Another Pint Please...

Is there a game tonight?

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Lang) — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 17:03:00 +0000

Apparently there is some large sporting event planned for later this evening…or at least that's what I determined based upon the number of people shopping at the grocery store yesterday. This time of year, large crowds at Kroger tend to mean the pending arrival of "white death". Although since I noticed no one buying milk or bread, I concluded the mass of humanity was stocking up because of the Super Bowl.

Even though I am not the biggest sports fan in the world, I do tend to enjoy any event that happens to include food and beer. So yes, I will be watching the Super Bowl. As the hours tick down to game time, there is still time to fire up the grill, head out to the store and participate in your own local grocery flash mob.

When you do, here are some last minute snack ideas:

Wings

Nothing says game day food like chicken wings. In fact, my friend Todd at Boston Beer has a great post on his game day wings, which I am making for myself this year. Here are some other ideas for you from the APP archives:

Grilled Asian Zing Wings

Drunk 'n Planked Wings

Grilled Honey Mustard Whiskey Injected Wings

Fatty

If pork was an abundant part of the early Egyptian diet, I would fully expect the fatty to be mentioned in hieroglyphics on the wall of some pyramid. It's that important, that good and also the official "food" of Brew Day. What else is there to say?

The Stuffed Fatty

Health(ier) Stuff

Everything served for the big game doesn't have to kill you by the time baseball's spring training starts. Here are some final last minute ideas. Enjoy the game and happy grilling!

Grilled Eggplant Stacks

Feta & Herb Planked Portabellos

Goat Cheese Stuffed Pepperdews

Sam Adams, Mighty Oak Ale

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Lang) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 02:24:00 +0000

I love the pending change of the seasons, as it invariably means new seasonal beers. Enter Samuel Adams Mighty Oak Ale.

I have to admit, I really wanted to love this beer. In the end though, we parted as friends with the hope to get together in a couple weeks. Not exactly the fireworks I had expected.

Everything started off great, too. The beer poured a beautiful ruby red color and was topped with a small head. The nose hinted of vanilla. My first taste was more vanilla, malt and an oaky woody finish which really stuck to my lips. The beer had a rather thin mouthfeel and also an interesting sourish cherry note, which I couldn't completely place.

The last note to myself was "not bad, but not great". I would like to revisit Mighty Oak again in the future. Preferably in a couple weeks because, you know, he promised.

NB: Samuel Adams provided Mighty Oak Ale for me to review. Also, for all of you arborists out there, I am well aware the tree above is a Maple, and not an Oak. I've cleaned enough of its leaves out of my gutter to know.

Brew Day: Jambalaya Edition

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Lang) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 02:45:00 +0000

I believe we can carve this in stone. Winter days make for better Brew Days. Last week we ran a rarely held Sunday Brew Day. Rare, because Monday means back to work. Successful, because the Society continues to grow.

So much happened on Sunday, I need to break it up into parts.

Jambalaya

The newest member of the society is my neighbor and good friend, Bryan. Bryan and his brother Brad, are half of the band Brothers in Arms, an incredible rock band with a long local history. Outside of Bryan's musical talents, he also has a love of great food and beer which naturally led to his foray into brewing the last couple of months. He followed the Dave school of brewing. Watch everyone else, figure out what works and then jump in with both feet. So, after attending the last two brew days, Bryan was determined to not only brew again, but add something to the daily menu. He did so in a big way, too, with his jambalaya.

When most of us take food to a brew day, it involves aluminum foil and tupperware. When Bryan does it, it involves a cast iron pot large enough to hold a small child and a burner with enough BTUs to heat a hot tub. Thankfully, his transit was short. It's as heavy as it looks.

Our Brew Day food prep started a whole day before. Brian swung by and we both went about cutting up onion, celery and green peppers.

Actually, Bryan did the most cutting. I probably took more pictures. No surprise there.

Thanks to the magic of gallon ziplock bags, everything was ready for the big day…which we will fast forward to.

When Bryan fired up his burner, I wasn't worried about carbon monoxide, I was worried about oxygen depletion. Even with Dave & Drew's burners, this was the largest we had seen in action. Fortunately, warmish January weather meant an open door, plenty of O2 and not some weird mass death scene our wives would have to stumble on later…and explain.

Bryan works his jambalaya by touch, so with his permission, I'm going to work in what he did, keeping in mind that it's scalable and I'm giving ingredients by the gallon bag.

First, he fried a pound of bacon.

From there, he added the bags of onion, green pepper and celery and allowed them to sweat.

Next, he added in several pounds of andouille sausage and chicken. Both had been previously grilled. After the mix cooked, he added chicken broth, a bay leaf, cajun spices, salt and pepper.

When you are cooking this much food in this big a pot, you need an oar which, of course, Bryan had.

