I'm a Virtual Brewster!

Aha!  I am still alive, in case you were wondering :-)  My work on the cruise ships has been keeping me super busy, but I am going to endeavour to try to keep this little blog going when I can.

How's about a review of a beer I brewed?  Well... I didn't get hands on but I was part of the group of virtual brewers put together by Best Of British Beer to create a virtual brew.

As a group we chose the style of beer, what type of hops would be used, the strength of the brew and the name.

The result was VIPA, a collaboration brew between BOB's virtual brewers and Lymestone Brewery.  This is the description on the website:

VIPA- Virtual India Pale Ale is a collaboration between Lymestone Brewery and Bob's Virtual Brewers.  

The first crowd sourced beer proves that brewing by committee really does work.  

It is a 5% IPA,brewed with a pale malt to give a pale golden colour and a delicious combination of Cascade, Summit and Columbis hops give a sharp but juicy grapefruit flavour. It's a very refreshing beer with a long dry finish. 

I got my case yesterday and tried one out - pretty tasty!  It has an almost smokey bitterness with a citrus aftertaste.  The lime aroma hits you as soon as you open it!  Great for the summer, I'm taking some to a bbq with friends this weekend.  After all my name is on the label!

A selection of participants also got to go along to the brewery and help out - here's a blog post about it.

You can buy your own bottle of VIPA here

Family Secrets

I'm a little bit behind with my blog posts as I've been busy working on some family tree research.... as it turns out beer has been in my veins for a while.  As you can see above I started early on by beer quest haha!  I've also found that a few of my ancestors worked in the brewing industry as labourers or as hop pickers... well we are from Kent all the way back to eh 1720s!

Also there is a family story that my great grandfather changed their name from Gray to Graymead because he loved beer so much... so far I can't confirm this story but I'll keep digging and let you know!

My Grandmother getting me started on a good Kentish bitter, no doubt!

A post about actual beer soon, I promise!

Beer Pancakes

Today I am baking some beer bread... I'll let you know how it turns out!  Until then, here is a recipe I tried out for beer pancakes.  Thanks to the wonderful Chris Badenoch for the recipe here (he also has one for beer donuts that I want to try!) 

Makes 6 pancakes

Ingredients:
1 egg
1 cup self-raising flour
1/2 cup stout/porter
1/2 cup full cream milk
Butter for cooking

Method:
mix all the ingredients together in a bowl until you have a runny batter.  Over medium heat melt the butter in a frying pan.  Pour a little of the mixture into the pan, depending on the size of pancake you want (about 1/2 cup at a time).  Wait until small bubbles are forming in the pancakes then flip them over.  Cook for a further 45 seconds or until golden brown.  Serve with maple syrup, berries, ice cream, whatever takes your fancy!

I found that beer pancakes are a bit more chewy than regular pancakes, which was quite nice. Let me know what you think when you try them.

Happy New Beer!

Happy New Year everyone!  I hope 2013 is going well for you so far.  Here is a little look back at some of my beer moments from 2012, I hope to have many more this year and I hope you do too!!

Beery Yuletide Greetings!!

Yuletide greetings, happy holidays and a merry Christmas to all!  

I'm finally home from the sea for a little while and have stocked up the beer cellar (aka the garage!) with some fine offerings which I will be talking about soon enough.  I also got a Christmas beers box from Best Of British Beer which I will review shortly.

However, now that I am home the one thing I have been longing to do is cook with beer, more accurately, BAKE with beer :-)

I found a fun little recipe that used Coor's Blue Moon as a cup cake ingredient and thought I'd give it a go...

Recipe inspired by Miss Make here

Ingredients

¾ cup unsalted butter, softened

1 3/4 cups sugar

2 1/2 cups flour

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3 eggs, room temperature

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup Blue Moon beer

1/4 cup milk

Method

1. Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl until pale.
2. Add the eggs, one at a time and beat into the mixture.
3. Mix the Blue Moon beer and milk in a cup and add to the bowl, beating to mix.
4. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl, then slowly add to the mixture, folding in so as not to knock the air out of it.
5. Finally add the vanilla and fold in.
6. Fill paper cake cases 2/3 full and bake in the oven at 200°C for 18 minutes until they are golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

I iced half of my batch with lemon buttercream icing and left the other half plain as there are fussy people in my house J

I found that the beer added an interesting texture to the mix, making it a bit more chewy.

