cdh

A report on the success of the punch- Pear cider was remarkably difficult to procure, those dispatched to bring it reported no luck in NYC. I recalled several versions being in circulation up there a year ago... but nobody could lay a hand on one of them. Consequently Breton apple cider was substituted. Batch 1 worked very well... autumnal and appley and strong and delicious. Needed a splash of selzer since the bottle of cider didn't pack much fizz. Batch 2 was decidedly suboptimal... the second bottle of cider had apparently been victimized by a wild yeast fermentation and had the strong aroma of Band-Aids that unchecked Brettanomyces fermentation produces. (If only I'd noticed that before dumping it into the punch bowl... ) Band-Aid flavored punch didn't go over so well, so I tried to hide it under a dose of orange oil and a good teaspoon of 5-spice powder. Which made it sort of palateable, but not delicious by any means. Lesson from the story- check your cider before mixing with it.

Indeed! Congrats to Greg and Ross. Greg's a restauranteur in whose hands I'd trust Django to keep up to its reputation.

Have done some experimentation and figured out what needed adding in my punch recipe- 1. I've spiked the honey syrup with a splash of homemade nocino for a slightly tannic and nutty accent. 2. The drink benefits from a pinch of chinese 5-spice powder sprinkled over top of them just before serving. I'm wondering if just providing the aroma in a Alinea-esque aromatic tea beside the punchbowl will do the same thing.

Just had another thought for sweetish reds- I recall a doctor I know socially mentioning that the wine with the highest concentration of red-wine-is-good-for-you stuff in it is Bully Hill's Love My Goat... an upstate New York winery with a fun story and an irreverent streak. Don't know if you can get it near you, but might be worth a shot. The wine is nowhere near dry, but not exactly sticky either. Much better than Manischewitz.

Not for resale labels in the US are all about labelling law. Illegal to sell food without nutrional and ingredient information. Not the same deal w/ beer at all. If somebody photocopied the ingredients and nutrition from the outside of your oatmeal box and pasted it onto each individual packet, it would then be legal for resale. "Not for Resale" has no legal force in and of itself.

Sweet reds are a tough thing. Your friend may be best advised to try to shed the sweet tooth. There are a few sweet reds I've run across, but none of them are exactly common... There is a fine sparkling red Gaillac that is a spectacular pairing with chocolate... not available any more at the shop that I know that occasionally gets it... There are Banyuls wines... not cheap, but interesting. There's port... not cheap, but interesting. There's cheap not-from-Portugal port, which isn't usually very good... except some South African wines... Stick with the ruby ports since the good-for-you stuff may settle out in the aging of the tawneys. I'd bet there are Australian sweet reds... but I've nver run across one.

Ahhh... but you read it. Controversial headlines bring in readers. And I do think that is interesting that while the beer has a cult following here, the monks would rather it weren't here at all. I wonder at the legal status of the "do not resell" labels. Under US law, it would be very difficult to sell a physical product with that restriction on it. If some Belgians buy it and ship it across the Atlantic, I don't see how that is either making a black market, or illegal per se, provided the recipients have their importing paperwork in order here. If anybody knows whether Belgian law allows a manufacturer to encumber their products with these sorts of restrictions, and whether the Belgian state will enforce them, I'd love to hear a knowledgable analysis.

The monks who make the Trappist Westvleteren ale speak up about just how and where they want their beer distributed. No American customers wanted. http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/f...beer-usat_x.htm http://www.realbeer.com/news/articles/news-002708.php

Beautiful pictures. Sad I couldn't make it to taste everything. I'm drooling at the thought of the amuse. Mmmmmmmmmmm... oyster.... Keep an eye on the DDC mailing list for details on the upcoming event I'm putting together out in the country on Nov 1.

