Bites 'n Brews

Just stumbled across this the other day.
I absolutely love this. It’s a pretty accurate description of my life, actually! I was so dead set on acting – so much that I was centering my entire life around auditions, not taking any breaks or vacations just in case a really important audition came in, and really had no other interests or prospects in life. I began this blog partially as a distraction; something else to do instead of put all of my focus into filming auditions, scanning the breakdowns and reading sides, and I ended up falling in love with it.

I also began to gain respect for beer and explore the world of brewing: my blog was a way to document everything I learned and all the beers I tried. Then, last May, we went to the Small Batch Revival at Odell Brewing in Fort Collins.
I “got lost and found a better one”.
The countdown to my Cicerone test/aka my new dream has officially begun. Time to go lose myself in my beer books. Again.

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Tagged as Cicerone, Sometimes on the way to the dream you get lost and find a better one

I haven’t watched the Superbowl in YEARS. The last time I recall sitting down for an entire game was when I was living in Colorado and the Broncos were attempting a Threepeat. I needed a distraction on Sunday after the terrible morning and then being in mourning for the little pup, so when the EBC crew invited me to watch with them, I took them up on their offer. And I brought cake.
First, we made sure to overdose on these soft pretzels and relish mustard that the chef at Wolf Creek brought for us. We are the reluctant guinea pigs for his new recipes. It’s a tough job, but somebody we have to do it.
Commander Matt went gourmet on us and wrapped miniature hot dogs in crescent rolls, served with a fancy half ‘n half barbecue/ketchup dish.
Brie went SUPER gourmet and brought homemade carne asada, fried up some homemade tortilla chips and made a huge tub of freaking delicious guacamole. I was uncomfortably full, so obviously I had to bake the cake.
I used one of my remaining coupons from Duncan Hines and purchased the Decadent Apple Caramel cake mix – holy deliciousness. Even though I was stuffed, I was unable to stop myself from eating a huge chunk of this, smothered in frosting. If you’re not up for the slightly more labor intensive Sticky Apple Toffee Pudding Cupcakes, this is a good substitute that also tastes delicious.
Yet another good thing about working with/being friends with brewers is that beer for such occasions is always on hand. We brought back a big growler of Protector IPA to enjoy along with the fancy spread of foods.

Oh yeah, and we watched the Superbowl. That happened too.

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Tagged as Decadent Apple Caramel, Duncan Hines, foods, Superbowl

Yesterday was my little pup’s birthday. It was also her last day with us here on earth.

Happy 13th birthday, Buddha!
I’m sorry I gave you such horrible hackjob haircuts. It was for your own comfort, I swear!
We’ll miss how you enjoyed the little things in life. Apples…
Chips…
More chips…
Fighting for chips…
Car rides… Sleeps…
And smiles. We love you, little Sonoma!
Happy birthday, Buddha.

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Tagged as Buddha, goodbye sweet puppy, Sonoma

If you’ve been following me for over a year, you may have seen my recaps of a film I did back in August of 2010 called Summer Campbell. If you want to read through, they’re all listed below:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 4.5
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8

It’s a lot to go through, I know, but it gives you plenty of behind-the-scenes info in order to prep you for….
SUMMER CAMPBELL – the movie in all of its glory! Well, two parts which combine to be all of its glory…

I know this has nothing to do with beer, except for the fact that there is someone drinking what is most likely beer in the first part, but I hope you enjoy it all the same!

And HUGE props to Scott Sullivan – director and editor extraordinaire, as well as the many deliciously talented people on the cast and crew who turned this into such an amazing production!

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Tagged as Becki Kregoski, Boa Simon, David Hudson, Jenny Hou, Jordan Youmans, Madisen Hill, Scott Sullivan, short film, Summer Campbell

