You remember Goran’s cake recipe he posted using Tenaya Creek’s Imperial Stout, right? Wish you could eat the cake without the hassle of actually making it? Head to the Tenaya Creek brewery after 6pm on the 31st to meet up with Goran and the rest of us at Hooked on Hops to sample some of the cake while drinking some of the brewery’s finest beers.
We plan on having a busy night and there’s only so much cake to go around so show up early!

Tenaya Creek Brewery
3101 North Tenaya Way, Las Vegas, NV 89128
Tuesday, January 31st at 6PM

What craft beer can learn from metal 

I originally sat down to write about more of my San Diego visit, but then I found inspiration from another source:  Sam Calagione’s rant about overrated breweries. (which you can read here: http://beeradvocate.com/forum/read/4343008)

Since I picked up …And Justice for All, I have been a metalhead.  Through Metallica, I discovered Slayer, then Iron Maiden, then Testament, S.O.D., Death Angel, Sodom, and the list goes on.  Next thing I know, thanks to accidentally tuning in to 91.5 college radio (back in 1994), I was plunged into a whole new world of darkness.  I discovered extreme metal.  Metallica, Testament, and Death Angel were replaced by Darkthrone, Cannibal Corpse and Decide. What does this have to do with beer you ask?  Follow with me.

I used to hate beer…HATED it.  Budweiser, Coors, Corona.  I asked myself how anyone could drink this crap (Note: I still do.).  One day at a wedding, my friend Jason made me reluctantly drink a beer with him.  That beer was Newcastle, and a new love for beer began.  From Newcastle, it was Guinness, or whatever fancy sounding beer that I could find at my local grocer.  After reading an online beer blog, I went in search of Dogfish Head and Stone.  My tastebuds, and my life to an extent, would be forever altered.

After my first experiences with true craft beer, I knew I could never go back.  From Stone and Dogfish Head, I went on to try Rogue, Anchor, New Belgium, and the like.  The more I got into beer, the more I started to seek out lesser known breweries and indulge in the fermented goodness that they had to offer.  I still loved my Dogfish Head and my Stone, but I started to see them as breweries that were too well known to satisfy my palette.  I made a huge mistake.

Fast forward to the early turn of the century.  The bands I mentioned earlier, Darkthrone, Cannibal Corpse and Deicide were not what they used to be.  People started calling them mainstream and searching for darker and more obscure music.  Xasthur, Leviathan, and Pest were in, while the old guard were overrated.  Metal fans became divided.  Black metallers hated thrashers.  Death heads hated power metallers.  The Neo-Socialist black metal fans hated everyone (and everyone hated them).  Words such as “trendy” were being aimed at bands that never sold more than 10K records, and the genre became more about street cred, than about the music.

I already see this happening with craft beer fans.  People are turning their noses up at great breweries, because they have become “too big.”  It’s becoming more about trying the most obscure ales that you can, rather than drinking the more common craft beer that  you can find at your local wine shop.  Stout fans talking crap about Stone.  Porter fans snubbing hef lovers.  Everyone still hating InBev fans.  (That last one is not a bad thing.)

If you haven’t heard about the bands I listed earlier, I wouldn’t be surprised.  I expect it.  As metal fans became more divided we effectively killed every chance we had of the bands we love becoming big.  As the scene split further and further, the originators were left behind, and new bands still have trouble gaining any following.  I wish I could say there is a happy ending to this, but there isn’t.

However, there are bands that have “made it.”  I’ll use the bands Enslaved and Emperor as examples.  What these bands did, was refuse to rest on their laurels.  They continued to experiment and to push the boundaries of what they could do.  While the so-called true metalheads may shun them, they have an entire fan base that is happy to enjoy the music that they craft.  Sound familiar?

Dogfish Head and Stone have never sat back and become complacent.  They continually work at crafting new and interesting brews.  They continue to gain new fans and continue to grow.  

As craft brew fans, we need to applaud this.  We need to support the breweries that are doing things to help the industry grow.  When we start throwing around terms like “overrated,”  we start to polarize one another, and the community begins to slowly break down.  If the community breaks down, then the brewers that work so hard to produce the liquid that we love will never be able to see that work pay off.

I love Stone beer.  I love Dogfish Head.  I would love to see more and more beer drinkers reaching for 60 min. IPA and Arrogant Bastard than Bud Light and Coors.  I myself realized that the more I searched for obscure beer, I was missing out on fantastic beer that was sitting right in front of me.

