July 7, 2010

A dandy summer shandy

All the makings for a summer shandy, seen here on my countertop.

During the hot days of summer, mixing in a little juice or lemonade to your lager can be quite tasty.

The English name for such a drink is a shandy. This calls for a light ale mixed with ginger, ginger soda or lemonade. During the Fourth of July weekend I took a Samuel Adams Summer Ale, poured it into a frosty mug and topped it with some Newman’s Own lemonade. The resulting beverage was light, full of lemon zest and delicious. Using the right kind of beer is crucial. As you can imagine, mixing a dark Guinness with lemonade would taste terrible.

In Germany the shandy is known as the radler, or cyclist, because the drink was first popularized by thirsty cyclers. In France, a mix of beer and juice is called a panaché. And in parts of Eastern Europe, drinkers will mix beer with Coke to make what’s known as a diesel.

The last mix doesn’t sound good to me, but I can attest to mixing red wine with Coke. It’s not a fabulous drink in my opinion but I can understand that mix better than beer and coke. Maybe a darker beer would blend better with a Coke?

I would recommend mixing with lemonade beers such as summer lagers, white ales or hefeweizens. Beers that you would normally drink with a slice of lemon. Such a mix is a great option for those who have to drive home from the weekend pool party because you can do a half-and-half mixture to reduce the overall alcohol.

And try other juices and mixes like using cranberry juice or perhaps instead of an orange slice in your Blue Moon splash in a generous portion of fresh orange juice. Mixing up beer like a cocktail may seem strange, but this time of year it can be very refreshing.

Leave a Comment

Filed under What I'm drinking …

Tags: , ,

July 5, 2010

Roasted, nicely roasted

I’ve jumped into a new hobby, home coffee roasting. In the past year, I’ve come to accept the fact that I’m a coffee snob. Christine and I pretty much only buy Ritual coffee because it seems to be the freshest and most flavorful in the area. That led me to start reading more about coffee, and learning more about how crucial freshness is to experiencing the full flavor of coffee. To get the freshest roast, you have to roast at home. Some of my coworkers also roast their own and when they told me how easy and fun it is I decided I had to try it.

Home roasting can get pretty technical and expensive. A top-of-the-line home roaster can set you back as much as $300. I chose instead to go with the cheapest method. I snagged an old popcorn popper at a thrift store for $5. The hot air that circulates in the chamber of the popper can supposedly do a fairly decent job of roasting a small batches of green beans. There are lots of resources on the Web for finding green beans, but I think Sweet Maria’s is the best and with a warehouse in Oakland the beans came to the house via mail pretty quick.

My first batch of green beans. These particular beans came from Sumatra.

To make my corn popper a roaster, I added a thermometer to the top. To achieve a good roast you need to be able to gauge the temperature of the beans as well as watch and hear them. As the beans roast they turn from green to brown and black depending on the roast and will “crack” as they reach certain temperature points. The cracking sound is pretty cool as well as the smell of the beans as they roast and the voluminous smoke.

My cheap and improvised "popper" roaster. The bowl is there to collect chaff, a wispy, papery substance that floats off the beans as they roast.

To start my roasting adventure, I weighed out about 4 ounces of green beans, dropped them in the popper and flipped the switch. I soon began to think that I had overloaded my roasting chamber. When roasting with hot air, or using a convection method, the beans need to move about the chamber to ensure a proper roast. With too many beans in the chamber, the bottom lawyers were getting scorched but other beans were only receiving a slight dose of heat. The end result of my first experiment proved my assumption correct. Instead of an even roasting and coloring, my beans turned out to be a mix of shades from light milk chocolate to charcoal.

My first batch. Although some beans reached the optimal roast, others were just burnt black.

The cool thing about roasting such small batches, and about roasting in general, is that it’s a quick process. My first batch only took about 10 minutes and when I determined it was a failure, I just weighed out about half the original amount and switched the roaster back on. The second time, I saw the beans were swirling and dancing around in the chamber and starting to form an even roast. The recommendation from Sweet Maria’s for this particular batch of green, Sumatran beans was a medium to slightly darker roast.

My second attempt at roasting yielded a much more uniform and attractive result that gave off pleasant and fresh aromas.

