A Tale of Two RyePA’s

We’ve been very busy little homebrewers of late, and it feels so right.

A tale of two RyePA's

I’ve been talking a lot about these RyePA (Rye IPA) beers we brewed on our friend Sean’s Electric Brewery system, remember that gorgeous system I told you about? Well, they’re all carbonated and ready to enjoy!! To celebrate, last weekend we had a combined tapping/birthday party. What better way to celebrate my late twenties than with a duo of delicious home brews!

We went ahead and splurged by getting Eli’s BBQ catered which was UH-mazing. God I love that place. Beers and BBQ, ya’ll. Happy birthday to me.

Mike enjoying a MadTree Happy Amber at Elis

Continue reading

Spent Grain Brown Butter Banana Bread

So much alliteration and deliciousness. You’re going to die. In a good way.

Spent Grain Brown Butter Banana Bread

Ever since we brewed our RyePA a few weeks ago, my friend Sarah and I have been on kind of a spent grain recipe bender. This is a good thing, because as it turns out, when you brew a 15 gallon batch of beer you have a LOT of grain leftover. Continue reading

Burgers and Beers: Smashburger Teams up with Moerlein

Burgers and beers. Like peanut butter and jelly, or fig and prosciutto. It just makes sense.
Moerlein and Smashburger Team Up

Last week I was honored to be invited to the media pre-view of Smashburger’s new burger and beer pairing menu. As soon as I heard the words burger and beer, I was sold. It didn’t even matter that I’d never heard of Smashburger until I received the email invitation. Continue reading

Hot or Cold Barley Summer Salad

I’m gonna be honest. I’m not really sure what this recipe is. I mean, other than fresh and delicious.

Hot or Cold Barley Salad

Is it a cold salad? Is it a warm side dish?

Hm. It could be either, I guess. You decide! Like one of those Choose Your Own Adventure books. Continue reading

It’s Electric!

Homebrewers, take note. Today’s Beer Diary is all about our experience brewing a new set of beers (“RyePA Two Ways”) on the Electric Brewery. It is as awesome as it sounds. Boogie woogie woogie.

The Electric Brewery

Now that you’ve got The Electric Slide stuck in your head from now until eternity (I’m sorry I’m not sorry). This is the coolest, most badass homebrewing set up I’ve seen. Ever. Continue reading

6 Months of LBLF Outtakes.

Sometimes I think that food bloggers take themselves a bit too seriously. There is actually an entire website dedicated to mocking the crazy things we say. It’s pretty hilarious, actually, you should check it out. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love a 24 hour citrus marinated, grilled pork tenderloin with a side of braised haricot vert just as much as the next guy or gal, but sometimes we all need to just simmer down. Since last week was the definition of “too serious” I thought I’d lighten things up a bit by sharing some of my not-so-finest moments of this 6 month foray into blogging.

Exhibit A. Bread pudding featuring a particularly horrific display of improper dairy usage. You see, one day, a coworker randomly gave me a large, crusty baguette to take home. Sweet, I thought, maybe I’ll try and make bread pudding. So I did.

disgusting bread pudding

And It was disgusting. Continue reading

What a week…

Wow guys. What a week. Seriously, what a $(&#@!^ week. I think the satirical online newspaper, the Onion put it best, “… sorry, is all this sh*t really happening at once? Because if all this sh*t is really happening at once, multiple reports verified, then this might actually be, honest to God, one of the worst weeks of all time.” Continue reading