TongoRad

I think the lack of sugar played a part as well. In beer residual sugars will tend to play a great role in creating an overall balance on the palate, even if that balance skews toward the bitter end of the spectrum. The porter you used is a dry and bitter one to begin with but, as Heather suggested, you then reduced the hell out of it making that aspect even more pronounced. If the sugar has given you satisfactory results in the past I would consider it an integral part of the recipe if you use the Bully Porter. Or you could use a sweeter beer, like a cream stout, if you want to cut back on the sugar.

Don't forget the tamales! And as convenience products go those frozen mushrooms are indeed pretty amazing.

I buy these wines all the time in bulk from Brewers World in Dumont, and find them to be of great value: Michele Chiarlo- Barbera (just a plain solid wine in every respect) Taurino- Salice Salentino (most years have a really concentrated flavor, almost Amarone-like, and a funky personality to boot) B & G- Vouvray (crisp and acidic with a small amount of residual sugar and really nice floral/herbal notes. Not just food friendly, it's 'friendly' period) The Chiarlo is in the $11 range, but gets closer to 10 by the case. The others are normally under 10.

Canned puree may indeed be that. The Tuttorosso puree I have in my pantry has an almost identical ingredients list: "Tomato concentrate (water, tomato paste), citric acid." Note the absence of salt. Okay, next challenge: Find a commercial tomato puree that is not reconstituted from paste. ← I'm pretty sure the Parmalat product Pomi (in the cardboard container) fits the bill. I really don't like the reconstituted from paste products myself and stopped using them a while ago. From what I remember of Tuttorosso the 'crushed tomatoes' are made the same way, only thicker. Personally I've just settled on buying whole tomatoes and running them through a food mill for puree, but I do know a few people who swear by Pomi.

Along the lines of what Pontormo posted the first thing that came to mind was that it would probably work quite well in an escarole/white bean soup. The second thing that came to mind (for the Arrested Development fans out there): "Mmm, watery....with a smack of ham." OK, OK- it really was the first thing that came to mind, but I just can't resist using the phrase 'smack of ham' lately.

Yeah- those Martin's potato rolls rule. I did some of these last month- I'm not sure if we used the 'dinner rolls' or not but there were three sizes in the store and I got the smallest. I did mine White Manna style by pressing the meat into the cooking onions. Great drool inducing photos, btw.

Pardon my French, but Holy Crap! What a difference! I get very good quality saffron (whole threads, bright color, fresh aroma) at an Indian market called Subzi Mandi for around $25.00/ounce. It's probably Iranian, not Indian, but I can check when I get home. It certainly suits my purposes and I've been very happy with it. ETA: I've checked and it is Spanish Mancha Saffron called The Gathering of Saffron on the tin, and it is good until 2010.

Agreed with the little-goes-a-long-way philosophy. I am particularly fond of saffron with dairy these days. A favorite Indian restaurant makes versions of kheer (rice pudding) and vermicelli pudding featuring saffron that are magnificent- it's rich and nurturing, delicate and floral at once. I haven't tried duplicating any at home yet but if I did I would think the inclusion of rose water as well would play off the saffron quite nicely. My own experience has been to use it in my attempts at making paella or tajines, and I don't think they would be the same without it even in tiny amounts.

I'll second all that, but I do have a question jeniac42 if you don't mind. What exactly was the problem with the boil? Was it that you didn't want a boilover or was it that your burner wasn't hot enough? Either way you will want to solve that issue as you get more into brewing. A good rolling boil will help with your hot break as well as get you proper utilization from your hops. Do not be tempted to cover your pot during the boil, however, because the vapor condensation from the lid will drop back into the wort and give you DMS problems, which you definitely don't want. I used to like to ferment cool myself (66-68F), but 64F may be pushing it a tad. If you drape your fermenter with a towel or a light blanket you may get better results. Glad to hear it went well!

As a child I grew up with both an Italian Grandma and a Southern Grandma, so I had a lot of comfort food bases covered, and I do love my comfort food. Still- I've also picked up a few more favorites over the years. The first few that come to mind are Aloo Gobi (cauliflower and potatoes) and green chile stew, oddly enough with potatoes as well.

