Drinking Adventurously – In Meg’s Kitchen

November 15, 2016June 19, 2017 ~ Meg ~ 37 Comments

Week 46 In the Year Of Drinking Adventurously. Pickleback – not so much a fail as, ‘eww, who drinks that?’

Briefly, pickleback –just so you know what it is and why I skipped it– is a shot of whiskey followed by a shot of pickle juice as a chaser. Not appealing.

Anyway, remember the week we were supposed to drink Spanish Cidre and I ended up with the horrible, pathetic domestic alternative? Well, a fellow blogger kindly offered to help me out. My friend Javier offered to locate and ship a Spanish Cidre to me, and he totally came through. Not just with cidre but with some bonus swag as well:

And yes, my kitchen has a TV facing the bar. The giant inflatable bottle of beer will go out to the pool next summer. And, uh, ignore the mess…

The large bottle in the center is the star of the show, Gurutzeta Cidre from the Basque region of Spain.

And oh, what a difference from the sickly sweet American imposter. This wasn’t sweet, was slightly tart, but still had a nice apple flavor and it had a ‘tiny bubble’ kind of carbonation, if that makes sense. Lovely, indeed. And in the weeks since cider was the adventure, I’ve done some research and discovered that making hard cider isn’t that much different from home brewing beer which brings me to chapter two of this post.

Last Friday, my girlfriend Cathy acquired six gallons of freshly pressed cider from a local orchard for each of us to convert to an alcoholic version.

I decided to make a traditional hard cider with hints of ginger, cinnamon, and allspice. I added 3 pounds of brown sugar to up the alcohol content. I realize that sounds like the cider will be sweet but that’s not the case. All that sugar will be converted to alcohol by the yeast as it ferments. When it’s finished, the cider should be rather dry and have an ABV of about 9% which is more than twice that of a standard beer. The fresh cider is warmed to about 80-90° F, the sugar and spices stirred in to dissolve, then transferred to the fermenting bucket before adding the yeast.

Cathy added honey and sour cherry concentrate to her batch, for a completely different flavor profile. Sounds amazing, right? We’ll trade samples when it’s ready. Here’s the bad news – it probably won’t be finished for six months!

I’m going off the map again next week, too. But I haven’t a clue where I will end up! I wonder if Lula tried the pickle back…

The sketch in the header image is my own.

Michelada – a beer Bloody Mary

September 20, 2016June 15, 2017 ~ Meg ~ 55 Comments

Week 38 in The year of Drinking Adventurously. Chavelas and Micheladas.

I love beer, I love Bloody Marys, so this week’s adventure makes me happy. At first this may seem like a weird combination but it’s really no weirder than some of the other things people do to beer. Hello, pumpkin anyone?

Both of these cocktails hail from Mexico and are slotted into this week because of Mexican Independence Day on September 16th. The chavela is a more involved version of this cocktail: served in a large bowl-like glass rimmed with salt and picante spices, filled two-thirds of the way with a tomato based liquid. This could be tomato juice, V8 or Clamato on the rocks, mixed with hot sauce and garnished with shrimp. The bottle of beer comes on the side, ready to be emptied in after resting for a bit. Not being a fan of shrimp, this was out for me.

The michelada, on the other hand, is basically a Bloody Mary – just swap out the vodka for beer. To make things interesting, I went all “foodie” for this one, making my own tomato juice in the handy, dandy Vitamix blender. I added Worcestershire sauce, Cholula hot sauce, lime juice, sea salt and freshly cracked pepper. The volume was about half of what would eventually comprise the cocktail. The beer half is my own home-brewed lager on tap in the kegerator. So good!

As cocktail culture has become a ‘thing’ all sorts of new concoctions are gaining popularity. Still waiting to see this on a cocktail menu in my neighborhood, though. Until then, I will continue to make it at home. So if you like a Bloody Mary, I encourage you to give this one a go. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Make sure to see if Lula liked her cervezas y mas, this week!

And one more thing, since we’re talking about Mexico and its recent commemoration of independence… My friend Roger Moore, professor and poet, traveler and story teller, has spent time in the Mexican State of Oaxaca getting to know the people and their history. One of my favorite poems- Inquisitor – is part of The Sun and Moon collection, now available on Amazon. Please do pay a Roger a visit and enjoy his wonderful poetry!

Poor planning is the key to flexibility!

April 5, 2016April 5, 2016 ~ Meg ~ 33 Comments

Week 14 in the Year of Drinking Adventurously! Shochu. …And its a fail!

If y’all (I swear I’m catching this accent from my Southern friends) remember, I got pretty sick last week. From Wednesday through the weekend, I was out of commission with the flu. I canceled all my appointments, I barely did any writing – thank goodness I had some stuff prepared ahead of time for the A to Z challenge. And needless to say, I didn’t get out of the house to buy “booze of the week” Shochu. If I’d just bought the stuff the week before when I got the saké… Like I said, poor planning. I’m going to have to send you to Lula for her take on the “yellow liquor” –another Japanese offering this week.

So since I can’t report on shochu, I thought we could talk about Godzilla… Just kidding! I’m going to update you on the home brewing operation at Radioactive Monsters Brewing Company —aka my kitchen. But that’s what we’re going to call it now that the first two brews: The Belgian Blonde and the English Ale are kicked.

First up: King Kong Kolsche. A Kolsche is a classic style of ale that originated in Cologne, Germany. It has a clean, pure malt flavor with mild bitterness, subtle fruit notes and a crisp finish. It isn’t a high ABV (alcohol by volume) brew so it’s perfect for summer drinking by the pool. This is what we would refer to as a “session” beer!

Next: The long anticipated —wait for it— RODAN RED! (Here’s your beer, Rob!) The Rodan Red is an Irish Ale. Look at the beautiful color:

Oh, it turned out so nice… Full of flavor, slightly bitter finish… Put both of these brews in the win column. And speaking of win, how about those Villanova Wildcats?!? More about them in another post!

So sorry about the shochu fail, guys! Next week, I promise to do better!