I think this is the first time we ate so well and early at a Brew Day. The jambalaya was incredible and made the perfect base layer for a long day of brewing. For the record, it also made great parting gifts and leftovers. In short, it was great.

Brewing

I started off Brew day crushing grain. Dave and I are in to our second 50 pound bag of two row. Thanks to our grain crusher, drill and plenty of hands, crushing grain has become cheap, fun and very fast.

I also started something early I don't normally do. Pre weighing my hop additions into plastic bags.

In the excitement of the day, at one time or another, we have all missed something. I'm a little tired of that. Although Brew Days are incredibly social, they are also Brew Days. Making good beer takes a long time. Which is why I'm going to do everything I can from here on out to "automate" the process. This, as I informed everyone, also includes stapling my recipe to the Brew Cart. I'm brewing an Imperial IPA and if you click the link through, you can see the recipe in detail.

I based this batch on several different factors including, most importantly, grain and hops I had on hand. The other factors? A high ABV and a lot of hops. My needs are usually simple.

My end plan is to dry hop with the cones from my first hop harvest last fall. To track everything, I continue to use my iOS app iBrewmaster to log my work. It's pretty slick and the developers continuous improvements keep me a dedicated user. Using the app, I can even print out my recipes, like I've done above. I never thought I would have a use for air print from my phone, but I have.

With most of us brewing IPAs, Drew bucked the trend by bringing in gallons of local honey to brew mead. He has " a source", as I perish to think what that amount of actually costs.

This is the second mead Drew has brewed. During the process, he found it a challenge to get the honey into his pot while dodging all of the fingers dropping into the buckets striving for a taste. The honey was amazingly good. I'm sure the mead will be even better.

You would think the jambalaya would be enough to eat. Nope, that's only our "breakfast". We continued on with Drew's bacon wrapped poppers.

And of course, brisket.

By the end of the day, there is nothing more satisfying than stuffing pieces of brisket in your mouth while preparing to ferment and clean up.

It was an incredibly successful day. Well, mostly successful. Brian…the Brian with an "i" and supplier of the brisket, got a bit too close to the propane heater.

Also, we somehow polished off a fair amount of beer. Brew Days are for sharing, thus the large presence of 22 ounce bottles.

Propane burners, CO Detector, hats, jambalaya, beer, fermenters…Brew Day.

There's an Alpine Spring in my Kitchen

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Lang) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 01:13:00 +0000

No, I'm not treading water, but I am enjoying the newest spring seasonal beer from Samuel Adams. Appearing just about everywhere, is Alpine Spring, Sam Adams' new seasonal offering and wow, what an offering it is. I don't know if it's the influx of all of those big winter beers I've been enjoying, but the crisp citrusy character of Alpine Springs is incredibly drinkable. It is hitting my palate just right and, at just the right time.

Alpine Springs pours with a huge head and a slightly spicy nose. For a lager, it has a wonderfully full mouthfeel with bits of banana, orange and breadiness (bread-like-ness if breadiness isn't actually a word). It is lightly hopped with Tettnang hops and when it slides down the hatch, the taste, oddly enough, abruptly ends. There isn't really a lingering finish. It's kind of like when Marshall, Will & Holly went over the falls. That was it. They were gone. Now unlike Land of the Lost, I actually was immediately ready for another Alpine Spring.

This one caught me off guard. I wasn't prepared to like it as much as I did. In the past, I welcomed their Spring Ale as a move towards something lighter, but this, this is something I'm opening the door for ahead of time. This is great.

Note: Although Samuel Adams graciously provided me with a sample of Alpine Spring, the thoughts here are free from influence and even if Sam Adams wasn't nice enough to hook me up, I would have bought Alpine Spring anyway and posted the same thing.

What's on the Grill #237 Grilled Steak Salad with Buttermilk Dressing

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Lang) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 02:59:00 +0000

Now when I type "Grilled Steak Salad", I mean grilled steak AND grilled salad. This is, after all, a one grill meal.

While grilling a steak is natural and prudent, lettuce is a little different. The heat of the grill changes taste and texture and really, isn't that different than throwing greens in a skillet. The grill adds something completely different and having previously tackled romaine and cabbage I, for one, am hooked. Hard to believe this is an endorsement for grilled lettuce from a guy who grew up not even liking lettuce!

Grilled Steak Salad w/Buttermilk Dressing
Adapted from Weber's On the Grill app

2 Steaks - I went with strip, but anything will work
1 head of Romaine Lettuce, quartered lengthwise
2 ears of corn
1 small red onion, 1/4 inch thick slices
10 grape tomatoes (again, any tomato will work)

Dressing
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup crumbled goat cheese
2 T finely chopped fresh basil leaves
1 T finely chopped fresh tarragon leaves
1 T finely chopped fresh dill
1/2 t Dijon mustard
1 garlic clove, peeled
olive oil
salt and pepper

For the buttermilk dressing, add the ingredients into a food processor and blend.

