Messages

1

General Homebrew Discussion / Re: What's Brewing This Weekend - 12/16 Edition

« on: December 14, 2011, 05:27:29 PM »

No brewing this weekend. Kegging a Mango Agave Pale Ale & developing an Imperial Stout recipe while sipping our Imperial IPA.

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The Pub / Re: this is a cool stunt!

« on: December 14, 2011, 04:14:06 PM »

Thats Great!

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General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Pics of recent brews?

« on: November 19, 2011, 03:29:49 PM »

Our Vanilla Cream Ale

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All Grain Brewing / Re: Help! I've brewed a watery mess

« on: November 19, 2011, 02:54:22 PM »

We had a similar issue when we first started grinding our own grain, took a couple batches to get the grind just right. If you are grinding your own, I would examine that as well as looking into the previous comments.

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The Pub / Re: Another Bacon product...

« on: November 16, 2011, 08:08:12 PM »

I think that just ruined my day.

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General Homebrew Discussion / Re: What's Brewing This Weekend - 11/11 Edition

« on: November 09, 2011, 08:19:32 PM »

Brewing an Imperial IPA & bottling our Belgian golden strong ale!

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All Things Food / Re: Leave Room For Dessert.

« on: December 10, 2010, 01:23:05 AM »

morticaixavier  you can definitely just use straight beer, I'm not a pro by any means, but what I have been taught is that water is an enemy of chocolate and the less water the longer the shelf life of the product.

capozzoli I think a peanut custard pie of some sort would be amazing! let me know if you come up with a good recipe. As for the white dots they are from a transfer sheet. Its just colored cocoa butter that's designed on as plastic sheet called a "transfer sheet" applied to warm chocolate & then once sets the cocoa butter design adheres to the chocolate giving it that amazing design, easier than it looks.

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The Pub / Re: Favorite movies

« on: December 01, 2010, 03:11:51 AM »

I'd have to go with (In no special order)

Halloween
Goonies
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Dumb and Dumber
Fast Times at Ridgemont High

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General Homebrew Discussion / Re: Pics of recent brews?

« on: December 01, 2010, 02:41:07 AM »

Our Marzen

10

All Things Food / Re: Pizza Fatta en Casa

« on: November 11, 2010, 03:35:56 PM »

Sorry had to rub it in 

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010/11/travel-magazine-chicago-beats-nyc-for-best-pizza.html

11

The Pub / Re: Mystery Contrail

« on: November 11, 2010, 02:30:42 AM »

I'm going with a UFO 

12

All Things Food / Re: Leave Room For Dessert.

« on: November 10, 2010, 11:54:36 PM »

I would start the ganache by reducing the stout to a syrup consistency

Does your experience give you any idea how much of a reduction that is?  75%?  Do you think that would concentrate the bitterness too much, or will it be offset by the sugar?  Or would you start with something with low bitterness?

Thanks for the book recommendation

Heres the ganache formulation I use, its from Grewelings book

250g Heavy Cream
70g  Glucose Syrup
60g  Liqueur or liquid flavoring (beer reduction)
30g  Butter
620g Dark Chocolate

I would start out with at least a 50% reduction and maybe as much as 75%, just a guess. I'll keep you updated when I develop my recipe, I'll have to do some trial and error. The bitterness shouldn't be a huge factor since you're not using a large amount of the beer plus it should be offset by the sweetness of the glucose and chocolate (provided its not a high% dark chocolate), If its a highly bitter beer maybe try using a milk chocolate to make the ganache to balance it out.

13

All Things Food / Re: Leave Room For Dessert.

« on: November 10, 2010, 05:18:57 PM »

  Do you have a recipe or at least a starting point for the stout ganache?


A great book to check out is, Chocolates and Confections: Formula, Theory, and Technique for the Artisan Confectioner by Peter P. Greweling & The Culinary Institute of America, It helps to understand the science of chocolate making and has a good formula development section. I would start the ganache by reducing the stout to a syrup consistency, you want as little moisture in your ganache as possible, then you would have to play with the ratios of the chocolate, cream & stout reduction + butter,invert sugar & any other flavorings if using any.

14

All Things Food / Re: Leave Room For Dessert.

« on: November 10, 2010, 04:56:34 PM »

Another one of my hobbies besides brewing is making chocolates. I think I'm going to do a flavorful stout ganache in a dark chocolate shell next. Here's a pic of my Madagascar vanilla bean truffles and solid 58% dark chocolate squares.

15

All Things Food / Re: Al Pastor

« on: November 09, 2010, 11:50:08 PM »

I had them last year when I was in Mexico and they were great! The meat rotates in a "gyro machine" and has a fresh pineapple sitting above it, they slice the meat directly onto a double tortilla and then slice some of the pineapple on top. Another excellent thing I had while down there was in the Yucatan, the Cochinita Pibil taco. It's a pork shoulder (I think) marinated with achiote paste, wrapped in a banana leaf and then buried underground with coals. It comes out like pulled pork, served on hand-made tortillas with pickled onions and habanero sauce. Here's a pic