Beer Wednesday – Uinta Sum’r

Happy Beer Wednesday!

This week, I’m sticking with my insistence on drinking nothing but summer beers until the weather warms up continually. Well, Mother Nature has challenged me, and so the tease of 80 degree weather was followed by rainy 60 degree weather, but I will stand firm until I can’t keep my windows open for fear of melting.

To show her just how little I cared for her attitude, I decided to try an entire six-pack (not all at one) of Uinta Brewing’s organic summer ale, aptly named Sum’r.

This summer ale was bright, with a smooth, drinkable quality. The complete lack of a head is a little disappointing, but the sweet malt and smooth drinkability tried to make up for it. There wre hints of hay and a slight breadiness, but. . . just hints, with maybe a tease of lemon. Maybe.

I would have preferred a hoppier ale, or at least an ale that “tried” a little bit more. I mean, I understand that it is supposed to be refreshing and bright, and it is, but at the end of the day, I’d rather have a richer, hoppier, more full-bodied ale than such an easy-drinking beer.

Again, I get it, at 4% ABV and with just 17 IBUs, it really is an easy drinking beer, and if that’s your think, go to town.

It’s not really my thing. I’d go 2/5.

The First Ever Rehoboth Vegfest

Welcome to the first ever Rehoboth Vegfest!

Well, sort of…

Admittedly, this is not the actual first ever Rehoboth Vegfest, but I was there last weekend, although the Blonde beat me to it by hogging the computer last week, and getting her post out first .

We were joined by Jason and Kristin from The High Impact Vegan and Nathanial and Rissa from Baltimore Vegan Drinks.

This was the first time that I ever stayed to listen to some of the speakers, and while I admit that I’m already familiar with a lot of the information that was presented, I was still impressed with the speakers themselves.

The speakers were both informative. . .

 

and entertaining.

My favorite two speakers were the two cooking displays put on by Gretchen Hanson of Hobo’s Restaurant and Ruby Lathon. Admittedly, watching Chef Gretchen battle with her lack of power to the hotplates she was using was amusing, in a slightly sadistic way, but seeing her handle it with grace and aplomb, and no shortage of humor, made me feel bad about how often I get frustrated in the kitchen.

If you’ve never been to a Vegfest, then all I can say is that you should. They are a boon to any community’s vegan, vegetarians, and veg-curious, and if you can drag an omnivore or two with you, all the better. Neither of you will be disappointed, and it might get the omni to think twice before ordering meat in a restaurant.

According to Wikipedia, a Vegfest “is an annual vegetarian food festival held in numerous locations around the world [that] promote[s] veganism and vegetarianism, healthy lifestyles, environmentalism, community spirit and animal rights.” Or, It’s a ton of vegan and vegetarian companies, restaurants, and organizations that have a day to show off how easy and awesome it can be to go vegan.

And, they’re all over the place! No, seriously, one of the Blonde’s bucketlist items is to go to every Vegfest, which is going to be difficult, as more and more vegans equals more and more Vegfests. (BTW, did you know that I encouraged Jason, from Jason and the Veganauts to look into his first Vegfest, where they asked him to be a speaker!) The list is constantly growing, but if you just Google “Vegfest” a bunch come up, and then it’s just a question of digging  and narrowing down your search.

After we finished at the Vegfest, however, a trip to Hobo’s Restaurant was in order.

The six of us got a ton of food, and passed it around until we could eat no more. Now, I’d go into more detail, but Chef Gretchen is one of the rare chefs who wants to come out and meet her patrons, and since she had seen us at the Vegfest, we were lucky enough to sit and talk with her for a few minutes, and I was push enough to ask her if she would mind if I interviewed her for the blog, and she said “yes,” which is pretty cool, so stay tuned. . .

All of which to say, we ate a ton, and it was all awesome.

Once we were done stuffing our faces, Nataniel and Rissa had to run, but we four, troopers that we are, decided to go to Dogfish Head’s brewpub, which is right in Rehoboth, and Jason and I split two flights of the beer samplers, and chased with with a bottle of their Immort Ale. This is the reason that I can’t give many more details about things. from that point on. . .

We had ‘smores, and relaxed later on, but really, the highlights of the day were Hobo’s and the speakers. The awesomeness that is my first interview makes me really excited, and, separately, more positive feedback on my seitan sausages from Jason and Kristin made me feel pretty good. . .

