Chocolate and Beer – A Love Story

With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, you may feel overwhelmed by red and white decorations, flower ads, and expectations of how you should demonstrate your love. It can be hard to navigate through the landscape of pink hearts and fluffy bears, but here at Beerploma we’ve done the hard work for you. This year we’re helping you break out of the box of chocolates! Instead, check out an underrated pairing – chocolate and beer! Wine and chocolate are out for 2014, but beer and chocolate? Now that’s a love story! Along with my husband, I’ve crossed the Twin Cities for samplings from local chocolate shops and great liquor stores to bring you some pairings you’ll want to try yourself. We invited a couple friends along for a tasting and I’m sure we’ll inspire you to track down some special treats for your love as well!

We started the night out with a Berlin Style Weisse from local Joseph Wolf Brewing, Co. and champagne truffles from Candyland in Stillwater, MN. While we were familiar with some of the local breweries in the area, we weren’t as sure where to find a great craft beer in the local liquor stores. Doing a little research we found Stillwater Liquor. I was intrigued by what I saw on their website – locally owned, operated, and giving to charity? All great things I could support. Although the craft beer selection was a little small, the customer service was great and they seemed eager to grow in the craft beer area. We selected the sour wheat ale by the Stillwater brewery and headed over to Candyland in downtown Stillwater. With their homemade truffles, fresh popcorn, and old fashioned candies, this shop (with 3 Twin Cities locations) is a favorite of many locals and for good reason.

 

If you’re looking for a pairing to match closely to traditional bubbly, this is the pairing for you. The sour wheat ale brings to mind the effervescence of champagne as it tickles the back of your throat. The brewery is currently being operated by the great granddaughters of original proprietor Joseph Wolf in collaboration with Dubrue of Duluth, MN.  The label states that they are working on a series of artisanal beers and I for one can’t wait to see what else they have to bring to the table. The beer brought out the sweetness of the champagne in the chocolate, with the chocolate in turn mellowing the sourness of the beer. The flavors complimented each other and left a sweet bubbly feel on your palate. This pairing ended up being the favorite of our friend Elise and was a bargain at under $15. (Alternate Pairing: add raspberry syrup to this beer and pair it with a raspberry truffle.)

For our second pairing of the evening we hopped over the river to Hudson, WI. For this stop we hit up historic Casanova Liquors and Knoke’s Chocolates, both located downtown. If you haven’t been to Casanova’s in a while, you might be surprised by their growing selection of craft beers. The back area if filled with craft brews to the point of almost being claustrophobic, and while their selection isn’t as big as some, it’s has more than enough offerings for any beer lover. They also fill growlers! Further into downtown Hudson you’ll find Knoke’s Chocolates and you’ll never want to leave. Knoke’s is known in the area for the quality of their chocolates and it’s easy to see why. Not only do these candies taste great, they are gorgeous. Your Valentine will be thrilled to receive a box of truffles from this downtown staple.

 

 

We decided on a bottle of Serendipity from New Glarus. The brewery created this fruit ale after a drought left them short on cherries for their cherry sour. Thinking outside of the box, the brewers gathered what cherries they could get and combined them with apples and cranberries to create this ale, and it’s been a hit ever since. We decided on dark chocolate merlot truffles to pair with this deep red ale. The result worked better than we could have imagined. The deep, dry merlot flavor of the truffle made the sweet fruit flavors in the beer pop. The fruit flavors came out crisp and clean and in turn tamed the bitterness of the dark chocolate. Coming in around $18 for 4 truffles and the bottle, this pairing did not disappoint my palate or wallet. It’s easy to see why this was our friend Mark’s favorite. (Alternate Pairing: try a milk chocolate option or the blueberry balsamic truffle from Knoke’s.)

Coming back across the river we headed out to Minneapolis for our third selection of the night. I love the selection and people at South Lyndale Liquors so that’s where we headed!  If you haven’t stepped into this south side staple you’re missing out. South Lyndale Liquors has a wide selection of craft beers at great prices, although I would like to see a greater offering of MN beers on their shelves. We decided on the Genghis Pecan from Clown Shoes of Ipswich, MA.  This 2013 pecan pie porter uses real brown sugar and roasted pecans in the brew – which would be perfect with a nut cluster! (Big thanks to Al at South Lyndale for this suggestion!) So off we headed to the Candy Jar, a Minneapolis candy and gift shop. At the Candy Jar you’ll find friendly staff and a great selection of treats and gifts sure to thrill any Valentine on your list. They even have a variety of sugar free chocolates in their case, so be sure to check them out if you have someone in your life that can’t have sugar, or is watching their intake. We selected 4 pecan clusters, which were a steal for a dollar!

