A New Blog

I have moved to http://thebeerfly.blogspot.com

See you there!

Phwar, check out the rack on that. Also, a change of name?

Here it is! I have been racking all day today and I'm brewing tomorrow so I just thought I would share a couple of pictures with you showing you the bits of brewing equipment that I use on a day to day basis. Here you are brewery fans:

The Copper (left) and Mash Tun (right)


Fermenting Vessels






Conditioning Tanks (these always put me in mind of old fashioned submarines somehow)




I have also been thinking recently that 'Pete's Food Blog' no longer really describes what I write about here anymore. What do you think I ought to do? The options are as follows:

1. Keep it the same, change nothing.

2. Keep this blog going and write about beer in a second new blog.

3. Just change the name of this blog, keeping the same url.

If you do have any suggestions, names for potential blogs would be good!

Curry and beer

I have been away, now I'm back with a vengance! I promise more updates and on a wider array of topics.

Firstly, my ultimate food and beer pairing:


Curry and beer. Simple, straightforward but impossible not to love. I normally make my own curry but was feeling very lazy and as you can see in the photo, ordered a takeaway. This in itself is a real treat, you see I always order from The Prince Of India in Faversham. These guys know their curry, I would go so far as to say that I have never had better. The curry in this picture is their chef's special; Bombay Flame made with Naga chillies, spicy stuff!

Now to the beer, without trying to sound too egotistical (I make the bloody stuff) Skrimshander IPA is one of my all-time favourites. Hops, biscuity malt, more hops then a really nice slow bitter finish that grows and grows on the tongue.

When put together magic happens, two things combine to create something greater than the sum of their two parts. The curry tingles and heats, savoury with a hint of sweet coconut. The beer washes in, cooling, sparkling, refreshing the palate, the bubbles intensifying the chili zing round the mouth. The sweetness mimicking the curry but opposing it with a massive bitter finish to leave your mouth craving for more heat, then more cool. A sensory smorgasbord.

After the curry is almost my favorite bit, the beer is a natural sedative, alcohol and hops slowing everything down, relaxing you. Capsaicinoids found in the chili increase heart rate, release endorphins and buzz you up. The 'up down' sensation from both is really pleasant, similar to what this beer tries to achieve.

So, I have shown you mine, now show me yours. What do you drink with curry? Lager? IPA? Perhaps something entirely different. Let me know.

Things have been quiet round these parts of late

For which I am sorry.

The reason for this is that I have been working really hard. As a consequence of this hard work I have got a job as an apprentice brewer for Hopdaemon brewery, based just outside Faversham.

Have a quick look at their beers here and here.

A beer and food night.

'Ahhh ambasador wiz zis two posts in two days you are spoiling us'

Righo, another evening with Mark from Pencil and Spoon and my friend Nathalie. Nathalie, like most girls doesn't drink beer, leaving all the more for us to work through!

The menu was as follows:

Starter
Spanish omelette with balsamic roast pepper salsa and wild rocket salad.

Main
Herby pork sausage stew with butterbeans, served with roasted garlics and fresh bread.

Desert
Rich, dark chocolate pots with sour cherries.

Cheese
Montgomery's Cheddar, Montenebro Goat, Dorset Blue Vinny.

The food went down really well, some really great pairings were discovered. The sausages were paired very well by Mark with Hopdaemon Leviathan, a 6% ruby coloured beer that fitted well with the earthy herbs and sweetness of the tomatoes.

BrewDog Paradox Longrow with the blue cheese worked beautifully, as did BrewDog's hardcore IPA with the super strong cheddar.

The real winning combo of the night however was the chocolate pud with cherry beer. At Mark's request, here is the recipe for the chocolate pudding.


To make 6-8 portions you will need:

300g of good quality plain chocolate (about 70% cocoa solids)
two egg yolks
A pint of double cream
25g salted butter
75g chopped unsweetened dried cherries

First, melt your chocolate in a bain marie (a bowl suspended over boiling water in a saucepan). When the chocolate has melted, add the cherries and butter and stir until the butter has then melted. Turn off the heat. Add your egg yolks and stir quickly, if you stir too slowly you will end up with chocolate scrambled eggs (that wouldn't be good would it now?). The egg yolks will thicken things up considerably, slowly stir in the cream until the mixture is shiny and unctuous. Put the mixture into espresso cups and chill in the fridge for at least an hour before serving.

