day old, perfectly adorable creation.
Everyone else just brought food for the potluck. Not as adorable, but quite delicious. Our meeting was a field trip to Enegren Brewing Company to try all the beers, get a brewery tour and do the usual socializing and eating. Enegren’s four taster limit was recently lifted, so we took full advantage (everyone had designated drivers). I love these meetings!
One liter growlers gracing the shelves.
Taps in the sunset. Such a beautiful sight.
We had a great showing and demolished almost all of the comestibles. I failed at food blogging and consumed everything before I remembered that pictures would’ve been a nice addition… Yum. Oops.
Cyrena brought dessert – Blue Belly Barleywine! Wonderfully rich, sweet and full of subtle vanilla notes from the whiskey barrels it’s aged in. There was some leftover at the end of the night. I may or may not have snuck it home with me and polished it off last night (I did).

Next meeting we’ll be going “back to the basics”. Our group has come quite a long way in the year and two months we’ve been up and running, and unfortunately that has become intimidating to potential new craft beer lovers. No need to be scared, ladies! Come drink wonderful craft beer, learn about why it’s so delectable, eat delicious foods and socialize! That’s what the root of the group is truly about.

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by | June 4, 2012 · 7:05 pm

Zoo Brew 2012

On Saturday I went up to Santa Barbara with the Wolf Creek crew to serve at the 3rd annual Santa Barbara Zoo Brew.
We packed up the pickup truck with kegs and the jockeybox and headed north.
I was the designated “foofer” of the day. Foofer is a scientific term. Basically, I tried to make the table look pretty and make the jockeybox look invisible. Designing pretty things is not in my nature, but I gave it a go…
After we’d set up, I wandered around the little park to check it out.
The calm before the storm.
And so it begins! The first hour was for VIP only and was nice and mellow. Then everyone else piled in.
We poured taster after taster with no rest for the entire five hours!
The majority of the crowd was made up of UCSB students and the majority of them knew absolutely nothing about beer. I can’t recall how many times someone tripped up to the table and slurringly asked, “Can I have the light one?” One girl and I had a very serious conversation about how just because a beer is called “pale ale”, it doesn’t mean that it tastes light. I got a high five for my explanation. Hooray.

Luckily, I was able to Keep Calm and Chive On through all of this.
I spotted four Chivers at the event! I was only able to grab a few pics with these two though.
Dang, I really need one of these shirts. That and a BFM…
There was a mad rush for beer when the last half hour was announced. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw one guy sprint across the little park, stop to take his flip flops off, leave them perfectly placed and punch some guy in the face for looking at his girlfriend wrong. Lovely.
After everyone stopped pouring beer and the attendees stopped trying to bribe us to pour them “just one last taster”, the park emptied out very quickly.
We packed up our fancy setup and waited for the carts to come and shuttle us back down to the parking lot.
Enjoying the peace after the crazy day.
Definitely not the worst view to be stuck with.
We drove back to Valencia, enjoying the ocean views while we had them, and wrapped up the thirteen hour day with a brew at Dargan’s Irish Pub in Ventura.
We work so very hard…

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by | May 29, 2012 · 7:48 pm

Beer + Guns = Colorado

I had an amazing, ridiculously fast three day vacation in Colorado this weekend!
Commander Matt and I took an evening flight to Denver to hang with my parentals and attend the Odell Small Batch Revival. It was a painlessly quick flight. My parental unit picked us up at DIA and we headed back to their house to have some Enegren brews we’d brought as gifts, and then to pass out.
The views from their place are absolutely hideous. What’s with all the open space? It’s also incredibly noisy – that little creek below their porch makes quite a ruckus as it burbles over the rocks with the trout darting through.
They also have these rude deer that traipse through their yard whenever they please. Ugh.
We got all fancy and made breakfast – chocolate chip pancakes and grilled bacon!
These pancakes are made with almond milk and vinegar as a buttermilk substitute, and OUT OF THIS WORLD DELICIOUS.
After fooding, we met up with my brother and his wife and headed over to the Odell Small Batch Revival. It was HOT and packed!
We waited in exceptionally long lines for our beers and then found the small amount of shade that was available.
So. Many. People! This was taken right before the swarms of people arrived.
Ah, yet another perfect capture of how much we enjoy each other’s company.
I had the Totes McGotes Pale Ale Wheat – funky and sour with a strong Reisling flavor from the barrel, and the Extra Special Red. I was saving the Mash of the Titans for last, but they ran out right as I got to the front of the line. Heartbroken.

