Espress-OH

There has been much discussion as of late in my apartment about coffee. Ever since the glass beaker on my French-press coffee maker cracked we've been in a dilemma as to whether or not we should IMMEDIATELY replace it, or opt for a stove-top espresso maker as a temporary (and well justified) fix. Luckily the daily drip-brew machine suffices, and eases the daily grind, but more and more I've been dreaming about espresso. I might just have to splurge on a nice piece of hand-crafted Italian goodness (see: espresso maker.) Given the set of perfect color coordinated mini-cups and saucers that Kolina acquired in Italy, specifically for our NEW apartment, I'd say it's a no-brainer. That being said, the first cup I make will be a-la-Frederico (one of the farmers I lived with in Italy.)
-Fill the cup with two teaspoons of plain sugar, after the batch is complete, splash a dose of boiling espresso into the cup and mix into a sweet paste. Add enough espresso to fill the 'tasse' (excuse my french) and shoot it for a brilliant start to the day. Repeat if desired. Cheers, in a coffee-loving-morning-starting sort of way.

Thanks, Giving...

I've officially reached 'guest blogger' status. My amazing partner in crime has recently launched a stellar blog, TKTwincities and they recruited me to do a little piece on Thanksgiving wines. Check it out! There are SOO many posts out there about what kind of wine should go with a Thanksgiving feast, and to be perfectly honest, many, if not most, of them are complete bullshit! Riesling, Pinot Noir, yadda, fricking, yadda, fricking, yadda. I went at this one with a lighthearted mentality, not taking myself too seriously (as I try to do every time).

All in all, what really matters (in my simple mind) on Thanksgiving is the food you prepare and the people you are with. It's a time to truly take a break from your daily life, and a time when you should truly LIVE! A friend of mine living in Italy recently told me that she had the darndest time explaining our tradition of Thanksgiving to some friends. They looked at her puzzled when she said "It's the one time of year when the whole family gets together and cooks great food, eats, and drinks good wine for the entire day." Perhaps we should make this more of a priority more often, seeing as it's a daily occurrence to many other cultures worldwide? Nonetheless, my wine suggestions are simply that. Obscure, niche-y, and mine. If you have a favorite wine, then this is the time of year when you present it to your loved ones with all you've got. I can only hope you might take my suggestions for mild worth and try them with your festivities. If all else fails, go with bubbly. It's the best.
Cheers, and Happy Thanksgiving!

D-I-Y

I'm finishing off a bottle of 2006 Ferrari Carano Sonoma County Merlot right now, which as I will say, is fantastically elegant and complex, quite a break from some of the smoky beasts I've tried lately. It's 10:53pm, the Packers just shanked the Vikings (thankfully), and I just lit the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. I should be drinking a beer.

Today was a lovely DIY day. A new friend, Stephen Mance, invited me to help him brew a Pumpkin Spice ale and I'd say it was wholly a success. I met Stephen a few months back through a friend and when we got to talking about home-brewing I realized I had a lot to learn from him. He's been brewing a bit more seriously than me for about the same time, but while I was shoveling tanks of grapes the past few years, he was working night and day in a commercial brewery in Chicago (see: Half Acre Brewery). I started home-brewing a few years ago as my appreciation for craft beer grew and I was gifted a brewing kit. The batches I've done up until today were what we call partial-mash, a fairly streamlined way of making a craft brew in a small home kitchen. Stephen, however, is slightly more adept and brews at the level just below commercial brewing in using what one calls an 'all-grain' method. While both methods produce the desired output and exceptional beers when done right, the latter method is truly a brewer's dream.

The story gets a little bit more interesting when you factor in where we brewed: the basement kitchen of a Catholic church in Dinkytown at 10am on a Sunday morning. Stephen is a groundskeeper for the parish and somehow managed to score the privileges to use their immaculate industrial sized kitchen for the art of brewing. The irony, I'd say, is likened to the history of monks making wine in Abbeys. While we were hauling the equipment down the back staircase, parishioners were exiting the building with doughnuts and coffee.

I learned immense amounts today during the brew session that lasted about 5 hours, a bit shorter than normal thanks to the streamlining involved in having two people who knew what was going on and a facility that enabled such efficiency. All of the equipment we used was top of the line and slightly modified to Stephen's liking (if there's one thing I've learned in the beer/wine industry it is that one needs to be ready to improvise and build upon the equipment they use, especially when problems arise). New for both of us was the use of roasted pumpkin and FRESH, locally grown hops, which we sourced from an acquaintance who actually had no use for them and donated them free of charge. SCORE.

When I went to get burritos for lunch, the aromas spewing from the exhaust fan of the kitchen seemed heavenly (sorry for the irony). I've never been a huge fan of pumpkin ales because they always seem too manipulated, but today may have just changed my mind. With relatively few hitches in the brew process, a number of new things learned, brewing partner gained, and a top-choice ale crafted, I would chalk today up to a massive success.

It gets better though. I mentioned that I lit the stove this evening, because I'm about to bake some bread. After getting into brewing I've found a sea of online forums filled with DIY nerds who are willing to spend an hour or two here and there so that they don't have to purchase a product that they can simply make, often times for less of a cost. I'm baking a few loaves of bread with the spent grains from our pumpkin ale. I've tried it before and hope this round is an equal success; bless my bleeding heart, but there's no sense in throwing something out if you can find an immediate use for it. If the bread would last long enough to taste with the finished beer I'd be the first to do a write-up. Unfortunately our fermented produce won't be drink-able for another month or more. Perhaps at that time I'll have some other spent-grain bread to try along side the beer in time for Thanksgiving. I love brewing at this time of year because there's always an occasion to look forward to, a release party of sorts, where we can share our hard work in good spirits with good company in celebration of all that we have. Cheers!