Eggs!

I found myself with a plethora of eggs today. It happens. I also happened to be catching up on my blog reading, and found this recipe for bread and butter pickled eggs. Stroke of genius, as they say; and as someone else says, genius loves company...

Pickled eggs seem to have gone the way of the dodo. I can remember seeing them for sale in grocery stores, convenience stores, etc. when I was a kid. I can also remember spotting them (sometimes alongside pickled turkey gizzards...which reminds me of a story...) in certain dive bars. But those bars seem to be few and far between now-a-days. I would imagine that as you get further north, or south, or rural, they would be easier to find. Small places, dirty places, probably. I need to hang out there more, I guess--I'm probably not going to find a lot in New York, but I'll keep my eyes open and let you know if I do. 

After trekking around Staten Island to track down mustard seeds and turmeric, I whipped up a batch of my own. I swapped out one third of the liquid in the small jar for some pepper vinegar that I've been steeping since February to spice it up a bit. I'll be back in a couple of weeks to let you know how they turn out.

Holy crap...success!

I have no idea why I'm so surprised at this, but the beer turned out awesome. It tastes nothing like homebrews that I've had in the past (with the exception of certain homebrews in Ames, which are in a different category, I think). It's not skunky. It's not watery. It's not face-puckering. It tastes like actual beer. Good, actual beer, actually. With alcohol in it. And carbonation. It all worked!

Brewmeister Santangello (notice the initials...) and I  bottled about a week ago, on a Thursday night. We've been terribly conscious about sanitation with our beer---Star San-ing everything, sealing everything, than using the Star San again. It was no different on bottling night. Everything got dunked and washed: bottles, bottle tree, caps, capper, tubes, siphon, Barker, etc. The whole process, from opening the first beer (you have to drink while you're brewing, says B.S., and how can you argue with that?) to the final clean-up, took about two hours. Not so bad. 

All told, we had about four gallons of beer, or about a case each of 22oz and 12oz bottles. We have a little less than that now, after cracking about six of them last night. Delicious. 

One thing that we realized we need to be more diligent about is keeping a log. We're a little sketchy on the details of this batch---exactly how long it was in the fermenters, at what temperatures, how long it took to carbonate, etc. We'll be better at that for next time. 

Like I said to begin with, I have no idea why I'm so surprised at the result. We followed the recipe and kept everything sanitary. It just feels like magic, kind of. We started with water, and some grain, and some hops...and some other stuff...and ended up with beer. No abra-cadabra, no mystical chanting or dancing, no calling upon the spirits. It can be done, and it's not that hard. Try it.

Next up for us will be a good old American ale, I believe, but that will have to wait. For now, I believe I'll relax, and have a homebrew.

Our topic today is how to stuff a pear into a bottle...

As some of you know, Lauren and I made Pear Liqueur last year from the 100-year old pear tree that lives in the backyard of Lauren's grandmother's house in Brooklyn. I think we were both a little surprised by the results...pretty much everyone loves it. Had we known, we would have made a lot more. We've only got a few bottles left, which we're saving for the wedding in October. 

This year, we're planning ahead. Not only are we going to make more, we getting a little fancy by tying some of the bottles to the tree with the little pears inside (when they're so small that they'll fit in the hole, eh). The idea being, of course, that the pears grow inside the bottles, which then get filled with the booze that we make from the tree that the bottles are hanging from. 

We're hoping it all works out---the bottles would look so cool with a pear inside. That, coupled with an awesome label by this wonderful graphic designer I know...it will all be very impressive. The only thing missing, of course, would be free beer...

Two at a time, eh!

Liquor cabinet: check!

Success! The liquor cabinet is complete! We got the counter top the other day, as well as some hot vinyl to line a couple of shelves. We're all cleaned up, stocked, and ready to go! There was a little grumbling over some odd shaped bottles, but other than that it's perfect. There's a spot for all the bar tools, a shelf for bitters, reference books up top, a rack for glassware---even a place to let the homemade infusions steep. Brilliant. It's still going to be a work in progress, as we come up with more ways to organize as it grows, but we love it. I'm ready to mix!

Second base!

