Filed Under : 
Nov.22,2012
Tags : Happy Thanksgiving
A Feast In A Bottle You could have (almost) all of this fine food in beer form!Wikipedia
Ah, Thanksgiving. That gluttonous annual tribute to post-colonial greed. To celebrate, many of us are going to be drinking beer — a lot of it — before, during and after the main event. This helps one tolerate one’s insane relatives and of course there are games to be watched — NFL and NCAA football and, for those of a more international bent, the second Australia-South Africa Test will be in its second day. (Yes, Team BeerSci likes Test cricket. Don’t judge.)
But when discussing beers appropriate for Thanksgiving with the PopSci.com editorial team, we hit upon a better idea. Drink Your Turkey-Day Dinner. It sounds implausible — and it’s certainly not advisable — but it is possible to have a traditional Thanksgiving Day dinner in beer form. Pumpkin pie and cranberry sauce are two very obvious dishes that have clear beer counterparts: google “pumpkin ale” or “cranberry beer” and you’ll find a large array of commercially available beers such as Southern Tier’s Pumking and Sam Adams’ Cranberry Lambic.
But what about the poultry? Or stuffing? Or green-bean casserole? Well, for those you’ll have to be creative.
Turkey
(sort of) To get the obvious question out of the way: Yes, there is an extant recipe for “cock ale.” It has shown up in different homebrew books, was mentioned in the diaries of Samuel Pepys and was included in the first cookbook published in the then-colonies,The Compleat Housewife from 1727.
Take 10 gallons of ale and a large cock, the older the better; parboil the cock, flay him, and stamp him in a stone mortar until his bones are broken (you must gut him when you flay him). Then, put the cock into two quarts of sack, and put to it five pounds of raisins of the sun – stoned; some blades of mace, and a few cloves. Put all these into a canvas bag, and a little before you find the ale has been working, put the bag and ale together in vessel. In a week or nine days bottle it up, fill the bottle just above the neck and give it the same time to ripen as other ale.
Basically, you’re dry-hopping your beer with a gutted, flayed, boiled smashed capon that has been soaked in sherry, and then adding some raisins and spices. Yum! The entire recipe is on the next page.
Commercial examples of poultry beer: Hahahahaha.
Stuffing
Beer is, as the saying goes, “liquid bread,” so making a stuffing beer means putting the herbs into beer. Digging around the internet, I found recipes for garlic beer and I found at least one brewery, The Maui Brewing Company, who makes an Onion Mild for the annual Maui Onion Festival. Reading more into the onion beer, it looks like the brewers take sweet Maui onions and caramelize them (or otherwise bring on the Maillard reaction), then add those to the boil and at flameout. Be sure to add some fresh thyme and oregano at flameout as well to get an herby character in there. You can use the recipe for the Marathon Mild as your base.
Creamed onions
In New England, having creamed pearl onion side dish is customary, so we came up with an Onion Cream Ale recipe. Cream ales are an indigenous American style of beer: light, typically brewed with American six-row barley and a corn adjunct. Cream ales are fermented cool or cold, using a neutral ale yeast strain (you don’t want too many esters). The most well-known example of this style is probably Genesee Cream Ale from upstate New York.
Commercial examples of allium beers: Maui Brewing Company Onion Mild Yates Brewery Garlic Beer
Fakin’ it: Drink Genny Cream Ale. It’s cheap and cheery.
Cranberry Sauce
Awhile ago, I had an excellent cherry stout made by Bell’s Brewery. It had enough roast character to offset the cloying sweetness that most non-lambic fruit beers (and especially most American fruit beers) suffer from, but one could still catch a definite cherry character to the brew. Because of this, I think that a Cranberry Stout would be an excellent way to get cranberries in. I found an interesting recipe for a cranberry stout, but really all you need to do is brew a stout and throw some sanitized cranberries into the secondary.
Commercial examples of cranberry beer: Sam Adams Cranberry Lambic Odells Cranberry Oatmeal Porter Cascade Brewing Cranberry Sour Harpoon Brewery Grateful Harvest Cranberry Ale
Sweet Potatoes
Recipes I’ve seen use pureed canned sweet potato and a period of caramelization in the oven before putting it in the mash tun with your grains. Really, as long as you convert the starches in the tuber into fermentable sugars, you’ll be fine. Or steam ‘em (this pasteurizes the sweet potato) and put them in the secondary.
