kitchen’r jon – The Local Kitchener http://localkitchener.ca Local Food and Drink Wed, 19 Sep 2018 11:28:19 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.8 60259909 Back to School Meals http://localkitchener.ca/2018/09/back-to-school-meals/ http://localkitchener.ca/2018/09/back-to-school-meals/#comments Mon, 17 Sep 2018 18:12:00 +0000 http://localkitchener.ca/?p=3162


First day of kindergarten

Now that we’re back in school mode I’ve been meal-planning again.  In the summer I pretty much stop doing this and just see what happens in a day (for better or for worse!).  The meals listed here are what we ate, intended to eat, or hope to eat this coming week.  It turns out that most weeks we end up with various nights having activities that take us out of the house and lucky for me that means less meals to plan.

Cannellini bean casserole or gratin, and a Fresh salad

Bibimbap (we like the version in America’s Test Kitchen’s massive vegetarian cookbook, it’s similar to this). Make sure you have some essential ingredients from your local Korean market like gochujang and kimchi (if you don’t make your own)

Veggie burgers (cook black beans in advance, and for recipe most likely use the one in the first Oh She Glows cookbook which is also on her blog!)

Spaghetti, with Potato Kale Caesar Salad (make Caesar dressing, add lacinato/dinosaur kale and roasted potatoes)

Frozen Eggplant Parmesan, Kale Caesar Salad

Daal (recipes abound), rice, fresh chutney (peaches, tomatoes, onions, etc.)

Sesame noodles with cukes and carrots – kind of similar to this, Frozen potstickers/dumplings (yes, we buy these and they are in no way local)

Chickpea salad sandwiches (also from OSG first cookbook), fresh veggie side from CSA (beets)September Meals 1September Meals 2Roasted peppers, tomatoes, onions, sausage – literally take those things, throw them in a deep pan with salt, pepper, and a bit of olive oil, then roast until amazing (these are extra tasty if you make your own pork sausage meatballs from ground pork), grilled flatbread – yes, this is a wonderful thing but kind of a lot of work, so you can also just buy some flatbread, and hummus and other good toppings for pitas.

September Meals 4
September Meals 5


September Meals 6
September Meals 7Protein Power Goddess Bowl from OSG first cookbook p.175, (soak pearl barley or wheat/spelt berries night before)

Pizza: Peach, candied pecan, goat cheese, Tomato basil – margarita, Pepperoni, peach, red onion

Pasta – cherry tomato & pesto

 

]]>
http://localkitchener.ca/2018/09/back-to-school-meals/feed/ 1 3162
Kohlrabi Sesame Slaw http://localkitchener.ca/2017/07/kohlrabi-sesame-slaw/ http://localkitchener.ca/2017/07/kohlrabi-sesame-slaw/#comments Mon, 03 Jul 2017 18:44:15 +0000 http://localkitchener.ca/?p=3131

June 2017 140

I made this on a whim with kohlrabi we got in our first installment of this year’s CSA.  A trick of mine for making nice uniform julienned style slices for the carrots and kohlrabi is to cut them into 2 inch pieces and then stack them in the top of the food processor with the grater attachment on.  By stacking them lengthwise they grate the long way and result in a more julienned style.  I hope that makes some sense!

June 2017 142

Anyway, this salad was great the first night we had it and actually improved after sitting in the fridge.  It was well received by my family and the people we shared it with.

Kohlrabi Sesame Slaw
Author: 
Serves: 6-8 small servings
 
Ingredients
  • 2-3 carrots
  • 2-3 kohlrabi
  • 1-2 green onions (if you have them)
  • 2 tbsp sesame oil
  • 1-2 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
  • 2-3 tbsp honey (really just add honey until you reach your desired level of sweetness)
  • 1-2 tbsp. mayonnaise
  • Salt
  • ¼ cup sesame seeds (toast these lightly in a dry pan)
Instructions
  1. Trim the stems off the kohlrabi and then julienne it (see notes above about using a food processor to do this). Julienne the carrots and dice the green onions. You can also include a few of the smaller leaves from the kohlrabi. Toss the veggies together with a few generous sprinkles of salt. Let the veggies sit in a bowl in the fridge for an hour or two and then drain any liquid from the bowl.
  2. Make the dressing by mixing together the wet ingredients and toss this with the veggies and the toasted sesame seeds. Serve right away or refrigerate until needed.

