Beer & Beach: Jai Alai IPA on Edisto Beach

Okay, so this isn't a beer and food post. Consider it a beer and nature post. For any beer lovers out there who have never enjoyed the goodness of a hoppy brew while letting the surf run up on your toes, take note. This Jai Alai IPA from the up and coming superstar brewery Cigar City (also chronicled in Humidor for in this blog entry) was my brew of choice for relaxing in the sand.

Now when most people think of fun in the sun, they think of beers that end in the word 'Light.' Looking around Edisto, I saw plenty of beach bums sipping on the canned swill that gives American beer such a bad reputation. I'm guessing the attraction to barley flavored soda water goes hand in hand with the desire to drink all day? True, I only took two of these bottles to the beach with me. That's all I needed. Laying on the beach next to my better half (and our adorable bundle of joy), sipping from my SOLO cup while the tide washed in? Perfection.

Edisto is a lovely little community on the South Carolina coast. Want the picturesque beaches of Hilton Head without all the riff raff? Head to Edisto. There are no hotels on the island, which means that anyone who lands there really meant to - renting or buying a house is the only way to stay. Granted, the beer scene on Edisto is lacking (Piggly Wiggly is the nicest bottle shop in town), so make sure to bring your own. Or, if you are so inclined, take the 40 minute trip into Charleston and visit the Charleston beer exchange. They always have something interesting on tap, from the hard-to-find local brewery COAST to other rarities (I picked up a 22z bottle of Whiskey Barrel Aged Ten Fidy on this particular trip). Combine such a beer run with lunch at one of Charleston's outstanding restaurants, and the trip is well worth your while.

Stone Imperial Russian Stout Chocolate Cake

Ever baked a chocolate cake with your mother-in-law? Using an Imperial Stout as a main ingredient? I have, and the results were delicious. The inspiration for this recipe comes from the Imperial Stout Chocolate Cake recipe from the Small Beer Blog, which in turn is a mutation of Nigella Lawson's Choclate Guinness Cake. The recipe is exactly the same as Nigella's, except instead of the watery Irish Dry Stout, I'm using the thick, robust Stone Imperial Russian Stout. Though the two beers share the "Stout" moniker, the similarities end at their dark black bodies. Consider them fourth cousins twice removed.


The Stone IRS is a beastly Russian Imperial Stout, weighing in at 10.5% ABV and 90+ IBU's. The beer strikes a delicious balance in its heft, packing all the syrupy heavy dark chocolate, roasted malt, coffee bitterness, and sharp alcohol bite that this beer style demands.


Now, if you've clicked through to Nigella's site, you'll notice that it's a British blog. That presented an interesting challenge in getting the recipe together. After translating terms like caster sugar and bicarbonate of soda, I recalled my middle school maths to perform conversions of grams to ounces and milliliters to cups (not really - there's an app for that).

Stone IRS Cake ingredients all laid out

So around 8:00 on a Friday evening, I laid out all the ingredients and we got to the business of baking. Mixing the beer, butter, cocoa and sugar in a saucepan, we let the mixture get nice and warm while I measured out the remaining ingredients on my little kitchen scale. I then pulled out the mixer to beat the eggs with the vanilla and sour cream, rounding out the prep of the ingredients. Once all that was done, we poured the cake batter into my wife's super deluxe cake pan and left it to bake at 355F (That's nearly 180C for those wondering).

Now, one of the best parts about this recipe is that it only calls for 250ml of beer. However, Stone IRS comes in a 22oz (650ml) bottles. That means there is bound to be ~400ml of beer left just sitting around. What to do about that? (See photo at right for answer...) After 45 minutes of baking, what came out of the oven was a fluffy, dark mass of chocolate goodness. It isn't overly sweet, as the beer seems to really bring out the more subdued side of the chocolate. The recipe calls for an optional cream cheese icing, but I decided to leave it off for this first run through, as I really wanted to see what the beer would do for the cake without the extra sweetness of the icing. I will say the cake itself is excellent, but next time I think I will make the icing, too. All in all, this was a successful experiment in baking with beer. The qualities of the stout mesh perfectly with the cocoa to make an elegant and tasty cake. I'll be on the lookout for other recipes involving beer and dessert.

