New Holland Brewing Co. – Farmhouse Hatter

As many of you readers know, New Holland Brewing Co. is a brewery near and dear to my heart. I used to live a few blocks from the brewpub in Holland, MI, and in many ways New Holland was my “gateway” brewery into the wonderful world of craft beer.

We recently went to the AWESOME Beer Kitchen in Westport and I enjoyed a Farmhouse Hatter on tap there. Mad Hatter is New Holland’s year-round IPA, but the brewery does a LOT of experimenting from the Hatter platform… over the years I’ve had variations that include the imperial version, a black Hatter and even a smoked version, as well as this “farmhouse” style.

Farmhouse Hatter is a Belgian IPA/pale ale version of this popular beer. Belgian beers are all the rage these days, and I’ve had three Belgian IPA’s I’m aware of. A couple of years ago I reviewed Great Divide’s Belgica, and I’ll have a review of an Iowa brewery’s offering in this style, too.

New Holland modified its Mad Hatter recipe with wheat and pilsner malts and then used a Belgian Saison yeast to give it its Belgian characteristics. The result is quite pleasant, with an ABV of 5.8% and good balance.

The one problem I seem to have with Belgian IPA’s is the interplay between hops and the Belgian yeast. To me, there is a rubber tire character to the flavors that I’ve noted in each one of these beers I’ve had. Farmhouse Hatter’s hop levels seem lower than the normal recipe, though, so this character was minimized in this beer and I liked it a lot more because of it. The Belgian Saison character is evident in the early part of the sip with some grassy, somewhat sour (but think of a fruity sourness or mild tartness rather than a true sour beer) overtone with the hops coming in on the tail end of the sip. The hops in this case were floral rather than piney, West Coast style hops. There was a nice dry, bitter finish, but the beer had good balance and was a pleasure to drink (although one was plenty for me).

R Bar – Classy Classics

We finally made it to Kansas City’s R Bar last night and it was a nice change of pace. We haven’t been going out much over the last year, so when we do go out these days we’re always looking for something quality and different than the usual. We had purchased a Groupon for R Bar a while back and it was about to expire, so we headed here to have some libations and dessert (we couldn’t get a dinner reservation until 9:15 and didn’t want to eat that late).

R Bar is set up to be like a speakeasy, and it’s down in the West Bottoms, right across the street from the Golden Ox. The decor is cool… brick walls, old tile floors that were evidently common for the West Bottoms back in the heyday, and a huge, gorgeous mirrored bar. The decor is simple, but it works great for this narrow space. It was PACKED when we showed up on a Friday night around 9:30, but we surprisingly got a table right away. There was a great swing-jazzy band playing (think Squirrel Nut Zippers and you’re in the genre) and it was a super fun atmosphere.

The beer list was overpriced, and we’d had dinner at the Beer Kitchen, so I went straight to the cocktail menu. The cocktail menu is expansive (see the “Menus” on R Bar’s website for a list and details) and features a lot of classics, some simple and others very complicated. I started off with a Negroni because I’m a sucker for this drink. They made it with Campari, an unknown gin, and Lillet Rouge (no mention of vermouth on the menu, but I could taste it in there). I had a choice of on the rocks or “up” so I had it “up” (shaken on ice, but served neat without ice). It came in a martini glass and, as is the case with any Campari-based drink, it was gorgeous to look at with it’s simple orange wedge garnish (strange they don’t do a nice orange peel twist, which would work great in a martini glass…).

The Negroni was good, just like it’s supposed to taste. My fiancee had an Old Fashion and they unfortunately made it the “bar” way rather than the traditional original way, so it had a bunch of orange and cherries in the bottom and was topped off with soda water. I prefer my own, as you readers already know, which are made with just rye whiskey, Angostura bitters, a small piece of orange peel and a dash of simple syrup. It still tasted good, though.

My second and last drink was a Sazerac, which is a classic cocktail that R Bar made with rye whiskey, absinthe, Peychaud’s bitters, a lemon twist and poured over a sugar cube. The lemon aroma was intense on this cocktail, and I was originally disappointed to see it only filled about 3/4″ of my double old-fashioned glass, but keeping in mind that the drink it 100% liquor, it was PLENTY and it lasted me a long time. I enjoyed it a lot, but it’s definitely a sipper.

We had a goat cheese tart, which was goat cheese with sugar cut in (think of rich cheese cake) in a little tiny pie crust cup with a scoop of concord grape sorbet on top and mint sauce dribbled around the plate. Weird-sounding combination, but very good! The grape sorbet was a little overpowering, but an unusual and nicely-done dessert all the same.

