Generik's Tap: Food and drink

The better late then never 4th of July recap

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 20:43:54 GMT

I was shown a pretty fun website to create your own 'motivations' style posters using your own pictures and figured I would share one I made of the boy in front of the Monk's Cafe in Philly.

Other then that it has been a quiet week. I meant to put a quick run down of how the 4th weekend turned out, but I got busy at all the wrong times and it is almost a week late. Anyway, the highlights of the weekend start on Friday with the barbeque that was coming off the smoker. Early in the day we had some smoked drumsticks marinated in Creole Butter and Cajun spices along with some smoked sausages. Later on the 6 1/2 lb beef brisket came off the smoker and was absolutely the best brisket I have ever smoked. Nice and tender with close to 1/4" of pink ring. I am ready to make another right now just thinking about it. We had 6 adults and my son sharing this huge piece of meat, a bunch more sausage and some chicken with all the sides, and when it was all said and done, 7 slices of brisket were left. I really expected to have a couple meals worth.

Saturday went to a nice cookout in Brookston and drank PBR.. from a can.. which brings me to a huge complaint. I went to 4 liquor stores looking for long necks of PBR and couldn't find it at all. Liquor stores that used to carry it. I know Monarch is the new distributor of Pabst products since they bought out Rhoades, and initially I was fairly happy with the sounds of that. Now I am thinking that Pabst is just an afterthought to Monarch compared to Miller and Coors products, while it was the big brand for Rhoades. I know most of my readers could care less about the availability of Pabst products in bottle around Naptown, but I was sorely frustrated with the situation.

Lastly, getting set to go grab some tickets for the Indiana Microbrewers Festival. This will be the first time I have been able to go. Not sure why I managed to miss it year after year, but I can say I am really looking forward to going this year. Hopefully see some of you other Indy beer bloggers out there.

4th of July!

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 20:47:12 GMT

Well the holiday weekend is almost here and the plans are set. We are going to have a cookout featuring a selection of meats on the smoker grill and a massive selection of beer tomorrow. Really hoping this rain clears out quickly so I can get the pit fired up easily tomorrow with minimal hassle, then kick back and enjoy some tasty beverages. I have specifically put a 12-pack of 16oz Ballantine Ale in the fridge, as well as some Victory Prima Pils along with all the other stuff that was already in there. (I really need to take a picture of my main beer fridge to share) Not to be forgotten is the two kegs on tap, one of my Bavarian Hefeweizen and the other my Floor Model Pilsner. My dad is coming to visit starting this evening and I have a couple of nice bottles in mind. He has not tried the Three Floyd's Blackheart, so we might crack one of those, and I have a Stone Arrogant Bastard in the wine fridge at a comfortable 55 degrees.

Saturday we are heading to visit the Womanizer's family and have another cookout. I may have to pack a cooler as I would expect the beer selection to be of the macro lager variety. I don't necessarily mind that, but the macros I drink tend to come from the Pabst Brewing Co...

Hope everyone has a great 4th of July weekend! Be safe and drink and eat well!

Fire up the pit

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 19:07:11 GMT

This weekend we had a small gathering and fired up the smoker, chilled some beer, and lost track of time. First off, the weather was absolutely gorgeous and couldn't have been better for a day planned around a grill. I smoked a 5 1/2 lb beef brisket and in the process found a way to clear the 3 bottles of Michelob Porter that was taking up permanent residence in my refrigerator. The recipe I have for brisket calls for "dark beer" to make the mop sauce, and what better way to dispose of something unwanted then to cook with it. In all seriousness, the Michelob Porter wasn't really that bad, but after drinking half the six pack, my curiosity was sated and I had no desire to drink the rest. Moving on. 10 chicken drumsticks marinated in Cajun Creole Butter and then a liberal coating of Cajun spices as well as some smoked sausage links went on the grill. Lastly, my buddy Bill showed me how to make some killer bone-in pork chops with an amazing glaze he has perfected.

There was a lot of beer consumed, ranging from Ballantine XXX Ale to Victory Prima Pils. The real downer to the day was the realization that I had killed my keg of Amarillo Red Ale the night the Red Wings won the Cup. Fortunately that night I got one last perfect pour and had no idea that all that was left in the keg was the equivalent of a hops smoothie. But far be it from that to ruin the day. There was still hefeweizen to be poured as well as some great Cascade hopped wit beer that my friend brewed, including an oaked variety that was outstanding. A great day, what I can remember of it. Note to self, eat something before embarking on an all day beer drinking odyssey next time.

Hotshotz Re-Grand Opening Party

Fri, 09 May 2008 12:36:43 GMT

So many of my readers are probably already aware of this, but I wanted to make sure to get the news out just in case. Hotshotz, Indy's best beer joint in my opinion, is having a re-grand opening this Saturday, May 10th. I went to the original grand opening last year and ate a jalapeno for a gift certificate, and that is going to be offered again tomorrow. So, is anyone going? My wife is leaving me in charge of the boy tonight and most of tomorrow as she does an overnight trip to Chitown, but I still plan on supporting the cause. So I may either take the boy there for lunch tomorrow, or may go later on and meet the wife and do dinner. Either way, I am looking forward to it. Hope to see some fellow comrades there!

My Weekend in Chitown

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 04:26:30 GMT

This past weekend I drove up to Chicago to attend the January Beer School at The Map Room. As I was approaching Chicago I ran into some pretty foul weather and in the blink of an eye the road conditions were bad enough that you could no longer tell where the lanes were. So here I am cruising along making great time and all of a sudden I can only manage about 20-30mph. And where were the Indiana plows? Yeah, that's right. I never saw any heading northbound. A handful were on the southbound lanes which were of no use to me. And to rub salt in.. as soon as I crossed over the Illinois border the roads were cleared to the pavement and just wet. Oh well.. a minor set back but not the end of the world by any stretch. It just irritating to see how much better Illinois handles snow compared to Indiana.

Met dad at Dugan's and had a nice time talking with one of the owners. Drank a fair amount of PBR and a few shots of Jagermeister. Then we headed towards Naperville and capped of the night with a burrito from El Centro. Saturday we went to Frye's Electronics to check out some HD TVs and get some ideas for the eventual upgrade dad is planning. Frye's illicits the pavlovian dog reflex in me half the time and I usually walk around drooling at all the great gear I wish was in my house. A few hours of browsing and we were on our way to meet some friends and grab lunch at Manny's Deli. The guy that puts together the corned beef sandwiches knows us pretty well nowadays and he always loads them up for us. So I wound up with a corned beef sandwich that had every bit of 2 inches of meet stacked on the bread. Just wow is about all you can say.

Eventually we did get to the Map Room and I was put to work bringing beer up from the cellar. The Map Room beer cooler is about twice the size of my home office and lined almost floor to ceiling with beer. It is truly an inspiring site to behold. And I believe there is a few coolers I have never seen as that one does not have any of the keg beers. Anyway, the theme of beer school this month was Double / Imperial IPAs. IPAs are pretty much my favorite style of beer, and you can't go wrong with a double. It was a good time with some really good beers. Of course I couldn't spend any of my own money in the place. The owner is way to good to me. We capped the evening off with a trip to Bellouminis, which I am probably butchering the spelling of. It's a pretty sweet little bar much closer to Naperville then any others we go to. And they have a pretty awesome selection of retro-branded beers. So if you are interested in seeing how a PBR compares to a Stroh's or Old Style, etc.. this is the place. A few beers there and the evening was concluded. All in all a very successful and fun weekend in Chicago.