LENNDEVOURS

Long Island Dines: Southampton Publick House

I turned 32 last Thursday, so I took the day off to spend it with Nena and Jackson. We rarely make it out to the Hamptons, particularly once the 'on season' starts, so I thought it would be fun to head out to the Hamptons, enjoy the beautiful day and maybe have a tasty lunch somewhere.

As we drove out, I didn't have any particular restaurant in mind, but then we drove by Southampton Publick House, a place that I've wanted to try for a long time now. I've been a fan of their beer for quite a while and I'd heard some good things about the restaurant too. And, because it was my birthday, my loving wife (who avoids beer almost at all costs) suggested we go.

We were there for lunch, and it was only our first time there, but at this point I'd still suggest that you go there for the beer, not the food.

The experience doesn't warrant a full review, but here are some quick-hit positives and negatives:

• Positive: I really love the beers. I had a Secret Ale (their flagship beer) and a Golden Lager. I also sampled their Double White after Nena tried it. If you haven't tried the beers, track them down and try them.
• Negative: I ordered a blackened duck salad, because it sounded good and was one of the few non-standard pub fare items on the menu. The duck came out cooked very (very) well done, rendering it tough and barely recognizable as duck. It was a simple salad of lettuce, duck, tomatoes, green apple and goat cheese. With the duck overcooked, and the tomatoes flavorless, there wasn't much saving this salad. They should have at least tossed all of the ingredients together so the dressing covered the apple slices, which were slightly browned.
• Positive: The place is very baby friendly. The restaurant was pretty empty because it was a Thursday and it's not Hamptons season yet, so we had a back dining area pretty much to ourselves. Then again, Jackson didn't wake up until we were leaving.
• Negative: Nena ordered mussels steamed in beer with andouille sausage. She thought there was too much sausage and that it completely overpowered the mussels.
• Positive: Did I mention the beer? Seriously though, our server was great and so was the hostess. Good service can make a meal like this one bearable. Of course, so can good beer.

We'll go back some time. Hopefully the kitchen's "A team" is cooking next time...I can only assume they weren't on this visit.

 

Beer Podcast: Crop Circle Ale and More

By Contributing Columnist Donavan Hall

I hope you all enjoyed the last installment of the Long Island beer and malt podcast, The Daily Catch. This week I'm joined by Rich Thatcher, fellow beer and whiskey enthusiast and contributor to Catch & Release (my blog) where he writes about whiskey and Long Island restaurants.

Rich and I talk with Dudley Cates, the man behind Crop Circle Ale.  We caught up with Dudley out in front of Shoreline Beverage in Huntington.  It's not just a cool name for a beer, it's brewed with malted barely from the fields in England where the crop circles appear each year. Dudley says there are still crop circles appearing in the fields and the first one of the season is due soon. 

After that, we take you on a trip to Mugs Ale House in Brooklyn and our recurring guest Mike tells us about his JW Lees 1988.

I then finish the show by telling you about my latest beer cocktail concoction: the Long Island Sunrise.

Next week... We take you on a trip to Sixpoint Craft Ales in Brooklyn and taste some of their new wheat beer.

Listen: download the mp3 (9.4 MB, 20:27 mins) [other info]
Subscribe: regular feed | with iTunes

A Long Island Beer Podcast: The Daily Catch

By Contributing Columnist Donavan Hall

A little more than two years ago, I started exploring the world of podcasts.  I forget the details, but I know Lenn planted the seed for the idea of doing a beer podcast. He sent me a link to a wine podcast and I started listening. Being a beer enthusiast I started searching for beer related podcasts. I found a few and started listening.

It wasn't long before I plugged a microphone into my laptop and started doing my own podcast.

The Daily Catch (that's the name of my podcast) went through a number of name changes and format changes before I arrived at the present form. Each week I taste and talk about one Long Island beer. There's an overview of upcoming beer-related events on Long Island. I also do several recurring features:

• The Brewer's Kitchen focuses on beer and food pairing. 
• The Cottage Brewer covers the culture of brewing beer at home. 
• Mixing It Up gives you some suggestions for mixing up beer cocktails.

On today's show, the featured beer this week is Brooklyn Brewery's Local 1. I tell you about the upcoming beer dinner at Southampton Publick House (May 10). There's another installment of the Brewer's Kitchen: paring Tapas and ice cream with an Imperial Porter. I'll be taking you to the Brooklyn Brewery tasting room to experience that scene. And, we'll round out the show with some beer mixology: how to make a Strawberry/Banana beer cocktail with Blue Point Toasted Lager. 

Use the links below to listen or subscribe to the RSS feed.

Listen: download the mp3 (16.2 MB, 35:16 mins) [other info]
Subscribe: regular feed | with iTunes

Enjoy!

Long Island Pumpkin Ales -- Too Much About the Spice?

By Contributing Columnist Donavan Hall

Over the last week or so, the weather on Long Island turned cool.  A few of the trees in my yard took this as a signal to start dropping their leaves -- my yard is littered with auburn, brown, garnet and orange.  The signs of Fall are everywhere. 

Last weekend, I took my family to the Garlic Festival (see Denise's article on Growers and Grocers), the second in what might prove to be an annual event.  In addition to last weekend being a celebration of garlic (I was seriously tempted to brew a garlic beer -- maybe next year), that same weekend was the beginning of pumpkin season. 

On Long Island "pumpkin season" means climbing into your car and creating an artificial traffic jam on Route 48 (the artery that feeds Long Island Farm and Wine Country).  Every farmstand along Route 48 has an expansive pumpkin patch and the road is dotted with sign urging people to "pick your own."  It's also the time of year when Long Island's brewpubs unleash their pumpkin ales on a thirsty public.