This is not to say that seeking out new brews is a bad thing.  It’s just that we can never forget what got us here, and the breweries that are trying to make it better for everyone.  I believe that Sam Calagione from Dogfish Head and Greg Koch from Stone want to see craft beer continue to grow.  At the end of the day, they’re beer geeks, just like us.  So I urge everyone to continue to spread the word about craft beer and to show respect to all craft breweries.

No one remembers great metal bands such as Manes, Death Reality and Mindset Rage.  If we continue to break apart our community, the same fate may be in store for a lot of great breweries.

Wednesday, February the 1st, Joseph James Brewing Company of Henderson is set to relaunch their brand at Khoury’s Fine Wine.

The brewery recently hired Alex Graham as a new head brewer and have been reevaluating and rewriting the recipes to all of their beers based off of the feedback given to them by consumers. Graham will be at Khoury’s at 6pm introducing the new Lager, Weize Guy, Tahoe Blue, Hop Box and Red Fox.

The first 48 customers to buy a six pack of Joseph James also gets one of two limited release beers for free. There will be 24 bottles of Roasted Coconut Pumpkin Porter and 24 bottles of S’more Porter available.

Hope to see you all there! Several of us from Hooked on Hops will definitely be there as well.

All of us here at Hooked on Hops got together to taste the three different Mikkeller “breakfast” beers that are currently available in Las Vegas. Beer Geek Breakfast, Beer Hop Breakfast, and Beer Geek Brunch Weasel, to be exact.

All three of these beers are oatmeal stouts brewed with coffee that are of moderate strength at 7.5%. Beer Geek Brunch is the odd man out here boasting an ABV of 10.9%.

First up, Beer Geek Breakfast. This is the normal one of the three. The original, if you will. This beer tastes like a bitter, black coffee with a nice, sweet oatmeal finish. Goran personally doesn’t care for the taste of coffee, but he loved this beer. We all loved this beer. I strongly urge anyone who loves stouts to buy this beer! Perfect smell, taste and mouthfeel, this is an incredible beer.

Next up was Beer Geek Brunch Weasel. It is essentially the same beer as before, however the alcohol level is bumped up to 10.9%. Also the coffee Is made from weasel shit. Seriously. Go ahead and search Civet coffee on the internet, I’ll wait.

This beer was a bit sweeter than Beer Geek Breakfast. The added sweetness is a result of the additional malt needed to get alcohol content up. The finish was also a bit more bitter than the last beer. Tastes like a lot more coffee was used. In addition to giving the beer more alcohol, the added malt also made the body thicker. This beer was a bit syrupy and very filling. It had a velvety texture. Or as Armando stated, “This tastes like fucking velvet!” The taste was incredible, like an amped up version of Beer Geek Breakfast. I do not, however, recommend you drink this beer alone. It is very flavorful, thick, and filling. Trying to drink the entire bottle by yourself is a bit much.

Finally we tasted Beer Hop Breakfast. This beer is essentially the same as Beer Geek Breakfast (same alcohol level and type of coffee used) except it is very heavily dry hopped. For the unfamiliar, dry hopping a beer means to add hops post fermentation.

This beer has a very big grapefruit aroma pouring out of the glass. The coffee bitterness is still there, however it is now paired with big, leafy, green hop flavor. This beer is meant for the hop lovers. It’s not necessarily bitter hoppy, like an IPA. It instead focuses on aroma and flavor. This is a very unique take on the stout style that can be very delicious to some, but a bit odd to others.

So which one is the best? They are all fantastic beers for different purposes. If you want to drink one of the best stouts you will ever have, get Beer Geek Breakfast. If you want something that is more of a dessert beer, get Beer Geek Brunch Weasel, it would go great with ice cream or even by itself as an after dinner beer. If you want to try something unique, kind of a blend of a stout and an IPA, try Beer Hop Breakfast.

All of these beers are currently available at Whole Foods and Khoury’s Fine Wine.

Special thanks to Danny Szeto for taking these awesome photos

But not today. This one is going in the cellar. But, no promises that it will be there long!

San Diego

Night 1:

We rolled into San Diego at roughly 5:30 PM and checked into our hotel.  We were both pretty beat from the day’s events, but we didn’t want to waste time.  I checked my Twitter feed and noticed that Ryan from Aces and Ales had recommended a pub called Churchill’s.  I was amazed to see it was only about a mile from the hotel!

We decided to take a walk and embark on our first stop for fine ales.

Churchill’s

Aside from the outside sign, sporting the likeness of the man himself, the first thing I noticed was the old English telephone booth standing next to the entry way.  As we walked in, we were greeted by beer signs aplenty.  After being seated, we got our menu’s, including the extensive list of draft beer, which is, well, why you’re probably reading this in the first place.  Prices range from $3-$10 per glass, or you can get a 4oz.  taster for a fraction of the cost.