The goal, as with any meal, is to have all of your cooked food ready at the same time. When fixing a "one grill" meal, this can get a little dicey, especially when cooking incredibly different types of food. For instance, a smorgasbord of beef is as easy as bullseying womp rats in your T-16 back home, whereas grilling a mixture of beef, leafy vegetable and grain, is not.

Sometimes to do this right, it means having two grills, or at least one grill with enough space to work a 3 zone fire (Direct High, Direct Medium and Indirect). For this recipe, I sort of "cheated" by deploying my island grillstone. It allowed me to go indirect, while at the same time keeping my tomatoes and onions on the grill and not down the grate.

Brush all of the vegetables with olive oil and then grill the corn, onions and tomatoes over direct medium heat. (Depending on the size of tomatoes used, a "grill topper" may be needed.) After several minutes, the tomatoes will be done first. Move them to indirect heat. Flip the onions and then, after a few more minutes, move them to indirect heat.

I was cooking steaks to two different internal temperatures: well done (not mine) and medium rare (mine). This meant starting one steak early over direct high and then moving to indirect to finish out.

At this point the corn was still on. With the kernels blackening, move the corn to indirect to finish cooking. Next, add the medium rare steak.

With the medium rare steak about done, move it to indirect medium and then added the romaine.

The romaine should only be grilled a few minutes total; typically until it starts to slightly char and wilt. Once it does, remove everything form the grill. Chop the romaine and discard the core. Chop the onions. Remove the corn kernels from the cob and corral the tomatoes.

Fill a plate with the romaine, onions, tomatoes, corn and finally the steak, sliced. Serve the dressing on the side. It's not right to immediately cover up great looking red meat.

This was so enjoyable, I made it two nights in a row. I guess I would consider it a sucess. Happy green leafy vegetable grilling.

Relatively Wordless Wednesday

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Lang) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 11:33:00 +0000

Tuna Time...

2011, the year of the pepper beer

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Lang) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 01:47:00 +0000

Last week on Twitter, I followed a link to a 2011 "best of" craft beer list. I was surprised, yet not that really surprised, to see two beers that really had an impact on me in 2011: Left Hand Brewing's Fade to Black and Stone Brewing Company's Vertical Epic '11.

Stranger yet, both beers happen to be infused with chili peppers. Although I've been lucky to have a lot of "good" beers in the last year, a lot of those, truthfully, aren't necessarily memorable. It really takes something to stand apart from the pack and for 2011, I'm giving distinction to the pepper.

Although not in the aforementioned top 10 list, Stone's Smoked Chipotle Porter is also outstanding. I had a couple on Friday night at my local. Simply, incredible and definitely memorable.

The Vertical is an ale using belgian yeast. It pours with a large head, indicative of the style. The pepper blends in well to the background and lingers nicely on the finish. It's kind of like having a good friend around for the day. You know they are there, appreciate their company and by lunch are really glad to have them around, as they make everything better.

I've got one bottle saved for the series finish next year and one more for when I get the courage to break it out of holding for a special occasion. When Stone's Vertical Epic series are gone, they're gone.

Fade to Black is all hot pepper. It's a porter, which happens to be one of my favorite styles. Taking this into account, along with the pepper heat from beginning to end, you have the making of a memorable beer. If you have not had it, and have a love for all things hot, I can't recommend it enough.

In short, I can certainly validate this "best of" list. I'm just lucky enough to have stumbled across two of the beers that help make it. In the past, I certainly viewed peppery beers as a fad, but Stone & Left Hand have shown that when applied correctly, chili peppers really take beer to a whole new level…and a few top ten lists, too.

What's on the Grill #236: Mexican Shredded Pork Stuffed Peppers

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Lang) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 00:06:00 +0000

Almost a year ago, I tagged a post for for Slow Cooker Mexican Shredded Pork on Dad Cooks Dinner, a great blog ran by my fellow Ohioan, Mike Vrobel. The dish sat for so long, as any chance I had to cook a pork shoulder, I always took it to the grill. I just couldn't bring myself to haul out the crock pot when I knew I could cook over live fire.

Well, wait no more. After smoking a pork shoulder last Wednesday for Brew Night, I had my grilling in, which meant the second pork shoulder I had in the fridge was looking for its new friend, Mr. Crock Pot.

Check out Mike's blog for the recipe. As always, it is well documented and photographed.

Which, brings me to confession time. You see, after leaving the crock pot fired up all night, I felt a little spoiled as to how easy the process was and how great it turned out…while, I slept, I might add. Also, when I was done, I had a TON of pork. Mike calls for a 5 lb shoulder. I had a gargantuan 8 pounder which took some work fitting into the pot. Don't worry, I won.