 

]]>
http://localkitchener.ca/2017/07/kohlrabi-sesame-slaw/feed/ 1 3131
Scaling Up – Brewing at Real Brewery http://localkitchener.ca/2017/03/scaling-up/ http://localkitchener.ca/2017/03/scaling-up/#comments Sun, 19 Mar 2017 20:49:17 +0000 http://localkitchener.ca/?p=3117

Last winter I entered a local homebrew competition put on by Short Finger Brewing.  I decided I’d enter by brewing a style I’d never heard of, Wheat Wine, which I chose because I had quite a bit of wheat malt extract I wanted to use up and I figured I’d maybe win a prize since hardly anyone would enter that category (yes, I’m kind of sneaky like that).  I couldn’t attend the awards ceremony but was very delighted later in the evening when I saw on Twitter that I’d not only won the category but also Best in Show!

January 2017 33January 2017 34

That winning beer was a dark brown color, and rather cloudy (which is to be expected for a beer that is 50% wheat malt).  The aroma was mostly dried fruits and a bit of caramel.  The flavor was on the sweet side with a lot of fruitiness and there was very minimal bitterness and no hop flavor.  The beer was well carbonated, on the medium to high side, and had a nice head of very fine foam.

January 2017 35

Fast forward 11 months and I finally got to go brew my recipe at Block 3 Brewing in St. Jacobs, the brewery that had hosted the competition.  The brew day was a lot of fun and as you can see from the pictures I got to be part of pretty much every step (including a trip to a local farm to drop off the previous day’s spent grains!).

January 2017 37January 2017 40January 2017 42January 2017 46

About a month after brewing I went out to the brewery to try out the beer with Kevin, the head brewer, and take home some bottles (with labels designed by my brother-in-law!).  The final product was a beer that is a crisp and somewhat hop-forward American wheat ale.  Interestingly, in spite of using almost the exact same recipe as the one I had brewed the new beer was basically nothing like the original.

February 2017 9February 2017 11February 2017 12February 2017 15

The original was much darker which I attribute to the use of local rye malt as well as some more caramelization of the wort which could have happened over my high powered propane burner.  Additionally I fermented my version with two yeasts, An English (S-04) and American (US-05) while the new one only used the American yeast.  I think this gave the original a fruitier flavour and also made it slightly less dry than the new beer.

February 2017 49

All in all I was very pleased to get to spend a whole brew day in a real brewery and to learn so much from Kevin.  If you’re interested in trying the beer it’s possible there are still a few bottles left at the brewery.  If it’s all gone maybe we’ll have to encourage Block 3 to try brewing it again, only this time I’d ask to make some changes to the recipe to try to more closely recreate my original beer!

Here’s the link to the recipe on Brewtoad (which is the online software I use for all my recipes).

 

]]>
http://localkitchener.ca/2017/03/scaling-up/feed/ 6 3117
Something new is coming! http://localkitchener.ca/2016/11/something-new/ http://localkitchener.ca/2016/11/something-new/#comments Thu, 24 Nov 2016 12:20:51 +0000 http://localkitchener.ca/?p=3108 First of all, let me say “Happy Thanksgiving” to my American family and friends!  I hope the day is wonderful!

August 2017 102

It has been a long time since I posted, basically a year!  In that year I have been working as a high school science teacher at a local private school here in Kitchener.  It’s been great to be back in a school teaching biology, chemistry, and even math.  In my free time I’ve been eating lots of homegrown kale (mostly in salad form) and brewing with local hops.something new 3something new 4

One of the projects that I had wanted to work on for a long time but kept dragging my feet about was an idea called “Homestead City.”  My brother-in-law, Graham, and I came up with a few pilot episodes featuring my family and a couple of our good friends from our neighborhood.

something new 1something new 2

The premise of this project was an idea I’ve talked about before on this blog, that you can’t do or make everything from scratch when you live in the city, have a job, a family, a small yard (or no yard), and so on, but you can do something!  And when you connect with your neighbors, friends, and other community members, together you can create a homestead out of your city.

