How time flies!

Once again, Ashley's Westland are having their annual Cask Ale Fest on May 12, from noon-6PM. Early bird tickets are available here for $20 instead of $35. More info posted when available!

The first guest has already arrived!!

.....and Uncle Dave's party  isn't until Saturday!

(Mr Cicerone has been working around the clock getting the 11 beers we'll be pouring ready, and I've been double-timing it in the kitchen making, um, let's see....cheese tortes, fig/garlic jam brie in filo, smoky baconey beans, mac & cheese, couscous, cheesecake, fancy mayo for the fish and ham, salad dressings, jerk rub for the lamb, and there's still the chicken and ribs....)

Should be a fine time!

Brew Day, Batch 343: 40-40-40 Special Bitter

This is a best bitter built around a conceptual framework, said framework being the number 40. 40, because that is the number of years, as of next week, that my little brother has been around to pester me. Also to make me laugh, talk me down off the ledge, drink my beers, worry me, and make me proud. Thus one of the beers we'll use to commemorate his superannuation will have an original gravity of 1.040, 40 BUs, include 40 oz. of 40 degree Lovibond crystal malt, 40g of a pale chocolate malt, and a couple other 40s worked into the groove.

The crystal malt is really pushing the upper limits of sane usage, at a bit over 15%; I'm betting the 40 BUs and liberal doses of flavor hops will keep this a drinkable beer. If Dave invites you to his birthday party, you'll find out!

Ashley's Cask Fest line-up

The line-up, and the tapping times of each cask has just been announced. Read all about it HERE.

Ashley's Westland Cask Ale Fest

Ashley's cask ale fest is next Saturday! They have announced some of the line-up, and tickets are selling quickly!

See you there!

Ashley's Spring Cask Ale Fest

Ashley's Spring Cask Ale Fest is Saturday May 14. (Wow, events for May are out there already! I can't keep up! Maybe if it would stop snowing I would feel like we're actually heading towards Spring.)

Early bird tickets are on sale until TOMORROW for only $20 each (tickets are $35 normally). Buy them HERE

Here's some posts about previous cask fests....

Michigan Cask Ale festival

Firkins in/on the main bar. There's Rex!

Last Saturday, at Ashley's Westland. 20 casks, set up at 5 stations, and tapped at different times throughout the day. There was a decent size crowd, though memory recalls that the Spring fest was more crowded. Some of the highlights.....Stoudt's Scarlet Lady ESB, Bell's Double Cream Stout, New Holland Ichabod pumkin, Kuhnhenn ESB, Flying Dog Snake Dog IPA, Dark Horse Reserve Special Black. A wonderful surprise was Arcadia's Panama Red, a smoked red ale with a nice hoppy finish. Our Winner O' The Day though, was.....

Jolly Pumpkin's dry-hopped Bam. Yeh.

Two great beer events coming up......

MICHIGAN CASK ALE FEST at Ashley's Westland  on  November 13, noon - 6PM. Info, and get your tickets on-line here, and receive a $10 discount per ticket. This ends tomorrow. For Facebookers, more information here.

Casks that have been announced so far....
Bell's Amber & Double Cream Stout
The Livery Guide IPA & Hopping Dragon Harvest Ale
Founders Harvest Ale

J.W.Lees Harvest Ale aged in a port cask.
Harvest Ale (11.5% alcohol by volume), from the John Willie Lees brewery in Middleton, England, is brewed once a year, for release about December 1, from the first delivery of England's classic Maris Otter barley malt and East Kent Goldings hops. It's fermented in open vessels using three strains of yeast. There are also 4 versions that have been aged in different casks (Port, Sherry, Calvados & Lagavulin whisky), and these are served from a wooden firkin.

J.W. Lees Harvest Ale aged in port. You'll be able to have some if you come to this event!

SECOND ANNUAL ROUGE BREW at LIBERTY STREET BREWERY.
Sunday November 7, 4-6PM. A guided tasting by Michigan beer guru Rex Halfpenny of beers brewed within the Rouge River watershed. Help support "Friends of The Rouge", and have some great beers while you're there.