R Bar is on the pricey side, but it’s a classy place with good food and drinks and we had a great time, so we’ll definitely be back. The speakeasy-like charm isn’t overplayed here, particularly since there are still REAL speakeasies (think jazz, people smoking, illegal card games and not just cigarette smoke in the air) operating in the West Bottoms that I’ve been lucky enough to be invited to!

Flavored Simple Syrups

I’ve been on a kick recently of making flavored simple syrups. The inspiration comes from our local queen of artisanal snow cones (yes, I said artisanal and I meant it!), Lindsay Laricks and her company, Fresher Than Fresh. Anytime I see that sweet Shasta trailer parked in front of Hammerpress (during most First Fridays in the Crossroads) or on Sundays at the delightful little park at 17th and Summit close to Blue Bird Bistro, the West Local, etc., it brings a smile to my face. I need to thank FTF for helping me discover how cool that little up-and-coming neighborhood is, too. The lure of the snow cone helped me discover something I hadn’t experienced about Kansas City yet! lol

So, um, if you haven’t gotten off your butt and tried FTF yet, you need to before she closes up for the season, which is FAST approaching its end. To have to wait until next year is a travesty. She also makes freezer pops that are the same stuff, just in the classic shape we all know and love from our childhoods.

My inspiration to try to make some more of my own flavored syrups comes from Lindsay’s Espresso with Mexican Cane Sugar flavor. When you get this flavor (and you should!), they drizzle a little sweetened condensed milk on it, too. I know it sounds a little sketchy, but trust me.

The espresso flavor is to die for, but what was really intriguing was the subtle hint of warm spice in the background… was that cinnamon? Nutmeg? Allspice? All of the above??? I asked Lindsay and she confirmed it was cinnamon, so in preparation for the cold season ahead, I decided to give making my own version of this syrup a shot (no pun intended) so I could add it to my morning coffee when I wanted something a little different. Linday’s snow cone syrup also has a nice hint of carmelized sugar flavors, which I tried to reproduce, and maybe a little hint of molasses or something.

Making simple syrup is, well, simple. You take a cup of sugar and a cup of water, put them in a pan and boil until dissolved. They keep pretty well, although I read somewhere that making a more sugary syrup will keep longer, so to use a 2:1 sugar to water ratio in that case. I did just that about a year ago to have simple syrup on hand for Old Fashioned’s, and it kept unrefrigerated for all that time with no problem at all.

About a week ago I had some strawberries about to go bad and I made a 1:1 simple syrup with them, but didn’t refrigerate it, and the syrup had mold growing on it within a couple days. Word to the wise.

To make fruit-based syrups, like the strawberry one I just mentioned, which would work for any fruit as far as I can tell, simply add the 1:1 ratio of sugar and water to your pan, as well as chopped up fruit, and boil the lot until the sugar dissolves and fruit starts to break up and everything thickens. Remember, fruits have a lot of water in them, so boiling off some won’t be a problem. Once the syrup started cooking nicely I mashed the fruit up with a potato masher and kept on trucking. When I felt like it was done, I simply strained it through a fine wire mesh colander to get the seeds and stuff out. Worked like a charm and it was delicious, the one time I got to use it!

For the coffee-flavored syrup, I just made a small batch and decided to use the richer solution, so I did one cup sugar to 1/2 cup water. I wasn’t sure which type of sugar to use, as a trip down the cooking aisle of Whole Foods showed all kinds of possibilities. I also spotted “vegan sugar” which is truly the lowest form of manipulation of those poor souls, as there is no meat in sugar to begin with. So, vegans who fall for that ploy get to spend an extra dollar for the same sugar. Duh.

Anyway, I chose turbinado sugar, which is evaporated cane juice that still has some molasses in it. Basically chunky brown sugar, but a little “drier” and not as molasses-y. It’s that fancy big-crystal brown-colored sugar you see in the coffee shops. I thought it would have some caramel notes and etc.

So, I did one cup of turbinado, 1/2 cup water and for the coffee flavor itself, I used a few demitasse-spoonfuls of instant espresso. Cooked it up and then added a cinnamon stick to get some cinnamon notes like Lindsay had. I was surprised to see that the sugar dissolved completely very quickly, so I’m guessing that because the crystals are so large, that maybe there isn’t as much density, so one cup of turbinado is less sugar than a cup of regular white refined sugar. That said, it still tasted great. I wasn’t sure how long to leave the cinnamon in, so I probably let it boil with the sugar solution for a couple minutes. I was afraid of making a REALLY cinnamon-y concoction, which wasn’t what I was going for.