After roasting, beans need to rest for at least four hours or a night. The next day, I rushed to grind up some of the beans, load up the coffee machine and settled in for something I hoped would be amazing. Many of the books I read described home roasting as a transformative experience in which you taste truly fresh coffee for the first time and realize you haven’t really been drinking coffee at all.

My first home roasted coffee, tasted, well like a cup of coffee.

To be honest it also tasted a little “green.” It was not bad, but it was not the transcendent coffee experience I had expected. I have about 2 1/2 pounds of green coffee, including two other types of beans, to tinker with and I hope I can dial in the roast a little better. For example, I think I could have roasted the beans for a little longer to bring out more flavors and reduce that green taste. Home roasting, may not yet be as satisfying for me as homebrewing, but it’s always fun to try something new.

1 Comment

Filed under Uncategorized

Tags: , ,

July 1, 2010

Beverages for El Quatro de Julio

What happened to June? Anyway, the Fourth of July is around the corner and I decided to post a few recommendations for libations this holiday.

Not much can beat cold beer, barbecue and blowing shit up on the day we solemnly remember the founding fathers and their bravery, but everyone can use a little dose of variety in life.

Sparkling Dutch Red Sangria


For something a little sophisticated, try this Sangria mix. Sangria, a heady punch mixture of fruit and wine is great for parties, but it can sneak up on you. Be sure to use a premium Champagne for this recipe.

1 bottle Dry red wine

3 oz Orange Liqueur

3 oz Van Gogh Pomegranate Vodka

6 oz Grenadine

½ bottle Pomegranate juice

½ bottle Pommery Brut Royal Champagne

1 sliced Orange

Cinnamon sticks

Combine the first five ingredients. Add Champagne and give a quick stir.  Pour mixture over ice and add slices of orange. Garnish each glass with a cinnamon stick.

The Grateful Dead


My friend John was recently regaling me with tales of The Grateful Dead variation of the Long Island Ice Tea. (Trouble … only trouble.) Not a big fan of the band, but I got to say I think this cocktail could really liven any party up.

1 dash Chambord

2 oz sweet and sour mix

1/2 oz triple sec

1/2 oz tequila

1/2 oz rum

1/2 oz gin

1/2 oz vodka

Pour the ingredients into a Collins glass as listed.

A red, white and blue shot


You’re not going to wow everyone with the taste of this cocktail, but the presentation of a shot in good old red, white and blue will make everyone holler and forget about the fact that we lost to Ghana in the World Cup.

1/3 oz blue curacao
1/3 oz grenadine
1/3 oz peach schnapps
Pour each ingredient on top of each other using the back side of spoon to layer the liqueurs. Start with the grenadine and then the schnapps followed by the blue curacao.
Beer recommendation:
Laqunitas Dogtown Pale Ale. This brew has a light body to placate the lite beer drinkers at your party but with an excellent balance and pleasantly powerful hop presence to impress your beer snob buddies. Take a virtual tasting here.
Wine recommendation:
Indulge a little boasting here, but I’ve got to pick the 2009 Starmont Sauvignon Blanc, a wine that I helped make during last harvest. It’s not just my opinion this wine is good, read the recommendation by the esteemed wine writers of the SF Chronicle. “Full, powerful flavors of nectarine and Meyer lemon are edged by a subtle grassy, stony bite. Juicy and generous, with fruit that carries through.”

Leave a Comment

Filed under What I'm drinking …

Tags:

June 30, 2010

What I’m drinking … a little bit of history

Every now and then in this wine life someone has an old bottle and they’ve decided it’s time to open it.

A good friend of mine moved about two years ago and his family’s wine cellar was uprooted and has been in a state of flux since. He’s been concerned about the condition in which some of the older bottles were being kept. The ideal conditions for wine is a dark place with a temperature at a constant level of 55 to 65 degrees. If you’re worried about storing wine, the best solution is to just drink it.

So before he came over to the cottage one night, he called me and said, “I don’t have any beer but I’m bringing a ’69 Robert Mondavi cab and a ’65 Louis Martini.”

“Well,” I replied, “I guess that will be OK.”

I had been hoping for a 18 pack of Bud Lite, but two bottles of premium Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon from decades ago would have to suffice.

