boy meets plank

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Cooking on a wooden plank has been popular amongst the grilling kind for a while. For some reason I have only now gotten around to trying it, but I now know what many others already discovered, cedar planked salmon is damn tasty!

The plank was soaked for an hour in water, with a coffee mug on top to keep it under water. When the fire was ready for indirect cooking (fire to one side) I placed the salmon on the plank and smeared a Lemon/Dill/Garlic butter mixture on top. The plank went directly over the fire to warm up, about 3 minutes, then it was moved to the cool side of the fire. Lid went on and the fished cooked about 20 minutes.

Garlic, Dill, Lemon schmear

  • 3tbsp butter
  • one clove of garlic – chopped
  • juice of 1/2 a lemon
  • leaves off two sprigs of fresh dill
  • a good pinch of sea salt

I suggest using a blender for mixing this up or else you will have a heck of a time getting the lemon juice to incorporate into the butter (as in never gonna happen)

The cedar flavor was more subtle than I thought it would be, so it had some trouble showing through the garlic, but the overall flavor and aroma was fantastic! Looks like cedar planks will have to get some more use around here. Its always nice to add another tool/flavor to the grilling toolbox. Now I’d like to try out some planks from other woods, and perhaps even a salt “plank“

What? Pork without beer?

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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.

Rebel without a clue

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After a week delay, thanks to my not-so-local homebrew shop, I brewed up another fun experiment. This time I am bringing the funk to a darker level. A stout fermented with Brettanomyces Lambicus and Lactobacillus. A stout with a beat you can dance to. Road Runner, Rebel Stout.

Ever since I took a slight step back, as I mentioned last time, brewing has become easier and even more enjoyable. This brew day was smooth even though I was introducing a new piece of equipment (an electric HLT) and the process with this beer was a little different. I hit all my numbers and had amazingly clear and quick run-off. In the boil is where this brew day was different than usual. Since the beer is intended to be partially fermented by Lactobacillus, the IBU’s from the hops would be a problem. Lactobacillus rolls over and dies at the mere mention of hops. To get around that I ran off 5 liters of beer after 15 minutes of boiling and before the first hop addition. This was then chilled and had Wyeast Lactobacillus thrown in. The rest of the wort continued to boil and receive two additions of East Kent Goldings before being chilled and pitched with a good starter of Wyeast Brettanomyces Lambicus. If my hillbilly math works out the OG should be 1.058 after blending (5 liters @ OG 1.050 + 15 liters @ OG 1.060).

One of the things I wanted to accomplish here is to see what a real lactobacillus fermentation will produce compared to the lactic acid laden Acid malt I used in the last beer. Obviously this stout will have a bunch of other flavors in the way but I still think I should be able to pick up on the complexity of the lactic character and be able to compare that aspect. We’ll see.

Road Runner – Rebel Stout
  • beer after blending: 20 liters
  • OG of total blend: 1.058
  • Expected FG: 1.012??
  • Expected ABV: 6.1%
  • Expected IBU: 27
  • Expected Color: 69.5 EBC (35 SRM)
  • Boil duration: 60 minutes
Fermentables
  • 40% Pale Ale
  • 40% Munich
  • 8% Aroma
  • 6% Roasted Barley
  • 6% Dehusked Chocolate (800 EBC)
Hops
  • 30g East Kent Goldings @ 45 minutes
  • 20g East Kent Goldings @ 10 minutes
Mash
  • Single infusion mash @ 68°C (154°F)

Yeast

  • 5 liters un-hopped wort – Wyeast Lactobacillus
  • 15 liters –  Wyeast Brettanomyces Lambicus
If it doesn’t turn out well I may have to change the name to Dead Duck – Drain Pour Stout

Brewed on April 3, 2011

Update April 8, 2011: Despite pitching a large amount of brett L and Lacto, there was no sign of activity for the first three days. After 72 hours there was some positive pressure in the airlocks but no real sign of fermentation. Now almost 5 days later there is still no krausen and not much activity in the airlock. Getting worried.

