nr706

Food-wise, I'd suggest skipping Ontario and taking the route south of Lake Superior. The Manitowish Waters/Boulder Junction (WI) area has great food options - like Voss', Blue Bayou, Guide's Inn, and Pine Baron's. Then you could drive down to Green Bay (lots of dining options there), and then go down a few miles to Manitowoc, where you can catch the last of the Great Lakes steamer ferries. You'll end up in Ludington, MI, which has an excellent brewpub. From there, you can take a northern route through Mackinac Island, or a southern route through either Port Huron or Detroit/Windsor to get you into Ontario (through to Buffalo), if that's what you want. Or, you could still do a southern route through Memphis and Nawleans, just backtracking a little.

I was in Portland over the weekend, and found two local microbrewed hefeweizens that were pretty good: Allagash White, and Sebago (don't remember what they called it). I think both are at least semi-available in the northern parts of New England.

On vacation in Portland (the east coast one) I had grilled foie gras with a light balsamic sauce at Fore Street, paired with an Allagash White (Maine's excellent version of a hefeweizen). So good, it almost made me forget all the great lobster on the trip.

At least Miller hasn't done to Leinie's what it did to Celis.

For a first timer, I'd suggest a kit. Pre-hopped malt extract, some specialty grains, dry yeast - it'll all be in there - ask at your homebrew shop (or get it online - I get my supplies from Leeners in Ohio. You'll also need about 50 ± 5 -10 bottles (no screw-cap bottles, and preferably brown glass) and the same number of bottle caps and a capper. After a few batches of this, you can graduate to all-grain, make yourself a vessel for mashing and lautering, etc. but to start, the kits make pretty decent, drinkable beer (certainly better than your basic BudMilCoors).

Here's an Amazon link to an excellent book on traditional cider-making (there may be more recent versions, and, yes, the co-author is noted novelist Annie Proulx). One consideration when making it, in addition to bottle-conditioning it like a homebrewed beer, is to add a little grape tannin and lay it down (especially if you're using ready-made cider, and don't have control over the apple varieties used, and you have to judgge tannin levels by tasting the sweet cider). As I type this, I'm sipping on a ten-year-old lightly carbonated cider, and it just gets better every year (admittedly, when I made it, I might have had a slightly heavy haned on the tannin). But I think the key to longer lasting ciders is sanitation, bottle conditioning, packaging materials (glass, obviously), and tannin levels. Give it enough time to smooth out those tannins and it can be exquisite.

I've made many batches of cider. It's really easy compared to making beer - you don't have to mess with converting starches to sugars - the sugars are already there. It's best to start with real apple cider - the cloudy stuff, with no preservatives (i.e. no sorbates or metabisulfates on the label - they'll hurt your yeast). You can add some frozen apple juice if you want a higher alcohol result, but I don't do that. I like to use ale yeast, at cool room temp (esp. Wyeast 1338, for a little more residual sweetness). And I bottle it with a slight touch of extra sugar, for a carbonated product. And spices in the secondary (esp. cinnamon) can add a lot of interest. Now that you have me thinking about it, I'm going to have a bottle of cider now. edited: damn typos

FWIW, the one I remember was on Glenview Rd. between Harlem & Waukegan. The drug store had a classic soda shop, too.

Just curious - is Reagan Meats the same place tha used to be next to Reagan Drugs, in Glenview, when I was growing up, many decades ago?

That's strange - I thought the first part of the review was about egullet.com ...

It would appear that Mr. Bruno is the one who's culinarily challenged.

Sampling the beer today, I'm not happy with it. I think I overdid the molasses, resulting in a cidery flavor. But I'm hoping it will age and get better. Drinking it and trying to ignore the cidery quality, it's a pretty interesting brew.

Hop Leaf is excellent - a defiinite destination if you're into Belgian brews and Belgian food, like mussels, steamed over so many things, including Belgian beers. And they're very careful to serve the various brews in the particular glass appropriate to the brew. Go there!

Re: the raw food myth, I believe I read somewhere that cooking actually increases the bioavailability of some beneficial nutrients, like the lycopene in tomatoes and the beta-carotene in carrots. And I think I also read that cooking disables some potentially harmful compounds, like the oxalic acid in spinach. Can anyone confirm, deny or elaborate?

Just for fun, I named one of the best beers I ever brewed "Swill."

