New Belgium Ranger IPA

I was not terribly impressed with this beer at first. Oh, another pine-grapefruity IPA. But over time, this beer has grown on me.

Guess its a good thing I picked up a 6-pack.

Here's a quick rundown of New Belgium's Ranger IPA statistics:  ABV = 6.5%.  IBUs = 70.  Hops consist of Chinook, Simcoe, and Cascade.  Malts are pale malt and Caramalt 120L.

Here's what I've come to enjoy about this beer:

Thanksgiving 2012 Results

Turkey Post-Brine

I'm a bit slow getting it up, but i wanted to post the results of my 2012 Thanksgiving Turkey Fry.

My wife and I had a bit of a miscommunication.  I mentioned to her that we could put some oranges and lemons in the brine if she wanted to.  She thought I said that she could stuff oranges or lemons in the cavity of the turkey for the frying. It was an understandable mistake. We've stuffed onions and garlic heads in the cavity of the bird before with great success.

When two sliced lemons hit the 350F oil, the oil started bubbling and frothing like crazy.

I was very thankful for two things: 1) the burner was off on the fryer, and 2) I was standing at the end of a long rope instead of holding an 18lb turkey with my hand.

Epic Brewing - Smoked Porter Release #14

Smoked beers are among the most interesting beers.  Before the invention of electric kilning, all beers would carried this flavor from the wood fires used to roast the malt.  Some of these beers are aggressive and weigh heavy on the palette.  Others are light and refreshing.

Epic's Smoked Porter pours with an inch-or-so of head. It maintains about 1/4 inch of head as it laces down the glass.

This beer, perhaps, is midrange on the smokey scale. Many smoked beers need to be pared with food. But this beer goes down nicely on the palette without becoming overtaxing. Although, I'm not sure I could drink two in one sitting without a major palette cleansing in between.  By the time I finished the 22oz bottle, my mouth was holding onto a serious ashy aftertaste.

Thanksgiving Turkey Fry Homebrew Brining Wort

Crushed Grains for Wort and Grain Bag

It will have been two years this Christmas since I received my turkey fryer.  The ostensible reason for asking for it as a gift was to make the move to all-grain brewing and to move my homebrewing out of the kitchen and into the garage.

It was just before Thanksgiving last year, when my wife and I were planning to host both our families at our house for the first time, that I realized I could use my turkey fryer to actually fry a turkey.  We ended up frying three turkeys last year:  thanksgiving, christmas, and another one for fun sometime in March.

Turkey Frying - Safety

What time is it?  TURKEY FRYING TIME!!!

The most juicy turkey I have ever ate is deep fried turkey.  Frying the turkey really doesn't add much in the way of calories to the turkey either.  Because it isn't breaded, when the turkey is lowered into the pot, the hot oil instantly sears the surface of the meat closed.  All the moisture that was in the turkey before it went in, stays in.

They purpose of this blog post is to detail safety tips you will want to keep in mind if you decide to fry your own turkey.  In subsequent posts, I will chronicle this Thanksgiving's turkey fry.

It is awesome.

I know they show scary videos of fryer fires every year.

Don't be afraid.

Buoyancy Test

I don't want to minimize the danger, because what you are doing is using an open flame to heat up a flammable liquid (cooking oil) that you are going to use to cook the turkey in.  The trick is to keep the flammable liquid away from the open flame.  You accomplish this and there will be no fryer fire.

There are three main reasons turkey frys can turn into turkey fryer fires.


Fire Cause #1:  Too Much Oil
How do you avoid putting too much oil in the turkey fryer?  Its simple:  do a buoyancy test.  Days before the turkey fry, take the frozen turkey and put it in your fryer pot.  Fill the pot with water until the level reaches the top of the turkey.  The first thing this does is give you an idea how full your pot will be when you are frying your turkey.  If you have very little freeboard on the sides of the pot above the water level, you will probably want to get a bigger pot or a smaller turkey.

Fruit Smoothies

Another thing I've been working on over the past few weeks has been fruit smoothies.

Between work & home-life stress and some weight gain over the past couple of years, my blood pressure has risen into 140/90. So I'm trying to exercise more and eat better.

Part of eating better has been cutting back on the beer intake. Calories are calories and alcohol raises blood pressure.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not replacing craft beer and homebrew with smoothies. I'm using the smoothies to ensure I'm getting proper nutrition. This is the basic recipe I've been working with:

1/4 cup vanilla yogurt
1/4 cup 2% milk
1 - 1.5 cup fruit (preferably frozen)
3 or 4 ice cubes if the fruit is not frozen

Place all in a blender and purée.

Fruit combos I have tried:
Strawberry - banana
Blackberry - banana
Raspberry - banana
Pineapple - banana
Apple - banana
Raspberry - apple
Mango - banana

I know there is a lot of banana on that list. Banana is blood pressure reducing. Also, when frozen, it gives a milkshake quality to the smoothie.

The yogurt is to give it a little more sweetness. Choose the flavor you like.

If it ends up more chunky than smooth, add more milk.

Finally, you will want to have a blender that can blend ice. I purchased a Ninja for about $50.

Squatters - Big Cottonwood Amber Ale

I was wrong. I found one more Squatters bottle lurking in my cellar. I totally did not know what to expect with this beer. I didn't even check to see the style before opening it.

This dry hopped American Amber manages to maintain an off-white half inch head. The alcohol comes in at a nice 5.75% ABV. The dry hop is a nice citrusy and floral Cascade. Color is a darkish tan to faint red.

Except for the color and maltiness, this beer sort of presents itself as a pale ale. And it does have a nice maltiness. I've written before how that doesn't seem achievable in a 4.0% ABV beer.

If you really get your nose in the glass and take a deep whiff, you can smell brown sugar and caramel.