Sveiki Sulaukę Velykų!

A friend asked me for a recipe for 'ham in beer' for her Easter dinner. So I, in turn, turned to friend Lucy Saunders at beercook.com.

Here's Lucy's recipe for Roast Pork Tenderloin in Brown Ale, from her book, The Best of American Beer & Food.

From the book: The Best of American Beer & Food, by Lucy Saunders [http://beercook.com]. Brewers Publications: 2007. Reprinted with permission.
To dress the pork, here's Lucy's recipe Raspberry/Chipotle Sauce.

For side dishes —and for my non-meat-eating friends— here are my recipes for Beer Risotto and Roasted Asparagus with Mock Hollandaise Sauce.



For dessert, try these 'Little Ears': my sister's take on my Nana's recipe for fried cookies, lightly dusted with confectioner's sugar.



To all my readers: wishes of the season for hope and renewal.

Sveiki Sulaukę Velykų

Happy Easter!

Pic(k) of the Week: Brooklyn Lager, limned

Brooklyn Lager:
an American lager, brewed in the manner in which, perhaps, most American lagers once had been: a grist of 100% barley malt, a light amber hue, an evident but not citrusy hop aroma, and a firm finishing structure.

Photo taken at a Brooklyn Brewery Beer Dinner at Fire Works American Pizzeria, 19 April 2011, in Arlington, Virginia.

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• Caveat lector: As a representative for Select Wines, Inc. —a wine and beer wholesaler in northern Virgina— I sell the beers of Brooklyn Brewery.
  
• Pic(k) of the Week: one in a weekly Saturday series of personal photos, often, but not always, with a good fermentable as a subject.

Tonight: Cask Lab with Heavy Seas Cellarman Stephen Marsh @Columbia Firehouse

Get to know Cask-Conditioned Ale: fresh, 'living' beer.

Tonight, beginning at 5:30 PM, Columbia Firehouse Restaurant and Barroom welcomes special guest Heavy Seas Brewing Cellarmaster Stephen Marsh, for Cask Lab, an informal evening of Firkinology.




In the intimate 'Shaker Room', try a freshly tapped cask of Dubbel Cannon (7.25% alcohol-by-volume), a 'Belgian-style' IPA just released by Heavy Seas, its spring seasonal. Marsh will provide insider knowledge on how to brew, serve, and enjoy cask-conditioned real ale.

At the main bar, Columbia Firehouse will also be serving the brewery's flagship Loose Cannon Hop3 IPA (7.25% alcohol-by-volume), from a traditional beer engine.

Heavy Seas glassware is up for the taking - while it lasts - and the kitchen will supply complimentary savory bites throughout the evening.



Dubbel Cannon - This is a BRAND NEW beer from Heavy Seas and one of the very first casks of the beer filled. It's a Belgian-style IPA (India Pale Ale), intensely hoppy, but also with Belgian yeast-driven flavor. This particular version has Palisade, Cascade and Centennial hops in the cask itself, offering further floral and citric hop aromatics. Tonight is the opportunity to taste Dubbel Cannon before most everyone else.

Loose Cannon - This very citrus hop-driven American IPA has its aroma augmented with notes of smokiness, vanilla, and caramel. Marsh has dry-hopped the cask and added hand-toasted slats of Red Oak, White Oak, and Birch: a patriotic Red, White, & Birch, if you will.

Details: Heavy Seas Cask Lab at Columbia Firehouse, from 5:30-10pm. No entry fee, simply pay for the beers you order.

Shamelessly cribbed from Columbia Firehouse's Facebook page.

Stephen Marsh has been the Cellarmaster for Heavy Seas Brewing (originally known as Clipper City Brewing) since 2005. He has become well-regarded for his innovative yet tradition-honoring cellar techniques. An accomplished home farmer, he grows many of the hops and herbs he infuses in the brewery's casks. Among many awards, he received silver for a cask of Loose Cannon at the 2010 Great British Beer Festival.

UPDATE: Photos!

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• Columbia Firehouse Restaurant and Barroom
  109 South Saint Asaph Street
  Old Town, Alexandria, Virginia 22314
  703.683.1776
  
• Learn more about cask-conditioned 'Real Ale" at Cask Ale USA.
  
• Caveat lector: As a representative for Select Wines, Inc. —a wine and beer wholesaler in northern Virgina— I sell the beers of Heavy Seas Brewing.

Tuesday: Brooklyn Brewing & Fire Works Beer Dinner

Fire Works Pizzeria in Arlington, Virginia, presents a beer dinner with the Brooklyn Brewery (from, of course, Brooklyn, New York City, New York), Tuesday, April 19, 2011, at 7pm.

Chef Frank Mayo will prepare the 5 course dinner. Restaurant manager Mike Berry will host the dinner. In a confluence of Mikes, brewery representative Mike Ferry will provide the commentary on the 6 beers to be tasted.

• Brooklyn Lager (draft)
  How standard American lagers may have tasted years ago: all-malt with firm hop backbone. 5.2% abv.
  Greeter Beer
  
  
• Main Engine Start (draft)
  An American-brewed Belgian-style pale ale. Spicy, golden. 6.8% abv.
  Porte Salute Cheese & Andouille Sausage Mini-Calzones with Spicy Mustard Sauce
  
  
• Summer Ale (draft)
  An example of a light-hued American-brewed British bitter. 5% abv. Charred Shrimp Bruschetta with Shaved Manchego Cheese
  
  
• Sorachi Ace (750-ml bottles)
  A saison-style ale, brewed with lemony Sorachi hops from Japan. 7.6% abv.
  Ginger-Orange Carrot Bisque
  
  
• Local 1 (750-ml bottles)
  Belgian-style strong golden ale, re-fermented in the bottle. 9% abv.
  Herb-Crusted Lamb Loin with Fried Goat Cheese & Marinated Tomatoes
  
  
• 2007 Vintage Monster Barleywine Ale (draft)
  Vinous, sweet malt barleywine (strong ale). 10.8% abv.
  Sticky Toffee Pudding

UPDATE: Photos from the dinner: here. 

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• Fire Works
  2350 Clarendon Boulevard, Arlington, Virginia 22201
  Phone: 703.527.8700. Facebook page.
  Reservations are $75 (including tax and gratuity).
  
• Caveat lector: As a representative for Select Wines, Inc. —a wine and beer wholesaler in northern Virgina— I sell the beers of Brooklyn Brewery.

Pic(k) of the Week: Proud Papa

On an historic occasion,  DC Brau's co-owner Brandon Skall beamed like a proud papa, welcoming many to the Meridian Pint in Washington, D.C., 15 April 2011, for the draught release party of The Public Pale Ale, the inaugural beer from DC Brau [pronounced dee cee brow], with his business partner, Jeff Hancock.

DC Brau is the first production brewery to open in the Nation's Capital since the Christian Heurich Brewing Company [pronounced hi rick] closed 55 years earlier, in 1956.

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• More photos from the event: here.
  
• Pic(k) of the Week: one in a weekly series of personal photos, often posted on Saturdays, and often, but not always, with a good fermentable as a subject. In this case: a good fermentablist!