Food, Wine, Culture TV: Episode 20- One of my favorite beers with Greg B!
November 2, 2008 by michael · 4 Comments
Episode 20: Greg Bissonette is over with a couple great beers and explains why drinking Chimay will be good for your health!
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Food, Wine, Culture TV: Episode 18: Beer vs Wine Battle Oktoberfest!
October 21, 2008 by michael · 2 Comments
Michael Mohammadi challenges Greg Bissonette to determine what goes best with bratwurst (weisswurst) and pommes (fries)! Riesling or beer? Watch and find out.
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Food, Wine, Culture TV- Episode 17: Pumpkin Beer with Greg B!
October 20, 2008 by michael · Leave a Comment
Food, Wine, Culture TV: In this 17th episode, Greg Bissonette brings by 10 beers and takes over as host as Michael and Greg attempt to determine which Pumpkin beers are worth the money! (Pumpkin image courtesy of wikipedia commons)
Weyerbacher Beer Tasting
October 19, 2008 by Greg · 2 Comments
By Greg B. Last week, I took my labmates down to the Perfect Pour in Elkridge MD for two separate events (Italian beer write-up already posted). One was a Weyerbacher brewery tasting, where I really wanted to try their beers as well as get Gabi to try this double Simcoe, since I’ve slowly shifted her from tasteless beer to hoppy, flavorful beers. I figured this would be the creme de la creme! Below are the tasting reviews from me, as well as some comments from the girls. I have to say right now, Weyerbacher’s beer line I find to be absolutely excellent, right down the line. We met with Bob Fauteux, their regional sales manager as he poured the beers. He was extremely knowledgeable about the beers and happily answered any questions that we had about the brewery or the beer and ingredients. If you get a chance to chat with him about beer, I’d say take it! Read more
Jack’s Bistro, the hidden gem
September 29, 2008 by Greg · 3 Comments
By Greg B. I’ve basically lived in Baltimore for 8 years now, but only been outside of the college bubble for 4. In this time I had never heard of Jack’s Bistro, potentially because I rarely ate in Canton, but also for reasons I am not quite sure. This was a great restaurant with interesting atmosphere and a great menu. I strongly urge people to take a night out once and eat here. The food was very elegant, not overpriced and yet also well portioned, the beer list was tremendously varied and interesting, and the special deals this place puts forth are something not to miss!
Clipper City Brewing Company
There probably are not enough accolades I can give to the Clipper City Brewery line of beers, employees and, basically everything related to them. But I sure am going to try. Located in an, easy-to-get-to-if-you-know-where-you’re-going location, just south of Baltimore city, on weekends you can visit for a tour of the facility. Reserve tickets online, and $5 will get you a pint glass with a logo of the brewery and a few beer tokens to try the beers. This is an excellent opportunity to try them out, pre-tour. I have to say hello and thanks for the great time to the people we met, Chris, Chris, Mackenzie and Alec. Mackenzie was manning the door upon entry, Chris and Chris working the bar and helping with knowledge on the tour, and Alec giving an excellent tour filled with information, which I’ll get into now!
Food, Wine, Culture TV- Episode 12- Beer, Portuguese Cocktail and Fried Chicken
September 23, 2008 by michael · 2 Comments
Food, Wine, Culture TV- Episode 12: In the first episode in over a week (I’ve been quite busy!) Greg Bissonette (our beer expert) has accepted my challenge of “Battle Fried Chicken beer vs wine.” In this first episode in the series of three, we taste a beer, one of my favorite spring, summer and fall cocktails (from Portugal) and I share my simple recipe for delicious fried chicken. Be sure to check back soon to see the showdown in Episode 13, and a drunken “Battle Apple Pie” in Episode 14.
Cheers!
Otter Creek Brewery
September 21, 2008 by Greg · 4 Comments
I tasted some beers they had available at the Perfect Pour on Saturday and wanted to give you all a run down, since fall is upon us and this is classic beer drinking time, everyone needs to be properly informed on what to drink!
