I found this and thought it was rather intriguing. Real root beer using sugar from malted grains. It really puts the BEER back into root beer. It also cool that you can either ferment the resulting wort to make a true beer, or bottle it as a soft drink. I’ll have to give this a shot.

Real Root Beer | Beer Recipes.

“Brewing beer is neither complicated nor expensive. It’s the responsibility of the brewer to make it as complicated and expensive as their wife will allow.”

9 DIY Beer Brewing-Rigs – Homebrewing Beer Instructions – Popular Mechanics.

This is a good article about how the explosion of homebrewing in the early 80’s (thank you President Carter for making homebrewing legal again in 1978) has led to the expanding microbrewery industry in the United States.

In 1979 there were 44 breweries in the entire country. Now there are close to 1500 as well as nearly 1000 brewpubs.

The Golden Age of Home Brewing – HomeBrewing.com.

Here’s a good article on how to rate a beer based on appearance, aroma, mouthfeel and flavor.

Even if you don’t go full on and take written notes, doing this as a mental excersize will help you know more about the beer you’re drinking and learn what kinds of beers you enjoy most.

How to rate a beer.

I was at Costco a few days back and saw these in the freezer case.  Now I will admit I generally avoid the frozen pre-packaged anythings (with the exception of the quick and cheapo burgers since some days you just want a BBQ burger with no prep time) but these Salmon burgers caught my eye.

Costco – Trident® Wild Alaskan Salmon Burgers

I picked up a bag for $12 I believe, and I put two on the grill last night.  They were…interesting.  I like salmon, but I have never had a salmon burger.  I was confused on even how to eat it becuase salmon generally is not served on a bun…ever?  So I put the burger on a bun because thats what burger means to me…”put on bun to eat”.  With a hamburger you put cheese on it, do you put cheese on a salmon burger?  With a fish filet you put tartar sauce on it and a burger you put ketchup…what do you put on a salmon burger?  All these questions led me to just put it on a bun plain and dig in.  It tasted like salmon, but on bread.  I will say that it was kind of confusing for my palate, that whole salmon on a bun thing.

I ate it but it wasn’t very satisfying…I can imagine it would be great if I had a condiment to put on top or if I had used my coal BBQ and given it some smoke instead of my gas grill (it was raining and I was tired).

So my review on these is if you are adventurous with condiments try them out and tell me what I should or shouldn’t put on the rest of these when I cook them…otherwise I think I will just cook them and eat them on a plate like a salmon pattie.

Does this sound good or horrible? I’m tempted to try making some myself. They don’t mention what kind of hops are used (maybe they don’t use any?)

Bison Brewing Company : Honey Basil Ale.

Scott sent me this.  Some of the tips are pretty good, like buttering the burgers and cook the ribs low and slow.  Definitely use real wood too…

20 Smart Tips for Everyday Grilling | Food & Wine

Beef jerky is one of those foods that’s fairly high on the ‘manly’ scale. It’s up there with steak and bacon and whiskey and sausage and beer. Though beef jerky is a little different, almost isolated in it’s own category. I think part of this is because it’s generally always consumed by itself; never part of a larger creation. Until now.

This is still a work in progress, but I felt I had to share this current iteration, plus I finally remembered to take photos of this wonderful creation. I got the basic idea from Men in Apron’s Unholy Chicken, chicken roll wrapped in bacon with cheesy filling. However the idea of integrating beef jerky into the piece was my own. I’m calling it Jack’s Chicken because of the use of Jack’s Links beef jerky as well as colby-jack cheese. In the future I think it may be appropriate to also integrate some Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey into the spice rub for the chicken. Though I did not do that for this version.

What you’ll need:
• one large chicken breast
• 3-4 slices of bacon
• one vacuum sealed strip of Jack’s Links beef jerky, Get the kind that’s vacuum sealed as these tend to be a bit juicier, I got the peppered steak flavor
• 1-2 jalapeno peppers
• a bit of diced garlic
• shredded cheese, I used colby jack, pepper jack would also be appropriate
• spices:
  • cumin
  • ground chipotle
  • paprika
  • ground rosemary
  • oregano
  • basil

You may want to light your charcoal grill before starting, if you’re using gas then no worries.

Start by dicing the beef jerky and the jalapeno peppers. Fry the beef jerky in a good amount of oil and butter over high heat for a few minutes before adding the peppers. You want to make sure the jerky is fairly well cooked and has absorbed some of the butter and oil and softened up a bit. Turn the heat down to medium-low and add in the garlic and peppers. Fry them until they’re fairly tender.

Either while your jerky is cooking or right after, take your chicken breast, layer it between two sheets of plastic wrap and hammer it out flat, try to avoid creating holes if possible. Then remove the plastic wrap and sprinkle the chicken with the spices listed above (eventually this will become the Jack Daniel’s spice rub). Place your jerky and jalapenos on one side and sprinkle the cheese over the top.

Get ready to roll. I use toothpicks to hold things in place. Roll the chicken up with the jerky, peppers and cheese inside. You can see in the previous photo that a portion of my chicken broke away, I ended up using that piece to seal a hole that developed during the roll-up. Once you have your chicken rolled up you can wrap it in bacon. I use the same toothpicks that are holding the chicken to hold the bacon, adding extras if necessary.

Now grill it! Grill it over hot coals turning it often for 10 to 15 minutes. Some of the cheese may leak out and you’ll get flare ups from the bacon grease. The constant turning helps it from becoming too blackened on a particular side. You also want to be absolutely sure that the chicken is cooked all the way through. Use a meat thermometer if you’re unsure: 170°F is when chicken is done.

Now eat and enjoy. Check back for a better spice rub that incorporates Jack Daniel’s. Additionally, I don’t think this will be the last time I experiment with using beef jerky as an ingredient.

My brother Scott sent me this link

These guys apparently take Bacon and cook it forever and then add spices and puree it. I don’t know if I want to dish out $14 for a half pound of the stuff, but I might glean some inspiration for sure…