So, where is your local Vegfest, and have you been there? (P.S. Somer, over at Vedged Out is starting to start to plan the first ever Mountain West Vegfest in Utah. She said so on this very blog.)

Beer Wednesday – Magic Hat #9

Happy Beer Wednesday!

How does the song go? “If you believe in magic, come along with me. . .” Well, I admit it, I believe. I believe in Magic Hat.

The Magic Hat #9 is the first Magic Hat brew that I’ve drunk, and while I was extremely skeptical about an apricot “Not Quite Pale Ale,” I was rally pleased with how eay it went down and the not overpowering apricot flavor.

Now, at 5.1% ABV, I figure I could drink these all night and still know my name, but when I’m drinking an ale, I want it to have a good hop bite, and this just didn’t have that. Not that it didn’t taste good, but I prefer the richness that a good, rich IPA has. The Magic Hat was just the slightest bit thin in both hops and in companion fruit.

A little bit more apricot, and it may have been a pretty solid lambic, while more hops might have made it a better ale. Overall, I’d give this beer a 3/5. It’s certainly drinkable, but not an awesome as I would have liked. . .

Which came first. . . ?

So, in case you haven’t been paying attention, there are some amazing new vegan food products on the market. And when I say “new,” I really mean “new-ish” and not “BRAND NEW” in an amazing-I’m-breaking-news-here sort of way. The Blonde an I have ben lucky enough to use two of them, and we those are the two I’m going to talk about today.

Are you familiar with the vegan egg replacement called The Vegg?

The Vegg is a vegan egg yolk replacement that is eerily like an egg yolk. We’ve only tried it twice, and the first time was a complete failure. Mostly my fault. . . The Vegg is meant to be an ingredient in stuff, and it will not make scrambled Veggs. IT just kind of thickens and turns gloppy if you cook it alone. We tried. . . The second time it was much better. We used it as a base for a tofu scramble, and it became a little creepy how much like an egg it tasted. The Vegg’s ingredients are listed right on their website, (Nutritional Yeast Flakes, Sodium Alginate, Kala Namak, Beta-Carotene) and if you go digging, you can probably find the proportions too, but it’s basically two thickeners, an Indian black salt, and coloring.

The kala namak is really the key, though. This Indian slat has enough sulfur in it that you can clearly smell the eggy smell in the bag of powdered Vegg.

A little creepy for vegans? Yup. Incredibly convenient for when you’re making an egg-less salad or quiche that you’ll be sharing with omnivores? Also yup!

Well, which did come first, The Vegg, or Beyond Meat Chicken? In this household, it was Beyond Meat first, but that’s probably because we live in Maryland and it’s a Maryland company.

If you haven’t had Beyond Meat, you’re missing out. Because we’re lucky, we’ve had access to Beyond Meat at Roots Market, a local natural foods grocery store, for a while, so we’re pretty familiar with it. It costs about the same as organic chicken, so if as an omnivore you were concerned about both the quality and the price of the food you were eating, this is pretty comparable. I’ve seen it in “grilled” and “barbecue,” and both are really pretty good.

Here’s the problem with Beyond Meat being so chicken-like. You can’t really tell that it’s not chicken.

Now don’t get em wrong, that’s a great problem for a vegan meat manufacturer to have. My sisters-in-law had a little trouble differentiating when we brought it over, and they were just eating it out of the container. We hadn’t made chicken salad or cooked it in anything, we just popped the top and offered it.

However, did you hear not too long ago about the mix up at Whole Foods, where they accidentally mis-labeled vegan chick’n salad and non-vegan chicken salad? You know why no one noticed it as they were eating?

Because it was Beyond Meat.

When a product is mimicking something, and the consumer can’t tell which is which, it leaves us far more open to errors like this. “Oops” is not a word I want to hear around my food. Ever.

Mind you, I’m still going to eat Beyond Meat, and we’ll still use the Vegg as we prepare things that once called for an egg. I mean, they taste good, so, it’s a no-brainer. But even still, in the back of my head is a little voice asking me how close can vegan products can get to animal products, and what will that mean? Will we no longer have to reply to “where do you get your protein?” when these products become so mainstream that everyone is familiar with them? But, won’t we have to then respond to “If you want something that tastes just like chicken, why not eat chicken?”

Am I being paranoid? Sometimes I can’t tell. . .

Beer Wednesday – Rhizing Bines

Happy Beer Wednesday! This week I’m happy to be sharing a beer that I bought at Dogfish Head’s brewery when I went on their brewery tour. First, a little back story though:

What the heck is a “bine” anyway?