Detroit Beer Week

Gentlemen, (and ladies,) start your livers!

DBW starts tonight:

Tonight, Tap:Detroit at St. Andrew's Hall, previously detailed here, looks downright overwhelming; we will do our best to take advantage of all the foody and beery goodness on offer.

Sunday, while recovering from tonight's inevitable excesses, (and while hopefully brewing a batch of Dortmunder,) Mrs. Cicerone and I will be working out the final details for Thursday's Beer vs. Wine cheese pairing event at Motor City Wines. Tickets are $20 for approx. 8 pairings, a steal!

Tuesday night, we'll be staying out past our bedtime at Cliff Bell's, swankiest place in town, for their beer dinner, featuring Kuhnhenn Bros. and Dragonmead beers.

More Info:

The Free Press did a nice, thorough piece about Jon, Jason, and DBW here on Thursday, with events listed, and the Facebook list is updated constantly. Also, at my new favorite blog, Dining in Detroit, Nicole is "blogging the hell" out of DBW. Check it out.

Ashley's Cask Ale Fest

It's November 13, noon-6PM. Ashley's Westland.

Buy your tickets on-line by October 10 for only $20!
After October 10 they're $35.

Th Spring cask fest was just great.

Quickie- Cool Stuff We're Doing

Sorry for the sparse posting of late, but your humble Mr. Cicerone's day job is eating him alive!

Tonight, we are making time for a beer, however- Doug at Fort Street is tapping their 145th cask-conditioned ale at 8 ish p.m. "Willamette Damnit" is Piston Pale Ale dry-hopped with Willamette hops. Mmmm...

Saturday night, we're heading to Original Gravity for movie night! Check out the trailer for "Locally Buzzed" here.

We went to Bonny Doon!

That would be Great Taste of the Midwest, a rollicking beery good time held in Madison, WI, on the 2nd Saturday in August, each year. Followed by dinner the same evening at Bavarian Lodge, Lisle, IL. And.....Revolution Brewing and Fountainhead on Sunday (both in Chicago), and a nightcap at Saugatuck Brewing, where we spent the next three days. Er.....in Saugatuck, not at the brewery, though we did find ourselves there more than once...

Highlights from GToM.....
*Kuhnhenn's Gueuze. Yes, gueuze. 'Twas strange to find this in the Real Ale tent though. It was good, though could have done with a wee bit more carbonation (but then it would not have been a Real Ale. Hmmm.) It certainly had some nice funkiness and sourness, but it was also a tad malty and sweet. I could almost call it Faro.
*Metropolitan Brewing's Crankshaft Kolsch. *Destihl Sour Strawberry *Gordon Biersch Gose
*Rockbottom Mango Chili Saison *Short's Nicie Spicie (of course) *Jolly Pumpkin Calabaza Blanca with Hibiscus *Fat Head Pils *O'Fallon Hemp Hop Rye *Goose Island Sofie
If you notice that most of my picks were sour beers, you're right! Bourbon-aged Imperial Stouts, Imperial IPAs and Barley Wines just don't go down too smoothly when it's 90 degrees and 75% humidity.

Check out the beer menu at Bavarian Lodge! Outstanding!
I finally got to try the Saison Du Buff collaboration, and it was worth the wait. I LOVE sage, rosemary & thyme, even in my beer, as long as it's just a nicely done tease. And, Port Hot Rocks steinbier was rich and full of burnt caramel notes. Victory Braumeister Pils snuck in while we were there; it's unfiltered Prima Pils. Wow.

The bacon fat popcorn at Revolution was decadent, as always.....And, three days of books and sorely needed beach relaxation in Saugatuck was sublime (despite our cutesy B & B accomodations). Good beers at Saugatuck Brewing, a fancy new smoking jacket from the local "Antiques Mart" for Mr Cicerone, and dinner two nights in a row at Everday People Cafe in Douglas was icing on the cake (or sage, rosemary & thyme in my saison).

