I've Moved!!!

This blog has moved!!  I think the content better suits Tumblr so if you want to keep following my beer adventures come on over to:

awomansbrew.tumblr.com

Beer Club from Beer Hawk

Hello there! Once again I am back from my travels and it looks like it's for good this time! However I still have a lot of adventures to recount so be on the look out for those.

 

As I am home I have joined a beer club - I get 15 beers every month from Beer Hawk. The first box approved the other day and there are only 3 in there that I haven't had before - a pretty good result as I have tried over 600 now! Check out my current stash:

 

 

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Wish List!

So this is what my fridge looks like right now. I just found a great liquor store that let's you make your own 6 packs here in Tampa - yep I'm on my travels again!

A few of these are on my wish list too - Stone IPA, Founders Breakfast Stout and Dogfish Head Midas Touch.

I'll be trying these in the next few days do keep an eye out for my opinions :-)
 

It's a Pumpkin Time of Year!

 I love autumn, it's my favourite time of year. And I love all things made with pumpkin which are pretty prevailant round about now - including beer! 

I don't get much chance to try all the amazing pumpkin beers out there but here are a few I have:

Pumpking beer by Wychwood Brewery

The only pumpkin beer from the UK I have tried - light on the spicy flavours but has a true pumpkin taste within a malty brew

Post Road Pumpkin by Brooklyn Brewery

This orange amber brew is a good balance of sweet and spicy - a must try!

St. Ambroise The Great Pumpkin Ale from Brasserie McAuslan

A Canadian offering here, this was the first pumpkin beer I tried and was heavy on the spiciness - love it!

Blue Point Pumpkin Ale by Blue Point

My most recent American pumpkin brew this was another spicy offering with a sharpness behind it that was very enjoyable. This one is on my fave list.

Anyone have any pumpkin beer recommendations for me?

 
 
 

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.