Clamps & Gaskets: Roundup for Week 43

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 of the pieces 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.

This is Week 43:
25 October - 31 October 2009

• 2009.10.31
  I dislike early evening dark; I like the one morning with extra hour of sleep. Goodbye Daylight Saving time, tomorrow. http://bit.ly/o1lEe


• 2009.10.31
  Intrepid Virginia beer blogger David Turley visits Battlefield Brewing on its opening night in Fredericksburg: http://bit.ly/3V5oYQ


• 2009.10.30
  Unfortunate news for the Maryland beer scene. Kasper on Tap -- the beer blog of Rob Kasper, 'features' columnist for the Baltimore Sun-- to be discontinued. http://bit.ly/3JrNxC



• 2009.10.30
  Big beer! Legend Brewing Company's Barleywine (15.3% ABV) now on tap at the Richmond, Virginia brewery's pub. http://tinyurl.com/yzozwnx



• 2009.10.30
  My #FollowFriday is good-beer industry veteran: Ron Fischer @caskman812. Cask ale and real farmhouse cider are his particular passions.


• 2009.10.29
  A Washington City Paper writer rhapsodizes upon tasting 2005 Thomas Hardy barleywine at the Brickskeller, Washington, DC: http://bit.ly/3Xb5t5


• 2009.10.28
  What's a session beer? Read this from the UK: http://bit.ly/1m2WSn. Sometimes you want to drink a few and still walk a straight line.


• 2009.10.28
  The Washingtonian Magazine (on-line edition) interviews the writers behind the dcbeer.com blog. http://bit.ly/VIzoT


• 2009.10.28
  After running a race, wine lover and restaurateur Joe Bastianich prefers Italian beer (Baladin) with his Runner's Stew. From NBC's The Today Show: http://bit.ly/1U63zo


• 2009.10.28
  Questioned. Myths on beer (and wine) and glassware, and on terroir and wine. http://bit.ly/EXr8M


• 2009.10.28
  Baltimore, Maryland City Council decides that music and alcohol can mix, without deleterious effects. The bill awaits the Mayor's concurrence: http://bit.ly/1D8KxU


• 2009.10.28
  Washington D.C.'s Belga Cafe and Brasserie Beck now each have knights of 'La Chevalerie du Fourquet des Brasseurs.' http://ow.ly/x1WP


• 2009.10.28
  Last year's hops cost increase was NOT the sole cause of the beer price increase. As a result, this year's hop glut will NOT drop beer prices. http://buzzup.com/gjw6


• 2009.10.28
  Motley Fool criticizes Dan Snyder's Washington Redskins football team as a textbook example of appalling managerial practices: http://bit.ly/yKir8


• 2009.10.27
  Soon to become the world's largest BEVERAGE company? Are AB-InBev and PepsiCo planning a merger? http://bit.ly/4B1APc


• 2009.10.27
  Malaysia, religion, sharia, beer, and caning: http://bit.ly/2OR0ES


• 2009.10.27
  Hugh Sisson at his Clipper City Brewing blog suggests: try beer with the Thanksgiving meal. http://bit.ly/1EBT43


• 2009.10.27
  Why doesn't Don Younger (Horse Brass Pub) brew? "I love women, but I wouldn't want to be a gynecologist." As reported by Ray Daniels @Cicerone_org


• 2009.10.27
  Chef Frank Morales --ex of Rustico in Alexandria, Virginia-- finds a new job at Jackie's (Silver Spring MD) bringing his beer cuisine. http://bit.ly/3DehvU


• 2009.10.27
  More on Great Lakes Craft Brewers & Water Conservation Conference, from co-organizer Lucy Saunders: http://bit.ly/426uqZ


• 2009.10.25
  Room for beer education. Overheard at a beer festival, referring to cask ale: "I'm not always in the mood for 'still' beer."


• 2009.10.25
  From today's Washington Post: We've changed the name of 'Style & Arts' to 'Arts & Style.' [Glad they cleared that one up!]

The Clamps and Gaskets graphic was created by NotionsCapital.