With so much pork leftover, I knew some would go to the freezer and some would be devoured over the next couple days. So, when I am looking for a different way of serving leftovers, I go to my old standby, the bell pepper.

Peppers are ripe to be stuffed. With the grill prepped to indirect medium, I stuffed the peppers with the leftover pork and then topped them both with a little bit of gouda cheese.

On the grill, they cook for about 45 minutes to an hour, depending on how many peppers you had stuffed.

After a lunch, dinner and snack, the pork stuffed peppers made a great farewell meal, as the remaining pork went onto standby duty in the freezer.

For a meal that is decidedly good (thanks Mike!), simple to prepare and even easier to clean up, stuffed peppers are the way to go. I guess I need to give a little bit more respect to my crock pot, too. Although the grill is always my turn to device, when I'm thinking time saving ease, I can't forgot about this beneficial little kitchen appliance.

2011, I hardly knew you

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Lang) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 00:28:00 +0000

Wow…what a year. It seems like just yesterday we were giving 2010 the kiss off and now all of a sudden it's 2012. Where did it go? I was lucky enough to be off work between Christmas and New Year's and spent a ton of great time with family and friends.

Christmas was spectacular. It was fabulous to have the entire family together. This is something that rarely happens. After hosting Christmas dinner and enjoying the time off, there are a few things I took away.

1. Zoë is an organizational machine. Although credit is often given to me for a "good meal", the truth is I'm just the guy who throws meat on the grill. The true air traffic controller is Zoë and she deserves the credit. For instance, this is our stove:

On the day before dinner. I, on the other hand, was concerned with more important things, like how to have a roaring fireplace in the kitchen.

Yes, Amazon Prime's Streaming fireplace video is my new favorite show. It adds such charm to the kitchen. Now only if I could do something about the heat output.

2. Always brine your bird. When it comes to brining, I'm on again and off again, a lot like this season's Cincinnati's Bengals.

This year I decided to get my act together and brine. I'm glad I did. After spending a healthy 24 hours in its salt and sugar bath, the turkey was finished off on the Saffire.

The results were better than I expected and left me wondering why I don't brine more often. For the record, I followed Michael Ruhlman's brine recipe in Charcuterie. I can't recommend it enough.

3. Infinimum is a really amazing beer.

We had our first taste of the '11 edition of Samuel Adam's Infinium at the last Brew Day. The next day we all scrambled to find more. I distinctly remember my ho-hum take on the '10 edition. Not so this year, it's a solid collaboration. The champagne like high ABV beer is something else. In fact, I've got two my bottles squirreled away for later this year.

3. Brew Days can become Brew Nights. I would have never guessed a midweek late night brew day would be so attended by the Backyard Brewing Society, but it was.

As usual, we hard pork:

and pork:

We also got a taste of Eric's annual Christmas themed beer. Last year it was Santa's Sack. This year it was a chocolate porter called Santa's Back Door. Here's the PG label…as the actual label will is safely tucked away with an advisory warning over it:

Not only did 5 of us brew at this off time, we broke Bryan in on his maiden brew. It was quite a night that quickly turned into morning.

2011 really was a great year and I hope for 2012 to be even better. To all of my faithful readers, you are an incredible part of this. Thanks so much for all of your support, clicks and comments. Happy New Year everyone.

What's on the Grill #235: Reverse Sear Martini Filet

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Lang) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 18:48:00 +0000

More often than not, I try not to repeat myself on posts. However, the week before Christmas I was flipping through Weber's Charcoal Grilling cookbook and stumbled across the recipe for Martini Filets. Trying to evaluate my "non-repeat" mantra, I checked the blog to see just how long ago I talked about this mouth watering dish. Turns out it was just under 3 years ago…and to think I thought it seemed like just last winter. Wow.

Since then, I've not only repeated the filets, but have added an additional variable: the "Reverse Sear". It was February 2009 when I first documented my use of the process and have continued to employ it quite a bit. For the true history of the reverse sear method, check out Steve Finney's Iron Pig BBQ site. In short, reverse sear involves cooking meat indirectly (or in my cheating case on this occasion, the oven!) until it is close to finished temperature before searing directly over a hot fire. The slow pre-cook allows the meat to rise to a uniform finished temperature before the outside flesh is caramelized through direct heat.

Reverse Sear is moderately in line with the process of Sous Vide, which has been pretty widely discussed (and hacked) over the last year. Reverse Sear is also deployable for more than just steaks. Chris at Nibble Me This has a great post on a Reverse Sear Prime Rib Roast.

I don't always use it, but for thick fillets, it is really a great way to ensure perfectly cooked meat every time.