In the past year Graham has taken the project to Toronto where he has worked with a crew to develop a series of episodes for television.  Stay tuned for more news about when you can see the full series, and in the meantime here’s the pilot episode featuring The Local Kitchener and his family:

]]>
http://localkitchener.ca/2016/11/something-new/feed/ 1 3108
November Meal Plan http://localkitchener.ca/2015/10/november-meal-plan/ http://localkitchener.ca/2015/10/november-meal-plan/#comments Fri, 30 Oct 2015 12:12:35 +0000 http://localkitchener.ca/?p=3070

The next two weeks we will be cooking almost entirely from one cookbook.  We received the cookbook from our  good friend who works in publishing (and yes, it is very nice to have friends like that!).  The cookbook comes from the brilliant cooks behind Cooks Illustrated, a magazine that is known for its recipes being thoroughly tested.

The Complete Vegetarian Cookbook

The book is called The Complete Vegetarian Cookbook (available locally as well as from Amazon.com and Amazon.ca), and it’s put out by America’s Test Kitchen.  Basically it’s a compilation of all the vegetarian recipes from Cooks Illustrated.  What I’ve always loved about that magazine is the length they go to in explaining why their recipe works, and that’s included with every single recipe in this book.

The Complete Vegetarian Cookbook

You might see a few reoccurring ingredients in the 2 week meal plan that follows.  One is barley, specifically pearl barley.  It turns out I ordered us a 12 kg sack of that wonderful stuff from Bailey’s and now we’ll be working our way through it all winter.  The other common ingredients are kale and squash, because they’re healthy and delicious, but more importantly they’re local and abundant right now.

pearl barley

Keep in mind that you can keep harvesting your kale until it’s completely covered in snow (and it will just taste better and better!).  And winter squash has “winter” in its name because it can be stored through much of the winter.  Yes, it can and should be enjoyed now but it’s good to stock up and fill your pantry with it too so you can eat it until March or sometimes April if you store enough.

Winter Squash 1

Butternut is one of the best keepers in our experience, whereas acorn squash doesn’t hold up quite as long.  The only real way of knowing what keeps best in your climate is by buying a wide variety of squash and keeping an eye on them.  Whenever one gets a soft spot it needs to be eaten quickly.

Winter Squash 2

The links provided are mostly to recipes that are similar to ones in the cookbook, but in many cases they are not nearly as thorough as those in the book.  If your local library carries the book you should definitely check it out, but if not I feel like this is a worthwhile book to own (of course we got our copy for free so it’s easy for me to say!).

Nov. 1-14

Roasted Red Pepper and Winter Squash Soup

barley kale tabbouleh_1

kohlrabi robbertson4

This post is shared at Menu Plan Monday which is a great resource for meal ideas!

southern ontario locavore meal plan

 

]]>
http://localkitchener.ca/2015/10/november-meal-plan/feed/ 4 3070
Think Global, Eat Local http://localkitchener.ca/2015/10/think-global-eat-local/ http://localkitchener.ca/2015/10/think-global-eat-local/#comments Mon, 26 Oct 2015 19:31:53 +0000 http://localkitchener.ca/?p=3062

Ever since I began thinking more about the food I eat—and this includes reading books, watching films, following blogs, and lots of cooking and eating—I’ve been rather hung up on the idea of tradition.  I find myself lamenting the fact that North America does not seem to have its own traditional cuisine (unless I count fast food).

The more I explore different food cultures and traditions the more I realize that in this modern world most food cultures and traditions are being influenced and changed by one another.  This is helping me see that the food culture of North America has the potential to be the most unique and exciting since this is a land filled from all cultures of the world.

Here in Ontario, TVO has been exploring the role of food in our lives through a new project called The Food Chain.   In TVO’s words, “it is a multiplatform series of documentaries and current affairs as well as discussions and articles looking at what we eat, where it comes from and how it lands on our plates.”

FoodChain_Logo[1]

The series has already begun online with a series of articles at tvo.org/thefoodchain, and kicks off on television tonight with a 10-part travelogue, Girl Eat World, hosted by Food Blogger and Master Chef South Africa winner, Kamini Pather.  I’ve watched about half of the episodes so far and the show has definitely made me nostalgic for traveling and eating my way through different cultures.

