Cooking With Milk Stout

Valentine's Day is a week away. This year, why not add some beer to your chocolate?

When I saw this recipe for Milk Stout brownies from Beer & Brewing Magazine, my first thought was, "of course!" Milk stouts, also known as "chocolate stouts" for their sweet, chocolatey flavor, and  creamy texture are a seemingly perfect addition to desserts. I started looking to see if I could find other Milk Stout recipes online, and unsurorisingly, I sure did! 

Click here for the recipe for these Milk Stout Cupcakes found on abakershouse.com.

This article from Homebrew Chef talks about how to use Milk Stout to make chocolate pudding: 

The blog Two Red Bowls used my favorite Milk Stout by Left hand brewing Company to create a milk stout float! Click here for the recipe.

Turbodog Reunion: Reliving my First Craft Beer Experience

When I was in my early twenties, I had my first taste of craft beer at Onieal's Bar & Restaurant in New York's Little Italy. My friend Molly was a bartender there, and while visiting her one evening, i noticed a beer tap labeled "Turbodog." 

"Is that really a beer?" I asked. At the time, the most exotic beer I knew of was probably Blue Moon. 

"Yeah," she said. "It actually kind of tastes like chocolate and coffee."

"No way," I scoffed. At the time, I was fairly certain that all beer either tasted like piss (Budweiser), dirt (Guinness) or piss and dirt mixed with orange juice (Blue Moon). 

"Here, you can try it," Molky offered, and she poured an ounce from the tap into a rocks glass for me. 

I sniffed the beer tentatively. It actually did smell of mocha!!

"Turbodog's really what this is called?" I queried, eyeing the clear, brown liquid as I turned the glass in my hand. 

Molly nodded.

 "Such a weird name," I remarked, and then took my first slow sip. "Oh my god." I put the glass down, and paused to relish this new discovery. Beer...could be good...? "Yeah, I'll have one of these," I said.

After that night, I took a closer look at taps, ordering anything I'd never heard of before. There were so many breweries with weird sounding names--Magic Hat, River Horse, Flying dog. To my delight, many of the beers I tried were good by any standard, and all of them were different than anything I'd ever tried before. I began to feel like a collector of new tastes, and started doing research  on my newfound hobby. Pretty soon, I  was a bonafide beer geek to the point where I was able to easily pass the BJCP's beer judge exams. 

The other day, I was out with my sister at Beer Culture, an excellent bar and bottle shop in NYC's Hell's Kitchen. There, I found a bottle of Turbodog, and I knew I had to try it. I was concerned, however, that having a much more refined palate and the experience of tasting hundreds of truly excellent beers would cause me to find my "first love" lacking. I wasn't sure if I wanted to give up my romanticization of Turbodog, but I was so curious to see how my point of view had since developed. 

The look of trepidation on my face turned out to be unfounded. My beer know-how actually made it so that I was better able to appreciate Turbodog--I found that I liked it even better tha the first time I tried it!

The "it tastes kind of like coffee and chocolate" description was now so ridiculously basic. I realized that while these flavors remained, there existed even more--rich plum pudding, pecans, and toasted bread crusts, all tempered by a crisp, refreshing mouthfeel and balanced by an overlying maltiness. It seemed I'd lost my craft beerginity to a good one. 

Turbodog is made by Abita Brewing Company in Louisiana. Here in the NYC area, the brewey is best known for its flagship beer Purple Haze, a lager brewed with raspberries. As neither a lager fan, not a fan of fruit-infused brews, I've admittedly avoided Purple Haze. However, I've proven my hunches wrong so many times, that I should probably pick up a six-pack. And so should you--Purple Haze is easy to find in many stores. 

I still recommend Turbodog first and foremost, however. 

Happy MLK Day from DoD!

Dr. King, with the author and her younger daughter :)

Martin Luther King Jr. is my favorite historical figure. I don't think I need to issue a diatribe as to why, although I will say I am a huge advocate for civil liberties ( one of my first jobs was at the ACLU). Quite simply, I can't think of a 20th Century American more deserving of a national holiday.

I don't think Dr. King was much of a drinker, but I'm sure he'd say we all have the right to have a beer in his honor if we so choose. Also, interestingly enough, Martin Luther, the founder of the Protestant church who Dr. King was named after, was a beer advocate with some interesting things to say on the subject of beer (check out this article on Martin Luther and beer from the Brookston Beer Bulletin)! So, if you want to raise a glass the name of Dr. Martin Luther King, here are some excellent beers from his hometown of Atlanta:

Sweetwater 420 Extra Pale Ale:

A remarkably well balanced and extremely drinkable pale ale that is fairly easy to find in stores throughout the South.

Red Brick Porter:  

Complex, yet smooth, this porter stands out with its ability to create harmony between a myriad of malt-derived flavors (chocolate, coffee, toffee, smoked nuts, etc.). A good homage to Dr. King's emphasis on diversity, no?

Gordon Biersch Winter Bock: 

Gordon Biersch makes quite a few good Bocks (a uniquely rich and flavorful lager), many of which are seasonal (only available during specific seasons). Since winter beers are still currently on the shelves, it makes the most since to feature their Winter Bock, a  very sweet, full-bodied beer which goes perfectly with comfort food from the Atlanta area. 

And while you're having a beer in Dr. King's honor, why not drink it out of an MLK beer stein?

This one even includes one of my favorite MLK quotes: "We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war but the positive affirmation of peace."

Thanks for...Beer!

