Belgian Apple Pie

BELGIAN APPLE PIE

Hey! Here's a cocktail, or a hoptail, I made today. How this came to life is quite a story. So someone sent me a request as follows (loose quotes):

"Sir cocktail-sir

Back in the beer festival I got to taste an "apple pie drink" from a friend of mine. I was quite drunk but I remember it tasted good nonetheless. Later on I did find the pamphlet from my jacket pocket and on it were the ingredients listed: Belgian wheat beer, cloudy apple juice, lemon, vanilla liqueur. Any tips on the amount of the juice/liqueur? And how much do you reckon would go into one glass? With hazy memories I believe the size of the drink was about 0.4l."

With the help of google and some well-timed detective work, I managed to find the source of this cocktail! Luckily enough even my local store had some Belgian wheat beer and cloudy apple juice so I could make this one! It's called the Belgian Apple Pie:

• 2 cl lemon juice
• 4 - 6 cl cloudy apple juice (IMHO 6 cl is good)
• 2 cl galliano vanilla
• Belgian (style) wheat beer

Shake the three first ingredients with ice, strain into a mug filled with ice, pour over the wheat beer and garnish with a lemon slice/wheel.

I first made it with only 4 cl apple juice but had to admit it was too little so 6 cl would do much better. Smell/Taste-wise it did remind me of an apple pie, which was nice.

On a side note, if you can find, use a bit stronger wheat beer; the lower ABV ones lack body in my opinion.

A (wheat) beer tasting

A (WHEAT) BEER TASTING

A wonderful evening to each and everyone once again! As you might have noticed by the title, I planned a wheat beer tasting for me & my friend last weekend. The reason I put the "wheat" in parenthesis was I miserably failed at choosing beers! :D From the picture the second from the right is in fact not a wheat beer at all! I accidentally took it while browsing (wheat) beers at the local retailer so what we ended up was three wheat beers and one rosé bock (lager)!

Nonetheless, I pulled it off and with two friends abroad we tackled them like pros.

But first the "scientific" part. For the sake of this blog, let's pretend I never chose the lager for the collection :D. As we know, there are many types of wheat beers out there, Hefeweizens (unfiltered), Kristallweizens (filtered), dark wheat beers, Dutch witbier, Berliner Weisse, lambics and so forth. I could've chosen one type (un/filtered/dark/speciality) from one brewery (e.g. Franziskaner) but then realized how silly that would be in a world filled with different wheat beers! Instead I wanted to choose two unfiltered ones, one dark and one "specialty", which indeed turned out special (not a wheat beer at all!)

Beautiful, beautiful, beer

As I reserved way more beer than originally meant to be drunk, here's the list of what we used in drinking order (left to right):

• Paulaner Hefe-Weissbier (Munich) 5.5%
• Kloster Andechs Weizen (Andechs) 5.5%
• Schmucker Rosé Bock (Mossautal) 8.0% (not a wheat beer at all but a lager!)
• Schneider Weisse Aventinus (Kelheim) 8.2%

All of these beers hail from Germany. As with the weizens, they all had their unique "banana" flavor to it. A positive note on Aventinus, even with the 8.2% ABV it didn't taste strong. On the contrary, the Rosé Bock was not only bitter as f**k, the alcohol level was way to potent, at least for me. (the reason why I'm not a big fan of Belgian Trappist beers; their alcohol level is too much for me to enjoy them thoroughly)

I liked the Andechs beer the most. Its taste was fresh and less malty in comparison to Paulaner and Aventinus. The Aventinus had surprising, sweet (honey) notes to it. The lager was...well, bitter in all aspects. As we can clearly see, the Paulaner was maltier as well, its caramel-color when compared to its cousin the Andechs.

Since we only needed to pop one bottle/three drinkers, we saved the rest for the glorious movies Expendables I and II, which we watched before going to town to see the third. Truth to be told, the trilogy got worse after each movie but heck, these were meant to be seen! 

One HEAVENLY combo to be enjoyed!

After the third movie, one of my friends headed home but the other one stayed for a drink at the pub next door:

'

Of course I had to order a Weizen and their local noisette/nut schnapps!

The night "ended" at my place for an after party and sauna. Was good, so good!

Chimay 2009 VS Chimay 2014

Chimay 2009 VS Chimay 2014

Notice the new label (and my hands when I took the picture)

Hello everyone!

One day at work I noticed a bottle of Chimay Blue in the showcase. Nothing special, except for the fact it was brewed in 2009! Now at this point you might say "Eww Cele that's FIVE YEAR OLD BEER!" or "Put that f***ing thing away before I stick it up your ass!" BUT there's one thing you should know. These high ABV beers (in this case 9%) can be kept in cellars and "matured". Keep in mind, though, the 2009 version standing on the showcase has not quite met the requirements for proper (or any) "cellar"-conditions, so comparing it to the new version was just a fun experiment to make.

Thankfully a friend of mine managed to come along; drinking these alone would've been too much for me. But before tried out the Chimays I chatted a bit with two French tourists visiting Finland for a week, Inez and Jacques ("Jack"), with whom I talked before my friend showed up.

But let's get into business. As you can see in the following pictures, these two varied a massive amount; both in nose and palate. 

Left 2014, right 2009

First things first; the nose. Where as the 2014 had a fresh, malty aroma to it, the 2009 version smelt very yeasty to me, even spoilt. Also, the foam was weak and disappeared almost instantly. The amount of sediment (yeast) was crazy in the old bottling (as you can see in the pictures below).

