Open Flavor Fridays - New Year's Eve Edition

However I did not like the Chocolate beer.. I didn’t hate it, but I’m not a huge chocolate fan (unless its M&Ms)… I really enjoyed the Pale Ale, and I have a grand liking to the Winter Lager.

Must say, for a town that’s really known for its hoppy beers, I’ve been really pleased with the quality of malty options. The Ram’s porter (don’t remember the name) was not knock your socks off, but it was definitely solid.

I worked at a Great Harvest Bakery in high school and, holy crap, the Apple Cinnamon Raisin (ACR to us hip kids in the know) is one of the few things better than challah for french toast. If you prep it the night before and let it marinate in the mixture overnight, you’re looking at 95th percentile french toast.

There’s a new (ish?) brewery in Fremont called (shockingly enough) Fremont Brewing that puts out some damned solid beers. Their Abominable Winter Ale is good, but the Universal Pale has got to be my favorite beer of the moment. Pick up a growler and prepare for bliss.

I picked up the case of beer I brewed with my dad. It’s a Mac & Jack’s African Amber style but with a slight hoppiness at the end. It’s declicious. My dad is buying all the equipment now so we can start doing some true homebrewing, rather than going to Gallagher’s. (He lives in Camano so it’s a much bigger drive for him than myself)

Even though I love my local microbrews, I’ve been alternating this winter between New Belgium’s Frambozen (nice rich brown ale with a touch of raspberry) and 21st Amendment’s Fireside Chat (an English-style ale with added spices). I also picked up a couple bottles of Bridgeport’s Nightcap (67% ale, 33% ale aged in oak bourbon barrels), but I’m storing them for awhile.

I love a good red ale, but I’ve noticed a lot of craft brewers completely obscuring the roast malt flavor with a huge amount of hops. In the end, you just get something that tastes like an IPA with some malt notes. Marketing that as a red ale just leads to disappointment, especially on my part as I can’t stand the heavy grapefruit flavor of the cascade hops; way too bitter on my tongue. My favorite red ale is Big Al’s, but not too many bars have it on tap.

My favorite thing to make/consume around this time of year is overnight apple cinnamon french toast. you need a good, crusty bread so it can soak in the custard overnight in the refrigerator, and it’s wonderful to just wake up on a cold morning & be able to pop the dish right in the oven. 45min later – awesome breakfast. I also baked some cranberry chocolate chip muffins the other day (and even made them vegan so a certain girl could enjoy them) & have been hearing raves from everyone so far.

around breakfast time, I just tried Skylarks banana bread french toast…simply amazing.
also dave did you ever try any more dogfish head stuff? I’ve only seen the 90 min ipa, and wanna know if anything else is good.

How this has evaded me is crazy. One of the best moca beers I’ve ever had.