Monthly Archives: April 2012

Hardywood Park Singel Reuben Sandwich

What can I say about Cassie Keene? She is the beer goddess that has greeted me at every beer tasting at The Empress. She has been featured in Richmond.com’s 5Qs with a Foodie where we learned about her love of kimchi.  On heels of announcing her upcoming restaurant, GinkgoRVA, I also learned that she will be having a kimchi and beer pairing at Kitchen Thyme on June 10th.  Fast forward a few days when Cassie tweets:

Lucky for you, she agreed to share her recipe and boy did she deliver.  Cassie proves once again that beer is what’s for dinner.

Enjoy!

PS. Today is also Cassie’s birthday so if you see her thank her for this tasty recipe.

Hardywood Park Singel Braised Corned Beef
Ingredients
2.5 – 3 lb. corned beef brisket flat
2 garlic cloves
2 medium shallots, peeled and chopped
24 oz Hardywood Singel
6 carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces

Directions

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Put the corned beef fat side down, into a large dutch oven.  Add the garlic, shallots, pickling spice, and Singel.  Cover and place in oven.  Braise this for 1 hour and 15 minutes.  Turn the meat.  Braise for another 1 hour and 15 minutes.  Turn meat again and add carrots.  Cover again and place back in the over for another 2 hours.  After 2 hours, check the brisket for doneness.  You should be able to puncture the roast easily with a fork.  Put it back in the oven for 30 minutes if it needs more time.  Remove the brisket from the pot and loosely wrap in foil.  I refrigerated mine overnight and then sliced it for Reuben sandwiches the next day.  It is much easier to slice thinly when it’s cold.

You can speed up this recipe by braising on the stove.  Braise on low heat for 90 minutes.  Add carrots and braise for another hour and a half.

I’m sure there’s a way to do this in a slow cooker.

*enjoy eating the beer infused carrots

Hardywood Park Singel Braised Sauerkraut

Ingredients
1/2 cup thinly sliced onions
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 teaspoon rosemary
1 dash dried thyme
1 lb fresh sauerkraut
6 oz Hardywood Singel
Salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste

Directions
In a large pan heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat. Add a 1/2 cup thinly sliced onions, season with salt and cook until the onions have turned golden brown. Add 1 clove minced garlic, 1/4 teaspoon chopped rosemary, dash of dried thyme, and freshly ground black pepper. Stir continuously for another minute. Add 1/2 lb fresh sauerkraut and 6 oz Hardywood Park Singel.  Simmer at medium-low temperature until all the liquid has reduced.

Hardywood Park Singel Reuben Sandwich 

Ingredients
Rye bread
Thinly sliced Singel Braised corned beef
Swiss cheese
Singel Braised Sauerkraut
Thousand Island Dressing
Butter

Directions
Heat grill pan over medium heat. Assemble sandwiches. Butter both sides of the sandwich and grill each side until it’s golden brown and the cheese has melted

Richmond, Get Ready for Real Ale!

How fresh do you like your beer? If the answer is REAL fresh, then get ready for real ale Richmond!  The Tap into Virginia Cask Festival will be the first cask festival to happen in Richmond and most likely Virginia as well.  The festival will be held at the downtown Capital Ale House Music Hall for two sessions on Saturday, April 21st.

Not familiar with cask or real ale? There are three main points when talking about real ale:

  • Top-fermented beer that completes its secondary fermentation in the container from which it is served
  • Served at cellar temperatures and often dry-hopped
  • Not filtered or pasteurized

The festival will feature casks of real ale from eleven Virginia breweries:

Legend Brewing
Hardywood Park Craft Brewery
Starr Hill Brewing
Mad Fox Brewing
Port City Brewing
Lost Rhino Brewing
Devils Backbone Brewing
Williamsburg Alewerks
O’Connor Brewing
Wild Wolf Brewing
St. George Brewing

I am very interested in seeing what Mad Fox Brewing will have to offer. Here are three casks that have been confirmed:

  • Starr Hill — Double Platinum IPA dry-hopped with Centennial hops
  • O’Connor — Great Dismal Black IPA — Infused with “Old Havana Cuban Coffee Blend” from Virginia Espresso in Norfolk, as well as chocolate and vanilla bean.
  • Devils Backbone — White Stag IPA. A wheat IPA that blends aspects of American IPA’s, British IPA’s, and wheat ales. Brewed with 4 types of malted & un-malted wheat, kettle hopped with both American and English hops, and dry hopped with East Kent Goldings to create a beer that’s uniquely its own.

