by Damon on January 24, 2009
After my recent beer and Labneh pairing, I thought I might try something a little unusual and make a Labneh cheesecake glazed with chocolate porter while using spent grains from brewing for my crust.
Labneh Cheesecake with Beer Glaze
Tasting the Labneh Cheesecake
The first thing you notice is strong expresso notes from the chocolate porter glaze. The espresso blends into raisin, chocolate, vanilla, and other flavours all balanced across the palate no one taking prominence except when you look for them. Then the flavours all fade into the pleasantly bitter aftertaste of high quality espresso. I can still taste a hint of espresso bitterness now, half an hour after eating.
The very healthy cheesecake only retains the slightest tinge of yoghurt tartness from the Labneh. It serves as an excellent platform for the chocolate porter glaze unifying all the strong flavours from the glaze. The fat helps cleanse the palate letting you appreciate new flavours as they develop. Sour is about the only flavour not in the glaze so the light yoghurt tartness is very refreshing against all the heavier flavours competing on the tongue.
Even though the spent barley was from a stout, I could only detect a slight flavour of the base malt. It worked fine as a crust, but it was a little moist and crumbly. It feels fibrous in the mouth, but not unpleasantly so.
It was very good. And there were a number of firsts for me and original experiments:
-
My first cheesecake (I’m a good cook, but don’t normally do desserts).
- My first cheesecake crust.
- The first Labneh cheesecake that I know of.
- The first spent barley crust that I know of.
- The first dessert beer glaze that I know of.
It may not have been perfect, but all things considered this first try deserves an A+.
Recipes
The Crust
This recipe is slightly modified from what I made today. I didn’t use flour originally, but I think the addition of flour will help soak up the liquid and make it easier to spread the crust up the side of the pan. If you or any guests have gluten allergies, then leave out the flour and maybe dry out the barley in the oven before mixing it.
- 1.5 cups spent barley
- 1 small egg
- 0.5 cups suger
- 0.5 cups flour
- 3 tbsp melted butter/margarine
Mix all the ingredients together. Spread thinly in a greased cake pan. Cook for about 20 mins. Remove from oven before adding cheese.
The Cheese Filling
You can make Labneh with light or full fat yoghurt. Either way Labneh is alot healthier than cream cheese normally used in cheesecake.
- 2 litres Yoghurt
- 3 eggs
- 0.5 cups sugar
- 0.5 tsp vanilla
- 0.5 tsp salt
Start the Labneh at least a day before making the cheesecake. 2 days is even better. Sling the yoghurt in a clean hankerchief or put it in a coffee strainer-lined colander and let the whey drain from the yoghurt. Make sure you Google whey so that you know not to waste it. The curds that remain after the whey has drained off is Labneh.
When you are ready to make the cheesecake, mix all the ingredients together. They should soften up a little and expand as some air gets in to the mixture. Mix more or less depending on how light or heavy a cheesecake you want to make. Put the filling in the crust and bake at 350 for about 40 minutes or until lightly browned.
Chocolate Porter Glaze
I used Phillips Brewing Longboat Double Chocolate Porter, but I’d be willing to try this with any porter, or sweet stout. I also wanted to use agar as a thickener, but couldn’t find any nearby so I fell back on corn starch. This glaze would also work really well over pork.
- 500 ml Chocolate Porter
- 0.25 cups sugar
- 2 tsp corn starch
Cook beer and sugar in a sauce pan over medium heat until the liquid has reduced to about 1/3 the original volume. Dissolve the corn starch in water and add to the sauce pan. Cook for another 3-5 minutes, cool, and pour over cheesecake.
by Damon on January 21, 2009
Labneh is a really simple middle-eastern yoghurt-based cheese. It’s really easy to make. You drop yoghurt into a hankerchief or coffee filter and let the whey drain off for a day or two. What’s left is labneh.
Tasting Labneh
Labneh tastes like cream cheese with a little yoghurt sourness. I expected it to be very sour, but a lot of the sourness drains off with the whey.
Labneh is used in all sorts of middle-eastern cuisine, but I wanted the labneh flavours featured against the beer. So I decided to serve the labneh with garlic and salt mixed in, sprinkled with cumin, oregano and marjoram, and served with tomatoes, Moroccan black olives, and freshly grilled flat bread.
Pairing Beer and Labneh
My choice of beers is Unibroue’s Maudite, a strong, red Belgian ale.
The match is excellent. The full-body and phenols balances the sourness of the labneh. The malt flavours blossom with the body, phenols, and sourness in balance only to be subplanted by the herb flavours from the labneh. Truly an excellent match.
The strong, full-bodied beer also holds its own against the Moroccan spiced olives. Maybe not perfect, but the beer withstands some very assertive flavours and almost complements them. A perfect match with the olives will probably not work with the labneh, so this is an excellent compromise.
Final Pairing Recommendations
I haven’t tried labneh with any other beers, but I expect it and olives to work well with tripels. A Belgian amber strong ale would also be a good match. I imagine the fruity-malt flavours of Duvel would work particularly well against the cream cheese and yoghurt flavours of Labneh and with the spicy Moroccan olives.
The labneh paired with any of these beers would make an excellent appetizer or snack for particularly honoured company.
by Damon on January 14, 2009
I just had my first French biere de garde. I don’t often come across styles of beer that I haven’t sampled, so it is really quite a treat to when I do.
The beer was a present from my sister who lives in Abu Dhabi and writes an urban planning blog, but spent the holidays in France with my mom who brought the beer back. So thanks to both of you.
The biere de garde that I tried was Jenlain Ambree and it leaves me wanting more. I’m working from memory because I had this beer last night with some beer-connoiseur friends, but I’d generally describe this style as American ESB hopping and malt balance in an amber beer with fairly high carbonation.
