After seventeen weeks of regular season, a couple of play off games, and a revived pro-bowl game; the big game is upon us. By now all the grief of your fantasy football season should be over -- the Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks face-off to crown the next NFL Champion. This is a time where housewives know more about football than your favorite ESPN analyst, but only a few of us know how to pair craft beer with snacks, meals and other savory treats. So let's take a quick look at which brews you can drink while watching the big game.
There is really nothing more American than eating a hamburger while watching the Superbowl. We suggest you pair your hamburger delight with a Vienna lager. Well balanced carmel/toffee notes and crisp drinkability in this style will compliment your hamburger well and keep you coming for more.
If you prefer to indulge in savory hot wings then our suggestion is to pair your wings with an American IPA. The spicy flavors in hot wings blend very well with the intense citrus flavor of hop goodness creating a balance that you will enjoy; enough balance that will have the approval of Peyton Manning.
What if you plan on eating pizza on game day? A great pairing with pizza is a Hefeweizen. The refreshing German wheat beer is an excellent choice with pizza. The subtle notes of banana and clove are bound to satisfy your Superbowl hunger.
Richard Shermanmay have more picks than these, but what say you? Comment below with your food/craft beer pairings...
Welcome ladies and gents! We are the brewers
Dan Garcia and Marcus Guerra. We are currently home brewers with a lot of
passion! Our greatest mission is to open Laredo’s first brewery. As brewers, we
aim at starting a revolution in our hometown the best way we know. We want to
brew great beer that our community can enjoy. We want to build something our
town can call its own and be proud of.
Our story is still young, but it is growing
every day.It has been a year since we
started brewing beer at our homes. Marc and I were not yet partners but we both
experimented with brewing beer independent of one another. Our original goal
was simply to brew beer that we personally liked and not have to go to the
store to buy good beer. Let us be clear in saying, brewing quality beer is NOT
easy. It takes many trials and setbacks to fully understand how to brew and do
it correctly. This is especially true when some of our early beer smelled and
tasted like a donkey’s rear end (but never mind that). Eventually, after a lot
of practice it became clear to both Marc and I that we had come up with
delicious beer on our own. This beer we thought, was tasty enough that it might
be able to compete with some established beer brands. That was how our idea
manifested itself, and as partners, we could combine both our passion and
resources together and open up our town’s first craft brewery.
We see ourselves as ordinary men who still
believe the American dream can be achieved if your want it bad enough. We are
not technicians who spent years at a brewing academy. No, we are your everyday
gentlemen craft beer connoisseurs who decided to take our love of great beer to
the next level. And we are both ready and willing to do all that is necessary
to make our dream a reality.
We seek to establish the first
craft brewery south of San Antonio.There are currently no craft breweries in South Texas, and we would like
to ensure that this changes.Along with
crafting beer in a manner that blends Old World and New World techniques, we
will create recipes that define who we are as we explore the heritage and
culture with which we are most familiar.
Beer is not simply a drink to
us.Beer is what we do.We believe that beer helps make the world go
round—that a well-crafted beer can do so much more than occupy a few
minutes.Quite simply, we believe that
beer can change the world.
In the next 5 years, we believe we
will be playing a pivotal role within the state of Texas.Beer enthusiasts and casual drinkers alike
will find much to love about our brews and our take on the growing craft beer
culture.
So what is
All-Grain brewing? What is the mystery behind using grains to produce beer? Lets
review the basics of what happens in a typical all-grain brewing day. Making the switch
to All-grain brewing will require a brewer to purchase some additional
equipment that can go from a simple to an elaborate system. Each system is
suited to the individual needs or wants of the brewer.
But now lets skip to a typical brewing
day and how a brewer will go about it. The All-grain brewing process will
require a brewer to have three vessels that will each have different jobs.
These vessels are the Hot Liquor tank, Mash/Lauter tun, and finally the brew
kettle. The first vessel is Hot Liquor tank or HLT. LIQUOR TANK?? Hold on now?
Are you saying you add liquor to beer? Now, wait a second, the brewer is not
storing Whiskey or Tequila in here so do not panic! The HLT is where all the
water that will be required for a brew day will be stored and heated for use.
The second vessel Mash/Lauter tun is where grains are mixed with hot water
that is supplied by the HLT and at the right temperatures to extract sugars
from the grains that will eventually become beer. Finally, the sugary substance (now called WORT) that has been extracted in the
Mash tun is Lautered (drained/removed from grains) into the brew kettle. Almost
simultaneously, as Wort is exiting the Mash tun vessel, brewers begin what is
called a Sparge. A Sparge is when additional hot water is added into the Mash tun
as hot wort will be exiting into the brew kettle. This is called Continuous
sparging where water is moving into the Mash tun as wort is exiting. Once the last of the sparge water has
rinsed through the grain bed and picked up the last of the fermentable sugars and
has exited into the brew kettle then the final step will begin.
Are you lost?
Don’t worry I used to think it was confusing to be moving so much fluid
everywhere. But I will show you some illustrations and videos to help you
understand this process better (It is really quite easy). Anyway back to the
brew day. The wort is now separated from the grains and in the brew kettle. At
this point the wort is brought to boiling temperature for 60 minutes to
complete the brewing process and to kill any contaminants that may have gotten
in the beer. During the 60 minute boil is the time when brewers normally add
hops, spices, sugars and just about anything that comes to mind. Believe me
this is why it is called craft beer because you can add just about anything to
the beer at this stage brewers can get quite creative. The boil is now over and
the beer must be brought from boiling to a temperature that is suitable for
yeast to thrive and ferment. Once the beer has been cooled to a nice cool
temperature and the brew is transferred into a fermentation vessel, the brewer
will add the final ingredient; yes you know it, THE YEAST! The yeast is what
will convert all the fermentable sugars the brewer extracted into CO2 and
Alcohol. Most beers are ready to be either kegged or bottled within 2-4 weeks.
This
is the basic process that any brewer of any scale must do in order to produce beer.
The beauty as I said before is how a brewer goes about brewing their beer, or
what they add to the beer? Craft
beer is partly a science but a big part of it is just plain art.
A brewer is the
artist, his equipment is his blank canvass, his ingredients are his paint, and
his knowledge is his brush. Now he has an infinite amount of possibilities that
he can create. It really is a wonderful and rewarding experience to brew and
learn from every mistake that is made. A brewer must persevere and never give up
no matter how many times things do not go his way.
1. Walk into Store. 2. Waste time pretending you know what you are looking for. 3. Act like you found it. 4. Put the bottle down and tell your. buddy to get that beer. 5. Pick beer. ....fastforward to pour time. 65. Open Bottle. 66. Smell Beer. 67. Pour in Glass. 68. Smell it 2 more times. 68.5. (Build taste assumption).. 69. Enjoy. :)
