Food and Drink

This is just a long shot idea that would take some serious work(sheep herding), planning, and cash, but I figure I would present it any way. We should make a Head-Case wine. I'm sure the serious wine-o's here know about www.crushpadwine.com but for those that don't, check out the website. We could have a mini meet around the production of the wine and possibly another around the bottling. It also helps that we have a somewhat large group of members in that area. Of course it would take a serious cash outlay for those involved for a wine of unknown quality but I still think it might be worth looking into. Discuss.

Hook it up.

So I have a Zojirushi BB-PAC20 Home Bakery Virtuoso Breadmaker on it's way to me. (Damn UPS and their unexplained delays, won't get it until Tuesday, May 27 now) Really want to get into making real Sourdough, including making / maintaining a Starter culture. Should I go for it and make a wild yeast sourdough starter from scratch with just flour and water, or get a starter elsewhere as a seed? Was thinking of this one, I can appreciate the irony of this guy's name. http://www.sourdo.com/cultures/original-san-francisco/ Anyone else into making their own bread, the hands on way and the higher tech lazy way like I'm going to do?

Time for a guiness... What are your plans/destinations if any? In the good'ol days I'd heading down to Fells Point for a brew and some sight see'ing :he he:

Not a gin connoisseur by any means, but I have recently been drinking it some with dinners. Usually with tonic and lime. Just went out to a nice place last night, and ordered Bombay Sapphire. Waitress, a gin lover herself (and dang cute!), recommended one I had only heard of but never learned about or tried: Hendricks of Scotland Distilled with flowers and cucumbers! I took her recommendation, though, and glad I did! Was a very smooth yet flavorful gin, with none of the pseudo-paint-thinner scent I've smelled before, even a bit on some of the best gins. Highly recommended....will likely get a bottle for myself, first hard alcohol I've bought since Absenth…

Which is your preference? I noticed most people fall one way or the other. I personally HATE beer. It's disgusting and flavorless IMO. I can tolerate DARK DARK beer, like Mackeson XXX and Gulden Draak, mainly because they're so damn dark...but otherwise, I pass on Bud, Miller and Heiny..blah. I personally prefer liqour... 4 Horsemen, Svedka on the rocks and mixed girly drinks hit the spot...

yesterday's intake... food breakfast: steel cut irish oatmeal (150) coffee (2) lunch: zone cedarlane (300) dinner: cpk waldorf salad with balsamic dressing (675) & tomato basil bisque (250) late snack: almonds (150) beverages water: 8 large glasses one glass of red wine (90) total calories: 1,617

This Friday (9/25) I'll be attending an evening session of the Great American Beer Festival here in Denver. Much as I would like to sample all 1,800 beers, time is limited to 4.5 hours, and I can't drink one sample per 9 seconds for more than an hour or two. Therefore, I was hoping some of you brew aficionados (read: feckless drunks) might have some suggestions for me for a beer/brewery/style I should not miss.

I did a search and saw a few of you have these. Vicki, the model you picked up from QVC may be the way to go but I wanted to see if anyone had any suggestions. There are so many models and variables. I would like to keep it around $400 or a bit more. It looks like the CIA on Amazon Prime is close or the same to the QVC model, so leaning that way. Gail is going through withdrawals since our blender died over the weekend.

Who has a nice RV? http://flowingdata.com/2015/10/26/top-brewery-road-trip-routed-algorithmically/?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark

There is an event that I'm checking out tomorrow called the joy of sake. There will be over 300 different Sake's to taste. hiccup Here is the site: http://www.joyofsake.com/

Man, I am a roasting FOOL right now! I can't stop! Today I got my new roaster: It's a Behmor 1600. This thing rocks! It'll do up to a full #, and so far I have yet to see a single wisp of smoke! Of course I've only done 1/4 # batches so far, but still... It has 5 roast profiles built-in. So far I've only tried 2. It'll take me a while to try all five. I can't wait until tomorrow morning to get my first taste!