Pic(k) of the Week: Sierra Nevada Harvest Ale

From the bottle label of the 13th annual release of Sierra Nevada Brewing's Harvest Wet Hop Ale:

Our Harvest Ale was the first American ale ever brewed with 100% fresh-picked, "wet" hops. In just one day, we harvest hops in Yakima, WA, ship them that night to our brewery in Chico, CA, and then rush them into our brew kettle as they are unloaded at dawn the next day.

In my glass, I noticed aromas of the field (grass or hay), forest (pine, woody), fruit (orange marmalade), and a minty/eucalyptus note. There's a touch of biscuity malt as a slight counterweight to all those aromatics.

How do 'wet-hops' differ from 'regular' hops? Here, from the New York Times:

Hops give beer its distinctive bitterness and lend it other lively notes that range from citrus to flowers. But brewers usually use dried processed pellets of hops [or the cured whole cone]. The fall hops harvest is their brief window of opportunity to brew with the fresh green cones to make beers with a subtle range of hops flavor.

Standard high-hop styles, such as India pale ales, which can be quite bitter, don’t usually work with fresh hops, said John Harris, the brewmaster at Full Sail Brewing Company’s brewery in Portland, Ore.

“In order to taste and feel the hops, you have to put them in the right kind of beer,” he said. “If the beer gets too bitter, you start losing the nuances of the fresh hops.”

A Hop and a Sip to Fresh Ales
Dining & Wine
New York Times
Lucy Burningham
October 20, 2009

Cured hops have less of that 'green' field character and more of a spicy, herbal character. In addition, the hop bitterness of cured hops can be measured, an important parameter for brewers when formulating consistent recipes.

I have yet to taste a truly wet-hopped beer, just out of the fermenter. Beer is a perishable foodstuff: drink it fresh.

“These [wet-hopped] beers won’t hold up,” Mr. [Phil] Markowski [the brewmaster at Southampton Publick House in Southampton, N.Y.] said. “They’re brewed for the moment. It’s like fresh local tomatoes and corn, an old-fashioned way to remember traditional seasons.”

That being said, Sierra Nevada's 2009 Harvest Ale was a delight, even in this form. It's 6.7 alcohol by volume (abv).

Conserve the Gourd

As it's the 31st of October, this will be my final post for the third annual Vegan Mofo: Vegan Month of Food.

Today also happens to be Halloween and I'm obviously not much of a sculptor. But...a pumpkin does make for good eating!

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Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

• 1) Carefully carve open top of pumpkin.
• 2) Remove the seeds; separate them from any stringy strands; rinse seeds under fresh water.
  
• 3) Drain seeds and allow to dry.
  
  
  
• 4) Toss the seeds with a teaspoon or so of olive oil, a dash of Kosher salt, a small grind of black pepper, and a 'scary' dash each of garlic and cayenne powder.
  
• 5) At 350 °F, bake the seeds for 20 minutes.
  
• 6) Increase the temperature to 425 °F and cook for 5 more minutes, until the seeds only begin to brown...no more!
  
• 7) Remove and allow cool. Add additional salt or seasoning, if needed, to taste.

Delicious and nutricious!

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And, as to the pumpkin itself...

• Cook Pumpkin 'Ghoul'ash!
• Roast the cubed gourd as you would small 'new' potatoes.
• Bake a vegan pumpkin pie.


• Final step: pour a final Oktoberfest lager beer of the year. Winter brews are a-comin'.

Want more VeganMoFo? Check out these photos on Flickr.

Mad Fox constuction details

I met up with Brewer Bill Madden at the Northern Virginia Fall Brewfest. I asked him about progress on his soon to be built brewpub, Mad Fox Brewing Company.



Most of the equipment has been sourced: in addition to a 15-barrel brewhouse,there will be several 30-barrel fermenters, double jacketed so that both 15-barrel and 30-barrel batches can be brewed. Serving tanks will be sized at 15 bbl to allow batches to be split in two to help ensure freshness. To afford him flexibility in serving different beers, Bill is purchasing a large volume of kegs. If a tank is needed to ferment or serve a beer, Bill can simply rack the remaining finished beer into the kegs. He'll need to do that, because he plans to have at least 12 beers on tap at any given time.

