Second Stop – Boulevard Brewing Company

I barely know where to begin with this one. I suppose I should start with a HUGE “thank you” to Julie Weeks, the Marketing Communications Manager for Boulevard. She went above and beyond to make sure that I was taken care of today on my visit to Boulevard.

<--Me with Boulevard brewmaster Steven Pauwels

Boulevard’s bottle caps and much of their other artwork features drawings of their iconic brick smokestack. As I drove down Southwest Boulevard looking for the brewery I was more than a little frustrated from the complete stoppage on I-35 on my way into Kansas City. My mood sank even further when I realized that I must be lost because I had driven significantly past where the brewery was supposed to be. The landmark I had been searching for, the ubiquitous smokestack from all of their advertising, was shrouded for repairs. Also of little help to me was the fact that the side of the brewery facing the street is is just simple red brick that blends perfectly into the neighborhood. Aesthetically it’s nice, but I giant gaudy flashing sign would have been of significantly more help to me!

The building’s back is much more impressive! Four foot tall lettering spells out “Boulevard Brewing Company” across the roof and the architecture of a modern brewery is clearly visible. I was still forty minutes early so I took the opportunity to make a few laps around the brewery complex. I was impressed by the employees leaving with six-packs of beer to take home. I was later told that most of it was the brand new Smokestack Series beers that were being packaged in 12 oz bottles for the first time ever. Sure, they were going to have to let them sit in a cool, dark place for a couple of weeks, but they still get to take home what is absolutely the freshest beer around.

The one sad thing about my walk around the brewery was the number of broken Corona bottles strewn around the outside. Sure, the brewery is in a Hispanic neighborhood and it isn’t the richest area in Kansas City, but you can do better than THAT! You’re literally standing on the property owned by an excellent craft beer maker and you’re drinking….Corona? I don’t think I could do that if I tried!

Once inside my afternoon consisted of a tour of the brewery and an absolutely delectable lunch with each course paired to a Boulevard beer that was prepared by the executive chef of Lidia’s Kansas City, Dan Swinny. Each month Boulevard does one of these “Brewmaster Luncheons” featuring different local chefs. The event is limited to 35 participants but every month hundreds of people are vying for those spots. Then a lottery is drawn to see who is lucky enough to attend.

Are you ready to be jealous? If so, read on.

The lunch consisted of butternut squash stuffed ravioli in sage brown butter and toasted almonds paired with the relatively new Amber beer. Brewmaster Steven Pauwels said that he and Swinny chose that combination because of the way the toasted almonds and the sweetness of the amaretto in the pasta filling match with the amber. The meat course consisted of a succulent lamb shank coated in Venetian spices with sweet potato Swiss chard mash that paired masterfully with Boulevard’s Sixth Glass beer from their Smokestack Series. Finally for dessert we were treated to a copa of Boulevard stout ice cream, barley malt ice cream, and Boulevard stout granita. Atop all of those were lightly toasted grains of barley. This pairing was with another beer from the smokestack series, Long Strange Tripel. Despite being one of my favorite beers from Boulevard this pairing didn’t work nearly as well as the others. The amber and sixth glass matched almost seamlessly with the food. They each complimented the dishes in an ideal way which brought out the flavors in both the food and the drinks. The tripel was great, the desserts were great, I just wasn’t in love with how they mixed.

While the food was being served Steven Pauwels walked from table to table to talk beer with the diners. His friendly demeanor, in-depth knowledge, and passion for what he does helped make a great event even better.

In my book I’ll be detailing some of my conversation with Pauwels, the history of Boulevard, and many of the interesting things I found out about the brewery today. The important thing to take away from today’s post is that if you’re in the Kansas City area make sure you’re putting your name in for the lottery every time one of these evens happens, you’ll be happy you did!

Up next I continue south of I-35 to the Co-op Ale Works in Oklahoma City.

The Beer Ice Cream Legacy Continues...

Nope, I wasn’t lying and I have Amy Hendrickson to back me up as proof!

A few weeks ago I put up a series of posts about beer ice cream. My first attempt, an embarrassment to desserts all over the world. My second, a near, but not complete, failure.

On try number three I finally got it right. I posted the recipe for my beer ice cream using Stonecutter Stout from Raccoon River Brewing in Des Moines, IA and apparently, people have been trying it out.

The first person to try it out is the aforementioned Amy Hendrickson. Obviously, the beer I got from a brewpub in Des Moines wasn’t available to her so instead she used a chocolate stout from Bison brewing out of Berkeley, CA.



She also used brown sugar instead of white sugar and said it “added a little more color along with a delicious delicious brown sugar flavor.”

So my thanks to Amy for trying out the ice cream recipe. If you try the recipe or have any other beer recipes let me know how it works out!

Oh, and all these pictures? They’re Amy and her boyfriend enjoying the beer ice cream they made together.

SUCCESS: Beer Ice Cream

I didn’t think I could actually do it. I got close twice, but never thought it would work out anywhere near as well as it did.

I’ve done it.

I’ve made an incredible batch of beer ice cream!

The final product was made using Stonecutter Stout from the Des Moines brewpub Raccoon River Brewing, the same beer from my second attempt at beer ice cream when the flavor was there but texture was awful. That was much better than attempt number one when the texture worked, but it tasted like mildewed shoe leather!

The Stonecutter stout gave a strong coffee flavor to the ice cream so I added in a handful of chocolate covered espresso beans. They’re a little bigger than normal ice cream mix-ins but the flavor really works well with the ice cream.

I had to follow the recipe VERY carefully for things to work out well so if you're trying this out make sure you're pretty precise with measurements, and times etc.