Served with a sweeter cherry beer (proper lambic is just a bit too sour) makes for an amazing combination. I'm going to stick my neck out and say it is in the top three I have come across. It will be repeated soon!

The Best of the Best

On Thursday last week Mark from Pencil and Spoon met up and went to The Bull at Horton Kirby for a beer festival featuring some pretty exciting breweries. Among the featured were BrewDog, Dark Star and Ramsgate, three of my favourite brewers.

Garrett and Lynne the landlord and lady had pulled out all the stops with their choices, ‘Best of the Best’ doesn’t cut it. There were at least a dozen out of the thirty five or so beers that I would have had on my dream list for a beer festival. A full list of the beers available can be found here. They made both Mark and I feel very welcome, the barbie was top notch and the weather even held!

Right onto the serious stuff, what beer we drank. Well here goes.

We started with the BrewDog Edge, at a measly 2.7% I didn’t hold out much hope for a full, flavoursome beer. How wrong I was, as ever the boys at BrewDog have managed to shoehorn more flavour into a beer that most brewers can’t manage at double the strength. It is dark, malty, not as sweet as I thought it would be, dry, hoppy and all in all an amazing session beer. Next Mark and I went halves on half pints so as to retain some sort of level-headedness and ability to taste beers and make coherent notes (my notes from the end of the evening are less than coherent!). Amarillo gold was next up, a pale straw wheat beer showcasing a single variety of American hop. It was sweet, simple, citrussy and very refreshing. BrewDog 77 lager next, smooth, very hoppy for a pilsner, almost US style probably the best lager I have had this year.

Mark opened a cheeky surprise for us all to try round our table next, a sample bottle of the as yet unlabelled 8% Atlantic IPA. As a fan of almost all BrewDog have done it pains me to say it but, it was a disappointment. Over oxidised, sour, with the once bright hops mellowed to an earthiness that clashed with the whisky barrel aging. All in all, a bit disappointing. Sticking with BrewDog, a half of Dogma next, sweet, dark, with a rich mouthfeel, a boozy punch and a bitter hop kick left my tongue punished, but aching for more.

As Mark mentions in his review, all of the Thornbridge beers we tried over the course of the evening were disappointing, shadows of their normally bright and zingy selves. I feel it would be unfair to slate their beer as it might have been a problem outside of the brewery’s control. In the past however I have had amazing pints of both the Kipling and Jaipur that were on.

After a quick beer sponge burger came a very special brew indeed, Marble Brewery Pint. A heavily hopped, dry session bitter that was dangerously drinkable and probably my personal favourite of the festival. From there a brief flirt with Marble’s Ginger which was er, gingery but ace. Moving quickly on, Pitfield IPA which tasted ethanoly, harsh and a bit like paint stripper. Not nice. A half of BrewDog Trashy Blonde redeemed a couple of duff beers being fruity and another example of BrewDog hitting the nail on the head.

Nearing the end of the night and testing the limits of our alcoholic abilities, we rolled out the big guns. Pitfield’s Imperial stout weighing in at 9.3% and BrewDog’s Devine Rebel at 12.5%. I by this point wasn’t making very good notes, my brain was a little befuddled! Here is a transcript of the notes I made about each:

Devine Rebel – Oranges, molasses, treacle, spice, massive mouthfeel, boozy, Christmas cake.

Pitfield Imperial – Burnt toast, coffee, dark chocolate, raisins, soil.

Soil!? Really!? I’m sure it made sense at the time.

By this point Mark and I staggered back cross country to the station with the aid of Mark’s cunningly packed torch. I bet he was a boy scout and knows how to tie knots too.

Day two:

Having tried almost all the beer that was available day two was a much more relaxed affair. Phil from here and my brother David came along as well as Mark’s friend Matt.

I hit the ground running with a pint of Pint, this got me into the groove for a half of Dobber straight after. I stopped being so precious about making notes and had a Gadd’s No3, Thoroughly modern Mild and a Dr Sunshine’s Special Friendly, all of which were great. At this point I stopped taking notes, more beer flowed, the sun set and the charcoal smoke from the barbecue spiralled lazily up into the evening sky. Another drunken walk back to the station and a visit to the chip shop on the way home another day at the festival ended.

A great couple of days, with some fantastic beer.

Super special rare beer

A rare insight into my wine cellar reveals a super rare treat waiting to be opened!

This arrived a couple of days ago and i'm absolutely gagging to get it opened and try it. Roll on the beer tasting I will be blogging about in a couple of weeks! I'm putting together a beer and food menu as we speak!