Try it out and let me know what you thought.

Repositioning Round-Up 3: The Finale

Well, we are finally coming to the end of our travels from the West to the East coast through the Panama Canal.  I tried beers in each country we stopped at and here are the last ones:

Costa Rica: Imperial – Ceveceria Costa Rica

Light gold with a creamy white head and an acidic citrus taste.  Not bad in the heat but your usual adjunct lager :-)

Costa Rica: Pilzen – Ceveceria Costa Rica

Light gold and acidic like Imperial but with a more malty body – I liked this one much better!

Columbia: Aguila – Ceveceria Bavaria S.A.

Gold with a fuzzy white head the aroma of this brew reminded me of Heineken.  Aguila has a good body with a balance of hops and malt but seems a bit oily.  Not bad for an adjunct lager though.

Puerto Rico: Magna Premium Lager – Cevecera de Puerto Rico

Clear light gold with a low head with a slightly limey aroma with a background of grain.  This is a lager with a very good body and a balance taste of grain, malt and some sweetness.

St. Thomas US Virgin Islands: Banks Premium Caribbean Lager – Banks (Barbados) Breweries

This lager was interesting – light amber in colour with a fizzy head and very carbonated it has an acidic lime aroma.  It had a very acidic taste also with a lime and grain background, interesting but odd as well!

And now we are on the East coast!  And Christmas is coming too… stay tuned!

Repositioning Round-up 2: San Francisco & Mexico

Let’s continue with my repositioning adventures.  After Oregon we ventured to San Francisco where my beer tasting continued.  I was fortunate enough to try the Anchor Steam beer, which holds the copy right for this name as it is the last beer produced by the original steam method.  I also got to try one of Speakeasy Ale & Lager’s offerings – the Big Daddy IPA.  Next we moved down away from America and into Mexico.  I’d asked my twitter friends for some recommendations for Mexican beers and was not disappointed by Modelo Negra which I think will be my go to Mexican beer from now on.  Let’s check out the tasting notes:

San Francisco Anchor Steam Beer

This beer had a beautiful amber colouring and a low head.  With a grainy, lightly citrus aroma this brew was quite satisfying with my burger.  I enjoyed the bitter beginning leading to a maltiness that filled the mouth.

Big Daddy IPA – Speakeasy Ale & Lager

Gold with a lingering white head this offering had a good balance of bitter grapefruit sweetness and nettle linger – my favourite combination in an IPA.

Modelo Negra - Modelo

This was recommended to me by Beerinalia on Twitter when I asked which beers I should try in Mexico and the Caribbean.  I’m really glad I took his advice!  Darm amber in colour with a quick;y dissipating fuzzy white head this beer had a rich malty sweet aroma with some underlying fruitiness.  I found the malty taste very refreshing with it’s sweet linger.

Victoria – Modelo

This was a recommendation by my server in Huatulco, Marco.  It is light amber with little to no head and a pine aroma.  Victoria has a good body with a grainy taste and only a little bitterness which was very refreshing in the heat.

Pacifico Clara – Modelo

Pale gold with no head to speak of this lager was not too bad despite the fact that I am not a fan of lagers in general.  It has a sharp lime aroma and a crisp grainy taste but I found it a little on the alkaline side for my tastes.

Bohemia Dark – Cervecería Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma

I have had the regular Bohemia before but had not found the dark version until my current season in Mexico.  I enjoyed it a lot more than the regular version, once again confirming my love of darker beers!  Nut brown with a low head this offering has a slightly astringent flavour with some roastiness.  The flavour begins mild but then becomes more roasted like a stout.  I found it more refreshing and watery than a regular stout though.

We are almost through the Panama Canal in my beer adventures so stick around to hear more soon!