Playing with the new toy and some goose

Just playing around to lighten a bit of a tuff mood of late around the house.

Enjoy and feel free to share your own

A blending we will go.. Some ideas for homemade black and tans

Ok so we don't brew the beer but we can mix beers at home.

On Beer Advocate the member HombreWing started a thread about making his own black and tan. He used Troegs Scratch #5 and Nugget Nector. I decided I want make some of my own mixes.


My first attempt is was with what I had at home at the time. Great Lakes Commadore Perry IPA and Left Hand Black Jack Porter.. AKA Black Jack Perry (I like this name) Unlike other mixes I have had in the past this one starts out chocolatey up front and finishes with a nice crisp hoppy bite. Usually you get the hop up first. I liked this mix of a straight 50/50. The sweetness of the lefthand was a good balance to the IPA. With one success I forged on and wento and baought some beers.


BA member Stopbarking gave me the idea of Hop Wallop with Storm King Stout from Victory Brewing in PA. I tired this one as 60% Wallop and 40% Storm King. I really liked this mix. I called it a Wallop King or King Wallop not sure which I like better. After that I made waht is called a Dark Devil. Hop Devil and Strom King from Victory as well. I did a 50/50 mix with this one. I have to say I was not as impressed with this one. I think I should have done a 60/40 mix. The Mix looked great but there was not smoothness of blends this time. Sharp almost acid like bite of the hops up front and then noting till the really hard coffee finish of the Storm King. I'll try it again with a different ratio see how it goes.

So I moved on to maybe and English style of a black and tan. I used St. Pete's Golden Ale and St. Pete's Bottled Aged Old Porter. This went into my litter stiend. MAN! the color was gorgeous! A very beautiful rich garnet red! The mix sparkled int he light it was truly a pretty sight to see. This mix was 50/50 and the taste was very well balanced. The sweet smooth golden ale showed right off on the tounge with a nice but not heavily bitter finish. The two just seemd to blend so well I just may have to do this one more often. On of my favorites by far. Need a name for it. I thought of St Pete's Tanning Salon but the wife laughed at me so not sure on that one.

Finally back to America for the final mix. Anchor Liberty Ale and Achor Porter. (no name yet either) This too went into the liter stien with a 50/50 mix. This was another nice red color with a very balanced taste. There was the smoothness you expect from this style but the end had just the right hint of dark toffee to make you thirsty for more.

Also we managed to make it to the Lunar this weekend. Charlie had this wonderful Imperial Blackberry Cream Ale!! Great stuff. Sweet with jsut enough hops to balance the whole beer out. VERY drinkable!

A whole list of Black and Tan mixes for you
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_and_tan

That is the stations you can listen you Yeast Slurry
Also remember he is on at 7:30pm Sundays now
The stations the podcast air on are :
KBSU 730 AM - Boise, Idaho
KEZJ 1450 AM - Twin Falls, Idaho
KBSK 88.9 FM - McCall, Idaho

Fellow Beer Casters Davis on Draft.
http://www.davisondraft.com/joomla/
They are a lot of fun too!

Ruby Tuesdays is going to carry craft beer in thier resturants! Thats good News
http://beeradvocate.com/news/1221588

Podcast

Ok it seems Mypodcast.com is having server troubles. You still might be able to get downloads and I hope they get it fixed before next weeks cast.

Thanks for checking me out. I'll keep you all posted about Mypodcast. com if anything changes.

Just a hint for this Sunday.. Maybe some blending beers recipes

You know like a home made black and tan.. So you on the Internet

EDIT!!

Mypodcast.com is up and running just fine thanks

IBUs IPAs AIPAs and more letters that make somthing like a post.

Those are the three beers I talk about.

Well this week we talk about.. or at least try to talk about IPA style beers. Also I made it back to the Lodge.. and even mention that I will be making beer can chicken!! wooo!

I heard from the sources at the Lodge they are adding more taps which is always a good thing.. More good beer is always a good thing! Doing a little research can be a bad thing


IBU means International Bitterness Units.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Bitterness_Units_scale

The formula is there if you can figure it out or already understand it you are doing a lot better than we are!
Isohumulone This is another fun bit of trivia!
http://scienceblogs.com/moleculeoftheday/2007/02/isohumulone_bitter_beer_face.php

Hello Greg and Brian,,, nice to talk to you guys!

You will want to check on the Lodge.. Look for it on the links list on the right of the screen. It will be well worth your time.
Check out the Breweries I mention.. You learn a lot about beer form just learning about them

Great Lakes
http://www.greatlakesbrewing.com/
Victory Brewing
http://www.victorybeer.com/
Bells Brewery
http://www.bellsbeer.com/
Three Floyds
http://www.threefloyds.com/

Beer can Chicken!

