It's that time of year again..

....as Mr Cicerone and I practise, practise, practise in creating 10 new food and beer pairings for our annual Beer Brunch. (Here's 2009's)

Last week we pulverized a bunch of grapes and almonds into, er, something.....and tried 6 beers until we found just the right one. A recent evening of tasting cheese and a bunch of beers found us reinventing an "oldie but goodie" for this year's brunch, and we're making a test batch this weekend just to be sure. By accident we recently discovered a perfect beer accompaniment to grilled pineapple, and decided we might add that in to the menu- to discover the perfect beer was a limited release. So- last night we set upon tasting a lot of beer to find something with just the right nuances.....The salad course created some problems finding a perfect beer match but we did nail that one finally (luckily we love cucumber). Tonight it's all about bacon. We're about half done....and we're not giving away any more!

Beer Brunch 2012

THE MENU......
PIZZICATO
A plethora of olives, pickled quail eggs with Jolly Pumpkin La Roja
Skip's pickled green tomatoes with Jolly Pumpkin Weizen Bam*
CHIAROSCURO
Kiss Yo' Mama Soup (corn & crab) with Mr Cicerone's Robust Porter
BLUDGEON
Garlic shrimp and grits with Mr Cicerone's (famous) Rye Peppercorn Pale Ale
CATERPILLAR
Bitter greens, tangerine, blood orange, walnuts, lemon-ginger vinaigrette, hop candy crunch with Mr Cicerone's Dynamomium IPA
ANIMALS
Duck, pork, veal & pistachio terrine, La Roja pickled cherries with Mr Cicerone's Buster 2010
INTERMEZZO
Spooky Trail Farm wildflower honey with Mr Cicerone's Atmospherium Saison


...Full post

Things To Do With Leftovers

OK, most homebrewers know what to do with leftover malt extract. But there are other options besides beer. For one of the courses in our annual beer brunch, I wanted to pair my Batch 300 barleywine, made with 30% flaked rye, with French toast made with rye sourdough, and topped with a malt extract similar in makeup to the wort used for the beer. Unfortunately, my local homebrew supply doesn't stock 30% rye malt extract, so I made a small stovetop mash with the desired ingredients, and then reduced the wort down to a thick, intensely flavored, gloopy syrup. The pairing, which also included a dollop of sour cherry jam, was probably my favorite of all the nine courses. There sure was a lot of malt syrup left over though, and there is something else that has malt in it that is almost as good as beer- malt ice cream! We have a swell gadget called a Donvier, that we use to make the flavors of ice cream that they don't sell in the store. It's very easy, and low-stress; you make up a cooked custard, chill overnight, and freeze it in the Donvier for about 20 minutes, stirring a few times every couple minutes. Here's what goes into the malt ice cream, more or less:

2 eggs
1 to 1-1/2c malt extract syrup
-or-
1 c malt extract powder
2/3 c sugar
2 c milk
1/4 c cocoa (optional)
2 c cream
splash of vanilla extract

Beat milk and egg  yolks together. Blend in sugar and malt. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens. Remove from heat, and blend in cocoa (if included.) Cool, mix in cream and vanilla, and chill overnight. Freeze according to ice cream gizmo's instructions. Yield is a little over a quart of frozen bliss....

What I'm Talkin' 'Bout

Once a year, in early fall, we invite around a dozen hardy, fearless souls to join us for a Sunday Brunch. This usually runs from around noon to 7PM, as we end up running off on tangents, fetching interstitial beers, investigating other ideas for beer matches, and generally having a whale of a time. (And ending up feeling like a beached whale by the time it's all over...) Here's the menu from last fall:

Annette & Mike’s Beer Brunch 2008…..

De Ranke XX Bitter
-with-
Buckwheat honey-basted slow-roasted tomato and ricotta bruschetta

Schneider Hefeweizen
- with-
Jarlsberg & horseradish omelet

Mike’s Dunkel
-with-
Yeast-raised waffles with marscapone cheese & hibiscus syrup

Dieu du Ciel! Rosee de Hibiscus
-with-
Sticky grilled chicken wings with plum and hot pepper jelly sauce

Mike’s Ginger Wheat beer
-with-
Vietnamese spring rolls and rhubarb and ginger dipping sauce

Goose Island’s Matilda
-with-
Rack of lamb with onion and shallot confit on a bed of mashed potato

Stone Brewing 12th Anniversary Chocolate Oatmeal Stout
-with-
Home-made chocolate-malt &red bean ice-creams

The Stash from the Cellar
-with-
Assorted Cheeses

...Full post

Beer Brunch 2011

It's over, again. Only 365 more days until the next one! Here's the menu....