Commercial examples of sweet potato beer: Bell’s Sweet Potato Stout Bent River Brewing Company Sweet Potato Ale
Pumpkin Pie
Some pumpkin ales are just a regular ale with pumpkin pie spices. Others use pureed pumpkin at various points of the brewing process (usually in the mash or boil). There are many, many recipes out there for this style of beer. For those who love lagers, I’ve found a few examples of pumpkin lager out there as well.
Commercial examples of pumpkin beer: Lakefront Brewery Pumpkin Lager Southern Tier Pumking About one zillion others.
Green Bean Casserole
Sorry folks. You are on your own.
If you have suggestions for any of the beer varieties listed — especially commercial varieties, but also brewing tips — add them in the comments. Team BeerSci will be posting increasingly surly updates to the Twitter feed on Thanksgiving, so if you’re bored, hit us up there @BeerSci!
If you want to see sample recipes for the above beers, click on through to page two!
While the rest of the panicked holiday preppers fret over which wine pairs best the Thanksgiving turkey, we have an alternate suggestion for the peripatetic pilgrims bound for your table this year: Serve beer.
“It’s not like wine, which can get confusing. Beer provides bold, distinguishing flavors and expressions,” says Josh Bernstein, author of Brewed Awakening: Behind the Beers and Brewers Leading the World’s Craft Beer Revolution
. Jimmy Carbone, owner of New York City’s craft beer haunt Jimmy’s No. 43 agrees: “I feel many beers go with many foods, and are more flexible than wines.”
Take that, Beaujolais Nouveau.
According to the Brewers Association, craft beer sales in the U.S. showed a nice 15 percent increase in 2011, and early reports for 2012 show 250 new craft brewery openings, with more expected. What that means for you? Great craft beer evermore available at a brewpub or store near you.
Another bonus, you’re less likely to embarrass yourself in front of the guests. Even those with a high alcohol content, at 10 percent or slightly more, don’t pack a punch like wine, which can hit 16 percent or even 17 percent in a Zinfandel, for example.
So how do you pair, exactly?
“Typically, when I’m looking at doing beer pairing, I’m looking at the whole composition of plate,” says beer-and-food pairing expert Ben Lord of Kittery, Maine’s beer-happy restaurant, The Black Birch.
We asked our three experts — Bernstein (whose just released the App version of his book last week), Carbone, and Lord — to throw down their favorite suggestions for everything from turkey to pie, and all sides in between: Here’s what they came up with:
Appetizers: For the mixed bag of pre-dinner nosh, Bernstein smartly recommends a clean, crisp Pilsner like Victory Brewing’s Prima Pilsner. “Pilsners won’t knock you over but still have lots of flavor and character. For appetizers, my classic go-to awesome beer is Victory Brewing Prima Pilsner. It’s beautiful, brisk, and easy to drink. It’s great on its own but also goes so well with wide variety of appetizers, like cheeses. It cuts through a nice, rich brie but also makes a great complement to sharp cheddar.”
Turkey with gravy: “Oftentimes, I think a really good farmhouse-style Belgian works here,” says Bernstein. “It’s an earthy and intriguing style, that started back in the day when it was given to Belgian farmhand workers since there was no potable water. It’s a style that’s been picked up by a lot of American brewers, and can run the gamut from dry and hoppy, to sweet and spicy, to peppery and lively. His pick for this holiday: Colorado’s Funkwerks Saison Belgian-Style Ale, at 6.8 percent ABV, it’s got notes of citrus, black pepper, and a slight, pleasant lingering bitterness. “It’s classic! The pepper and citrus cut through the richness of gravy and won’t overpower everything else.”
We all know Norm from “Cheers” as the Great American Beer Drinker. His counter part George Wendt is also a well respected beer connoisseur. His book “Drinking with George” entails how our favorite libation intertwines throughout his life. Check out some exerpts from his book. If you like it click on the link at the end to buy the entire thing.