It works well if you have one of those stands
You will want to get a set of herbs to place in the beer to give off even more flavor. I just get the Poultry Rub mix. Its got a great selection of herbs that will give your chicken a deep rich flavor.
(Marjoram, Thyme, Sage, and Rosemary)
Its real easy. Just place you chicken of the can of beer with the herbs in it. Use the stand really it helps

Roast for about an hour. at say 400 degrees. Always check the temp of you food to make sure its done.
For chicken you want it to be about 180 degrees F. I know that seems high but you want to be safe.

Carefully take the chicken off the stand and let rest under tinfoil for about 10 minutes.
Carve up and serve with a nice side

I am making a mix of roasted winter root veggies.

Cut up some potatoes, carrots, and turnips sprinkle on some olive oil salt and pepper and roast with the chicken ( they might not take as long usually about 45 minutes)

And there you have dinner.

I let the wife join me.. Gee Thanks Matt

Ok Just kidding Matt we had a good time together. In case you are wondering who Matt is just click on his Pod cast in the links bar.. Yeast Slurry... Nice guy and a good cast about Beer.
Ok so this week the Wife actually took part in the pub cast. So you can all let me know what you think of it. I have been trying to get her on here since the start of this thing.. I like having her around when I go do beer things. She is pretty knowledgeable about beer and that always surprises people..

Kind of like.. "A woman knows about beer .. who'd a thunk it?.." LOL

any way.. This week I talk about Rock Bottom beers that I tried and some new acquisitions.. Though I forgot one... I pick up a Goose Island Bourbon County Aged Beer. Man is it good. its kicking my butt right now as I type this :P The others were Kilt Lifter by Moylans. A very good Scotch Wee Heavy beer. It smooth and creamy and I bet if you had enough you'd lift a kilt or two...

Old Horizontal Barley wine style beer from Victory.. another heady beer with a good kick in it. I guess the cold weather brought out the high ABV in me. It was -5 F when I got up today so I need that little nip to keep me going. Also I had a Hop Wallop by Victory.. was not real impressed by it but I'll try it again. Never give up on a beer after the first tasting. If it is a decent beer that is. Coors Light yeah you can pass it by.

Speaking of yellow piss water Miller is releasing MGD 64 which is their answer to Mich ultra.

Yeah here is a can of water with a beer waved over it..


Ok that aside I also talked about how to get into the craft beer realm. I think there are some good craft packs out there to get people started. Here is a short list of what I think might get people into good beer
Red Hook Beers
Yuengling
JW Dundee's
Leinekugels
Berghoff
Guinness
I add the last one because you can get it everywhere and its not a bad beer.

So Links Time

mail me:
murphyspubcast@yaoo.com
Listen to me .. Just click on Murphy's Pubcast in the links table

Beer links and new links
Red Hook
http://www.redhook.com/

Berghoff
http://www.minhasbrewery.com/

Moylans
http://www.moylans.com/

Victory
http://www.victorybeer.com/

JW Dundee's
http://www.jwdundees.com/JWDundee.aspx


Read it and weep MGD 64
http://www.brewblog.com/brew/2008/01/miller-expandin.html#more

Post number 2 of the new year.. Maybe this will go somewhere :)

Ok this week once more we are at the Lodge and Lunar.. I got to try Lumpy Gravy sounds nasty but its a great sweet malty beer from Lagunitas. The link will be below with the others.

As I mentioned in the pub cast there is a new article about Granite City Brewing
http://beeradvocate.com/news/1193765

Also A bit of other news Two Brothers Brewing company will be opening their new Brewpub in the near future. I'm excited about this. Its always nice to see the Little guys doing well
My Chili Recipe
1 cup diced green onions
2 cloves diced garlic
1lb ground beef
1 bottle of porter (I use left hand)
1 Tablespoon of the following
cyan pepper
chili powder
2-3 tablespoons of cumin ( I like cumin)
160z tomato sauce
6 oz of tomato paste
can of red beans
Saute' the garlic and onions
Fry the beef until no long pink
add a table spoon of cumin
add the beer and bring a to a boil
place in the crock pot ad the sauces the rest of the cumin and slow cook for about 5 hours
salt and pepper to taste

Links time
The Lodge
http://www.bavarian-lodge.com/
Lagunitas
http://www.lagunitas.com/
Granite City
http://www.gcfb.net/

The pubcast itself.
http://murphyspubcast.mypodcast.com/2008/01/Lodge_Lunar_Lumpy_Gravy_and_plain_old_me-71665.html

Poor Phil's, Eric's Quest and more things

Well this week we went to Poor Phils in Oak Park. We had a good time. Nice place to go and worth the time to check it out. Also we head to Lunar once more.. go figure...

I don't have Eric's blog yet but when I do I will post an update about it

The Book I have is Wildbrews: Beer Beyond the Influence of Brewer's Yeast

Its about lambic style beer and its a very good read I'm only thru the first few chapters and I have learned quite a bit.
Thanks for coming by

Here is a link to Phil's
http://www.poorphils.com/index.html

I have a link to Lunar now too WOO HOO!!!
http://www.myspace.com/lunarbrewingco