A great new liquor store
September 7, 2008 by Greg · 4 Comments
On Saturday, 9/6, I headed down to Elkridge on a tip from a local beer expert that there is a new store with a fantastic selection of hard to find beers, in particular Belgian ales that cannot normally be found out side of Belgium! The liquor store is “the perfect pour” . It is in this shopping plaza at the intersection of 175 and 95, and though it is hard to find (the perfect pour name isn’t on the storefront, it just says ‘liquor’ or something) it is well worth the effort.
Food, Wine, Culture TV: Episode10: Part2- Mike vs. Greg “The Showdown”
September 5, 2008 by michael · 4 Comments
Food, Wine, Culture TV: In Episode 10-Part 1 Michael invited beer expert and close friend Greg Bissonette to come by for a beer vs. wine with mussels tasting. Well in this episode, the mussels are ready, the beers and wines are poured, and the boys are ready to duel- Beer vs. Wine. Greg vs. Mike- The SHOWDOWN! Who’s pairing is the best match? You’re going to have to watch to find out!
Food, Wine, Culture TV: Episode 10: Beer (Greg) vs. Wine (Mike)- Mussels Part I
Beer vs. Wine. Mussels vs. Mussels. Michael vs. Greg. Good vs. Evil..well you get the picture. Today Michael has friend and beer expert Greg Bissonette over for a friendly dual of mussels paired with beer and wine. Don’t forget to check back for Part II- “The Battle Continues”!
(Main image credits: wikipeida.org commons: Photograph taken by Mark A. Wilson (Department of Geology, The College of Wooster). [1]) Read more
Italian Night in an American’s Household
So, Mike has tasted the finer things of Italy, the good proscuitto and he has rated and drank many fine Italian wines and even toured the countryside finding delicious things to eat or drink. For now, however, I am home bound. However I do sometimes get caught up in the good, simple foods from Italy, and last night I made two of them: Chicken cutlets and Risotto. Below are my basic recipes for simple Italian goodness (with my own twists).
Beers of the Weekend (and the week, so far)
August 14, 2008 by Greg · Leave a Comment
By: Greg B As you all might have guessed by now, I am a lover of many things, beer being one of them. Since I’ve basically devoted the past 5 days to food and beer, I figured I should share with you the many bears beers of the world I’ve recently consumed, and something about them.
Starting on last Wednesday, My roommate and I went to Riptide, a new bar in Fells for a few beers. I had a taste of some god-awful martini that was brightly colored (I was trying to talk with the girl who ordered the martini, but, after tasting it, I dont think I’d want to be associated with someone who drinks that junk. It tasted like cotton candy). My roommate and I ordered Dos Equis lager from the tap, which is always better than the bottle in this case. The lager is not quite as good as the amber, but it’s a nice refreshing beer, with real mild hops. Afterwards, we wandered over to the 2nd floor of Slainte (pronounced slan-cha) http://www.slainteirishpub.com/.
Foreign beer and Smoked meat: Part 1
July 19, 2008 by Greg · 2 Comments
As usual, the weekend affords me plenty of time to not do my research or other work associated with the research and to cook. Seeing as how it is summer time, it seems only fitting that one should make proper use of the grill whenever possible. So two nights ago as I was putting a glass into the freezer to get a nice chill before I poured a beer into it (it was a miller lite… I know what you’re gonna, but someone has to drink the leftover beer!) and I noticed a bag of ribs I had bought from the butcher. Unsure how I had forgotten about a large quantity of spare ribs, I defrosted them in the fridge over night.
Belgian Ale Night
July 11, 2008 by Greg · 2 Comments
It was a day like any other day. Trying to graduate school and squeeze in time to do experiments between all kinda of administrative nonsense and mountains of useless paperwork, but at least the evening held the promise of something delicious. Dr. Didier Depireux, a Belgian, had his parents bring a few bottles of beer over when they visited recently and it just so happened one of the bottles is Jim’s french-canadian roommate’s favorite beer: Forbidden fruit. This beer was the reason for the occasion. Brewed by Hoegaarden and known as ‘verboden vrucht’, the bottle had a crown top metal cap (unusual for Belgian beers, I think).
