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Wine and Love #28

By Suki on 2012/02/09

It’s time for another edition of Wine and Love, a series brought to you by Walking With Nora. It’s a list of what makes us reach for the wine this week and a list of stuff we’re loving.

Wine…

* Blog funk. I’m sure you’ve noticed. I’ve been posting only twice a week max.

* Allergies – still on my list this week. I’ll have to remember to bring sinus meds for the plane ride because there’s no greater pain than that feeling you get as the plane is landing. You know, where you feel like your eyeballs are about to explode out of their sockets.

* Money money money – always an issue. I should be able to save more and spend less. I’ll deal with this when I get back from Costa Rica. Speaking of which, I misread my budget, and it’ll be a tad more than I thought it would be. Still we are doing all the things we want to do in the time frame that we have set for ourselves, so it’s not so bad.

* On the topic of money, I am thinking of refinancing the house while interest rates are low, but it means I have to take the time to get all the paperwork together. Yay, grown-up problems!

Love…

* All of the travel in 2012. We leave for Costa Rica TOMORROW! Then there are a few trips up to Oregon in the works, summer trips to Colorado and New York. I’ve booked flights and reserved rooms, so it’s all official!

Russian River Brewing Company

* Good beer with good friends. We went up to Russian River Brewing Co. last weekend in celebration of the 14-day release of Pliny the Younger. We went last year and waited under two hours. This year, we waited five. YIKES. I know it’s crazy, but it’s worth it. Like last year, I sampled a bunch of sour beers again. More photos to follow!

What’s up with you this week?

Wordless Wednesday – Boston Local Craft Brew Tasting Faves

By Suki on 2011/10/19

Boston Local Food Festival - Craft Brew Tasting

Notes – Wisconsin Cheese + California Beer

By Suki on 2011/10/08

Wisconsin Cheeses Back in August, I dedicated a Wordless Wednesday post to the cheeses of Wisconsin. Cheese and beer – they make for some fantastic photos, even if taken by the phone’s camera. I meant to follow up with a post, and several vacations later, the notes have resurfaced!

I was invited to attend a class at The Cheese School of San Francisco – Amazing Cheeses of Wisconsin & the Beers That Love Them – presented by Sara Hill from the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board. During the event, I nibbled on cheeses, sipped some beers and of course, took notes in a little notepad.

What I learned: Beer and cheese make quite the pair! They can take on similar flavor profiles; both can be described with adjectives like yeasty, musty, earthy, etc. Plus, there’s a reason people call Wisconsinites “cheeseheads.” There are approximately 80 cheese farmsteads and 140 cheese plants in the state, which produce over 600 varieties of cheese.

The ten cheeses that we tasted [starting from top of the clock, going clockwise], the beers we paired with them, and my not-so-professional notes:
Wisconsin Cheeses
01. Nordic Creamery, Capriko [Pasteurized cow/goat's milk] – Gouda-style, aged for 1 year, paired with New Belgium’s Sunshine Wheat

02. Holland’s Family Cheese, Marieke Gouda Young [Raw cow's milk] – tastes a bit like salted fish, paired with New Belgium’s Sunshine Wheat

03. Crave Brothers, Petit Frere [Pasteurized cow's milk] – Belgian-style, paired with North Coast’s Brother Thelonious

04. Hidden Springs Creamery, Meadow Melody [Pasteurized cow/sheep's milk] – paired with North Coast’s Brother Thelonious [loved this!]

Wisconsin Cheeses 05. Uplands Cheese Co., Pleasant Ridge Reserve [Raw cow's milk] – Best of Show 3x, only made in the summer months, paired with North Coast’s Brother Thelonious and Lost Coast’s Downtown Brown [better]

06. Widmer’s Cheese Cellars, 6-Yr Cheddar [Pasteurized cow's milk] – better than any other cheddar I’ve tried before this, paired with Lost Coast’s Downtown Brown

07. Carr Valley Cheese, Casa Bolo Mellage [Pasteurized cow/goat/sheep's milk] – caramel flavor, paired with North Coast’s Brother Thelonious, Lost Coast’s Downtown Brown [least preferred], and Sierra Nevada’s Pale Ale

08. Roelli Cheese Haus, Dunbarton Blue [Pasteurized cow's milk] – nutty flavor [LOVE!], paired with Sierra Nevada’s Pale Ale

09. Hook’s, Blue Paradise [Pasteurized cow's milk] – tastes like soy sauce, paired with Lagunitas’ Imperial Stout

10. Roth Kase, Moody Blue [Pasteurized cow's milk] – smoked blue, paired with Lagunitas’ Imperial Stout and New Belgium’s Sunshine Wheat

Beers

To taste: Beer first. Then cheese. Then beer while cheese is still in your mouth. If you need a little help pairing your cheese and beer or any other beverage, check out Cheese Cupid!

