Happy Zwanze Day!

Happy Zwanze Day!  We can't get to any to place remotely nearby that has any of the fine beer from Cantillon, so we decided to celebrate instead not with a Belgian sour, but rather an American sour from the only American brewer invited to the sour beer celebration in Belgium - Allagash Brewing Company. Tonight it's Allagash's FV 13.  This is a sour ale aged for four years in a giant (2700 gallon) oak foudre (or foeder).

1420. Allagash Brewing Company - FV 13 - Poured from bottle into snifter from one of my other favorite American sour producers, New Belgium Brewing. Pours a rich, dark, orange/copper with two finger head. Head dissipates down to maybe 5 mm fairly quickly. Aroma - vinegar, cherry, earthiness, some funk and forest floor. Taste - very earthy and funky - clear brett notes, vinegar, sour apple and cherry, and some sweetness. This really reminds me, on some notes, of Crooked Stave’s offerings in terms of brett-taste. Finish is long and tart and earthy. Carbonation level is appropriate and prickly; mouthfeel is creamy and slightly oily. This is a complex beer with lots of brettanomyces character.  We have one more bottle left and we'll probably let this one age awhile longer to see how it changes.  
      

Awhile back we also had another beer from the Sierra Nevada Beer Camp collaboration, but forgot to record that here.  

1421. Sierra Nevada / New Glarus - Beer Camp - There And Back - This is a traditional english-style bitter.  Poured from bottle into English pint. Pours a rich clear copper with a two finger head. Head pretty quickly dissipates to a thin skim. Aroma - nose is fruity hops with light grass and citrus underneath. There is also some biscuit malt on the nose as well. Taste is a really nice balance of biscuit and hops with less citrus than on the nose. Finish is long and malty, carbonation level is pretty high and prickly.  Didn't get a picture of this, but it's a beer that we wish there was a lot more of around.  

Beer Camp: Sierra Nevada - Russian River Brewing - Yvan the Great

This is, after some delay, beer #3 from our Beer Camp box.  This beer is the Sierra Nevada - Russian River Brewing collaboration on a Belgian golden ale.  

1419. Sierra Nevada / Russian River Brewing - Yvan the Great: A golden ale typically has a very light color with spicy, yeasty notes.  It's one of our favorite styles. This version starts in very much that vein.  Poured into a tulip. Pours a very pale yellow, half finger head which quickly dissipates which does leave some lacing. Aroma is full of clove, wheat, honey, yeast - maybe a touch of ash underneath? Very traditional belgian aroma profile. Taste - while the aroma is typical belgian golden, the taste is similar in ways, but very different in others. There’s a lot of hop note - sappy, resin, pine fills the mouth mid-way through. Initially you get a bit of that belgian golden ale note, then it goes to the the sappy/pine flavor. There’s a residual, long-lasting finish of pine/resin. Almost a little hot on the finish. Not a huge fan of this - probably because I really like a very traditional golden. This isn’t bad, just different which I think is the whole point of these Beer Camp ales.   

Beer Camp - Sierra Nevada / Bell's Brewery - Maillard's Odyssey

This is the second beer from the Beer Camp 12 pack.  This one is a collaboration with Sierra Nevada and Bell's Brewery.  They've created an imperial dark ale which is really an imperial dark strong ale.  

1418. Sierra Nevada / Bells Beer Camp - Maillard’s Odyssey - Pours a dark rich brown with 3 finger tan head. Head dissipates pretty quickly, but leaves a good deal of lacing. Aroma has notes of chocolate and caramel with subtle coffee underneath. Taste follows suit with some grassy notes early on. There is a little bit of alcohol on the finish giving a nice subtle warming in the belly.  This is quite rich, roasty, and very tasty.

Beer Camp - Ninkasi Brewing Double Latte

This year Sierra Nevada worked with 12 different breweries across the country in a program called Beer Camp to brew collaboration brews.  They then released a limited number of  12 packs and we managed to get one of the very few to come to our area.  Because these are special and so limited, we are going to post individual reviews to each brew.

The first one we tried is the collaboration with Ninkasi Brewing - Double Latte.

1417. Sierra Nevada / Ninkasi Brewing - Double Latte - This pours a dark color with light khaki head (2-3 fingers). Head is fairly resilient, but does fade some, leaving lots of lacing. Aroma smells like a latte - lots of rich espresso notes with creamy undertones and a touch of milk chocolate. Tastes follow the aromas to a tee. Really rich, creamy mouthfeel. Long finish, but it is subtle and nice.  It has been nice and cool here in the evening and this is going very nice with a chocolate chip cookie bar.  
      

Tasty in July

We still have a giant list of wine to catch up with, but we've had a few interesting other new tastes as well.  We're going to try to get the wine tastes up before long as well.

1389. Snapea Crisps - These are baked snap peas.  We had the lightly salted version, but they have other flavors as well (we bought the Caesar, but haven't tried that yet).
1390. Garden of Eatin' Red Hot Blues Taco shells - Apparently they don't make these anymore (must have been limited time since we bought them only a couple weeks ago and they're not on their website).  They do have regular blue corn taco shells though.  The Red Hot Blue ones were delicious and a little spicy.  
1391. Spinach noodles - Megan made this recipe and the noodles were excellent!  
      
1392. Archer Farms Dark Chocolate Himalayan Salted Almonds - These are really really delicious.  
1393. Kale pesto - We got a huge bunch of kale with our farm share so we made some pesto with it. It's a sharper taste than basil pesto, but it was still quite good.

Now for a few beer tastes.