Loudmouth Soup
Everyone knows that beer is a social lubricant, but even scientists have trouble explaining why. The most popular theory is that alcohol affects the amygdala — the brain’s pleasure center — producing extra gamma-aminobutyric acid, or GABA, which makes us feel happy and reduces stress. So now you know: It’s GABA that creates the gift of gab.
While the loss of Littleton’s was definitely a bummer, Terry and I weren’t going to let it get in the way of our quest for beer. We heard a story about a neighborhood bar in South Shore that might be amenable to serving the age-impaired, so we hopped on a bus and headed on over. Jackpot! Not only did the old men inside ignore our peach fuzz, but the drafts were just fifteen cents a pop. At that price we could drink like kings. Which we did.
Unlike kings, we had no royal coach to take us home. By the time the bar closed the buses had stopped running for the night, and we’d drank away our cab fare hours before. And since we were engaging in illegal behavior, we couldn’t exactly call our parents to come pick us up.
Fortunately, we had a time-honored tradition at our disposal: fare ditching. We called a cab, and while we waited for it to arrive, we concocted a plan. There was a stop sign at 91st and Leavitt. When the cab came to a halt, we’d jump out of the back and escape down some nearby alleyways. As long as we remained inconspicuous until the last possible minute, the driver wouldn’t suspect a thing.
We got into the cab and gave the driver a fake address, one that would take us through 91st and Leavitt. When we stopped at the intersection, Terry leapt out and sprinted for the alleyways. He was well on his way to freedom when he realized that he didn’t hear my footsteps behind him.
I’d passed out drunk in the back of the cab.
By the time Terry came back to look for me, the driver was shaking me against the side of the car. I was too terrified to do anything except blurt out my real address. I’ll never forget the way my mother shook her head at me as she settled our fare. Thank God she never told my father.
Ingredients
- 1 whole 8lb turkey – thawed if frozen, rinsed and patted dry, gibletsand neck discarded
- 1/3 cup freshly ground coriander
- 2tablespoons freshly ground black pepper
- 8 tablespoons salted butter, softened
- Kosher salt
- 1 (32 oz) can, lager beer (a squat can like Foster’s Lagerworks well)
- 1 (1.5oz) jar, pickling spice
Directions
1.Light a charcoal chimney starter filled charcoal briquettes, allowing them to “ash over” fully aka turn white. Meanwhile, prepare the spice rub; in a medium bowl combine coriander and pepper. Note: If you don’t have a chimney, cut the ends off a metal coffee can and use that. **See Chef’s Note below.2.In a separate bowl combine softened butter and 3 tablespoons of the spice rub.
3.Prepare the turkey. Carefully slide your fingers under the skin to loosen it, starting from the breast end. Liberally coat turkey, both inside and out, with kosher salt. Rub spice butter under the skin and all over the turkey (reserving some butterfor basting). Note: Avoid tearing the skin or you’ll lose delicious juices.
4.Thoroughly the coat turkey on all sides with remaining dry rub, patting it in place. Fold wing tips behind turkey so they don’t burn.
5.In a large bowl, mix the beer with the pickling spice. Using sharp kitchen shears, carefully remove the top 1 – 2” of the beer can. Add the beer mixture back to the can.
6.Carefully balance the turkey cavity over the beer can, lowering the turkey slowly until it sits snugly on the can.
7.Spread the hot coals into a ring in the bottom of the grill to achieve a grilling temperature of 350 degrees F. Place the turkey (still on the beer can) in the center of the cooking grate.
8.Cook covered for about 2 hours until the thigh reaches 180 degrees F, basting twice with the remaining spice butter. (The ring of coals may need to be replenished to keep grill at 350 degrees F.) Remove the hot turkey from the grill with a towel or oven mitts. One person can carefully extractthe hot beer can from the cavity of the bird with tongs as the other holds the bird steady with oven mitts.
9.Let the bird rest 15 – 20 minutes before carving to retain the juices.
**Chef’s Note: You can also cook this inside in your oven. Set it at 350 degrees F and roast it for the same length of time, and when the thigh reaches 180 degrees F. Put the rack in the lowest position and check to make sure your bird fits before you begin the process.
We are posting this in anticipation of The Lois Beer Club’s 12 days of Christmas Ale which will be making it’s debut in the upcoming weeks. To whet your appetite below is listed the top 10 Holiday Brews as posted on Beerinfo.com.
