American Craft Beer Week started off with a huge bang! Ladies at Ladyface: The Fermentables and Comestibles Education and Tippling Society celebrated our two year anniversary!
I stuck to my latest tradition and started off with mac ‘n cheese with jalapeno and bacon. For a night like we had ahead, food was necessary. As was a warm-up beer…
It was a HOT one out, so I grabbed a nice light Palo Comado XPA.
The week had started off with a high of 100 degrees, so the patio misters were more than welcome as the sun slowly set and the earth finally began to cool.
Our youngest member who was unable to attend either the first meeting or the first anniversary (on account of not being created or born yet) joined us for dinner.
Little Avery lovin’ on her Auntie Michelle!
The theme of the day was “favorites”. We were supposed to bring in our favorite beer… One of my ultimate favorites is aging in my cellar (aka a cardboard box sitting in a cool closet), and I just wasn’tt prepared to be unselfish and share it, so instead I brought six of my other faves. Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier is one of my favorite wheat beers, along with Franziskaner – musty with intense notes of banana and earthy cloves.
Lost Coast Downtown Brown – nothing too fancy about this one. Just a quality brown that’s always a good go-to when you’re looking for a lower alcohol beer with lots of roasty nutty malts and gentle hops.
This was one of the first, if not the first, recipe I made for the blog with beer. Bison Brewing Organic Honey Basil is the heart of my Honey Basil Chicken recipe, which I’m looking forward to grilling again this summer!
Michelle brought in Pilsner Urquell – the original Czech Pilsner.
Nancy Gold of the Maltose Falcons brought in two homebrewed clones of Allagash Curieux – one aged with oak cubes from a rum barrel and one with oak cubes from a bourbon barrel. Droooool.
We were all very fond of both. I think I preferred the toasted rum cubes, myself.
Janelle (I believe this was her donation) brought in Anderson Valley Brother David’s Triple – a deliciously boozy Belgian.
Cyrena brought in a beer she’d gotten overseas at the Westvleteren Trappist brewery (there are only eight Trappist breweries in the world), and was kind enough to share it with us. This beer does taste a little closer to heaven.
We had a handful of other beers – New Belgium’s La Folie was my mother’s donation from afar since she now lives in Colorado and was unable to attend. J.J. brought in Duchesse de Bourgogne which tasted like it was made of sugar cubes after the intense sourness of La Folie.
Ting Su of the Eagle Rock Brewery showed up with some Los Angeles ladies to participate as well!
Ting brought in Deuce – Eagle Rock Brewery’s second anniversary ale which is a super-loaded version of their flagship beer, Solidarity. Toasty and full of chocolate, roast and hints of smoke – scarily drinkable and clocking in at 10%ABV. This could throw you for one if you weren’t aware of the alcohol content.
I capped off the evening with an old favorite – bread pudding!!! I left that night overstuffed and overhappy.
Happy Two Years, ladies! Here’s to two more!
Tag Archives: Bison Brewing Honey Basil Ale
Ladies at Ladyface: Two Years!
Filed under beer, beer tasting
Pyramid Alehouse
Walnut Creek, California: A small town, relatively quiet (from what I could tell, having been there for a total of 3 hours) and quaint. What could there possibly be to do here? Enter: BeerWhere – the awesome application on my phone that seeks out all breweries, homebrew stores and pubs that I could ever desire. I’ve seriously used this application for every trip I’ve been on and found some sort of craft brewery/beer in the area. LOVES IT!
Pyramid Alehouse was only a mile from our hotel. We’d spent the entire day sweating to death in our booth, losing precious amounts of water that had to be replenished as soon as possible.
The best way to rehydrate after a day of dehydration: BEER. It’s a scientifically proven fact. Don’t look it up or anything, just trust me…
I decided to get a sampler – five different six-ounce beers from the long list they provide.
I got the Thunderhead IPA, Juggernaut Red Ale, Draught Pale Ale, Imperial Red and Ink Blot Porter. The Imperial Red was definitely my favorite (I LOVE hoppy reds!) – but honestly, when you have thirty ounces of “tasters”, they all start to happily blur together. Besides, the important thing here was re-hydrating!
I ordered the first thing I saw when I opened the menu. I made a Honey Basil Chicken last month to pair with Bison Brewing’s Honey Basil Ale and it turned out DELICIOUS , so I wanted to see how Pyramid’s Honey Cilantro Chicken measured up.
Verdict: meh. The chicken was dry and excessively charred and it was topped with a relatively bland tomato sauce. The one part where they one-upped me? Garlic mashed potatoes. I should always know to place every food item I make atop of a huge pile of garlic mashed potatoes.
For dessert I got the Brownie Sundae. Note to the chefs – a thin chocolate cake does not a brownie make. It wasn’t bad, but it was basically like a piece of cake. Nothing to write home about.
Overall the beer was tasty, the food was passable and the waiters were extremely attractive. If you’re a girl, or a guy who appreciates fine lookin’ young men, Pyramid Alehouse in Walnut Creek will definitely be a WIN!
Filed under Alehouse, brewery, Uncategorized
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.