The next day we had a full schedule as well. First thing on the list:
Smith & Wesson 686 revolver. 357 magnum! I have no idea what all this means, but firing it is fun.
My bro firing his Glock. I preferred the .22 for accuracy, but this one was enjoyable too!
And back to the revolver!
Those holes in the head? All courtesy of me via the 686, before I started switching guns and throwing off my aim.
Can I have it? Christmas is coming up in only seven months. A Ruger Mark 3 would be lovely, thanks!
After shooting, we moseyed about twenty feet through the parking lot to the brewery. Grimm Brothers Brewhouse – it was nice to be able to taste and smell the beers, unlike last year!
I got a flight of eight. Had to try them all since I really hadn’t been able to before.
Shockingly enough, the Snow Drop was my favorite. The honey and molasses aroma were subtle but noticeable, with a sweet, almost mead-like honey flavor. This was an easy light sipper, but still came through at 7.1%ABV!
I also loved the Little Red Cap Altbier. Nice and malty and clean with a pleasant American hop bitterness.
My brother, Matt and I continued on to Funkwerks – a brewery that brews only Saisons!
The interior of this place is cozy and well lit, and full of craft beer enthusiasts.
I had to get a taster flight, of course. I was on vacation!
My favorite was the Codename: Farmhouse – roasted candied apricot and a bready finish with a hint of tartness.
To wrap up the evening, we swung by my brother’s work and he showed us some of the planes he’s rewired.
The new Garmin system is almost exactly like a video game! I’m fairly certain I played this game when I was twelve… The graphics are slightly better though, I must admit.

The next day was Memorial Day, and I was completely exhausted. We decided to have a slow day and regenerate on the lake.
Carter Lake was pretty quiet considering it was Memorial Day. We sat down on the dock and enjoyed the warm breeze.
Peaceful. Until he tried to throw me in.
Our flight out was at 9pm that night. It was tough to say goodbye to the parentals and the beauty of Colorado, but the bagpiper TSA agent helped ease the pain.
It was a wonderful, albeit far too short, weekend. I’m counting down the days until my next trip out.

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by | February 10, 2012 · 2:22 pm

A Little Inspiration

Just stumbled across this the other day.
I absolutely love this. It’s a pretty accurate description of my life, actually! I was so dead set on acting – so much that I was centering my entire life around auditions, not taking any breaks or vacations just in case a really important audition came in, and really had no other interests or prospects in life. I began this blog partially as a distraction; something else to do instead of put all of my focus into filming auditions, scanning the breakdowns and reading sides, and I ended up falling in love with it.

I also began to gain respect for beer and explore the world of brewing: my blog was a way to document everything I learned and all the beers I tried. Then, last May, we went to the Small Batch Revival at Odell Brewing in Fort Collins.
I “got lost and found a better one”.
The countdown to my Cicerone test/aka my new dream has officially begun. Time to go lose myself in my beer books. Again.

