Archive: Month: October 2016

Beer Truffles!

With colder weather comes cooking, crock pots and feasting, and one of the flavors we love to have in our food is beer! (Shocking, I know….)  While beer can chicken is a staple of summer; stews, soups, breads and rich desserts decorate our autumn and winter tables.  This weekend at the taproom, we are excited to have both food trucks cooking with Burning Brothers beer. On Friday(10/28), Soup Coupe will be serving a beer cheese soup and on Saturday(10/29), Crazy Puppy will be serving their beer battered onion rings and green beans – all gluten-free of course!  While that sounds like savory deliciousness, one might wonder what you could make with beer on the other end of the spectrum…

Ask the Brewer

What are some good sweet treats made with beer?

While their are lots of recipes out there for cakes, tortes and cupcakes with dark beer in them (and those are delicious), one of our favorite recipes is for chocolate truffles.  We have used this recipe multiple times ourselves with good results, and it is very allergen friendly.

Chocolate Truffles
– 1/2 lb. quality chocolate, chopped into 2″ pieces
– 1/3 cup creamer, soy, almond, coconut or dairy
– 2 tablespoons beer
– Cocoa powder or other coating

In a medium sized stainless bowl, melt the chocolate over gently simmering water.  The water should not touch the bottom of the bowl.  Turn off the heat and let stand over the warm water until ready to use.

Scald the creamer in a small saucepan, adding the beer right at the end.  Pour it into the melted chocolate and whisk together until smooth and blended.  Pour the chocolate mixture into a shallow dish or pan, to form a 1″ layer – we often use a 8″x8″ cake pan for this.  Chill 30 minutes or until set.

Using a melon baller, scoop out the truffles one by one, forming them into 1″ balls with your hands..  Work quickly so that the chocolate mixture does not start melting.  Place the balls on a plate and refrigerate again.

Once firm, the balls are ready to be rolled in whatever topping you choose – while we list cocoa powder here, you can use chocolate shavings, coconut, nuts, cinnamon and sugar, whatever you feel will best compliment the truffle flavor.  They should be stored in the refrigerator, but allowed to sit out for a few minutes before eating to maximize their flavor.

While the preference is to use a chocolate bar for these, we have done them with both the Enjoy Life and Chocolate Dream chocolate chips in order to be as allergen free as possible, and they have turned out well.

For those who really want a beer centered truffle, we point you to this recipe.  If you try it and it works, let us know!

Taproom Tidings

Tap selection for the weekend includes Pyro American Pale Ale, Roasted Coffee Ale, Fused Orange Blossom Honey Ale, Cranberry Shandy, Raj-Agni India Pale Ale, Raspberry Infused Pyro (Thursday) and our Wee Heavy (starting on Friday).

Food trucks for the weekend (did we mention they are both serving food made with our beer!) are Soup Coupe on Friday (10/28), with hearty soups, including a gluten-free beer cheese soup; and on Saturday (10/29) Crazy Puppy, featuring gluten-free fair food, with both green beans and onion rings coated in Pyro based batter and deep fried to perfection.

Our cupcake this weekend is Ginger Cardamon Apple, which is a ginger cake with apple filling and cardamon cream cheese frosting.

As always, all food served at the taproom is gluten-free!

If you have questions, drop us a note via Email, Facebook or Twitter.

Cheers!

Autumn beer trips!

While the leaves have hit their peak here in Minnesota, the weather is still mild enough to get out and explore.  In fact, for those of you who love to venture out of state, there is now an interactive map that highlights peak leaf viewing areas throughout the United States.

Ask the Brewer

What are some good fall beer activities?

Living in the upper Midwest, we always advocate for getting outside, so long as the weather will cooperate.  Autumn is a beautiful time of year to do a brewery tour and there are multiple ways to accomplish this including trolleys, biking, driving and hiking.

Not to toot our own horn, but we are easily accessible from the Green Line, as are many other breweries between Minneapolis and St. Paul, making a Light Rail Brewery Crawl a fun weekend activity.  For those of you focused on leaf viewing, the Hoppy Trolley is still running one more leaf and brewery tour this coming weekend.

Fall is also a wonderful time to experiment with home brewing.  If you have ever had a hankering to give it a try, cooler weather is optimal for brewing, especially when you consider the large volume of water that needs to boil for an extended time, as you make the beer.  We got our start brewing on the stove, the burner of the grill, and then with a hurricane burner out in the garage (that happened after certain spouses said something about being tired of smelling grains and hops every weekend).

Autumn also brings out a whole new round of seasonal beers including Oktoberfest, Pumpkin, Cranberry and many other styles.  Inviting friends and family over for a home beer tasting lets you try and share multiple beers side by side, without any going to waste.

Taproom Tidings

Tap selection for the weekend includes Pyro American Pale Ale, Roasted Coffee Ale, Fused Orange Blossom Honey Ale, Cranberry Shandy, Raj-Agni India Pale Ale and either Raspberry Infused Pyro or Grapefruit IPA, depending on when the kegs run out.

Food trucks for the weekend are Signature On Wheels on Friday (10/21), serving their unique take on classic American cuisine.  Then on Saturday (10/22) we are joined by Patacones, featuring authentic Colombian Street Food.