In my former life I lived in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and my favorite activity was exploring the city and finding new places to eat.   After work I’d go home, change clothes, hop on my mountain bike and ride down to the old historic center of town.

Think Global, Eat Local

The ride took me through a dirty urban sprawl but once I’d cross the river to the old town things would change.  Street were narrow and turned in unexpected directions as they followed their way around the hill that loomed above.  Every week I would find a new part of town I had missed until that point and with it new restaurants, cafés, and shops.

Think Global, Eat Local

My favorite restaurant specialized in licuados, or smoothies.  Often I’d just order a licuado and spend the afternoon grading tests, planning, or reading and writing letters.  If I was hungry I’d get some street food, like a baleada, a simple mix of a handmade flour tortilla filled with refried beans and Honduran queso.  Other times I’d try a torta which is basically a mixture of wonderful Central American foods stuffed in a hamburger bun.  But my real love was pupusas.

Pupusas are balls of masa flour stuffed with cheese, or a mixture of cheese, meats, and veggies, then hand flattened and fried with a bit of oil.  They are then topped with curtido, a spicy sauerkraut of sorts.

Curtido - localkitchener.ca

What I’ve been realizing lately is that it’s not the dishes themselves that define a food tradition but the way those foods are made.  Connection to the land—the source of all food—and the processes through which the food is cooked create the tradition, not the recipes.

As my children grow up I’d like them to be a part of our family’s food culture as we build upon the traditions we inherited while making them our own.  We have the freedom to borrow from all cuisines as we cook but also the chance to root ourselves in our local community.  Trips to the farmers market, to our CSA, or simply exploring local farms outside of town give us a chance to see what foods are available to us as we consider what we’ll be eating for the week to come.

Think Global, Eat Local

Think Global, Eat LocalLetting “local” define what we eat can seem limiting, but without limits we could never hope to build our own tradition.  Moving through the seasons with the foods that are available and working with local farmers gives our eating purpose and roots it in our community.

Think Global, Eat Local

For my family our food chain is one that connects us to the land and local farmers.  It connects us to our neighbors, friends, and family with whom we share our meals.  It is not just about eating, it has become a way of living.

What about you, what experiences have shaped how you look at food and what you eat?  Is travel important to you with regard to food, and if so why?  Do you value new experiences and going outside of your comfort zone?  What about traditions, is it important to maintain them?  I’d love to hear your thoughts, and let me know if you check out any episodes of Girl Eat World.

Disclosure: This post was sponsored by TVO.  However, (and this should be obvious) all opinions are my own.TVO_Logo+Tag_RGB_2_Stacked_Colour[1]

 

 

]]>
http://localkitchener.ca/2015/10/think-global-eat-local/feed/ 1 3062
Peach and Pear Chutney http://localkitchener.ca/2015/09/peach-and-pear-chutney/ http://localkitchener.ca/2015/09/peach-and-pear-chutney/#respond Tue, 22 Sep 2015 13:37:33 +0000 http://localkitchener.ca/?p=3043 Chutneys were for a long time a bit of a mystery to me.  That is until I was given some by a friend and realized to my delight that just like ketchup, it goes well on top of pretty much everything.  I feel like in some ways a chutney is a hybrid between ketchup and jam—it has a strong sweet fruitiness to it, but also a nice tangy bite.  Add to that some wonderful spices and it becomes its own unique food.

Peach & Pear Chutney

Lately we’ve been putting chutney on our burgers, sandwiches, crackers, or just putting it on the table where people can decide to do with it whatever pleases them.

Peach & Pear Chutney

I wanted to use up a few of the pears from our tree as well as the leftover peaches from our canning session a few days prior.  The recipe is loosely based on a few others but one unique feature is the use of the peach and pear peels to add color and pectin to the chutney.

Peach & Pear Chutney

The peels are normally just discarded so this gave throwing them in to boil with the vinegar and lemon juice gave them a good use.  The skins of peaches are often saved and used for making peach jelly (or honey as it’s sometimes called), while pear skins contain good amounts of pectin.

Peach & Pear Chutney

I was especially pleased with just how much color the peach peels added, turning the finished product a deep pink as opposed to a more yellow color that would have likely been the result without them.