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by | December 16, 2011 · 12:46 pm

Celebrating Freedom

I finished/aced both of my classes and finals! I’ve been taking online classes since I travel so much and don’t have time to actually show up to a class in person, and on Wednesday I completed them! Now I can put all of my focus where it belongs – Studying for the Cicerone test. My cousin Allie also finished her midterms, so we decided that it was time for a day of celebration.
Everyone should celebrate with deep fried foods. Doesn’t matter what the occasion is: Get a new puppy? Eat something deep fried. Birthday? Eat something deep Fried. Diagnosed with high cholesterol? Well, maybe have only half of something that’s deep fried…
I just had to get another look at that delicious, crispy goodness. Le sigh.
After walking around the harbor, we headed over to downtown Ventura, did a little bit of Christmas shopping and ended up at Bernadette’s on Main for a relaxing drink in the sunset.
Allie got her wine and I got a pint of Figueroa Mountain Davy Brown which they recently got on tap – warm and nutty with a hint of sweet caramel. Easy drinkability – case in point?
Example 1.
Example 2.
Then we got “creative” and decided that taking ridiculous amounts of pictures of sunglasses and us modeling the sunglasses would be a good idea. It wasn’t.
Beer + pretending to model with a pensive look = Same boring face I always make.
Wine + someone who is actually a model = Classy palm tree reflections and beauty.

I’m off to bake mass quantities of Christmas cookies! I’m sure no one out there is tired of seeing Christmas cookie posts!

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by | November 10, 2011 · 11:10 pm

Kegging/Bottling Vanilla Porter

I had my first kegging session up in Santa Barbara yesterday! My completely awesome friend Grayson helped me rack off my beer into a three gallon keg (kindly provided by Enegren Brewing) and we bottled the other two gallons.
Grayson decided to be a manly man and do the difficult tasks of removing tubing from racking canes. Thanks, Gray!
This carboy smelled DELICIOUS! You can see the remains of the vanilla bean in the bottom there, and a good pumpkin homebrew that we had to sip whilst bottling. Seriously, it’s a requirement: Relax. Don’t worry. Have a homebrew.
Carboy, keg, capper: joy on a table.
Grayson’s cat attempted to eat my priming sugar.
Cats + priming sugar = hyper! In case you didn’t know…
My beautiful, BEAUTIFUL beer! We had to try some, of course. ROCKED my world! Now I just need to name it! Suggestions, anyone? It’ll be hard to top Dos Beckis…
Afterwards we hit our old stomping grounds of IV (Isla Vista) and got some Indian slop at Naan Stop. New tradition: any time I’m up there for Cicerone studying/kegging/any reason at all, we’ll be visiting Naan Stop. Delicious memories!

Today I drove out to Fountain Hills, Arizona for the fine art and wine festival. After setting up the booth, feeling exhausted and ready to drop, we had our priorities straight. Bed, you ask? Um, no.
SANGRIA! Sofrita in Fountain Hills is my absolute FAVORITE place for anything edible in Fountain Hills. There was fruit in my sangria: therefore edible, therefore dinner. Win.

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by | August 12, 2011 · 7:49 pm

Honey Basil Chicken

I feel… I feel… I feel… HAPPY OF MYSELF!!!!

I was inspired to create a meal to pair with Bison Brewing’s Honey Basil Ale. A few months ago, I’d tried making a balsamic and sesame chicken and figured I could use some of the same techniques to create:

Honey Basil Chicken and Bell Peppers – You can find the printable recipe HERE.
Ingredients:
3-4 chicken breasts
3 bell peppers, sliced into strips
The juice and zest from 1 orange
1/2 cup honey
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
A handful of fresh basil
3 cloves of garlic, minced
A splash of olive oil (1-3tbsp)
Pinch of salt and pepper
1-2 bottles Bison Brewing Honey Basil Ale