Happy Tuesday! Beautiful day to be alive, isn’t it? Today, I met up with my best friend from way back in middle school at Golden Road Brewing.
Adore this girl. You may remember her from my visit to Craft & Commerce in Little Italy back in May.
Oh, how I’ve missed my fellow TAG (Talented and Gifted – yes, we were nerds back then… still are…) friend!
They don’t have any taster flights yet, so I got a sip of all the house beers on tap and then settled for the low ABV Hefeweizen. Delicious and perfect for a 70 degree day in Los Angeles.
We decided to split a whole mess of deliciousness. This was the Rosemary Turkey Club – peppered bacon, white cheddar cheese and beer-braised turkey with parsley aioli. This was demolished.
I had to order the Coconut “Noodle” Salad again. This is so flavorful and full of happiness and health. This negates every calorie I absorbed today. Cuz there are vegetables in it. And it’s vegan. End of story.
These deep-fried wild mushroom risotto fritters were totally cancelled out by that salad above! I had the maple fritters the first time, which were delicious, but these knocked those babies out of the ballpark! Full of earthy mushroom flavor and topped with vegan pimento cheese, fried to a fluffy crisp. I can honestly say that I had NO IDEA that the dip was vegan! I may have scraped the remains out with a spoon. And by may, I mean I did.
Deep-fried deliciousness. My fingers were smothered in that “cheese” sauce.
The orzo pasta – also vegan and delicious! The perfectly tender roasted veggies and orzo pasta are lightly tossed in a fresh olive oil and balsamic dressing. I tend to avoid vegan foods in rebellion of my bro and his wife being vegan (I’m ridiculous and crave excessive amounts of pulled pork when we go to visit them in Colorado), but Golden Road has completely changed my perspective!
My gorgeous cousin, Allie, stopped by after her nursing class! They weren’t perturbed by me taking mass amounts of pictures at all… Two of my favorite girls in the entire world. Insert smiley face here.
(This picture is so awesome it needed to be used twice)
Kim ordered a gigantic soft pretzel (they were out of the “small” pretzels) that included more of that delicious vegan pimento cheese and the HOTTEST horseradish mustard I have ever tasted. Kim took a bite and turned bright red with watery eyes to match. Please use with caution.
Delicious pretzel face – a little over the top with salt, but once you scrape that off, it’s perfectly soft and surprisingly flavorful.
This was recommended to me by Michelle, who stopped into Enegren Brewing’s tasting room a few months ago. Thank God for Twitter, eh? BLATANT ADVERTISEMENT TO FOLLOW – MY TWITTER, UNTAPPD and FACEBOOK PAGE! My apologies.
Let’s take a closer look, shall we? Croissant bread pudding covered with brown sugar, salted caramel (an actual OMG moment – and I HATE it when people say OMG) and fresh whipped cream. Michelle – from the bottom of my heart, thank you for encouraging me to order this! We ordered a second one after we’d finished licking the plate. I’ve said this a few times, but this is the most up-to-date BEST BREAD PUDDING I’VE HAD! I’m willing to try more to make sure that this claim is true…

And that was my Tuesday! The brewery visit was necessary in order to recover from last night – working an event for Enegren down in Oxnard for The Kitchen which was featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives! What an amazing party!
I wore my brewniform…
…served tons of beer samples to the gigantic crowd…
…and have a huge list of people who now want to come visit the brewery! If you’re up for it, tasting hours are listed here!
And here’s a random picture of my early morning hike. Just because. Happy Tuesday!

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Tagged as BEST BREAD PUDDING EVER, bread pudding, brewniform, Coconut "Noodle" Salad, Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, fritters, gigantic soft pretzels, Golden Road Brewing, Oxnard, The Kitchen, vegan

During all of the tastings I’ve done with Grayson and Frank up in Santa Barbara, we’ve utilized the following method for our empirical research. In addition to what’s below, we also take notes on aroma, appearance, flavor, mouthfeel and overall impression.
For your tastings, you can download the above scoresheet here. This is a great tool, along with the flavor wheel, to help increase your “flavor vocabulary” when it comes to figuring out if a beer is roasty, toasty, nutty, grassy, grainy, yeasty, acetic, etc. There are TONS of different descriptors out there and it’s good to be able to verbalize the subtle differences between each substyle.