Opening older bottles is always exciting, but comes with a some risk, especially when the cellar conditions have been less than ideal. The cork on the Martini looked as if it had risen out of the bottle a little and that is always a bad sign. The Mondavi, however, looked like it was still in pretty good shape.

Just opening these old bottles requires a steady hand and some skill. Christine, always able handed with a corkscrew, carefully teased the crumbling and decayed corks out of the bottle. This takes time and patience. If you let one of these old nasty corks fall apart in to the wine it can mar some of the delicate aromas and flavors of the wine.

Easy does it. Pulling old corks takes a skilled and steady hand.

We started with the 1969 Robert Mondavi and just based on appearance and smell the wine seemed to have held it’s own. The tasters, there were six of us, all then brought our glasses up and tried our first taste of a wine that was bottled before any of us were born. At first, no one said anything. We all just stood there swirling the wine in our mouths taking discrete glances at each other, as if waiting for someone to actually say what we were all thinking.

“My God,” Christine finally said. “This is just amazing.”

And then the flood gates just opened. I couldn’t stop saying how the wine was nothing like I had ever tasted, but yet better than some of the best wines I have ever tasted. My friend Andrew raved about how the taste just lingered on the palate and coated the mouth in a rich layers of flavor that seemed to offer something new with each sip.

For someone like myself  on the lower rungs of the wine world, without the means to procure and maintain a cellar stocked with library vintages, I don’t have the tasting experience to regularly enjoy wines that have been allowed time to grow and develop. But everyone I know in the wine industry has moments of inspiration when they taste something that makes them remember why they love the simple beverage. To taste a 1969 Robert Mondavi wine in perfect shape was to taste a moment in time when Napa was emerging on the wine world. It was inspiring, it was tasting history. It was a reminder that through time wine can transcend from being just a beverage to a lasting piece of art.

Well wine can be like that.

As good as the Mondavi was, the Martini was terrible. Bitter, astringent, it had become vinegar.

Hoping for something else amazing, I ran out to barn and dug out a ’80s Bordeaux that still had a 35 Franc price sticker on it.

That was disgusting as well.

The two disappointments made us all relish the Mondavi that much more and made us appreciate drinking something that had been preserved from more than 40 years ago that had not only retained its original quality but had developed into something far more wonderful.

1 Comment

Filed under What I'm drinking …

Tags: , , ,

June 28, 2010

Homebrew update

Just bottled the latest batch of homebrew. In a nod to one of my favorite warm weather beers, Hoegaarden, I brewed up a Belgian Wit Beer, or white.

Now I was just shooting from the hip with my recipe and my improvised batch likely will not in any way turn out like my favorite spring and summer tipple or even like the mass-marketed, bland brew known as Blue Moon.

Early samples of my beer, however, do have some of those herby and funky notes with traces of citrus in the finish that are the hallmarks of the lighter Belgian beers but the color is a little dark. In terms of overall body and taste, this will actually be the lightest beer I’ve ever made. The alcohol will probably finish in the 4 or even 3.5 percent range. I only used two ounces of hops and that is a quarter of what I usually drop in a batch. Like a lot of homebrewers, when I started this hobby all the brews I wanted to make were super hoppy IPAs that blasted the senses with hops and high alcohols. This current batch represents a departure from that style and I’m eager to see how it finishes.

Another experiment with this batch is I’m using carbonation tabs instead of mixing in liquid priming sugar. Carbonation tabs are little pieces of sugar that look like Altoids. You drop a few in each bottle and supposedly can have more uniform and lively carbonation. Bubbles are a crucial part of the beer experience and especially for Belgian ales that need a lively splurge of bubbles in the pour to bring out all those wonderful flavors. In all my other batches, I’ve dissolved varying amounts of priming sugar and just mixed it into my bottling tank.

This beer, which I’ve dubbed my Funky Barnhouse Belgian, could be pretty damn good or rather weird and flat.

Kinda like those European exchange kids we all remember from our high school days. Some were the coolest cats you ever met, others were just flat out weird.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Uncategorized

June 27, 2010

Mini kegs

While getting ready for a party recently, I dropped a case of Coors in the shopping cart and was headed for the aisle when I paused in front of a Heineken mini keg.

