Thursday's Food

 Breakfast:

• 6oz orange juice, with 500mg vitamin C pill
• Slice of whole grain cinnamon raisin bread toasted
• ~5 cups (2 "cups") coffee
• ~200 calories

Lunch:

• Home made salad & balsamic vinaigrette dressing
• ~510 calories

Tea:

• 1.5 cups green tea
• 1 chocolate truffle
• ~73 calories

Supper:

•  1/2 mess of swiss chard greens, sauteed
• 1.5 hubbard squash stuffed with corn chowder
• 1 small container of remaining corn chowder
• 1/4 batch of brownies w/ 3 scoops vanilla ice cream
• who knows?
  

Alcohol:

• ~1.5 oz Balvenie 15 year 
• 3oz Chardonnay
• 1 12oz New Belgium Snow Day
• 1 12oz Sierra Nevada Bigfoot 2012
  

Wednesday's Food

 Breakfast:

• 6oz orange juice, with 500mg vitamin C pill
• Slice of whole grain cinnamon raisin bread toasted
• ~5 cups (2 "cups") coffee
• ~200 calories

Lunch:

• Crunchy Peanut Butter Clif bar
• Miso Soup & Garden Roll at Taki
• ~540 calories

Tea:

• 1.5 cups green tea
• 1 chocolate truffle
• ~73 calories

Supper:

• Jason's Deli - Portabella Garden Salad w/ bread
• 1/2 cranberry walnut cookie
• ~1270 calories

Beer:

• No beer
  

Tuesday's Food

 Breakfast:

• 6oz orange juice, with 500mg vitamin C pill
• Slice of whole grain cinnamon raisin bread toasted with
• ~5 cups (2 "cups") coffee
• ~200 calories

Lunch:

• 1/6 leftover Smoky four cheese macaroni bake (modified with Stone Smoked Porter, mushrooms, kale, and different cheeses)
• ~1000 calories

Tea:

• 1.5 cups green tea
• 1 chocolate truffle
• ~73 calories

Supper:

• Quick Black Bean chili (~1281 calories in the entire batch)
• Nachos made with black bean chili and some other stuff.   We used about half of the beans between both of us.   Also, ~2oz cheddar, 1 avocado,  some blackberry salsa, sour cream, and too many chips.
• Dessert: 2 scoops of ice cream on top of 1/4 of a batch of brownies
• can't count all those calories...   

Beer:

•  ~6oz Dark Strange
• ~10oz New Belgium Cocoa Mole

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Quick Black Bean Chili

183g onion
39g celery
97g anaheim pepper
10g garlic
5g dry chipotle
6g ancho
1 can kroger PS black beans (130c, 3.5s)
1 can kroger PS tri-bean blend (130c, 3.5s)
1/4t chipotle powder
1/4t ancho powder
1/4t hot mexican chili powder
1/4t cayenne powder
1/2t chili powder
1/2t oregano
1/4t cinnamon
1/2t cocoa powder
15 grinds black pepper
2 dashes kosher salt
1T olive oil
2/3 cup TVP

Sautee vegetables with oil.   Add beans & rinse cans and add that water.   Add spices.  Simmer until almost sticking to the bottom of the pot, stir in TVP and turn off heat.   Let sit for 5 minutes or so, for the TVP to soak up the remaining water and become thick.

Monday's food

 Breakfast:

• 5oz orange juice, with 500mg vitamin C pill
• End of whole grain bread toasted with too much butter (1/2T)
• ~5 cups (2 "cups") coffee
• ~190 calories

Lunch:

• 1/6 leftover Smoky four cheese macaroni bake (modified with Stone Smoked Porter, mushrooms, kale, and different cheeses)
• ~1000 calories

Tea:

• 1.5 cups green tea
• 1 chocolate truffle
• ~73 calories

Supper:

• Sweet potato oven fries w/ 1T olive oil and 1t Spike Seasoning (~450 cal for the batch)
• Sauteed kale w/ 1T olive oil (~220 cal for the batch)
• Baked steelhead w/ 1T olive oil and 1t Old Bay Seasoning (~710 cal for the batch)
• ~690 calories

Beer:

• 1 12oz Victory Yakima Glory
• 1 12oz Yazoo Hop Project #63

Witbier Cookies

Based on a similar theme to the Oatmeal Stout cookies:  Witbier cookies.  I'm using ingredients that might go into an actual witbier (Wheat malt extract, bitter orange peel, coriander seeds).    They're even pale in color, due to the lack of brown sugar (I didn't think the molasses-y flavor would be appropriate).  

I'm very pleased with the flavor of these.   The citrus really shines, and the coriander backs it up nicely.
---------------------

1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup Wheat Dry Malt Extract
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt 

2t bitter orange peel

2t whole coriander seeds

1.5 cups flaked barley
1.5 cups flaked wheat


preparation 

1. Grind Bitter Orange Peel and Coriander in a coffee grinder
1. Heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, beat margarine and sugar until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add combined flour, wheat malt extract, salt, and baking soda; mix well. Add wheat and barley; mix well.
2. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto parchment-lined cookie sheets.
3. Bake 10 to 12 minutes. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to wire rack. Cool completely. Store tightly covered.

Oatmeal Stout Cookies

I just realized that I forgot the salt.

