|
Happy Valentine's Day! I believe this is the first ever edition of the Fresh Beer Times to actually come out on V-day. On this most romantic day of the year, our thoughts turn to our loved ones and how we can express our affection to them. Hopefully if you are reading this, you have already made your plan(s). If not...time to get to work and I wish you good luck. Typically on Valentines our thoughts turn to chocolates and wine, a fancy dinner at that romantic restaurant you have been meaning to go to, or of course flowers. And if you are going the flowers route....enjoy the overinflated prices that the florist is going to get you for. They surely take advantage of this holiday to make money. I have another suggestion though...beer. What else would I suggest?!?
For the most part, Valentine's Day hasn't been considered a beer holiday. But I can think of a lot of different beers that would be awesome to share with your significant other in a romantic setting. Where wine finds trouble is when it is matched up with chocolate but this is where beer can be perfectly paired. A nice coffee porter, a double chocolate stout, or any stout for that matter will balance the sweetness of chocolate and make your palate sing. Or how about a framboise or strawberry lambic paired with chocolate. The fruit flavors dance with the rich creamy textures and give the effect of a chocolate covered fruit. But don't limit it to dessert, there is no reason your entire meal cannot be an opportunity to pair great beers along with several courses. You don't have to be at a Valentine's beer dinner to experience this. There are many restaurants these days with enough selections to create your own beer pairing dinner.
So before you do the typical on this Valentine's day, step out of the box and treat your loved one to an experience that they will remember and include beer in this celebration of your love.
Adam Fine
Director of Hoperations
|
UPCOMING EVENTS
(for more info click on the event title)
|
|
NEW AND RETURNING PRODUCTS
VISIT OUR BEERFINDER TO FIND THESE PRODUCTS
|
Robust and smooth, this full-flavored lager is exceptionably drinkable and pitch black in color.
COMING TO FLORIDA IN MID FEBRUARY
|
Uinta Wyld Extra Pale Ale
A lighter bodied pale ale, this EPA is aggressively dry hopped to showcase fresh hop flavors and aromas. Begins with slight malt flavor with a subtle sweetness. Hop character pounces with citrus and pine notes. Finishes dry with an infusion of sweet hoppiness. (Happiness, too.) Go wild with food pairings. Wyld is versatile and partners well with burgers, pork loin , grilled steak and poultry. Delicious with salmon-grilled or smoked. Try Wyld with a slice of romano cheese.
COMING TO FLORIDA IN MID FEBRUARY
|
Uinta Dubhe Imperial Black IPA
Toasted, chocolaty dark malts align with an astronomical amount of hops. Named Utah's Centennial Star in 1996, Dubhe (pronounced Doo-bee) illuminates the front of the big dipper from 124 light years away. Dubhe, also known as Alpha Ursae Majoris, is a red giant that appears orange in color and has a mass 4x that of the sun.
COMING TO FLORIDA IN MID FEBRUARY
|
Uinta Detour Double India Pale Ale
Detour blazes the trail for fresh and bold Double IPAs. Four varieties of hops combine to step up the flavor profile. A hoppy adventure that finishes dry. Big in alcohol and character. Venture to pair with other spirited flavors such as those found in spicy ethnic foods.
COMING TO FLORIDA IN MID FEBRUARY
|
Uinta Labyrinth Black Ale
Black Ale aged in rye barrels
COMING TO FLORIDA IN MID FEBRUARY
|
Bold and refreshing, this IPA combines an abundance of hops with a smooth malt profile.
COMING TO FLORIDA IN MID FEBRUARY
|
Inspired by Owner Will Hamill and Headbrewer Kevin Ely's recent trip to Germany to inspect new brewhouse equipment, Tinder is a German-style Rauchbier (Smoked Beer) that kindles moderate malty sweetness and robust smokiness. Brewed with Bamberg beechwood-smoked malt, this medium-bodied lager ignites distinct campfire smoke flavors and aroma.
COMING TO FLORIDA IN MID FEBRUARY
|
Uinta Sea Legs Baltic Porter
Complex and drinkable, Sea Legs delivers flavors of roasted malt and chocolate. Sea Legs was aged in Bourbon Barrels for nearly 12 months adding toasted vanilla and bourbon notes to the flavor profile. This Medium-bodied Baltic Porter has a complex malt profile and mild hop bitterness. With a hidden ABV of 8%, Sea Legs is a siren of a beer.
