Recipes on the Brain

What is the next best thing to drinking delicious beer? Why cooking with it of course. Combining my love of beer and my love of cooking not only provides me with tasty food, but also a better understanding of the flavors that shine through in certain beers.

Today I would like to share with you one of my favorite and easiest recipes I make involving beer:

Slow Cooker Kielbasa in Beer

Ingredients:
3 Cloves of Garlic
1 Medium Onion (I prefer red onion to add color)
7 Medium Potatoes (Yukon Gold or Red Potatoes)
1lb Polska Kielbasa (use the best you can find, check your local meat market)
1 Can or Jar of Sauerkraut
Spoonful of Horseradish
Pinch of Red Pepper Flakes
Fresh Cracked Black Pepper
Salt
Beer Ingredient:
2.5 bottles of an Oktoberfest Style Beer (My favorites to use are Paulaner Oktoberfest or Hacker Pschorr Oktoberfest; if you don't have access to either, a brown ale will work in a pinch)

Directions:
1. Turn the slow cooker to high. 2. Rough chop the garlic, onions and potatoes and toss them into the slow cooker. 3. Next, cut the Kielbasa into chunks that are about 2 inches long and add to the slow cooker. 4. Then add the horseradish and spices. 5. Finally, add the beer and the sauerkraut and stir.

Let the whole thing cook for about 4-5 hours checking in on it about once an hour to stir and see how it is coming along. If the beer boils down but you are not ready to serve, simply add a little more beer or some water. It is ready to eat when the potatoes are fork tender.

Enjoy with some spicy ground mustard and the rest of the 6 (or 12 if you are up for it) pack.

Links of Interest:
http://www.paulaner.de/home.php
http://www.hacker-pschorr.de/

Beer of the Weekend

Due to the Thanksgiving holiday, I wasn't able to get you a Beer of the Week, so I was damn sure to get you a Beer of the Weekend.

Although the Oktoberfest/Fall season for breweries has come and gone, you can still find those straggler sixers here and there until well after Christmas. Lukcy enough for me I came across a leftover sixer of Left Hand Brewing Company's Oktoberfest.

Hailing from Longmont, Colorado, Left Hand takes its name from a English translation of a Native cheif's name, whose tribe wintered in the area. Although the brewery has been around since 1993, they did not even begin packaging in 12oz bottles until 1998 after merging with Tabernash brewery of Denver.

In addition to a their famous Sawtooth Ale, and a large selection of staples, Left Hand also produces several seasonals, including Oktoberfest. The beer is 6.0% ABV, and is dominated up front with sweet malts, like any Oktoberfest should be. It has a nice dry, clean back from the German Magnum and Vanguard hops, and is smooth and medium bodied. It doesn't have the caramel richness or malt complexity of some of the Germans, it's a bit more earthy and nutty, but it is a solid Oktoberfest and a worthy effort. Lucky for me Oktoberfest shoppers did not know of Left Hand's quality; now you do.

Link of Interest:

Left Hand Brewing Company

Prost!

We gave you some background on Oktoberfest, and some Oktoberfest beers back here. Well, who would we be to talk about Oktoberfest with out attending one, or in this case, throwing a fest of our own.

Two weekends ago Amber & I hosted our very own Oktoberfest celebration in the spirit of the season. Although the weather was not very autumn-like, the event was a huge success, complete with grilled meats and other delicious Amber-cooked foods, bocce ball, a hula-hoop chugging contest, many great friends, and of course, great beer.







As part of our party, we encouraged people to bring a 6-pack of their favorite fall beer. Not everyone’s fall beer is the same naturally, and it was a very un-fall-like 85 degrees, so some warm weather beers were represented as well. We ended up with beers from some of the world’s great brewing regions: Wisconsin, Colorado, Belgium, and of course Germany. There was pale ale for the hop-heads, weisses and wits for the wheat fans, and of course many oktoberfests for the malt lovers.

The beer was all placed into communal coolers and made for a cornucopia of delectable fermented beverages with more than enough for every person and every palette. I highly encourage you to try this approach to throwing your own Oktoberfest party, or any other party full of beer lovers. It’s almost like your own beer festival.



The only casualty of the event was our picnic table. Please chug and lounge responsibly.



Prost!

Oktoberfest!

If the word “Oktoberfest” was used in a word-association test, the most common response would surely be “beer.” Many cities around the world hold an Oktoberfest celebration, including: Cincinnati, Ohio; La Crosse, Wisconsin; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Denver, Colorado; Blumenau, Brazil; and Hong Kong, but the fest from which all these others draw their name is held annually in München, Bayern (Munich, Bavaria).

Since its inception as a celebration of the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig (later King Ludwig I) to Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildberghausen in 1811, beer has been a central pillar in what has become a Bavarian tradition. Although beer stands long allowed fairgoers to fresco their tonsils with the Bavarian brush, the beer tents that we know and love were not added until 1896 by landlords who were backed by the local breweries.

Today Germany’s Oktoberfest draws 6 million people from all around the world to revel in Bavarian culture. The question for those of us not fortunate enough to travel to Deutschland is: what Oktoberfest beers would be good to enjoy at my local fest, or in my own home. After some exhaustive “research” we have some recommendations for you.

Aus Deutschland

Spaten Oktoberfest (Munich, Germany)

According to Spaten’s website their Oktoberfestbier is brewed each spring for “das größte Volksfest der Welt” (the largest folk festival in the world), and is 5.9% alcohol. Spaten Oktoberfest is a medium bodied amber beer, just slightly sweet with a rich malt body and just enough hops for one to notice the bitterness. In contrast with many American Oktoberfest beers, it is not spicy, nor is it too sweet or rich in body to prevent you from quaffing multiple mugs of this delicious lager (Amber & Ryan encourage you to chug responsibly).

From the US

Samuel Adams Octoberfest (Boston, MA)

Sam’s Octoberfest is an excellent American variety. It has a rich copper color, and a deep malt taste that according to their website is balanced by “German noble hops.” The beer is not as sweet as Spaten’s and the hops come through a little bit more. It has a medium body and you can definitely have more than two of these in a sitting (again, please chug in moderation).

Sprecher Oktoberfest (Glendale, WI)

Established in Brew City itself, Sprecher has since moved its operations to Milwaukee’s suburb of Glendale. Sprecher has a large roster of year-round beers and sodas (try the root beer), as well as a large selection of seasonal brews of which the Oktoberfest is one. The Oktoberfest is 5.75% alcohol, and boasts a blend of Caramel, Munich, and Pale hops. The beer is exceptionally smooth, even more so than the Spaten or the Sam Adams. The body is also slightly richer than both of the aforementioned beers, but it lacks the hops bite. Compared to other Oktoberfests of the area, Sprecher wins out, so if you’re in Milwaukee make sure you have your barkeep pull the tapper on this one a few times (Amber & Ryan suggest you take a cab, drunkie).

Stay tuned for pictures from Amber & Ryan's very own Oktoberfest!

Links of interest:

http://www.muenchen.de/Tourismus/Oktoberfest/7548/index.html
http://www.spatenbraeu.de
http://www.samueladams.com/
http://www.sprecherbrewery.com/beer.php?cat=2