A few years ago, one of my brewer friends gave me a a taste of his Chocolate Stout with a scoop of ice cream!  Are you kidding me?!  It was so delicious.  The sweetness of the ice cream off-set by the slight bitterness of the stout gave a wonderful explosion of flavor!  So... since National Ice Cream Soda Day is on June 21st, I thought I'd share a Chocolate Stout recipe just in case you feel the need to try it out and make your own Chocolate Stout and serve it over your favorite ice cream!  Cheers!
Chocolate Stout Recipe

• 7.5 lb. Light liquid malt extract
• 0.5 lb. 120 L crystal malt
• 0.5 lb. chocolate malt
• 0.5 lb. rolled oats
• 3.0 oz. roast barley
• 1.5 oz. chocolate extract (in secondary)
• 1 oz. Cascade pellet hops, (60 min)
• 1 oz. Cascade pellet hops, (30 min)
• 1 oz. Cascade pellet hops, (knockout)
• 1 tsp Irish moss (20 min)
• Fermentis US-05 American Ale Yeast

Directions:
Steep Specialty malts in 150°F water for 20 minutes.  Strain, add liquid malt extract and proceed with one-hour boil, adding hops at specified intervals. Cool to 60°F and pitch yeast.
Ferment at for one week. Siphon into secondary. Add chocolate extract and hold until fermentation is complete.  Bottle or keg and condition.
Specifications:
Yield: 5 gallons
Original Gravity: 1.069
Final Gravity: 1.017
ABV: 6.83%
IBU: 30

Beer Cheese Dip.  Made with your choice of beer...a dark stout, a hoppy IPA, a crisp lager. You choose.  Dip anything from pretzels or chips to apples and veggies.  Beer Cheese is an easy appetizer that will please the masses.  
Beer Cheese Dip

• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 cup  flour
• 1 cup whole milk
• 2/3 cup beer of your choice
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 3/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 1/2 cups freshly grated sharp cheddar cheese
• 1/2 cup freshly grated smoked gouda cheese or swiss

1. In a medium saucepan, start by making a roux by melting butter and spices together with flour to form a thick and clumpy paste.
   
2. Slowly whisk in the milk and beer until slightly thickened. Reduce heat to low, and stir in the cheeses.
3. Remove the dip from heat and pour into a dish. Allow to cool slightly to thicken.
4. Serve with pretzels, chips, naan bread, apples, grapes, carrots, celery...just about anything!

Yes.  They're back. Dandelions.
The weed that takes over our beautiful lawns and are next to impossible to remove...but are also almost completely edible.  
Young, tender greens can be used in salads or in place of chives or herbs for flavor.  Dandelions greens can also be cooked like spinach-sautéed or stir-fried.  One cup of chopped dandelion leaves contains a good source of potassium, Vitamin A and Vitamin C. 
The bright yellow blossoms are also a good source of antioxidants, Vitamin A and B12 and can be used as an addition to pancake or fritter batter, steeped for tea or fermented to make a delicious wine.
Dandelion Wine is what we're going to talk about today.

Dandelion Wine: 1 gallon recipe
Ingredients:
8 cups dandelion petals, rinsed thoroughly 
3/4 pound golden raisins, chopped
Zest and juice from 3 lemons
Zest and juice from 3 oranges
1 gallon water
2 pounds sugar
1/2 t. yeast energizer
1 crushed Campden tablet
1 5gr pack wine yeast-Lalvin D-47 or Red Star Cote des Blanc

1. Gather your ingredients.  Be careful to use only the petals, cutting off all or most of the green.
2. Put petals, raisins and zest from citrus in a straining bag and place in primary fermenter. 
3. Heat water and pour over petals.  Add sugar and other ingredients EXCEPT YEAST.
4. Cover primary fermenter.
5. After 24-48 hours check S.G (specific gravity) It should read 1.090-1.095.  Add yeast and re-cover fermenter.
6. Stir daily.  When S.G. reaches 1.040 or after 3-5 days strain pulp lightly from bag and siphon wine off into secondary fermenter (1 gallon jug.)  Attach airlock with sanitized water.
7. When fermentation is complete after about 3 weeks or so (S.G. 1.000 or below) siphon wine off sediment into a clean secondary and reattach airlock.
8. Siphon again in 2-3 months until clear before bottling.

Tips:

• Letting this wine sit for several months after bottling will improve the flavor and quality of your wine. 
• A one gallon Wine Making Equipment Kit is a good investment.
• If you prefer a sweeter wine: Prior to bottling add 1/2 teaspoon of stabilizer (potassium sorbate) and 1/4-1/2 pound dissolved sugar to wine.

So, the eternal question..."What kind of wine will pair with this food?" 
Just to set your mind at ease, there are no absolutes.  I recommend drinking what you enjoy drinking with food you enjoy eating.
With that being said, there are a few rules that you can follow to help you get the most out of your wine and food pairing.   Like speaks to like. ​Try matching the weight of your food with the weight of your wine.  Choose a wine that will compliment your meal and enhance your dish.  If you are eating something big and bold, a light wine is going to be lost on your palate.  If you have a light meal, a heavy red will over power your food and your meal will lose it's taste.
Having a steak dinner with all the fixings?  A bold red wine will compliment your meal. 
On the other hand, if you are having a light meal such as fish or chicken, a sauvignon blanc or a chardonnay will pair well.  
A sweet wine will compliment a spicy meal.  A nice rose' with spicy Italian sausage...incredible.
I'll finish up by saying...EXPERIMENT!  If at first you don't succeed- try, try again.  There is so much information available on line, so if you are having a dinner party, "google" your appetizer, main dish, dessert and find out what the pros say.  Remember...there are no absolutes.  Enjoy what you drink!