1394. Verhaeghe - Duchesse De Bourgogne - This was nice, but was a bit thinner and sweeter than expected.  
1395. Gueuzerie Tilquin - Oude Gueuze Tilquin à l’Ancienne - This is a blend of old and new lambic. Megan didn't like this as much as Brett.
1396. AleWerks Brewing Company - Tavern Ale - This is an okay brown ale - went well with food.  
1397. AleWerks Brewing Company - Colonial Wheat Ale - This is a pretty nice wheat ale.  
1398. AleWerks Brewing Company - Bitter Valentine - Neither of us is a huge fan of DIPA beers, but this was pretty good - hoppy, but still well-balanced by malt.
1399. AleWerks Brewing Company - Twenty Knots - This is supposed to be a tripel, but it's awfully thin and lacking the traditional tripel flavors.  We really think this doesn't match the characteristics of a tripel and needs some modifications by the brewers to match style.
1400. Bells Brewery - Oberon Ale - a great spicy wheat beer.  
1401. Boulevard Brewing Company - Boulevard Smokestack Series - Saison Brett - Obviously good - I mean look at the name!  Brett loves saisons anyway - add in the earthiness and funk from Brettanomyces and this was awesome.
1402. Brasserie Rochefort - Rochefort Trappistes 10 - Classic quad from Belgium.  
1403. Lagunitas Brewing Company - Brown Shugga - Barleywine is a bit big for summer, but this is still good and it was a cool evening.
1404. Foggy Ridge Cider - Handmade - Crisp and fresh like a champagne, with obvious yeasty/bread notes, but obviously apple flavors too - nice.
1405. Shmaltz Brewing Company - He’Brew / Cathedral Square St. Lenny’s - A rye IPA brewed with Belgian yeast - a little bit torn on this.
1406. Hauser Estate Winery - Jack’s Hard Cider Conewago Orchard - Definitely not a sweet cider, this is crisp and refreshing and comes in cans!
1407. Sweetwater Brewing Company - Sweetwater Blue - Blueberry notes on the nose, but not a lot on the palate (which is fine in our opinion).  Okay, but not super.
1408. Humboldt Brewing Company - Humboldt Red Nectar - Dominated by malt notes, this would be better with food than drank alone.
1409. Anchor Brewing - Liberty Ale - One of the first Cascade hop IPAs (brewed in 1975), classic and still tasty.
1410. New Holland Brewing Company - Blue Sunday Sour (2014) - Really really good (and reasonably priced) sour ale from New Holland.  So happy we have another bottle of this in the cellar!
1411. Brouwerij De Troch - Chapeau Faro - Faro is a lambic-style beer, but with added sugar (post fermentation).  This was really sweet and not our cup of tea at all.  
1412. New Belgium Hop Kitchen #6 / Odell FOCOllaboration Pale Ale - This is only available on tap on this side of the country and that's disappointing.  We're a bit tired of the IPA trend and a pale ale, with its softer hop levels and better balance with the malt, is much more our taste right now. If you live near Colorado and can get this in bottles, we highly recommend stocking up!  
1413. New Belgium / Three Floyds Lips Of Faith - Grätzer Ale - This is a traditional Polish style ale made with oak-smoked wheat.  This is smoky, spicy, and great with grilled food.   
1414. Birra del Borgo - Rubus - Italian sour with raspberries.  Just say yes!  Crisp and bright without being overly fruity.
1415. Fiddlehead - Second Fiddle - The name represents their secondary status to Heady Topper. Honestly, this is better than Heady Topper in our opinion.
1416. Green Flash Brewing - Palate Wrecker - Not as much as a palate wrecker as the name might suggest.  We've certainly had far hoppier, far more ridiculously hopped beers that weren't nearly as polished or tasty as this.  While certainly very hoppy, it's still nicely balanced and not just an overwhelming sense of chewing on hop flowers.

Blueberry Hill!

Tis the season for berries.  So far it's mostly been blueberries at our local u-pick-em place, Three Birds Berry Farm, so we spent the Fourth of July gathering a gallon in the unseasonably reasonable temperatures.  So here are two recipes we've tried and they both seem to have turned out really well.

Brett picking berries

1387.  Blueberry Lemon Pound Cake

This is adapted pretty closely from Chef-in-training.com  The biggest difference was that we subbed the buttermilk for sour cream and 2% milk mixed to roughly the right consistency.  I also added in a few frozen berries from last summer that we hadn't eaten yet, but this seems like it would work well with all frozen (but not thawed) berries.  We froze several cups of berries with our vacuum sealer so this is an option for a nice winter dessert.

A delicious and moist pound cake that is bursting with refreshing and amazing flavor!

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup butter
• 1¾ cups sugar
• zest of one lemon
• 3 eggs
• ½ teaspoon vanilla
• ¾ cup buttermilk
• 3 cups fresh blueberries
• 2½ cups flour
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt

Lemon Glaze

• 1½ cup powdered sugar
• 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 Tablespoon lemon zest
• 1 Tablespoon milk
• ¼ teaspoon vanilla

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a large bowl, cream butter, sugar, and lemon zest together for 3 to 5 minutes.
3. Add eggs one at a time and beat an addition minute per egg.
4. In a separate large bowl, mix and combine dry ingredients together.
5. Add dry ingredients alternatively with the buttermilk to the butter/sugar/lemon zest/egg mixture. Fold in blueberries.
6. Grease and flour either 2 large bread pans or 3 small bread pans.
7. Pour batter and bake at 350 degrees F for 55 to 60 min.
8. Let loaves cool and pour glaze over them.

Lemon Glaze

1. Whisk glaze ingredients together until smooth

1388.  Canned Blueberry Pie Filling

We wanted to make sure we can save some of these delicious berries for enjoying later in the year, so we made 4 quarts of pie filling and canned them to be shelf stable.  Now when the cool days of Fall have us hankering for berries, we can open two jars and fill a pie crust.  This is taken from The Nap Time Chef, which has an easy-to-follow directions for anyone new to canning.

