Summer Beer Odyssey

You may have noticed that it has been a considerable amount of time since I last blogged about my culinary adventures. Let me assure you, my blog has not been abandoned. It has been on my mind all summer long but I just haven’t had the time to write much less do any fabulous cooking.

However, this summer I embarked on a Beer Odyssey (in keeping with my literary theme) with a few of my good friends. Initially, I promised to teach one of them about wine in exchange for education in all things beer related.

Beer has been the Iago to my Othello for far too long. I’ve wanted to like it but it’s just so bitter! Give me a bottle of wine over a case of beer any day but I’ve been determined to conquer this tastebud challenge. I figured it took years for my tastebuds to become accustomed to wine and then a few more years to fall irrevocably in love with it. How was I going to speed up this process with beer? It often smells acrid and tastes just as bitter (not to mention that the look of lighter beers just reminds me of urine…ewwww). I love sweet drinks and frankly cringe at the taste of some of the hopp-ier beers.

And so it all began with going to Tuesday Trivia Nights…

I wasn’t a complete novice with beer. I had tried beer a number of times and couldn’t get over the bitterness. Some of the beers prior to this summer included but were not limited to: Michelob Ultra, Blue Moon, Sam Adams Cranberry Lambic, Sam Adams Octoberfest, Corona, Budlight, Budlight Lime, Miller Light…and, of course…Coors Light. (I also tried Honey Mead at a Renaissance Faire and looooved it but that was the one exception).

Had to start with Coors Light, because the guys ordered the cheapest pitcher of beer they could on trivia nights usually. After a few weeks, the watered down hops didn’t bother my tastebuds nearly as much as they used to. Perhaps it was time to try something different!

I tried Blue Moon again and then branched out into Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy – which was great because the citrus really cuts the bitterness from the hops.

Then I had the chance to attempt a Beer Odyssey in a day. Originally, the plan was to work our way backwards from Boston: go to Harpoon Brewery and do their complimentary tasting, go to Sam Adams, then to Beerworks maybe we would hit up the BBC and the Alehouse closer to home. We ran out of time. Odysseus had 10-11 years of wandering after the Trojan War but we only had a few hours.

We did get to try 4 different beers at Harpoon. The first of which, not by choice, was the Rye IPA. Oh my goodness! SO BITTER. I’m not ready for that. I wanted to scrape my tongue after tossing that one back as quickly as I could just to get it over with. (Though tossing it down the sink in the bathroom was a tempting alternative.) I got to choose the next three, opting for a Cider, Summer, and a Raspberry. I still prefer a little sweetness to cut the bitterness. I did try a pumpkin beer (good!) and what was called a Great Scott! and I honestly didn’t hate it.

Next we tried out Beerworks and I got the watermelon beer. (I know! Watermelon! Weird.) But it was light and refreshing, served with a hulking wedge of watermelon – no complaints here. Honestly though, the thing that I’ve raved most about since going to Beerworks is the raspberry aioli they served with my friend’s sweet potato fries! Raspberry aioli! Really it was so good I had to try and reinvent it at home.

Yeah, you noticed the wine. It's still my drink of choice.
Quick and Fresh Raspberry Aioli:
1/2 cup of mayo
Juice of 1 lemon
1 clove of garlic finely minced
6-10 raspberries

Emulsify all the ingredients in a small blender.
It will be BRIGHT pink and will remind you of frosting.
Serve it with sweet potato fries and you'll wonder why
you've never eaten your fries this way before.

And since that day of beer tasting, I’ve moved on to Shipyard’s Pumpkinhead (which is so so good especially when they serve it with the cinnamon and the sugar on the rim! What can I say? I like sweet things!) I tried a Sleepyhollow – half Pumpkinhead and half Guinness. Then I tried an actual Guinness. Which, surprisingly, I finished without making any disgusted faces!

Whatdyaknow!? I made progress over this summer after all!