Anyway, I've been wanting to make these for a while, and Christmas is the perfect time to pawn some cookies off on other people, so we don't have to eat them all.   Not that I mind piles of cookies around the house, but I just can only eat so many cookies.

The basic idea behind these is to use some of the same ingredients that would go into an oatmeal stout.   I get the maltiness from the malt extract, and the roasted flavors from the chocolate malt and roasted barley.   It just seems fitting to use flaked barley alongside the oats for some chew.  All of these ingredients should be available from your friendly-neighborhood brewer's supply shop.

Unfortunately, my nose is a bit stuffed up, so I can't give a great review of them, but I think this works quite nicely.   The roasted malts really give these a nice dark-chocolate/coffee flavor. 

I've got plans for a batch of Witbier cookies, too, and hopefully this experiment will give me enough data to learn some stuff for the next batch. 

---------------------

1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1/2  cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

1/2 cup Dark Dry Malt Extract
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda

2T Roasted Barley

2T Chocolate Malt

1.5 cups flaked barley
1.5 cups Oats (whole rolled, uncooked)


preparation 

1. Grind Chocolate Malt and Roasted Barley in a coffee grinder
1. Heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, beat margarine and sugars until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add combined flour and baking soda; mix well. Add oats and barley; mix well.
2. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto parchment-lined cookie sheets.
3. Bake 10 to 12 minutes. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to wire rack. Cool completely. Store tightly covered.

Grain Cleaner (Indian Tumbler)

Post-boil wort sample.

At least half of the brown ales that I brew wind up being a way to get rid of a bunch of the grain scraps I have left over from various other brews.   Inventory is a whole lot easier to do when you have nothing to count.  This one wound up being that way as well.   I do like them, though, partly because it's a nice canvas on which I can really get creative, and partly because they tend to pair well with a variety of food.  

Two of my absolute favorite brown ales are Sierra Nevada's Tumbler and Dogfish Head's Indian Brown Ale.   Initially, I was going to make a Tumbler clone and in looking up clone recipes found that the "secret" ingredient is smoked malt. So I started looking around at smoked malt, and then thought, "Hey, I've got all this old French Pils and a stovetop smoker, why don't I try smoking my own?"   I couldn't think of a good reason not to, so I got out the smoker and the Alderwood chips and did it.   The smoker's tray held a little over 6oz. of malt, so that's all that I did.   I started off by spraying the malt lightly with water and stirred it while putting it into the tray.   Then I ran the smoker per its directions, but kept it on medium heat, and stirred every few minutes so I wouldn't burn the grain.   It seemed to work out nicely, and the grain came out with a scent reminiscent of smoked almonds, or toast and bacon.  

What I love about the DFH Indian Brown is the hoppiness of it.   The hops and the other flavors just work really well together in that beer.  It's also no slouch in the alcohol department.

After thinking about the brew for a while, I came to the conclusion that I should try to meld these and see what happens.   Unfortunately, I haven't taken inventory in so long, that I really don't know what grain I have, so the grain bill wound up going off of my mark a bit.   The LHBS didn't have any Crystal 60, so I went with Crystal 90 instead, and it turned out that I barely had any Crystal 40.   I was also close to the end on the Marris Otter, so figured I would just add that and have a nice gravity bump, and add slightly to the toasty flavors.   The Warrior, Columbus, and Cascade were all left over from the Pliny the Toddler Variants.   That's fine, though, as I think a bit less emphasis on the fruity side of things will do this beer well, considering the yeast and grain bill.

Grain Cleaner (Indian Tumbler)

Batch Size (Gal): 6
Total Grain (Lbs): 16.12
Anticipated OG: 1.067
Anticipated SRM: 27.5
Anticipated IBU (Tinseth): 65.8
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70%
Wort Boil Time (min): 90

Grain:
74.3% -- 11.98 lbs. Canada Malting 2-row Pale Malt
10.1% -- 1.63 lbs. Marris Otter 2-row Pale Malt
6.2% -- 0.99 lbs. Crystal 90L
4.7% -- 0.75 lbs. Pale Chocolate Malt
2.4% -- 0.39 lbs. Alderwood Smoked French Pils
1.8% -- 0.29 lbs. Crystal 120L
0.6% -- 0.09 lbs. Crystal 40L

Hops:
0.74 oz. Warrior (Pellet, 13.7% AA) 60 min.
0.82 oz. Columbus (Pellet, 13.9% AA) 20 min.
0.98 oz. Cascade (Pellet, 5.4% AA) 10 min.
1.00 oz. US Saaz (Pellet, 5.8% AA) 10 min.
1.00 oz. US Saaz (Pellet, 5.8% AA) 0 min.

Yeast:
WLP007 Slurry from 1/2 of my Pliny the Toddler Variant

Water Profile:
Clearview, degassed ~23h
Calcium Chloride: 1/8t

Mash Schedule:
90m @ 153F

Extras:
1 Whirlfloc tablet at 10m left in the boil.

Notes:

• Actual efficiency appears to be ~71%
• The first runnings came out delicious.   Rich toffee/caramel/raisin flavors with a pleasing slightly smoky finish.  22.25 Brix
• Pitched entire slurry at 8PM.   Wort stayed in the refrigerator a bit too long, so the temperature was 57F.