Trinity Brewing Company

© Trinity Brewing Company

For those in Colorado Springs area, the Trinity Brewing Company’s inaugural opening is today. We have been looking forward to this since catching their booth at the Craft Lagerfest.

We intend to be celebrating with friends and family around 5pm although others will be arriving sooner. So clear your afternoon schedule and head on down:

Craft Lagerfest

We (Kate and I) attended the Craft Lagerfest yesterday and had a great time (not that it was hard to have good time while tasting beers from all over the state of Colorado).

While you can view the list of winners at the Craft Lagerfest web site, here are my comments:

• New Belgium Brewing Company - Based in Fort Collins I have generally not been fond of their beers. However, I tried their 1554 ale and enjoyed this chocolate malt.
• Phantom Canyon Brewing Company - Located in downtown Colorado Springs, it sports a nice restaurant experience with an upstairs billiard. They had a hefeveizen that was made from banana and clover. Wow! I’ll be planning to visit their establishment again soon.
• Wolf Rock Brewing Company - Located in Keystone, these guys made a really tasty beer called the “Montezuma Marzen” that is a toasty malt lager with a dash of spicy hops. It is summer still and I’m already planning on stopping in after skiing the slopes in the upcoming ski season.
• Trinity Brewing Company - These guys are new to the area and are opening their first brewery at the end of the month. They had no beers to taste but we remain hopeful as their establishment will be located on Garden of the Gods road and within easy walking distance to us.

While tasting beers and eating brauts, I saw a guy with this shirt in the crowd:

My sentiments exactly (the person in the picture, while hard to make out, is George W. Bush in airforce gear).

Cheers.

Fess Parker Chardonnay 2005

Smooth and flavorful, without being overly buttery. Very balanced for the price.

Tags: Wine

Liberty School Paso Robles Cabernet Sauvignon 2005

Decently priced (mid-teens), rich, and smooth for those looking for a tasty Cabernet Sauvignon. We have had it a couple of times and really enjoy it.

Tags: Wine

The Spicy Pickle

© The Spicy Pickle

I spotted one of these restaurants during my spell in Scottsdale, AZ but never got a chance to check it out until now (as they are now popping up in Colorado). It is a cross between fast food and a sit down restaurant and serves up tasty panini sandwiches with quality ingredients. Kate and I recommend the following paninis:

• Sausalito Bandito
• Adobe
• Bronx

Who knows, you might enjoy the experience too.

Chocolate Chip Cake

It seems that the Chocolate Chip Cake served at the Summer BBQ today was big hit. For those that attended and those tuning in, here are the details for your own enjoyment.

Ingredients

• 1 box yellow cake mix.
• 4 ounces sweet Ghirardelli chocolate (grated).
• 1\2 cup oil.
• 1 cup water.
• 4 eggs.
• 1 package vanilla instant pudding (small box).
• 6 oz. chocolate chips (be generous).

Instructions

1. Beat cake mix, eggs. oil, pudding mix, and water for about 4 minutes.
2. Fold in grated chocolate and chocolate chips (hint: use a Cuisinart-like device but sparingly).
3. Bake in greased Bundt pan for 45 min. or until done at 350 degrees.

Notes

I am not sure where this recipe originated as it has been something my mom has always baked. Thanks mom and Kate!

Cardinal Zin 2005

I love wine but definitely will not claim to be an expert. I will say, however, that this 2005 Cardinal Zin wine is very tasty and has some decent ratings if you are in the mood for good Zinfandel wine. The label is quite fun too.

Tags: Wine

Manitou Springs Wine Festival

Kate and I attended the Manitou Springs Wine Festival to get a sampling of Colorado wines. It is one of those events that just keeps getting better the longer you stay.

We tasted a good portion of wines in attendance with many, unfortunately, being duds. That being said, we did find a few gems worth pointing out. Kate and I both recommend the following:

Wine

• Garfield Estates - The 2005 Vin de Glace ice wine was outstanding. My personal favorite.
• Concetta Cellars - The 2005 Cabernet Sauvignan was very good. We found ourselves attracted to this one a couple of times. Definitely, Kate’s personal favorite. I do not recommend the 2005 Syrah, though.
• Denver Wine - It was the Vinny No Neck that really stood out for us which is a Cabernet blend.
• Desert Moon Vineyards - The 2004 Altitude was an excellent Bordeaux blend especially with dark chocolate as they happened to have some around to go with the wine. Very tasty.

Food

• Aspen Leaf Gourmet - If you love jerk sauces then you really must try the Wine Jerk and the hotter Tear Jerk (Warning: it sneaks up and kicks you in the…).
• Sweet and Saucy - The Wiskey Caramel is their best which, unfortunately, is not listed on their web site for some odd reason.
• Minnie Beasley’s - A hand made toffey-like cookie. Try the almond!

Tags: Wine

Sake

Introduction

I subscribe to Grape Radio which is a wine enthusiast site. Recently, they did a show called All About Sake which was quite informative. If you do not know much about sake or wish to learn more then I suggest downloading and listening to the podcast (52 minutes, 24MB) as it will not be a waste of time. I enjoyed it enough to take a few notes below:

General Information

• There are 300+ different varieties of rice. Only 30 (approximately) are used in the making of sake.
• There is a specific rice, which is not edible, called sake rice. Sake rice is use to make premium sake while lower grade sake is created from the more edible table rice. About 75% of all sake produced today is made of table rice.
• Sake pairs well with the following types of food: fish (obviously), chicken/pork, cheeses, and even fried foods.
• Currently, only 5% of sake is exported to the United States due to low demand and lack of information.
• Sake reached its peak of popularity in Japan around 1973 and since then has been declining as Western culture has been influencing Japanese youth to gain more interest in beer, wine, and spirits.

Production

• Rice, water, yeast, and mold are the key ingredients to brewing sake.
• The water used must not have any metallic elements in it.
• Yeast is used to break down the sugars while mold is used to break down the starches.
• The use of mold was introduced by the Japanese and is specific to sake production and not used by any other brewing process.
• The specifics on what type of yeast and mold is used is proprietary and kept secret by each brewer.
• Most rice grain is milled off after harvest so that only the core nodule is left. This nodule is about the size of a large cous cous perl. The rice grain that has been milled off is usually sold and used in as cooking ingredients and other uses.

Storage and Serving

• Sake does not generally keep longer than a year and drinking it within the first six months of being produced is optimal.
• Premium sake is typically served at 60 to 50 degrees Fahrenheit to almost freezing.
• Sake can range from being very sweet to bone dry in taste and is very hard to tell what it will be like when buying it. There is generally no information about this on the bottle label. You’ll have to experiment through trial and error to find out what you like and do not like.
• Contrary to popular belief, warming sake will destroy of the natural bouquet of flavors but, instead, hide imperfections in low grade sake. Premium sake will have more of a bouquet of flavor and exhibit fruit-like characteristics for something that does not include fruit as an ingredient.

Purchasing

• There are five types of sake. Generally, you want to look for the Ginjo and Diaginjo mentioned on the bottle labels for premium sake. A good bottle of Ginjo sake can cost between $20 to $100 in the United States. Anything cheaper than that is made with table rice. Ginjo has 40% of the rice grain milled off while Diaginjo has 50% to 65% milled off.
• Check out Vine Connection’s List of local stores for buying sake. You might find one that is near you.
• The Wine Room has a list from which you can buy online.

Tags: Sake