Reverse Seared Filet Mignon Steaks with Martini Marinade
Adapted from Weber's Charcoal Grilling

2 T Gin
2 T Extra Olive Oil
1 T juice from jar of green olives
Grated zest of one lemon
1/4 t fresh ground pepper

4 filet mignon steaks
8 green olives with pimentos
4 toothpicks
salt & pepper
2 ounces blue cheese

Place all of the marinade ingredients in a bowl and whisk together. Add the steaks of a plastic zip lock bag, pour in the marinade, seal and refrigerate for 1 to 2 hours.

Yank the steaks from the fridge and allow to sit at room temperature for about 20-30 minutes.

Reverse Sear. As I mentioned above, the entire reverse sear can be done on the grill, or in my half-ass case, the oven. I know I'm not one to let the weather bother me, but it was cold, rainy and windy and I just didn't have it in me. I was already cooking veg and didn't want to fire up a second grill.

Season the steaks with salt and pepper and place into a cast-iron skillet. With the oven heated at 250 degrees, cook the steaks until they reach an internal temperature of 125 degrees (an instant read thermometer is a must) and then pull them from the oven.

During this time, I ventured outside and prepped the Summit for direct high.

After the steaks rest a few minutes, transfer them to the hot grill grates and sear each side for about a minute each.

While the steaks were cooking, I added a mess of veg to the grillstone. This has become a favorite way of mine for preparing grilled vegetables. It's easy and works really well for keeping cut up vegetables from falling into the abyss of the grill.

With the filets finished, top with the crumbled blue cheese and speared olives.

Now, the most important part, the inside.

Although I've cooked my share of filets over direct heat, I must say nothing beats the reverse sear. Filets are thick and can be finicky to get 100% right over a hot fire. This is even more difficult when you are cooking for someone who likes their meat more on the "done" side of the scale. I refuse to serve hockey pucks.

Although the "searing" isn't the same as dropping an uncooked piece of meat on a hot grate, the pros outweigh the cons. I really can't recommend this process enough.

Operation: Draft Tower

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Lang) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 13:08:00 +0000

Ever since I began kegging my homebrew, I started to dream of my own draft system. Somehow, the mystique of home draft beer is destroyed when you have to tromp past the furnace, water softener and litter box to find it. Or, so I've heard.

As I've pondered my own dispensing setup, I had several things to keep in mind. First, as much as I wanted to convert a chest freezer, I was going to stick with my refrigerator. Second, because I was going to use my existing refrigerator, the option of adding a kegerator under the bar was out too. Had it been an option, this would have been the easiest way and probably, the most expensive too. Third, I wanted three lines, as three is the max number of corny kegs or 1/6 barrels I can squeeze in the Frigidaire. Also, three is greater than one line and that, is cool.

Oh, I forgot the most important part: wife approval. Although I've been yammering about this for sometime, out of the blue Zoë decided I should just pull the trigger and make it happen. Sometimes her ideas are just fantastic.

For great information on dispensing draft beer, I cannot recommend Micro Matic enough. In fact, this page, on dispensing draft beer over 5 feet from the refrigerator, was my major reference.

My Plan

A 3 tap draft tower connected to my fridge via 2 inch PVC. Per the MM page, I would run the three draft lines from the taps to the kegs inside the PVC. The lines would be accompanied by a 1inch line which runs cold air from a blower inside the fridge. Because of the distance to the taps, the blower is necessary to maintain a cool temperature on the beer lines and most importantly, temperature dependent good pours. The cold air exits the 1inch tube at the top of the draft tower and returns to the fridge through the remaining void space in the PVC. My fridge backs up to the wall directly behind my basement bar. To make the connection to the fridge, all I need is two 90 degree turns.

Basic Equipment

6' 2 inch diameter PVC
2 - 2 inch PVC "street elbows"
2 inch hole saw
10' - 1inch vinyl tubing
silicone

Not so Basic Equipment

3 Tap Draft Tower - Although I love Micro Matic and have bought from them before, I ended up buying my tower from the Beverage Factory. I was a little concerned about the height of the taller towers, as my optics are fairly low on the back wall. Second, the price was excellent.
36' 1/4" ID vinyl tubing - The pre-installed 5 foot beer lines were not long enough to make it all the way to my kegs. To avoid dispensing problems, I needed to make my lines 12 feet each, which resulted in 36 total feet.
12 CFM Blower - Although Micro Matic sells it, I found the exact same blower for $47 less at Grainger. Score.

First, the step I call "no going back". I drilled a hole in the countertop. Due to a pre-existing stud wall, my tower is slightly off center across the face of the bar countertop. I'm fine with that, as I was not in the mood to re-build a wall.

With a new hole in the countertop, I needed to drill a hole through the back wall.

This was easier said than done. I ended up making a second hole in the wall, as I found it difficult to completely make everything line up the first time.

After shooting through the cabinet backing and wall, I had access to the furnace room and the fridge.

