JP Eats Food Blog. Welcome to my food (and wine) blog. I am very lucky to enjoy good food and wine pretty frequently. I also spend a good deal of time learning and experimenting with both. The point of this blog is to share some of that with you as well as help me remember foods, wines, and little bits and pieces of information I pick up along the way. I rarely take pictures in nice restaurants, so most of what you see here comes from my kitchen, my friends' kitchens, or various casual and local hot spots. You can hit the archive, or never miss a post with rss.
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A few beers from Maine Beer Company. Yesterday I was introduced to a brewery that I had never heard of, and it turns out their beers are some of the best I’ve ever tried. Part of me feels like I must’ve been living under a rock, but their beer is truly rare as they are highly focused on things other than marketing and broad distribution. These are fresh, hoppy, balanced, easy to enjoy beers in kind of east (coast) meets west (coast) style. If you see them, buy them—just save some for me!
Stone’s Enjoy By (04.01.13 edition) makes an appearance in NYC. I thought I was going to miss this when I didn’t see it anywhere for a week after release, but then a secret knock and a wink later, one emerged from a back room of a local store. At any rate, this is crazy beer. It is undeniably the freshest hop profile you’ll find in any commercially available beer. I really like that about it. But it’s also a bruiser— not just the nearly 10% alcohol, but the bitterness and hops make it a bit of a challenge to put away the whole large bottle. Still, I’ll look forward to unearthing and drinking a bottle from the next release.
Ithaca Picnic Basket Pale Wheat Ale. Having gone to Cornell and lived in Ithaca, I’ve had plenty of opportunity to sample Ithaca Beer Company’s offerings. This one is by far my favorite, but it must also be the most expensive when you consider that to drink it you have to dine at Eleven Madison Park.
Does anyone know if you can find it elsewhere? Is it by any chance the same or similar to their White Gold Pale Wheat Ale?
Stone Brewing 05.05.05 and 06.06.06 Vertical Epic Ales at the Stone World Bistro and Gardens. Unfortunately I wasn’t at the Epic Festival to taste the full line up of anniversary ales, but getting to taste these two was just fine.
Dogfish Head 75 Minute IPA. As a long time fan of Dogfish Head, I’m always excited to try their new offerings. The 75 Minute is my favorite in a long while. It’s closer to the 90 Minute in flavor profile and quality than it is to the 60 Minute (the 60 is a bit boring to me), with just a touch more sweetness than either from the maple syrup. The best part is that it’s missing boozy quality of the 90 Minute so you won’t get a headache if you decide to go back for another. I’d love to see this get produced year round!
The tour of Icelandic food continues with Black Death beer. While the other Icelandic beers such as Viking weren’t particularly interesting, this stout was really nice.
Dogish Head Festina Peche. DFH describes this as a neo-Berliner Weisse… OK, sure. Basically this is a deliberately acidic ale fermented with peaches for a fruity kick. What’s great about it is that the acidity balances out the fruitiness to make for the perfect beverage for these ridiculously hot summer days we’ve been having in NYC. Highly recommended for that purpose.
Dogfish Head-Stone-Victory Saison du Buff. A fun collaboration beer from three of my favorite breweries. It’s a fairly light, somewhat Belgian-styled ale that is really dominated by the infused herbal notes. You can really smell each of the components—rosemary, parsley, sage, and thyme, with the rosemary the most prominent. I can’t imagine opening one of these up to drink on it’s own or when I crave a beer… but with the focaccia and good Parmesan I drank it with, it was great.
Dogfish Head’s Aprihop, the 2012 version is now available. This beer used to be too fruity for me, but in 2010 they transformed it into a true IPA that also happens to be brewed with and tastes like apricots. The 2012 is delicious and Aprihop is quickly becoming a welcome sign of spring each year.
Dogfish Head Punkin Ale. I love the fall. In the last two days, the temperatures dropped, I had my first PSL of the season, and Dogfish Head released their 2011 Punkin Ale. What better way to enjoy the first NY Giants game of the season than with a tray of nachos and one of my favorite beers of the fall? This year’s Punkin is very similar to last year’s in style—lot’s of great brown ale characteristics, a nice dose of baking spices, and subtle pumpkin. Now let’s hope the G-Men win some games.