Update May 4, 2011: pretty much right after my last update the beer really took off. That was the longest lag time I’ve had on a brett beer. Fermented nicely and the two are now blended together. The brett portion was at 1.020 but will continue to slowly come down (I expect it to stop around 1.014). The Lacto portion is not so easy to measure since the lactic acid it produces is actually denser than water so a hydrometer is useless (I should have taken pH readings before and after). The sourness developed very nicely on the nose and in taste. A bit of appley balsamic flavor with a bright crispness underneath and slight vegetal. Went well with the chocoalte notes in the beer. Tasted different ratios of the two portions but surprisingly enough 1/4 lacto portion to 3/4 brett portion tasted the best. So all 5liters of lacto portion went into the brett batch. Now the beer needs to sit a couple-few months.

Rodenpork Grand Cru

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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.

a duck on my calendar

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Imagine if there was a sort of chart with all the days of the year listed in order. Now imagine that you could plan future events and then note these events on this list of days.  Sounds great doesn’t it? Well, much to my surprise this magical list already exists and there is even one hanging on the wall in my kitchen! All, joking aside, I am trying to get over my fear/lack of planning. Last year I had a serious problem of having to ditch brewing and barbecuing days because they weren’t planned far enough ahead for life to comply. It seems to be going better now. In fact I just had a  brewday this past Sunday, and there is a serious pork smoking session planned in a couple weeks, and the next brewday is planned in March.

Enter the Ugly Duckling:

If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, but smells a bit funky, then it must be the Ugly Duckling American Sour. Sunday’s brewday was another venture into sour beers. A funky and tart sessionable beer with citrus hop notes. Well, that is the idea anyways.

There are several ways to get lactic tartness in your brew (Lactobacilus, pediococcus, sour mash, pure lactic acid) but I decided to try something simple I had heard about from a few pro-brewers, a relatively high percentage of Acidulated Malt (or Acid Malt). This malt is a Reinheitsgebot way of controlling your mash pH but using higher ammounts will also give you some lactic flavor (see this link for some more info.. scroll down to “Berliner Weisse from Weyermann Acidulated Malt”). It won’t be as complex a lactic character as some other methods, but for what I want in this beer it should be good. Especially when considering this will be a 100% brett fermented beer. Oh, and brett favors a lowered pH to do its thing, so win win.

Ugly Duckling American Sour:

  • Wort volume after boil : 20 liters
  • OG: 1.048
  • Expected FG: 1.010 – 1.012?
  • Expected ABV: 4.8% – 5%
  • Expected IBU: the math says 36 but with mash hopping my experience says it will seem lower
  • Expected color: 11 EBC (4.6 SRM)
  • mash efficiency: 76%
  • Boil duration: 60 minutes

Fermentables:

  • 56.5% Pale – 2.2kg (4.85 lb.)
  • 30.5% Munich – 1.2kg (2.65 lb.)
  • 9% Acid malt – 350g (.77 lb.)
  • 4% flaked oats – 160g (.35 lb.)

Hops:

  • 35g (1.2 oz) Amarillo – mash hop

No kettle additions. After aging for a while I will dry hop this with more Amarillo.

Mash:

  • single infusion mash at 67C (153F) for 60 minutes

Yeast:

Ugly Duckling was also a bit of a process re-working for me. Over the years I have tried playing with my process  to raise efficiency, cut time, or just look cool. In the end I wasn’t happy with the stuck or slow sparges, the running around and the extra worry. This time I re-evaluated my technique. I even turned back the adjustment on my grain mill a bit. In return I had a great brew day! It was very easy and relaxed and I was even able to pull off a brew in less time than before. My efficiency was slightly lower (76% instead of 80%), but I was expecting that.

Notes:

February 13th 2011 – brewed: Brew day went very well. It was perhaps my most relaxed brew day to date.