Found two threads, one on the other on interestingly enough. Why should I go one way or the other? I understand the value of a decanter -- lets the wine breathe, albeit in a controlled fashion, while cat hair and asbestos doesn't settle into it. I seem to remember someone (tyrion?) getting something and having a positive opinion of it, but it's not coming up while searching for "aerator'. Something like a hand-held or bottletop device like this one. So...any new opinions on this? I don't have room for that whole let it drip thing, but I could probably find room for a proper decanter/carafe thingy. But I'll probably go with the decanting pourer if no-one pipes…

Right, so for years now I've noticed that my listening experience is better when I'm not sober. Generally I go with spirits, either brandy or whisky, I'm not a fan of vodka and I haven't tried rum yet. Beer makes me a bit too sleepy and makes me wanna go pee, which messes up the flow of my listening. So what do you drink to make your listening sessions better?

I'm doing this for my own amusement...but if anyone else wants to add info/pics they should feel free to do so... also, most of this is being taken from Three Floyds themselves, Hoosier Beer Geek &/or Beer News...if interested, I can provide you with the many twitter accounts associated with those three groups... to summarize...this pic: first indicated that there would be Brandy Barrel Aged Vanilla Bean Dark Lord at this year's Dark Lord Day... then this pic: on Chicago's MetroMix page suggested that it'd be available in bottles... & now Beers News posted this story where they report having spoken with Lincoln Anderson from Three Floyds who's sa…

And Tokyo* are available again in limited quantities from Brewdog. (Tokyo* was forced out of shop sale by the portman group so what is available is the remaining returned stock). Penguin is whatever bottles are left from the second batch of 100 or so bottles. I would be happy to buy some for people and pass it on (that is to say, you send me the money). But You can't post booze to the states so It'd have to be brought over at Canjam. Which is a long wait. If you're in Canada I don't know what the rules are. If you're in Europe it should be a piece of piss. If anyone is interested let me know. http://www.brewdog.com/product.php?id=46

I'm looking into buying one of these after doing some reading. I was curious if anyone owns one, has used one or has any knowledge regarding The Big Green Egg.

I’m going to abuse my powers as admin and sell some coffee: I have 40 lbs of coffee available to purchase. It’s a medium roast rwandan coffee that I taste blueberries in. It’s the first coffee I thought was worth selling under my brand. From the bean wholesaler: Rwanda Natural - Huye Mountain Sweet, black grape, blueberry, boysenberry, chocolate Huye Mountain Coffee is a private washing station established in 2011 to provide farmers in the region with access to international markets and buyers of specialty coffees. Around 1,330 producers deliver their freshly picked coffee cherries to 26 collecting stations around the Huyecommunity,…

A local wine store that opened a couple of months ago is exit the beer part of their business. Here is a snippet from a recent email: I don't know Belgian beers at all. Please recommend some things I should look out for. Thanks in advance for your recommendations.

In a quest to stop drinking soft-drinks I think I'm going to give coffee a try. Any suggestions on a mild coffee for a first-time coffee drinker?

Don't see a huge selection at the local liquor store, what is good? http://www.bcliquorstores.com/product-catalogue?search=Bourbon

Dont you...

Anything under $30 a bottle that is similar to the 2002 runrig?

So I'm in the market for a decent cheapish pot type thing. I only want to buy 1 all-purpose item, so I'm thinking a stainless pasta set should be cool for pasta and soups. I braise a fair bit as well, and that's got me considering enameled Dutch ovens. However, I still need something for pasta, and intuition tells me Dutch ovens wouldn't be perfect for pasta. Sooo would I rather use a stainless stock pot to braise or a cast iron oven to boil pasta? No idea... Actually, I don't even know if enameled is considered better than bare cast iron; seasoning sounds like a pan in the bum, though. I'm a lazy cook for sure =D. Any good cookware forums out there for me to peruse? I…

Can anyone recommend a good beer of the month club?