I've been doing a bit of thinking on the idea of fall drinks lately, having been appointed the mixmaster for party coming up. We need a punch-y sort of thing that can sit happily in a bowl unattended. Looking at the Falling Leaves, I was inspired to riff on it in a punchier sort of way and came up with the following. I'd welcome impressions and suggestions. 1 bottle Laird's Apple Jack 1 bottle dry riesling 1 bottle gewurztraminer 2 cups honey syrup with a couple of drops of orange oil and a drop of lemon oil a few shakes of Peychaud's topped with a couple of bottles of fizzy pear cider I think the spiciness of the gewurz will work with the fall fruit flavors, and the amount of honey syrup will need to be adjusted based on the sweetness of the wines used. The idea of infusing the honey syrup with more than just the citrus oils has come to mind, but I don't know what will get along with the anise-y minty aspects of the Peychauds. Suggestions welcome.

Wow! Thanks for the great pictures of the process. Are you an oolong grower, a tea merchant, or just an interested bystander with a camera?

Yocco's is a set of hot dog stands. They do a decent chilli dog. As to other suggestions in that 'hood, I've heard downtown Bethlehem has some spots worth checking out... but am unsure about their identity...

Sam- You're so skilled at speaking with the voice of reason. My concerns may be premature, but I just don't want to see more stuff banned because a few folks misuse it. And where is the line between "dietary supplement" and food ingredient anyway?

From a homebrewer's point of view, I still need access to bitter orange peel in ounce sized doses to toss into my brew kettle. Even if liquers and pre-made beers are exempt, those of us who make our own are still potentially affected by this. And what about access to bitter oranges like Sevilles? They're tough enough to get ahold of as it is. Finding a black market for them would be close on to impossible. And orange bitters? The stuff is almost a pure tincture of bitter orange peel, no? At least according the the Baker formulation.

<a href=http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=75784>Link to other thread in the beer forum</a> Bitter orange is not just a beer ingredient... Where'd we cocktailians be without curacao and triple sec? Much less seville orange juice in drinks?

NYT Article on bitter orange It looks like the media has found a new whipping boy to frighten the public with, and this time it is bitter orange peel. All of us beer afficionados know well that bitter orange peel is an essential ingredient in many belgian beers. If the public health crusaders get bitter orange banned (like ephedra before it) what beers will be pulled from the shelves or radically changed? Is protecting people from weight loss pills worth sacrificing a number of distinctive beer styles?

I hope that news like this jolts the beer marketers and brewers into emphasizing the wide variety of beers and the connoisseurship aspect. Beer, as pushed to the mass market, is remarkably homogenous. I'm not at all surprised that folks are getting bored with it. Maybe we'll see some mass market advertisements trying to shatter the same old beer mold. We've not seen anything of the sort since the 80's when Michelob ran their "Don't be afraid of the dark" campaign featuring classic lines like "Dark beer isn't just for thick-necked men named Gunther." Or something akin to it. The world is full of interesting beers. The mass market just needs to get clued in to them.

I just made myself some ginger ale, and it turned out quite respectably. Since I have a 6 liter force carbonator I didn't bother with the yeast, I just chilled it down and shot a bunch of CO2 into it. Next time, I'll be more heavy handed on the ginger... this time I used 1 ounce of ginger per liter... next time I'll double that for some more heat. I also did not boil the lemony stuff at all... I used fresh juice, but instead of zest, I used Boyajian's lemon oil, which did the same thing and didn't leave chunks of stuff to clog up the carbonator's dispenser mechanism. I'd not do root beer in the carbonator, however, since I've played with the Zatarains syrup and that stuff does wierd stuff around plastics... I'd not want everything I carbonate for months in the future to taste of root beer.