I ventured into NYS last week for some holiday quaffs as well as some things that I jst don't ordinarily see. I came home with (2) 750's of Affligem Noel, a sixer of Aass JuleOl, a sixer of Rogue American Amber, a sixer of Stone IPA and a few Weihenstephaner Korbinians. The place I went to also sells draft beer growlers, and one of their selections was the St. Bernardus Abt 12 ($25 for a half-gallon). I was tempted, but ultimately decided that it was too much for one person to consume in a few days. Friends will be over next weekend, and maybe I'll get some if it is still available.

jeniac42- you got some great advice here, I hope all goes well. Good luck tonight, and do post back with how things are going with the brew.

Lately I've been enjoying prosecco with a splash of amaro and a touch of sugar, and a slice of orange when the mood strikes (I use lime if it is made with campari). It is quite a nice drink to enjoy year round, particularly in the summer, though I did just have a few this past Christmas Eve.

Some more notes: 1988 Podere Il Palezzino Grosso Sanese Heavily sedimented. Aroma is as earthy as it is fruity and mostly resembles blackberries. There is a fairly strong alcohol presence as well. Cherries, berries and mushrooms blend nicely on the full palate balanced with a solid shot of acid. Tannins are still huge, this wine could stand a few more years in the bottle. Very nice. 1989 Moccagatta Barbaresco Also heavily sedimented. I love this wine- there is a deep, rich complex nose. Big fruits like dried figs and plums are offset by undercurrents of anise, tar and fennel. Swirling brings the fruit to the foreground. Tannins have begun to soften. A good dose of acid shows its head at the end. The palate is full and the finish is long and woody showing the herbal notes again. Wonderful- enjoy now.

I'm fortunate to work not too far from Gino's on Cross Bay Blvd. in Howard Beach, Queens, and here is why I'm usually there: (I hope the photo does it justice) It's an eggplant square slice. The eggplant slices are cooked, unbreaded, in olive oil until they are silky and luscious and they are accompanied by a sweet chunky tomato and onion sauce, fresh herbs and whole milk mozzarella on top and bottom. The crust is substantial yet flaky and about 1/2" high, which is just about the right height not to overpower what is on top of it. It's definitely a messy and oily affair (no complaints from me, fwiw) and I just love the way the flavors and textures interplay with one onother.

Each year I try to make a point to get some Affligem Noel and Aass JuleOl (or Bock), if I can find it. I haven't done so yet but I'll probably have the time to go a-huntin' this afternoon. I did have a chance to try some of the selections in the Samuel Adams Holiday Pack this year and I thought that the Holiday Porter was the clear winner. The Winter Lager seems to be missing something this year, both in terms of malt and hops. The Old Fezziwig is just not my sort of thing, but I didn't have any technical problems with it. I think I've gone through a case and a half of the SN Celebration so far, a sixer at a time. (FWIW Susan- no spices in that beer, it's just a winter release). I love the balance this year. The Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout is also great. I just love that little roasty hit on the finish. I left a few in my unheated electric closet to serve at cellar temperature and I found the alcohol to be a bit too prominent in that instance, but a little cooler than that and they were perfect.

Like others have said, nothing beats sampling. But in addition to that it does help to go armed with a little info. A good online source is the BJCP Style Guidelines. Just click on each style header and you'll get a ton of information including commercial examples of each. I used to recommend the Michael Jackson Pocket Guides, but I see over at Amazon that the 2000 one was the last year. It still may be worthwhile to get an old one because the opening sections with all of the general information are pretty much timeless. --- ETA: Audiofan2- you're just trying to make us east coasters jealous, aren't you?

Meat, cheese and olives are pretty big categories on their own. I like a variety of each, myself, especially very sharp cheese and lots and lots of olives. Some other ideas: Caponata Marinated Mushrooms Seafood salad (scungilli, calamari, shrimp, celery, olive oil, garlic, lemon and parsley) Pickled Eggplant We're pretty informal about it all- it's all just lined up on the bar along with bottles of wine and people help themselves as the mood strikes. I do like liamsaunt's arugula idea- I'll have to lobby for that on my own end. Whatever you do, I'm sure it will be wonderful. Merry Christmas!