Both the Brickhouse and John Harvard's have their pumpkin ales on tap right now.  I'll admit that I'm not a fan of pumpkin ale in general.  I've only tasted one pumpkin ale I really liked and that was a craftbrew (homebrew) made by my friend Wayne Wambles when we were both living in Tallahassee.  My big complaint about the Brickhouse pumpkin is that it's emphasis is on the pumpkin spice, not the pumpkin flavor.  Also, a pumpkin ale should have a thick mouthfeel.  It should not be a pumpkin spice flavored pale ale.

Brewers, when you make a pumpkin ale, think about making something as thick as a stout, but something that's a bright orange instead.  A good pumpkin ale would be ideal served in the cask.  It should taste of pumpkins, not flowers.

I don't think any Long Island brewer is likely to listen to me since few people are inclined to mess with success -- and pumpkin ale is a success.  At John Harvard's I talked with headbrewer David Deturris about his pumpkin ale.  "It outsells by volume all other beers we brew here.  Even the beers we brew all year.  I'll brew more pumpkin ale from September to December than I brew of the John Harvard's Pale ale in twelve months," he told me.  I asked him if he thought that pumpkin ale's success was due to the "gimmick factor."  Pumpkin ale (at John Harvard's and the Brickhouse) are served with a cinnamon sugar rim (think about the salt rim on a margarita and you know what I'm talking about).  So that first taste of pumpkin ale delivers a mouthful of cinnamon and sugar which masks the flavor of the beer and moderates the spicy/floral nature of most pumpkin ales.  Also, the aroma is dominated by that sugary cinnamon layer on the rim.  My guess is that you could put cinnamon sugar on the rim of a Pabst Blue Ribbon and it would taste like pumpkin ale.

David agreed.  People like the cinnamon sugar gimmick.

David also gave me a taste of the "raw" pumpkin ale before it is spiced.  It's a standard amber ale with nothing assertive in the brew at all.  Everything happens in the serving tank.  That's where the spices are added.  It's a mix of the standard spices your mother tosses into her pumpkin pie: brown sugar, allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg, etc.  The only thing missing from these beers is actual pumpkin.  A few breweries advertise that they add pumpkin to the mash, but it's typically a homeopathic dose of pumpkin filling just so they can say there is real pumpkin in the brew.

Another reason these beers are so successful is that they are only around for (at most) three months.  It's a novelty -- a marker of the season.  When you notice the air getting a little nippy and the leaves starting to fall and pumpkin patches opening, it's hard to resist ordering a pumpkin ale. Enjoy!

The Planning of a Pyro Party

I absolutely love cooking with fire and this weekend, Nena and I are hosting what will probably be our biggest party of the summer. It's only 13 people, but with all that we have going on these days, it seems pretty big anyway.

Now, I don't plan dinner parties that are anywhere near as ellaborate as the Obsessed One, but I do try to introduce our sometimes culinarily-challenged friends to some new things every time out (while keeping some old standards around as well). So, I do a fair amount of menu planning ahead of time -- and one certainly has to when one of the centerpieces of the meal will require 12-14 hours to cook.

So as I started to let the menu bang around in my head, beginning with appetizers, I knew that I had to make my famous-in-my-own-circle grilled wings. Oddly enough, I don't think I've made them with the same sauce twice (and I've made them at least 20 times in the past couple years).

I'm also going to experiment a little with some grilled tacos filled with mashed potatoes and Manchego cheese. I seem to vaguely remember reading about something like this somewhere, but I can't find the recipe anywhere at home. So, I'll be branching out on my own -- which is normal. I often draw inspiration from cookbooks, but rarely follow recipes.

I'll be rounding out the appetizers with grilled pizza of some sort -- though I don't know what kind just yet. May be a last-minute, pantry-cleaning pizza.

For entrees, I've only made pulled pork once in my smoker, but I I want to work towards perfecting it. So that is a must for this gathering. The first time around, I used rub/technique advice from WhiteTrashBBQ, but this time I think I'm going to change a few things up. Okay, I'm going to change everything up just to see how it turns out.

Unfortunately we have a few attendees who don't eat pork (I know...it's crazy). For them, I'll be making some sort of burgers.

The sides will be pretty traditional for BBQ. Nena is making macaroni and cheese, I'm going to grill some corn on the cob. But, Nena is also making this tasty broc-walnut salad we had at her parents' house once.

Dessert -- that's in Nena's more-than-capable hands.

For a change, I might actually take pictures of the preparation and the party itself. No promises though. Once the local beers and wines start flowing...I'm easily distracted.

Blue Point Brewing: Local Beer for Every Season

By Contributing Columnist Donavan Hall

When I moved to Long Island in 2002 I didn't know anything about the local beer culture. I didn't even know where I could find a decent beer store.  Fortunately, the corner grocery in my new neighborhood had six packs of something called Toasted Lager from Blue Point Brewing Company. So after unloading my moving truck I was able to quench my thirst with that caramel colored, roasty brew. That was a little more than three years ago.

There was a time when in most restaurants on Long Island, if you said you wanted a Blue Point, you'd would get a pint of Toasted Lager. This flagship brew has been the foundation on which a solid house of beers has been built.  However, as Blue Point has grown and expanded, they are starting to be known for more than just their Toasted Lager. In fact, their latest release Blueberry Ale is extremely popular with Long Islanders. Taps all over Long Island are now flowing with Blue Point Blueberry Ale.

Blue Point Brewing Company got started in 1998 as a partnership between Peter Cotter and Mark Burford. Prior to launching their microbrewery, both were homebrewers and lovers of craft brewed beer. Burford opened a homebrew shop in Franklin Square in the early 1990s. Later, he was brewmaster at Long Island Brewing Company in Jericho, but left that post long before that brewpub was closed by the IRS in 1999.