fire

anything involving fire

What? Pork without beer?

| brewsader

Yes. I even surprised myself, but it is possible for me to cook without using beer. Searching for ideas the other day, I noticed that there was just a scoche of dark Cuban rum left in the liquor cabinet. Realizing that rum, no matter how good, does not make a complete meal for 6 people, I figured I’d throw together a rum glaze to apply to some pork. It turned out pretty tasty so I’m sharing it here.

The rum was matched up with some dark chestnut honey. Sweet, spicy, smokey and leathery this dark and complex honey pairs well with grilled foods. Wrap all those flavors up with some pecan wood smoke, and you have yourself wonderful piece of pig. Everything melded together very well.

 

Rum and Chestnut Honey glazed pork medallions

  • set up your fire for indirect cooking. Medium heat.
  • take your pork tenderloin (s) and cut into roughly 4cm (2″) thick medaillions
  • Wrap each with a slice of bacon and secure with a tooth-pick
  • in a saucepan combine (rough measurements)
    • 60 ml (1/4 cup) dark rum with
    • 4 tbsp chestnut honey
    • 1 tbsp grain mustard (optional)
  • heat only until the honey is dissolved
  • throw a chunk of pecan wood onto your fire (hickory, apple, cherry would all work well)
  • Sear the pork directly over the fire (about 2 minutes each side) then move to indirect.
  • Brush on the glaze and put the lid on.
  • repeat the glazing every 5 minutes or so until the meat firms up nicely and is done (roughly 20-25 minutes)
To go with the pork we served salad, a couscous and carrot dish, and some delicious grilled zucchini slices. The zucchini was first tossed in equal parts olive oil and cider vinegar (about a tbsp each), seasoned with salt and pepper, then grilled and thrown back into the bowl with the oil and vinegar.
There was also a sauce made with the leftover glaze, a touch more mustard, sauteed onion and a touch of heavy cream…. but the meat was more than confident enough to stand on its own.

Rodenpork Grand Cru

| brewsader

On Sunday I whipped up some more pulled pork. Maybe “whipped up” isn’t the right way to say it since it isn’t exactly the quickest meal to make. Let me re-phrase that… Last Sunday I waited and waited while the glorious combination of wood-smoke, spices, pork and Rodenbach Grand Cru washed over me bringing intense hunger and anticipation. Yeah, thats better.

Last timeI posted about Pulled Pork I used a small portion of a “picnic” (a picnic is basically the shoulder of a pig). This time I used a 6.2kg (almost 14 lb) whole picnic. Well, almost whole, I had the butcher remove part of it so that it would fit in the smoker better. I think it may have been the first time that he had sold such a big hunk of pig like that, but it won’t be the last! I kept everything pretty simple with this cook but in return I was rewarded with an outstanding end product that brought a smile not only to my face but also to Mrs Smokey and Lil’ Smokey. Served with some coleslaw, fries and a Rodenbach BBQ sauce (see below) it was a satisfying meal!I trimmed most of the extraneous fat off of the pork and rubbed it the night before with a new simple pork rub recipe I am trying (see below). The next morning while the family was still in bed I started up the fire and rubbed the pork again. For the fire I loaded up the charcoal ring on my WSM with briquettes. I normally use a good hardwood lump charcoal, but for a long cook like this I went with longer burning briquettes. A few large chunks of both Apple wood and Pecan wood were added throughout the charcoal load. On top of all that a half chimney of lit briquettes got things going.

The pork went in the smoker just before breakfast. Instead of cooking at the normal 95-110°C (roughly 200-225°F) I set the smoker up around 125°C (257°F) because I didn’t want to still be cooking the next morning. The WSM did a beautiful job holding right between 122-128°C without any further assistance from me. After 5 hours in the smoke I started to mop the pork every 2-3 hours with a mixture of Rodenbach Grand Cru and some of the rub.

After 8-9 hours the meat hit the plateau at 75°C (internal meat temp) and stayed there for almost 4 hours. I ended up ramping up the smoker temp to 150°c (300°F) for the last 3 hours of the cook until I reached an internal temp of 88-90°C (190-194°F). In total the cook time was almost 14.5 hours, which for a piece this large isn’t so long. It was also nice that I didn’t have to add any more fuel during the cook. The resulting Rodenbach infused pork was fantastically tasty, succulent and pulled apart with ease! The freezer is now happily stuffed with this treat. The stash should last me a while and allow for some experimentation. One thing I need to try out are Noskos’s Pulled Pork egg-rolls!