I have so many substantial things to be thankful for this holiday season, and I'm not embarrassed to count craft beer among them! There are plenty of things which make beer that poignant for me, and here are just a few:

Good beer is a catalyst for good times. Obviously. 

Studying beer has stretched my mind through adventurous discovery--I've learned how chemistry, horticulture, history, and different creative ideologies can combine to create infinite tasty combinations...it's deep, man! 

Becoming a certified beer judge was a big accomplishment for me, an attestation to how far hard work and passion can take me in less than a year of personal study.

Being a craft beer enthusiast has given me the opportunity to bond with like minds, and has allowed me to spread the joy of beer to people who once refused to touch the stuff! 

I'm giving back to the beer community by supporting small businesses who love what they do, and in turn, inspire us to place a little more emphasis on what we love, and a little less emphasis on what  commercial society tells us to value. 

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone, and I can't wait to hear about what bottles you're opening with your turkey today! 

FoodandWine.com Article: What Your Favorite Beer Says About You


Here's a fun and cheeky article from foodandwine.com.

It "supposedly" tells you what your favorite beer style says about you. Give it a look and have a laugh. Not every beer style is covered. I love IPAs and sours, so here's what writer Chris Mah had to say about me:

IPA: You are extroverted and adventurous, always seeking excitement and novelty. You win at everything from chess to Settlers of Catan to debates about Tibetan sovereignty. You can be emotionally volatile, sweet and bright in one moment and abrasive and bitter the next. Pale Ale Guy is your wingman.

Sour Beer: You are thoughtful and sensitive, someone who still uses a typewriter and composes melancholy songs for the ukulele. Your best friend is your fifteen-year-old Cockatoo, Gretchen, who knows the lyrics to every song in Les Miserables. You are allergic to anything that has a shell.

Hey,  I am an extroverted Settlers of Catan player who loves Les Miserables! Chris may be on to more than he realizes.

The Craft Beer Obsession: "What was your Gateway Beer?"

True beer enthusiasts don't just drink a Keystone at a college party and discover they're into beer. No, I assure you, they think that stuff tastes like piss, just like everyone else. The true goodness of beer is only realized by those who are offered, or who stumble across one of many less available but much better brews, one which reveals to them that beer is so much more than they thought.

It's their "gateway beer," if you will, and not long ago, I started a thread in the Beer Advocate forums titled, "What's The Beer That Got You Here?" The thread became not only an interesting survey on the various "gateway beers" of our community, but also a mosaic of surprisingly interesting stories which further confirmed that anyone can become a beer enthusiast. All it takes is that one special sip.

Here are a few of my favorite accounts:
 

I was at a bar in Cleveland that had a weird beer on tap called Gumballhead. Sounded tasty enough to try out and it was different and amazing since all I normally drank was Miller Lite.

 

 

 

It was my first real actual beer that I drank back when I was about 15. I helped my neighbor build a swing set for his kid and he invited me back for dinner where he gave me a local micro brew from the town over... Nutfield Brewing - Auburn Ale. The taste, while still very new to me, was fantastic and full of rich flavor unlike the sips of whatever it was that my dad used to drink when I was young. It sold me. Craft beer for life.

Delirium Tremens. Started with a girl telling me to order the "pink elephant beer." She was late to the bar, but requested I put in that order prior to her arrival. Came in the Delirium Tremens Snifter. Was absolutely stunned (I had no prior experience with real beer whatsoever). Got a bomber of Delirium shortly after, and from that point on I always vowed to have at least 1 bomber of Delirium in my fridge at all times. Little did I know that the craft world was as expansive as it really is. At this point I just vow to have something GOOD in my fridge at all times.

It started in 2010 with my buddy saying, "You have to try the best beer in the world!" We were in Amsterdam, on tour with a jazz group, and he was talking about the Westvleteran 12 which is always available at a bar named Cafe Gollum. Before trying what turned out to be a life changing experience, I hated beer. All I knew was PBR, Corona and Coors Light. As far as I was concerned, beer tasted like piss. Fast forward to Spring 2012, I had tried hundreds of beers without pause. Living in NYC and touring Europe as a musician, the access to some of the best beer was and is overwhelming. I literally went on a beer tasting rampage, which was a fun but unhealthy choice in my life. After gaining a lot of weight, spending too much time by myself at 'hip' bars and powering through a couple nightmarish hangovers, I decided to quit drinking beer. Alas, the beer gods let go of their grip on my life. I realized that the mere amount of beer choices and my inability to pace myself in my quest to try the world's best beers was the reason for my epic downfall... Fast forward to 2013, I'm drinking a Founders Breakfast Stout with a couple different Troegs bottles waiting for me. Fuck it, you only live once!

There is a restaurant in my home town called The Brass Cafe. In the entryway they always had a little poster with Michael Jackson , a.k.a. The Beer Hunter, holding up a glass of Lion Stout. I had just started exploring beer at the time with stuff like St. Pauli Girl, Sam Adam's Boston Lager and the like. I had seen this poster a hundred times and never thought anything of it. Then one day I was said to myself, "Who the hell is this guy and what the hell is this beer?" In short order I had the answer to both. An amazing man and one hell of a brew. My beer drinking life got a lot more expensive from that day forth.

 

Leffe. I drove to a beer store and asked for a good beer for someone who wants to get into good beer he put a 6 pack of leffe on the counter and said this is your portal to good beer my friend..That was like 10 years ago. I remember coming here [to Beer Advocate] after I drank what I thought was nectar from the gods. I read the reviews of my favorite beers like amberbock and yungeling black and tan..oh man, I didn't come back. 


You can find the entire thread here.