It's Done!  I made a mess, and it tastes great.  Everything is sticky, it's hot outside.  I'm ready for some Limoncello.

Here are the pics, enjoy!

 

Erio G.Cavalieri,Chef Erio G.Cavalieri,Chef Erio,Chef Cavalieri,hungrychef,food and drink,food photography,Chile,Limoncello,meyer lemon and vanilla bean limoncello

So I'm turning 30 this week and my fiancée Laurie took me to the Brewers Apprentice in Freehold NJ. She signed me up for a brewing session as my 30th birthday present.

How awesome!  I decided to make a traditional Hefeweizen beer. This is an unfiltered, bottle conditioned wheat beer. Perfect for the hot summer months!  Hints of citrus, cloves, banana and summer quenching thoughts (What?).

Click Here to see pictures of the event (more like a drinking fiesta)

When you walk into the Brewers Apprentice, it's like stepping into a old beer garden in Europe. If you've ever been lucky to experience a visit to a beer garden (okay so I have only gone to four, and both were in New York haha!)  you know that you are about to step into a world of laughter, fun and a damn good buzz.  Two of the four that I have visited had children running around while the parents enjoyed a tasty drink and mingled.  Most Beer Gardens serve food.  Some can be as simple as just having a small grill off to the side serving grilled meats and sausages. Other beer gardens will have full blown kitchens in the back pumping out some seriously fatty, fried, salty, and carbohydrate laden -mmmmmmmmm- food. 

But I digress.

The day that Laurie and I went to the Brewers Apprentice there was a group that was having a party there.  They were setting up on these large wooden tables and benches -sort of the norm for a beer garden feel.  On one side of the brewery there is a line of mini steam-kettles. Walking around the location you will find a a bottling section, a retail section and the storage facility for all these beautiful beers.  If you ask nicely they will take you to the two massive temperature controlled walk-ins where you will find.....  rows upon rows of perfectly cataloged, artfully brewed beer. It was heaven.

So as I mentioned at the top of this article I decided to brew a Hefeweizen beer. 

1. You start off by cracking the grain and then you put your grain into the steam kettle.  Basically what is going on here is you are steeping the grain and water. That's right folks, you're brewing tea. So this happens for about a half an hour.
2. Remove the grains from the steam kettle and you increase the heat on your kettle. Add your sugars and or extracts
3. Bring up to a boil and then kill the heat.  You add your first batch of hops (which are your bittering agents) and increase heat
   
4. Wait another 30 minutes.  While this is going on you have to be make sure that the wort doesn't overflow and this is done by playing with the temperature
5. Turn off the heat and you add your second batch of hops (finishing hops) this adds more depth to the future beer.  Bring back to a boil for another ten minutes and that is basically it.
6. You shut off your steam kettle and then the staff takes over.

At this point of you are tired you can have beer to boost your energy level

What is great about their set up is that once it's done there is no clean up. They take care of everything!

The next thing is that the staff will super-cool your wort and pour it into a fermenter and will add the yeast. It gets labeled and wheeled away. For the next two weeks, the yeast will work it's magic and convert the sugars into CO₂ and alcohol.

It's two weeks later and we are back. The wort has been converted to Beer and it is time to bottle it. Right before we start to bottle it, sugar is added to the beer so that when we fill the bottles  the remaining yeast will eat the sugars and convert that to CO₂.  Since the gas has nowhere to go, it will dissolve in the beer and wait (like a tiger on the hunt) for an unsuspecting  person to release it from it's confines and attack.....Huh??  Just drink the damn thing

Prost!
 

I LOVE THE JAMES BEARD AWARDS!

I had the great pleasure of going to the annual James Beard Awards yesterday. This Black Tie soirée was sold out,  and I was one of the lucky few to go (1,000 guest hahaha!)
It was a gorgeous May evening. In addition to the perfect weather, it was a perfect setting.  Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center played the adoptive parent to all the presenting chefs that night. The Awards Ceremony began promptly at 6:30 pm. The famous Gala Reception immediately followed.

 The awards ceremony ran quite long and I'm going to say that 2 hours into the ceremony I snuck out of the theatre and walked around the reception room.  What a sight.  Champagne flutes and wine glasses lined the tables like soldiers.  Over 30 chefs and restaurant groups were present to share their menu items and products. Click here to see pictures from that evening

 It's funny to see all the chefs anxiously awaiting for the event to start.  I can totally relate.  I had the same experience a few years ago when I was invited to be a presenting chef for the 14th Annual James Beard Awards.  I could hear all the people on the other side of the room dying to get it.  After so many weeks of planning, coordinating, and conference calls,  all you want to do is start serving but you can't, you have to wait for the awards ceremony to finish.  I can't stand having food dangle over me like that.