Beer in Food?!?!

Taken from Magic Rock's website.

As of late at Mr Foley's in Leeds I have been experimenting with not only matching beer with food but also cooking my food with beer. Nothing to exciting nothing to revolutionary just simple basic and sometimes interesting flavours come out with my mad scientist like ways in the kitchen. I have been putting different beers in our burgers and doing different things with our batter seemingly every week.

Taken from Kirkstall's Website.

The most popular beers that have graced the burgers at Foley's have been Magic Rock Dark Arts and Kirkstall Black Band Porter two very different beers but two very similar flavours. Dark Arts giving the burger a very distinct flavour of roasted malt and a bit of bittersweet chocolate which compliment the spices that make the mince and very good burger. Now staying with the theme of the burgers at Foley's I played around with the different beers by making different pastes that go directly on the burger while its on the grill. Black Band Porter from Kirkstall made a very interesting development with the the mixture and gives it a very nice flavour and this seems to be a very popular choice as when I make a batch of burgers it seems to sell out rather quickly and leaves me scrambling to make more.

ratebeer.com

Now that the burgers are out of the way seems that I have the small issue of deciding which pales are the best use for the batter I use to fry the lovely haddock in for fish and chips. First place prize as of late that got the best reviews from the customers Ive talked to has to be Rooster's Last Stand which I understand was Sean's send off beer after he left the brewery. The batter packs a bit of a punch which seems a bit weird because usually the flavour of the beer loses itself in the fryer but Last Stand definitely stands the test of the fryer and still has the nice flavour the beer itself has it and leaves the batter that sticks to the fish very crispy and compliments the fish rather well. With this being an ongoing experiment your recommendations are always welcome and I would like hearing from you. Over the next few weeks I am going to try and do different things and post them if they work and deny trying the things that didn't like my failed Diablo Nachos which my boss thought were OK and I thought needed something else. They all cant be winner but what can you gain if you don't try.

Yet another trip to the ye ole Grove Pub in Huddersfield.

I fought with feelings last Saturday about going to hang out with David, Gary, and Ben also known as @boodrums. I tried to get everyone that wasn't on the #twissup journey to come and join in the fun but sadly everyone was either there or had plans doing something else. So I took the painful journey on the train to get what I consider one of the best pubs Ive ever been too. Walked through the crazy lonely tunnel and finally saw my destination and walked through the doors to my first half to which I sat and drank with the gentleman that I was with. Fullers Vintage Ale 2010 which goes down a fantastic treat and makes me wish I knew what the other Vintage Ales taste like but hell Ive only been in England for 18 months so I can look forward to the future.

Next up a beer which I had no idea existed till a couple of weeks ago the Porterhouse Plain Porter which took home best stout in the world even though its a porter colour me confused but I went with it and damn it man if I didn't enjoy it even shared a bit around the table which was faithfully named Beer Tapas by the guys so hell I went with it. After I polished off the end of the bottle I reached for the dreaded bottle list and talked the table into going halves on a couple of bottles. First up was the mighty Brooklyn Brewery Sorachi Ace which is a brilliant Saison that for some reason I thought was a totally different style of beer the first time I had it. We sat we drank and we enjoyed then back to the list we went and we found Nogne O Tiger Tripel shared that and did the exact same thing we shared we enjoyed and started to think it was time to catch our train back to Leeds.

Other beers shared and enjoyed that evening were:
Kernel India Pale Ale Centennial
Rogue Mocha Porter
Schneider Weisse Tap 5
you can read more on what they drank on David's Blog but this is where my night started and almost ended in a horrible accident that almost saw the four of us catching a damned bus back to Leeds. Thanks to my lovely wife she saw through our drunken haze and directed us to Platform 8 and then called me a dumbass and said she was going to bed cant say that I argue the fact that what I was seeing and what was happening were 2 totally different things.

As we were waiting for the bus/train we popped into The KingsHead and saw a beer that I didn't think I would be seeing there a Magic Rock Brewery CuriousNZ which in my opinion was a fantastic easy drinking ale that rivals the original but I would have to do a side by side taste test just to confirm what I was thinking that night. We shared the Tap 5 on the way back to Leeds and then parted ways with Dave and Ben while they enjoyed some much needed food Gary and I decided it would be a fantastic idea to go grab yet another beer at North Bar. As soon as I walked through the door I was greeted by Big Jim with a tiny friend called Little Jim so under his supervision I enjoyed Little Jim a very nice collaboration brew between Matt and Mark at North Bar and the guys at Marble Brewing in Manchester. This was the end of my evening I went home and cleaned some bottles did some dishes ate some food and finally laid my head on my pillow and promptly took my ass to bed.

Hope you enjoyed the journey go take one yourself and remember to invite me.

 

My humble opinion. #7point5

As I walked into my local shop this morning I was instantly faced with a troubling sign. 3 two litres of Strongbow Cider for a measly £6.00. I told myself not to get involved in this debate on the beer tax but after seeing this I just cant keep my mouth or my opinion to myself. I understand this country has a drinking issue but its with the people that are looking to get drunk and not drinking to enjoy the taste, flavour, and different styles of beer. This tax is going to make the brewers not experiment because they feel that they wont be able to put the prices on the cask kegs and bottles that the pubs and specialist beer shops will buy and that is a sad state. Brewing is the backbone of Britain its one of the last things Brits can call there own and the government is going to handicap them and try and say that what they are doing is the reason we have anti social behavior in this country. The truth of the matter is we have anti social behaviour because of lack of respect and lack of common knowledge from one person to the next on what their particular limit is. If you think that the new tax is going to stop people from doing what they were doing with the special brew you have another thing coming, they are now going to buy that bottle of £9.99 vodka or spend 3 for a tenner on bottles of wine. So your putting handcuffs on the backbone and tradition of Britain brewing and that is just wrong. We are already dropping pubs like flies and this tax has the potential to make breweries go the same way. CAMRGB has a e-petition going on at the moment and I have already signed it. I suggest you do the same and try to smack some sense into the people that have passed this ridiculous tax.