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:

Beer Geek Brunch Weasel is a fine oatmeal stout brewed with kopi luwak, or civet coffee, which is one of the rarest coffees in the world. It is derived from the droppings of weasel-like civet cats which eat the ripe coffee berries. So, how is it? To say that this is the finest oatmeal stout that I have tasted would be an understatement. This would easily rate in the top 5 brews that I have had the pleasure to ingest. From the pitch black color, to the velvety texture, to the fantastic chocolate, coffee flavors, this is a beer to go out of your way to track down!

Get yours at:
Whole Foods Market
6689 Las Vegas Blvd.
Las Vegas, NV 89119

Left Hand is a Colorado brewery that I have heard of various times. Previously, I had never tasted anything of theirs since they don’t distribute to Nevada. The one beer that I have consistently heard of is their Milk Stout.

What is a milk stout? It is a stout with lactose added. Lactose is a sugar that comes from milk. Lactose is not fermentable, meaning any lactose that is added when brewing will not get converted into alcohol and instead remains in the final beer adding more body and residual sweetness. Left Hand assures it’s customers that “milk sugar in your stout, is like cream in your coffee.”

This past Friday, Left Hand had a press event, that was prefaced by mysterious magazine ads, announcing the release of Milk Stout Nitro in bottles. They are the first craft brewer to bottle a beer using nitrogen gas. What this all means: Beer is normally carbonated using carbon dioxide (CO2) as this is a byproduct of fermentation. However, many brewers will force carbonate their beers with a blend of CO2 and nitrogen gas (N2) (typically just called “nitro”) because it gives the beer a smoother softer carbonation than just pure CO2. This is typically only done with stouts or porters as this primarily complements these styles. While nitro stouts feel and taste better than CO2, the problem is that N2 gas does not mix in the beer as easily. Special nitro taps are installed in bars that have the proper pressure to hold the gas in the beer. However, nitro beers cannot be used in growler fills because the gas dissipates too quickly, the beer must be served fresh. Which means bottling nitro beers was not possible for a long time. Guinness, the most famous beer served on nitro, developed what’s called a widget that contains N2 gas and is inserted into the bottles at bottling time. Once the bottle is opened and poured into a glass, the widget forces N2 gas into the beer allowing nitro beers to be enjoyed at home. Young’s Double Chocolate Stout is another common beer that is bottled with nitro widgets.

Back to Left Hand: Milk Stout was always available on nitro tap but the bottled version used CO2. In planning to bottle Milk Stout using nitro, Left Hand did not want to use a widget. They spent over two years and hundreds of thousands of dollars developing a way to bottle nitro beer without a widget. They are choosing to keep the secret to themselves rather than risk patenting the process and it becoming public knowledge. The result is amazing. I tasted this beer at GABF and was very impressed. I would happily drink this over any other stout, yes even Guinness. There is no “milky” taste, only a very balanced, smooth stout that is neither too bitter and roasted or too sweet. It’s perfect. Life was much easier having never tasted this beer, I didn’t know what I was missing. I am now forever longing for the day that this beer becomes available in Las Vegas.

*Photo credit: Left Hand Brewing Company

By far, the best beer fest I’ve been to, obviously, since this the biggest in the country. I finally had the chance to taste so many different beers that I don’t have access to in Nevada. In future posts I’ll write about some specific breweries or beers I tasted.
Downside of visiting the final day, a lot of the more rare beers were already out. However I do have a list of favorites that I did get to try:
Stone BELGO Old Guardian Barley Wine
Rogue Old Crustacean Barley Wine
Dogfish Head Tweason’ale
Ballast Point Victory at Sea
Left Hand Milk Stout
Great Divide Chocolate Oak Aged Yeti and Espresso Oak Aged Yeti
Alaskan Smoke Porter aged since 2000

And the list goes on. Attached are a few pictures I was able to take. Yes I took a picture in front of the Anheuser Busch booth for fun, no I didn’t try anything there. I was surprised to see how busy the booth was, which is a shame considering all the great craft breweries that were there in attendance.
Got to meet Zane Lamprey from the TV shows Three Sheets and Drinking Made Easy, super nice guy. Also saw Greg Koch from Stone, he insisted that a picture be taken with him.
All in all, it was a great time. I highly recommend you take a trip to Denver for future GABF’s. It is impossible to not have fun.

