Montana Brewers Association Brewfest [9/23/2010]

With 21 participating breweries, and 73 different selections, we had a terrific time at the 2010 Montana Brewers Festival. It was an outstanding way to end our time in Montana and end our pretty much un-planned but totally awesome Montana brewery tour.





Needless to say, we were unable to try everything (not even half of the options). Our ratings below are based on a 1-10 scale. Personally, I may have become more forgiving towards the later part of the evening, so, the marks are probably a bit biased.

Brewery	Brew	Type	Rating
Bayern	St. Wilbur	Hefeweizen	7
Bayern	Dump Truck Summer Boch	Smooth Boch	9
Bayern	Bayern Octoberfest	Dark Marzen	8
Bayern	Bayern Pilsner	Pilsner	6
Beaver Creek	Cherry Wheat	Wheat	5
Beaver Creek	Beaver Creek Pale Ale	Pale Ale	5
Blackfoot River	Blackfoot Maibock	Maibock	6
Blacksmith	Imperial Red Ale	Imperial IPA	5
Blacksmith	Cutthroat IPA	IPA	6
Bozeman	Bozone Select	Amber Ale	6
Bozeman	Plum Street Porter	Porter	6
Carter's	Saison de Carter	Belgian-French Saison	6
Flathead Lake	Rising Sun Espresso Porter	Coffee Porter	5
Glacier	Golden Grizzly Ale	Kolsch Golden Ale	7
Glacier	Glacier Select Oktoberfest	Marzen	7
Great Northern	Highlander Premium Beer	Scottish Red Ale	7
Great Northern	Wild Huckleberry Wheat Lager	Filtered Wheat w/Fruit	6
Harvest Moon	Pigs Ass Porter	Porter	6
Harvest Moon	Beltian White	Belgian style vitbier	7
Harvest Moon	Nut Brown	Brown	6
Kettlehouse	Eddy Out	Pale Ale	5
Kettlehouse	Cold Smoke Scotch Ale	Scotch Ale	5
Lewis and Clark	Miner's Gold	Hefeweisen	6
Lewis and Clark	Portage Porter	Porter	8
Lone Peak	Hippy Highway Oatmeal Stout	Oatmeal Stout	7
Lone Peak	Hellroaring ESB	English Style Extra Special Bitter	5
Montana	Whitetail Wheat	American Hefeweisen	7.5
Neptune's	Wheat	American Wheat	6
Quarry	Open Pit Porter	Porter	8
Tamarack	Rye Sally Rye PA	Rye Pale Ale	5
Tamarack	Wakeboard Wheat	Belgium Style Wit	7

We did not sample any of the Bitter Root beers because we had already had them all with a flight at their brewery. Unfortunately, we missed out on trying anything from Angry Hank's, Madison River, and Red Lodge Ales.

The musical headliner was a group called Keegan Smih & The Fam and they were a lot of fun. : )

If you are traveling to Montana and like micro-brews, you should definitely check out: www.montanabrewers.org

Jesse Schell's Visions of the Gamepocalypse [8/30/2010]

My Masoor Dal [8/16/2010]

My Masoor Dal

1 1/2 cups masoor dal (red lentils)
6 cups water
1 tomato
3 cloves garlic
1 onion
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon cumin ground
3 1/2 teaspoons ras el hanout
1/2 teaspoon coriander ground
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons ginger paste
dash of cayenne

Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Rinse the red lentils. In a blender puree the onion, tomato, garlic and 1 cup of water. Add the lentils, oil, puree, and 5 cups of water to a pot. Bring to a boil and then add the spices. Simmer on medium heat until the dal is soft and mushy with no dryness or crunch. On my stove this took approximately 2 hours. Soaking the lentils overnight would reduce the cooking time significantly.

Lager Sampling No. 1 [7/17/2010]

Brewery	Name	Location	Short Description	Rating
Samuel Adams	Black Lager	Boston, MA	ok, decent	91
Gorden Biersch Brewing Company	Märzen	San Jose, CA	too bitter	88
Dundee Brewing Co	Pale Bock Lager	Rochester, NY	malty, sweet	92
Samuel Adams	Imperial Double Bock	Boston, MA	molasses, 9.5%	94
Spoetzl Brewery	Shiner Bohemian Black Lager	Shiner, TX	toasty, almost charred	90
Flying Dog Brewery	Collaborator Doppelbock	Denver, CO	8.3%, full bodied, super yummy	96
Spoetzl Brewery	Shiner Bock	Shiner, TX	clean, toasty	92
Sierra Nevada Brewing Co	30th Anniversary Imperial Helles Bock	Chico, CA	malty, toasty	94