_______________________________________________________
Best Christmas Beers available in the USA
- The Great Lakes Brewing Company’s Christmas Ale is a repeat World Beer Championship Gold Medal winner. The full-bodied, spirited beer is copper in color and has a combination of cinnamon, fresh ginger, and sweet honey tones. Christmas Ale is crafted from American two-row wheat, roasted barley, and English crystal hops, among other ingredients and is designed to complement most holiday meals.
Anderson Valley Winter Solstice – From the first sip of Winter Solstice Seasonal Ale , your senses will be aroused with the vision of a glowing fire, warming the hearth and home, as gently drifting snow flakes silently blanket the trees outside. Each lingering sip will gently warm your soul with thoughts of family and friends, gathering around the table for the feast. Luscious, creamy, smooth, and warming, this medium bodied ale is brewed with Caramel and crystal malts to give it just a hint of sweetness, then paired with our private blend of holiday spice. Winter Solstice Ale is great alone or as an accompaniment to any meal, and it has been known to liven and spice up nearly any social event. Pyramid Snow Cap – A rich, full-bodied winter warmer crafted in the British tradition of holiday beers. This deep mahogany colored brew balances complex fruit flavors with a refreshingly smooth texture, making Snow Cap a highly drinkable and desirable cold weather companion. Sweetwater Festive Ale – A full-bodied, high-octane brew capped off with our use of cinnamon and mace. This beer will warm you all the way to your bones. Brewed only one day a year for the holiday season. 
Sierra Nevada Celebration – The long, cold nights of winter are a little brighter with Celebration Ale. Wonderfully robust and rich, Celebration Ale is dry-hopped for a lively, intense aroma. Brewed especially for the holidays, it is perfect for a festive gathering or for a quiet evening at home.
Great Divide Hibernation Ale – Great Divide cellars Hibernation until late October, when it reaches the peak of perfection. This lengthy aging process gives Hibernation its revered malty richness, complex hop profile and hearty warming character, which is perfect right out of the bottle or cellared for longer periods of time. Hibernation is a lively treat that really beats the winter chill. This scrumptious, collectible, and imminently cellarable ale is only available for six weeks each year, from November 1 to December 15. Samuel Smith’s Winter Welcome – This holiday brew is an amber-colored winter warmer that relies heavily on the rich quality of English pale malt. While its strength, at about 6 percent ABV, fits the bill for an old ale, its light color is a bit unusual for the style. It lacks the dark malt character of some of the others, but makes up for it with a clean, rich, malty backbone and the signature complexity found in all of Samuel Smith’s brews. Young’s Winter Warmer is a reddish-brown seasonal that measures just 5 percent ABV. It has some dark fruit esters and a malty chocolate aroma. It is exceptionally smooth.
Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout – This brew is Brooklyn Brewery’s rendition of the Imperial Stout style. What is Imperial Stout? In the 18th century, Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia, asked for stout to be sent to her from England. Fearful of spoilage on the long voyage to the Baltic ports, the English brewers made the beer strong, and added more hops as a natural preservative. It arrived in perfect condition, and became known as Russian Imperial Stout, the toast of the Russian aristocracy. We use three mashes to brew each batch of this beer, achieving a luscious deep dark chocolate flavor through a blend of specially roasted malts.
Santa’s Private Reserve – Rogue’s annual holiday offering, Santa’s Private Reserve, is a variation of the classic Saint Rogue Red, but with double the hops–including Chinook, and Centennial, and a mystery hop called Rudolph by head brewer John “more hops” Maier!This holiday elixir is brewed with two-row Harrington, Klages and Munich malts, along with Hugh Baird 30-37, Carastan 13-17, and Crystal 70-80 malts, plus free range coastal water and John’s proprietary top-fermenting Pacman yeast.
Hair of the Dog Doggie Claws - Doggie Claws is a Barley Wine made in the West Coast style. Big malt and hops make this copper colored ale one of our most popular products. Produced in September and October and released in November, this Beer will improve for years to come. Alcohol: 11.5% by volume. IBU’s 70
the worst beer in the world
Below is a list of worst beers in the world as rated by the thousands of beer enthusiasts at RateBeer.com. Dare to try them? We don’t advise it. We provide this list in the name of beer education. We aren’t picking on the fat kid as much as we’re making a few big brewers accountable for their products that are more about beer hype and marketing than substance. Often the pitch of mass marketing campaigns work against them among craft beer enthusiasts.