 

 

I won’t lie to you – this pairing was spot on. The nuts and chocolate in the candy amplified the roasted pecan flavor in the beer and brought the brown sugar flavor to the forefront. My biggest regret of this pairing was that we didn’t buy more pecan clusters. I could have honestly spent all night enjoying this combo. This pairing would please anyone and everyone who is a nut fan. This was also our cheapest pick of the night coming in around $9 for the candy and beer. (Alternate Pairing: a turtle or any nut caramel cluster.)

Our final pairing of the evening was from St. Paul. We stopped first at Just Truffles on Grand to check out their offerings. If you haven’t stopped into this local shop you’re missing out. We were greeted right away and offered a sample – how can you not love that customer service!  These candies are free of waxes and preservatives so you’ll want to make sure to keep them refrigerated. I was surprised by the price of $4/truffle, but these are huge truffles! At any other candy shop this amount would make 2-3 standard size truffles easily, so the pricing really does balance out. We decided on café au lait truffles and went on our way to the Ale Jail where the friendly and knowledgeable staff was waiting to assist us in both the Ale Jail and the connected Wine Thief.  You won’t find your mass produced beers here – no Budweiser or Miller on these shelves. Instead you’ll find many local offerings and craft brews from around the country. Here we selected an Espresso Oak Aged Yeti from Great Divide Brewing Co. out of Denver Co.

 

 

Both Andy and I picked this pairing as our favorite of the evening. The Yeti is an imperial stout aged on oak chips with coffee added, which served as the perfect mate to our café au lait truffles. Both the beer and truffles worked together and enhanced the overall coffee flavor that they each brought. If you’re looking for the perfect end to a great Valentine’s Day dinner, this pairing is worth every penny. It was the best of everything an after dinner cocktail or dessert should be. Our St. Paul stop was the steepest cost of the evening at $29 but trust me, these two were worth the price. And if you really want to pull out the stops next Friday, this duo is sure to impress. (Alternative Pairing: we’ve got nothing! None of us had any reason to switch this team up!)

So next weekend, check out these local shops and see what pairings you’ll come up with. And let us know in the comments if you’ve checked out any of our suggestions, or have some of your own! Chocolate and beer…who knew they loved each other as much as you love your sweetheart!


http://www.stillwaterliquor.com/
http://www.candylandstore.com/
http://thenovaofhudson.com/
http://knokeschocolates.com/
http://www.southlyndale.com/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Candy-Jar/100294666696745
http://winethief.net/#/the-ale-jail
http://www.justtruffles.com/
 

Adventures of a Beginning Homebrewer: Life Moves Fast!

Life Moves Fast!

 

Things have been pretty crazy lately. The summer seems to be whizzing by. Between trips to the cabin, out of town trips for my band, and BBQs with family and friends, trying to find a tiny bit of time to just breathe can be a daunting task for me. Something somewhere was going to end up suffering because of me spreading myself too thin… I am almost ashamed to admit it, but it is the homebrewing that has suffered.  

 

Towards the middle of June I brewed up a wheat beer. I had plans of making a raspberry rhubarb wheat, I guess I still do, but with the hectic pace that this summer has kept it has sat in the primary fermenter since June.  

 

I have thought about whether it is still good. It has been sealed this whole time, so contamination shouldn’t be a problem. But, can a homebrew be left sitting in the primary fermenter on the yeast and other sludge for this long? I don’t know… but I figured the internet does!

 

I perused the homebrew forums to find an answer. What I discovered is that EVERYONE has an answer…. Correction; EVERYONE has a different answer. Some say that leaving the brew on the sludge for too long will give it off flavors. Some say that leaving it in contact with the plastic bucket too long will give it off flavors. Some say that you can leave it in the primary for a couple months with absolutely no issues or off flavors. Hmmmm…. 

 

So here is what I have learned from my research: Absolutely nothing! However; with such conflicting answers I am not going to just dump 5 gallons of beer down the drain. I like beer way too much to just pitch it. It is at least worth a shot, right?  

 

Tonight the beer is going into the secondary fermenter to clear up a bit. Then I will bottle it in a couple weeks. Then after a bit of time for bottle conditioning I WILL know the answer. Hopefully the end result is an ice cold delicious fruity wheat beer! 

