The Brew Times Homebrewing Blog
Potato Gratin Recipe
Whether you are setting out across the tundra, or roasting your bones next to the fire, this Gratin paired with a crisp pale ale will make you feel a warmth in your belly. With decadent cream and cheese cut with refreshing hops, you'll be pounding your fork and knife (and glass) for more! This savory gratin dish will pair nicely with any pale ale, but will go especially well with our Klondike Gold, which uses our Northwest Pale Ale as the base. Fully flavored, yet smooth, with enough alcohol to give it a little kick, this homebrew recipe has just enough bite to keep the cold Autumn nights at bay. Ingredients 2 pounds Yukon Gold Potatoes 2 cups Heavy Cream 1 cup finely grated Sharp Vermont Cheddar ½ cup Leeks; chopped 1 pinch Fresh Ground Nutmeg 1 clove Garlic; minced Kosher Salt and Fresh Cracked Black Pepper Butter Directions Preheat oven to 350°. Grease 3 quart casserole dish with butter. In a separate saucepan heat Cream, Garlic and Nutmeg for 2 minutes on Medium heat. Lower heat to lowest setting. Clean Leeks, chop, and rinse again. Add Leeks to Cream mixture. Also add Salt and Pepper to taste. Peel Potatoes. Do not rinse or soak them. Cut Potatoes into uniform 1/8 inch slices. Add Potato Slices to greased casserole dish in layers with a measure of Leek Cream mixture atop each layer. Repeat until ½ inch from the top of dish. Add a fine layer of Cheddar to the top. Put casserole dish on a baking sheet and bake on lowest rack uncovered for 40 to 45 minutes. Potatoes should yield to a knife, top should be golden brown. Remove from oven and rest for 15 minutes to allow cream to set. Cut into squares and serve. **Serve with Roast Chicken and Steamed Green Beans
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Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Raisin-Ginger Pan Sauce Recipe
This sumptuous dish combines the secret sweetener that is the golden raisin with the subtle umami qualities of soy sauce and ginger. Paired with a spiced Oktoberfest will allow the spices and ginger to dance over your taste buds. The use of low sodium ingredients and kosher salt allows us to exert control over the type of flavor salt adds just like our various beer recipes give you control over your beer drinking experience. If you are looking for the perfect homebrewed beer to pair with the delicious recipe, look no further than our Amber and Cider graff: Apple Brown Beery. This recipe is remniscint of a Apple Brown Betty, one of America's favorite desserts. Oktoberfest mixed with Apple Cider, plus a little brown sugar and cinnamon, make this recipe the perfect beer for a crisp Autumn evening. Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Raisin-Ginger Pan Sauce Recipe adapted from Food and Wine. For the original recipe, please click on the Food& Wine logo at the bottom of this recipe. Ingredients One 1 ¼ pound Pork Tenderloin (Berkshire if available) 2 Tsp. Vegetable Oil Kosher Salt and Fresh Cracked Black Pepper ½ cup Apple Juice ½ cup Low-Sodium Chicken Broth 1 T Low-Sodium Soy Sauce 3 T Golden Raisins ½ tsp Ground Ginger Directions Preheat oven to 375°. Season pork with salt, pepper, and oil. Heat oil in a large, nonstick ovenproof pan until just below smoking point. Sear pork over medium-high heat, turning every 2 ½ minutes, until browned on all sides. Transfer pan to the oven and roast uncovered for about 10 minutes, turn, then roast for 7 additional minutes. Internal temperature taken from thickest part of the meat should read 145°. Remove loin and let rest on carving board for 3 minutes. Combine juice, broth, soy sauce, raisins, ginger, and a pinch of kosher salt in a bowl and gently mix. Add mixture to the still hot pan and bring to a gentle boil. Reduce the liquid by half over medium-high heat (about 3 minutes). Remove from heat. Slice pork and arrange on serving dish. Stir carving juices into pan sauce. Ladle the sauce over pork and serve. One Serving 200 cal, 7.4 gm fat, 2.0 gm sat fat, 2 gm carb, 0.4gm fiber
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Classic Wisconsin Beer Brats Recipe
Around two hundred years ago, a festival tradition was created from the wedding of Crown Prince Ludwig to Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen. In the fields in front of Munich's city gates, horses were raced, Würstl (sausages) were consumed, and barrels of Oktoberfest were drained into large steins and held high. Nowadays we brave cold conditions and fill parking lots in front of stadiums, enjoying Bratwürst and beer. Some things never change. Ingredients For 10 beer brats, you'll need: 10 fresh bratwurst 10 brat buns Kettle grill Charcoal briquettes (about 30) or lump charcoal Holding Sauce ("batter"), see recipe below Condiments (ketchup, brown mustard, chopped onion, sauerkraut) Directions Mound lump charcoal or charcoal briquettes in a pyramid. Start the charcoal. Use an electric starter or crumpled paper, avoiding the use of hydrocarbons. When the coals are partially white, spread in a single layer. Allow the charcoal to burn until coals are covered with white-ash glowing embers (about 20-30 minutes) The heat is just right when you can hold your hand palm-down, 2 inches above the grate, for 4-5 seconds. If you can still see a red glow, it's too early to start cooking. While you're waiting for the charcoal, prepare the "batter" (see recipe below). When coals are ready, place bratwurst on grill, 7-9 inches above the coals, and turn often until done, approximately 20-25 minutes. The brats are done when you squeeze them gently and they feel firm. True bratmeisters use their fingers instead of tongs to turn their brats, so they can feel when the brats are firm and therefore cooked. Turn brats often; otherwise they will be burnt on the outside and raw on the inside. Flare-ups can quickly char your bratwurst, but can be avoided with proper technique. Treat the brats with care. Don't puncture them or squeeze them too hard. If you see a flare-up developing, quickly move brats away from the flames if you can, immediately close grill cover and close vents for a minute or so. Some folks control flare-ups with a spray bottle of water. I find that a spray bottle is unnecessary, if you are prepared to move quickly and use proper technique.. When brats are done, hold them in the "batter" until ready to eat. Serve on a brat bun, dressed with your favorite condiments and accompanied with classic Wisconsin side dishes. Batter For 10 brats: 3 bottles or cans beer 1 large onion, chopped 1 stick (or more!) butter Mix ingredients and bring to a simmer. Hold grilled bratwurst in batter until ready to eat. Do not let sauce boil. *Note: Some folks add a step at the beginning of this recipe. The brats are simmered in beer and chopped onion for 20 minutes before grilling. The simmering liquid is then discarded. Use fresh beer and onions for the batter. Since the bratwursts are pre-cooked in the simmering stage, the purpose of the grilling stage is merely to brown the brats and add smoke flavor. Grilling time can be reduced accordingly.
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Madison's Rocket Republic collaborating with Mr. Beer, world's largest producer of homebrew systems
AL.com/ Alabama Entertainment / Huntsville, AL By Matt Wake mwake@al.com The circle is about to become complete. Ten years before Madison-based Rocket Republic Brewing Company opened for business, owner and head brewer Eric Crigger fashioned his first beer, an India Pale Ale, using a Mr. Beer homebrewing kit, which Crigger's wife Tatum had given him as a Father's Day present. Now, Mr. Beer will make Rocket Republic's AstroNut Brown Ale the debut entry in their Craft Brewery Recipe series, with a mid-October launch targeted. "It's really neat for our brewery to be a part of something like this on the same system that essentially created the brewery," Eric says. Homebrewing kit producer Mr. Beer will make Rocket Republic's AstroNut Brown Ale the debut entry in their Craft Brewery Recipe series, with a mid-October launch targeted. (Courtesy image) "The ease of the kits is that you can just brew it in the kitchen. It's literally in a pot on the stove. The beer is not difficult to make and it was good enough for me to say, 'Hey let's keep going with this.' It was a sort of a proof of concept." Eric has been collaborating with Mr. Beer brewmaster Diane Bartlett on the Mr. Beer version of AstroNut Brown Ale. Bartlett is working off of Rocket Republic's original recipe using Mr. Beer's own malts and ingredients to emulate the recipe. When ready, the Mr. Beer version of AstroNut will be made released via the company's newsletter for a price of $25 - $30, depending on the finalized ingredient list. "This means that you will need to have your own brewing set up at home, and the recipe will include all the ingredients you need to brew the AstroNut Brown Ale," Mr. Beer marketing assistant Sarah Scott says. "With that being said, the actual recipe itself is proprietary to Rocket Republic, and we are using malts and additional ingredients from Mr. Beer to get as close as we can to their original recipe." Mr. Beer is the world's largest supplier of brew-at-home kits. The Tucson, Ariz.-based company's versions utilize a two-gallon fermenter and bottle-conditioning, and start at around $50. The company had noticed a few months ago that in the very first interview Crigger did in regards to Rocket Republic, the story mentioned he'd started off with a Mr. Beer kit. Shortly before they reached out to him by email, Crigger noticed Mr. Beer had begun following Rocket Republic's account on the social media platform Twitter. "We wanted to partner with a craft brewery that started with our own product, so Rocket Republic was the perfect fit," Scott says. "Working with Eric has been a breeze since he knows the benefits of using a Mr. Beer kit and recipe, as well as what is needed to make a Mr. Beer homebrew turn out well." You can sign up for the Mr. Beer newsletter at mrbeer.com. Crigger says he's also been in discussions to possibly release a new Rocket Republic beer, a porter, in December via Mr. Beer before its commercial equivalent is available. So whatever happened to Crigger's Mr. Beer kit? "I wound up selling to a friend so he could get into (making beer), too," he says. rocketrepublicbrewing.com News article originally posted at: http://www.al.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2014/09/madisons_rocket_republic_to_co.html#incart_related_stories
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Mr.Beer has a recipe for success
Inside Tucson Business / News / Tucson, AZ - Chris Flora, Inside Tucson Business Positive change is brewing at Mr.Beer's. After spending more than a decade leasing its Kolb Road location, Mr.Beer Home Brewing on Aug. 21 held an open house to show off its newest products and celebrate the March move-in of its self-owned location at 3366 N. Dodge Blvd. Founded in 1993 and brought to Tucson in 1999 by Mike Bernstein, Mr.Beer underwent further changes in 2012 when it was purchased by Australian brewery, Coopers. Thanks to its new, larger facility, and added staff, Mr.Beer is operating as efficiently as possible and offering additional home brewing options that can be used by experienced or amateur brewers. "It's a simple way to create your own recipe and strength of the recipe," said Sales Manager Shawn Halstead. "Using our kits is also a lot faster than brewing from scratch, because doing that you have a full process of converting starches in the barley, boiling the hops into it, and then cooling it and fermenting it, which in itself takes a week and a half to two weeks, as does carbonating. We've done most of the work for you, so really all you have to do is add it to water." Mr.Beer brewing kits include everything one would need to get started brewing their own beer. What's in a Mr.Beer brewing kit? 8-liter keg fermenter and lid Mr.Beer keg logo label 740-militer PET bottles, caps and labels Spigot, washer and nut Can of hopped malt extract 1 packet of yeast Packet of no-rinse cleanser Bag of carbonation drops "Brewing with Mr.Beer" DVD Coming in 2014 are two new brewing kits – an 8-liter Extra kit, and a 24-liter kit. In addition to beer brewing kits, Mr.Beer also offers hard cider kits and root beer kits, as well as refills for all products. Kit accessories can also be purchased, to include brewing utensils, cleansers, sanitizers, replacement parts, bottling systems and growlers. Vice President of Operations Rick Zich says brewing kits are popular year round, but particularly so around the holiday season. "We get a lot of wives and girlfriends buying around Christmas time. Women between 25 and 45 (years old) is our target market," said Zich. "After Christmas, then it's the 25-40 year-old male that comes back to us and keeps on buying." For more information on Mr.Beer, visit www.mrbeer.com or call 800-852-4263. News article originally posted at: http://www.insidetucsonbusiness.com/news/mr-beer-has-a-recipe-for-success/article_ee92a0f6-34cc-11e4-bf7e-0019bb2963f4.html
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Tucson's Mr. Beer toasts expansion under Australian owners
Tucson.com / Business-Local / Tucson, AZ - David Wichner, Arizona Daily Star A Tucson home-brewing kit maker has been expanding like a head of foam since its acquisition by Australian brewing giant Coopers Brewery in 2012. Coopers DIY LLC, which does business as Mr. Beer, toasted its expanded local headquarters during an invite-only open house Thursday evening at the facility, at 3366 N. Dodge Blvd. The new location gives the company room to grow and add some shipping to a local operation that up to now has consisted of administrative offices, said Rick Zich, president of Mr. Beer. The new headquarters spans about 12,500 square feet, including about 7,500 square feet of office space, compared to just 2,500 square feet at the company's old quarters on North Kolb Road near East Sunrise Drive, Zich said. That bigger space was needed, as the company grew its local staff to 20 workers from 14 before the 2012 acquisition by Coopers, he said. Zich said the acquisition was a boon both to Mr. Beer, which has been selling small beer-making kits to the North American market since its inception in the mid-1990s, and to Coopers, a major global supplier of malt extracts for brewing and food flavoring and the biggest Australian-owned brewery. Mr. Beer was founded in 1993 in Dallas and was moved to Tucson in 1999 when local businessman Michael Bernstein, part owner in Internet and networking providers Simply Bits and Nextrio, bought the company with a partner. "It was just a real beneficial fit for both companies — they got into the North American marketplace, and we got into a worldwide marketplace we were just dabbling in," said Zich, who was chief financial officer of Mr. Beer owner Catalina Products before the sale to Coopers. Since the merger, Mr. Beer has switched to Cooper malt extracts, which are made with Austrialian barley, and expanded its offerings. Sold online at www.mrbeer.com and in stores including Target, Kmart, Total Wine & More, Bevmo and some Walmarts, Mr. Beer kits generally are aimed at novice homebrewers and make 2-gallon batches with kits including small food-grade plastic kegs or bottles. Coopers sells canned extract syrups and powdered extracts typically used to make 5-gallon or larger batches, through homebrew outlets and online (at us.diybeer.com). Mr. Beer's main warehouse is in Wisconsin, partly because of the cooler weather and proximity to Mr. Beer's major markets in the East, Zich said, adding that about 250,000 Mr. Beer kits were shipped last year. But Zich said the company recently finished a warehouse area at the Tucson facility that will allow the company to serve Western retail markets more efficiently with Mr. Beer, Mr. Root Beer and DIY Beer products. While Thursday's event was private, Mr. Beer also is looking at hosting brew-club events and otherwise connecting with the local home-brewing community, Zich said. "We definitely want to be more out in the community here, and maybe offer some tastings as well, but there are some laws you need to abide by," he said. New article originally posted at: http://tucson.com/business/local/tucson-s-mr-beer-toasts-expansion-under-australian-owners/article_383dd3b6-84ad-5dde-831c-06c6946a8b57.html
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Rick Zich, Former VP of Operations, Promoted to President of Mr. Beer
TUCSON, Ariz., July 1, 2014 — Mr. Beer, Arizona based home-brewing manufacturer, is pleased to announce the promotion of former VP of Operations, Rick Zich, to President effective July 1, 2014. Mr. Zich has been with the company since 2004. "Mr. Beer has been the leading provider in complete home brewing kits for the past two decades, and I am excited to step into this leadership role as the company continues to grow and adapt to the needs of today's home brewer," said Mr. Zich. "After partnering with Coopers Brewery in 2012, we had a drastic improvement to the quality of our malts and extracts. Over the next year, Mr. Beer will continue to progress with the addition of several staff members, as well as the release of two new brewing kits." These new kits, the 8Lx and the 24L, will be new additions to the Coopers DIY LLC dba. Mr. Beer home brewing line. Adapted from Coopers Brewery's home brewing kits, which have been wildly successful in Australia, these new kits will offer consumers larger kegs, more advanced brewing equipment, and an increased variety of world-class refills and recipes to choose from. The 8Lx will be released in late 3rd Quarter, while the 24L kit will hit shelves early 4th Quarter, just in time for the holidays. Mr. Beer has also appointed several new staff positions to accommodate their brewing kit's growing demand. Since March, the company has added Matthew McCollom as Graphic Designer, Tammie Cornitius as Controller to absorb Rick's previous CFO responsibilities, and Sarah Scott as Marketing Assistant. # # # Coopers DIY LLC Coopers DIY LLC dba. Mr. Beer joined forces with Coopers Brewery in 2012, resulting in the first DIY brewing kits to be backed by a world-renowned brewery. The Mr. Beer home brewing kit was created in 1993, and continues to be the only complete home brewing system to include all the necessary equipment and ingredients needed for successful home brewing. Their malts are produced by three World Master Brewers, are made from 100% natural ingredients, contain no additives or preservatives, are vegan and GMO free. MEDIA CONTACT Sarah Scott Marketing Assistant Coopers DIY LLC dba Mr. Beer (530) 524-2329 sarahs@mrbeer.com
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SudSisters: Mr. Beer provides good introduction to home brewing
The Gazette / SudSisters / Colorado Springs, CO - By Monica Mendoza Summer seems like a great time to serve homemade beer. Time to get out that Mr. Beer home-brewing kit and get started. A lot of home brewers, who now boast their own more sophisticated brewing equipment, started with a Mr. Beer kit, said Rich Mock, one of three founders of the Brew Brothers of Pikes Peak brewing club. Using the kit is a good, inexpensive way to try home brewing to see if you've got the patience and the palate curiosity, he said. "I brewed with a kit in the '80s and it didn't come out that well," he said. "In 2005, a friend bought me some supplies. I had half the kit and he bought me the rest and the book 'The Complete Joy of Homebrewing.'" Home brewing is fun and social, Mock said. It's one reason why his club has grown from three guys to more than 150 members. "There is big interest in craft beer," Mock said. "People want to drink a quality beer. People are more conscious of flavors. With home brewing, you can be much more creative." It's why he started home brewing. When brewing a batch, Mock sets aside four hours. That includes time to sanitize all the equipment. Any kind of microorganism can contaminate the beer and make it sour, he said. According to the American Homebrewers Association, there are 23 styles of beer and 100 sub-styles. These include pale ale, pilsner, sour and spice. A Mr. Beer kit comes with all the ingredients to make two batches of beer - "Grand Bohemian Czech Pilsner" and "Aztec Mexican Cervesa." It assumes you will have a thermometer and boil pot. Mark McGough got a Mr. Beer kit for Christmas. His buddies at work were always talking about making their own beer, but McGough wasn't sure he wanted to go all in with supplies and buying ingredients. And even though he is a chemical engineer, he rather liked the idea that the kit had everything premeasured. "It turned out great," he said. The toughest thing about brewing the beer was waiting for it to ferment, he said. For his first batch, he waited two weeks. Fermenting can be tricky, Mock said. The beer kit comes with a mini beer barrel. But most home brewers use a large plastic bucket. After the beer mixture cools and the yeast is added, it goes into the barrel or bucket and is sealed. But the bucket needs an air lock to allow the CO2 to escape and keep the beer from exploding. And it does explode, Mock said. "We always say, you are not a home brewer until you mop the ceiling," Mock said. For those venturing on their own, without the beer kit, Mock's advice is to hang out with a brew club to watch and learn. Then, he said, keep a beer diary of beer-making steps. "So you can repeat it if it's good and avoid if it's bad," he said. "Everyone has thrown out a batch of beer." Over time, home brewers will start messing around with the recipes, adding spice and special ingredients. "It's all about finding balance," Mock said. "That balance is a sign of a good home brewer." So expect to get messy, Mock said. Expect to brew a sour batch. "But don't sweat it," he said. "Relax. Don't think too much about it. Don't take it too seriously. It's like making soup. Keep track of ingredients. Brew with a buddy." And the last step in beer making, according to the Mr. Beer kit instructions? "Call your friends." News article originally posted at: http://m.gazette.com/article/1520960
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