Our cupcake this weekend is Ginger Cardamon Apple, which is a ginger cake with apple filling and cardamon cream cheese frosting.

As always, all food served at the taproom is gluten-free!

Final Thoughts

The end of October brings us two big beer festivals.  The first is the Nordeast Big River Brew Fest happening from 1-4PM on Saturday (10/22) in Minneapolis.  All proceeds benefit the programs of East Side Neighborhood Services.

The second event is the Grand MN Taste Together.  This event is happening at the Grand Casino in Hinckley and will be sampling over 200 different local, regional, and national craft beers, as well as featuring music by Trampled by Turtles.  We hope to see you at either event!

As always, if you have questions, drop us a note via Email, Facebook or Twitter.

Cheers!

Fall favorites, but do they blend?!?

Here in the upper Midwest the leaves are changing and mums and pumpkins are appearing in people’s yards  With the advent of cooler weather and earlier nights has come the onslaught of pumpkin spice lattes (pumpkin spice EVERYTHING!!!) as well as their beer counterpart.  No matter how much someone loves beer in general, when it comes to pumpkin beer, people seem to fall into one of two camps – love it or hate it.  And that brings us to…

Ask the Brewer

What’s the big deal with pumpkin beers, anyways?

While pumpkin beers may seem like a relatively new phenomenon, they first entered the scene on a national level in 1995, thanks to Blue Moon Harvest Ale.  Before that they were actually pretty hard to find, as fall beer releases tended to focus on Oktoberfest beers.  While it took a while for this beer style to catch on, in the past 10 years, pumpkin beer sales have grown by 1500%!

That brings us to the meat of the question, “What is the deal with pumpkin beer, why do people either love it or hate it?”  In pouring over multiple articles on this, it seems like the hate it camp finds it too sweet, too spicy, to have a musty after-taste, to lack pumpkin flavor, to have too much pumpkin flavor, to not being  sweet enough, to not taste like beer, or have no spice whatsoever.  The love it side of the equation insists that pumpkin and beer blend perfectly.  That the pumpkin and spice notes combine just right with the floral and citrus of the hops to create a smooth fall beer that celebrates the season.  And those pumpkin beer lovers have plenty to choose from.

Here at Burning Brothers, we take the road less traveled. Our fall release is our tart and delicious Cranberry Shandy.  We start with our American Pale Ale and add cranberry juice and sugar for a festive celebration that goes from fall through the winter.

Taproom Tidings

Tap selection for the weekend includes Pyro American Pale Ale, Roasted Coffee Ale, Fused Orange Blossom Honey Ale, Parched Lime Shandy, Cranberry Shandy, Raj-Agni India Pale Ale and Raspberry Infused Pyro.  For those of you who love the Parched lime, we recommend coming in and stocking up, as it will not be back on tap until next spring.

We are very excited to have Hot Indian Foods with us on Friday (10/14).  They will be serving their “Paneer on a Spear”, battered with a Pyro beer batter, that they debuted at the MN State Fair.  Saturday (10/15) is BYOGFF (Bring Your Own Gluten-Free Food), so make sure you ask if you need suggestions of ideas as to what to bring in to the taproom.

Final Thoughts

Our awesome brewers have been hard at work on the pilot brewing system, tweaking recipes and getting back to small batch beers for the fall and winter.  If there was one that you particularly enjoyed last year at this time, drop us a note.  We will move the favorites up in the taproom rotation.

As always, if you have questions, drop us a note via Email, Facebook or Twitter.

Cheers!

Finally, a beer mug that doesn’t block the TV!

With the arrival of the cooler weather and the corresponding premieres of fall shows (and football), the desire for many a beer drinker to sit inside watching TV goes up. That being said, we thought we’d highlight this nifty thing we came across…

Ask the Brewer

Anything new and interesting in the beer gadget world?

Funny you should ask!

Let’s set the stage…. your settling in for one of your favorite shows (or maybe hanging with your buds watching the game)…  you pour yourself a nice refreshing cold one… you go to take that tantalizing first sip… and suddenly, behind the rim of your glass, the most amazing things happens… and you missed it!

This mug eliminates all of those problems!  With it’s angled side and sleek design, you can keep your eyes glued to the screen while still drinking your beer.  You’ll never miss another important moment on TV, nor have to wait for a refreshing swallow.  Ingenuity at it’s finest!

Taproom Tidings

Tap selection for the weekend includes Pyro American Pale Ale, Roasted Coffee Ale, Fused Orange Blossom Honey Ale, Parched Lime Shandy, Raj-Agni India Pale Ale and Raspberry Infused Pyro.

Food options for the weekend include Tatanka on Friday (10/7), with their Native American dining options, and Crazy Puppy on Saturday (10/8) with their gluten-free fair food.

Final Thoughts

Last call to get in on our third beer pairing dinner with Signature Cafe this Sunday, October 9th.  The meal features a variety of Burning Brothers beer paired with five gluten-free courses.  Contact the restaurant directly for reservations.

As always, if you have questions, drop us a note via Email, Facebook or Twitter.

Cheers!