See Also:
Porter Sampling No. 7, Porter Sampling No. 6, Porter Sampling No. 5, Porter Sampling No. 4, Porter Sampling No. 3, Porter Sampling No. 2, Porter Sampling No. 1
Ale Sampling No. 1
Wheat Sampling No. 2, Wheat Sampling No. 1

Homebrewing: Rye [6/27/2010]

It's proved really difficult for me to find ryes in the store. If you've found a rye you like please let me know. For this batch we used the Brewers Connection recipe for O'Ryely's Rye. I can't wait to see how this turns out and how it ages.

Chestnut Soup [6/20/2010]

Chestnut Soup

3 tbs butter
1 chopped celery rib
2 chopped carrots and/or parsnips
2 chopped shallots or 1 onion
5-6 cups of low sodium chicken broth (or half broth / half water)
15 oz jar peeled and cooked whole chestnuts
1/4 cup dry Sherry, Sercial Madeira, or dry white wine
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1 bouquet garni in cheesecloth: sprig of parsley, 1 bay leaf, (optional) sprig of thyme, (optional) whole cloves

Melt butter in a heavy saucepan over low heat. Sweat vegetables for 15 minutes to soften.

Add broth and bouquet garni and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes.

Add chestnuts and wine. Simmer, covered, 3 minutes.

Cool soup slightly. Puree soup in small batches in a blender, transferring to a heavy saucepan. Stir in cream, pepper, and salt to taste.

Reheat soup. Serve with crunchy garnish such as frizzled leeks or thin slices of raw green beans, celery, etc.

Porter Sampling No. 7 [5/26/2010]

Brewery	Name	Location	Short Description	Rating
Samuel Adams	Holiday Porter	Boston, MA	ok, decent	89
Lagunitas Brewing Co	Cappucinno Stout	Petaluma, CA	ok, but not exciting	90
Moylan's Brewing Co	Dragoons Dry Irish Stout	Novato, CA	thin, dry, a bit hoppy	88
Brew Dog	Rip Tide twisted merciless stout	England	hoppy	88
Green Flash Brewing Co	Double Stout	San Diego, CA	unmemorable	88
Anderson Valley Brewing Co	Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout	Boonville, CA	decent	89
Bell's Brewery	Kalamazoo Stout	Comstock, MI	bitter	87
Boulder Beer Company	Obovoid Oak-Aged Oatmeal Stout	Boulder, CO	I didn't like the aged in oak flavor	87
Jedrzejow Brewery	Strzelec Porter	Jedrzejow, Poland	thick, molasses like	94
Samuel Adams	Cream Stout	Boston, MA	toasty	93
Deschutes Brewery	Obsidian Stout	Bend, OR	nice body, toasty	92
Odell Brewing Co	Cutthroat Porter	Fort Collins, CO	malty, dry, clean	94
Prescott Brewing Co	Achocolypse Porter	Prescott, AZ	rich, very chocolatey	92

See Also:
Porter Sampling No. 6
Porter Sampling No. 5
Porter Sampling No. 4
Porter Sampling No. 3
Porter Sampling No. 2
Porter Sampling No. 1
Ale Sampling No. 1
Wheat Sampling No. 2
Wheat Sampling No. 1

Finished Here Comes Everybody [5/18/2010]

The first part of the book is mostly anecdotes that are individually pretty interesting. But, I was left wondering about their relevance and whether or not anything could be extrapolated from them. In the last few chapters Shirky really puts it all together and makes several large scale conclusions about the role of the internet and social networking in our society and our future.

Finished Patternmaster [5/08/2010]

I have mixed feelings on this conclusion to Butler's Patternist series. I found it to be a fun read, but, it was also kind of difficult for me to care one way or another about Teray's fate. As a whole, the series is worthwhile. But, I don't think Patternmaster could stand up well on it's own. At least the characters weren't annoying like those in Mind of My Mind were.

Finished Clay's Ark [5/05/2010]

This is another book in Butler's four part Patternist series. I found this one much more to my liking than Mind of My Mind. It's got a lot of action and the characters are interesting. It's gritty but still accessible. I would have liked the story to be even longer and cover more of what happened after the clayark disease spread.