Texas Adds Another Brewery

One of the great things about our huge beer selection at my bar is our devotion to local beers. I think we will have 75 different beers when we finally get everything in stock, and of these beers, I think around 15 will be Texas beers. Texas has made some monumental strides in brewing beer since I left the state, and the number of microbreweries is set to grow even further. I have been talking all week with my bar guests about the upcoming debut of Southern Star Brewing after reading about it on Barley Vine. According to the brewery’s website, Southern Star’s “production target remains Mid-December”. They have plans to release a Dortmunder-style lager, available on tap at selected locations, and an American Pale Ale called, Pine Belt Ale. Interestingly, Southern Star has plans to package all of their beers in cans. This is definitely going to get the new brewery a lot of needed attention and, hopefully, help to jump start another small brewery in Texas.

The Texas brews we have chosen at our bar really help to contrast the rest of our beer collection which currently is seasonal and, consequently, rather heavy and bold at the moment. Currently, we have 5 barley vines for example. Texas beers are generally lighter in style to compliment the warmer weather. Perhaps, this new brewery can help to fill this Texas void at some point. One intriguing exception to this stereotype of Texas beers is the Real Ale Coffer Porter, which we carry on tap. It is actually brewed with a local artisan coffee called Katz Coffee and makes for an nice seasonal beer.

Texas currently has 5, or 6 depending on your perspective, craft breweries:

-Independence
-Live Oak
-Rahr & Sons
-Real Ale
-Shiner (Debatable Craft Status)
-St. Arnold’s

The addition of Southern Star Brewing is really exciting, especially since it will be based out of nearby Conroe, and their unique twist has really intrigued me. I plan to do a review and ranking of Texas Breweries in the upcoming weeks, so please make sure to check back for my thoughts on Texas’ microbrewery industry. For more information on Texas’ beers or just beer in general, check out Barley Vine, where I was tipped off about Southern Star Brewing. I always read this blog to keep up with local beers and get what is obviously an experienced opinion on beer.

Gastrique Experimentation

As my illness finally subsides, I realize that the blog has been sparsely updated and needs some new content. Trying to get everything back on track has been difficult because I put off so much while I was a prisoner in my own home, and without any cocktail activity lately, there isn’t much to add. Nevertheless, a friend of mine, Morgan Weber, who I met through this blog, discussed with me some of his experiments with the vanilla-cardamom gastrique I found to be such a great cocktail ingredient. Morgan shares my enthusiasm with cocktails and his strong culinary background aides in his understanding of the interplay of drink components. Consequently, he came up with some great cocktails that I would highly recommend others try. I found the following e-mail Morgan sent me interesting because it documents his experimentations chronologically, providing insight into the process of drink innovation.

“Bobby,

Good morning sir, I hope you are feeling better. I just wanted to give you an update on the gastrique that I made. This is roughly the recipe that I used

1/2 cup imperial white sugar
1/2 cup turbinado sugar (raw)
3-4 tablespoons champagne vinegar
1 whole vanilla been, split and finely chopped
10-15 cardamom seeds, roughly chopped
Splash of lemon juice

I caramelized the sugar with the lemon juice and then added the vanilla and cardamom. I let it steep for about twenty minutes. Strained it and once it was cool, refrigerated it. Once it was cold, it thickened up considerably, so i thinned it a bit with water. The taste was amazing–very much a fall season gastrique. This weekend, I tried it in a number of things that were really delicious.

Sidecar

1 1/2 oz Brandy
1/4 oz Cointreau
1/2 oz lemon juice
1/2 oz vanilla cardamom gastrique (if i did it again, i would probably make it 1/3 oz instead of 1/2)

The next one I have no name for:

2 pieces candied ginger, muddled with a 1/3 oz of the gastrique
1 oz Plymouth gin
1/2 oz Cointreau
1/2 oz grapefruit juice
1/2 oz lemon juice
1 dash of my homemade bitters.

This drink was very spicy. Even with gin, which I look at as a very refreshing, summertime spirit; it was very much a fall/winter drink. Tart and herbaceous, but spicy from the ginger and the gastrique. It was a little too sweet the first time i mixed it (i used 1/2 oz of the gastrique), but Stacey loved it.

Next I tried it in a Manhattan

2 1/4 oz Baby Sazerac Rye
3/4 oz Vya Sweet
1/4 oz Vanilla Cardamom Gastrique
3 Brandied Cherries

This was really nice–yes a bit sweeter than normal, but still balanced. The sweet didn’t cover up the rye, but the spices in the gastrique gave it a pretty cool character.

Let me know how things are going. Props on the gastrique.

-Morgan”

If you have experimented with gastriques at all, please let me know how it turned out for you. I would be very interested in hearing how other people are using them in drinks. Thanks for letting me post your e-mail Morgan and giving me some substitute content while I was out.