Fermentation Friday: First Look at Bluejacket!

"Fermentation Friday":  An semi-regular look at the holy fermented trinity:  beer, wine and cheese.

As the holder of a Nats season ticket package of one type or another since Day One, I've spent plenty of time lamenting the fact that there's not much to do around the ballpark except go to the game. Sure you can hike to Barracks Row, but that's a haul. This year, that finally changed with the opening of a Gordon Biersch near the stadium. And while that's fine (and certainly better than nothing), what I've been really watching with great anticipation for the better part of two Nats seasons is Bluejacket Brewery.

The Accidental Wine Collection

Yep -- 178 bottles. How'd that happen?

I don't think either one of us ever set out to be wine collectors. Sure, we like wine, and we've purchased and consumed our share. But there was never one epiphany where one of us woke up, turned to the other and said, "Honey, I think we should start a wine collection."

Wine collections are for rich people. They seem decadent, and maybe you should be spending your money on something else. Once upon a time we bought plenty of wine, but most of it was from Trader Joe's or Planet Wine's $15 and under rack. And we didn't collect it. We drank it. In many cases, it went straight from the shop to our bellies without spending much time in a rack. I used to use our lone 16 bottle wine rack to store other things, like large format beer bottles and cider, and there was usually plenty of room.

But somewhere around the mid- to late-2000's something started to change.

Fermentation Friday: Port City Brewery

"Fermentation Friday": A semi-regular look at a member of the holy fermented trinity:  beer, wine and cheese.


I remember visiting my brother and sister in law in San Francisco a few years ago. Cam (my bro in law) and I got to yammering (as we usually do when we're together) and drinking (ditto) when the subject turned to beer. San Francisco, and California in general, has a famously thriving craft beer scene. Lots of hops, lots of options, and little reason to look very far for good beer. He asked me what our craft beer scene was like out in the DC area. "We don't really have one," I said. Sure, there were some Pennsylvania beers, Dogfish Head (of course) and a few other odds and ends. But nothing compared with what they have out there.

That was a few years ago. I'm happy to report things have definitely changed. Right in my own backyard.

Anniversary Weekend: Local Tourists

November 2 marks our 12th wedding anniversary. Some years we've been able to celebrate by taking a little trip to someplace nearby, going out to a nice dinner in DC, or on a couple of wonderful occasions, taking a two week trip to France. This year, we're going to reach back to one from our younger, less economically able days:  Local Tourism.

Gastonomical Cooking: Brisket Breakthrough!

I'm not going to claim that I'm a Certified Barbecue Expert, but I've smoked my share of meat over the years -- mostly of the porcine variety. I've smoked pork butt several different ways, including traditional pulled pork and an Italian porchetta, all to rave reviews. I've also had good luck with ribs. But the one time I did brisket was several years ago, and it was, well, disappointing. It was okay (it was barbecued brisket!), but it was on the dry side, and compared with the excellence I'd been able to produce from Our Friend the Pig, it led me to relegate brisket to something I get in restaurants rather than try myself.

October 6-12 is Regional Wine Week -- Support Your Local Grape!

Dave McIntyre, in his WineLine blog, posted about October 6-12 being Regional Wine Week. It's the sixth annual celebration of wine made throughout the country and not just on the West Coast, according to McIntyre, who actually started the recognition as part of the drinklocalwine.com blog and along with Jeff Siegel, The Wine Crumudgeon. The focus was to encourage wine writers, bloggers and tweeters to focus on their local wine, wherever that happened to be.

Time for Lunch

Well, so far it's been Matt driving this blog. And I appreciate the time and energy he's put it into it. But pretty much since he established the blog, he's been on me to post something.

"What on earth would I blog about?"
"I dunno. You could blog about what you ate at lunch."
"Yogurt and a diet shake?"

OK I made that part up.

I really SHOULD be eating yogurt and drinking diet shakes for lunch. But instead, I get tempted...