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What's New At Fort Street

Among other things, a cask of dry-hopped IPA! Whoo!

Greetings and salutations!

Every Red Wing playoff game this year has attracted absolutely zero interest so far. Until Sunday. Which, oddly enough, was the first game since the smoking ban took effect. So, was it coincidence, or instead of hating the Red Wings, do people hate smoking? I guess we'll find out at the next game.
This Thursday, May 6th at 8ish p.m., we'll tap our 130th cask-conditioned ale. In honor of the new state law, we've named this beer, "Smoke Free!". The base of the cask is the ever popular, and as yet unreleased, "Piston Pale Ale" with fresh picked, and then frozen, grown in Lincoln Park, Cascade hops. If you like hops, citrus fruit, or sentences that begin with the words, "You're wealthy old uncle wanted you to have this...", you'll love this beer! As always, we'll have some fabulous prizes for a few lucky folks in attendance at the tapping.
For our drinks of the week, we say, "Tequila for my men (and women)!" We've got $3.50 Margaritaville Margaritas and $8 Don Eduardo Margaritas and $1 off shots of any Don Eduardo tequila (Silver, Reposado, or Anejo). We'll also be doing sort of a mini promo for Don Eduardo tequila on Thursday.
Have you ever said to yourself, "Fort Street Brewery is the best! I wonder if they can help me cut my electric bill?" Well, the answer is yes! Just go to http://energyefficientnow.com/tfli_signup.asp, fill out the form, and they'll send you two free energy efficient light bulbs! I'll tell ya, no one else loves ya like we do!
Just a little heads up so you can plan accordingly; May 17 - 22nd is American Craft Beer Week (AKA, the Mother of all Beer Weeks). We'll celebrate by holding our 4th annual Wheatstock Festival the 19th - 21st. We'll tap at least four new wheat beer styles and give prizes each night for the best hippie costumes!
Don't forget that Sunday is National Take Mom Out For A Beer Day, aka Mother's Day. Mom needs a beer!
This week on "Smoke My Meat!", look for Shrimp Alfredo Pizza, Oven Fried Perch, Taco Macaroni, Chicken Fried Chicken, Risotto Balls, Navy Bean Dip, Rocky Mountain Oysters, and Beer Can Chicken (Thursday-Sunday).
To summarize: "Ahhh! Fresh air!"; "Ahhhh! Fresh hops in a cask!"; "1 tequila, 2 tequila, 3 tequila, floor!"; "These new bulbs will save me enough money to buy a keg!"; "Time to dust off my tie-dye!"; and "Let's Go Red Wings!"

See ya soon,

Doug
Fort Street Brewery
www.fortstreetbeer.com
www.facebook.com/fortstreetbrewery
www.twitter.com/fortstreetbeer
1660 Fort St.
Lincoln Park, MI
(313) 389-9620

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Notes From the Road: Revolution Brewing

Sunday before last, on our last stop before heading back home from some beery adventures, we had some of the best commercially produced mild ale I have had in a long, long time. Visually perfect- bright ruby/brown, with a long-lasting creamy head, and perfectly balanced. "Good as homemade!" I exclaimed to the bartender. See?
OK, so the CrapCam (TM) in my phone doesn't make for the best images. So, you'll just have to trust us. The truly eagle-eyed may discern that that is the famed (or soon to be) Bacon Fat Popcorn. Yeah.

What I'm Doing (Drinking) Tomorrow Night

4x4 is back! Almost...

Greetings and salutations!