As for the cask ale ...

Bill plans to have 5 cask ales tapped at any one time, using a set-up somewhat similar to that at Churchkey (beer bar in Washington, DC) ... except of course, the beer will be made fresh at the brewery. Firkins will rest in refrigerated units under the bar, the temperature set in the low to mid 50s, traditional English cellar temperature. A row of beer engines will sit above, used to handpump the beer to the bar.



Bill is currently working on the paperwork and planning details, one ear to the phone, two hands on the laptop. Construction begins in January 2010, and Bill says he can't wait. Many thirsty northern Virginia good beer fans would agree.

• The term' brewhouse' refers to the kit of vessels on the 'hot' side of the brewery, i.e., used to brew the beer: mash tun, lauter tun, kettle, whirlpool, wort chiller, hot and cold liquor (water) tanks. Vessels are often designed to combine several of these functions. The fermenters and serving tanks comprise the 'cold' side of the brewery.
  
• A barrel doesn't exist as an actual container. It's a measure of volume: 31 gallons. More on beer volumes here.
• A firkin is the name given to one particular size of cask: 9 UK gallons, which is the equivalent of 10.8 US gallons. More on cask volumes here.
  
• The photo of Bill Madden is reprinted above courtesy of local beer maven Chuck Triplett.
• Prior stories on Mad Fox here and here and here and here.

VeggieDag Thursday; The Never Ending Veggie Pot o' Soup

October 2009 has been the Vegan Month of Food ... or Vegan MoFo. Throughout the month, bloggers have written stories about vegan food, recipes, issues, and lifestyles. Isa Chandra Moskowitz, an author of vegan cookbooks, first introduced the concept in 2007.

A reader has asked me if I am truly a vegan, perhaps incredulous that one who writes so often about beer (and drinks it), could really have a non-animal diet.

In answer, here is the ingredient list for beer:

• malted barley
• yeast
• hops
• water

Malted barley is the grain (non-animal) that has been sprouted and toasted. Yeast is a single-cell fungus (non-animal). Hops are an herb (non-animal). Water comprises 95% or so of the content of beer. (I would assume there would be no need to stipulate water as non-animal.)

Some wineries avoid filtration by using egg whites. Some breweries use gelatin (pig-derived) as a clarifying agent. And many UK breweries add isinglass (fish-derived) to clarify their cask ales. Most US breweries do not (which is one reason why many US cask ales are cloudy. There are other reasons, but that's a topic for another day.) There are other ingredients used in beer, but most are plant, grain, fruit, or mineral.

A more complete answer, predating the question, is here.

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Throughout the month of October, I've cooked, what I've called, the Never Ending Veggie Pot o' Soup.

I began by roasting squash and carrots, sauteeing celery, onions, and garlic, and simmering all in home-made vegetable stock and six ounces of McHenry Lager. (Six ounces, because I reserved the other six ounces for the cook.)


As the pot was depleted, I've added other vegetables and more stock. Cubes of silken tofu found their way in.

A few days ago, I decided to thickened the consistency and make a creamy autumn chowder. I boiled some new potatoes, and then blended them with stock and more roasted squash and several stalks of sauteed celery. 'Creamy' would be the appearance and texture: there was no dairy added! Olive oil, Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, herbes de Provence, and a backyard-grown dried spice blend (graciously given to me by the cellarmaster at the Clipper City Brewing Company) all provided the depth of flavor.


A finishing dash of smoked paprika added color and zest.

There have been several cold, rainy, miserable days in October. As anodyne, this simple soup has been warming, satisfying, and 'never-ending' ... at least for the month of VeganMofo!

• All of YFGF's posts on vegetarian issues, including recipes: here.
• All of YFGF's posts specifically on VeganMofo, including recipes: here
• Why the name VeggieDag Thursday? Here.