I’m due to revisit a friend in Milwaukee again. I’ll have to add cheese+beer tasting to the list of things to do. Look at this incredible map of cheese shops and cheesemakers!

Friday Fun Day

By Suki on 2011/05/16

I had an orthodontist appointment mid-morning. Normally, I would rush back to work after an appointment, but I decided to take the day off.

Like most mornings, I started off with a smoothie.

Had I known what excruciating pain I’d go through in the next hour or so, I would have mixed in some pain meds. Unfortunately, I didn’t know better.

I thought to myself, What could possibly be more wonderful than getting my braces off? Let me tell you – getting braces off with a numb mouth.

First, the brackets were popped off. Each bracket made a loud crunching sound that sent chills down the spine. I thought she was popping my teeth off.

Then, the scraping of the adhesive. Ow ow ow ow! I think my teeth are just ultra-sensitive as most websites describe the entire process as slightly uncomfortable.

By this time, I was so ready to get out of the office, but little did I know, the most painful part of the process was to come – polishing. It was frustrating because it hurt like a bitch, and the orthodontist wouldn’t stop polishing. My pain tolerance isn’t high, so this part was torturous for me. If you want to make me suffer, polish my teeth. I’m turning to tooth paste for sensitive teeth for the next few weeks.

Since I was free for the rest of the day, I met up with RV for lunch at Spice Kit. I ordered a Ssam [Korean wrap] – rice paper, red leaf lettuce, cucumbers, seasoned rice, marinated bean sprouts, roasted pork, kimchi, and signature ssam sauce. The roasted pork was marinated in lemongrass and spices – tasty!

Photo on the left: first photo of me without braces!

I am still waiting to pick up a retainer to wear for the rest of my life. Since I’m leaving for Vegas at the end of this week, I’ll have to wait a few extra days before going in again. Hopefully my teeth don’t move too much in the meantime!

After lunch, I hung out at RV’s office until happy hour. One of the guys brought in his dog Rudy, so I hung out with the pooch for a bit. From the side, he looks a little like a gray Chewbacca.

For happy hour, I went to City Beer Store with some friends. It was my first time there. It’s a small space with a great beer selection! I started off with Russian River’s Erudition. I also tried Sierra Nevada’s 30th Anniversay Fritz and Ken’s Ale [pictured below] and Fifty Fifty’s Baril Rouge Baltique.

By the time I left happy hour, the pain of removing braces remained a distant memory. A chapter of four and a half years finally came to a close.

In Line for the Younger + Sour Beer!

By Suki on 2011/02/06

Saturday, I spent 2.5 hours of my day waiting in a line. The one longer line that I’ve stood in was the lunch buffet line at the Bellagio years ago. It was worth it though! At 9:30am, Ryan, the sister, and I drove up north to stand in line at the Russian River Brewing Co. in downtown Santa Rosa. When we arrived, the line stretched about 180 feet [checked on GoogleMaps!]. It was warm, and the sun was out, but it was bearable.

Fast forward to an hour and a half later, and we were still in line! Our friends had arrived and joined us in the line, but by this time, the sun was taking its toll, and I was fading fast. Thankfully, I was in good company, and there was also water to keep us hydrated. Just a little past 1pm, we finally made it to the front of the line where we were ushered into the patio area for some drinks/snacks while we waited for a table.

Pliny the Younger

This was what we stood in that long line waiting for – Pliny the Younger! It’s a triple IPA with an extremely limited release once a year. In a previous year, they ran out of this beer within 8 hours because they allowed people to order as much as they wanted to, including taking home growlers of the beer. This year, they basically disallowed the growlers and limited the amount to be served each day, so that the tasting could go on for two weeks at the brewpub. SMART IDEA.

Reason for the limited release? Higher opportunity costs. Pliny the Younger takes longer to make than their double IPA, Pliny the Elder. It is hopped three times more than their standard IPA and is dry hopped four different times.

In our group of ten, I think the verdict was pretty much the same on Pliny the Younger – loved it!

Thumbs Up Pliny the Younger

When we finally got seated inside, I ordered a sampler of their sour beers! Here they are from top to bottom – Consecration, Compunction, Sanctification, Supplication, Temptation:

Sour Beer Sampling

It was really interesting to taste the difference in tartness and the various finishes! While I enjoyed them all, here were my top three –

Favorite Sour Beers

They seemed to taste better with the food that we ordered – buffalo wings and pizza bites! I didn’t order any growlers to go since we have enough beer at home for the moment, but we’ll be back. The Russian River Brewing Co. is definitely a day trip I wouldn’t mind taking again, perhaps when it’ll be less crowded.

Thanks to Melanie for planning the group beer outing! Gotta love beer-loving friends and living near so many awesome breweries.

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