Pork Rub:

  • ½ cup brown sugar
  • ½ cup paprika
  • 1/3 cup coarse sea salt
  • 1 tbsp fresh ground black pepper (I may up this a touch next time)
  • 4 tsp. dry mustard powder
  • 3 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 ½ tsp cayenne pepper

mix together and rub half on the picnic. Refrigerate pork over night and rub again in the morning. Save some rub for the mop and the sauce.

RodenMop:

  • 1 33cl. bottle Rodenbach Grand Cru
  • 1 tbsp rub

heat on the stove and use warm

RodenQue Sauce:

  • 1 33cl. bottle Rodenbach Grand Cru
  • 2-3 tbs brown sugar (I like 2 but Mrs. Smokey likes 3)
  • 1/2 cup Ketchup
  • 1/2 cup tomato puree (not concentrate)
  • 1-2 tbs of whatever rub you are using
  • 1/4 tsp onion powder (optional)

Simply combine all the ingredients in a pot and reduce on a medium fire (about 35-45 minutes). Pour the finished sauce back into a cleaned Rodenbach bottle and pop in a cork or stopper.

seduced by meat

| brewsader

Pork Loin and I have always shared a special bond, but lately my friend has been getting a little jealous. You see, this summer I spent a lot of time with another cut, the flirtatious Rack of Lamb. Except for the fact that Mrs Smokey doesn’t eat lamb (minor detail) everyone in the greater Smokey family circle has been getting quite friendly with this beauty. I still love my pork loins but I am now quite infatuated with these fancily trimmed meat popsicles. So easy to cook, yet so satisfying. A succulent treat that can be plated up and taken to the ball or just grabbed by the bone and taken advantage of. Dressed up or dressed down a rack of lamb always knows how to please you.

A dash of fresh ground black pepper and some good chunky sea salt is all a nice rack needs. If you do want to get a little fancy you can sprinkle on some rosemary, brush them with a little mustard and honey, encrust them in herbs and bread-crumbs, or throw some grape-vine wood on the fire for a smokey touch… But that is just more to get through when it comes down to the moment. I say leave it nude (the meat, not you), dim the lights, put on some music, pour yourself a nice beer and enjoy the show.

Sorry, no recipe or fun cooking technique here… Just a post by a man who has been love-struck by a piece of meat. Is that so bad?

and finally (recipes)

| brewsader

Ok, this is the last post about the Nocturnal Brew n’ Que at Alvinne. I have had several requests for recipes, so here you go. Recipes for almost everything we served! If you are a homebrewer and would like to look at the recipe we brewed that day, I scaled it down in my previous post.

For European readers 1 cup = 237ml Other useful conversion can be found with this link, or this one

Guacamole:

  • 3 ripe avocados
  • juice of 1 large lime
  • 1/2 – 1 hot red pepper, finely chopped
  • small handful of coriander leaves (cilantro), roughly chopped
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt (optional)
  • 1/2 small red onion finely chopped

Scoop the flesh out of the avocados and coarsely mash with a fork. To maximize the juice from the lime you should place it on your work surface and push down on it with the palm of your had. Now roll it around while pressing. You can then cut it in half and squeeze out that lovely juice. Mix in the remaining ingredients and serve with tortilla chips. It’s best if you let the quacamole rest in the fridge a couple hours before serving.

Salsa:

  • 1 cup seeded and finely diced tomato
  • 1/3 cup finely chopped red onion
  • 1 hot red pepper
  • juice of 1 large lime
  • small handful of coriander (cilantro) leaves, roughly chopped
  • 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
  • 3 tablespoons Alvinne Morpheus Tripel
  • 2-3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

Mix together, chill for a couple hours. Serve with tortilla chips.

Alvinno Shrimp:

Simply shrimp marinated in 2-3 parts Alvinno, 1 part olive oil and a dash of Piet Huysentruyt honey-mustard seasoning. Marinate for a couple of hours and then impale them on some skewers. Cook over direct heat on your charcoal grill.