Ingredients

makes 2 quarts

10c.	blueberries, washed and dried
½ c.	water
1    ½c.	sugar
6 T.	cornstarch
5 T.	bottled lemon juice

Instructions

1. Wash and dry the blueberries and set aside. Sterilize 2 quart jars along with the lids in boiling water or in a dishwasher run without soap.

2. In a large stockpot bring the water, sugar, corn starch and lemon juice and to a boil.

3. Pour in the blueberries very carefully and bring the mixture back to a boil, stirring continuously with a long spoon. Keep stirring for about 5 minutes while the berries release their juices and the mixture thickens, becoming blue and glossy.

4. Set a funnel over a quart jar and ladle in the blueberry mixture, leaving about 1″ of room at the top. Repeat with second quart jar.

5. Placed the sterilized lids on the jar and seal them with the rims, only tightening the ring as much as you can with your own hand. Do not force it.

6. Place the jars in a pot of boiling water standing on end. Make sure the water covers the tops of the jars. Boil for 30 minutes, starting the timing when the mixture has returned to a boil after the jars have been added.

Catch up beer post and a couple of food tastes

This is the catch-up beer post.  There's a lot of stuff on this list obviously so we'll keep comments moderately short.

1284. Founders - Nitro Oatmeal Stout 
1285. Birra del Borgo - ArcheoBirra Etrusca - Anfora - This beer is also made by Dogfish Head and Baladin, but this is aged in clay amphora whereas the other two are aged in stainless or wood. This is pleasantly sour and delicious - neither of the other two are as sour apparently (we have these in the cellar but haven't had them yet), but it will be interesting to compare them.  This was absolutely amazing!
1286. Avery Brewing - New World Porter
1287. Saucony Creek Brewing - Chocolate Cherry Schnickelfritz
1288. Devils Backbone Brewing - 16 Point Imperial IPA - This is their double IPA as compared to their regularly brewed 8 Point IPA.
1289. Boulevard Smokestack Series - Bourbon Barrel Quad - This is an absolutely awesome quad. 
1290. Breckenridge Brewery - 72 Imperial Chocolate Cream Stout
1291. Oskar Blues Brewery - G’Knight Imperial Red
1292. Terrapin Beer Company - Moo-Hoo Chocolate Milk Stout
1293. Stone Brewing - Ruination IPA
1294. Shmaltz Brewing - Reunion - A Beer For Hope 2013
1295. Birrificio del Ducato - My Blueberry Nightmare - We've tried a number of beers with peppers in them lately, but this was great.  Megan didn't like this much, but Brett bought the remainder in the store.  
1296. Bells Brewery - Smitten Golden Rye Ale
1297. Sierra Nevada Brewing - Ovila Golden - This is an excellent Belgian strong ale.  
1298. Brouwerij Rodenbach - Grand Cru - A nice readily available sour brown.  Their non-grand cru version is also nice.
1299. Boulevard Smokestack Series - Tank 7 Farmhouse Ale
1300. Shooting Creek Farm Brewery - Rebel Ale - All of the Shooting Creek beers are now brewed by Blue Mountain.  
1301. DC Brau Brewing - El Hefe Speaks
1302. Shmaltz Brewing - HeBrew Rejewvenator 2013
1303. Anderson Valley Brewing - Bahl Hornin’ Spring India Pale Ale
1304. Tröegs Brewing Company - Nugget Nectar Ale
1305. Sierra Nevada - Ovila Quad
1306. DuClaw Brewing - Hell on Wood - This part of Virginia is no longer going to be getting DuClaw due to distributor changes... sigh
1307. Goose Island - Bourbon County Barleywine - This is an amazing barley wine.  Yes, Goose Island is owned by AB-InBev, but it's still darn darn good.
1308. St. George Brewing - Pilsner
1309. Tröegs Brewing - Cultivator
1310. Terrapin - Side Project Pineapple Express Smoked Pineapple Helles - Weird, but not very much pineapple flavor.
1311. Avery Brewing - Collaboration Not Litigation
1312. Dogfish Head Brewery - Indian Brown Ale
1313. Woodchuck Cellar Series - Chocolate - This is terrible - it taste like powered-chocolate in cheap cider unfortunately.
1314. Old Dominion Brewing Company - Winter Brew (Baltic Porter)
1315. Abita Brewing - Spring IPA
1316. Brewery Ommegang - Abbey Ale
1317. Dogfish Head Brewery - Sixty-One
1318. Florida Brewing Company - John J Kelly’s Irish Raspberry Hard Cider - This is pretty terrible. Just skip right over this.
1319. Brewery Ommegang - Glimmerglass Saison
1320. Rogue Ales - Irish Style Lager
1321. The Duck-Rabbit Craft Brewery - Porter
1322. Allagash Brewing Company - Tripel Reserve
1323. Brewery Ommegang - Hop House
1324. Sierra Blanca Brewing - Roswell Alien Amber Ale
1325. Great Divide Brewing - Orabelle
1326. Dogfish Head Brewery - Piercing Pils
1327. Selkirk Abbey Brewing - Infidel
1328. DuClaw Brewing - Misery
1329. Rogue Ales - New Crustacean Barleywineish Imperial IPA Sorta
1330. Evil Twin - Even More Jesus - An imperial stout that even Megan (sort of) liked!  Really nice!
1331. Maine Beer Company - Red Wheelbarrow
1332. BFM - √225 Saison Apricot - This is the first of 3 beers Brett had while in DC for a meeting at Pizza Paradiso.  Excellent pizza, huge beer selection, and 3 locations - try one of them if you're in the area.  
      