As I mentioned in the first post, there's beer brewing at my house. Well, technically...it's down the hall. But I have a half interest in the beer, and it lives nearby, so...close enough. Monday night, the beer went from the primary to the secondary fermenter. Thankfully, Tom knows what that means and why we need to do it. I'm learning, though. We haven't come up with a name for this delightful brew yet, but in the early running is "Gloria's IPA", or "The Beer", or "Tom Kills Barker with Hops". More on this "brewing" story in three or so weeks, when we go to bottling...

Lovely golden color, wouldn't you say?

More hops? Yes, please!

Barker 2, Friday 0

Not a bad day, last Friday. First, I went in my local antique shop and found these guys:

Two antique blue glass carboys, one with a crate, at an extremely reasonable price. Once fully cleaned and sanitized, these will look beautiful with beer (or soda!) brewing inside. If only Tom and I would have stopped in a week earlier when we were all over the island looking for carboys...but more on that later.

The second score is better, if I do say so myself. Lauren and I had been looking for a Hoosier cabinet for a week or so, since she came up with the idea that all the booze should live in it's own cabinet, rather than the kitchen cupboard that the bottles have currently taken over. Ebay introduced us to one in Vermont that nearly got the nod, but the cost of getting it back home figured to be a little too much. Craigslist had one in Manhattan...but we were too late on that one. I explored Craigslist further, and found this very innocent-sounding ad tucked away in the North Jersey pages:

Interesting, I thought, and the price is certainly right. I called, and spoke with a guy named Sal, who sent me some very small and blurry pictures via text message. Couldn't tell much from the pictures...but again, the price was right. Why not? Even if we just use it as a place holder until we find one we really like, it's worth $100. So we went to West Orange Friday night and picked it up. And this is what we got:

Hooolllleeee crap...awesome. We love it--look at the style! Deco! Wonderful! Of course, there's no countertop, but we're ordering one. And it didn't always look this good... 

...as you can see, it was a little dirty from having been in Sal's basement for 25 years. A little 409, a little soap and water, a heap of elbow grease, and voilá! Liquor cabinet!

Once we get the countertop, line the shelves, and add the booze, I'll post more pictures. Good idea Lauren!

The Bar is Open

I like a drink every now and again. I'm not afraid to admit it. Lately, though, I've been getting into it a bit deeper. Not more, necessarily...just better. 

For Christmas this year, Lauren got me a mixology class. Now, I have worked as a bartender before, at a couple of places. The first was a last-chance dive bar. When the drunks got kicked out of everywhere else in town, they came to us. It also housed the local music scene. Bartending there consisted mostly of opening bottles, pouring pitchers, pouring shots, and breaking up fights. 

A few years later, I found myself working in an Irish bar in Chicago, near a college campus. It was a pretty big and popular place, but you know...college crowd. If I never pour another Jager bomb, vodka/red bull, or open a Miller Lite again, that will be fine with me. 

Don't get me wrong---both were great places, and I learned a lot. But these were quantity places, not necessarily quality. Quantity as in "how much Captain can you legitimately put in in a glass and still call it a Captain and Coke", or "how many shots of Jager can a person drink?". That kind of place. 

So I had a little experience going into the mixology class. Lauren and I had dabbled before--the pear liqueur we made was a big hit. We had a great time at the class, made some awesome drinks, and even went back for the second class. A lot of people leave those kinds of recreational classes with what they learned. I left with what is possible. 

I've been cooking a bit lately too, and here's what I discovered: I get a little weird. With ingredients, with technique, with trying new things. Weird as in I think I can do it better. I think I can make a better salad dressing. I think I can make a great loaf of bread. I can roast it longer and lower! Oh yeah? Up yours!

Weird that way. And it's carried over into drinks now. 

I want to make bitters. I'm brewing beer for the first time. I want to steep things in other things, and make more liqueurs. I've been eyeing home distillers. I want to try old recipes. I want to make all kinds of syrups. I want to make homemade pop. I want to then use the homemade pop and the homemade syrups and the homemade bitters to make a homemade drink that is better than the drinks I can get at a bar. 

Because I think I can. I'll let you know how it all works out.