Once I figured it was done, I tossed the cinnamon stick and let it cool and poured it into my squirt bottle. The syrup is really dark and nice and thick. It may be a little strong on the coffee flavor, so next time I’ll back off the amount of instant espresso by about 50% I think. I don’t pick up the caramelized flavors I loved so much in Lindsay’s, so I’m thinking maybe cook it longer to cause some caramelization and add water back in, or maybe the flavors are there and are overpowered by the instant espresso/fact that I’m using the solution in a big cup of strong coffee. I wonder about adding a hint of vanilla after the solution cools, too. I could also be using the totally wrong sugar, so this is a work in progress, but a very acceptable first try and it tastes great in coffee. I got almost zero cinnamon flavor in mine, too, so the cinnamon sticks I bought at the grocery store are pretty weak and require a lot more cooking to get into the mix. I wonder if maybe using ground cinnamon would be the way to go.

This will give me something to do this winter! lol

McCoy’s Imperial IPA

We headed out for a friend’s birthday this past weekend and went to McCoy’s in Westport. I like McCoy’s food and their beer is generally pretty good. Not very adventurous, but good, which I’d prefer to have over adventurous and not-so-great! Actually, Friday was SO beautiful (and since I was already off work), my girlfriend and another friend and I started with tapas and sangria at La Bodega, then moved over to McCoy’s around 6:00 with the intent of finding an outside table for 8. Needless to say on a perfect Friday night in Westport, THAT didn’t happen.

We had good food (I didn’t eat because I had enough at La Bodega) and I had their brown ale, which was good, as well as the Imperial IPA. It was nice and hoppy, but with a lot of malt, too. Actually IIPA’s are not my favorite style because I think they end up less hoppy than most regular IPA’s, since you have to pump so much malt in them. In any case, it’s a 9%ABV beer and the guy brought me a full pint of it for $5, which seemed like a good deal! lol About the closest thing I’ve had lately to compare it to would be a fresh 2009 Sierra Nevada Bigfoot, which is a barleywine, but when fresh has a lot of hops and is a lot like an IIPA, in my opinion. With a year of aging, all the hops will be gone from the Bigfoot.

Anyway, we did have to send a stout back. It had the mouthfeel of a glass of tap water. It was black, and the flavors were there, but it was like drinking a black glass of water. The waiter tried to say that it was because it’s on nitro, but that wasn’t it. It was probably the end of a keg. We didn’t get another, instead that friend switched to the brown ale. I’ve had the stout before and it’s usually like Guinness, so there was definitely something wrong with that one.

V-Day Kansas City Style

Just a little pre-V-Day report. Valentine’s Day is going to be pretty low key and easy this year thanks to a friend who is coming in from out of town. We’re actually going to the roller derby, which is always fun! lol I generally boycott V-Day, but that goes over like a lead balloon with the fairer sex, so I do my part and quietly dissent. 

Thanks to Sierra Nevada, I will have a gift for myself this year: Torpedo! I can’t wait to try this beer, particularly since it will be nice and fresh. Hopefully Gomer’s in midtown still has some. Then it’s off to Christopher Elbow for some chocolate. Elbow is being sold all over the place these days, but the original store is in the Crossroads District. For those who haven’t been there, it’s worth going and dropping a few bucks. They really are good, and while I don’t normally eat $2/piece chocolate, it’s super nice on occasions. They do a nice job wrapping the chocolates in a little gift bag, and it takes all the guesswork out of it. The only “problem” is deciding what to put in the box! 

They have a few new ones I haven’t tried, but based on previous experience it looks like the following are going to go to the girlfriend: Venezuelan Spice Caramel, Strawberry-Balsamic Caramel, Jamaican Rum, maybe a Citrus Caramel, Bananas Foster, Russian Tea, Fleur de Sel Caramel, Fresh Lime and for myself a Rosemary Caramel, Coffee Caramel and a turtle for the road!

Again, if you’re wondering what to do for your SO and you know she/he likes chocolate, you cannot go wrong with Elbow. Drop $16 on a box of 8 and don’t be afraid to try some of the more adventurous sounding ones. The Venezuelan Spice is a perfect mix of a little cayenne and chocolate, the way cocoa was meant to be eaten, so you have to try one of those. Yum!