Shipyard's XXXX IPA with grilled shrimp and pineapple tostadas. (The original beer match was Liberty Street's 42nd Parallel IPA, but it was a limited release and we were unable to acquire more.)
Mr Cicerone's Maibock with horseradish deviled  eggs. (Wow!) (It was supposed to be deviled DUCK eggs, but sadly the promised duck eggs did not actualize.)
Mr Cicerone's "Buster 2010" Uber Doppelbock with grape and almond gazpacho. (This soup was really delicious and different. Green grapes, a little cucumber, toasted almonds, yoghurt, buttermilk, cream cheese, a little cayenne and fresh dill, pulverized together, and garnished with fresh red currants. We tried many beers with this dish, and only something as intensely flavoured as the chosen uber doppelbock could stand up to the soup!)
Mr Cicerone's Nugget Pale Ale with duo of toasts & marmalades (Avalon Bakery rye sourdough with blood orange marmalade, and Avalon sublimely-superbly-spectacular brioche loaf with tangerine marmalade.) (This course came about as Mr Cicerone was pondering what might taste great with his Nugget pale ale "which tastes like toast & marmalade") (Note: Trying to have 34 pieces of hot toast arrive at the table at the same time was not necessarily fun.)

Arbor Brewing's Sacred Cow IPA with chick pea curry. (Oh, look! There's Rene & Matt Greff! What a coincidence! For those unaware, they are about to open a brewpub in Bangalore, India, where Sacred Cow IPA will be renamed Raging Elephant IPA.)
Mr Cicerone's Rye Peppercorn Pale Ale & Stone Brewing's Smoked Porter with truffled macaroni & cheese. An oldie but a goodie. We used a Michigan cheese called "Truffle Jack" that had huge pieces of black truffle dispersed through it! Both beers were spectacular with it, especially the smoked porter!

INTERMEZZO Honey ginger-wheat beer paletas. 

Mr Cicerone's Cask-conditioned Stout with crawfish etouffee.  Laissez les bon temps rouler!

.

Mr Cicerone's Atmospherium Saison with miso-dressed cucumbers over soba noodles. A favourite amongst the attendees.

Schlenkerla Rauchbier with bacon, lettuce, & tomato on Laugenbrotchen with chipotle mayo. That would be Nueske applewood-smoked bacon, home-grown Caspian Pink tomatoes, arugula, and home-made mayo made with some of the bacon fat and chipotle oil. (A grueling 30 minutes of continuous hand-whisking the day before. Worth it!)

Dessert:  Dragonmead's Sin Eater Belgian strong ale & vanilla ice cream float. 

Kitty dressed for the occasion

Mr & Mrs Cicerone, thanking everyone who came!
 

...Full post

Kegs and Eggs at Slows- July 19

From Tara......

Hey Everyone!!! So to help bring you some more fun in the sun we here at Slows are hosting our first Kegs & Eggs Patio Brunch. Chef Brian & Michael are planning some fun & yummy beer friendly breakfast delights-- do I dare say scotch eggs!!! Also Aaron from Stone Brewery and Jon from Arcadia will be on hand to answer any beer questions since we will be serving Stone Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale, Stone Levitation Ale & a gravity poured Arcadia Whitsun. We also will be tapping in to Breckenridge's Agave Wheat, all said beers are quite yummy with eggs!!! So here how it goes $25 for 4beers and food!!!! how can u beat this???--You can't!!! Beer starts at 12pm-state rules!!! Food will be out and going from 12:30-3pm(or until gone)!!!! We will be running the beer &fun until at least 5pm!!! Music, BEER,Eggs,Brewer garb & lots'O fun!!!! Hope you are able to make it!!!! Please let us know if you are so food will be ample!!! Brian and Michael are also working on smoking their own breakfast sausage!!!--I mean, I'm just saying!!!! See you on the 19th!!!!-Tara

KEGS & EGGS
SLOWS BARBQ
JULY 19 12PM-5PM (FOOD 12:30-3PM)
2138 MICHIGAN AVE.--PATIO!!!! SAY A PRAYER TO MOTHER NATURE!!!
RSVP 313-962-9828 OR VIA EMAIL 2138BEER@GMAIL.COM

...Full post

Dark Lord Revisited

We'd had Three Floyds' Dark Lord Imperial Stout last fall, a bottle of which Annette had acquired at the annual feeding frenzy at the brewery...

