Not a beer photograph

I am —to use today's parlance— so not a photographer. But ...

One recent morning, while walking out to get the paper, coffee in hand, I looked up and saw this high-wire tableaux:

In the two minutes it took for me to fetch my camera, both the morning dove and and the setting moon graciously cooperated. They held the pose.

Occasionally, even a camera putz can get lucky.

• I use a Canon PowerShot SD400.
• Most of my photographs are, of course, beer-related, and uploaded to Flickr.com. I checked the statistics: 4,594 are 'tagged' with the term "beer". Some are work-a-day; some are a bit more interesting. You can judge for yourself: www.flickr.com/photos/cizauskas

VeggieDag Thursday: Baked Spaghetti & India Pale Ale

A quick post today about a quick (and easy) meal: Baked Spaghetti ... paired, of course, with a beer!

Hoppy beers (both the spicy aroma and spicy or dry finish) mate well with spicy foods. In this case: jalapenos and various herbs, Hop Devil IPA from Victory Brewing of Pennsylvania. Photo collage of recipe here.

**********************
Thursdays at Yours For Good Fermentables.com are meatless Thursdays —as inspired by VeggieDag in Ghent, Belgium.

Tom Balthazar [mayor of Ghent, Belgium] has officially declared Thursday meatless in his city of nearly a quarter million people. In an effort to make the connection between meat consumption and greenhouse gases (18 percent of which come from livestock production), Balthazar has asked his fellow civil servants to abstain from meat every Thursday.

Kim O'Donnel
Mighty Appetite
Washingtonpost.com

• Keeping with the 'good fermentables' aspect, I'll often inveigle beer or wine (or spirits) into VeggieDag.
  
• Submissions are welcome from chefs, homecooks, food writers, etc.

Just anounced: another DC Beer Week!

A second (!) DC Beer Week has been announced for 2009.

Aug 16-20
DC BEER WEEK
With a line-up that features more than a dozen breweries and 25 restaurants across the district, the Inaugural DC Beer Week is set to kick off on Sunday, August 16th.

The 5-day event will kick off with a Suds Celebration and concert at the Rock and Roll Hotel. Daily tastings and presentations by domestic and international breweries will be available every day at participating restaurants and bars.

*Please Note DC Beer week is still in planning stages. The two confirmed events are-

Sun Aug 16
DC Beer Week "Unity Concert"

Featuring the following DC area artists performing-

• See-I
• The Blackjacks
• Laura Tsagarris
• Jeff Wells

This celebration of DC music and beer culture is being held at-
Rock & Roll Hotel
Atlas District, Washington, DC 2 pm
http://www.rockandrollhoteldc.com/portal/calendar/

Thu Aug 20
Brew at the Zoo
Smithsonian National Zoo
Washington, DC 6-9 pm
http://nationalzoo.si.edu/ActivitiesAndEvents/YoungProfessionals/AfterHours/default.cfm

I hope to see you and share a beverage at one of these events.

Cheers,
Jeff Wells
DOPS, Inc.
Ale Street News

The information was posted by 'Hoppy' Jeff Wells on his Fermentation Education page at Facebook. As Jeff points out, details are preliminary and limited. At this point, there is no website.

• The earlier 'DC Beer Week' was organized by a Washington DC area beer wholesaler at the end of May (and had the word "craft" in its title.). It was really just a loose series of events (although some were indeed excellent events) scheduled the week before SAVOR, the national food with beer exposition organized by the Brewers Association, the national advocacy group for small US breweries. There wasn't much coordination with local breweries.
• Baltimore Beer Week also announced some of its plans today. Here.

Clamps & Gaskets: Roundup for Week 26

Clamps and Gaskets is a weekly wrap-up of stories that I have not posted at Yours For Good Fermentables.com, but that, nevertheless, I find interesting or germane.

Most are concerned with beer, or wine, or whisk(e)y. Some are not. But all are brief. And many are re-posts from my Twitter account: twitter.com/cizauskas.

This is Week 26:
28 June - 4 July 2009

• 2009.07.04
  Nielsen Co: 24 million cases of beer purchased in 2008 for Independence Day holiday. How many for 2009? http://bit.ly/kMTZp


• 2009.07.04
  Seen at Facebook: Clipper City Brewing is testing recipes for a Great Pumpkin (Imperial)Beer for release in fall 2009.


• 2009.07.04
  After being down for a day, BeerAdvocate is again stable & open. Still moving fwd w/ the migration/upgrade. http://beeradvocate.com


• 2009.07.04
  Read the Declaration of Independence:http://bit.ly/TbqtF


• 2009.07.03
  "Organic beer can be made from non-organic hops. Federal Organic Label Is Questioned." From the Washington Post: http://tr.im/qJVr


• 2009.07.03
  I checked yesterday's visits to MY blog http://www.yfgf.us. 62 hits were mistaken identity searches (Michael Jackson, the beer writer) for Michael Jackson (the pop singer).


• 2009.07.03
  Twitter #FollowFriday goes out to @BeerAdvocate: fighting the good fight to get its servers back on-line. http://beeradvocate.com/


• 2009.07.02
  WAMU.org reports that 40-year old slogan 'Virginia is for lovers' has been selected as one world's most successful ad campaigns.