Jim acquired a rather large bottle of Chimay red to use as a baseline comparison. The bottle of Forbidden fruit was smaller, and the bottle had a substantial quantity of sediment in it, something I dont mind too much (also, it’s high in vitamins!) especially since all my homebrew also has it. We opened both, pouring each a sample of the Chimary red and the Forbidden fruit, cheersed to Didier and his family, and took a drink of the Forbidden fruit.
I have to say, despite the fact that I am not the world’s largest fan of Belgian style beers, this one was not too shabby. What it lacked in body it made up for in flavor AND, very importantly, it did not have an overwhelmingly strong alcohol taste/smell to it. For me, this is a big issue, as I usually tend to drink a substantial quantity of beer when I do drink, and I could see myself downing a few of these beers in a night, rather than just a few and waking up the following day unable to look at sun light. The beer gave off a rather small quantity of head, something made up for by the Chimary. The size of the head is important for a beer, as it traps in some of the aroma and maintains some of the carbonation. However, Forbidden fruit had a very nice carbontaion style. The bubbles were very very small, almost champagne style, which made the Chimary’s bubbles seem very large by comparisson. You could actually feel the difference between the two while drinking. I do feel that Forbidden fruit would have lost a good deal of its carbonation within a few minutes, so you’d be doing yourself a favor by drinking up.
I was a bit surprised by tasting this beer, since I head some quick reviews online and the tastings were all over the place. A lot of people tasted a bitter beer with alcohol finish, others had a sweet beer with no alcohol, or sweet with alcohol, etc. In the end, I’d have to say the beer had sweet malty taste, without a big alcohol taste, and had a dry finish. You could smell some overtones of fruit… but not citrus, though I’d need another beer to be able to better detect the fruit. Not a bad beer, and in the lineup, I’d put it above Chimary Red as far as categorizing beers based on goodness goes. Maybe next time we can compare it to Chimary Blue!
Recommended pairings: A strong cheese… I’m thinking bleu and a real sharp cheddar (NY aged, of course). You might be able to get away with the classic mussels dish, but it should be a very strongly seasoned and flavorful dish to match the flavors in the beer.
Restaurant Review: Mannequin Pis Restaurant (Olney, MD) -A night of Belgian respect with Chris and Dana
Outstanding Belgian food, bier and hospitality! Read more
The Best Homemade Beer I Have Ever Made
June 20, 2008 by Greg · Leave a Comment
Well, I just finished the last of a beer i brewed two septembers ago. It was one of my first and more adventurous beers…. an Oak Whiskey Russian Imperial Stout. And I have to say, aged over 18 months that thing tasted REAL good. It actually was a fairly simple recipe, since I used an imperial stout kit for my base. Added extra maltose to the wort to give the beer a nice creamy texture (which really didnt come out until it aged atleast 6 months in the bottle). While the beer was in the primary fermenter, i soaked oak chips in a mixture of Irish whiskeys: Bushmill’s black and a touch of Jameson. I also added a few drops of Jack Daniels… i have a bottle I bought at the distillery on my motorcycle trip and I never drink it straight, as I dont like Jack. anyway, I let those soak for about 6 days and when i transfered the beer to the secondary, my goal was to add about half the whiskey… but when I got there, I made a last minute decision to add but a tiny bit of the whiskey (I wanted to drink a shot or so) and to add all of the oak chips. I let this sit for about 2 months before bottling. I recommend other people muck about with this general idea. I never did check my specific gravity before bottling, so I cant give you an approximation of alcohol content, but I can tell you this: sometimes girls would ask for a stout at my house during a party, her first beer, and i would give her one of those. and in about 30 minutes they’d be complaining about being drunk.