If you’re interested in how good real beer can be, we can certainly help you out! Try a link or two in the right hand column.
Tags : bad beer, rating beers, worst beers
Everybody loves to enjoy a glass a beer now and then, but there is no man who would be able to finish the world’s biggest glass of beer. Actually this feat would be a problem even for a hundred people as the biggest glass of beer was 8 feet (2.44 meters) tall and filled with 430 gallons (1,627 liters) of Guinness beer. The glass alone weighs about 900 pounds (408 kg).
People responsible for this record are David Copley and Eric Johnson, owners of the Auld Dubliner Irish Pub in Tustin, California. Over 400 people gathered to watch the beer being poured in the huge glass.
Oh and if you were thinking that all this beer went to waste, don’t worry, because the pub owners said that they will drink it all, and they didn’t lie.
World’s Oldest Written Recipe (and it’s for Beer!)
This is a very special recipe on several different levels. First, at 4,000 years old, it’s the oldest known written recipe. Second, it was handed down by a god.
Although the recipe was said to have been given to men by the Sumerian god Enki, the written version was found contained in a hymn dedicated to the beer goddess Ninkasi. Beer was the national fermented drink of ancient Babylonia.
In the beginning, beer was probably an accidental by-product of the bread making process. Ancient Sumerians preserved grain by baking it, usually in the form of bread. When this bread got wet, it fermented into a kind of liquid beer. Over time, honey and other spices were used to flavor the brew. The resulting beer was strong. It was also full of pieces of bread and other more or less solid materials, making it a hard to drink. The Sumerians’ solution was to drink their beer through a straw.
Beer was so important in the ancient world that laws were passed governing it. Beer was even part of the pay of workers in Mesopotamia, Egypt and other ancient civilizations. The Babylonians are known to have made at least sixteen different kinds of beer and used a variety of grains, including barley and wheat, along with honey. Beer was also mentioned in the Egyptian Book of the Dead.
If you’d like the recipe, you can find it here
Although the recipe was said to have been given to men by the Sumerian god Enki, the written version was found contained in a hymn dedicated to the beer goddess Ninkasi. Beer was the national fermented drink of ancient Babylonia.
In the beginning, beer was probably an accidental by-product of the bread making process. Ancient Sumerians preserved grain by baking it, usually in the form of bread. When this bread got wet, it fermented into a kind of liquid beer. Over time, honey and other spices were used to flavor the brew. The resulting beer was strong. It was also full of pieces of bread and other more or less solid materials, making it a hard to drink. The Sumerians’ solution was to drink their beer through a straw.
Beer was so important in the ancient world that laws were passed governing it. Beer was even part of the pay of workers in Mesopotamia, Egypt and other ancient civilizations. The Babylonians are known to have made at least sixteen different kinds of beer and used a variety of grains, including barley and wheat, along with honey. Beer was also mentioned in the Egyptian Book of the Dead.
If you’d like the recipe, you can find it here
1. Porkslap Style: Pale Ale Brewery: Butternuts Beer & Ale, Garrattsville, NY
Don’t let the cartoon piggies tummy-thumping on the can fool you—Porkslap provides some serious suds action. Pour this classic American pale ale into a glass and you’ll notice its striking orange color. Take a sip and you’ll be struck by its malty, hoppy goodness. Pour some on your jeans and you’ll be all wet. Pork power!
2. Drifter Style: Pale Ale Brewery: Widmer Brothers, Portland, OR
A light and airy pale, Drifter is like an awesome roommate who pays the rent on time and can persuade any group of hot girls to head back to your place for an ¿after-party. Move this guy into your fridge fast. Your sex life just may depend on it.
3. Hoss Style: Rye Lager Brewery: Great Divide Brewing, Denver
An old-world Bavarian brew style in which rye replaces some of the barley, this plaid-frocked fun ¿punch epitomizes the genre: Sweet and crisp, with woody undertones.
Random Beer Wench
Double Mug Shot