Beers & Burgs
After a round of golf last friday, I bought a couple of beers. A 22oz. bottle of Six Rivers Brewery Chili Pepper Spicy Ale and a six pack of Great Divide Brewing Company Claymore Scotch Ale.
Based on the reviews of the Six Rivers on Beer Advocate*, I decided not to open this one on my own while watching the Super Rugby final, but to take it to the following day's board gaming & BBQ at Beau's. I needn't have worried. It turns out that this is a decent beer, strongly tasting of jalapenos, but not unbearably hot for me. Admittedly, the pepper taste does rather overwhelm any taste the beer might have, but it was a fun novelty beer. It turns out that a few really low reviews manage to lower the overall rating substantially - an object lesson in reading reviews, not review scores. I don't think I'd buy a six pack, but I think I could drink a whole 22.
The Claymore Scotch Ale (made in Denver, CO.) has a lot of sweet malty caramel all through it, and some body to it, but isn't especially solid. It's perhaps a little heavy for a Los Angeles Summer, and it's not usually the kind of beer I have about the house, but it filled the role admirably. It has a suggested food pairing on the side, but unsurprisingly I'm not cooking lamb shanks at this time of year...
This evening Grill Em All were at the Eagle Rock Brewery, a short drive up the road, so a bunch of us headed up for some quality burgers and quality beers. Grill Em All's special today was the Sabu (presumably after the ECW wrestler): "Behold! THE SABU! Chicken tikki masala, homemade paneer, yogurt corriander spread, on garlic naan-style bun IMAGE", the remains of which are sitting next to my netbook now, making my room smell of naan. Delicious! the burger came with a fork, and just as well as it lacked coherency. It came with a delicious curry aioli which I duely slathered over the burger after the chicken had slipped out almost as soon as I picked it up. The eating process therefore involved placing chicken chunks back in the burger on a bite-by-bite basis. I'm seldom one to let a little ritual get in the way of my appreciation of food, so it was no problem.
As accompaniment, I had the much sought after, seldom sighted (and never before by me) H-100s, their hand-rolled, cheddar stuffed, tatter-tots. I selected the malt vinegar aioli as the dipping sauce. That stuff is always amazing. I wish I had chosen a less substantial burger as the tots were definitely best when hot. The mashed potato is well peppered and the cheese is definitely present, but not overwhelming as can sometimes happen with cheese-stuffed foods.
Back on the beer front, I had a "pint"** of the Ginger Saison, a belgian style with a strong ginger taste. It was very tasty, if not as good as the Dux's Ginger Tom for my money, but I'm not a huge fan of Belgian-style beers, so a tulip was the perfect serving size. My second pint was the Populist IPA, a magnificent brew with a distinct taste of grapes, as in the taste of pulling a bunch off the wine in the back garden and munching on them, with that distinctive grape-skin flavour. Yum!
* A selection:"It feels like someone stuck their hand down your throat and pulled on your tonsils with a chili pepper glove."; "Really disgusting. Awful. Horrible. Disgusting. Unbearable. Nearly everyone consuming this almost vomited."; "If you seek the novelty of this, strain some rancid salsa and splash some MGD64 in for a "beer" presence. Blargh.")
** Seriously America, sort your shit out. Everything else is big, enough with the undersize pints.
Based on the reviews of the Six Rivers on Beer Advocate*, I decided not to open this one on my own while watching the Super Rugby final, but to take it to the following day's board gaming & BBQ at Beau's. I needn't have worried. It turns out that this is a decent beer, strongly tasting of jalapenos, but not unbearably hot for me. Admittedly, the pepper taste does rather overwhelm any taste the beer might have, but it was a fun novelty beer. It turns out that a few really low reviews manage to lower the overall rating substantially - an object lesson in reading reviews, not review scores. I don't think I'd buy a six pack, but I think I could drink a whole 22.
The Claymore Scotch Ale (made in Denver, CO.) has a lot of sweet malty caramel all through it, and some body to it, but isn't especially solid. It's perhaps a little heavy for a Los Angeles Summer, and it's not usually the kind of beer I have about the house, but it filled the role admirably. It has a suggested food pairing on the side, but unsurprisingly I'm not cooking lamb shanks at this time of year...
This evening Grill Em All were at the Eagle Rock Brewery, a short drive up the road, so a bunch of us headed up for some quality burgers and quality beers. Grill Em All's special today was the Sabu (presumably after the ECW wrestler): "Behold! THE SABU! Chicken tikki masala, homemade paneer, yogurt corriander spread, on garlic naan-style bun IMAGE", the remains of which are sitting next to my netbook now, making my room smell of naan. Delicious! the burger came with a fork, and just as well as it lacked coherency. It came with a delicious curry aioli which I duely slathered over the burger after the chicken had slipped out almost as soon as I picked it up. The eating process therefore involved placing chicken chunks back in the burger on a bite-by-bite basis. I'm seldom one to let a little ritual get in the way of my appreciation of food, so it was no problem.
As accompaniment, I had the much sought after, seldom sighted (and never before by me) H-100s, their hand-rolled, cheddar stuffed, tatter-tots. I selected the malt vinegar aioli as the dipping sauce. That stuff is always amazing. I wish I had chosen a less substantial burger as the tots were definitely best when hot. The mashed potato is well peppered and the cheese is definitely present, but not overwhelming as can sometimes happen with cheese-stuffed foods.
Back on the beer front, I had a "pint"** of the Ginger Saison, a belgian style with a strong ginger taste. It was very tasty, if not as good as the Dux's Ginger Tom for my money, but I'm not a huge fan of Belgian-style beers, so a tulip was the perfect serving size. My second pint was the Populist IPA, a magnificent brew with a distinct taste of grapes, as in the taste of pulling a bunch off the wine in the back garden and munching on them, with that distinctive grape-skin flavour. Yum!
* A selection:"It feels like someone stuck their hand down your throat and pulled on your tonsils with a chili pepper glove."; "Really disgusting. Awful. Horrible. Disgusting. Unbearable. Nearly everyone consuming this almost vomited."; "If you seek the novelty of this, strain some rancid salsa and splash some MGD64 in for a "beer" presence. Blargh.")
** Seriously America, sort your shit out. Everything else is big, enough with the undersize pints.