Ever single beer I consume at home is now accompanied by this:
I have the different style guidelines printed out from the BJCP, and sip through each beer while reading them and comparing beer to paper expectations.
Lost Coast Downtown Brown was my latest tasting. This one is relatively close to style except for being a little thinner-bodied than the guidelines state, as well as having a lower hop bitterness. The aroma starts off with burnt caramel and slight toffee and just a hint of cocoa at the end. Medium-high carbonation with a slightly thin body full of caramel sweetness and slight roasty notes. No finishing hop bitterness. At 5%abv, this beer is an easy drinker! As of now it’s my favorite brown, but I prefer it much more on draft.
This is the best way to enjoy a tasting – gorgeous sunsets and warm weather. Thank God it’s January, eh?

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Tagged as beer flavor wheel, BJCP Guidelines, How to taste beer, Lost Coast Downtown Brown

Last night was the beginning of Ladyface Ale Comapnie’s second anniversary! It also happened to be a Ladies at Ladyface night. Awesome.
My mumsie and I split a flight of the “Last of the Best”, which ended up being a bunch of Ladyface beers that had been spiked with Brettanomyces or Lactobacillus and aged in barrels with some extra additions.
Not quite sure what I was expecting, but this was delicious! The sours were actually sour – not the syrupy sweet that you taste in a Lindeman lambic. Adored almost all of them. I had two I fell head over heels for: the Le Cerise – the sour cherry ale that was a lambic style, but instead of sickly sweet it had a delicate lacy finish of tart cherries. The other: Verrückt Weizen – Ladyface’s Weizenbock that was spiked with Lactobacillus and Pediococcus, then aged in a Cabernet Sauvignon barrel.
Todd’s India Brown Ale was next on the list – Ladyface’s IPA with tons of chocolate malt thrown in, giving it a rich color and a malty chocolate flavor. I paired this taster with our main dish of the night.
Belgian ale-braised short ribs with melted leeks and root vegetables. I wish this picture didn’t make it look like chocolate cake. It was tender, decadent and melted on the tongue. I have no idea how they “melt” leeks, but I will never look at a leek the same way again! This is one of those meals I dream about. Pairing this rich dish with the India Brown was the perfect combination. Pardon me while I attempt to stop drooling.
I also had to order the mac and cheese with bacon and jalapeño. Delicious, but the short ribs blew everything else out of the water. Drooling again in remembrance.
Seeing that it was Ladyface’s second birthday, Cyrena brought out some celebratory bread pudding! I was stuffed to the gills, but couldn’t be rude and deny bread pudding! Manners… yes, that’s why I ate the entire thing…
We had the regular group of ladies there last night, plus a few newbies.
We ended the night with our new Ladies at Ladyface t-shirts and a Ladyface second anniversary tulip glass. My tulip glass happened to be full of the Le Cerise.
If you purchase one of these glasses, you can bring it in in the future and get happy hour priced pints! Epic. Just plain epic.

Time for another beer tasting! Brown ale is on the menu, complimented by a long sheet of BJCP guidelines. Study time!

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Tagged as Ladies at Ladyface, Ladyface Ale, Last of the Best, Le Cerise, Todd's India Brown Ale, tulip glass, Verrückt Weizen

Welcome to the second edition of pairing food and beer! This recipe is compliments of my mumsie who threw a bunch of random things into a bowl and made delicious magic!

Sweet and Sour Chicken with Quinoa
(Serves 4-6 people)
Ingredients:
2 lbs chicken breast, chopped
2 tbsp gin
1/3 cup soy sauce
3 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 can of chopped pineapple, drained
1/2 cup pineapple juice
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 cup quinoa, dry
2 cups water or chicken broth

1. In a large bowl, combine the chicken, gin, soy sauce, olive oil, onion, bell peppers, pineapple and pineapple juice. Stir well, cover and let marinate for 1-4 hours.
2. With a slotted spoon, remove vegetables and chicken and spread one even layer on a cookie sheet covered with foil.
3. Take the marinade and bring to a boil in a small saucepan. Add the balsamic vinegar and simmer until reduced by 1/3.
4. Bake vegetables and chicken in an oven preheated to 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 10-20 minutes, stirring occasionally until chicken is no longer pink inside.
5. Remove the chicken from the trays and place in a bowl, covered to keep warm.
6. Bake the vegetables until soft and golden – about 15 more minutes.
7. Cook quinoa according to directions on package, substituting chicken broth for water.
8. Serve everything together, drizzled with the marinade reduction.

Deliciousness marinating!
Spread in