Our third meeting of Ladies at Ladyface: The Fermentables & Comestibles Education & Tippling Society was last night on the patio of Ladyface. It was a really warm day, so by the time we all arrived at 6pm, the temperature outside was mid-seventies and perfect!
We had a bottle share where everyone brought in a bottle of their favorite beer, or homebrew, and we also talked about the differences in glassware for each individual beer.
We started out with a Saison, courtesy of my mumsie. Cyrena, the owner of Ladyface, picture above, brought out all of the different glass styles and educated everyone on the reason for each shape: tulip, weizen, pint, etc. There is a reason to pour beer into the glasses – it releases the aroma and shows the beautiful color and head. PLEASE stop drinking out of bottles! You’re not fully enjoying a beer that way! Okay, griping over.
I’m trying to remember exactly what we tried last night… There were about ten bottles on the table.
We had a Saison, In Mem’ry of Bacon (I only have two bottles left from the entire batch – sadness), a homebrewed dunkel, Ommegang, The Reverend by Avery, St. Bernardus Abt 12, Lucifer, Oude Kriek… I think that’s it…
We did a tasting of the quadrupels side by side: The Reverend and St. Bernardus. I’m not as big of a fan of sweeter beers, so I prefered the St. Bernardus, which ends with more of a dry finish. To be fair, The Reverend was served at a higher temperature which drew off some of the carbonation and made it feel a little flat. I’m thinking of getting a bottle that I can pour and taste straight from the fridge to get the full experience.
We tried the Oude Kriek from the Ladyface cellar. I’ve never had a kriek that wasn’t sweet before! This was extremely potent with cherries on the nose, and a very dry, tart sip. I was expecting some residual sweetness at the end, but that didn’t happen. It’s definitely a sipping beer, and you can’t have more than one, but it would round out a chocolate tarte perfectly! Me likey!
We spent about three hours tasting, talking about homebrews, brewing, styles and local breweries. I can’t think of anything else that would have improved the night!
That’s a total lie. A center cut of the Ladyface bread pudding and a Chesebro IPA? Yeah, the night got even better!
Tag Archives: In Mem’ry of Bacon
Ladies at Ladyface: 3
Filed under beer, beer tasting
Filet Mignon Chili
I am now a teacher. I tutor what I like to call “How to Impress Your Man with Food”. One of my pupils can attest to the fact that this tutoring does, indeed, have successful results.
Enter Sofia.
Filet Mignon Chili – Printable recipe available HERE.
Ingredients
12 ounces filet mignon
2 large onions, chopped
1 large can kidney beans (25-30 ounces depending where you buy)
2-28 ounce cans quality, unsalted diced tomatoes
1-4 ounce can hot diced green chilies (go spicy or go home!)
1/4 cup dark red chili powder
2 tablespoons olive oil
1. In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium, then add chopped onions.
2. Meanwhile, sprinkle the meat with salt and pepper, then chop the filet mignon into bite-size pieces.
3. When the onions are softened and translucent, add the filet mignon and cook until browned.
4. Take your kidney beans, drain and rinse them in a colander. You can skip the rinsing, but I prefer a lower salt content – that way I can add it as necessary when seasoning.
5. Once the meat is browned, add the 1/4 cup of dark red chili powder. This will create a paste of the lovely meat drippings. Cook the mixture for about two minutes.
6. Add the rinsed and drained kidney beans, diced tomatoes and green chilies and stir well.
7. Bring the chili up to a boil, then set to low and let it simmer for 45 minutes to an hour.
8. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
9. Watch your significant other fall in love right before your very eyes. With the chili. And then with you.
This chili is AMAZING and ADDICTING! However, if you REALLY want to impress someone, make it a day before then set it in the fridge to let the flavors marry, then blow their mind the next day!
This chili absolutely MUST be served with some kind of cheesy bread. My personal favorites are Cheddar and Jalapeno, and Cheddar and Garlic from Great Harvest.
It also helps to serve the chili and bread with delicious beer. This is my educated recommendation.
For those who are just beginning to appreciate IPAs, but want something a little easier on the senses, Sweetgrass APA by Grand Teton Brewing is a good one.
This baby is one of the most surprising I’ve encountered – a beautiful amber that tastes like a stout! High drinkability factor. Freakin’ delicious.
Coronado Brewing Mermaid’s Red Ale.
Chocolate lovers will adore Eight-Ball Stout from Lost Coast. Rich with heavy notes of coffee and chocolate = heavenly!
