by | February 13, 2012 · 9:25 pm

Quarter Century

As of yesterday, I’m officially old. My age times four equals 100. My knees ache.
I’m officially twenty-five years old! I started off the day in the traditional way.
Eggs Portugal! Nothing like a deliciously fatty and savory bread pudding to start the day!
Add chocolate covered donuts to that and I’m a happy girl. A happy, aging girl.
The day consisted of a trip to Santa Barbara, perusing the REI (my favorite store in the entire world) up there, driving down the coast and visiting Island Brewing Company for a delicious taster flight. My birthdays seem to center around food and beer. I’m okay with this.

After my day on the road, I headed to my homebrew club meeting at Enegren Brewing, had a few tasters of the amazing homebrews that were present (the coconut porter was ah-may-zing!)…
…then this dashing young man took me out to dinner at Old Place Cornell and spoiled me rotten. I took the night off from the camera and fully immersed myself in the joy of devouring part of an entire chicken covered with balsamic glaze and a baked potato that was overloaded with bacon and homemade sour cream. A portion of a skillet cookie may also have been consumed, as well as an Anchor Porter and some complimentary Pinot Gris… It was the perfect birthday dinner – so very spoiled!
I also got to bite into this ridiculously rich triple brownie cake that was delivered via Mama Enegren – thank you so much, Kathy! Heaven on a plate, seriously. I ate until I hurt – as it should be on a birthday!

Thanks for all the birthday wishes! Now it’s time to have a quarter-life crisis: I’m thinking a motorcycle, skydiving and a tattoo, maybe? Any suggestions?

Suggestions will be accepted via comments on the blog, Facebook and Twitter! Do your worst!

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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 | February 7, 2012 · 3:27 pm

Superbowl Eats

I haven’t watched the Superbowl in YEARS. The last time I recall sitting down for an entire game was when I was living in Colorado and the Broncos were attempting a Threepeat. I needed a distraction on Sunday after the terrible morning and then being in mourning for the little pup, so when the EBC crew invited me to watch with them, I took them up on their offer. And I brought cake.
First, we made sure to overdose on these soft pretzels and relish mustard that the chef at Wolf Creek brought for us. We are the reluctant guinea pigs for his new recipes. It’s a tough job, but somebody we have to do it.
Commander Matt went gourmet on us and wrapped miniature hot dogs in crescent rolls, served with a fancy half ‘n half barbecue/ketchup dish.
Brie went SUPER gourmet and brought homemade carne asada, fried up some homemade tortilla chips and made a huge tub of freaking delicious guacamole. I was uncomfortably full, so obviously I had to bake the cake.
I used one of my remaining coupons from Duncan Hines and purchased the Decadent Apple Caramel cake mix – holy deliciousness. Even though I was stuffed, I was unable to stop myself from eating a huge chunk of this, smothered in frosting. If you’re not up for the slightly more labor intensive Sticky Apple Toffee Pudding Cupcakes, this is a good substitute that also tastes delicious.
Yet another good thing about working with/being friends with brewers is that beer for such occasions is always on hand. We brought back a big growler of Protector IPA to enjoy along with the fancy spread of foods.

Oh yeah, and we watched the Superbowl. That happened too.

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by | February 6, 2012 · 8:32 am

Saying Goodbye

Yesterday was my little pup’s birthday. It was also her last day with us here on earth.

Happy 13th birthday, Buddha!
I’m sorry I gave you such horrible hackjob haircuts. It was for your own comfort, I swear!
We’ll miss how you enjoyed the little things in life. Apples…
Chips…
More chips…
Fighting for chips…
Car rides… Sleeps…
And smiles. We love you, little Sonoma!
Happy birthday, Buddha.

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by | January 31, 2012 · 8:08 pm

Golden Road with the Girls!

