Brew Day, Batch 377: Pumpkin Ale

It's been a few years since I've gone to the trouble to make pumpkin ale for Thanksgiving, and Mrs. C. has decreed that we shall have some this year. My idea of pumpkin ale is an amber to brown malty ale, (with a distinct orange tint from said pumpkins,) with just enough spice to round out the flavors a bit. This year I decided to roast the pumpkins whole in my barbecue, which is a) easy, and b) might add a subtle smoky nuance to further round out the pumpkin and spice flavors. Here's how it went down:


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Oy! This is a tough one!

See all these awesome beers? None of them worked with the dish. We rarely have this much trouble, but this one has us stumped!
The dish? We can't be giving too much away, as it's for Beer Brunch, but it's spicy, and everything so far just makes the beer far too bitter.
Back to the drawing board....

And the winner.....

The contenders.....
Lips of Faith "Brett Beer" collaboration between New Belgium & The Lost Abbey (brewed at New Belgium).
"Escoffier Bretta Ale"  collaboration between New Belgium & Brewery Vivant (brewed at Brewery Vivant).

The winner? Escoffier. Hands down. More Brett character, more sourness. Complex, balanced, perfect.

Living the good life....

...with cheese and beer.

Manchego, Vella Dry Jack, Sartori Bellavitano washed in Raspberry Tart , Italian sheep's milk with black truffle. Spanish chorizo.

Mr Cicerone's Sorachi Ace Saison, Hacker Pschorr Oktoberfest, Mr Cicerone's Kolsch, Vivant  Contemplation.

This cheese is amazing! It's washed in New Glarus Raspberry Tart beer.

A smarter person would have just bought a jar of pickled beets....

....and used the juice. (It's for a Beer Brunch dish). (We also boiled and peeled 36 quail eggs.)

Oh! But then we wouldn't have been able to make a meal of those delicious beet greens! A small glass of Mr Cicerone's awesome porter while I was squeezing made it all worthwhile. In my He'Brew glass of course, as it's Rosh Hashanah. Shana Tova!

Practising!

Corn caramelizing, fava beans steaming, corn & onions steaming & ranch dressing being made. All part of practise runs for our upcoming Beer Brunch. Oh, and Mr Cicerone's Kolsch was delicious. We nailed down 3 courses last night, and drank (too) many beers. (I'm hungover today.) See how hard we're working for all our friends?

Speaking of tomatoes.....

Our first Pink Caspian!! Picked yesterday!

Critter Update

Despite the baited cage,  motion detectors and video surveillance, we have seen, and caught NOTHING. Until this, a few days ago....

  

 

Another half-eaten tomato! In the same place! However.....it seems that the tomatoes are not from our yard. Good for us, I guess. Sorry tomato-robbed neighbour, whoever you are!

Brew Day, Batch 376: Session IPA V2

The keg gridlock here at Chez Cicerone is breaking up, and we're anticipating a bit of loosening of refrigeration gridlock soon, so I can resume brewing. This is fortunate, as I was getting awfully tetchy; I've been casting about for something to kill for the last few weeks. Today will be a second tilt at this windmill, wherein I lighten the color and toastiness on the malt side, while leaving the very pleasant hop bill substantially intact. Here's the poop:



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This is awesome!

(Guess who??)