Ribs:

marinade:

  • 70% Alvinne Wild (Rodenbach is an easy to find substitute if you can’t get a hold of the Wild)
  • 30% apple juice

rub: (This makes more than you need but you can store it for a long time)

  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup sweet paprika
  • 2 1/2 tablespoons ground pepper
  • 2 1/2 tablespoons sea salt
  • 1/2 tablespoon pilli pilli
  • 3/4 tablespoon garlic powder
  • 1 tablespoon onion powder
  • 1 tablespoons cayenne
  • 1 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger

Marinate overnight in the fridge with enough liquid to cover all the ribs (if you marinate the ribs in zip-lock bags you don’t need as much marinade). 45 minutes to an hour before placing in the smoker, remove the ribs from the marinade, pat them dry, liberally cover with your favorite rub and let them come up to room temperature. Smoke between 100-120C (210-250F) till done (around 5 hours) with a combination of cherry and pecan wood chunks. Don’t go too high with the temp because the sugar in the rub will burn.

Mop the ribs with some of the marinade a few times during the cook.

Salmon

Simply brush your salmon filet with olive oil, sprinkle with some dill and slap it on the grill.

Pork loin:

  • 1 well-trimmed pork loin (about 1kg or 2lbs.)

marinade:

  • 1 bottle Alvinne Wild (Rodenbach is an easy to find substitute if you can’t get a hold of the Wild)
  • 1/4 cup apple juice
  • 2 tablespoons honey

rub:

  • see rib rub above or use your favorite spice rub

Marinate the pork loin with the Alvinne Wild, apple juice and honey for 2-3 hours in the fridge. about 30-45 minutes before cooking, take the pork out of the marinade, pat dry, dust it with the rub and let it come up to room temperature. Place in your smoker (or grill set up for indirect cooking) at a temperature of around 120-140C (250-280F) with some Cherry and Pecan wood chunks for that smokey goodness (apple, pear, hickory, cherry, and pecan all work well with this). It should take about 60-75 minutes depending on the size of the loin and the temperature. Use a thermometer and take the pork out of the smoker at 65-67C, loosely cover in foil and let rest for 10 minutes. Slice and serve with a touch of Honey-mustard Beercream sauce.

Honey-mustard beercream sauce: (this is a bit of an approximation since I usually don’t measure stuff out when I make sauces)

  • 1/2 small yellow onion
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 1 bottle Alvinne Wild
  • 1/4 cup apple juice
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • 2 tablespoons grain mustard
  • 2 dl  (3/4-1cup) heavy cream
  • thickener if needed

Sautee the onion in the butter until translucent and then add the beer, apple juice and honey (you can use the marinade here but then you will need to skim off the “fatty foam” that will appear during cooking). Cook this down to about half the volume. Addthe mustard and cream and continue cooking for 5-10 minutes. If you desire a thicker sauce then use your tickener of choice (corn starch, maizena, etc.)

Cornbread:

  • 1 cup flour
  • 3/4 cup corn meal
  • 3 tablespoons sugar
  • 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil

Preheat the oven to 200C (400F). Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Add the butter to a baking dish/pan and set in the oven. In a separate bowl mix the eggs, milk and oil. When ready, add the wet ingredients all at once to the dry ingredients and stir together, but don’t over-mix. Just make sure there are no lumps. Take the pan out of the oven and swirl the butter around. Pour the mixture into the hot dish/pan and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until lightly golden brown on top. Test with a toothpick for doneness.

Coleslaw:

  • 1/2 cup mayonnaise
  • 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 3 cups shredded green cabbage (roughly half a cabbage)
  • 1 cup shredded red cabbage
  • 1 cup shredded carrot
  • 1/4 finely chopped green onion

Mix the mayonnaise, vinegar, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Then mix in the cabbage, carrots and onion. Refridgerate for at least two hours.

Melon Mint and Feta salad:

  • 1/2 each of 3 different melons (watermelon, gavia, and cavaillon were used here)
  • half a small block of feta (roughly 50 grams)
  • a small handfull of fresh mint leaves
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1/2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
  • dash of pepper

Use a melon baller and scoop out the three melon halves. Break or cut the feta into small bits and add to the melon. Take the mint leaves, stack them, roll into a cigar, finely slice and add to the salad. Just before serving add the oil, vinegar and pepper and toss.

