VeggieDag Thursday: Twitter links

VeggieDag is an occasional Thursday post on vegetarian issues.
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Thursdays are also #VeggieDag on Twitter. Here are some recent links.

• In the spirit of fitness for a New Year's resolution: Tips on vegetarian nutrition and fitness.
• Kombucha: mother cultures and fermented sweet tea. Probiotic and tasty.
• Neanderthals may not have been exclusively carnivores. New evidence shows that they cooked and ate plants and vegetables.
• From VeganDad blog, a vegetarian 'holiday' menu.
• No eggs or dairy needed. Author Kelly Peloza demonstrates how to bake vegan cookies.
• A recipe for braised cabbage.[I substitute for the chicken stock with homemade veggie stock and 4 ounces porter ale.]
• Vegan Thanksgiving Dinner in one hour, from vegan cookbook author Isa Chandra Moskowitz.

Kasvipasteija: Green Bean Paté
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• Suggestions and submissions from chefs and homecooks welcomed!.
• See prior VeggieDag posts.

East Coast Beer Dinner at The Light Horse, in Alexandria, Va.

I haven't guest hosted a beer dinner in a while, so I'm looking forward to this East Coast Beer Dinner at The Light Horse, in Old Town, Alexandria, Virginia, Tuesday evening, 11 January, at 7:30.

My interest might also lie in the beers and the menu! Here's what Chef David Testa has arranged:

Amuse bouche: Grilled Flatbreads
Flatbreads topped with caramelized Spanish onions and carrots with rich Danish bleu cheese.
Beer: Abita Andygator
From Abita Springs, Louisiana. An 8% abv pale bock.

Appetizer: Oysters Rockefeller
Local Dragon Creek oysters baked with spinach and cream topped with bread crumbs and grana padana cheese.
Beer: Stoudt's Pils
From Adamstown, Pennsylvania. German-style pilsner, 4.7% abv. Five-time winner at Great American Beer Festival.

1st Entrée: Butchers Secret Steak
Marinated Shoulder tender served with smoked swiss and shitake mushroom risotto cake, and accompanied by grilled asparagus.
Beer: Heavy Seas Loose Cannon
From Baltimore, Maryland. 7.25% abv American-style India Pale Ale (that is a strong hoppy pale ale, bittered and spiced with citrusy hops). Winner Maryland Governor's Cup, 3 years running.

2nd Entrée: Duck Breast
Seared Duck Breast with sweet potato mash and Swiss chard, topped with a pear demi-glaze.
Beer: Brooklyn Winter Ale
From Brooklyn, New York City. 6.1% abv malty ale.


Dessert: Apple Pie
Caramelized apple tartlettes
Beer: Allagash Black
From Portland, Maine. 7.5% abv Stout, fermented with a fruity Belgian yeast. Selected by Wine Enthusiast Magazine as its top beer for 2010.

In introducing each beer, I'll discuss strategies for pairing beer with food. Chef David has promised to "definitely put those taste buds to work."


The Light Horse under construction, November 2009.

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• Photos from the dinner: here.
• Caveat lector: As an employee of Select Wines, Inc., a beer & wine wholesaler in northern Virginia, I sell the beers of Abita, Allagash, Brooklyn, Heavy Seas, and Stoudt's.

Our Side: a 4-way firkin

There was a unique event yesterday evening at four beer bars along the the East Coast.

Firkin casks of Our Side —a hoppy saison, brewed collaborately by Maryland based Stillwater Artisinal Ales and Denmark based Mikkeller— were tapped, simultaneously, at 6pm ET, at Rattle and Hum (New York City), Maxs Taphouse (Baltimore, Maryland), Churchkey (Washington, D.C.), and Rustico Ballston (Arlington, Virginia).

From the label of the yet-to-be-released bottles:

Mikkel and Brian are two of the world’s most unconventional brewers. By designing beers at various breweries around the globe, they have found the freedom to experiment and innovate, resulting in unique beers that often blur the lines of definition. After having met at a festival in Bodegraven, NL the two realized that their first creations both were called Stateside. It was then an obvious decision to make the two recipes into a new product, packed full of piney, resinous hops, and backed by the esters of a farmhouse yeast strain.