March 15th 2011 – racked this over to secondary so it can age a while before dry-hopping. It was sitting at 1.010 SG. I’m finding these all brett beers are best after about 5 months or so.

July 17th 2011 – dry hopped this beer with 30g Amarillo whole leaf hops. The aroma before dry hopping was quite funky. Good barn-yardy notes!

July 29th 2011 – The duck is in the bottle! FG went a bit lower than expected 1.006! Bottled 17 liters (damn dry hops soaked up my beer) primed to get me 2.7 vol CO2 carbonation. Beer is tasting quite nice. Big orange notes. A good lactic  sourness with big fruity brett and amarillo all combining to a sort of orange and lemon juice combo.

another 2010 list

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Its that time of the year when every beer blogger comes up with their  “Best Of” lists. I generally avoid such listings on my site, and I also avoid doing much beer reviewing since there are a thousand others doing that and they can actually write. However, for some strange reason I thought I’d give it a go this year. So it is time to unveil the inaugural 2010 Golden Goblet Awards! Some of you may be thinking that this sounds familiar, but I can assure you that any resemblance to other yearly blog-based awards is purely by coincidence. Sure there is that thing called the Golden Pint Award, but that’s completely different. First of all it’s British, and then there’s….. ok, it’s plagiarism, thievery, flattery or whatever you want to call it,

Hopefully some fellow Belgian beery-types will follow suit and post their Golden Goblets online as well. If you would like to participate, either add your winners in a comment here or post them on your own blog and post a link here. Feel free to add, delete, or change the categories and have some fun with the open category at the end.

…And now for my winners!

  • Best Belgian Draught/Cask Beer – Saison Dupont… its just so damn drinkable! Alvinne Wild Undressed was a close second
  • Best Belgian Bottled Beer – Oerbier Reserva This beer knows how to please me!
  • Best International Draught/Cask Beer – Tough one, but perhaps Marble Decadence. I really enjoyed all the Marble cask beers at the Borefts Bierfestival… Damn fine beer
  • Best International Bottled Beer – Tied betweren Jolly Pumpkin Madrugada Obscura and Haandbryggeriet Dark Force
  • Best Beer based/induced Experience – Nocturnal Brew and BBQ at Alvinne
  • Best Beer Label – Odell’s St. Lupulin (I know it actually came out in 2009 but I didn’t see it then) Odell’s labels are great in general with their screen print style graphics. I’d love to have some large prints for my wall.
  • Best Belgian Brewery – Alvinne. Maybe it’s because I took a class there, maybe it was the collaboration brew I did with them, maybe it’s for all they do for craft beer in Belgium, maybe it’s because thery’re real good guys, or maybe it’s just because they brew some good beer and don’t mind taking a risk. Expect big things from them in the future.
  • Best International Brewery – Jolly Pumpkin
  • Pub/Bar of the Year – Moeder Lambic Fontainas
  • Beer Festival of the Year – First place goes to Pre-ZBF (from now on called the Alvinne Craft Beer Festival). Second place, De Molen’s Borefts Bierfestival
  • Beer Retailer of the Year – Alvinne. not only do they brew beer but they have a shop filled with gems from around the world… and that doesn’t happen in Belgium
  • Best Beer Book or Magazine – Pete Brown‘s Hops and Glory (again, I was late with that one)
  • Best Beer Blog or Website – First place- The Mad Fermentationist (great source of brewing inspiration). Second place- Thirsty Pilgrim (that boy can write)
  • Most interesting online pressence for a brewery: Real Brewing at the Sharp End with the 52 brews project.
  • Food and Beer Pairing of the Year – Alvino 2009 with smoked Pork Tenderloin
  • Beer I’m most looking forward to in 2011 – Brasserie Dupont’s Monk’s Stout
  • In 2011 I’d Most Like To…  Brew on a real brewery system… perhaps get a true Birdsong beer out there.
  • Open Category – I’m calling this the “Get On That” trophy (Goes to any beer or beer related thing that showed a lot of promise but just seemed to miss the mark. Also known as the “Better luck next year” trophy): unTappd. Far from perfect but this little app has been getting some use on my iPhone. It allows you to quickly post what you are drinking and where you are drinking it. If only it had a bit more social interaction and the ability to add a simple rating to ratebeer if you so desire… oh yeah, and throw in a dash of Pintley‘s reccomendations and Beercloud‘s food pairings, then you’ll have a winner (They all offer something, but none offer enough). So get on that unTappd peeps!