      
      
1333. Jopen / The Monarchy - Vereinigte Historische Bierfanatiker Grätzer - This was an interesting gose - went well with the pizza!
      
1334. Hanssens Artisinal -  Experimental Raspberry (Frambozenlambik) - Tired of your sour beers not being sour enough?  Try this!  This is possibly the sourest beer Brett has ever had.  He loves sour and yet this might be almost, it isn't, but almost too sour.  Note - this is almost one dimensional because of the dominant sour notes.  If you don't like sour, don't bother trying this - this is not your sweet Lindeman's Framboise!
1335. Southern Tier Brewing - Blackwater Series: Choklat
1336. Uinta Brewing - Bristlecone Brown Ale
1337. Bells Brewery - Hopslam
1338. Brewery Ommegang - Chocolate Indulgence
1339. Damascus Brewery - Backbone Bock
1340. Parkway Brewing - Magella Belgian Dark Abbey Ale
1341. Great Lakes Brewing - Edmund Fitzgerald Porter
1342. Abita Brewing - Andygator
1343. Kona Brewing - Fire Rock Pale Ale
1344. Dark Horse Brewing - Tres Blueberry Stout
1345. Verhaeghe - Barbe Ruby
1346. Off Color Brewing - Scurry - Unusual and very good.  Pairs great with food or enjoy on its own!
1347. Great Shoals Winery - Bosc & Bartlett Hard Pear (Perry) - Perry is pear cider.
1348. Great Shoals Winery - Blazing Star Hard Peach
1349. Stone Brewing - Spröcket Bier
1350. Maui Brewing - Lahaina Town Brown
1351. Flying Dog Imperial IPA - Amarillo Single Hop - Ugh, don't like just amarillo hops in a beer... Also this tasted a bit like burned Corn-Nuts - strange strange strange.
1352. Otter Creek Brewing - Fresh Slice
1353. Stone Brewing - Stone Farking Wheaton w00tstout 
1354. Left Hand Brewing - 400 Pound Monkey
1355. Odell Brewing - India Pale Ale (IPA)
1356. Hellenic Breweries of Atalanti - Blue Island - Yes, beer from Greece.  It's as "amazing" as you might expect.  It was literally $10 a case, but we bought a 6 pack for post-lawn mowing or boiling brats or something.  
1357. Long Trail Brewery - Ramble
1358. Bavik-De Brabandere - Petrus Oud Bruin
1359. Fort Collins Brewery - Chocolate Stout
1360. R.J. Rockers Brewing - Son of a Peach Wheat Ale
1361. Allagash Brewing - Curieux - What an excellent aged triple - super complex!
1362. Natty Greene's - Salute American Stout
1363. Natty Greene's - Summit IPA
1364. Natty Greene's - Springfest Pilsener
1365. Natty Greene's - Wildflower Witbier
1366. Natty Greene's - Ordinary Bitter
1367. Natty Greene's - Elm Street IPA
1368. Blue Dog Mead Company - Green Collar Mead
1369. Tröegs Brewing - Troegenator Doublebock
1370. Evil Twin Brewing - Hipster Ale
1371. Breckenridge Brewing - SummerBright Ale
1372. Founders Brewing - All Day IPA
1373. Mikkeller - Better Half
1374. New Belgium Brewing - Lips of Faith:  Le Terroir - It's a giant pity that we can't get this regularly out here.  We found this only because a distributor had made a mistake and we managed to grab a bottle.  If you can get a hold of this, enjoy!
1375. Chaos Mountain - Cheeky Monkey Belgian Blonde - A new brewery popped up about 1.5 hours away from us, but conveniently right near The Harvester where we went to see Toad the Wet Sprocket!
1376. Chaos Mountain - Mad Hopper IPA
1377. Chaos Mountain - Squatch Scotch Ale
1378. Chaos Mountain - 4 Mad Chefs Quadrupel - Brought a growler of this home!  Not quite the thick mouthfeel expected from the style, but the taste profile was dead on.
1379. Chaos Mountain - Agents of Chaos Belgian Special Dark
1380. Chaos Mountain - Cocoborealis Triple Chocolate Stout - Again, this was a bit thin feeling compared to the expected mouthfeel for the style and the coffee flavor was more dominant than chocolate for us.
1381. Chaos Mountain - Edge Of The Sun Lager
1382. Chaos Mountain - Toulouse to Trek - Probably Brett's favorite - this is a saison and very nice, but Megan doesn't really like saisons so growler fill was the quad!

We ate at Blue 5 before the Johnnyswim concert (they're awesome - give them a listen!) for our anniversary night out.

1383. Moonshine chicken sandwich - Megan had this and it was good.  The fries were really crispy!
1384. Blackened cajun catfish - Brett had this - very nicely cooked blackened catfish with lump crab on top and some excellent red beans and rice as a side.
1385. Brownie cheesecake with vanilla ice cream - Megan's dessert
1386. Bread pudding with vanilla ice cream - Brett's dessert;  nicely spiced and it almost tasted like there were pieces of apple in it

New food taste!

We still haven't gotten enough time to put in all of the tastes from beer and wine since the start of the year, but we do have a new recent food taste!  Our garden is essentially gone - the plan is to replace it with some raised beds, but we haven't finished those yet.  To make up for our lack of our own fresh veggies, we decided to get a farm share from Glade Road Growing.  We had always bought a lot of veggies from them at the Blacksburg Farmer's Market so it seemed a no brainer.  We get a weekly bag of veggies fresh from the farm for what feels like almost nothing!

We just got our first bag this week - it was filled with a huge bunch of spinach, leeks, broccoli, and some dill.