Peach & Pear Chutney

Peach and Pear Chutney
Author: 
Prep time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 5-6 cups
 
Ingredients
  • 1 cup apple cider vinegar
  • 1 cup lemon juice
  • 2 cups pears, peeled, cored and diced, peels reserved
  • 4 peaches, halved, and pitted
  • ¾ cup granulated sugar
  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • ½ cup golden raisins
  • 1 tsp. grated fresh gingerroot or 2 tsp ground ginger
  • ½ tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp salt
  • ¼ tsp ground allspice
  • 3-5 star anise (one per jar)
Instructions
  1. Bring the vinegar and lemon juice to a boil in a small pot. Add the halved peaches a few at a time and boil for 30 seconds. Remove them and allow them to cool while boiling the next few peaches. When the peaches have cooled remove their skins and add them to the boiling vinegar and lemon juice. Add the pear peels as well. Cook the peels at a low simmer for 30 minutes.
  2. Add the skinned peaches and diced onions to a second pot and cook over low heat with the lid on. When the peaches have softened use a masher or fork to crush the peaches. Add the sugar and diced pears and bring to a boil. Use a strainer to remove the peels and pour the vinegar and lemon juice into the fruit and sugar mixture. Add all the spices except the star anise. Bring to a boil then simmer for 30-45 minutes until thickened.
  3. Prepare canning jars and lids. Fill hot jars with the chutney adding one star anise to the side of each jar so that it is visible. Fill to ½ inch from the top of the jar, clean the rim, then attach the lids.
  4. Process in a boiling water bath for 20 minutes.

Peach & Pear Chutney

]]>
http://localkitchener.ca/2015/09/peach-and-pear-chutney/feed/ 0 3043
Zucchini “Pasta” http://localkitchener.ca/2015/08/zucchini-pasta/ http://localkitchener.ca/2015/08/zucchini-pasta/#respond Fri, 28 Aug 2015 13:21:25 +0000 http://localkitchener.ca/?p=3039 While I’m not a fan of endlessly adding kitchen gadgets to our extremely small kitchen, there are the occasional ones that seem worth it.

Zucchini Pesto Pasta

The spiralizer is one of those.  After a friend lent us hers to help us dispatch with a few too many zucchinis we were hooked.  I picked one up at Vincenzo’s a few days later and haven’t looked back (of course they’re easy to find on amazon.com and amazon.ca as well).

Zucchini Pesto Pasta

Since we tend to eat pasta about once a week we’ve made the switch for the summer from regular pasta to long strands of zucchini, stir-fried and tossed with a simple sauce, pesto, or herbs.  Tip: if your zucchini is quite large and watery wrap the spiral slices in cheese cloth and squeeze out the excess moisture!

Zucchini Pesto Pasta

The full recipe is shared on the Bailey’s Local Foods blog, but really you just need a spiralizer and your favorite pasta toppings!

Zucchini Pesto Pasta

Disclosure: this post uses Amazon affiliate links

]]>
http://localkitchener.ca/2015/08/zucchini-pasta/feed/ 0 3039
Smile Tiger Coffee (and a Giveaway!) http://localkitchener.ca/2015/08/smile-tiger-coffee/ http://localkitchener.ca/2015/08/smile-tiger-coffee/#respond Wed, 19 Aug 2015 17:30:13 +0000 http://localkitchener.ca/?p=3027 Recently I found out there was a new coffee roaster in town and I got pretty excited.  Not because we didn’t have locally roasted coffee here in Kitchener-Waterloo, we do.  Rather it was because I knew that Smile Tiger Coffee had strong ties to what is our favorite coffee shop in KW, Death Valley’s Little Brother.

Smile Tiger Coffee

My wife and I have been meeting for daytime dates at DVLB for the last two years.  They are not the only coffee shop that we go to but we do find that they pay the most attention to quality (something I’ve talked about previously with regard to coffee).

Smile Tiger Coffee

I contacted Smile Tiger to see if we could meet up and wound up sitting down for a coffee last week with Joel, who owns and runs DVLB with his wife and who is also one of the owners and founders of Smile Tiger Coffee.  Quality was something he kept returning to when I asked him to describe the perfect cup of coffee.

