The holidays are over, football is over, it's still cold, and meteorologists are gesticulating like Kermit the frog introducing the next act. It's time for strong drink.
The boys at Lagunitas Brewing in California screwed up their first try at making a barleywine ("Gnarlywine," natch) in the late 90's, but they were left with an interesting recipe wherein they threw in some brown cane sugar. The resultant brew wasn't what they were going for but... it was pretty good. Pretty damn good. They called it Brown Shugga, and it became a big hit for them when it was released every winter. In the winter of 2010-11 though, they hit a snag. The brewery was expanding, and construction forced the brewers to choose: do we make the time-consuming 'Shugga and cut production on our staple beers, or do we cut 'Shugga, and risk pissing people off? They went with option two.
"Brain Blaster," huh? I crinkle the plastic bag in my fingers and stick my nose in once more to inhale the pungent aroma of the dried green buds it contains. "Its only sounds like 'Brain Blaster'," says Brendan Kingston. "There's no way anything with a name like that gets past the FDA." I drop the bag and pick up a small glass of brown beer. The beer's real name is An Braon, meaning "The Tasty Drop," which is appropriate. We're not here to discuss the forest here, though: we're looking at the trees. Well, vines, to be precise. I'm sitting at the first in a series of educational tasting classes conducted by B. United International, and hosted by Coalhouse Pizza in Stamford.
Every day, CTBites chronicles the myriad ways in which we're lucky to be living in Fairfield County during the current food (and beer) renaissance in America
Like beer? Like to learn about beer? You'll want to know about Little Pub's Berkshire Brewery Beer dinner hosted by Berkshire Brewing Co. co-founder Gary Bogoff, on April 24th.
Gary will explain the flavor profile, ingredients, and special brewing process for each beer served while you enjoy a five course little pub dinner paired with six different berkshire beers. He’ll also share stories about Berkshire’s journey from a couple of home brewers to one of the regions largest craft brewers still brewing beer the old fashioned way: unfiltered, unpasteurized, free of any chemicals or preservatives, and delivered fresh every week. you can even try beer the old fashioned way because we’ll have a a hand drawn cask of extra hopped lost sailor ipa (and maybe a few other surprises too). Menu is below:
Every night in America college kids somewhere are getting together, reaching their hands into cardboard boxes and pairing pizza with beer. In terms of originality, this combination carries about as much novelty as the Sun rising, or the L.A. Sheriff's Office failing to hold a guilty celebrity. The beers at these gatherings range from "cheap" to "possibly poisonous," and stay toasty warm under someone's bedclothes lest the weaselly R.A. sniff around and find the canned contraband in the mini-fridge whose box was most recently used to sneak a keg up the elevator. "Pizza and beer night" need not cause cataleptic flashbacks of Gumby's, Domnio's and Milwaukee's Best*, however, because as we put away childish things, so too can we put away lame food. This was the thunderbolt which struck Dan and Kristien of OmNomCT when they decided to pair with Coalhouse Pizza in Stamford and Victory Brewing on Monday, March 19.
If you like rare beers from sierra nevada, Little Pub in Ridgefield has an evening for you: “Treasures of the Sierra Nevada” beer dinner will be held on january 31st, 7pm at Little Pub. Marty from sierra coming in to take you through ovila dubbel, ovila quad, 30th anniversary grand cru, estate homegrown ale, the brand new ruthless rye ipa, and life and limb 2 (the sierra-dogfish collaboration).
Details: Six draught beers paired with a six course tasting menu
The holidays are over, football is over, it's still cold, and meteorologists are gesticulating like Kermit the frog introducing the next act. It's time for strong drink.