We were looking for a fun recipe to use some of the veggies this week with.  We decided to modify a recipe from Jamie Oliver, Leek Lasagne.  Below is the recipe as we modified it - note this makes 2 9" by 9" pans of lasagne and according to the original recipe, one serving is one sixth of the two pans - that's a LOT!

1282. Leek and sausage lasagne
      
      
      
      
      
      
      

• 4 leeks, thinly sliced
• 2 red onions, thinly sliced
• 200 g spinach, washed and chopped
• 440 g mild italian sausage
• 350 g good-quality ricotta
• 1 litre base tomato sauce
• 1 packet lasagne sheets, wholewheat if you can find them
• 125 g mozzarella ball
• 75 g fresh Parmesan, grated

Cook the sausage, remove it from the pan, then drain any excess grease.   Add a small bit of olive oil to the pan and slowly sweat the onions and leeks for about 10 minutes.  Add the chopped spinach and heat it until it's slightly wilted.  Remove from heat and let it cool a little bit.  Preheat your oven at 350F. Mix the ricotta and sausage back into the vegetables.  Spoon ~1/4 of the tomato sauce into the bottom of the two 9" x 9" pans.  Add a layer of noodles, then a layer of the veggie/sausage mixture, more sauce, another noodle layer, the last of the filling, sauce, another noodle layer, and top with more sauce. Grate the mozzarella and Parmesan over the top.  Place the two pans on a large flat pan, and bake for about 35 minutes or until the cheese is just browned over the top.  

1283. 2007 - Viña Siegel - Merlot - Crucero Reserva - we had this with dinner and it went fabulously with the lasagne.  

Long time, no posts...

This has been one heck of a semester and we obviously haven't spent any time whatsoever about posting our new tastes.  We haven't been slacking off in terms of tasting, but sure have been about posting about those tastes!  Because we have such a backlog, we'll start with just some food tastes, then move to beer, and then wine.

1257. Lake Champlain - Salted dark chocolate
1258. Crostini with Balsamic Caramelized Onions, Melted Cheese & Sage
1259. Almond-Bacon Cheese Crostini
1260. Stowaway Chocolates - Peanut Butter Meltaway

We went to a special wine tasting dinner in Marion, Virginia held at the General Francis Marion Hotel/Black Rooster restaurant.  There were some phenomenal wines and great food.  The food and wine was a smattering of spanish wines and foods.

1261. Esparragos blancos - white asparagus, lemon, caper
1262. Aceitunas arbequinas y cabrales - sweet brown olives, artisanal blue cheese
1263. Manchego, jamón y membrillo - sheep's milk cheese, cured ham, and quince
1264. Pan a la catalana - crusty bread, garlic, tomato, wild olive oil
1265. Torta de cangrejo - crab cake and saffron aioli
1266. Lubina con romesco - Mediterranean seabass, roasted pepper, and almond sauce
1267. Carrillada de cerdo - braised pork cheeks, sofrito, glace
1268. Tarta de Santiago - marcona almond cake
1269. Flan con jarabe de café - custard and coffee syrup

One of the regulars at the wine club is starting a fine chocolates business, Chocomiro, and their chocolates are incredibly delicious.  They have a limited selection now, but every single one we tried was phenomenal.

1270. Chocomiro - Creamy espresso caramel
1271. Chocomiro - Jasmine tea lemon ganache
1272. Chocomiro - Earl grey garnache
1273. Chocomiro - Deep vanilla caramel
1274. Chocomiro - Cherry fondant cordial
1275. Chocomiro - Coconut
1276. Chocomiro - Deep vanilla sea salt caramel
1277. Chocomiro - Four spice fusion
1278. Chocomiro - Raspberry ganache
1279. Chocomiro - Saffron lavender honey fusion

We're sure that there's more foods we've tried, but we are often lazy about remembering to record new foods.  

Brett went to a meeting in the DC area and was able to go to Pizza Paradiso (the DuPont Circle location) and got a nice pizza.

1280. Macellaio - Paradiso Tomato, Pepperoni, Mozzarella, Sausage, Red Onion 

Megan found a quick casserole recipe for dinner.  It's fast to make and darn tasty!

1281. Hamburger potato casserole

Welcome to 2014!

It's been awhile since we've done a post.  Both of us have been buried with new class preps (Megan has 2, Brett has 1 and it includes labs), so we haven't had a lot of time to do a new post.   Rather than try to do these chronologically we'll break them up into beer, wine, and food separately.

Starting with new beer tastes, we have:

1178. New Belgium Brewing - Fat Tire - We're not sure how this was never on our list, but it's on the list now.  
1179. Brooklyn Brewery - Black Chocolate Stout  - Delicious and dark chocolate milk mixed with stout. 
1180. Russian River Brewing - Pliny the Elder - What a delicious double IPA.  Worth all the praise it gets.  If only it came out to Virginia...
1181. Firestone Walker Brewing - Velvet Merlin - What a nice stout - rich chocolate flavors and smooth coffee.
1182. Bockor - Cuvee des Jacobins Rouge - This is one of Brett's most favorite sour brown's he has ever tasted.  Delicious, delicious, delicious.  
1183. Odell Brewing - Friek - Odell's Kriek (sour cherry ale) - Brett was very hard pressed to decide if this was better or worse than the Bockor...  
1184. Crooked Stave - Vieille Artisanal (Happy Leaf) - Crooked Stave's saison blended with prickly pear kombucha.
1185. Crooked Stave - Vieille Artisanal (Cranberry and Spice) - Holiday-season spiced and fruited saison.
1186. Crooked Stave - Surette Provision Saison - Batch #7
1187. Crooked Stave - Surette Provision Saison - Batch #8 (both of these were on tap - we preferred #7 just slightly)
1188. Crooked Stave - Vieille Artisinal  - Their base saison.
1189. Schmaltz Brewing Company - HeBrew Jewbelation Reborn - Incredibly complex and the 17% alcohol was noticeable without being overwhelming.  
1190. Anderson Valley Brewing - Winter Solstice
1191. 21st Amendment Brewery - He Said (Belgian Tripel) - This was a pumpkin-based tripel.  Brett didn't like this much at all - so much tarragon and lots of sediment.
1192. Brewery Ommegang - Three Philosophers - This is a really tasty quad.  
1193. Deschutes Brewery - Black Butte Porter - This was Brett's favorite porter when he lived in Montana.  It was as good as he remembered.  
1194. Odell Brewing - Cutthroat Porter - This was the second great porter we've had recently.  
1195. Roanoke Railhouse Brewing - Switch Monkey - A very local trippel from right down the interstate.  It's pretty tasty, but not amazing.  
1196. Apocalypse Ale Works - Heavy Red Horseman - This is a scotch ale from one of our favorite Virginia brewers.  This was just as good as all of their other beers (which means delicious). They will have cans out for distribution inside Virginia sometime this summer!  
1197. Liefmans - Cuvée Brut - This is a kriek, but it also has extra sugar added.  This is fairly sweet for Brett, but at least it has some nice tartness to somewhat balance it.
1198. Terrapin Beer Company - Big Hoppy Monster - A very nice DIPA, goes well with pub food.
1199. Wolf Hills Brewing - Belgian Quad - Another Virginia Belgian-style beer.  This quad is quite good.
1200. DC Brau - Penn Quarter Porter - The third excellent porter we've had recently.  They are using this and making a mixed drink with this and red wine from Burgundy in a DC restaurant. Very good, chocolatey, and rich.
1201. Schmaltz Brewing Company - HeBrew Funky Jewbelation 2013 - A blend of 6 barrel-aged beers creating one sour, funky, delicious glassful of jewbelation!
1202. Lefthand Brewing - Sawtooth Ale - This was a nitro bottle - a good every day ESB.
1203. New Belgium Brewing - Snapshot - This is their new sour wheat beer.  It's slightly tart, wheaty, and refreshing.  I suspect this will be very good on a hot summer day.  
1204. Southern Tier Brewing - Live - Bottle-conditioned American Pale Ale.  The nose and the palate have lots of citrus and this very nice.
1205. Petrus - Blond 
1206. Shooting Creek - Buffalo Brown - This had stopped being brewed due to a divorce between the brewer and his wife.  This is now being contract-brewed by Blue Mountain and is a nice brown ale.
1207. AleWerks Brewing - Coffeehouse Stout - Brewed with a very nice Antiqua coffee.  
1208. Parallel 49 Brewing - Salty Scot - This is a scotch ale with caramel and salt flavors.  Those flavors however are very subdued and it almost tastes a little watery.

We have had quite a few new wine tastes, both at the house and at tastings.

1209. 2011 - Villa Jolanda - Moscato d'Asti 
1210. 2008 - Rabbit Ridge - Pinot Grigio
1211. 2007 - Thorn-Clarke - Terra Barossa Barossa Cuvée
1212. 2012 - Vinicola de Castilla - Verdejo La Mancha El Cortijillo
1213. 2012 - Casa De Cambres - Douro Reserva
1214. 2012 - Fifty Shades of Grey - White Silk - Clearly attempting to capitalize on the book, this chardonnay-based blend was on clearance for a reason - bleh!
1215. 2012 - Weinkeller Erbach - Flonheimer Adelberg Silvaner
1216. 2012 - Señorío de Sarría - Navarra Rosado
1217. 2011 - Definitive - Pinot Noir
1218. 2009 - Ramilanos - Garnacha Calatayud
1219. 2012 - Casa De Cambres - Douro Reserva
1220. 2008 - Palacio Del Burgo Tinto Bodega Burgo Viejo - Tempranillo Reserva
1221. 2012 - Rubus - Barossa
1222. 2009 - Raymond Vineyard & Cellar - Sauvignon Blanc
1223. 2009 - Heumann - Villány
1224. 2008 - Odipus - Navarra Garnacha Viñas Viejas
1225. NV - R.H. Phillips - Merlot - Night Harvest
1226. 2011 - Casa Lapostolle - Merlot - Rapel Valley
1227. 2005 - Campo di Marzo - Brunello di Montalcino - Il Valentíano
1228. 2012 - Rubus - Zinfandel Old Vine
1229. 2010 - Firestone Vineyard - Moscato - Discoveries Vineyards
1230. 2011 - Fratelli - Mochetto Venezie IGT
1231. 2011 - Les Vins de Vienne - (Cuilleron Gaillard Villard) - Crozes-Hermitage
1232. 2008 - Domaine Vincent Paris - Cornas La Geynale
1233. 2006 - Fortediga Estates - Sodamagri Maremma Toscana IGT
1234. 2007 - Isole e Olena - Syrah Collezione de Marchi Toscana IGT
1235. 2009 - Long Shadows Wineries - Syrah - Sequel
1236. 2009 - Ramey - Syrah - Rodger's Creek Vineyard
1237. 2006 - Blair Fox - Syrah - Paradise Road Vineyard
1238. 2009 - Henschke - Shiraz - Mount Edelstone - Megan had this (and the above syrah and shiraz wines) at the Wine and Women Club.  This was apparently quite good since she gave it 100.  It also comes with a glass "cork."
1239. 2005 - Clarendon Hills - Astralis
1240. 2012 - El Sierro - Valencia Chardonnay-Macabeo
1241. 2009 - Domaine de la Terre Rouge - Enigma
1242. 2011 - J.B. Adam - Gewurztraminer Kaefferkopf - Cuvée Jean-Baptiste
1243. 2011 - La Viña - Valencia - El Sierro
1244. 2009 - Vieux - Duché
1245. 2009 - Viña Sastre (Bodegas Hermanos Sastre) - Ribera del Duero Crianza
1246. 2012 - Babich - Sauvignon Blanc - Marlborough
1247. 2012 - Foris - Gewürztraminer
1248. 2011 - Domaine de la Guicharde - Côtes du Rhône
1249. 2011 - La Posta - Malbec Cocina
1250. 2011 - Trentadue Winery - Old Patch Red Lot #36
1251. 2011 - Casa Gran del Siurana - Priorat GR-174
1252. 2008 - Vinos de Arganza - Mencía Bierzo Flavium Premium

Last, but not least, some new food tastes.