fermentation for the lazy

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I Finally got around to bottling my two 2+ year old dry meads. That is the nice thing about mead, it needs time to age before it’s really ready. Ok, that’s also the bad thing about it, but as long as you have enough beer around you should be able to just forget about it for a year… or more.

These two Canola honey meads were fermented with Wyeast Bordeaux and Kitzinger Tokaj. Both ended around 0.990 (coming down from almost 1.080), are very clear and are almost colorless. They are tasting nice but lacking something. I am starting to think that the drier a mead ends up, the more it needs some tannins from oak aging. Unfortunately neither of these received any oak. Lesson learned.

I’ll do a grand mead tasting somewhere in the future but right now I’ll just say that I quite like the character I am getting from the Tokaj yeast. I wonder what this would do in combination with some bugs in a sour beer? Perhaps a good candidate for a Test Pilot brew.

I also racked over my most recent mead. This Linden blossom mead marked my first attempt at a sweet mead. I took the approach of making a massive mead in hopes that the yeast would reach their alcohol tolerance and just give up, leaving behind unfermented sugars. Unfortunately the Kitzinger Bordeaux yeast took it down to 1.005 already and I expect that it will end even lower. So we’ll be looking at a massive 17%ABV dry mead!?! Oh well. I racked half of this mead onto Noorderkrieken (sour cherries) and the other half will be getting an addition of chipotle chilis in a couple of months. Then part of those two will be blended into an unexpectedly dry and boozy cherry-chipotle mead. Looking forward to that one!

testing testing

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As previously posted I will be supplimenting my all-grain brewing with some quick extract batches in the hopes that I can experiment more often. Well, after a friend (one of the few Mexicans in Belgium) handed me a bag of Chipotle peppers straight from the mother land, I knew my first experiment had to be a Chipotle pale ale. Chipotle peppers are not exactly common here in Belgium so I was very happy to receive these. I know I’m not the first brewer to throw some peppers in a beer but I’ve never done it and thought it was time to try it myself. Time for the innaugural “Test Pilot” brew!

The things I want to test with this 10 liter (2.6 US gallons) batch are:
  • the handling and amount of peppers to use in a beer
  • the combo of Nelson Sauvin and firey spice
  • smoke (from the smoked peppers) in a pale ale
  • only using late hop additions (30 min or less in boil)
    • chipotle peppers and hops

    I kept the malt extremely simple. I did however use some old extract I had in the cupboard as a portion of the total DME bill…. hmmm, maybe that wasn’t the best idea though. A touch of chocolate malt was steeped in the kettle before adding the malt extract and boiling. The roasted malt will hopefully support the smoke and give a touch of earthiness. Since extract has already had the snot boiled out of it in it’s creation, a full 60 minute boil is not needed, and since I was only adding late hops I only boiled for 30 minutes. I added the small amount of chipotle peppers with 5 min to go in boil and let the wort sit for 20 minutes before cooling. The sample I tasted did show a very low spice level in the back of the throat and a nice level of smoke. We’ll see what the yeast does with this. If the final flavor and spice level seem to be a going in the right direction than I do plan on brewing a more “serious” all-grain version. Man, I really hope that old DME won’t get in the way too much. Damn my cheapness!

    seduced by meat

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    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?