Beer Lamb Chili

The idea is to expand the blog to incorporate recipes and pairings based on good beer. Here is a recipe that was inspired by the cooking channel and modified to meet the demands of beer makers and drinkers. I'm putting it up against my Dad's chili sometime soon--he's going down but it will be a tough competition.

1/4 cup olive oil
2 1/2 lbs lamb (mix of shoulder and shanks)
1 yellow onion (diced)
6 cloves garlic (chopped)
1 large can of whole tomatoes (drained and mashed)
1 tbls chipotle puree or powder
1 tbls ancho chili powder (or mexican chili powder)
1 tbls pasilla chili powder (or cayenne)
1 tbls cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tbls mexican oregano (or regular oregano)
2 cups chicken stock
3/4 bottle of shiner bock (or any other dark beer but preferably a bock)
1-2 tbls honey
dash cinnamon
salt&pepper
2 cups black beans

Garnish: red onions, cheddar cheese, cilantro, sour creme.

Method: heat oil, add lamb, salt and pepper, sear, remove lamb with slotted spoon.
Add onion, cook till soft, add garlic for one minute, add tomato, chipotle, and other spices. Return lamb, add stock and beer, cover and simmer at low heat for at least 1.5 hours. Add honey at 30 minutes left. During last 15 minutes, add cinnamon, beans, and salt and pepper to taste.

Dandelion Wine

So it came'th to pass that on this Day of the Lord of Lords King of Kings Baby Savior Demon Slayer October the Third in the year 2009 that thine Gunslingers of olde hath brought Dandelion Wine to pass. To mark the Glorious Days of summers Past, we hath concocted the following recipe using a Synthesis of all we came to Know in our long nights of Research whenst amidst our ill-timed Drink the Horse ran pass the barn fell on me.

1 Humongolargous Bowl of Dandelions
l lbs White Raisins
6 Lemons
4 Oranges
2 lbs Granulate Cane Sugar
1 lbs Corn Sugar
1 Wyeast Champagne Smack Pack


Pick flowers at noon 3 days before brewing. Make a dandelion tea by bringing the flowers to boil in a gallon of water. At boil, remove from heat, transfer tea and flowers into a mixing bowl, cover, refrigerate, and wait 3 days.

To brew, put the tea and flowers back into the kettle and bring to boil. Add sugar and peels of lemon and orange--be careful not to add any of the white part of the pith between the fruit and the skin. Boil for 1 hour. Give cool bath. Massage optional. Add juice and pulp of lemon and orange--again, being careful to remove all of the white pith first. Transfer to carboy. Add 2 gallons of water. Pitch yeast. Wait for first stage of fermentation to complete. Rack to secondary. Add raisins. Wait for all evidence of fermentation to cease. Rack and bottle. Good at 6 months, better at 12 months.

Rot, ye Buggars!

Muleshit Ale

Bindle-stiffs and Gunslingers,

We've had the good fortune of discovering hop vines in the wilds of our new digs. My dad calls this place Muleshit, NY. I'm not sure why. Nevertheless, we name this beer after his name for our country home. It is a simple, no fuss, beer, brewed with the choice hops growing around a fence cutting across a field. I've seen turkey's there. I plan to hunt them.

6 lbs Gold Malt Extract

1 handful of hops at 60

1/2 handful at 10

1/2 handful at 2

American Ale Wyeast smack pack

Cream Ale II

This is another favorite of pros and amateurs alike. It was one of the first beers we made and still one of the best.

Northern Brewer modified the recipe slightly, switching from Willamette to Cluster hops. We will see if it works! The first recipe is here.

Cream Ale II

Specialty Grains
.75 lbs Gambrius Honey Malt
.25 lbs Dingemans Biscuit

Fermentables
6 lbs Pilsen Malt Syrup

Boil Additions
1 oz Cluster (60 min)

Cheers!

Rasberry Wheat

Die-hard beer fans turn their noses up at wheat beers. A double nose up for the flavored wheats--generally considered amateur or pedestrian quasi-beer for folks who don't regularly like beer.

I say wheat beer is the people's beer! This recipe is too good to turn down. Here is a classic BSB recipe made famous by WK.