If you weren't here for last week's cask tapping (and unfortunately, not many were), ya missed a hell of a show! Every time we think that it's not possible to make a bigger mess, someone proves us wrong! Gordie, Gordie, Gordie! I guess I just gotta be more serious about those pre-tapping instructions!
Now that most of the mess is cleaned up, we'll be tapping our 124th cask-conditioned ale this Thursday, March 11th, at 8ish p.m. "Roselle, Roselle" is a young beer's strange and erotic journey from fermenter to cask. The base beer is the soon to return, "4x4" (made with barley, wheat, rye, oats, and four hop varieties) with hibiscus flowers added to the cask. Flowers in beer?! Hell, yeah! These are some fabulously fine-flavored flowers! Fabulous flowers? Anyways, it's a must have. As always, we'll have some priceless prizes for a few lucky folks in attendance at the tapping.
I was just reminded today that St. Patrick's Day is next week! We'll be open at 7 a.m. for breakfast with "St. Pat's Nitro Stout" on tap and we'll stay open until the last leprechaun has left the building.
We have tentatively sold all the limited edition bottles of "Opus Amor", but if you're willing to pay more than $25, I'll gladly give you someone elses bottle. Just let me know ASAP, because I plan to start giving them out this week.
Our drinks of the week this week are Don Q Rum & Coke for just $2, and the exotic and refreshing Carribean Cooler (Don Q Silver Rum and Coconut Rum with pineapple and OJ) for just $2.50. That's a real deal. But you might be thinking to yourself, "If I spend $2.50 on a drink, I won't have enough money to buy a tube of toothpaste!" No problem, just go to www.burtsbees.com and click on the toothpaste icon, fill out the form, and get yourself a free tube of Burt's Bees Natural toothpaste!
If you don't know about all our other new specials, there's just far too many for me to list here, so check out our new and improved website, or check out our Facebook page everyday to see that day's specials.
This week on "Hammer For Hire", you'll hear Katie say, "Hey, Ricky, wanna come over to my house and split some wood?". You'll also hear Ricky say, "OUCH!". And finally, you'll hear Pete say, "This is precisely why I need more cooks!".
On your swollen plate this week, look for Picnic Party Pizza (cold pizza with cream cheese and veggies), Popped Chicken, Italian Sausage Saccotini, Stuffed Pizza (stuffed with chicken spinach, chicken, and 3 cheeses), Honey Baked Walleye, Chicken & Waffles, Stuffed Turkey Burgers, and Beer Can Chicken (Thursday - Sunday).
To summarize: cask-conditioned ale in your glass, and not on the floor or your face; "Flowers for me? You shouldn't have!"; "Does anyone mind if I brush my teeth at the table?"; "Maybe Ricky could work at I-HOP!"; and "yep, we're still short-handed".

See ya soon,

Doug
Fort Street Brewery
www.fortstreetbeer.com
www.facebook.com/fortstreetbrewery.com
www.twitter.com/fortstreetbeer
1660 Fort St.
Lincoln Park, MI
(313) 389-9620

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Cicerones On The Road

Mr. and Mrs. Cicerone are hitting the road tonight, off to Chicago for tomorrow's (sold out) Night Of the Living Ales at Goose Island Wrigleyville. Tonight, we make camp in Grand Rapids, about halfway there, to take a late dinner at Founders taproom. While we're in Chicago, one of our additional targets is Revolution Brewing, which boasts a *gasp* mild ale as one of the regular beers....

Because One Feast Just Ain't Enough

So, with a fridge full of turkey, stuffing, potatoes, assorted vegetables, ice cream, etc, I felt I should spend Friday cooking. Well, low-n-slow cooking; 'twas a full pork shoulder in the barbecue smoker, for 11 hours. Saturday morning found me fork-pulling the meat apart, and whipping up a batch of macaroni and cheese. Once I got out of the way, Mrs. Cicerone stepped back into the kitchen and whipped up a batch of dirty rice. (Cue Homer drooling and moaning...)


The reason for this was real ale. My most recent batch of mild ale had been cask conditioned and tapped on Thanksgiving, and we needed to get some volunteers over to help finish it off. Lemmetellya about this beer: Chestnut colored, tight, creamy head that lasts to the bottom of the glass, gentle fine-bead carbonation. Malt, toffee, whiff of roastiness. Rich, but not sweet. Plus a tiny kiss of Fuggles dry hops. See?


Today, we will relax and eat leftovers....