Remember, real ale is truly beer in its most natural delicious state. All proceeds from the festival go to support the work of the Virginia Craft Brewers Guild.  So go ahead and get your tickets to the afternoon (noon – 4pm) or evening (6 – 10pm) session. Head over to the festival website or Facebook event for further updates.

Capital Ale House
623 E Main St.
Richmond, VA 23219
804-780-2537

Help Me Win A Bottle of Dark Lord

BeerChow.com is having a contest to give the person who gets them the most followers a 2012 bottle of Three Floyds Dark Lord.  Three Floyds’ Russian Imperial Stout is so popular hundreds flock to get some on Dark Lord Day.  Does using this blog give me an unfair advantage? Maybe but I’m not really above it. So how can you help?

Facebook Likes = 1 and 1/2 Points

“Like” BeerChow on Facebook and write on their Wall and tell them Richmond Beermeister sent you.

Twitter Followers = 1 Point

Follow BeerChow on Twitter and tweet the following message: “hey @beerchowcom I followed you because #rvabeermeister told me too.“

It’s all that simple.  I’ll let you know if I win but in the meantime check out BeerChow’s information on pairing beer with food.

Hardywood Mocha Belgique Waffles

Happy Easter weekend everyone.  I hope you’re having a relaxing time of it.  If you’re still planning for brunch tomorrow, you may want to add these chocolate beer waffles to your menu.  Of course, I am using Hardywood Mocha Belgique but feel free to use your favorite porter or stout instead.

Hardywood Mocha Belgique Waffles

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder (optional)
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 large eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk
3/4 cup porter beer
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Sift dry ingredients except sugar into large bowl.  Whisk sugar into the sifted flour mixture

Combine wet ingredients into small bowl.

Add wet to dry ingredients and whisk to combine but do not over mix.

Heat Waffle iron.  Cook waffles according to iron instruction.

Yield: 4 Belgian waffles

You can still get Mocha Belgique at Hardywood’s tasting room.  Go fill a growler today and you will be very happy tomorrow.

Public Sale for Savor Tickets Starts & Ends Today

If you were planning on following Hardywood to SAVORSM: An American Craft Beer & Food Experience, the public sale for tickets start today April 5th at noon (10am MDT).  Tickets will sell out quickly as they always do.  To help you out, here are separate links to Friday and Saturday night sales:

SAVOR Friday June 8th Tickets

SAVOR Saturday June 9th Tickets

Still have doubts about how much fun there is to be had at SAVOR?  Here’s a little ode I wrote immediately after last year’s event.

Ode to SAVOR

SAVOR, how do I love thee, let me count the ways.

Yes, there was the outstanding American craft beer.

Yes, there was expertly crafted food.

Maybe, it was the new breweries beaming with pride.

Maybe, it was the educational but entertaining salons.

In the end what, I really think makes Savor a great event were all the people I talked to on the sidelines, asking them what they tried and recommending some favorites of my own!

2012, here we come!

Good luck in getting tickets this year.  Hopefully, I will be joining you as well.

You’re Invited to the After Party

I’m heading out to Brown Distributing’s Brand Expo later today.  I hope to gain some info on what they have planned throughout the year.  I plan on taking plenty of pictures so don’t worry if you weren’t invited.  Besides everyone knows the after-party is always more fun.  Consider this your invitation.

The place to be on Monday April 2nd will be BlowToad at 7pm.  Brown Reps will be in the house. There will be at least two special beers on hand for the night:

Who knows Brown might have some surprises up their collective sleeves.  Guess you’ll have to come check it out for yourself to find out.

BlowToad will also be showing the NCAA Mens Basketball championship game if you’re into that sort of thing.

BlowToad
2907 W Cary Street
Richmond, VA 23221
7pm

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