Select the above code, right click and open to view our video on Halloween  Candy Pairing!! 

One question I often hear from people thinking about brewing beer (or cider) is "How much time will it take to brew a batch?"  The answer to this is that you can spend as much or as little time as you want.  
There are super easy...what I like to call "instant gratification" hopped extract kits, fairly easy beer extract kits with all the ingredients from malt and hops to beer caps measured out, and all grain brewing which takes a little more time and thought to put together.
I'm going to talk a little about the super easy options for beginning brewers.  A hopped extract kit consists of liquid malt extract with hop extract to make a certain style of beer such as cerveza, light lager, bock or IPA-to name a few.
Putting these brews together are easy peasy! 
After sterilizing your eqipment and soaking the extract in warm water, you pour it into your fermenter (fermenting pail) with 2 lbs of corn sugar and/or dry malt extract and add about a gallon of boiling water.  Top it off with cold water and stir well until dissolved.
Top off with a packet of yeast, cover and let stand at room temp for 4-6 days.  Fermentation is complete when bubbles cease to rise or the specific gravity checked with a hydrometer stays consistently at 1.008-1.012.
Transfer your beer into a bottling pail.  Add priming sugar (about 3/4 cup corn sugar). Easier yet, add a carbonation drop to each bottle.  Then transfer the beer into beer bottles, cap and let them stand at room temp for about a week (giving the beer time to carbonate) then move to a cool area for another week or so. Open bottle and enjoy!
These beers produce a fine tasting beer that you can be proud to share!
There are also Cider and Shandy Kits that are equally as easy.  This is certainly a fun way to ease into beer brewing with not a lot of equipment!  Here's hoping you find this information helpful! Cheers! Karen
​  

Red wines come in many varietals and blends.  The different varietals range from Super Heavyweight to Featherweight (as referred to on Delong's Wine Grape Varietal Table.)  Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Shiraz, Pinotage and Carmenre' are among those at the fuller bodied end.  Pinot Noir, Tempranillo and Sangiovese are on the light to medium weight end.  

Each varietal of grape has it's own unique characteristics-including body, flavor, aroma and color.  A Cabernet may be described as rich fruit forward with blackcurrent and cherry flavors...full bodied and heavily oaked.  A Pinot Noir, on the other hand, may be described as rich, silky and smooth with notes of toast and raspberry...light or medium bodied with a medium oak intensity. Tasting these two wines next to each other...you can certainly tell them apart


There are many wines made from a blend of 2, 3 or more grapes.  These blends sometimes bring out "The Best of Both Worlds!"  You may not care for a Shiraz by itself, but blend that Shiraz with a Cabernet and you have a harmonious mixture of flavors from both grapes.   There are times that one grape or the other will be dominant, but I notice through the aging process they will transform and different charateristics will emerge from the wine.


Aging red wine can certainly be beneficial.  The "bigger" a wine is the more it will benefit.  By aging, the wines will evolve with more complexity and flavor.  The strong fruit flavor of a young wine will mellow into a drier finish.  The harshness will soften to a smoothness.


Thank you for listening to my ramblings!  I love all types and styles of wine, each one being unique in it's own way.  I like to suggest that you venture out of your comfort zone and try some wines that you normally wouldn't drink.  So many wines...So little time!

Picking out a wine to make is much easier than it sounds.  It can be overwhelming because you are making a 6 gallon batch of wine...30 bottles.  (which I like to think of as one bottle a day for a month)  But if you take a second to put it all in perspective, it's a piece of cake.

I start with what style of wine am I looking for.  Red, White, Blush or Sweet.  Let's say I want a red.  Do I want a full bodied, heavily oaked red, or do I want an easier drinking lighter bodied wine?  White?  Am I looking for a light and fruity white or a rich full flavor?  These questions will narrow down the field considerably.

Red wines range from light and fruity to big and bold.   The lighter end of the red wines are the Pinot Noirs, Bergamais and Coastal Red.  The medium bodied reds would include Merlot, Zinfandel and Sangiovese.  For the Big and bold wines you can pick from Cabernets, Malbecs, Shiraz and a wide range of blends including Luna Rossa.

 White wine characteristics will be light bodied, off-dry or rich, full flavor and aroma.  Pigot Grigio and Sauvignon Blanc would lean toward the light bodied whites.  Off-Dry (slightly sweet) include Gewurztraminer, Riesling and Muller Thurgau to mention a few.  The many Chardonnays are certainly at the richer fuller end along with Luna Bianca.

Blush wine is generally an off-dry wine.  White Zinfandel is probably the sweetest Rose' wine....while White Merlot is slightly drier with a bit more body to it.

Sweet wines include Moscato and all of the mist wines.  Moscato is a light and fruity white wine.  The mist wines are a wine based beverage with fruit flavors such as Peach Apricot Chardonnay and Blackberry Cabernet.  They are nice easy drinkers and come in a wide range of flavors.

I hope this will help you navigate through the many wines that are available.  Remember...it's only 30 bottles and there is always another kit to mix up!  Cheers!