2014

2009

2009

2014

Regarding taste, I have to admit the older Chimay had a distinctive taste to it. Fair enough, it wasn't a good one, but as if drinking cheap sparkling wine. I somehow got same kind of aromas from it! The 2014 bottle was so much sweeter (which makes sense since the yeast hasn't consumed all sugars) and maltier. Overall it was just better, no doubt about it. Sure, as mentioned before, the 2009 version wasn't cellar conditioned at any times, but still...phooie :D

I should've realized to decant the old bottle so all of the yeast had not gone in the glass, but well, too late now :D

Summa summarum, it was quite an experiment. After the Chimays we had a go at three gins sold at our bar (part of my NY-resolution and with a friend sampling products is WAY better); Gordon's, Bombay and Hendrick's. Out of these three, I ranked them as following:

Best nose: Hendrick's

Best taste: Gordon's

I got to say, Bombay gin had an awful peppery taste and was...quite bad to be honest.

Was fun! :)

Dutch Sunrise

DUTCH SUNRISE

Good evening ladies and gents! Tonight I present you with a cocktail I wanted to try out for a long time now. I found it from here. But before I get to the cocktail, I just want to share a little story how it all went down:

I've been enjoying a few days of vacation. Luckily so, because today was my appointment donating blood (I do it every two months), I met good friends of mine, had coffee with one and with the other I had a whiskey tasting as per my resolution I made. It's always more fun to taste whiskeys with friends than alone.

Nonetheless, I got home and got tipsy enjoyed my time with my wife watching a documentary about Hercule Poirot. I had a beer and afterwards made this cocktail. Sadly, it didn't live up to its standards. To make a Dutch Sunrise, you need:

• 2.5 cl Passoã
• two orange wedges + one rind to decorate
• weizen beer (wheat beer), but only a little

Take a tumbler, fill it with ice, add in the Passoã, squeeze the juice from the oranges and carefully top the drink with your wheat beer (pour it over the ice so it doesn't interfere with the liqueur). Add a few straws and the rind for decoration and voilá!

...And that's about it then. I was rather disappointed with this cocktail. The drink had an intriguing taste to it but the Passoã dominates the drink way too much. At its best, it's only mediocre (as I've said from another cocktail I can't remember quite now).

Visually it is quite nice. You have the "sunrise" effect but as a whole, this cocktail doesn't cut to the big boys' league. I wouldn't recommend it, really.

Irish Car Bomb

IRISH CAR BOMB

Continuing our beer cocktail show, here's another "classic" example how beer can be used in cocktails. Enter the Irish Car Bomb. Without going too much into the history of this drink, I just want to mention that the original version had Kahlúa instead of Baileys; this one is the more common one seen today:

• ½ a pint of Guinness
• 4 cl of Baileys Irish Cream
• 1 cl of Irish whiskey (I used Jameson, but any Irish blend will do fine)

Fill the shot glass with Baileys and layer the whiskey on top of it. Then drop that shot in the glass of Guinness and drink fast. Fast, because the baileys will curdle rather quickly (as seen in the last picture).

A really interesting drink. The nutty flavors from the baileys gave an excellent finish to this cocktail. The Irish Car bomb is a good party starter, a better dessert drink but most of all, a quick way to get wasted.

Black Velvet

BLACK VELVET

2013

Black velvet and that little boy's smile

Black velvet with that slow southern style

A new religion that'll bring her to your knees

Black velvet if you please

- Alannah Myles, Black Velvet

2016, three and a half years later

Introducing a beer cocktail, one of the few I personally know (along with the Snakebite), which proves to be a worthy drink indeed! Given, this drink's history goes back to the late 19th century, created to mourn the death of Prince Albert. Here's how to make one;

• Guinness (stout beer)
• Champagne

First pour the glass halfway with Guinness and then gently pour the Champagne (using the back of a [bar]spoon helps) along the side of the glass (or just tilt the glass enough) to create two separate layers, as shown in the picture.

For this cocktail I specifically wanted to by champagne, I had a small bottle of Baron-Fuenté Grande Reserve. To my surprise it had more sweetness to it than I had imagined. I enjoyed one of these with my good friend and given, as a layered cocktail this was very beautiful but having this mixed a little bit really gave this drink more taste.

I personally liked it. I did have some (negative) expectations how this would go down but yes, the combination did work well after all! I would say that  whether you want to have this with a good (chocolaty) dessert or just feeling fancy, trying one of these is definitely an experience you shouldn't miss.

Red Corona

RED CORONA

"Opened up another vial, started drinking more beer
So I could wake up next to Heather Locklear"

 - Nine Coronas by Weird Al Yankovic

Today we're making a beer "cocktail"! Tuning up the original Corona to make a Red Corona you need:

• 1 bottle of Corona Extra
• a slice of lime
• 2.5 cl vodka (1 shot)
• a dash of grenadine

I used a British shot measure, 4 cl of vodka (using the Finnish standard) could be implied but I want to stay loyal to the original recipe so to speak.

What you need to do is the following. Open the corona and take a few sips until the beer level is around the bottle neck. Add the vodka, grenadine and squeeze in the lime wedge. Now using your thumb (or any finger that'll fit and make the bottle airtight), stick in inside the bottle and slowly turn the bottle upside down so the ingredients mix up properly.

That's it!

I couldn't taste the vodka at all! Then again it is no big surprise since as I have stated many previous times, grenadine has a nasty habit of overwhelming most flavors with great ease. In this case too, it tasted slightly like beer, more like fizzy grenadine with a little bite. I could imagine having a bunch of these with good friends. Actually, a Red Corona would be perfect with friends. Since this drink still has that deviously  hidden vodka kick, just watch not to have too many. Drink responsibly!