Rasberry Wheat

6.3 lbs Wheat Malt Syrup
1oz Hallertau (60 min)
Yeast: Wyeast #3333 German Wheat

Rasberry extract added to the bottling bucket at bottling.

Rock on, foam-face!

Kitchen Sink Ale

Gunslingers and Comrades: Bear witness to this tale of woe turned to joy as the ill-begotten love of a spring dream blends into the rays of summer light. I took everything that I had and brewed the following concoction saying only "go with the gods" as I pitched the wort into the carboy.

Kitchen Sink Ale

Fermentables: 6 lbs Gold Malt Extract, 1.5 lbs Light Lager Malt Extract, 2 lbs Wildflower Honey (at 30 min).

Specialty Grains:
Cara 10 (steeped for 15 minutes pre-boil)

Boil Additions:
1 oz Saaz (45 min)
1 oz Willamette (2 min)

Holiday Ale Review

Now that the holidays are over (what day is this?), the Holiday Ale is ready to drink if still a bit premature. This spiced beer has been a long time in the making. I recall making it with a friend one evening during a debate between Barak Obama and John McCain. Shit, that's like 3 dog years ago! I think that it will actually take another 3-4 months to be really ready and probably peak around christmas time.

Although it is quite good now, the flavors need time to mellow, blend, and overall smoothen out. The beer is almost black but retains a high degree of clarity. I would definately describe the flavor as sweet and heady. I taste smoked nuts, pumpkin, clover and a very low grade cinnamon banana (almost phenolic) flavor. The alchohol content is rather high for what I usually brew at around 9 or 10 percent. This is definately not a session beer and I'm glad that we bottled everything in pint-32oz bottles. While I would not keg this beer, I think it will make great gifts for friends and fellow drinkers. As an incredibly "spicy" beer, I think it would do better on its own, or with an appetizer or dessert, rather than with a main course.

The Innkeeper

This is the final of a series of beers to keep warm the soul through the Minnesota winter. The Innkeeper is a limited edition English Ale kit from the NB:

"Thirty six major awards. Four-time Brewers International Champion. Four-time CAMRA Beer of the Year. Simply put, the muse for this kit has won more awards than any other English beer, period. From very simple ingredients comes a wonderfully well- balanced dram. Spicy, herbal, and English biscuits. Flashes of clean citrus and chewy minerals blend into a complex finish that is refreshingly bitter and remarkably dry. The way a pint was meant to taste. Truly spot on!"

We shall see.

Here is the tale of the tape:

Specialty Grains	0.25 lbs. Simpson's Extra Dark Crystal 0.25 lbs. Belgian Biscuit Malt
Fermentables	3.15 lbs. Pilsen Malt Syrup 1 lbs. Pilsen Dry Malt Extract 1 lbs. Priming Sugar
Boil Additions	1 oz. Fuggle (60 min) 1 oz. Kent Goldings (45 min) 1 oz. Styrian Goldings (5 min)
If you choose dry yeast	Not recommended.
If you choose liquid yeast	Wyeast #1469 West Yorkshire Ale. Optimum temperature: 64-72° F.

Whoa! A whole pound of corn sugar at the boil. This'll be gettin us fucked up!

Juniper Ale III

The third installment of our Juniper Ale series may prove to be the best yet. The basic idea for this beer is to replace the bitterness of the hops with the flavor and bitterness of the juniper berry. We dry-hopped again to strictly add hop flavor and aroma. For this recipe I used about 4 oz of berries smuggled into MN from Alabama (thanks, Walter). Prior to the boil, I mashed the berries in a bowl of vodka and let them sit for about 2 hours. The vodka (hopefully) killed any bacteria on the berries. I then drank the vodka. Damn it was good. Here is the recipe:

Specialty Grains: 1 lbs Dingemens caramel pils
Fermentables: 6 lbs Gold Malt Syrup
Wyeast 1056 American Ale
Hops: 2 oz Willamette leaf hops dry hopped into the primary.
Berries: mashed in vodka, soaked for 2 hours, bagged and tossed into the primary with the hops.