La Parilla Nachos Fajitas & Cigar City Humidor Series IPA

Last time I posted about an All-American, easy to find collabo. This time, not so much - this post features highly local and hard-to-find fare.

My cuisine this time is from Taqueria la Parrilla in Athens, GA. It is a helping of tortilla chips covered in meaty grilled chicken strips, bell peppers, onions, tomatoes, and oh-so-good queso sauce. They call it Nachos Fajitas. Such a simple dish, but it is heavenly the way they put it together over in Homewood Hills. The beer that I chose to go with my nachos is a special one, indeed: Humidor Series IPA from Cigar City Brewing out of Tampa, FL.

The Humidor Series IPA is Cigar City's Jai Alai IPA aged on Cedar Wood. It takes the smooth, cistrusy IPA into another dimension, adding mellow spicy dimensions to an otherwise bright beer. This beer is tough to find in Florida, and nearly impossible to find outside of the sunshine state. I feel fortunate to be able to make this pairing at all.

The nachos are very tasty, with the chips that are submerged in queso quickly becoming something of a corn cheese mush that compliments the chicken and veggies very well. The chips that are left dry add a nice crunch to the dish, and the queso itself adds a richness that defines these nachos. It isn't a sophisticated dish, but it does make kickoff that much more enjoyable on a warm Saturday afternoon in September.

 The beer pours a cloudy pale orange with a giant frothy off white head. This beer is an unfiltered IPA, and it looks the part. The nose really shows off the cedar wood, with citrus hops fading into the background. The wood and hops make a nice pair, and it's a wonder more breweries haven't experimented with cedar (oak being the wood of choice for most beer aging).

The beer has a distinct wood character, with a spiciness that compliments the hops perfectly. Paired with this cuisine, the beer finds a perfect partner in the thick, heavy queso sauce. The sweetness from the cheese does punctuate the beer's bitterness to a degree, but the contrast makes for a wonderful pairing, and one that I would love to explore further.

Cigar City is doing some very interesting things with their beer in Tampa, and I'm lucky to have the chance top access it way up here in Athens. This quality, unfiltered IPA aged on wood makes a great pairing for any hearty Mexican dish, much like any bold IPA would. This one, however, does it with flair, building on the impressive cuisine with a bold wood spice of its own. Both the food and beer in this installment come highly recommended.

Beer Brats & Ommegang Hennepin

For the first edition of The Beer Fridge, I'm doing an All-American Classic: Bratwurst soaked in beer and grilled to a crispy delicious brown. Now, as you'll soon learn, I'm not one to use bad beer for anything. I wouldn't even pour Budweiser on a flaming Steve Spurrier (I should also mention I'm a devoted Georgia Bulldogs fan). Hence, I've chosen Sierra Nevada Pale Ale to soak my brats in. Preparation for this dish isn't complicated at all. I simply bought one onion, two brats, and one 24oz bottle of SNPA, combined then all, and let it simmer for a little over an hour. I then moved the brats to a grill over medium heat for about 5 minutes (until lightly browned), and then served them on whole wheat rolls. You don't want to boil the brats or put them on a high heat grill, as you'll break the sausage casing open, causing the brats to lose valuable moisture.

I chose Sierra Nevada Pale Ale in hopes that it would impart an element of hoppiness to the brats. As most beer geeks will attest, there is nothing like the aroma and flavor of a good hoppy beer. In the end, the brats were delicious and juicy, but I didn't get much hop character. Maybe I simmered them too long? In any case, my house smelled awesome while these bad boys stewed.


My beer pairing for this dish is Ommegang's Hennepin Saison. It's a classic Belgian Farmhouse Style ale brewed in Cooperstown, NY. Hennepin is a crisp, dry ale, and it pairs well with just about any food. The beer itself is a traditional Belgian style, originally brewed to be refreshing through the harvest season on Belgian farms. Hennepin puts citrus flavors squarely on display, with a slightly tart lemon flavor taking center stage. The beer's high carbonation helps rinse the lingering juices of the bratwurst, making this a great combination.