These have been in stores for a while, but you don’t seem them at parties much. They hold five liters of beer, which is equivalent to about a 12 pack, but I’ve never seen them in frequent use.

I wanted to bring something different to this party so I put the case of Coors back on the shelf and picked up the keg. I have to say that after enjoying the keg, I may be buying more of them.

The kegs have an improved tap that is inserted into the top of the keg. The tap has a small needle that pops a tiny seal at the top of the keg. The pressurized beer pours out smooth and foamy. These new taps are a huge improvement over the crappy, red pull-out tabs that used to be at the bottom of these small kegs. Those tabs leaked beer and pressure so after about two beers you had a wet counter and flat beer. I think those weak taps is what kept these kegs out of the mainstream. You may have purchased one for the novelty, but were soon disappointed by the lame reality of the product.

The improved tap actually delivers a real “mini keg” experience. I had prepared to be let down by the keg and it’s $20 price tag, but all the beer that the keg dispensed was fresh, lively and better than a beer from a bottle.The last few pints from the keg came out slowly, but still had plenty of carbonation. If I recall correctly, the keg’s packaging claims you can keep it up to 10 days in the fridge, and based on my experience I think that could be possible.

A lack of variety is a problem. So far, I’ve only seen Heineken or Becks in the mini keg. It would be great if I could pick up a stellar micro brew like a North Coast Great White, but I just don’t think that is going to happen any time soon. Cans and bottles are the industry norm, and you can still find more beer for less money on the shelves. For example, I was in Rite Aid yesterday and saw they had 12 packs of Heineken for less than one of the kegs.If there was more variety, it might actually be worth it to drop a couple hundred bucks for one of those countertop kegerators that keep mini kegs carbonated for a while.

The countertop kegerator or BeerTender may be billed as the "ultimate at home draught beer experience" but it really isn't worth the money.

The mini keg seems to be a great option for a small tailgate party, picnic or softball game. It provides a sense of the keg experience, without the cost, hassle or risk of wasted beer that a traditional keg brings. You can have that fresh beer taste out of plastic cups that make a keg so much fun, but you and your buddies don’t have to drink 18 beers each not to waste money. (Now of course this can be fun in of itself … I remember a lost weekend in Eugene, Ore. when myself and my roommates decided we could and needed to drink a full quarter barrel and failed in heroic fashion.)

Napa Valley Tip: My favorite brewery in Napa Valley, Silverado Brewing Company, sells 5 gallon kegs for the insanely cheap price of $55 bucks with no deposit. You just need to put in your order 48 hours in advance.

2 Comments

Filed under What I'm drinking …

Tags: , , ,

June 19, 2010

Stirred, not shaken

Sitting at the bar in the new Westin in Napa, considered to be the top, new hotel in Downtown Napa, I figured their bartender would know how to fix a martini.

But no, I was wrong. When my Tanqueray 10 martini with a twist was delivered in front of me, I was disappointed — yet not surprised — to see the little transparent flakes of ice floating on the surface of the drink. These small shards indicated that the martini had been beaten and bruised as the bartender shook it with violence in a cocktail shaker.

The classic martini should be stirred, not shaken. As a rule, all clear cocktails should not be shaken. I have found that I have to specify that I want my martini stirred and not shaken. Even this step, however, can sometimes not overcome the idea that has been burned into bartenders’ heads that martini means that lovely shaking sound and motion of moving a shaker up and down. At the bar at the Carneros Inn, another swanky bar in Napa, I ordered a martini, stirred with a twist, and sat there dumbfounded as the bartender proceeded to shake the the hell out of the drink in front of me mere minutes after taking my order.

What’s the big difference you may ask? It’s because shaking a martini leaves those shards of ice that disrupt the cold smoothness of the drink and the violence of the shaking dissipates the subtle and wonderful aromatics that float off a fine gin such as Tanqueray. Now, if you’re drinking a vodka martini, I guess shake until your wrists burn, because vodka is boring and the recipe for the classic martini doesn’t call for vodka anyway. Perhaps Mr. Bond can be forgiven by misleading Americans into thinking a martini must be shaken, because he in fact wasn’t ordering a classic martini anyway.