The perfect cup of coffee doesn’t begin at a coffee or in your home.  It goes back to the source—the farm—and how the coffee was grown and processed.  In the case of most small coffee roasters, like Smile Tiger, the roasters are dependent on importers to help them source the highest quality green coffee beans from the best growers.

While there is a romantic idea that the best small batch coffee roasters are spending their time traveling the world in search of those perfect green coffee beans to roast, that’s almost never the way it really works.

Smile Tiger Coffee

Joel explained that in terms of both time and money a roaster who’s concerned with quality could never afford to travel to farms all over the world hoping to find the best beans.  Instead roasters work closely with importers to find the best quality beans that have the characteristics that they want in a coffee and then roast those for cafes and customers.  Many of these roasts end up being single origin as well as direct or fair trade.

From that point the best way to brew the coffee is with attention to every step of the process.  Any corner cut can “ruin the coffee,” says Joel.  At DVLB this means they use very deliberately chosen pieces of equipment for each process, from the grinder to the portafilter and its tamper (shown below), to the espresso machine, and finally the serving mugs.

Smile Tiger Coffee

For a coffee lover who brews primarily at home it is a bit out of my reach to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on my coffee brewing equipment.  Nonetheless, I find that little improvements made over time (and birthdays, hint hint) can help me enjoy my coffee more and more.  My sites are now set on a better grinder, either a hand operated burr grinder or a countertop one.  In the meantime I do my best to purchase delicious roasted beans from local roasters that care about the quality of their products.

Over the past two years my preferred local coffee has been Planet Bean from Guelph.  Their coffee is great and I love their cooperative business model.  Being based within 30 minutes of KW means they are definitely “local” so I feel some connection to them and can visit their headquarters if I like.  However seeing as I can easily ride my bike to DVLB and chat with the people who roast the coffee (one of the baristas, Jess, is also the roaster and green buyer for Smile Tiger) means I can learn more about the coffee and how to brew it best at home.

Smile Tiger Coffee

Because so much goes into making coffee—both in terms of environmental resources and on the processing and brewing end—I find it’s important to drink coffee slowly and without a sense of the dependency that our culture tends to practice.  Like my other favorite beverage, beer, coffee should never just be something you drink because you feel you need it.  You should drink it because you enjoy it.  And to enjoy it you ought to make sure it is good!

I’ve spent the past week thoroughly enjoying the cold brew coffee that Smile Tiger gave me to try.  The beans are called “Heaven Hammer” and are roasted with cold brew coffee as the target.  I diligently followed the instructions on the bag:

  1. Coarsely grind the beans (which is tricky with a crummy blade grinder like mine)
  2. Mix them with cold water in a ratio of 1 ounce of beans per 1 cup of water
  3. Steep them in the fridge for 16 hours
  4. Filter and enjoy with ice or bourbon

Smile Tiger Coffee

I used a mason jar filled with 3 cups of water and roughly 1 cup of ground coffee (1 ounce of beans is about ⅓ cup) and filtered through an old gold coffee filter lined with very fine cheese cloth.  I haven’t tried the bourbon option yet, mainly because I don’t have any bourbon on hand (hmm, a good excuse to go get some?) but I have definitely enjoyed the cold brew over ice.

Smile Tiger Coffee

Tasting Notes (because with good beverages you should take some time to ponder what you’re experiencing!):

  1. Aroma: My first impression of Heaven Hammer is of tobacco, followed by dark cherry and maybe a bit of toasted oak.
  2. Mouthfeel: This coffee is very smooth and lively, and lighter feeling than espresso.
  3. Flavour: It’s sweet with a bright fruity acidity. There is a slight nuttiness.
  4. Finish: The fruit flavors fade leaving a soft lingering bitterness that urges you on to the next sip, which is why it’s easy to keep drinking this coffee all day!

I’m excited to try Smile Tiger’s other roasts and plan to stop by DVLB again soon to taste them under the care of expert barista hands.

Smile Tiger Coffee

Smile Tiger Coffee is currently roasting in a temporary space until they have their permanent location set up.  That location will feature a café where customers will be able to see the roasting equipment, and possibly observe the art in process.  In the meantime the easiest way to get the coffee is by ordering online or going to DVLB in Uptown Waterloo.

You can also enter below to win a bag of coffee from STC.  Keep in mind that you’ll have to pick it up from DVLB so this is mostly limited to locals:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: I was provided with a free bag of coffee, but the opinions are my own.  