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A Cicerone Thanksgiving

A beautiful roast turkey with unbelievably rich gravy, and a plethora of side dishes, the product of several days worth of preparation. Many fine beers, and a happy family made for a fine day indeed. A reading from "Warmed By Love", a book of poetry by Leonard Nimoy (Nimoy's a poet??) was the icing on the cake.

TURKEY 18pounds, fresh, acquired at Capital Poultry in Eastern Market. Brined in a simple salt solution for 12 hours. (A lot of) sagey butter smeared under the skin, and in it went, basted frequently with more butter, until the thigh registered 165 degrees. The skin was a rich gold, the dark meat succulent and tasty, and the breast was moist and tasted vaguely of sage. Perfect.

GRAVY A 4 part process. Turkey stock made with turkey wings three days prior. Addition of giblets, and further reduction of stock two days prior when turkey arrived. On the day, heart and neck meat chopped finely and fried until crisp, roux made and cooked until brown, and gravy made with prepared stock. Lastly, defatted pan drippings added to gravy. Oh my.

CRANBERRIES Cooked with dried cherries and an apple. The pectin in the apple allowed the sauce to jell, so I was able to set it into a mold, turn it out, and make it look pretty.

POTATOES Yukon Gold. 8 pounds, peeled and boiled. A looooong hour ricing the whole 8 pounds through a smallish hand food mill. Hot half & half, butter, and salt & white pepper stirred through, and voila! Perfectly creamy delicious potatoes. NOTE: We have family traditionalists who insist on no added ingredients to potatoes, so we were unable to doctor them with roasted garlic, or horseradish, etc. So Mrs Cicerone, on a ridiculous whim, decided to fry half a pound of sliced shallots, a few slices at a time, for an optional garnish. Whew. A ridiculous amount of work ending at midnight two nights before, and a house that really stunk of cooked oil for the next 12 hours. The shallots were not even that good.

STUFFING (It was dressing.) Two kinds. Oyster and shitake mushroom.(Yeh!) Fennel bulb, toasted almonds, black mission figs and sweet Italian sausage. (Delicious!) The bread cubes were made from Italian bread loaves three days prior. The traditionalists won't eat ANY stuffing, so we were scott-free to make whatever we wanted.

VEGETABLES Brussel sprouts with Nueske bacon roasted until brown, crisp and caramelly. (Say no more!) Butternut squash, parsnips, cauliflower & carrots roasted until brown, then minced ginger, pecans and maple syrup added during last half hour of cooking. Mmmmm. (Oh, the traditionalists brought the "safe" vegetable with them- a can of creamed corn.)

SALAD Greens, pomegranate seeds, toasted hazelnuts and feta dressed with a fresh mint and champagne vinegar vinaigrette.

LAGNIAPPE The turkey's liver, roasted along with the turkey, cut into about 6 pieces, and passed around for those worthy enough to enjoy the small, but rich morsel.

BEFORE THE MAIN MEAL
A cheese torte. A simple one made with layers of mixed marscapone and chevre, chopped smoked salmon, fresh dill and chopped pistachios.
Squash soup, made by my sister-in-law from squash they grew. Thick, rich, and tasty, and some added ginger gave the soup a good spicy contrast. A little swirl of Creme Fraiche, and voila!

AFTER THE MEAL
Pumpkin pie, and apple & cranberry pie, both made by my sister-in-law. The traditionalists demand this dessert, and not being a pumpkin pie lover myself I happily leave this to her, and she does make a good one. With whipped cream, made the real way (no canned cream in this house, ever!) Mr Cicerone and I satisfied our dessert wish list by making two different ice creams- a rich custardy vanilla bean, and Mr Cicerone's favourite, malt-with-a-hint-of-chocolate.