Happy Tuesday!Beautiful day to be alive, isn’t it? Today, I met up with my best friend from way back in middle school at Golden Road Brewing.
Adore this girl. You may remember her from my visit to Craft & Commerce in Little Italy back in May.
Oh, how I’ve missed my fellow TAG (Talented and Gifted – yes, we were nerds back then… still are…) friend!
They don’t have any taster flights yet, so I got a sip of all the house beers on tap and then settled for the low ABV Hefeweizen. Delicious and perfect for a 70 degree day in Los Angeles.
We decided to split a whole mess of deliciousness. This was the Rosemary Turkey Club – peppered bacon, white cheddar cheese and beer-braised turkey with parsley aioli. This was demolished.
I had to order the Coconut “Noodle” Salad again. This is so flavorful and full of happiness and health. This negates every calorie I absorbed today. Cuz there are vegetables in it. And it’s vegan. End of story.
These deep-fried wild mushroom risotto fritters were totally cancelled out by that salad above! I had the maple fritters the first time, which were delicious, but these knocked those babies out of the ballpark! Full of earthy mushroom flavor and topped with vegan pimento cheese, fried to a fluffy crisp. I can honestly say that I had NO IDEA that the dip was vegan! I may have scraped the remains out with a spoon. And by may, I mean I did.
Deep-fried deliciousness. My fingers were smothered in that “cheese” sauce.
The orzo pasta – also vegan and delicious! The perfectly tender roasted veggies and orzo pasta are lightly tossed in a fresh olive oil and balsamic dressing. I tend to avoid vegan foods in rebellion of my bro and his wife being vegan (I’m ridiculous and crave excessive amounts of pulled pork when we go to visit them in Colorado), but Golden Road has completely changed my perspective!
My gorgeous cousin, Allie, stopped by after her nursing class! They weren’t perturbed by me taking mass amounts of pictures at all… Two of my favorite girls in the entire world. Insert smiley face here.
(This picture is so awesome it needed to be used twice)
Kim ordered a gigantic soft pretzel (they were out of the “small” pretzels) that included more of that delicious vegan pimento cheese and the HOTTEST horseradish mustard I have ever tasted. Kim took a bite and turned bright red with watery eyes to match. Please use with caution.
Delicious pretzel face – a little over the top with salt, but once you scrape that off, it’s perfectly soft and surprisingly flavorful.
This was recommended to me by Michelle, who stopped into Enegren Brewing’s tasting room a few months ago. Thank God for Twitter, eh? BLATANT ADVERTISEMENT TO FOLLOW – MY TWITTER, UNTAPPD and FACEBOOK PAGE! My apologies.
Let’s take a closer look, shall we? Croissant bread pudding covered with brown sugar, salted caramel (an actual OMG moment – and I HATE it when people say OMG) and fresh whipped cream. Michelle – from the bottom of my heart, thank you for encouraging me to order this! We ordered a second one after we’d finished licking the plate. I’ve said this a few times, but this is the most up-to-date BEST BREAD PUDDING I’VE HAD! I’m willing to try more to make sure that this claim is true…

And that was my Tuesday! The brewery visit was necessary in order to recover from last night – working an event for Enegren down in Oxnard for The Kitchen which was featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives! What an amazing party!
I wore my brewniform…
…served tons of beer samples to the gigantic crowd…
…and have a huge list of people who now want to come visit the brewery! If you’re up for it, tasting hours are listed here!
And here’s a random picture of my early morning hike. Just because. Happy Tuesday!

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by | January 27, 2012 · 3:46 pm

Beer Tasting Process

During all of the tastings I’ve done with Grayson and Frank up in Santa Barbara, we’ve utilized the following method for our empirical research. In addition to what’s below, we also take notes on aroma, appearance, flavor, mouthfeel and overall impression.
For your tastings, you can download the above scoresheet here. This is a great tool, along with the flavor wheel, to help increase your “flavor vocabulary” when it comes to figuring out if a beer is roasty, toasty, nutty, grassy, grainy, yeasty, acetic, etc. There are TONS of different descriptors out there and it’s good to be able to verbalize the subtle differences between each substyle.