The Phillipine place is Pampanga. I'm nowhere near an expert on Phillipine food, but I've had several very tasty meals there. It's inexpensive and BYOB. And, FWIW, if you're into bicycling, there's a great trail that starts there, meanders along the North Branch of the Chicago River, through the Skokie Lagoons, and ends at the Chicago Botanic Gardens. Pampanga Resturaunt 6407 N. Caldwell Ave. (just north of Devon) Chicago (773) 763-1781

Rhinelander hasn't been brewed in Rhinelander in decades - it's brewed by Huber in Monroe - the opposite end of the state. ....Point is probably my favorite lawnmower beer (hefeweizens can be be as or more refreshing, but they're so good, they need to be savored - they need more thought. I think of lawnmower beers as the type you just swig and enjoy). ← Thanks for the info. Do you know when Rhinelander stopped being produced in Rhinelander? The case of skunk juice I'm referring to was purchased in 1983 or thereabouts. If it was produced by Huber I don't know what to say. I like Huber and Huber Bock so it wouldn't seem to be a problem with the brewery but who knows. This was a loooong time ago and there's been lots of beer under the bridge. I agree completely that some beers are too good to be chugged on a hot day. And to answer Erik's post, I used to be quite fond of Augsburger. It's probably been ten or fifteen years since I had one but I vaguely recall that it had a nice bite to it. If memory serves I wouldn't include it in my list of ideal lawnmower beers. It's not (or wasn't) an innocuous chugger. Special Ex is a weird one. Back in the day (again) my pals and I used to consider it a step above Miller High Life, Bud et al. I think it was better and was also a bit more expensive. We didn't drink it too often that's for sure. I've had a couple, though, over the last few years and I can't say it tasted anything like I remembered. I assume Heileman's (or whoever owns Heileman's now) has screwed it up but it's certainly possible that my memory has failed me. Kurt ← Huber took over Rhinelander in 1967. Here's my source for this: http://beer.trash.net/beerpage.php?beernum=1541 Special Ex (and Old Style) used to be made in LaCrosse, and they made a big deal out of being one of the few "fully kreusened" beers in the country. They're now being made at Miller in Milwaukee, and for them, kreusening is a thing of the past. (Apparently, Miller doesn't have the technology to do this, or at least they've decided it's not economicaly feasible.) The LaCrosse brewery was renamed City Brewing (which was its original name in the 1800's), and it's been struggling through several owners. Haven't tried their beers, but here's the website: http://www.citybrewery.com/

Rhinelander hasn't been brewed in Rhinelander in decades - it's brewed by Huber in Monroe - the opposite end of the state. And when I toured the Point brewery a year or so ago, they said they were phasing out returnables, which is too bad, because I've used so many of their bottles for my homebrew. (Point is also making Augsburger these days, or at least as of the time of my tour). And it was fun to see the look on my San Diego brother-in-law's face when I told him that Point was making Karl Strauss' bottled beers (Karl Strauss is a San Diego chain of brewpubs). Long way to say Point is probably my favorite lawnmower beer (hefeweizens can be be as or more refreshing, but they're so good, they need to be savored - they need more thought. I think of lawnmower beers as the type you just swig and enjoy).

Maybe too late, but it looks like there are some dents in the top. Before sanding, I'd try steaming them out - just take a wet washrag, put it over the dents, and put a hot iron on top to swell the wood fibers. Gets out the dents. Also raises the grain, but you'll be sanding afterwards anyway.

With both CaraPils and CaraVienne in the grain bill (plus the oatmeal), I don't think I'll need to boost mouthfeel. It's now in the secondary, and despite Okbrewer's excellent advice, I added grains of paradise, cocoa, coffee and molasses. BUT, all are at what I believe will be barely perceptible levels - the concept is to "complex it up" a bit; no one will be able to detect any of those additions specifically. "There's an interesting taste in there that I can't quite identify" is the comment I'm hoping for. Anyone else have experience with this kind of approach?

I've seen a Robuchon recipe along these lines. ← MobyP, you're probably right. Jeffery Steingarten in "The Man Who Ate Everything" attributes this technique to Joël Robuchon.

I like naming my beers. In another post, I put up a pic that included a brown ale I made, called "Least Prestigious Ivy League University" brown ale. (A friend who went to Cornell disputed that label.) I also made a cyser (hard apple cider with honey) which had Bevis and Butthead staring at a buxom lady and speculating about ... (cyser is pronounced like "size her"). For a fruit beer ... as you probably know, cashew nuts grow from the bottom of a fruit called a cashew apple. I made a fruit beer from cashew apple, so of course I had to call it Castrated Cashew Beer (cashews with their nuts cut off). Ouch. And then there was Moderately Ale (so if anyone asks, I can say "Of course I drink moderately).

Biking on the Green Bay Trail last Saturday, I noticed the Wilmette Farmers' Market (aka French Market) has already opened.

Interesting article in today's Chicago Tribune on rauchbiers.

Ok, I now have a stout made with smoked oatmeal happily blurp-blurbing away in the basement brewery. I'm thinking of adding grains of Paradise to the secondary. Any other suggestions? Cocoa maybe?