For those unaware, Dark Lord is released (and sold out) on one day at the brewery each year in March. People come from far and wide, and line up outside hours before opening, kind of like all those Star Wars geeks. So, we brought out the beer at the "stash from the cellar" phase of last year's beer brunch, and it was good. OK. Decent. If it seems I'm damning it with faint praise, well, it didn't seem to live up to the hype.

Some time later, our friend Aaron gave Annette another bottle of Dark Lord, which sat in our Circus Room until Aaron, his girlfriend Beth, and our friend Jason came over one recent Sunday for cassoulet. Dessert was homemade coconut ice cream, which is something easy and fun to pair up with beers. The coconut flavors one may find in a dark beer aged in a bourbon cask can hook up with the coconut in the ice cream, and roasty and chocolaty and whiskey flavors all complement, and are complemented by, the sweet creaminess. We brought out some Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout, which worked just like downtown. We also had on hand some 2008 Goose Island Bourbon County Stout, but at this stage of the day, we didn't think we quite had the stamina left to meet that challenge and still be able to manage the Dark Lord. This time, Dark Lord really shone. Lots of dark, French-roasty flavor, lots of hop bitterness, chocolate, moderate to high residual sweetness, and alcohol all seemed to balance each other very nicely. And of course it rocked with the ice cream.

I still have a scoop of that ice cream left, and some Bourbon County....

...Full post

Nuptials, April 3, 2004

Where would two people who love beer as much as we do be wed? Our first choice would have been in our yard with everyone toasting us with a glass of Mike’s homebrew, but due to our house’s inability to comfortably fit more than about 10 people, we were wed in one of our favourite bars, the singular Delilah’s on Lincoln Ave, Chicago. Not only were we wed in the bar, the incomparable owner of Delilah’s, Mike Miller, was the officiant. The Rev wore zebra-striped shoes, and the ceremony brought tears to everyone’s eyes, and included these wonderful and apt sentiments...

”I kiss her, Her lips open, And I am drunk without a beer”
“Do you agree to always share your favourite beverages?” (We do!)
“I would rather have a crust of bread and a tent With You than be queen of all the world.”
“I would rather have a Bud Light and a tent With You than be king of all the world.”

And so we were wed, and our family and closest friends toasted us with Bosteels Deus. Mike and I toasted each other with Lindeman’s Cuvee Rene Gueuze, 1994 vintage. Mmmmm.

After a few beers at Delilah’s while everyone admired the artwork, (Delilah’s is host to local art exhibits, and this is what was on show the day of our wedding...Loverly!!) Art#1, Art#2, Art#3, we headed over to Mike & Louise’s Hopleaf in Andersonville for our wedding repast. We feasted on mussels and frites for appetizers, and our entrée selections were gourmet sandwiches- Smoked duck breast with greens, tomato-ginger jam & herb aioli on gilled sourdough, BLT with Nueskie bacon on grilled bread, and Nueskie ham with gruyere and apple-tarragon coleslaw on pumpernickel. Aragula salad and more frites complemented the sandwiches. Dessert was a rich bread pudding. The accompanying beverages were Etienne Dupont Normandie Cidre, De Ranke XX Bitter, Dogfish Head Au Courant (first version) and Bell’s Double Cream Stout. The evening ended at Tuman’s Tavern with pints of Bell’s porter amongst other beers.

Late next morning we reconvened at Goose Island, Clybourn, for brunch and a beer before we all headed back home to Michigan, but not before one last stop at Old Hat in Lawton, MI, where we had a couple of pints and listened to the Cats In The Hat bring the house down. A memorable weekend!