]]>
http://localkitchener.ca/2015/08/smile-tiger-coffee/feed/ 0 3027
Small Batch Homebrewing (and a Giveaway!) http://localkitchener.ca/2015/07/small-batch-homebrewing/ http://localkitchener.ca/2015/07/small-batch-homebrewing/#comments Wed, 08 Jul 2015 14:00:43 +0000 http://localkitchener.ca/?p=2983

“Whatever highly honorable motives they may have—to save money or to enjoy themselves, for example—the greatest motivation for homebrewers is the opportunity to experiment and to produce beer in all the glorious varieties in which it manifests itself.”

-Michael Jackson (this MJ, not the other) in the preface to The Joy of Homebrewing by Charlie Papazian (Amazon.ca and WPL)

Small Batch Homebrewing Small Batch Homebrewing

Making beer from scratch in your own home is extremely satisfying but it can seem a bit difficult if you’ve never tried.  And if you do know a little bit about the process that most people use it can seem downright intimidating.

That’s because many homebrewers brew five gallon batches (or larger) and use all sorts of specialized equipment.  This includes pots and kettles that are 8 gallons or larger (the average “large” stockpot is around 2-3 gallons) and converted coolers with false bottoms or manifolds for straining grains.  In addition to this are all the buckets, jugs, tubes, pumps, measuring devices, and other unique items that serve very specific purposes in the brewing process.

Small Batch Homebrewing 4Small Batch HomebrewingSmall Batch Homebrewing

However, it is possible to brew your own beer—truly from scratch—with limited supplies and equipment.  You just have to be willing to go a little bit smaller and then you can work with more common household items, like the pots and strainers your kitchen most likely already has.

Small Batch HomebrewingThis is where Emma Christensen has had a huge impact on my perspective towards homebrewing.  In her first book, True Brews (Amazon.ca and WPL), she taught how to make a wide variety of fermented beverages at home—kombucha, root beer, cider, mead, wine, beer, and more—and in most cases with very little specialized equipment.

Small Batch Homebrewing

I truly hadn’t considered making one gallon batches up beer until I read that book.  Although much of my brewing is still 5 gallon batches, the beauty of small batch brewing is that all aspects of the process are made more manageable by scaling down.  And just what are those aspects?  Here is an overview of brewing a small (1-2 gallons) batch of beer:

  1. Heat 1 gallon of “hot liquor” to 160F (“hot liquor” is just what the hot water is called)
  2. Dough in (mix the hot liquor with the recipe’s crushed malts)
  3. Mash for 1 hour at 148-153F (basically just maintain the mixture of malts and water at this temperature for 60 minutes to create “wort” which is the sweet malty liquid that will ferment into beer).
  4. Lauter and Sparge (lautering is the process of straining the wort from the grains and sparging is rinsing the grains with additional hot water).
  5. Boil (the boil is when hops are added and the wort is sterilized, clarified, and concentrated through evaporation. 60 minutes is the typical length for this step).
  6. Chill and pitch yeast (before the yeast can be added to the wort it must be brought down to room temperature. For a 1 gallon batch of beer this is usually done by setting the kettle in an ice bath in the sink and stirring with a sanitized spoon.  Then the wort is transferred to a sanitized bucket or jug and yeast is added).
  7. Ferment (the yeast convert the wort into beer over the course of 2-3 weeks).
  8. Bottle (the finished beer is mixed with a small amount of extra sugar and then put in bottles where the additional fermentation creates carbonation. Then you drink the beer!).

Looking at that list of steps I can’t say that brewing beer is “simple.”  However, if you break it down and just approach the process one step at a time there shouldn’t be a part that is overly difficult.   And once again, this is where Emma Christensen comes in!

Small Batch Homebrewing

After tackling small batch brewing in True Brews with enough detail to get people started she revisited it in full form in a second book, Brew Better Beer (Amazon.ca).  About a year and a half ago I had the opportunity to do recipe testing for a few recipes that would appear in the book (I got compensated for the ingredients and received a copy of the book once it was published).  I brewed up a 5 gallon batch of her “Riding Lawnmower Pale Ale” and one gallon batches of the “Pecan Pie Brown Ale” and “Affogato Milk Stout.”  Of those three the milk stout was my favorite and I plan to brew up a large batch of it later this summer to enjoy in the fall as the weather turns cooler.