ALC/VOL: 10%

Color: Black

Smell: Dark chocolate, espresso, burnt toast

Feel: Big foamy head gives this beer a smooth feel. Little to no carbonation.

Taste: Tastes like it smells. The dark roasted malts give this beer a very coffee-like taste.

Overall: Sea Monster is a beer for people who love dark beer. This is a very dark beer. Darker beers are made with malted barley that is roasted longer than the barley used in lighter color beers. Much like the darker coffee roasts, Italian, French or espresso roasts, darker roast beer has a very defined smokey, bitter taste.

This beer is very similar to World Wide Stout that I reviewed earlier. The tastes are almost the same. The main difference being that this has almost half the alcohol content that World Wide Stout has. This gives the beer a less alcohol pungent taste, and a little bit more carbonation. All in all, this is a very good beer.

Imperial stout is a stout beer that is known for it’s higher alcohol content. Most stouts have about a 5% alcohol content. Imperial stout is around 10%. The name comes from the fact that the beer was made in England specifically for the imperial courts in Russia. The higher alcohol content was necessary to ensure that the beer would not freeze en route to it’s icy location.

Last night at the bar it was mentioned that many people don’t realize how many different types of beer there are. I thought I’d give a brief overview:
To simplify things, there are primarily two different types of beer: Ales and Lagers. At the most basic level, the difference between the two is the type of yeast used to ferment the beer. Lager yeast ferments at colder temperatures and ale yeast ferments at higher temperatures. Lagers and ales break down even further into different types of beers.
Lager:
This is the most prominent type of beer simply because this is the kind of beer that Budweiser, Miller and Coors are. Other common lagers are the popular Mexican beers: Corona, Dos Equis, Pacifico etc. These beers are best served at ice cold temperature and as such have a lighter more “refreshing” taste. Or as I think of it, kind of watered down taste. The predominant lager beers are American lagers and pilsners. Again simply because this is what the big 3 companies make. The good lagers are the kind that Germany makes: marzen, bock and dunkel. These beers are typically darker colored and have a much more complex taste than the common American lager. However these beers are still lighter in flavor and feel than most ales and don’t have a predominant hop taste.
Ales:
These are the more complex beers with a wider range of style. These range from the wheaty Hefeweizen and white beers (like Pyramid Hefeweizen or Blue Moon) to the dark stouts (like Guinness). Pale ales and India pale ales sit in the middle of the spectrum. IPAs and pale ales are recognized by their hoppy bite. Ales are the predominant type of beer everywhere except North America. I couldn’t begin to try and explain every type of ale because there is just so many kinds!
Ales are by far, my favorite kind of beer just because there are so many different kinds. The few beers that ive blogged about here have all been ales. I’ll try to continue to review different beers and use that opportunity to describe the beer type and it’s common characteristics.

ALC/VOL: 18%

My favorite part about the design of this bottle, is the bottle cap. Dogfish Head typically sticks to using gold bottle caps. For their beers that are above 9% alcohol, they use a red bottle cap:

For this beer, and I assume others of such high levels of alcohol, they use the below “caution” bottle cap:

Color: This is a very dark brown, almost black beer. It is beyond opaque. After pouring, look down into the glass. It looks like you are looking at pictures of outer space. Infinite darkness with the small moving bubbles making up star formations.

Smell: Strong malt smell with chocolate, coffee, hazelnut and some carmel.

Feel: There is practically no head and what little carbonation exists, disappears shortly after pouring. It is much thicker than most beers and has a slight syrupy consistency. Tilting the glass leaves a residue slowly dripping down the sides.

Taste: Sweet and creamy. It hides the alcohol well considering how much is in it. Tastes like very dark chocolate or unsweetened baking chocolate. The darkness gives the beer a black coffee like taste. The high alcohol content gives it an aftertaste very similar to red wine.

Overall: In case it wasn’t obvious, I love this beer. Definitely not an everyday beer, and definitely don’t drink more than one at a time. In, fact you’re probably not going to want to drink anything else for the night after this. The texture and consistency make this a very filling beer. This is something you would have after dinner with, or as, dessert.

The taste definitely isn’t for everyone. Highly recommended for those who enjoy dark chocolate or dark coffee. I would highly recommend any beer lover to try this if only for the uniqueness of it. Keep in mind that Dogfish Head does not brew this year round. Snag up whatever you find because what is out there, is all that will be available until December of 2011!