1. Open up a bottle of Honey Basil Ale and pour into a perfect pint glass to get you in the mood.
2. Wash the fresh basil, then roll it and Chiffonade.
Roll…
And snap! I mean, and slice thinly…
3. Prepare all the other ingredients, mise en place.
4. In a large baking pan, combine the orange juice, zest, honey, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, minced garlic, salt, pepper and basil, and stir well.
5. Add the bell peppers and chicken and toss to coat.
6. Cover and let sit for 2-4 hours in the fridge, tossing often so all ingredients marry.
7. After marinating, pull the chicken and bell peppers out, and pour the marinade into a small saucepan.
8. Bring the marinade to a boil to kill off all the evil salmonella/raw chicken poisons.
9. Put the bell peppers in a grill pan and place the chicken on a grill over medium heat.
10. After 5-12 minutes (depending on thickness) flip the chicken.
Beautiful grill marks!!!
11. Spoon the marinade over both the chicken and the bell peppers (stirring the bell peppers continuously).
12. After 5-12 minutes, flip the chicken once more and spoon more marinade over the first-cooked side.
13. Remove the chicken breasts from the grill and let rest for about five more minutes while the bell peppers finish cooking.
14. Serve and enjoy on a gorgeous summer evening in the backyard with another bottle of Bison Brewing Honey Basil Ale.
15. Like Bites ‘n Brews on Facebook and then follow me on Twitter. Then eat more.

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by | August 11, 2011 · 8:34 pm

So. Much. Beer.

I have my Cicerone test to become a Certified Beer Server on Saturday, so my day was spent like this:
Healthy monsta to start! We had a peach that was about to pass its prime, so I threw it in the Vitamix. Nothing like getting two cups of spinach in before 9am!
Then I got down to business.
My plan was to start studying at 10am, and not stop until all fifty-six of these styles’ ABVs, IBUs and SRMs were memorized!
But then I started posting pictures of what I was preparing to study for on my Bites ‘n Brews Facebook page and forgot to actually BEGIN the studying part… (I was even wearing my Odell IPA sweatshirt to mentally prepare!)

Eventually, I DID get down to business! I spent a good three hours learning about the off-flavors you can encounter in beer, how adding oats to the brew creates an oily or silky texture to the mouthfeel, that lowering the mash temp will create a thinner, crisp finish, that umami surfaces in beer with a taste of soy sauce, that having DMS (Dimethyl Sulfide) present in the beer creates a canned corn taste…
Yeah. And that’s just a small part of the perception of flavor section.

Luckily for my sanity, I had plans to meet up with Janelle and her hubby, Andrew at Wades Wines for a beer flight night!
There wasn’t a style setup this night, unlike the previous beer tastings we’ve been to, but an introduction to some new beers they have on tap. I’d already tried both of the Heretic brews at Ladyface with Janelle last month, but needed another look.
Any brewery that has their own coasters AND temporary tattoos has made it!
Of all the four beers, the last two stood out most to me. Heretic’s Evil Twin is HOPPY! The Bruery’s Humulus Lager is… different. Big hops on the nose and taste, but they fade immediately after the swallow. Here’s the confusing part: Evil Twin = 45IBU. Humulus = 70IBU. Whaaaa? There’s a HUGE difference in the bitterness of the Evil Twin vs. the Humulus. Evil Twin almost bowled me over, but Humulus seemed pretty tame. I had to come home and find out how IBUs are rated.

I came home, ready to research how IBUs are determined, but I opened my fridge to this:
That’s not including the Dogfish Head Sah’tea and Labyrinth Black Ale I picked up after the tasting tonight… Needless to say, I opened a Boont ESB and promptly forgot about IBUs. Until tomorrow…

Random catch-up time! I asked on Twitter yesterday if pairing a CoCoNut PorTeR from Maui Brewing Company with a super spicy butternut squash and leek soup was a bad decision. Two people responded to me, recommending that I stick with an ESB instead…
I received those recommendations halfway through the bowl of soup and glass of porter. Oops. I’m happy to report that the coconut porter does NOT overwhelm the soup! In fact, I couldn’t detect any of the “hand toasted coconut” in the porter. It smelled like a dense, rich coffee porter stuffed with chocolate malts. I enjoyed a can (or two) to soothe my blazing mouth while I watched Black Swan.
It was an intense night.

And now, I’m going to retire to the soft couch that beckons me from the living room, and rot my exhausted, beer fact-riddled brain and watch a stupid comedy. G’night!

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