New Beer Friday, Instant Pot Edition (January 5)

Preamble by Steve Siciliano

My wife and I have been laying low lately. With West Michigan in the tight grip of an extended deep freeze, neither Barb nor I have felt like braving the arctic cold to visit Beer City’s bevy of excellent restaurants, cocktail lounges and breweries. Other than daily trips to Siciliano’s and occasional excursions to the grocer, we’ve been hunkering down at home. We’re warding off cabin fever with antidotes of Manhattans, music and a glass or two of a warming red wine at dinner.

Barb has been preparing many of those dinners in a gadget called an Instant Pot, a small electric appliance that is a combination pressure cooker, slow cooker, rice cooker, steamer and warmer. Barb likes it because it decreases cooking time. I like it because I don’t have to grill in sub-freezing temperatures. We both especially like it because the food stays warm while we’re enjoying a pre-meal cocktail.

If saving time in the kitchen is appealing and saving your butt from freezing sounds alluring, you’ll probably like the Instant Pot too. Visit their website for more information.

New and Returning Beer

• Arcadia God Save the Pils, $1.99/12oz - "This unfiltered Pilsner-style beer is loaded with hops from the “Garden of England”, the name given to the famed Hop Yards of Kent, and brewed with 100% English malted barley. A very easy drinking lager with a hop character that will please both Pilsner and IPA fans" (source).
• Deschutes Hop Henge, $2.19/12oz - "Hop Henge is a discovery. Chinook, Cascade, Centennial, and Galaxy hops come together to erect a hop sanctuary. Revere the almighty hop" (source).
• Deschutes Red Chair, $1.99/12oz - "The citrus punch of a big IPA, minus the one-dimensional hop sledgehammer. Several select European and domestic malts round out the edges for a complex, copper-colored brew. Like its namesake ski lift, it’s an insider’s ride to fresh thrills" (source).
• Ellison Galaxy Double Dry Hop, $3.29/16oz - "Excessive amounts of Australian Galaxy Hops are used throughout this beer to give it a tropical fruit and floral nose. It's murky and cloudy appearance give way to a creamy flavor bouquet of stone fruits, grapefruit and a touch of pine" (source).
• Ellison Tiramisu, $3.29/16oz - "In Italian, Tiramisu means "pick me up." Inspired by the coffee flavored Italian dessert, this rich, full bodied stout is guaranteed to do just that" (source).
• Dark Horse Double Crooked Tree, $4.89/12oz - "We actually took the Crooked Tree recipe and doubled all of the ingredients except the water, just the way a DOUBLE should be made. Big hops balanced with tons of malt give this beer a huge body. Enjoy right away or let it mellow and smooth with some age" (source).
• Farmhaus Sweater Weather, $3.49/16oz - "Chai Spiced" (source).
• Grand Armory White Chocolate Blonde, $2.19/12oz - "A Light, Crisp, Refreshing Blonde Ale With White Chocolate Added During Fermentation. The Creamy White Chocolate Adds A Nice Sweetness To An Already Delicious Beer For An Enjoyable Marriage Of Flavors" (source).
• New Holland Blue Sunday, $9.09/22oz - "This unique anniversary libation, heritage-blended from our library of barrel-soured beers, exhibits deeply layered flavors of malt and oak, with a tart finish" (source).
• Sierra Nevada Hazy Little Thing, $.179/12oz - "As brewers, we get the privilege to sample our beers straight from the tanks in all their raw glory. Some beers need a little polishing to get ready to go out into the world, while others—the hop-heavy, rowdy, crowd-pleasers—should just be left alone. We wanted to share this brewery-only treat with you, so we present this Hazy Little Thing, our unfiltered, unprocessed IPA, straight from the tanks and into the can" (source).
• Sierra Nevada Hop Bullet, $.179/12oz - "Hops are the name of the game with a Double IPA, but we knew we had to take it one step further. With Hop Bullet, we’re using a new technique, hitting the beer with a double-barreled blast of Magnum hops and lupulin dust—pure, concentrated hop flavor—directly into the tank to emphasize the intense pine and citrus flavors of classic West Coast hops" (source).

Video of the Week | Double Crooked Tree

Double Crooked Tree: Tasting Video from Dark Horse Brewery on Vimeo.

Cheers!