We honeymooned in New Orleans, and certainly had our fair share of great food and beers at Crescent City Brewery, Coops, Cooter Brown’s and DBA, and on our last night I ate more than I’ve ever eaten before at Jacques-Imo Café, a fine institution that luckily survived the hurricane and is still going strong. It was one of the most decadent meals we’ve ever eaten, still to this day, and included a rich crawfish cheesecake as an appetizer before a host of other mudbug dishes. We groaned our way back to the hotel, and our plans to paint the town red on our last night were thwarted by our inability to keep our pants zipped without wincing in pain.

This gustatory (and romantic) tale ends a couple of months later when summer was in full force. We had a post-wedding party in our yard and invited a host of people that didn’t attend our small and intimate wedding. Our grill was put to good use, and many fine beers were drunk including our special wedding beer, a Belgian-style strong ale that our friend Steve brewed for us. We still have some bottles and it’s still delectable. This party spawned the famous “ Allen Park burning Porta-potti incident”, and is the reason we are now black-listed from every portable toilet company in the vicinity. Honestly, we still have no real explanation as to how the Porta-potti caught fire 48 hours after the party ended. Photo of carnage

...Full post

Another Beer Brunch bites the dust....

(I'm suffering the aftermath as I write this- pure physical weariness along with that loverly "day- after-a-bit-too-much" woozy feeling. But O! It was SO worth it!)

Here's what we had.....
Mr Cicerone's "I'm Not a Frenchie" strong golden ale with gougeres (that's cheesey puffs), and bacon-fat popcorn with parmesan and fried sage leaves.
Mr Cicerone's ginger wheat ale with gazpacho Andaluso drizzled with ginger cream

Mr Cicerone's "Batch 300" rye barley wine with rye sourdough french toast, rye wort reduction syrup and sour cherry jam.

Mr Cicerone's "Old School" American IPA with greens, walnuts, chevre, mango and an Amarillo hop and blood orange marmalade vinaigrette.

He'Brew "Rejewvenator" date doppelbock with chicken liver mousse and broiled figs.

INTERMEZZO: Redstone Meadery "Nectar of the Hops".

Mr Cicerone's dunkel with double secret ultimate umami burger sliders with mystery meat, manchego, tomato & shitake.

Mr Cicerone's rye peppercorn pale ale with preserved lemon cheesecake.
Mr Cicerone's "Buster" blonde uber bock with cheese- Manchego (Spain), Chimay a la Biere (Belgium), Mature Scottish cheddar (Scotland)

Three Floyds Dark Lord Stout 2009 with coconut ice cream.

Courtesy of Mr Cicerone's incredible year of brewing (two of the beers were brewed last year), we were heavy on the homebrew and light on commercial beers this time around.

Beautiful weather, fantastic food, amazing beer, even some good pairings if I say so myself, and great friends to share it all with. Life can be good!!



(Eeer, Uncle Dave, is that you??)

...Full post

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....

A great pairing....

What a shame that our young friends Justin & Nik don't have more of this beer.....
If they did, we would plunder and pillage their supply to serve to our friends at our upcoming Beer Brunch. We've been working on a salad pairing- the salad made with a hop and marmalade vinaigrette and paired with Mr Cicerone's IPA. Justin & Nik's Beta Drive Mango IPA worked wonderfully with our simple salad comprised of greens, chunks of grapefruit, some scattered walnuts and a little fresh goat cheese, drizzled with the hop vinaigrette. Maybe we'll try adding some mango chunks to the salad to see if this recreates the flavours!

On its own merits, Beta Drive poured a brilliant dark orange colour, a little hazy due to the mango pulp, and with a nice full head. Aromas of mango and hops, and initial flavours of sweet mango and malt tied in nicely with the fruity notes from the hops (Citra I think). The pronounced bitter finish added "the zamboni effect" on the tongue, ensuing no cloying mango fruitiness remained. Well done! Hide your stash!

The Feinschmeckers Are Coming!

OK it's Sam, not Paul, but Paul Revere didn't actually yell out a warning about the British, either. We are at the final countdown to our annual beer brunch; nervously watching the weather, readying the mountain of plates, glasses, cutlery, cooking, cellar stuff, acquiring tables and chairs, printing menus. This is nowhere near the biggest event we host at our house, but the meal is ambitious in scope, thus we can accommodate, at maximum, around 16 people. And if it rains, doing it indoors in our tiny house, well, let's just say it had better not rain....

