Wednesday, April 8, 2009

The Prescription: April 2009




I've decided to begin a month post focusing on beer and food recipes that pair together as a meal. Lets call it the Prescription.

This month, a recipe for a Belgian Red Rye to go with a Dijon Chicken Apple Salad. A nice spring dish you can easily make yourself, and an ode to Eastern France and Belgium. The pleasant fruit and estery flavors pair well with the sweet apple sausage, honey and pears, while the slightly bitter rye and bitter, citrus hops
works off of the argula, walnuts and dijon. A good substitue for the beer would be a Saison (Dupont or Foret) , or possibly a more bitter Belgian Blond.

Dijon Chicken Apple Salad

Serves One. Adjust accordingly for more.


Nice Bed of Arugula (4 cups?)

1 Chicken Apple Sausage (any local one will do). Or make your own!

1 Red Anjou Pear

1/4 Cup Chopped Walnuts

Honey Dijon Vinagrette

-1/4 cup Olive Oil
-1/4 cup Basalmic Vinegar
-1 TBSP Dijon Mustard
-2 TBSP Honey
-1 TBSP Cracked Pepper

Pan Fry Apple Sausage, cut into 1/2" cubes.
Core Pear, slice into 1/4" thick pieces
Top Arugala with sausage, walnuts, pears, and vinagrette.




Gregors Belgian Red Rye Ale
4.5 Gallon Batch

9 lbs American 2-row
2.25 lbs Rye Malt
.75 lbs Crystal 150L
.50 lbs Cara-Pils
.5 lbs Cara-Munich Malt
.25 Aromatic Malt

Mash at 143 Degrees for 50 minutes.

.5 oz Magnum 16% AA First Wort Hop
.5 oz Magnum 16% AA at 60 Minutes
.5 oz Amarillio Gold at 10 Minutes
.5 oz Amarillio Gold at 5 Minutes

Chill to 80 Degrees, pitch WLP550 Belgian Ale Yeast

Ferment for 5 Days, Transfer, Bottle at 2 weeks.




Thursday, April 2, 2009

The classic "what beer are you" quiz, with a twist




Well, I was hesitant to do it, but the dismal quality of "What beer are you" quizzes out there left me .... well, pissed. I had to at least attempt my own
, obviously focused on styles rather than beers themselves. You can find it here

note: need to be a facebook user to use this quiz, as far as I can tell.