Mocha Bomb Sabayon:

  • 4 egg yolks
  • 4 tablespoons sugar
  • 4 tablespoons Imperial stout (Struise Black Damnation Mocha Bomb works great!) but it apparently you have to use beer that is above 10%abv

Simply add all ingredients to a pan. Now comes the hard part. Over a very low fire you need to start whipping the mixture with a whisk. Pretend your life depended on it. Oh, and this will take a while. If you stop too soon then your egg mixture will quickly separate. If you have the fire too high, whisk too slow, or cook too long then you will end up with bits of omlette in your sabayon. If you manage to do that right then serve the creamy smooth and frothy mixture with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. This recipe should be good for 4 servings.

If you want to see someone making Sabayon check out this video (ignore the ingredients… just watch the process).

Moink balls à la Alvinne:

Take 1 kg (2.2 lbs) “gehakt met kruiden” (ground veal and pork mixture with some herbs that everyone here uses anytime ground meat is needed) and roll into bite-size balls. Ours were perhaps a bit on the large side. Then wrap each with a strip of proscuitto. Secure with a toothpick. Dust with your favorite spice rub or seasoning (we used the above mentioned rub). Place on the smoker and cook for an hour or so. As with the other dishes, we used Cherry and Pecan wood for the smoke. Lastly slather each one with a good amount of BBQ sauce, jam or jelly and cook for another 15 minutes or so. We sort of threw together our own beer based BBQ sauce but no one remembers what exactly was put into it. The recipe will remain a mystery forever.

the more the merrier – part 1 (smoke)

| brewsader

Friday July 2nd was a busy day for the Smoking Bottle. Picobrouwerij Alvinne was having their first (hopefully annual) Nocturnal Brew Session. 30+ friends were invited to join them while they brew a special night brew, opened up a collection of beer from around the world  and served some tasty BBQ. The reason it was so busy for me is because I was asked to provide the beer based BBQ (and more, but thats for Part 2).

the production line and some chips, salsa and guacamole

The prep/cooking started at 10am up in De Proefzolder (The Tasting Attic). An attic is usually not the best place to be on a very hot day, however we pushed on and proceeded to slice, dice, bake, marinate, mix and clean up before guests started arriving at 6pm. Once they did they found themselves greeted by cold beer and tortilla chips with freshly made Salsa and Guacamole. The salsa was very nice and had a touch of Alvinne Tripel thrown in for an extra twist. The Guacamole was also a hit. I’ve been on a mission lately to show the Belgian folk what guacamole is supposed to look and taste like. The jars of radioactive goo that people buy here is a disgrace. It doesn’t even taste like guacamole. The fresh stuff was almost a revelation for some people.

the "outdoor kitchen" and ribs in the smoker

Next we threw Alvinno and olive oil marinated shrimp onto the grill. The tasty shrimp were able to tide people over until the ribs were ready. Almost as fast as I could get the 15 racks of ribs out of the WSM they disappeared. I barley had a taste of them. To be honest I wasn’t all that happy with them but everyone else seemed to like them quite a bit. I think they needed just a little more time on the smoker and less sugar in the rub.

Abracadavre steaming up the attic and pork smoking up outside

After a great performance by brewery friends Abracadavre it was time to for the main course, smoked pork loins. This is basically my go-to grilling recipe but done on the smoker. After being marinated and then smoked for an hour and a quarter (until 66-67C internal temp) with a combination of Cherry and Pecan wood, the pork was served with a honey-mustard-beer-cream sauce, good old Coleslaw, Cornbread, potatoes, and a melon salad with mint and feta. It all turned out really nice. I heard someone say “I didn’t know barbecue could be so good.” Mission accomplished.

Glenn whipping up some Sabayon and Moink balls doing their thing

To finish all that meat off, Glenn made his world famous Sabayon with De Struise Brouwers Mocha Bomb. Sabayon is one of my absolute favorite deserts and the Mocha Bomb suits it so wonderfully. Excellent stuff! But thats not the end. To further feed our caveman like urge for meat and fire we threw together an interesting “Belgianized” version of Moink balls as a late snack. I think that was around 2am… or was it 3am?

I am certainly not used to cooking for large groups, and I tend to over analyze everything, but at the end of the day it was an enjoyable cooking session with great people. If only my wife and baby girl would have been there then It would have been perfect. Fire-cooked food, great beer and good people… what else do you need?

click on the photos above to see more.