It's starting.....

The practice runs for Beer Brunch, that is. Tonight? Wee Heavy, Buster 2009, Buster 2010 and Dynamomium. All contenders for the quiche-to-end-all quiches, caramelized onion. The winner? Now, that would be giving it away, for those that are attending....

 Three pounds of onions, cooked on loooow heat for 1 1/2 hours until caramelixed...

Become this! Onion quiche. With all the beers!

It's time, once again....

....for our annual Beer Brunch, and we've started plotting and prepping. As I write, there's a big pot of a rye wort reducing on the stove, which will be used in....well, I can't give any secrets away yet. Let's just say that Mr Cicerone has come up with a great work of genius with this one.

Because we both love soup, I made a test batch of, err, soup the other night, utilizing our insanely huge and luscious Caspian Pink tomatoes that are starting to overtake our garden and our house. 'Nuff said, but boy, was this just delicious with Mr Cicerone's Ginger Wheat.

Tomorrow night I do a test run on something made with Foie. The base recipe comes from La Julia, with a little twist of my own - we're trying to reproduce something we had on a fantastic Charcuterie plate at The Local Taphouse in Melbourne, Australia, earlier this year.

The coconut jam is on its way in the mail, the fresh sardines are not, as I couldn't find a source for them, and so it goes....

Now, if I could only find something to do with giant sunflowers......

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!

Beer Brunch 2009

Mrs. Cicerone is mopping the floors, and there are about three more loads to run through the dishwasher, but otherwise, it's over. Oh, there may also be a few tasty morsels left over, as well. We're too tired to puke out too much flowery prose about the insouciance of the Belgian ale as counterpoint to the ebullience of the confit, etc, so just check out the menu...

Ginger Wheat Ale
with
Lobster salad in brioche
Rare tuna in wonton cup with ginger cream
~~~
Guinness 250th Anniversary Stout
with
French onion soup & Reyes blue cheese toast
~~~
Hacker Pschorr Oktoberfest
with
Heirloom tomato, cheddar, chevre, and brie pie
Salad greens dressed with tomato vinaigrette
~~~
Les Deux Brasseurs Belgian “wild” ale
with
Poached quail egg over linguine with carbonara, shallots & black truffle
~~~
Intermezzo: Grass Roots Saison Sorbet
~~~
Rye Peppercorn Pale Ale
with
Roast pork tenderloin in ginger lemon glaze with artichoke, couscous, and preserved lemon
~~~
Rauchbier
with
Polenta in mole sauce and caramelized corn
~~~
Schwarzbier
with
New York Cheesecake
~~~
The stash from the cellar
with
Assorted Chocolates and Cheeses

(beers not noted otherwise were homemade)

...Full post

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?

Beer Brunch - Acknowledgements

Rye peppercorn ale idea stolen from my buddy Larry Kress.

Hop infused oil idea stolen from Sean Paxton.

Bacon fat popcorn stolen from Revolution Brewing in Chicago.

Chicken liver mousse idea stolen from the Local Taphouse in Melbourne.

Dunkel idea stolen from Bavaria.

Thanks to one and all!

Arbor Beer Dinner Tonight at Foran's Grand Trunk

Sunday, we were at Foran's to take advantage of their delicious brunch before participating in Marche du Nain Rouge, and found out about this. We booked our seats right then. Should've got this up sooner; check out this lineup:

MENU:

First Course
Tallywacker Scotch Ale
Saffron-Crab Bisque served with Jalapeno Cheddar Corn Fritters

Second Course
Brasserie Blonde
Vietnamese Chicken Fresh Rolls with Spicy Peanut Dipping Sauce

Third Course
Red Snapper Roasted Pale Ale
Crispy Shredded Pork Flautas with Avocado Puree and Smoked Red Pepper Coulis

Fourth Course
Faricy Fest Irish Stout
Chocolate Malted Milkshake

Wednesday, March 23, 2011
7:00-10:00 PM
612 Woodward Ave.
Detroit, MI 48226
313-961-3043

Advance Tickets are $40 pre-sale only. Call ahead to Forans Grand Trunk Pub to reserve your ticket today. Seating is limited.

Love the two-fisted fourth course! Maybe I'll put a straw in each, and drink them simultaneously!