Information courtesy of Beer in Baltimore.

I was at the Virginia tapping, where Our Side, fresh in my tulip glass, tasted as if I were taking a bite out of a fresh peach, with a refreshingly bitter tang at the end. Delicious.



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Both Stillwater and Mikkeller refer to themselves as 'gypsy' breweries, that is, contract breweries by a more romantic name. Neither own their own brewing equipment, but brew their beers at existing breweries, paying for time and materials.

Clamps & Gaskets: Roundup for 2010 Week 52

A non-comprehensive roundup of the week's
(the last of year 2010)
news of beer and other things.

Week 52
26 December 2010 - 31 December 2010

• 2010.12.31
  The legislative battle over the serving size of a drink ... and how many calories are in it. Via Washington Post.
• 2010.12.31
  2010: The year Facebook dethroned Google as king of the web. Via Mashable.
• 2010.12.31
  The Year 2010 in literary Twitter. Via The Guardian.


• 2010.12.31
  Flickr users post their best photo of 2010.
• 2010.12.31
  A brief recap of the year in Virginia wine: 2010 was (mostly) a good vintage. http://bit.ly/huJYTa
• 2010.12.30
  Vintage: a documentary on Virginia wine. Reviewed by Dave McIntyre of the Washington Post.
• 2010.12.30
  Kombucha rediscovered: fermented sweet tea. Probiotic and tangy.
• 2010.12.30
  Contrary to prior supposition, new research shows that Neanderthals cooked and ate plants and vegetables, not solely meat. Via BBC.
• 2010.12.30
  Imbibe Magazine reports that the flavor complexity of rye in beer outweighs the difficulties of using it in the brewhouse.
• 2010.12.30
  Fire at Rochefort in Belgium —one of only a handful of extant Trappist-order monastery breweries— halts production for several days. No injuries reported.
• 2010.12.30
  Dr. Billy Taylor —pianist and jazz 'ambassador' and educator —has died. An appreciation at New York Times
• 2010.12.29
  Scientists sequence theobroma cacao genome. Plans underway to create 'better' chocolate.


• 2010.12.29
  Birthday in beer: Owen Ogletree, Georgia beer festival organizer and real ale educator. http://www.classiccitybrew.com/
• 2010.12.29
  FCC's new net-neutrality rules: not so good for web users.
• 2010.12.28
  Bison Brewing: One brewery's wishlist blueprint for a 'green', urban brewery.
• 2010.12.28
  Beer blogger Jeff Alworth announces winners of 2010 DMS Awards (Dismal Malty Substances) for the year's worst accomplishments in beer.
• 2010.12.27
  Washington City Paper reports that "The Tavern Formerly Known as Brickskeller" will reopen, with new owners, on 29 December 2010, but known as Bier Baron.


• 2010.12.26
  Sierra Nevada Brewing named the 'Green' Business of the Year by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
• 2010.12.26
  World's largest winery holding company, Constellation Brands, selss its Australian, UK, and South Africa wineries for major loss. Via Decanter Magazine.

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• Clamps and Gaskets is a weekly wrap-up of stories  not posted at Yours For Good Fermentables.com. Most deal with beer (or wine, or whisky); some do not. But all are brief, and many are re-posts from my Twitter account: twitter.com/cizauskas.
• The Clamps and Gaskets graphic was created by Mike Licht at NotionsCapital.

Pic(k) of the Week: A Pint of Plain for the New Year

When things go wrong and will not come right,
Though you do the best you can,
When life looks black as the hour of night -
A pint of plain ^* is your only man.

When money's tight and hard to get
And your horse has also ran,
When all you have is a heap of debt -
A pint of plain is your only man.

When health is bad and your heart feels strange,
And your face is pale and wan,
When doctors say you need a change,
A pint of plain is your only man.




When food is scarce and your larder bare
And no rashers grease your pan,
When hunger grows as your meals are rare -
A pint of plain is your only man.

In time of trouble and lousey strife,
You have still got a darlint plan
You still can turn to a brighter life -
A pint of plain is your only man.
—Flann O'Brien

To all my readers: 
Throughout 2011, 
a wish for your health and happiness,
and for good fermentables in your glass.

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