COMING TO FLORIDA IN MID FEBRUARY
|
Rodenbach is a sour beer with tastebud-tingling flavors of green apple and red currant. It's refreshing tartness comes from blending three parts of fresh young ale with one part mature oak-aged ale. Special yeasts and micro-flora in the wooden aging vats combine to create a signature sourness. 5.2% ABV
|
Bright and tart, with hints of ripe berries and oak. Within it's rich, ruby depths you discover hearty wine-like flavors that match up beautifully with strong flavored foods, while your tongue rejoices in its refreshing e effervescence and tart finish. 6%ABV
|
Its taste is complex and rounded, intense and refreshing all at the same time. It is characterized by an acidic, apple fruitfulness combined with caramel, wild honey and oak with a touch of vanilla, cherry and licorice. The aroma consists of touches of caramel and oak as well as green apples mixed with honey and chocolate. The slightly sour, fruity aftertaste is long and nicely balanced. 7% ABV
|
A mixture of 100% old Lambiek with secondary fermentation. A lively tart beer with a nice foamy head. The "Champagne from Brussels." 7% ABV
|
Kriek BOON is a fresh, sour-sweet, red-colored beer that produces a wonderful head. The cherries and young lambic create a red beer that is both natural and fresh, with an absolutely unforgettable sweet and sour taste. This is kriek as it should be, with nothing but real cherries and lambic. 4% ABV
|
Spontaneous fermentation, oak aged, 100% Lambiek base, "maceration" of raspberries Framboise Boon is a dry, fruity-complex beer, with aromas of vanilla and wood. The authentic taste of raspberries produces a crisp but delicate acidity.
5% ABV
|
BTM Wheat is a sessionable American wheat pale ale brewed with Citra hops that give a nice tropical flavor. It has a light body meant for days at the beach, boat or any outdoor activity in South Florida. It's aroma is that of tropical fruits as well due to the dry hop wit El Dorado hops. 4.4%ABV
|
Wynwood Magic City Pale Ale
Magic City Pale Ale is a balanced American pale ale that is brewed with amarillo hops and gives this beer an excellent balance between the hop character and malt backbone. It has a nice aroma with hints of malt sweetness with a light to medium body. 5.6% ABV
|
Ommegang Glimmerglass Saison
Deep straw to light amber in color with a thick, pure white head. The saison yeast strain gives off fruity aromas of pear, apple and slight citrus balanced with a delicate floral hop character and a touch of spiciness. Taste is very clean, with pronounced fruit flavors, delicate bready malt followed by welcomed spicing. Crisp finish with lingering yet subtle notes of yeast and touches of fruity pepper. 5.4% ABV
|
Terrapin Pineapple Express
Inspired by a late night grilling session with friends, a couple chunks of pineapple got thrown into the mix, and an idea for a new beer style was born. The team brewed up a Helles lager for the base brew and used real pineapple and smoked malt to concoct the winning recipe. 5.4% ABV
|
Red Brick Hop Circle India Session Ale
Some claim that our Hop Circle India Session Ale is of extraterrestrial origin. This easy drinking wheat beer packs a big hoppy punch without overwhelming bitterness, creating an out-of-this-world experience that begs the questions if this is truly an alien encounter. Despite its terra firma origins, drinking more than one may inspire you to search for lights in the night sky, take to the front lawn to mow your own enigma, and ponder the enternal question, "What were those guys drinking?" 4.21% ABV
|
Some of us have it and some of us don't. You know what we're
talking about. That quintessential mark of a true man of beer
legend, the very badge of the great brew masters the world over.
Around here, we call it beard envy. And like this robust beer, it
speaks volumes with words like "Put down that razor and take a
drink." With flavors of toffee, raisins and dark fruit accentuated by vanilla and a hint of bourbon balanced by the resinous pine notes of Chinook hops, this barrel-aged barleywine masterwork is as bold and hearty as the beards we salute. 9.3% ABV
|
The most powerful IPA in the Due South Category series, the Cat 5 is big on hops and big on flavor. Clocking in at 8.5% ABV and 96 IBU's, the first bands of malts will make way for the surge of hops on the palate. Designed for the true hophead, this is not a beer for the faint of heart. NOW AVAILABLE IN CANS!
|
Other returning favorites:
Look out for returning hits such as: Shiner Farmhouse Ale, Blue Point Spring Fling Ale, Due South Imperial Caramel Cream, Victory Swing, Southern Tier Choklat, Magic Hat Pistil, Cigar City White Oak Jai Alai.
|
*Check with your Brown sales representative for availability or products not available in certain areas
|
How many hours of minimum wage work it takes to earn a beer
By: Roberto A. Ferdman
Throwing back a cold one can be a costly affair-especially if you're living off the minimum wage in a country like Georgia or Bangladesh.
How do we know that? Because we made a Beer Index.