1253. Blacksburg Taphouse - Downtown Slider Trio - Brett though his favorite was the beef slider, but the crab cake was awfully good.  The picture shows a flight of 4 Virginia beers as well, some of which were new tastes in the beer list above (Roanoke Railhouse's Switch Monkey, far left, and Apocalypse Ale Works' Heave Red Horseman, far right).  
      
1254. Blacksburg Taphouse - Turkey Club - Megan really loved the bread, but the sandwich was a little dry.
1255. 1906 Ale House - Rum Drunk Pulled Pork Cuban - Brett had this before the Snarky Puppy concert in Roanoke.  It also came with homemade BBQ chips which were just okay.
1256. 1906 Ale House - Turkey Club with Applewood Smoked Bacon - Guess what? Megan had another turkey club.  You might think she likes turkey.  She would have preferred a bit more meat throughout the sandwich but it was very tasty and the bacon was amazing.

We're pretty sure we had some other new food tastes, but we've somehow lost track of them so...  

Best and Worst Tastes - 2013

We thought it would be fun to have a few lists of our top tastes.  We will break them up in the same big three categories that we did for the statistics.

Top Beer

These are the top 10 beers from 2013.  While some of their scores don't match their rating here, it's been very hard to be consistent with rating over months and months.  

1. Westvleteren Abdij St. Sixtus - Westvleteren 12 (XII) - This was an amazing beer and a gift from Brett's brother Brian.  This is the number one beer on Ratebeer.com and well deserving of its ranking.  It is incredibly complex and delicious.  
2. Hill Farmstead Brewery - Susan - We had this on our summer trip.  This is an IPA with floral and citrus notes from the hops on the nose.  The taste is complex and not just all hop like many IPAs and is full of citrus and caramel with a long mellow finish.  
3. Dogfish Head Brewery - 60 Minute IPA - We tasted this at the brewery in Delaware. This is the classic East Coast IPA and has an excellent reputation that has been honestly earned. 
4. New Belgium Brewing Company - Lips of Faith - Transatlantique Kriek - This is from New Belgium's Lips of Faith series and is a traditional kriek.  It starts life in Belgium, then is shipped to Fort Collins, CO and blended with a golden lager.  It's deliciously sour and fruity.
5. Hill Farmstead Brewery - Edward - Another great beer from Hill Farmstead, we had this on our trip as well.  This is an American Pale Ale and not as hoppy as Susan, but just as delicious. 
6. Hill Farmstead Brewery - Everett - You might be sensing a trend.  In this case, Hill Farmstead has created an excellent porter.  Full of dark chocolate, coffee, and nutmeg - this is even better than Brett's perennial favorite, Fuller's London Porter.
7. Maine Beer Company - Lunch - We bought a bottle of this while in Maine and brought it home. Sticking with the trend of breweries to make lots of different IPAs, this is a nice example. It is bottle-conditioned which is pretty different in this day and age and it's one of the best-balanced IPAs. It's very smooth and easy to drink.
8. Dogfish Head Brewery - Palo Santo Marron - This is a brown ale aged on a very dense, hard to get, South American wood.  The brewery managed to get their hands on 20 blocks which was used to age the beer.  This is a very unusual beer with licorice flavors as well as chocolate and dark malt.  
9. Brouwerij Van Steenberge - Gulden Draak - We had this in Denver at the Cheeky Monk.  This is an incredibly drinkable Belgian strong ale with notes of caramel and toffee.  
10. New Belgium Brewing Company - La Folie - This a great sour red ale which is thankfully widely available.  We both love this beer - great tastes and aromas of sour cherry, cranberry, and caramel.  

We have some clear preferences here - 3 from Hill Farmstead and 2 each from New Belgium and Dogfish.  

Worst Beer

Here's a list of our 2 worst beers.  We've eliminated any that were clearly faulty in the bottle.  These two are actually terrible and even if you were dying of dehydration, you should probably skip them. We had other beers that weren't great, but these are actively bad.  If you see these, just run the other way or pour them down the drain.

1. Carton Brewing - Intermezzo - Not only was this disgusting, it was probably one of our most expensive pints of the year.  We think we finished maybe a third of it.  If you can imagine liking a beer that is reminiscent of a urine-soaked sweat sock that has been left in the back of a gym locker all year and then barfed on, this is the beer for you!
2. Anheuser-Busch InBev - Wild Blue - After gifting us the Westvleteren XII, Brian then dug out this terrible excuse for a beer.  AB has clearly tried to copy Flying Dog's art and font, but didn't bother trying to copy the quality.  This was terrible.  If you imagine a blueberry soda, dump all the syrup into a glass, and dilute it with some additional artificial sweetener and a bit of carbonated water, then add some vodka for the alcohol content, that's what you have.  Smells like convenience store pre-packaged blueberry muffins and tastes worse.
   
    

Best wines

Here's our top 10 wine tastes for the year.  