In theory, the fridge will "never move", meaning my PVC line is permanent. However, knowing my house, how I know my house, this is pretty much a pipe dream. No pun intended. If I am forced to move the fridge, I can pull apart the PVC from the fridge and move it where I need to. In fact, I opted not to cement the PVC, just because I know at some point I'm going to be dissembling this thing for one reason or another. To keep the PVC whole, I wrapped them in duct tape.

With the second 90 turn towards the fridge, I connected the last piece of PVC and then siliconed it to keep the fridge air-tight. By far, the hardest part was running the beer and cooling lines. Instead of purchasing the $50 worth of 1 inch cooling hose, I opted for 1 inch braided vinyl. Although this was the cheap option, it was also, I think, the more difficult option. Vinyl on vinyl isn't exactly smooth moving fun. Think of skin on a waterless waterside. Same thing, minus the human screams. In the end, I thought about lubricating the lines, but wasn't sure if I wanted all of that goop in the PVC. In hindsight, I should have.

With all of the lines run, I neeed a little more to run the one line to the blower, so I scabbed on an addition piece of 1 inch vinyl. The blower runs off a 110, so i had an additional hole drilled in the fridge to run my power source. The cable is terminated into the blower itself. Also, the blower is situated as far from the PVC as possible so that it picks up cold air and doesn't simply return the "warmed" air coming right out of the pipe.

To preserve some fridge space, I opted to mount my CO2 cylinder on the outside of the fridge.

I used two barb fittings and a 4 inch nipple to connect the cylinder to the gas manifold. Word of warning, be sure to use teflon tape or joint compound on your connections so that CO2 doesn't escape and drain your tank. You know, cause I've heard it sucks and from looking at the picture above, it's obvious I took a stupid shortcut.

With everything connected, here are the three cornys crammed into the fridge.

And finally, the most important part, the finished tower.

It's pretty amazing how the tower stays cool. So far, the pours have been great, too. I had one frustrating leak on the center tap that I had to dissemble everything to fix. It was a huge pain in the ass and the one reason why I was initially against the draft tower and wanted wall mounts. Thankfully, all is well now.

I've since replaced the stock black handles with my picture handles from my outdoor jockey tank. My plan is to aways have at least two home-brews on draft and one commercial craft beer. My Arrogant Bastard is just about out, so I'm making plans on its replacement and on procuring the official tap handle too.

This project has been a long time coming and although not super cheap, I'm sure it is money I will recoup one day through either enjoyment or a home sale. I told Zoë, to the right buyer, this would easily push them into the "buy" column. For now, I'm just going to enjoy my pours of draft beer and relish the fact I can do it and not have to worry if the cat is headed towards the litter box, too.

-1 Beer to Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Lang) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 21:19:00 +0000

It should come as no surprise to regular readers of this blog, I can't count. You would think the time tested and fairly universally understood process of counting down to something would be foolproof. As a child, I managed to put up the proper ornament on the advent calendar. At NASA, engineers understand to get to blastoff, they have to successful navigate subtracting from the number 10. Better yet, millions of people across this country watch crosswalk signals indicate in sequential numerical order, the number of seconds left before remaining in said crosswalk exponentially increases the odds of meeting a car in less than stellar circumstances. But, no. For some reason I put beer into a countdown and everything falls apart.

Perhaps it was originally having 14 beers for a 12 day event. Zoë still believes I did this with purpose, but I swear it was completely accidental and in reality, probably sheds some light as to why I botched the countdown in the first place. More than likely, it involved counting down from a number that meant I had to use not only my fingers, but the toes of my right foot. So, here it is the 13th beer in my 12 day countdown, St. Bernardus Christmas Ale.

I was thankful to have my brother, Matt, around to share it with me. This is a beer I look forward to every year, so it made it even more special to have it with him.

To my most excellent readers, thanks for hanging in there with me for the countdown. I know it's not every year you can be involved in a countdown that goes into negative numbers. For those of you who prefer the posts of grilled food, to those of beer, fear not, I have several things on their way.

For wherever you are in the world and for whatever you celebrate, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and more importantly, cheers!

Merry Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Lang) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 12:00:00 +0000

Like your grill, may your holiday be hot and bright. Merry Christmas.

1 Beers to Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Lang) — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 21:49:00 +0000

I've been on a Belgian kick recently, so it was with great pleasure the number 2 countdown spot was a collaboration with Ommengang and the Belgian farmstead Brasserie d ‘Achouffe. I have high praise for Ommengang, which is a US brewery dedicated to solely brewing Belgian style ales. The Brasserie d' Achouffe I am less familiar with. I have, however, determined they are overrun by gnomes, which makes for an amusing collaboration name: Gnomegang.

If I had two words to describe this beer, they would be smooth and smooth. It poured with a typical large head and tasted of dark fruit, cherry and apple. There was a pleasant spice that grew on the way to the finish. Absolutely lovely. The high ABV really wasn't readily apparent and in the end, I was left longing for more. My kind of beer. Now just to make sure I don't have a gnome loose in the house.