Numbeo, a crowd-sourced database of the price of goods around the world, maintains a comprehensive list of the average price of a domestic draft beer in different countries. And the International Labor Organization (ILO) maintains a vast library of minimum monthly wage data. So we combined the two-into a beer indicator, of sorts.
|
Wait, what? Alcohol banned from most events at Sochi Olympics
By: Andy Nesbitt
There's nothing quite as great as enjoying a nice, cold beer while attending a sporting event.
There's just something special and delicious about the age-old tradition - for those of age to drink, of course.
Well, fans at the Sochi Olympics have been dealt some harsh news - beer and alcohol isn't being served at most events during the Winter Games.
Gasp!
|
Belly up! Combine jelly bean flavors to create fave beer tastes
By: Jim Galligan
Jelly Belly jelly beans were a great source of joy for me as a kid. We'd regularly take long car trips and my sister and I would pass the time with a bag of Jelly Belly candy, following the "recipes" printed on the bag that called for combining different flavored beans to create new and interesting taste treats. Oh my gosh - two Green Apple and one Cinnamon totally DO taste like a candy apple!
When Jelly Belly recently announced it was making a new "Draft Beer"-flavored jelly bean, the dusty bean-blending gears in my brain immediately creaked back to life. I savored the opportunity to blend a fun part of my youth with an obsession of my adulthood: Jelly Belly candy and craft beer.
|
|
|
|
______________
Featured Beer
Cocktail
Chocolate Covered Cherry
1 bottle or can of Young's Double Chocolate Stout
1 bottle of Lindeman's Kriek
A glass (Champagne flute or lager glass look great, but any will work)
A spoon
Gently pour the lambic down the side of the glass. Deftly pour the stout over the back of a spoon, creating dark and ruby layers. Let the fizz settle and enjoy!
____________________
|
Featured Recipe
Imperial Stout Chocolate & Raspberry Beer Cream Whoopie Pies
By: Loaded Kitchen
Ingredients:
For the Whoopie Pies: 4 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 1/2tsp kosher salt 1 and 1/4 tsp baking powder 1 and 1/4 tsp baking soda 3/4 cup cocoa powder 1 cup beer 2 cups dark brown sugar, firmly packed 3/4 cup vegetable oil 1 tsp espresso powder 1 egg, large 1 tsp vanilla extract 1/2 cup buttermilk
For the Raspberry Beer Cream: 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature 1/2 cup cream cheese, room temperature 3 1/2 cups confectioners sugar, sifted 4tsp seedless raspberry jam 2TB raspberry fruit beer
Directions:
Start by making the Raspberry Beer Cream:
Make sure the butter and the cream cheese are softened and room temperature. If the butter is not super soft, put it in a large Zip Loc baggie. Then, give it a bunch of whacks with a meat tenderizer. Do the same with the cream cheese, if necessary.
Then, in a large bowl, cream the butter and the cream cheese together with a hand mixer on medium speed until combined and fluffy.
Sift in 3 cups of the confectioners sugar, one cup at a time, mixing after each addition with the beaters.
Then, add the raspberry jam and the fruit beer. Mix until combined.
Sift in the remaining 1/2 cup of confectioners sugar and beat with the mixers until combined. It will have a dull pink-grayish hue. Feel free to add food coloring to your desired color. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
To make the whoopie pies:
Preheat the oven to 350˚F (175˚C)
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl, mix together the cocoa powder and the beer. It'll do some weird stuff at first. Just keep stirring and it'll eventually turn into a liquid.
Mix the vegetable oil and the brown sugar together in a bowl until well-combined. Add this to the cocoa powder/beer mixture.
Add in the espresso powder, egg, vanilla extract, and buttermilk. Stir until well-combined.
Slowly add in the flour, making sure to scrape down the sides. Stir until all the ingredients are incorporated and you have a batter just shy of the consistency of Playdough. Set aside for 10 minutes or so so it'll be a little easier to work with.
Line some baking trays with parchment paper. I traced a heart-shaped cookie cutter and manipulated the batter by hand to fit into the shapes. You can just drop it on in circles, if you like. I used an ice cream scoop to portion out the pies.
Bake for 12 minutes or until the tops are dry and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Let them sit on the baking tray for a couple minutes and then carefully peel them off the parchment paper and put them on a cooling rack.
While the pies are cooling, take the beer cream out of the refrigerator and let it come up to room temperature.
Once the pies are completely cooled, spread about 2 teaspoons of the beer cream on one of the pies. Top it off with its other half (how cute, for Valentine's Day.) Set aside and let the glaze harden. If you have extra glaze, drizzle some on top of the pies.
|
Visit the product section of Brown.com to view our portfolio
Visit the Retailer Section of Brown.com to see where we can sell these products: CONTACT US AT: Email: [email protected] Phone 561-655-2337 Website Brown.com |
|