I recommend “In Mem’ry of Bacon” if you’re looking for a nut brown, however, since that isn’t in stores another good stand-by is Samuel Smith’s Nut Brown Ale.
And finally, if you want to enjoy the burn that is somehow enhanced by sweet carbonation, try this gem: Sam’l Smith’s Organic Strawberry Handcrafted Fruit Ale.
Your night is now complete.
In Mem’ry of Bacon
I’ve been slacking on the blogging lately, I know. I’d love to say that I’ve been busy with school, but the truth is…
I got new technology, and my brain has been completely involved in it. I actually tried blogging from it the other day, but the title of my post would have been, “Clogging From Android” thanks to the text prediction. Yeah, it’s definitely not meant for blogging.
Anyways… now that I’ve torn my eyes from my Droid screen long enough, here are a few of the brews I’ve tried lately.
Autumnal Stillwater Artisinal.
Good head retention! A little bit too harsh of a pour… oops on my part! This beer was mediocre. It had a funky tart taste and after half of a glass, the flavor became almost cloying. I finished it anyways. I’m gracious like that.
Shockingly enough, I’d never had ANYTHING from Firestone prior to this DBA! Please don’t hurt me for admitting that! I always thought that Firestone wasn’t craft beer, but was edumacated very recently and gave this one a shot. LOVE! It was a little sweeter than I generally like, but very smooth and had a beautiful color! If I’m ever in a pinch, I’m willing to try more Firestone!
For the next beer, I needed to prepare. I chopped up a crapload of veggies – eggplant, zucchini, bell pepper, broccoli and onion, marinated it in olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garam masala and curry powder, then grilled it over low heat until everything was caramelized. I threw a couple of steaks on next to it as well, all in preparation for this:
Legit Bavarian smoked beer! This stuff is INTENSE! The smokey scent punches you in the nose, but surprisingly enough, it’s a smooth sip. Until you swallow. Then it’s like a group of smoked salmon is having a barbecue in your throat. I thought that this would be a good pairing with barbecued veggies and meat. I was wrong. It totally tipped the scales into the “excessive” zone of smokiness. This one, I couldn’t finish. I think it would make a good marinade for my next steak, though!
To rinse the smoke out of my mouth, I turned to Liefmans sour ale. I’ve tried a few sours before, and have only enjoyed one of them. This one is a keeper! It wasn’t overwhelmingly tart, but not overpoweringly sweet either. I love a unique beer, and this was just right. I’d compare it to Duchesse De Bourgogne. They are almost identical! If you’re looking for something different (especially if you’re trying to convert a wine-drinker to beer), this and the Duchesse are wonderful!
After all the veggies and red meat, I needed to round out my meal with some sugar! I received a coupon from Magnum for a box of their ice cream bars that are just now being introduced to the U.S., and picked up the first box I could find.
HOLY CRAP! I can honestly say that this was the best ice cream bar I’ve ever had! I probably wouldn’t have tried them without the coupon, but this is something I will actually go back and purchase! I loved the uber-thick layers of chocolate encasing more chocolate. I actually felt like crying – it was that good. My only complaint? The letter from Foodbuzz said I would be getting TWO coupons, and I only got one. Sadness 🙁
And all those beers bring me to today! It was BOTTLING DAY for my beer from the shop brew! This was my second beer I’ve ever brewed, and my first time using 12 ounce bottles and a capper.
Mmmm, bottle capper! Drooooool!
I plotted this all out, Hebrew-style (from right to left, in case you didn’t get that – my artist taught me that :P)…
First, I boiled some corn sugar in water and added it to the sanitized bottling bucket. Then, I siphoned the beer gently from the carboy into said bottling bucket. I soaked all of the bottles in Star San, emptied them and filled them within an inch of the top with a bottle filler. Next came the capper (my favorite part!!!), drying and boxing.
I ceremoniously finished up the LAST growler of Dos Beckis whilst bottling this new beer.
Speaking of which, the new beer’s name is: In Mem’ry of Bacon.
(For those of you who are new, I made Oatmeal Stout Brownies with Caramelized Bacon for the shop brew, which were a HUGE hit! I thought this name was fitting)
I also got some awesome new gloves (thanks for those, mom!) to spare my poor skin from the acid sanitizer, which exfoliated the CRAP out of my hands last time.
28 days until I can finally taste the goodness of “In Mem’ry of Bacon!”
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