Enjoy!

Here is my final recipe:

Makes 2 quart

1 Teaspoon vanilla extract
2 Cups whole milk
2 Cups heavy cream
1 & 1/3 Cup stout beer
3 Tablespoons molasses
8 egg yolks
2/3 Cup sugar
1/2 Teaspoon vanilla extract

1. In a medium saucepan combine 1 teaspoon vanilla, milk, and cream. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Remove from heat, cover the pan, and let stand for 15 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan over medium-high heat, whisk together the stout and molasses. Bring to a boil and remove from heat.

3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk the yolks, sugar, and remaining vanilla extract. Whisk in a few tablespoons of the hot cream mixture, then slowly whisk in another 1/4 cup of the cream. Add the remaining cream in a steady stream, whisking constantly. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan.

4. Stir the beer mixture into the cream mixture. Cook the custard over medium heat, stirring often with a wooden spoon, for 7 to 10 minutes or until the custard thickens enough to coat the back of the spoon.

5. Strain the mixture into a bowl and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight. Process the custard in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions. (35 min was perfect for me)

This recipe is my own slight adaptation of this recipe from the Boston Globe’s website

My White Whale

I can deal with failure. I’m actually pretty good at it. What I have trouble with is dealing with “near success.” I tried making ice cream again last night after my first attempt didn’t go well (to say the least). The first time I made something that looked like ice cream, but tasted like frozen sewer water. This time, it went the exact opposite.

When I was cooking together all of the ingredients I made sure to be as careful as humanly possible, I was bound and determined to avoid another failure. I measured everything carefully, I watched the temperatures, and I kept exactly to the suggested times.

After I let the mixture cool down in the fridge (for exactly two hours) I took it out and put it in the ice cream machine to let it mix and freeze. The suggested time to leave it in was between 20 and 40 minutes. I wanted to be careful so I checked it at twenty minutes, it was still soup. I checked again after thirty minutes of spinning in ice, completely liquid. After forty minutes, it hadn’t set even a little bit. Everything from this point on was outside of the time recommendation. After fifty minutes, nothing. Sixty, the same. An hour ten? Nope. After a full hour beyond the recommended time the ice cream was still completely liquid, not even a little frozen.

I was livid that I had managed to fail even worse than the first time I tried making beer ice cream. I was getting ready to just dump my sugary soup down the drain when I decided to try a little. The taste was incredible. It had the same dark, deep coffee and bitter chocolate taste of the Raccoon River Brewing Stonecutter Stout, but it was balanced perfectly with the custard and vanilla. I poured my liquid ice cream into a Tupperware and stuck it in the freezer for the night. Although yes, it did freeze, this is not ice cream. It has no air whipped into it and it is much harder than your standard ice cream, especially homemade ice cream. The only way I can get any is to slowly scrape it out and eat it dime-sized bite by dime-sized bite. I didn’t make too much so it probably works out better that I can barely get any because with a taste like that I might power through it all in one night.

If I failed again, I would have given up. I got SOOO close though. The flavor was there. The first time, the texture was there. Now I just need to figure out how to split the distance. I know I’m close to figuring out a way to make this work, I WILL be making it work.

Today I came home from work to grab a bite to eat for lunch and saw an interview with one of the organizers of Cityview Brewfest this Saturday at Principal Park in Des Moines. If you don’t already have tickets, get them now! If you buy in advance they’re only $23 instead of $28. Yeah, I’m excited. I’ll see you out there!

Homemade Beer Ice Cream

I tried making beer ice cream tonight and was met with absolute, complete, and utter failure. I found a few different recipes online, picked one out that called for amber ale (I used Boulevard’s amber), and went for it.

It was pretty much a disaster from

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the start. I’m usually a pretty good cook but with this everything that could go wrong, did. First the beer boiled over when it was supposed to be simmering. Then my whole milk/heavy cream mixture almost foamed over. When I mixed those two together with my eggs/sugar the milk and cream curdled.

The recipe called for the whole mixture to be strained before freezing so I thought (stupidly) that it might still be salvageable. I strained out the chunks, which accounted for about half of the volume of my mixture, and put it in the fridge to cool before I put it in the ice cream machine.

I grew up using an old-style hand crank ice cream maker. This was my first time to ever use an electric one, and as you can assume, it didn’t go well. At first it was taking WAY too long for the ice cream to set, then I let it run for a while, and that of course turned out to be too long, it was over-mixed.

Even after all of that, I was still determined to give it a try. I pulled off the lid, stuck in my spoon, and threw that first bit down the sink. It smelled absolutely awful. I thought I was sure to have gotten a bad spoonful so I reloaded to try again and my nose met with the same result. A bad smell was a perfect indicator of the impending taste. It was less like I had made some kind of beer ice cream, and more like I mixed some beer into an already bad ice cream recipe.

Everyone around the house had a spoonful or two to humor me but we all quickly agreed that the sink should be responsible for the remainder of the beer ice cream. I was planning on including the recipe in this entry but I don’t want anyone to get confused and try making it.

I’m not sure if it was a bad recipe or just my complete ineptitude when it came to the simple preparation, but this couldn’t have gone worse. I’m determined to not be beaten though; I already have plans to try again. I talked it over with my sister and this week we’re going to buy a growler of the absolutely delectable vanilla cream ale from a local brewpub, Raccoon River Brewery, and try out a new recipe. I feel like a vanilla cream ale would be much better suited for ice cream than amber ale was. When I find a recipe that works I’ll post it here for you to take a look at.

I’ll keep you posted on how this goes, I’m determined now!