1 Comment

Filed under What I'm drinking …

June 18, 2010

Back in blog

The Uncorked Life has been down for about a month. My father has been struggling with significant health issues and for some time it has been hard to focus on the lighter side of life when the simple act of living has become difficult for a loved one.

But about two weeks ago, I was having a conversation about the Uncorked hiatus with a good friend. He reminded me that during times of strees, when life may be at it’s hardest, it often is the most irreverant and silly things in life that make the difficult times a little easier.

1 Comment

Filed under Uncategorized

May 3, 2010

Pour wine, free Giants tickets

Last week I snagged a free seat at the Giants game and all I had to do was pour some wine for it.

The view from our free club level seats.

The winery where Christine works is part of a promotion the Giants do to get their season ticket holders in the stadium for mid-week games. For about two hours before the game, various wineries will offer tastings for season ticket holders in the Club and Suite levels of the stadium.

Ticket holders can enjoy free wine and the Giants get butts in the seats on a Tuesday night. The winery reps get free Club level tickets to enjoy the game. Needless to say, it did not take much convincing for me to be willing to volunteer as a tasting rep to get my hands on some Giants tickets.

Pouring wine turned out to be more fun than I had expected. I met some interesting folks, and had a good time delivering a pitch on the terroir, taste and style of the four wines we had to offer that night. Most folks seemed to take the spiel in stride and I didn’t take any questions that stumped me. (As readers of this blog can likely attest, an ability to bull shit is among my few talents.) The game was great with plenty of action and the Giants taking a win from the NL champ Phillies.

Wine is not my beverage of choice for a baseball game. When I’m in the stadium, I’m drinking beer. It pairs better with the standard fare of baseball, like hot dogs and fries. I’ve been to a few games and sat with folks sipping Chardonnay and it just didn’t feel right. I know that’s not a good reason to look down on a glass of wine at the baseball game, but in some respects I’m rather traditional.

But who knows, with the growth of wine consumption in this country in 10 years it may be just as common to see a guy struggle to navigate the stairs at a stadium while holding a tray of nachos, hot dogs and four glasses of Pinot rather than lager.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Uncategorized

April 26, 2010

Sunday morning hot air balloon landing

Coming in for a landing and trying to avoid the rows of vines.

This past Sunday morning I woke to the sound of frantic shouting and a faint “whooshing” sound that seemed to be getting louder. In a daze, I stumbled out of my bedroom to hear Christine yelling: “A hot air balloon is coming in for a landing!”

I slipped on some shoes and stepped outside to be greeted by the sight of a tremendous, blue and yellow hot air balloon drifting toward our house about 20 feet above the vines. The “whoosh” noise was the sound of the gas burners used to keep the balloon aloft.

As a Napa local, I’ve grown accustomed to the sight of ballons hanging high above the Napa Valley, but this was the first time I had the experience of seeing one so close and headed right for me. Hot air ballons are a more common sight upvalley in St. Helena and Youtville rather than in Carneros. And as it turned out, this particular hot air balloon had departed from Yountville but had been carried down to Carneros on fickle winds.

The yelling had been from the balloon support staff who had arrived at the house in advance of their craft. After getting permission to land in the back field, the staff quickly and loudly began coordinating with the balloon operator (ballonist? pilot? hot air aviator?) to get the cumbersome craft on the ground.

It took about 20 minutes, but the ballon came to a gentle rest among tall bunches of wildflowers and grass. The staff assisted the 15 passengers out of the basket and the balloon boss (I like the ring of that — “What do I do? Why I’m a balloon boss actually.”) thanked us for providing a landing spot. He also tossed us a bottle of Chandon sparkling wine.

After the landing, the next job is rolling the balloon up.

When I was able to take a look at the balloon, I was surprised by how many people they can cram into the relatively small balloon basket. It appeared that on a balloon ride you’re shoulder to shoulder with the other passengers, like on a ride on a MUNI commuter bus. I thought I might get a little claustraphobic, but perhaps the sweeping vistas of the Napa Valley make one forget about the tight proximity of the fellow balloon adventurers. A ride on a balloon costs about $100.

The whole experience took about 45 minutes, but it sure was an interesting and different start to a Sunday.

The balloon basket.

3 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

Tags:

Newer Entries

Older Entries