Well, according to the World English Dictionary, a bine is “ the climbing or twining stem of any of various plants, such as the woodbine or bindweed,” Do you know what every beer-drinker’s favorite bine is? Yup! it’s the hop! I mean, where would be all be without this twining, smiling biney flower?

Hence the name for this impressive PA: Rhizing Bines, but Dogfish Head

This IPA is actually a collaboration between Dogfish Head and Sierra Nevada (both great craft breweries, if I do so say so myself), and it  goes beyond the simple “IPA” label.  billed as “using the best of both coasts,” I was really impressed with this rich, smooth IPA. The “Carolina-grown red fife wheat” and the “estate-grown caramel malt” blend together to create a terrific and delicious version of an IPA.

Now, I tend to prefer my IPAs a little hoppier, but this one still had a bitter, citrusy flavor that you would hope for from an IPA. It was clear and a beautiful golden color, with a bright nose that hinted of hops, but with a sweetness that the flavor delivered. The sweetness may have been a bit strong, but I’m splitting hairs to complain.

Was it amazing? Not really. Was it really good? Well, yes, yes it was. I was really happy when I started drinking it. Rich, and flavorful, Rhizing Bines impressed me with its complexity. You could taste the malt, but it never competed with the hops, and with a fully drinkable ABV (8%) I went ahead and drank all 25 ounces (because, well, why not?).

Leaving that aside, the artwork on the label was suggestive of the usual Dogfish Head work, and the freshness reminded me of Sierra Nevada’s Pale Ale. On the down side, I do prefer my IPAs a little hoppier than this was, and I do wish that the beer had a bit more to separate it from other beers.

To rate this, I’d give it a 3.5/5. It’s a solid IPA, rich an flavorful, but it left me feeling just the tiniest bit flat.

Eating out at Veggie Heaven

The last time the Blonde and I went up to Jersey to visit my folks, she introduced me to a restaurant named “Veggie Heaven.” (she blogged about her first trip there here.)

An Asian restaurant, Veggie Heaven is also all vegan, although they don’t call themselves vegan, just vegetarian.

We ordered an appetizer of “B.B.Q. Stick (Beef and Chicken),” and I was actively surprised when they arrived, because I was genuinely concerned for a minute that they were using actual beef.

I had the same thought when I got my entree, a Thai coconut Red curry hotpot, because of the flavor and texture of the meats.

One of the memories that I have of take-out Chinese food is that the cuts of beef were always thin, stringy, and fatty. As if they couldn’t afford good cuts of beef, and had to make do with whatever leftovers they could get.

Now, I agree that that doesn’t sound in any way appealing, but that is exactly what the meats at Veggie Heaven reminded me of.

They were more meaty than Gardein, Tofurkey, FieldRoast, or any other replacement meat, including my own seitan. They explain that that their “‘meat’. ‘poultry’ and ‘seafood’ are made from bean curd, taro root, wheat gluten, mushrooms, yams and other vegetables” right on their place mats, and that homemade recipe must be what really sets them apart.

Their dessert was also nuts. It was one of the specials, a chocolate-mocha ice cream cake, with hot fudge. Like all of their food, it was delicious, and just the tiniest bit unnerving.

I’m not sure that I’m ambitious enough to even consider trying to replicate their food, although the idea of putting some time in once school ends and summer is here is tempting. Of course, asking you to try it first is even more tempting, so if you were willing to try it, you could always let me know, you know. . .

Just sayin’. . .

Beer Wednesday – Hop Head Red

Happy Beer Wednesday! This week, I’m happy to bring you a review of Green Flash Brewery’s Hop Head Red Red IPA.

This tasty, tasty beer falls perfectly into my desire to only drink Summer beers until the temperature climbs, and it seems to be working, The high just last week was in the 80s, and I expect to see it get a bit higher each day.

The Hop Head Red had a really nice head, with some bright nose, and rich under layers. Pine? Strawberry? The usual suspects of citrus were present, but maybe more orange than grapefruit. The flavor was rich, but not overpoweringly hoppy, which was good, because I paired it with jambalaya for dinner.

The red IPA has a 7.0% ABV, and 70 IBUs makes it rich, but not too heavy, and it has good bite, but it has little to no harshness in it. Overall, as Ambers go, this one is really, really good. I’d give it a 4/5, if not a little bit better. . .

Someday, I’ll come up with a better rating system. . .