• 2009.07.02
  The café at Kybecca Wine Bar (and Beer) & Shop in Fredericksburg, Va. reviewed in the Washington Post. http://bit.ly/16ohP1


• 2009.07.02
  Houston, Texas beer lovers debate how cold a beer should be ... when it's 90*F + outside. http://bit.ly/oHug2


• 2009.07.02
  Report on Garrett Oliver Beer Dinner at Capital Ale House in Fredericksburg, Va. http://tinyurl.com/nyv4d6


• 2009.07.01
  VERY useful glossary of beer tasting terms compiled by master brewer Fal Allen http://bit.ly/XJhYU


• 2009.07.01
  It was a dark and stormy night: the 20009 winner of annual Bulwer-Lytton wretched writing contest. http://bit.ly/2BP9p



• 2009.07.01
  UK study: vegetarian diet better than carnivore against blood/ bladder/stomach cancer. More study needed. http://sn.im/bbcveg.
  


• 2009.07.01
  Texting While Driving today illegal in Virginia, on 1 October in Maryland, and already a violation in Washington D.C. http://bit.ly/Ds9l2


• 2009.07.01
  Can humans taste wine's terroir? Harold McGee -author of the seminal On Food and Cooking- says NO. http://bit.ly/Pdhfv


• 2009.07.01
  How to post Flickr photos from Twitter, and vice-versa. http://bit.ly/NnRzT


• 2009.07.01
  "Sour Beer? Pucker Up" from LA Times http://bit.ly/1b75N2


• 2009.06.30
  Installed Firefox 3.5. So far, so good. Only one extension gone. I like the 'Private Browsing' & embedded video. http://bit.ly/IXchM


• 2009.06.30
  No joke! Comedian Al Franken now US Senator from Minnesota after Norm Coleman concedes ... 7 months AFTER election. http://bit.ly/fOTX4



• 2009.06.30
  Baltimore, Maryland beer journalist Chuck Cook has begun new column on Belgium travel & Belgian beer at the new BeerConnoisseur.com. http://bit.ly/10aJ2p


• 2009.06.30
  Former Old Dominion brewers [Favio Garcia, Matt Hagerman] to start new Virginia brewery.http://tinyurl.com/nlljl5


• 2009.06.30
  "Salvator" considered a beer 'style' until Paulaner trademarked the beer name in 1907. http://bit.ly/sal8U


• 2009.06.30
  The shaker pint glass must die! A case against waste from beer blogger Andy Crouch: http://bit.ly/9WEUB


• 2009.06.30
  Reputable sources report that a brewer was arrested Sunday for disorderly behavior at the close of the Northern Virginia Summer Brewfest.


• 2009.06.30
  I'm writing a blog post on the 12 essential beer Twitter-ers. DM, reply, or email me with suggestions, and why. http://www.yfgf.us


• 2009.06.30
  AllMusic's tribute to Michael Jackson: http://bit.ly/1eBkOu


• 2009.06.30
  Why to drink beer from a glass rather than a bottle. http://bit.ly/eGQ8Y

The Clamps and Gaskets graphic was created by NotionsCapital.

VeggieDag Thursday: Watermelon Salad

Beer is a versatile cooking ingredient. Low enough in alcohol and acidity, it can be an almost one-for-one substitute for water in a recipe ... yet one with flavor. Malt, caramel, roast, toast, cocoa, meaty, spice, earthy.

But ... there is a reason you'll find recipes scaled for exactly 6 ounces of beer. The remaining 6 are reserved for the chef. Beer cuisine is as much pairing food with beer as it is cooking with it.

At lunch the other day it was a saison —
a Belgian-style ale with flavors of sweet cooking spices derived from yeast fermentation ... additionally spiced in the cask with dried peels of Mineola orange, lemon, lime, and with juniper and Cubeb (Japanese peppercorn) berries, coriander, dried fresh ginger, rosemary sprigs ... and additional hops.

with a salad—
Summer Melon & Cherry Tomato Salad
Watermelon, cantaloupe, honey dew melon, cucumber, tomatoes, blue cheese; tossed with ginger vinaigrette.

Together, a flavor riot. Beer cuisine ... and might tasty.

**********************
Thursdays at Yours For Good Fermentables.com are meatless Thursdays —as inspired by VeggieDag in Ghent, Belgium.

Tom Balthazar [mayor of Ghent, Belgium] has officially declared Thursday meatless in his city of nearly a quarter million people. In an effort to make the connection between meat consumption and greenhouse gases (18 percent of which come from livestock production), Balthazar has asked his fellow civil servants to abstain from meat every Thursday.

Kim O'Donnel
Mighty Appetite
Washingtonpost.com

• Keeping with the 'good fermentables' aspect, I'll often inveigle beer or wine (or spirits) into VeggieDag.
  
• Submissions are welcome from chefs, homecooks, food writers, etc.

@beerspotter DC changes his Twitter tune

For all you intrepid devotees of good beer in the Washington, D.C. area: Orr Shtuhl of the Young and Hungry at the Washington City Paper has changed his Twitter (@beerspotter) procedure.
So, now ... if you wish to spot, alert, and Tweet (that is, post to Twitter) about your good beer finds in the Washington, D.C. area, use the phrase "@beerspotter" (excluding the quotation marks) anywhere in your 140 character Twitter post.

For example, here's what I Tweeted today:

@beerspotter: Red Sky at Night Saison on cask at Rustico. 'Dry-spiced' with orange, lemon, & lime peel, and coriander, juniper, and pepper spices.

If you don't know how to follow on Twitter (or what all this Twitter stuff means), read more here.

• Follow @beerspotter on Twitter for good beer sightings in the Washington, DC metro area.
• Follow YoursForGoodFermentables.com on Twitter @Cizauskas
• Twitter 'button' graphic by Cheth Studios.