Ever single beer I consume at home is now accompanied by this:
I have the different style guidelines printed out from the BJCP, and sip through each beer while reading them and comparing beer to paper expectations.
Lost Coast Downtown Brown was my latest tasting. This one is relatively close to style except for being a little thinner-bodied than the guidelines state, as well as having a lower hop bitterness. The aroma starts off with burnt caramel and slight toffee and just a hint of cocoa at the end. Medium-high carbonation with a slightly thin body full of caramel sweetness and slight roasty notes. No finishing hop bitterness. At 5%abv, this beer is an easy drinker! As of now it’s my favorite brown, but I prefer it much more on draft.
This is the best way to enjoy a tasting – gorgeous sunsets and warm weather. Thank God it’s January, eh?

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by | January 24, 2012 · 5:19 pm

Ladies at Ladyface: 8

Last night was the beginning of Ladyface Ale Companie’s second anniversary! It also happened to be a Ladies at Ladyface night. Awesome.
My mumsie and I split a flight of the “Last of the Best”, which ended up being a bunch of Ladyface beers that had been spiked with Brettanomyces or Lactobacillus and aged in barrels with some extra additions.
Not quite sure what I was expecting, but this was delicious! The sours were actually sour – not the syrupy sweet that you taste in a Lindeman lambic. Adored almost all of them. I had two I fell head over heels for: the Le Cerise – the sour cherry ale that was a lambic style, but instead of sickly sweet it had a delicate lacy finish of tart cherries. The other: Verrückt Weizen – Ladyface’s Weizenbock that was spiked with Lactobacillus and Pediococcus, then aged in a Cabernet Sauvignon barrel.
Todd’s India Brown Ale was next on the list – Ladyface’s IPA with tons of chocolate malt thrown in, giving it a rich color and a malty chocolate flavor. I paired this taster with our main dish of the night.
Belgian ale-braised short ribs with melted leeks and root vegetables. I wish this picture didn’t make it look like chocolate cake. It was tender, decadent and melted on the tongue. I have no idea how they “melt” leeks, but I will never look at a leek the same way again! This is one of those meals I dream about. Pairing this rich dish with the India Brown was the perfect combination. Pardon me while I attempt to stop drooling.
I also had to order the mac and cheese with bacon and jalapeño. Delicious, but the short ribs blew everything else out of the water. Drooling again in remembrance.
Seeing that it was Ladyface’s second birthday, Cyrena brought out some celebratory bread pudding! I was stuffed to the gills, but couldn’t be rude and deny bread pudding! Manners… yes, that’s why I ate the entire thing…
We had the regular group of ladies there last night, plus a few newbies.
We ended the night with our new Ladies at Ladyface t-shirts and a Ladyface second anniversary tulip glass. My tulip glass happened to be full of the Le Cerise.
If you purchase one of these glasses, you can bring it in in the future and get happy hour priced pints! Epic. Just plain epic.

Time for another beer tasting! Brown ale is on the menu, complimented by a long sheet of BJCP guidelines. Study time!

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by | January 20, 2012 · 3:50 pm

Beer Pairing: Sweet and Sour Chicken

Welcome to the second edition of pairing food and beer! This recipe is compliments of my mumsie who threw a bunch of random things into a bowl and made delicious magic!
[gmc_recipe 5635]

Deliciousness marinating!
Spread in one layer so all the vegetables are cooked evenly.

This is a hearty, filling meal with a lovely tangy sweetness. I’d recommend pairing this dish with a rich nut brown ale or any other sweet malty beer to really emphasize the caramelized sugars that form as a crust on the pineapple after it’s baked in the oven. If possible, drink local!
Enegren Brewing’s Valkyrie California Alt – rich, malty and a smooth finish. The residual sugars in this match perfectly with the marinated chicken and vegetables.
Island Brewing Company’s Nut Brown Ale – this one is a little drier, but still has enough malty sweetness and roasty back-end to enhance the sweet marinade reduction. If you want to be blown away, throw a handful of roasted peanuts on top, combine with a nut brown and let your taste buds go crazy!