2 Beers to Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Lang) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 02:16:00 +0000

With my latest run of Christmas beers, I was completely expecting another dark, malty spicy brew. Needless to say, as I opened Buckeye's Brewing Christmas Girl, I suffered a little cognitive dissonance as a belgian ale poured out. I didn't read the label and it was a dark bottle. Trust me, I've made worse mistakes.

The nose had the unmistakable whiff of apples. The beer was rather effervescent, with an almost champagne like quality, but none of the dryness. Christmas Girl is billed as a Belgian style golden ale, with no spices. Although I found this quite drinkable, I think it was a little lacking in the fact that it was neither belgian or golden ale enough for me. An interesting experiment, although not sure it is one I'm going to re-visit.

Fingers crossed, I have one more to go.

3 Beers to Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Lang) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 01:01:00 +0000

Wow, I can't believe we are only 3 beers to Christmas. As I've sipped my way though each night's selection, I get a little bit more excited towards the end. No, not because St. Nick is almost nigh, but because Zoë tends to pick the "better looking" beers towards the end. Now in full disclosure, this is also how she picks her favorite football teams, i.e. the "better looking" quarterback. Lately it seems that the "hot" quarterbacks are doing well, so maybe she is on to something. However, in the case of my beer countdown, I feel totally confident in her selections, as these are some great looking bottles.

Tonight's drink du jour is Yule Smith's Holiday Ale. When I think "Christmas Beer", this is pretty much what I envision. The nose was full of dark fruit. The taste was sweet malt, with notes of apple, cherry and cocoa. The finish was wonderfully hoppy. This is a great cold night, lit tree, roaring fire, sipping beer.

If 3 is great. I can't wait to see how my next two beers look…or is taste?

Relatively Wordless Wednesday

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Lang) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 14:00:00 +0000

The holidays mean more readably available prime meat and for this, I am quite thankful. I know I have way too many pictures of grilled ribeyes, but frankly, I don't care. It is by far my favorite thing to throw on the grill and thus, my favorite thing to photograph. If you are a vegetarian, my apologizes.

4 Beers to Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Lang) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 02:14:00 +0000

Tonight's a real winner…and for two of my friends (Dave & Drew, I'm talking to you) a major ingredient that made St. Patrick's Day 2010 so memorable. It's Bellhaven's Scottish Stout.

This is a great stout. It poured black, black, black. The nose was roasted malt and raisins. My first taste was a river of molasses, brown sugar and chocolate. It was all good. At 7% ABV, it's a fabulous wintertime sipping beer. What a delight.

5 Beers to Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Lang) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 01:01:00 +0000

It's collaboration time again, but this time between two breweries I'm only peripherally familiar with, Shmaltz Brewery (Behind He'Brew, The Chose Ale) in California and from Terrapin Brewery in Georgia. Together they teamed up for Reunion Ale '11 - A Beer for Hope and I must say, I liked it a lot.

This was a dark Imperial Ale clocking in at 7.3% ABV. It poured with a huge head. The beer was brewed with cocoa and it was immediately evident in the nose. My first taste hit all of the major beer notes, cocoa, vanilla and a finish of chili peppers. This was definitely a big malty beer, with the hops only playing minor parts to the major ingredients. Although the peppery spice was present, it was almost in the background as much as the hops. I do like peppers in my beer, so perhaps I was expect more after recently enjoying the spicy rides of Stone's Smoked Porter and Left Hand Brewing's Fade to Black. That being said, this was a great beer. I need to grab another bottle before they are gone for the year. Let's hope this is a collaboration that continues.

6 Beers to Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Lang) — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 23:35:00 +0000

Ahhh, gimmicky Santa beer time. I've really had an on/off feel towards a lot of these "Santa/Holiday" beers. Some are good and some suck. In fact, if it wasn't for their Christmasy themed names/labels, they probably wouldn't sell a whole lot.

Tonight's edition to the beer Santa line is Pickled Santa. I would consider this a traditional english pub ale. It has a rather full mouthfeel with just a hint of hops and also, just a hint of cinnamon. For a holiday spiced ale, I think it's quite unremarkable. Santa may be pickled, but I'm not tickled. On the other hand, for a standard "pub pint", I found it pretty good. Funny what a name can do to expectations.

7 Beers to Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Lang) — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 23:07:00 +0000

I was really wanting to "fresh hop" a batch of brew this fall to commemorate my first hop harvest. Sadly, it didn't happen. Thankfully, I've got something Great Divide to hold me over till next year's harvest.

As soon as I cracked the top, the scent of the hoppy, piney, grapefruity nose rolled out and hit me like a gut punch. My first taste was another hop explosion. This time the grassy character of the hops really popped out. Although it was all hops, I felt the maltiness of the beer really played well as it carried the bitterness down my tongue like a luge ride. A great beer.