BEERS
Mr Cicerone brewed a batch of Mild a few weeks back, and declared he would condition, and serve it, from our firkin, through our beer engine, on Thanksgiving Day. So he did. Imperial pints of Mild were drunk, and enjoyed immensely, throughout the day. Mild is good with food. Any food.
Mr Cicerone's Ginger Wheat went perfectly with the squash soup.
We brought out a bunch of bottled beers to share with the turkey course. Jolly Pumpkin's La Parcela pumpkin ale, Clipper City's "Prosit" Imperial Octoberfest, The Bruery's Autumn Maple, and Ettaler Kloster Dunkel were shared amongst the beer drinkers. All were great with the turkey and trimmings. The Bruery's Autumn Maple was stellar- a wonderful blend of spice, malt & alcohol warmth, all in balance. "Prosit" was a nice surprise- a strong marzen with a good hoppy finish that kept the malt sweetness in check. La Parcela is just good, always, and Ettaler Dunkel is such an exquisite example of the style (and Dunkel goes with everything, also).
We opened a Southern Tier "Pumking" when we served the desserts. We knew it was not a great match with the already-sweet course, but wanted a few people to try this popular strong and sweet pumpkin ale. As expected, it was received well. The Mild was a great match with the pies. (Mr. Cicerone notes that Uncle Dave sandbagged a bit of the Autumn Maple to go with his pie, and declared it excellent.)

THE AFTERMATH
After three days of cooking (and extra hours working at the store), a house full of people, loads of food and beer, Leonard Nimoy, a cacophony of Tiki Time and our whistling, dancing pink flamingo at the same time, and the clean-up, Mr Cicerone and I sat down, at last, at 11PM, exhausted, but happy. I downed two bottles of Great Lakes Christmas Ale, rather quickly. Aaaaaah.

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Recap: Michigan Cask Ale Festival At Ashley's Westland

'Twas brillig! I was on hand as a, uh, technical advisor, which meant mainly getting handed samples of beer and getting asked if it was OK. (Note: it is always OK to give me beer.)

Here is what poured:

Bell's Double Cream Stout
Bell's Amber
Bell's Porter
Arbor Larry Hoppe Imperial IPA
Stone Oak-aged Smoked Porter
Morland Old Speckled Hen
New Holland Mad Hatter IPA
Motor City Brewing Works Pale Ale
Flying Dog Doggie Style Pale Ale
Dark Horse Crooked Tree IPA
Dragonmead Earl's Spit Stout
Dark Horse Scotty Karate Scotch Ale
Kuhnhenn Brothers Loony Kuhnie Pale Ale
Greene King IPA
Founders Centennial IPA
Arcadia Scotch Ale
Greene King Ruddles County Bitter

Unbelievably, I managed to sample all but one! This was mostly due to limiting my sample sizes, though I didn't apply that limit to the Double Cream. All of the Bell's beers were in excellent condition, with nice long lasting foam stand. The quality overall was excellent; some favorites were Arcadia Scotch, Ruddles, and Loony Kuhnie.

Kudos to Jeff Mohr and his staff for pulling this off, and also to our buddy Gary Lawrence and his colleagues at Rave Associates for their planning and hard work. There is already talk about repeating this event in the spring. Count me in!

Upcoming events at Ashley's are posted at www.ashleys.com.

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Recap: Aaron & Beth's wedding

And what a wedding it was. Spectacular location (Belle Isle Casino), clear and sunny day (albeit a bit chilly!), gorgeous bride, behatted groom, moustachio'd officiant, and beer and food fit for kings. THE BEER. German-style pils and a cask of Irish stout, brewed by Mr Cicerone. Stone Levitation Ale. Founders Black Biscuit (maple-aged old ale).
THE FOOD. Prepared by genius-chefs Brian and Mike from Slows BarBQ. Appetizers were mini pumpkin tarts and bacon-wrapped dates stuffed with blue cheese (Oh My!!). (Pils with the pumpkin tarts, and Levitation Ale with the dates.) Entrees were leg of lamb and brisket at the carving stations, the famed Slows mac & cheese, two other vegetarian dishes comprising pumpkin, beans and various other delicious ingredients and green beans. (Mr Cicerone's stout went well with all of this.) Dessert was creme brulee.....WITH BACON. (Another Oh My!). The Founders Black Biscuit was a perfect match with this.

We all had a ball. The "after party" at The Belmont in Hamtramck was an event all in itself.....