Some mainstream beers that would pair well with this dish:
Samuel Smith’s Nut Brown Ale – rich malts and a toasted nutty finish with just a touch of hops.
Chimay Premiere (Red) – sweet dried fruits and a relatively dry end.
Sierra Nevada’s Tumbler – hints of chocolate and toasted nuts with medium high carbonation and light sweetness.

I’m sure there are plenty more! If you make this, share your beer pairing choices!

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by | January 19, 2012 · 12:27 pm

Porter Tasting

Before our porter tasting up in Santa Barbara, Gray and I met up at Island Brewing Company in Carpinteria for an ocean view and a preparatory pint.
A beautiful day, as usual, on the coast.
I got a small pint of their Nut Brown Ale – a light, slightly thin-bodied brown ale with a toasty back-end and crisp finish with a gentle hop bite.
I also got a preview from the brewer, Shaun, of their upcoming Big Island Imperial Pale Ale straight from the fermentor. Dave, the guy working the taps, polished up last year’s bottle for me. This beer is brewed on the first of the year, every year. It’s a smooth sip with a nice punch of hops in the end and will be pretty high up there in ABV. I think I heard someone mention it’ll end up around 10%?
Grayson got Jubilee Ale – a sweet, malty beer with a full aroma of caramel and dried fruits.

After enjoying a relaxing hour and a half there, we headed off to stuff ourselves with mass amounts of Indian food and ready our stomachs for a night of porter tasting!
I’m fairly certain that we got an affected Anchor Porter – all I could smell was green apple (acetaldehyde – the sign of a young beer that hasn’t matured fully) and the taste was similar to the aroma. After reading about it on Beer Advocate and seeing everyone list it as “coffee, chocolate, roasty” I’m fairly certain that something was wrong with it. I’ll be going to another store to try this one again in the future. My favorite of the evening was Shipyard’s Imperial Porter – a rich porter that pours a dark mahogany with a long lasting tan head, a sweet aroma of brown sugar and currants with a matching flavor full of burnt sugar, hints of mocha and dried fruits with a slightly spicy finish. This beer also fit the BJCP descriptions almost to a tee, which is one of the purposes of these tastings – trying to distinguish between the sub-styles of so many beers.

Now back to burying myself in Tasting Beer and the draft system manual again! So much to learn!

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by | January 17, 2012 · 12:29 pm

Practice Makes Perfect

I spent most of yesterday making beer flashcards and studying aroma notes, so I decided it would be good to put that studying to practice and see what I’d truly learned. And by that, I mean I went to Ladyface for the evening, had a flight of beer and enjoyed a long afternoon.
Since I’ve tried all of Ladyface’s beers, I went for their flight of the week.
Sierra Nevada has taken over the guest taps! My flight was served right to left. I’m not a huge fan of sweeter beers, but I’m slowly learning to like tripels and quads! I’m finally getting out of my hopheaded stubbornness!
In between tasters, it’s necessary to cleanse your palate. Bacon and jalapeno stuffed mac ‘n cheese topped with salt and vinegar chips probably isn’t the best way, but man, was it worth it!
They had a sausage plate featuring pork, duck and rabbit. Turns out I’m not a big fan of rabbit. I just couldn’t get the image of our trail bunnies jumping through my path out of my head. I had a bite of each and then felt too weirded out to continue…
We enjoyed a relaxing two hours inside, soaking in the ambiance and slowly sipping through the flight. As I was walking out I was stopped by a couple enjoying their dinner who recognized me and said they follow my blog! So sorry I didn’t get your names or formally introduce myself, but thank you so much for the sweet comments – you really made my night!
Ladyface will be celebrating their two-year anniversary starting next week! You can bet I’ll be there supporting them!

I’m heading up to Santa Barbara today for a little Cicerone study session and porter tasting with Grayson! Have a wonderful Tuesday!

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