Evil Twin Soft X-mas with a Cherry on Top – Vanilla Imperial Stout w/ Cherries

–Sadly, this beer was dominated by the sour cherry flavor, with only a minimal tasting of vanilla.  As the beer warmed, the coffee flavors began to sneak out, but overall it was disappointing.

 Karl Strauss Cask Conditioned Padre Porte

–This was a bit underwhelming.  It had a standard porter flavor, a bit spicy, but the light body made it feel a little watered down.

Russian River Blind Pig IPA

-My wife exclaimed “This tastes just like it smells…DELICIOUS!”  …and I’d have to agree!  The grapefruit and pine notes come through in a big way, both in smell and in flavor, with a nice bitter finish.  This was my first experience with Russian RIver, and I cannot wait to get my hands on more of their brews! Highly recommended!

Karl Strauss Flan-Diddly-Anders Red

 -On first smell you get a nice nose full of maple and sweet cherries.  The flavor has a nice acidic sourness to it which give way to a bit of sweetness.  Not the best sour beer that I’ve had, but quite pleasant.

Hello,

Today we continue with our journey of beer pairing with food. For today’s edition we are making a delicious soup which just screams for attention. Once you have a spoonful, I guarantee you, you will be back for more.

With that in mind, let us begin!

Ingredients:

• 2 T Butter
• 2 T Olive Oil
• 4 ea Large Red Onions, sliced
• 2 ea Garlic cloves, chopped
• 2-3 ea Sage Leaves, torn plus extra for garnish
• 2 ea Thyme Sprigs, leaves from it
• 1 c Draught Guinness
• 4 c Chicken Stock
• 2 t Worcestershire Sauce
• 1 T Brown Sugar
• 6 ea Sourdough Bread, slices
• 1 c Cheddar Cheese, grated
• Salt
• Pepper

Preparation:

1. Melt the butter with the oil in a heavy saucepan. Add the Onions, Garlic and Herbs. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and cook over a low heat for 40 minutes until the onions are silky and translucent.
2. Stir in the Guinness, Stock, Worcestershire sauce, and Sugar. Bring in to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, for about 20 minutes until the soup has reduced slightly and developed a rich, deep flavor.
3. Meanwhile, toast the bread slices lightly on both sides under a preheated medium broiler. Cut the bread in desired shape. Pile each one with some cheese, then return to the broiler and cook until the cheese has melted.
4. Ladle the soup into warmed bowls, float the toasted cheese bread on top, and garnish with a few sage leaves.

The finished product will look like this (depending on how you garnish it!):

Hello,

I have recently became a contributor to this blog. This is the my first post. I will be posting many recipes in the future that include beer as one of the ingredients. Please do not be shy as far as leaving any feedback. I will be also very happy to answer any questions you may have.

For this recipe I have decided to use the Imperial Stout beer from Tenaya Creek Brewery from Las Vegas, Nevada after our recent trip there. The stout has Chocolate, Roasted and Black malts making this a very thick and flavorful beer. It is definitely one of my top favorite beers out there.

Please keep in mind that, for this recipe, I have decided to keep it very simple and also due to the fact that I would like everyone to be able to make this cake, I have taken lots of shortcuts. There is a long way of doing this (which will yield an even better result), but I guarantee you, I would have lost you half way throughout the recipe. Anywho, I implemented the K.I.S.S method (Keep it simple, stupid).

On to the recipe now!

Yield: 12 servings

Ingredients:

• 2 ea (14.5-oz) Gingerbread Cake mix packages
• 2 ea large eggs
• 2 3/4 c Imperial Stout Tenaya Creek beer, room temperature (1 bottle)
• 1/2 c Butter, softened
• 1 ea (16 oz) package Powdered Sugar
• Garnishes

Preparation:

1. Stir together gingerbread cake mix, eggs and 2 1/2c Imperial Stout beer.
2. Pour the batter evenly into 2 lightly greased cake pans
3. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes or until the toothpick is clean once inserted into the center of the cake. Cool the cake on the rack for 1 hour or until completely cool.
4. Beat the softened butter at medium speed until creamy. Add the sugar and the 1/4c Imperial Stout beer gradually.Beat until light and fluffy.
5. Spread the Buttercream between the layers and on the top of the cake.
6. Garnish the cake

Note:

Keep in mind that you can use plenty of things for garnish. I have decided to go for roasted Pecans this time. Make sure you toast them in the over at 350 degrees for about 10-15 minutes. Be careful and do not burn the nuts.

The finished product will look like this: