from foodiemob.com

I love me some salsa and I’ve always wanted to learn how to make my own so I decided to research what it takes to make a great salsa. I ended up learning that making salsa is pretty easy. Like, really easy. After pouring over – pun intended – a ton of recipes I ended up finding one that seemed really tasty. The recipe was for a “Chevy’s Original” salsa. I thought yeah right, but it required roasting tomatoes and jalapenos and onion and being that I love to cook on my grill I thought it would be really cool to try it out. Turns out this salsa really does end up tasting like Chevy’s salsa and is super good.

Ingredients:
4 tomatoes (about two pounds)
1 large white onion sliced
2 jalapeno peppers
2 teaspoons garlic, minced
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
2 teaspoons salt
1 Tablespoon pepper

Cooking Instructions:

Grill the tomatoes, onion, and jalapeno peppers on high on your outdoor grill (you can also broil the veggies in the oven). Remove when the vegetables are slightly charred and the tomatoes soften and split and let cool. While the vegetables are cooling chop up your cilantro and garlic. Then remove the stems from the jalapenos and core the end of the tomatoes. Put all ingredients into a blender and blend for about 10 seconds. Pour salsa into a container and let chill in the fridge about 15-20 minutes. Serve with your favorite chips.

Shovel into mouth

Summary:
Company: Sierra Nevada/Dogfish Head
Type: Ale
Taste: Sweet, Luscious, Nutty, Cloves, Spicy, Smooth
Alcohol Content: 10.2%
Food Pairing: Steak, Pizza, Buffalo Wings, etc…
Rating: 4 out of 6
Website: Life & Limb

It’s back! Oh yes, it’s back. Life & Limb a collaboration between Sierra Nevada and Dogfish Head brewery is back. Originally a very limited release in 2009 that sold out nation wide in 2 weeks is now back and seemingly readily available. I found mine in Bevmo of all places. As far as the flavor profile… Very similar to the original release but for some reason I want to say it is not as deep and luscious as the original. The flavor kind of ends on your tongue when the original seemed to sing after it went down. All in all, worth buying and worth savoring in a nice Belgian snifter glass.

Hey Hey… So haven’t had a chance to post beer buzz in a while… sorry about that… I landed a new job about 6 months ago and it is really sucking my beer drinking and writing time! Not to mention that my new office is hella far away from my go to craft beer shop… One good thing to come out of my job move I guess is I was able to use the fact that I can’t really make it over to my favorite shop any more as an excuse to create a app to help me find craft beer…. My first iteration of this app, is the Russian River Beer finder because I can not go more than a month without a bottle of Damnation and they are nice enough to publish their resellers on their site… So if you live in Cali, check it out (they don’t have addresses for their resellers in other states)… you can search for shops that sell Russian River Beer…

Check it out otterbrau.com

Coming soon: I plan on adding more and more beer companies to this so keep an eye out for updates. Cheers!

Oh and if no locations load, ping me… I have been having issues with my server… thanks, cheers

Summary:
Company: Ninkasi Brewing Company
Type: Oatmeal Stout
Taste: Smokey, Bitter, hint of Chocolate – Tastes more like a Porter than a Stout
Alcohol Content: 7.2%
Food Pairing: Chili, Chicken Pot Pie
Rating: 1 out of 6
Website: Ninkasi Brewing Company

Unfortunately this guy is not what I was expecting… The problem is that this beer does not taste like a Stout… It tastes like a Porter… Kind of disappointing when you are expecting a smooth creamy Oatmeal Stout and you get a bitter smokey Porter. It doesn’t have much of a nose… kind of has a hint of tabacco but not strong. In the mouth you get a smokey tabacco flavor. If you chew on it for a bit, you get a little chocolate… but what I don’t get is the oatmeal… It goes down really bitter and leaves an after taste more like I just got done smoking a cigar… Overall, it is not a bad beer, it is just not what I would expect for a craft oatmeal stout…. or any stout for that matter. If you handed this to me and told me it was a Porter, I would probably say that this is a nice complex Porter, but not a Stout… bummer…

Summary:
Company: Brouwerij ‘t Brouwkot
Type: Belgian Tripel
Taste: Light, sweet, fruity
Alcohol Content: 6.5%
Food Pairing: Sausages, corn beef, potatoes, fish, chicken, sandwich
Rating: 5 out of 6
Website: Brouwerij ‘t Brouwkot

Yet another great Belgian Ale from K&L. This guy comes to us from Brouwerij ‘t Brouwkot imported by a Twelve Percent LLC. This guy is great for a hot day or great as a dinner beer. In the nose it smells sweet with a hint of apple and in you mouth it just explodes… You get this sweet apple flowery nutty malt followed by a nice bitter to balance it all out. Once it goes down you are left with a sweetness on the palate but no worries it is not a gross sweetness but a nice sweet finish. This guy retails in the Bay Area for about 12 bucks a bottle and is well worth it.

Summary:
Company: Midnight Sun Brewing Co. Panty Peeler
Type: Belgian Tripel
Taste: Dark Golden, Nutty, Refreshing
Alcohol Content: 8.5%
Food Pairing: Sausages, corn beef, potatoes, fish
Rating: 6 out of 6
Website: Midnight Sun Brewing Co. Panty Peeler

I have heard a lot of good things from Midnight Sun Brewing Co. but have never had a chance to try any of their beers out until now. For my inaugural brew from these guys I thought I would go with their Belgian Tripel called Panty Peeler… come on, with a name like that there was no way I would have to pass this guy up… This guy is an 8.5% Belgian Tripel brewed with bitter orange peel and coriander… now I was kind of scared when I read about the orange peel and coriander on the bottle…. I am kind of gun shy when it comes to American Belgian style ales with orange peel in them because a crappy place will hand you a Bluemoon piece of crap clone and pawn it off as a Belgian ale brewed with orange peel… but I am pleased to say this guy is the real deal and the bees knees. It is a great authentic Belgian style ale. In the nose this guy smells nutty and like wildflowers and in the mouth it is smooth and light… you get this nutty, vanilla, sweet and complex malt… light and refreshing yet has the nuttiness of a dark Belgian ale… it is supremely balanced and refreshing. This guy is great and the kind of beer I can see myself craving when I have gone a couple weeks without partaking in a bottle.

Summary:
Company: De Hoevebrouwers
Type: Belgian Tripel
Taste: Light, refreshing, lemon-citrus, complex, nutty, bitter
Alcohol Content: 8.5%
Food Pairing: Sausages, corn beef, potatoes, fish
Rating: 5 out of 6
Website: De Hoevebrouwers

Wow, this is a great beer. It reminds me of Damnation from Russian RIver Brewery, but has a strong bitter bite on the end which really balances this guy out. In the nose you get what smells like wild flowers and wheat, in the mouth you get the light complex classic Belgian blond malt and only after it goes down do you get the bitter bite. These are super hard to find in the states and K&L just hooked up with a new distributor that specializes in Belgian beers like this, so if you live in the Bay Area, you should look up K&L and pick up a couple.

Summary:
Company: Firestone Walker: 13th Anniversary Ale
Type: Barrel aged and blended ale
Taste: Dark, sweet, luscious
Alcohol Content: 12%
Food Pairing: Sausages, corn beef, potatoes, fish
Rating: 6 out of 6
Website: Firestone Walker: 13th Anniversary Ale

All I can say is we-woo-wah-woooo… this guy is dark– so dark sweet and luscious. It has a real subtle nose but if you get way in there you can really get hints of the barrel and caramel… nothing to get tight pants over, but in the mouth it is a different story… when you take a sip, the first thing you get hit with is this crazy sweetness… like barley wine sweet, but it doesn’t have the harsh spiciness that comes with barley wines… It is super smooth and the mouth feel is heavy and greasy… almost like sweet motor oil… and once it goes down you are totally hit with the complexity… as it permeates back through my nose I get vanilla, caramel, coffee, tobacco, wine, brandy, cognac and a mild woodsiness. The best way I can describe this beer is it is like having a super smooth and rich chocolate truffle filled with a gnash of dark chocolate, vanilla, brandy/cognac/wine with a ton of super secret spices– yea, that just happened– i said gnash– It finishes really smooth and leaves just a tad bit of bitterness on the palate but nothing too crazy… All in all it is a great beer so if you are lucky enough to find one of these super limited barrel aged beauties you need to bite the bullet and slap down the 25 bucks to try one of these… btw, beers like this only come along once so if you do find these guys make sure to buy two, one to drink and one to age… i blew it and only bought one…

Summary:
Company: Sierra Nevada
Type: Stout
Taste: Sweet, Luscious
Alcohol Content: 9.2%
Food Pairing: Steak, Pizza, Buffalo Wings, etc…
Rating: 5 out of 6
Website: Sierra Nevada 39th Anniversary Stout

This is a great stout. What I love about it is it has that signature American twist to it. It is almost like a sweet and hoppy black ale versus a classic dry Irish Stout. In the nose you get the subtle hint of hops, brown sugary, maple, caramel goodness. In the mouth it is sweet and luscious with a kind of salty savory flavor to balance it out. It has this really complex malt and is almost like a blending of a Anchor Steam a Stout and a Sierra. It also has that maple syrup sweetness that reminds me of the Dogfish Head Life&Limb collaboration. Once you swallow you get the bitterness and the aroma in your nose of the hops. This beer is very nicely balanced for being 9.2% but after drinking a big bottle of it the bitterness builds up in your palate.

Summary:
Company: The Bruery
Type: bottle conditioned Saison: Belgian/French Farmhouse Ale
Taste: Light, refreshing, lemon-citrus, complex, nutty, bitter
Alcohol Content: 6.5%
Food Pairing: Sausages, corn beef, potatoes, fish
Rating: 4 out of 6
Website: The Bruery: Saison de Lente

Man, The Bruery seems to kick out a ton of great seasonal beers. Makes me wish I lived in Southern California, but then again if that was the case id be drunk and 500lbs by now. I actually found this guy at one of my new favorite beer places, Mission Liquors in Mission San Jose. This unassuming liquor store run by a guy name Rael is chalk full of great micro brews. If you live in the east bay, it is worth stopping by and checking out the selection.

Now to the beer… Based on the name and the nifty pink packaging, this guy is an Easter/Spring seasonal. It is crisp, light, refreshing, sour and slightly bitter. The nose is like all of The Bruery beers, magnificent. I can just sit here all night and just sniff this thing without even taking a sip. In the mouth it is really bubbly like a Txocoli and really crisp. When you swallow you get the sourness of the bret and the bitterness of the hops, plus a mellow nuttiness and mild caramel flavor. It is blond in color and has a great head. After said and done with this guy you are left with some bitterness in the mouth but no lingering film in the mouth like some beers leave. I wish I bought two bottles, one to drink and one to lay down for a year or so to see if the sourness and bitterness mellows out with age.