Sorry that this was just a bit of a run down of events, but I will post all the recipes soon. I don’t want to have a 3000 word post… no one wants to read that. I sure ain’t no good writer.

the go-to recipe

| brewsader

While I always like to try out new things there is one dish that gets cooked more than any other… beer and honey marinated Pork Tenderloin. Simple and crowd pleasing.

Grab yourself a good sized pork tenderloin between 700-900g (1.5-2lbs). Smaller is ok if you can’t find a big one. Throw it into a zip-lock bag (a bowl works too but you’ll have to use more marinade). Mix together one bottle of a good dark beer (stay away from anything too bitter) and a couple tablespoons of honey. Add that too the zip-lock bag and chuck it in the fridge for a couple hours, or 45 minutes at room temp if you forgot to plan well (yeah, thats usually the route I take). If you went the cold route then make sure your pork has come back up to room temp before cooking. Set up your grill for indirect cooking. Pull the pork out of the bag and pat dry. Here you can add a dash of rub if you like, or just season with some sea salt and black pepper. Quickly sear the pork loin over the coals and then cook indirect until desired doneness. Depending on the size of the piece the total cook time should be about 35 minutes. Let it rest for 10 minutes under tinfoil before you slice it up.

This works out nicely for hungry groups because you can pack quite a few of these on the grill. You can also really play around with this by switching up the beer you use, adding a rub, mopping during the cook, different type of honey or sugar, or adding a sauce.

Care to share your go-to dish in a comment below?

Barbecook Smoker vs. WSM

| brewsader

Last summer there was a decent amount of traffic coming from people looking for information about the Barbecook smoker, or more importantly comparing the Barbecook Smoker and the Weber Smokey Mountain cooker (WSM). I thought I would finally write a post about this as spring comes around and fire hungry people start contemplating a purchase. Since I have thoroughly used both smokers I’ll try to offer some good comparative information.

price: There is no competition here. The Barbecook smoker retails for 69euros and can sometimes be found for 49euros. The weber retails for 299euros for the 47cm (18″) diameter or 399euros for the 57cm (22.5″) diameter. Clear win for the Barbecook.

assembly: The Barbecook is split up into 4 sections, base, two middle sections and the lid. Assembling the legs, cooking grid hooks, charcoal bowl hooks, handles, vent, and the four hinges on the two doors is a bit of a pain in the ass due to the small size, and high number of nuts and bolts. The original Barbecook smoker had a sort of twist to lock feature that secured the sections together but Barbecook has since replaced this system with some simple clips. A much needed improvement. Moving the smoker with the handles on the side is easy once the sections are locked together.

The WSM is split up into 3 sections, base, middle, and lid. To assemble the WSM you need to attach the three legs to the base and then attach 4 metal straps on the inside of the middle section. This is easliy done in a few minutes. All the bolts are easy to get to and are large enough to handle. The sections just sit on top of each other and do not lock together, and there are no side handles on the unit  so you can not just pick up the smoker and easily move it.

never move either smoker when it is in use!

build quality: The matte-black painted Barbecook Smoker is made from a very thin steel, and is prone to denting. Infact you will most likely dent or bend the sections out-of-round during assembly. The cooking grates are  made from a very small gauge wire and have a cheap looking finish that can scratch off during a good cleaning. After total assembly the unit wobbles quite a bit due to the flimsy leg construction. Most of the nuts and bolts on the unit will quickly rust.

The WSM uses a nice thicker gauge steel with a durable black enamel finish. All of the hardware is rust-resistant, strong and secure. Once the unit is assembled it feels very stable. The Weber is way ahead of the Barbecook in this category.

ease of use: Use of a chimney starter is recommended for getting the Barbecook smoker going. The lit charcoal sits on a grate in the bottom of the charcoal bowl. The only air that can get to the charcoal has to come over the top of the bowl and get sucked underneath the charcoal. Once some ash builds up under the charcoal it starts to choke the fire.  If your cook is under 5 hours or so then you can resonably control the temperature in your Barbecook smoker with the top vent and some good fire tending. If you plan on doing anything longer then you will find yourself in trouble. Unfortunately the Barbecook smoker has no control of the air coming in, only the outgoing smoke on top of the unit. Not the best way to control a fire. Measuring the temperature with the built in thermometer can be a bit misleading. I have seen many reports of the thermometer being way off, 50-100°C!