 

Has anybody else let their home brew timeline get away from them? I would love to read your results in the comment section below…. And stay tuned for my results.

Adventures of a Beginning Home Brewer

Double Vision

A couple months ago I upgraded my brewery. I got the equipment so that I can brew two batches of beer at the same time. I like beer a lot, which means I need a lot of beer!

 

I started things off by brewing a raspberry wheat and an english brown ale. Things were going great; I was excited about the fact that I would soon have a boatload of beer… And then came an obstacle.

 

I realized after racking the beer into the secondary fermenters that I had a small problem; I never labeled the beers when I first started them and put them into the fermenters. Duh! Normally you would think that these beers would have a distinctively different color from each other, but that isn’t completely the case. When you have about 5 gallons of beer in a big glass vessel the color is pretty much just “dark.”

 

The raspberry is put in during the bottling, which complicated things two fold. First, there isn’t the obvious clue of the beer tasting or smelling like raspberries. Secondly, it left the door open that I could very well end up with a raspberry english brown ale and a plain wheat beer.

 

My friend and I had to taste the flat beer, smell it, and examine it in a smaller taster glass… And then we had to make our best guest. We racked what we thought was the brown ale and bottled it and then racked what we thought was the raspberry wheat, poured in the raspberry extract, and bottled that. Then the long two week wait until we could find out if we guessed right started.

 

The result? We guessed right! Whew! And they are both pretty good beers. Lesson learned: LABEL YOUR BEERS!

Adventures of a Home Brewer

Don't Fruit the Beer? Forget That!

 

Remember those Man Law commercials for Miller Lite? One was “Don’t fruit the beer!” I broke that law yesterday. Send the beer police if you need to, but if anyone should be arrested it’s the brewers of Miller Lite for trying to make us think carbonated water is beer.

Yesterday I started making my annual Merry Cherry Christmas Stout. I make this every year in order to facilitate the Christmas Beer Miracle… I will explain that a bit closer to Christmas.

Merry Cherry Christmas Stout was the first beer that I brewed with other types of additives. When I brewed my first one it was just a recipe kit from the beer supply store. It was a cherry stout that used cherry extract during bottling. It was good, but I knew I could do better.

Year two I decided to step things up. I wanted that cherry to really sing! So, I decided to, “fruit the beer,” and add some actual cherries in addition to the extract. I did a bunch of searching for info on beer forums and Yahoo! as I had no clue where to start. Here is what I learned.

The biggest thing in brewing is that anything that goes in the bucket needs to be sanitary. This applies to fruit as well. You can’t just grab a bunch of cherries from the produce section of your local grocery store and chuck them in there. You will more than likely infect your beer… I did that once with a nut brown and it is a headache.

Some home brewers on forums indicated that you should put the berries in with your beer at the secondary fermentation stage. This seems illogical to me on two fronts. One, you have to boil the berries separately to basically sterilize them. Some people are fine with throwing frozen berries straight into the secondary, but I am not willing to gamble on 5 gallons of beer getting infected. And two, you will lose some of the clarity of your beer, which is kind of the whole point of secondary fermentation.

So what do I do? I throw them in the boil. I am not saying its the end all correct way, but its how I do it. And it works! I mash up the berries to release more of the juices and then just chuck ‘em in during the last 15 minutes or so of the boil. This makes them sterile, saves me a whole separate boil later on, and helps my beer keep its clarity as I don’t bring the cherries along for the party when I rack the beer into the secondary fermenter.

 (Cherries in the Boil)

With most fruits you will want to use approximately one pound of fruit for each gallon of beer you are making. I have played with that a bit for my Merry Cherry Christmas Stout though because I still like to throw that extract in during bottling for a final kick. I try to make this beer palatable to my friends and family who are not into thick dark beers. The extra cherry taste and sweetness helps to accomplish this. No complaints yet!

Here is another tip; use frozen fruit. Using frozen fruit works the best because the freezing process breaks down the fruit. This helps release the juices into your beer to give you more of the fruit flavor. I found this tip online when I first decided to use cherries in my stout. Admittedly I have never used fresh fruit, so I can’t swear by this. But, it makes sense to me and I am happy with the end result. Why fix what ain’t broke, right?

Anybody else out there ever break this unjust man law and, “fruit the beer?” If so, leave a comment below with any tips you might have for the rest of us!