Hmm... I'd not worry much about the time it takes to get the water up to the boil. The timing becomes important if you're doing all grain brewing and when hops are in the water. The important thing for the hops is the amount of time they spend at a full rolling boil... I've tried late addition of a significant portion of the malt, and with great success... malt extracts have already been boiled in their manufacture, so the need for a long boil to coagulate proteins and such is not really required with them... or so I've read. I generally get a visible hot break in about 15 minutes of boiling. As to the lack of dishwasher, an easy technique is to fill your bottling bucket with a chlorine bleach and water solution... maybe 4 tablespoons of bleach to 3 gallons of water (ya gotta clean it anyhow), and then submerge as many bottles in that as you can fit... then replace the already sanitized ones with new ones as you take them out. Then give them a quick rinse to get most of the chlorine water out. That kills the beasties pretty well and gets you a sanitized bottling bucket too. If you need to clean out your siphon and bottle filler, then fill a few bottles up by connecting the hose to the spigot on the bottling bucket and run the chlorine through there. As to recipes, I'm not a dry hopper, so haven't got personal knowledge to share. Where would you go about getting your supplies? Homebrew shop owners are great folks for help concocting recipes. Or look for a kit that appeals to you... morebeer.com, northernbrewer.com and others online have lots of pre-assembled kits for dryhopped beers. Check out the Fire in the Hole kit mentioned at the top of this thread... I used its grain bill for my oud bruin, but it is meant to be a hop monster with substantial dry hopping.

I stopped by the farm this Saturday to introduce an old friend who was visiting from New York to the pleasures of my local cheesemaker's efforts, and we wandered off with quite a haul that kept us cooking all weekend. Not only did we pick up some great cheeses, we also hauled home some goat shanks to braise. We'd initially thought to do lamb shanks, which the farm also had on offer, but when we found out that goat shanks were available, we changed course midstream and didn't look back. After a long braise in wine and stock and mirepoix, the goat came out meltingly tender. The braising liquid gelled solid around the leftovers, giving an idea of just how unctious the stuff came out. Have a look here for good goat photo. Further news from Trent Hendricks is that the long planned move to another farm a few miles away is about to occur within the next couple of weeks. The new place is being built with more of an eye to both improving production methods and creating a more comprehensive retail space. Word has it that the new place is going to be heated significantly by system built around a woodburning oven, which means that breads will be added to the lineup, as well as smoked stuff. Charcuiterie is hopefully on the way as well. Exciting plans are in the works, and I hope they all come together.

I also finally made my way to Marigold on Friday evening for a spectacular meal. The setting is beautiful, an old house with period architectural details that would be unthinkable in new construction- Just look at the wood that all of the interior doors and windows and molding are made from. The food was delicious. I started with the chilled tomato soup that James described, and I agree that it was ethereal. The flavors in the dish reminded me of a sort of deconstructed seafood cocktail-- the oysters were briney, tomato soup was accented by the zip of the wasabi in the tobiko, presenting the spicy, tomato-y seafood flavors of a seafood cocktail, but with the slight of hand of presenting it as a soup. Very well done. Others shared a bite of the the foie gras with me, which was presented in a spiced context with a delicate brioche, and the escargot and wild mushrooms with israeli couscous, which was a spectacular dish itself. Snails and mushrooms pair very well together. The main dishes were excellent as well... they'd run out of the black grouper dish by the time we ordered, and I regret not getting the chance to try that, as it was the most appealing dish on the menu. Instead I went with the bacon wrapped pork loin with chanterelles, which was very good. Bites of the roasted chicken breast and the curried monkfish were also delicious. The cheese plate at dessert was very well composed- an aged goat Cana de Cabra, an australian mild blue that was creamy and complex, and an aged cheddar that had almost taken on the crumblyness of a parmagiano. Glad I finally got around to making the trip down into West Philly to try the place out.

never mind... PCD has explained that the Westminster College I was thinking of is not the one that we're talking about.

How'd you make it? What is its consistency like?

As I understand it the doorman is for controlling volume of people and not doing the velvet rope thing. This is my understanding as well. As I think I mention upthread, I was there one Thursday night when the place filled almost to capacity -- at which time there was some mention of limiting the door for a while in order avoid overcrowding. Of course, as you say, I am quite sure the velvet rope thing will not be happening there, as this is antithetical to the philosophies of the people involved. ← How does one implement door controls without the nefarious velvet rope? Milk & Honey has addressed the problem... but a hidden phone number club wouldn't be doable for a recently reviewed hotspot. Angel's Share has too... strict rules and all... Maybe a reservations policy with a published phone number would work... We'll see if I can get in next time I find myself in NYC.

Sad... I'd hoped to go before it became packed to the gills. That doesn't look likely now.