Small Batch Homebrewing

With the arrival of Emma’s new book I decided to try out the “Smoky Chipotle Porter” recipe.  I’ve been intrigued by spicy beers for a while and had been waiting for a good opportunity to try brewing one.  Emma’s step by step instructions are clear and easy to follow. If you have a copy of her book the intro chapters go into great detail about all the steps, but if you don’t have the book I highly recommend her beer school on The Kitch’n.

And speaking of Brewing Better Beer, the publishers are going to send a copy of the book to one reader of this blog (in the US or Canada).  To enter just go to the form at the end of this post.  But if you don’t win a copy be sure to ask your local library to order one—that’s what I do every time I don’t win a book!

My plan is to follow up this post in a few weeks with a more in depth look at the equipment that I find essential for small batch homebrewing.  I’ll also include a review of how the Smoky Chipotle Porter turned out!  (And just send me an email if you’d like some ingredients to brew your own small batch of this beer for $12!)

What follows is an excerpt from Brew Better Beer, courtesy of Ten Speed Press. 

Credit: Reprinted with permission from Brew Better Beer, by Emma Christensen, copyright 2015. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC.

Photography copyright © 2015 by Katie Newburn

Smoky Chipotle Porter

smoky chipotle porterI admit it: the idea of a spicy beer is a little . . . strange. Even to me. But this smooth and smoky porter with its slight prickle of heat is worth a leap of faith. Chipotles are the smoked and dried version of jalapeños—a process that transforms the crunchy green peppers into wrinkled, deep-red husks while simultaneously tempering their quick burst of heat into something slow and smoldering. Just the thing for a moody beer like this one.

Brew Notes If you’d like the smoky flavor of chipotles without the heat, crack open the dried peppers and shake out the seeds before adding them to the beer.

Make It Yours Make a Mexican hot chocolate version! Add cinnamon sticks, cacao beans, and a split vanilla bean or two to the secondary. (Read more about adding spices on page 166.)

Beers to Try Pipeline Porter (Kona Brewing Company), Stone Smoked Porter (Stone Brewing Company), Alaskan Smoked Porter (Alaskan Brewing Company

Follow the master method for brewing 1-gallon or 5-gallon all-grain batches as described on pages 54–59 (5-gallon measurements in parentheses).

  • Remove liquid yeast from the refrigerator and, if necessary, activate according to package instructions. Place on the counter to warm.
  • Heat 1 gallon (or 4 gallons) of water to 160°F, then stir in the grains. Maintain a mash temperature of 148°F to 153°F for 60 minutes. Raise the temperature of the mash to 170°F, then sparge using 1 gallon (or 2½ gallons) of 170°F water to make 1½ (or 5½) gallons wort.
  • Bring to a boil over high heat. Add the Magnum hops and boil vigorously for 40 minutes. Add the Mt. Hood hops for flavoring and the Irish moss and continue boiling for another 15 minutes. Add the chipotle peppers and continue boiling for another 5 minutes. Add the Mt. Hood hops for aroma and remove from the heat. (Total boil time: 60 minutes.)
  • Cool to at least 75°F and transfer to a sanitized primary fermentation bucket. Add the yeast and aerate the wort.
  • Let ferment for at least 1 week or up to 4 weeks at 70°F; then transfer to a sanitized jug or carboy for secondary fermentation. Continue to ferment for another 2 weeks or up to 2 months at 70°F.
  • Taste the beer a few days before you plan to bottle. If you’d like a stronger, hotter flavor, chop 1 chipotle pepper (or 5 peppers) and steep in just enough vodka to cover for 15 minutes, then drain and add the peppers to the beer. Taste daily and bottle when the beer tastes good to you.
  • Dissolve the sugar in ¼ (or 1) cup of boiling water and let cool. Mix with the beer, bottle, and store for 2 weeks or up to a year. Refrigerate before drinking.

recipe chipotle porter

CHRI_Brew Better Beer

a Rafflecopter giveaway

]]>
http://localkitchener.ca/2015/07/small-batch-homebrewing/feed/ 15 2983