1. 1997 - Salon - Champagne - Brut - Blanc de Blancs - This was from our champagne tasting in December.  At the cost per bottle, this should be darn near the top and it is!  A classic French champagne, with aromas and taste of pear, apple, and bread.  
2. 2008 - Abelis Carthago - Toro Fighting Bulls - A classic Spanish wine made from a classic grape, tempranillo.  A very big wine with lots of complexity and flavor.  
3. 2007 - Saint-Cosme - Châteauneuf-du-Pape - This is a red Rhone-blend, very round and a bit spicy on the palate.  
4. 2009 - Bodegas y Viñedos Maurodos - Toro Viña San Román - Another tempranillo, this one has a velvety mouthfeel and almost a port-like feel to the finish.
5. 2005 - Bodegas Muga - Rioja Gran Reserva Prado Enea - Hmm... another tempranillo, but in this case it's a blend - fruit, red meat and some acidity.  This would go great with food.
6. 2010 - Domaine Serene - Pinot Noir - Evenstad Reserve - An Oregon pinot noir, this is fruity, peppery, and chewy.  It's quite expensive, but it's very good.
7. 2000 - Donatella Cinelli Colombini - Rosso di Montalcino - We brought this back from Italy. Presumably, this was past its prime, but nobody told the wine that.  This was excellent and we are going to open our last bottle we brought back from Italy, a Brunello, very soon.
8. 2012 - Chakana - Estate Selection - This is an Argentine red blend.  This is a delicious round, complex, smooth drinking wine.  
9. 1998 - Krug - Champagne Vintage Brut - A second champagne from our tasting in December.  While not quite as expensive as the Salon, it was very close to being as good.  
10. 1968 - Gaja - Barbaresco - Brett's 40th birthday gift from Brian and Teresa, this was another wine that should have been past its prime. Was it?  Probably, but it was a delicious experience to try a 40 year old wine and while it might have been a bit past its prime, it was still holding up very, very well.

Worst wines

Throwing out the bottles that were obviously flawed, these were the worst 5 wines of the year.

1. NV - Peaks of Otter Winery - Frosty Morn - This supposed to be a dessert wine so it's not unusual for it to be sweet, but this was disgustingly syrupy sweet.  
2. 2011 - Ferrari-Carano - Bella Luce - Again, very sweet with burned eraser notes on the finish.  
3. NV - Lamplighter Vineyards - This is supposed to be a chardonnay blend, but this tastes about as much like chardonnay as Twinkies taste like steak.  
4. NV - Peaks of Otter Winery - "Chili Dawg" - Any wine tasting that they squeeze Cheez Whiz on your hand so you can lick it then take a shot of the "wine" deserves to be in the bottom 5.  
5. NV - Leo Grande - Roaring White - Like sweet?  Want even more sweet?  Try this!

Best foods

Here's our top foods from the year (not in any particular order).

• Mike's Pastry (Boston, MA) - Boston Creme Pie - We had this while we were in Boston and it was absolutely delicious and rich.  
• Mike's Pastry (Boston, MA)- Chocolate Ricotta Cannoli - Also from Boston, this was also very good.
• Sea Dog Brewing (Portland, ME) - Risotto arancini - deep-fried risotto with nice spiced breadcrumbs, lots of umami, delicious;  served with pomodoro for dipping.
• The Summit (Christiansburg, VA) - Apple Rutabaga Bisque - On first blush, this probably sounds like a very strange combination, but it was quite good, so much so that we asked if we could get a container to go (obviously, we'd pay for it). 
• The Summit (Christiansburg, VA) - The Brigadier - Brett had this.  The steak was literally melt in your mouth tender, the gorgonzola sauce was not overdone and the flavor of the steak was fantastic. 
• The Summit (Christiansburg, VA) - Chocolate creme brulee - In short, it tasted like a super delicious chocolate mousse with caramel on top with a bit of sea salt on top.  
• Villella's Ristorante (Niagara Falls, NY) - Lemoncello Gelato - It's a dessert of creamy vanilla gelato served in a flute with lemoncello.  Think of it as a refreshing and adult ice cream float. Hard to imagine that the best Italian food we've had since we left Italy was in a Super 8.
• Britt's (Carolina Beach, NC) - Glazed donuts - These are apparently the second best donuts in the US.  Neither of us really care about donuts, but man these were good!
• Natty Greene's (Greensboro, NC) - Turkey Razz sandwich - Megan says this was amazing and all her mayo should be raspberry.
• Cooking Light - Chicken and Black Bean Burritos - We made these and took them on our trip. Fast, easy, healthy and delicious.

Worst food tastes

• Cabot - Horseradish Cheddar - Neither of us like horseradish and this was way too much for either of us.
• Oregano vinegar - This flavored balsamic vinegar was like chewing on oregano.
• Whole fruit persian lime olive oil - lime peel and lime juice - not really very olive oil-like.

And that's the end of our 2013 summary.  We'll have new tastes starting up in 2014 soon!

2013 - Summary and statistics

Here's a quick summary and some statistics from our 1177 tastes from 2013.

First, here's the total tastes divided up by wine, food, and beer.

We were interested in the statistics based on the wine we tasted since that's where we got most of our tastes.  Obviously most of our wine tastes were from free sampling which means that we were somewhat at the mercy of what was available, either at the winery or Vintage Cellar (ie, the distributor at Vintage Cellar doing the tasting).  We limited ourselves to the top 100 wines we rated of the 540 total we tasted.

First, here's the breakdown by type of wine.

Here's the breakdown by country.

Here is the same list broken down by vintage.

We didn't break down the beer tastes, because conveniently RateBeer already broke everything down nicely in a summary page.  It doesn't include every beer we tried in 2013 as some of our ratings were done after January 1st.  Here's a quick screenshot of the tastes by type, but there's lots more information available here.