What's on the Grill #234: Goat Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breasts

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Lang) — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 22:35:00 +0000

I love goat cheese and as many know, I can't stand boneless, skinless chicken breasts (BSCBs). So, bringing these two polar opposite foods together into one meal ought to make an "average" meal, or at least that's my thinking.

Actually, the process of stuffing, breading and indirect grilling BSCBs makes them much more exciting than direct grilled BSCBs. So, in reality, this should be an above average meal, or at least it had better be.

Goat Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breasts
Adapted from Emeril Lagasse

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
3 oz goat cheese
2 t unsalted butter
1 1/2 t minced chives
1 t minced parsley leaves
1/4 t minced thyme leaves
1/4 t fresh lemon juice
1/4 t minced garlic
salt
pepper
1 cup flour
1 T Essence (ye ole Emeril's magic seasoning…you can make your own or buy some at the store)
1 large egg
2 t water
1/4 cup vegetable oil

Place a chicken breast down on a cutting board. With a sharp knife, cut a slit, horizontal to the work surface, through the center of the breast.

Start about 3/4 of an inch down from one end and stop about the same distance at the other end. You want your cut deep, but not all the way through the other side.

When done, you should have a "pocket".

In a bowl, mix together the goat cheese, butter, chives, parsley, thyme, lemon juice & garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Stuff equal amounts of the goat cheese mixture into each of the four chicken breasts. Once stuffed, seal the breast closed with your fingers, which by then, will be gummed up with goat cheese stuffing.

Prepare the breading station by placing the flour and essence in one bowl and the egg, beaten, with water, in another.

Individually, dredge the chicken with flour, then dip in the egg and then back again into the flour. Shake off any excess.

In a skillet over medium heat, add some oil and then brown both side of the breasts, cooking only about 2-3 minutes per side. From there, place the chicken breasts on a grill at indirect medium and cook for another 10 minutes, or until the breast is cooked through.

This was really a pretty nice way of dealing with BSCBs. The herbed up goat cheese and grilling of the breasts made this a chicken meal I can willing return to. In fact, served with risotto, it may be one I go back to sooner than later. When you also consider how easy it was, I think I definitely have something in the above average category, even with those dreaded BSCBs.

8 Beers to Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Lang) — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 02:44:00 +0000

Tonight we are heading back to the UK, which is more than we can say for our holiday travels. Some of my best memories are from spending Christmas on the Isle of Wight. Although we are state side in '11, I'm thrilled my beer countdown can take me back across the pond.

#8 is Black Sheep Brewery's Riggwelter Strong Yorkshire Ale. Riggwelter is an amalgomation of words which refers to a sheep's inability to move from its back to its feet without help. A great name for a strong ale and thankfully, a position I've never been in…or at least will admit to.

The nose was full of malt and dark fruit. My initial taste was again, full malt and little hops with hits of brown sugar and toffee. This was a great winter beer. Much like my holidays on IOW, incredibly memorable!

9 Beers to Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Lang) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 03:15:00 +0000

For #9, we are heading to England. It's Morocco Ale, from Daleside brewery, creators of the annual favorite, Old Leg Over. I am certainly partial of beers from the United Kingdom, especially when you consider their history. According to legend, Morocco Ale is based on a recipe over 300 years old and traces itself back to the roots of King Charles II. All well and good, but how does it taste?

Actually, quite good. The nose was pure raisin. It poured with very little head retention. My first taste immediately reminded me of Christmas Cake, which then yielded itself to more raisins, toffee and a malty finish. There was almost no detectable hops. This is a big malty beer and for my tastebuds, that is great. The only thing missing was a pub with really low ceilings, old wooden chairs, a uneven stone floor and a roaring hot fire. Oh, and more Morocco Ale.

10 Beers to Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Lang) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 02:31:00 +0000

Watch out, it's collaboration time, as it's the joint effort of three west coast breweries: The Bruery, Elysian & Stone. Admittedly, I was pretty excited about La Citrueille Celeste de Citracado…which, translated, means The Heavenly Pumpkin of Citracado. Citracado happens to be the name of the road Stone Brewing Company is located on in Escondido, CA. I only know that because I still have it pinned on my iPhone and long to return sometime very soon, preferably when Anne is driving us and it's Beer & Cigar Dinner Night!

Anyway, wow, what a crazy beer. It poured a dark mahogany color with a head that disappeared about as fast as it appeared…kind of like in a "whack a mole" game. The nose was fairly malty. My first taste immediately reminded me of fresh bread, which then yielded to a spicy lemony hit which faded to a maple/spice note that hung on my lips. It was good, but completely not what I was expecting. I'm not really sure where the pumpkin and yams were, perhaps it was the bready/dough like taste. Wherever it was, it certainly wasn't that typical pumpkin spice hit I think of with pumpkin beers.