My Mother’s Day gift to myself.
It’s been a while since I have just reviewed a beer. Probably a bit too long. I’ve been contemplating this or that, waxing stupid about stuff, going to festivals, and generally ignoring the idea of a simple beer review. Time to get back to basics. Continue reading
Collage: Conflux series No. 1…A collaboration of Hair of the Dog and Deschutes
This a collaboration of my favorite large Oregon brewer, Deschutes (where the beer was brewed), and one of my favorite local breweries, Hair of the Dog. This is a review of a young beer, in fact the bottle clearly states best after 4/30/2013. I love aging beers so I bought two. Now, these 12oz beers did not come cheap at roughly $11.50 a pop. But this is also a big beer at 11.6% ABV. All there is to note from outside the bottle is Conflux No. 1 is a malt beverage aged in distilled spirit and wine oak barrels. Now I just have to let it warm a bit from fridge temperature before I get to tasting this beer.
Probably not the best thing to eat/drink at 10 PM, but what the hell, right?
That title got your attention, didn’t it? Not much to complain about if you have one of each, right? Tonight was all about the cupcakes, and it ended up getting me thinking about a beer in the fridge. Next thing I know, I’m enjoying both.
I’ve been trying to perfect this coconut cake recipe that I tried last week, and I decided to take it down to a cupcake to see if I could get similar results, or possibly a better one. Cupcakes seem to have the ability to enhance the cake experience for the eater, plus you can pack a shit-ton of flavor into a small delivery system. I like to hollow mine out and fill them with something “extra”. This time it is a coconut pastry cream mixed with some whipped cream. A little coconut buttercream frosting and toasted coconut and these babies are ready for consumption. While “testing” one of the final coconut cupcakes, I had an epiphany…more like I just realized I had a Ken Schmidt / Maui / Stone Kona Coffee Macadamia Coconut Porter in the garage. Could there be a better beer to go with a coconut cupcake? Probably not. Glad I saved it for a special occasion. Continue reading
taphandle 