I'm kind of glad to hear that about the Shipyard brews, because I was starting to doubt my own palate for beer tasting. It was about 10 years ago that I drank them more often and loved most of them. I have had the Fuggles more recently than 10 years ago, and didn't find it that distasteful, but I do trust the opinion of you all who regularly post on our Beer Forum. Any ideas about why they have gone downhill? Please pardon me if that has been discussed before and I missed it. ← I was thinking along the same lines, Susan. Those beers aren't locally available to me anymore so I haven't had first-hand experience in a while, but I did notice a lot of trash talk during those years. Recently a friend told me about a place in NY that has a great selection of beer so I started seeing Middle Ages, Shipyard, etc. again and just had to find out for myself. I tried a number of their different offerings at a number of different times and there really does seem to be an across the board problem there (the only exception being with the Old Thumper, which I enjoyed.) In the beers that I sampled the expected Ringwood diacetyl (butter-like) characteristic had gone from being the interesting gracenote that I recall to being a real anvil to the head, and an unpleasant one at that. Why? I can only guess, but two prime possibilities are: 1)rushing the beer out of the fermenter and not giving the yeast the proper amount of time to do a diacetyl clean-up and 2) a poor diacetyl-reducing yeast strain has become dominant through reuse. At this point I'm willing to consider that I got repeatedly unlucky, but the odds of getting a good batch don't strike me as being particularly good right now, and there are so many other great ways to spend my beer budget. FWIW- the 2005/2006 Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout kicks ass this year, as does the 2005 Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale (as others have mentioned). I like to get both of those beers as fresh as possible, so that's where my focus has been lately.

Looks great, Eric, best of luck! I can't wait to try those fries you posted about. Now I have a real timetable to figure out how to get to Verona. It will be worth travelling to, I'm sure.

Aside from the Shipyard it looks like you had quite a nice assemblage of beers (though I must confess to not having tasted your winner). I do agree with you about the Fuggles, though- a really nasty butter bomb. I've had some within the past year and I'm surprised they are releasing their beer in that condition to tell you the truth- the amount of residual diacetyl in the final product goes beyond a quirk of the yeast and straight into poor brewing techniques IMO. It didn't always used to be like that, the beer was much better 10 years ago. Same thing with Middle Ages. Sadly both breweries are now on my 'to avoid' list now.

Thanks for the response, Craig. I'm not entirely sure if they were actually aging the dolcetto. My guess is that it is one of those things that just got back burnered and forgotten about. ( I'd love to have that sort of problem, myself ). Their wine is stored in a climate controlled cellar, 100 sq. ft. or so for wine, but it is entirely in bulk storage bins. The necks are tagged but some bottles can still get 'buried'. We found a few more of the Abbona Doglianis and moved them into a more easily accessible area. I think if we have some free time around Christmas we'll do a little more of a reorganization. In looking over what I wrote about the Montevertine it does seem that the term 'washed-out' comes across as overly harsh. My overall opinion of the wine is definitely favorable, but I just didn't think the promise of the bouquet (which I loved) was fulfilled. We do have more so the next time we open one I will look at it from your point of view.

I spent the recent Thanksgiving holiday at my parents' house, as we do every year. As my dad was opening the wines to be served throughout the day he remarked that he and my mom have recently begun to be disappointed that a lot of the wines that they are holding onto aren't really showing that well. Indeed, the 1992 Dolcetto that we opened (Abbona Dogliani) seemed to be past its prime. There just aren't enough holidays in the year, it seems Of course, this opened the door for me to volunteer my services as a taster of sorts. I brought home six bottles this particular trip with the intention of actually opening the damn things and getting a sense of where they are. Since I'm taking some notes anyway I figured that it might be interesting to post my impressions here as well. So far I've opened two- 1988 Sansone Amarone della Valpolicella Bad bottle, unfortunately. It definitely requires another look pronto. 1992 Montevertine Le Pergole Torte Rich, yet lively, wonderful bouquet full of cherry-like fruit, earthy dried mushrooms and perhaps some marjoram-ish herbal traces. It falters on the washed-out palate, however, which is mostly acid and tannin- though the cherries linger on the finish. It was a lot better with food (ravioli with tomatoes, onion, chicken and mushrooms) than on its own. Open these soon. And these are waiting on deck- 1989 Abbona Dogliani Vigneto Terlo Ravera Barolo 1988 Il Greppone Mazzi Brunello di Montalcino Riserva 1989 Moccagatta Barbaresco 1988 Podere Il Palezzino Grosso Sanese

Michele Chiarlo makes a wonderful one in the $12 range.

Yeah, I've always loved that one myself though I can't take credit for it.