The WSM also works best when used with a chimney starter. Once the charcoal is started it is pretty easy to maintain the desired temperature by only adjusting the three vents which feed air directly to the charcoal. Under the charcoal there is plenty of room for ash so during a long cook you don’t have to worry about choking your fire. Depending on the type of charcoal you use you should be able to easily get 10-12 hours burn time before needing to add more fuel. On my WSM there is no built in thermometer but on the new models there is one. According to others the thermometer is pretty accurate but could be as far off as 5°C in some cases.

overall: The Weber is hands-down a much beter smoker. It offers great quality and is easy to use. However, it is expensive enough to make you really question purchasing it. The Barbecook Smoker won’t last for years and years but it does work and it won’t hurt your wallet. With some practice and lots of patience you should be able to smoke up some good eats… but you’ll probably have to give up hopes of smoking a whole picnic or butt.

recommendation: If you know that you like smoked food and you are an outdoor cooking nut then the Weber will not disappoint. Ease of use, quality, durability, cooking capacity and flexibility will ensure years of great meals for you and your friends.

If you are not so sure that a smoker will really be something that you’ll enjoy or if you’ll only use it once a year then the Barbecook smoker could be the right choice. It won’t last forever, but if you are careful and patient you can get some good cooks out of it. For those that like to tinker with things, you could easily improve the unit with some careful thought and a trip to the hardware store. You can get inspiration for modding your Barbecook Smoker by checking out the many ECB mods, or Brinkmann mods on the net. The WSM is also prone to be modified by some die-hards, but out of the box it already works wonders.

If you are looking for a bargain and you like to work with your hands you could look into building your own smoker. Its not that difficult. Take a look at Alton Browns smoker. Or for a little more sweat and some grinding you could put together a UDS (Ugly Drum Smoker).

Just remember, smoking is good for you!

smoke ’em if ya got ’em

| brewsader

I’ve been neglecting that whole world wide web net thing for a while so I’ve been missing out on all kinds of information. Apparently a lot of people have been talking about a guy with a funny name and health care for all. Fortunately I can rely on some trusted bloggers to pick out the real important news, like Noskos over at BBQ NL. It seems that Weber is expanding their line of wood chunks and chips. Now thats news I can sink my teeth into!

The wood I’ve ben using is a mix of odds and ends… a few apple and pear logs from somebody who knows somebody, some grape-vine chunks and the Hickory and Mesquite wood chips from Weber. Now I can expand my smoke repertoire by using the new Apple, Cherry, and Pecan wood chunks! Cherry is something I’ve been really wanting to use and Pecan could be very nice. Hopefully my now official local weber retailer will carry all the new wood chunks. Previously he only sold the chips. If not, I will have to either order them from Barbecueswinkel.nl, Bbqwinqel.nl or Amazon UK.

Other exciting news (that was actually announced a long time ago) is that the line of Dizzy Pig rubs will be coming to Europe. They set up a site a while back saying that they’ll be up and running soon. Lets hope that soon really means soon because the weather will quickly become the kind that beckons you outside and forces you to feed your caveman fascination of fire. Mmmmm, fire.

Recipe for “A Good Year”

| brewsader

All you need to have a wonderful 2010 is a good recipe. I happen to have one I’d like to share with you. Feel free to make some substitutions, but don’t stray too far from the original recipe:







A Good Year
– 1 good charcoal grill (you can add more if you really like fire)
– 1 or more sources for great craft beer (Oerbier Reserva is a must)
– 1 quality butcher
– a couple of good beer glasses (you don’t need one for every style of beer!)
– a good green grocer with local produce
– local brewery or homebrewer (or your own brewing passion)
– large handful of friends
– patch of green for you and your friends to rub your toes in
– a supportive partner
– A fresh child who is intrigued in everything you do (teenagers may be past their prime)

Simply stir these ingredients together and marinate yourself in the mixture for 365 days. Thats it! The trick with this recipe is balance. You may have to alter the amount of devotion/obsession placed on each of the individual ingredients until a harmonious mixture is obtained. This is something I myself am still working on.

I also threw together some random photos from this past year that were never posted here. You can find them by clicking on the snow covered grills above.

Happy new year everyone!