Other resources suggest that there should be some farm-house flavours in bieres de garde, but I didn’t notice any.
Wyeast recommends pretty much every lager yeast for biere de garde style, but they also have a seasonal so I might have to start asking around and the local homebrew shop.
I was with company last night and didn’t think to harvest the yeast. Oh well, maybe I’ll learn from my mistakes.
According to various sources online, the blonde and brune versions of this style that are quite different from the ambree. The brune in particular supposedly uses fewer hops so I’d definitely like to get my hands on some other examples of this style. In the meantime, I think I’ll try making my own version of the ambree.
by Damon on January 13, 2009
Jeff at Beervana shares my dislike of Black IPAs. He writes
add 100+ IBUs of hops and blast away all the maltiness.
I fully agree with this sentiment. India Dark Ales, as I know them, are all about putting roast and hop bitterness at war with each other.
Weaker stouts can share the stage with hop bitterness, but the really strong India Dark Ales put those flavours in conflict. And I just don’t like the resulting beer.
If this is a style of beer, I hope it dies quickly.
by Damon on January 5, 2009
I found a food-blog post extolling the virtues of burnt citrus fruit when I was doing research for my duck breast prosciutto.
Unfortunately I can’t find the blog recommending burnt citrus fruit so no link, but basically they said burning citrus fruit causes a chemical reaction that radically changes some of the flavour compounds and and kills the oils.
Being the adventurous little brewer that I am, I instantly recognised the potential for new potential brewing ingredient. I had some Belgian Witbier on so when I went to bottle it, I siphoned off a portion and let it sit on some freshly burnt oranges for a couple of extra weeks.
Tasting Notes
It’s hard to describe the flavour of burnt orange. It retains some orange flavour without the tang, but it doesn’t taste burnt.
The colour is a rich, dark, brownish-orange with a nice beautiful head that unfortunately doesn’t last very long.
Orange and caramel aromas dominate the scent slipping between subtle and bold. Maybe it’s just me but sometimes I totally miss the aroma and other times it seems plain as the snow on my porch.
The burnt orange flavours dominate, but it still retains some beer characteristics. I think the coriander in the original recipe really support the burnt orange well. The mix of orange with the bright carbonation makes this beer seem almost a little spicy. The aftertaste is rich and changes from caramelly to bitter and citric before fading gracefully over a couple of minutes.
Brewing Notes for Future Recipes
This was an excellent first recipe. So good that I’ve already started my next burnt orange beer (or citrus I haven’t decided).
So what is it? a Belgian tripel.
Burnt orange is quite robust. So I’m upping the spice a little, upping the gravity and making the beer a lot more phenolic than I normally like. I think a hint more spice would be nice and the phenols will get balanced out by the burnt orange. If you’re not a regular visitor to Life With Beer, I’m not a lover of the rubbing alcohol-like flavours imparted by phenols.
Burning Orange Belgian Wheat Recipe
Grains
| Weight (lbs) |
Weight (kgs) |
Grain |
| 5.5 lbs |
2.5 kgs |
Pilsner Malt |
| 2.75 lbs |
1.25 kgs |
Wheat Malt |
| 2.75 lbs |
1.25 kgs |
Wheat Flakes |
Hops and Adjuncts
| Weight (oz) |
Weight (g) |
Ingredient |
Time |
| 0.95 oz |
27 g |
Perle 5.7%, whole |
90 min |
| 10 oranges |
|
Burnt Valencia Oranges |
secondary |
Yeast
Wyeast 3944: Belgian Witbier harvested from lees
Brewing Schedule
Brewed: 10/07/2008
Racked: 10/30/2008
Racked Oranges: 11/14/2008
Bottled: 11/28/2008
Water
No water adjustments to local Pilsen-like water.
Brewing Stats
| Stage |
Time / Temp |
| Mash In Temperature |
140°F |
60°C |
| Mash In Time |
|
80 mins |
| 1st Rest Temperature |
156°F |
69°C |
| 1st Rest Time |
|
40 mins |
| Mash-Out Teperature |
172°F |
78°C |
| Mash-Out Time |
|
20 mins |
| Sparge Time |
|
80 mins |
| Boil Time |
|
80 mins |
OG: 1.048
IBU: approx. 17
Ferment Temp: 71°F 22°C
FG: 1.007
ABV: 4.9%
by Damon on December 28, 2008
I can’t decide if this beer made with Chanterelle mushrooms good or bad. It’s definitely an interesting beer which is why I’m sharing the recipe and my thoughts. My intent with this beer was to see how the fruit flavours of the Chanterelle would complement the fruit flavours from Belgian wheat beer yeast.
The base beer was taken from my excellent Belgian Wit. I removed and cooled half of the wort before adding the spices and other adjuncts for the witbier. I then filled a small 160 oz (4.7 L) carboy with the unadulterated wort and later added the rest to the spiced wort in the main fermenter.
The Chanterelle beer fermented with the same Wyeast 3944 Belgian Wit yeast as the Belgian Wit. I then added 0.4 lbs (180 g) of fresh Chanterelle mushrooms that had been washed, patted dry, and pulled apart to the secondary and let it sit for two weeks.
Tasting Notes
There is a lot of sediment in the beer including what I suspect are small chunks of mushroom. This is partly because smaller batches are harder to work with so the sediment gets agitated more than in larger batches. If the beer is left at room temperature, the beer is cloudy with yeast and mushrooms.
Apricot and fungal notes are evident in the nose, but overall the aroma is a little weak.
The beer has a little spiciness and sweetness to it along with a fruity blend of mushroom and yeast flavours. Like with my previous Winter Chanterelle beer that used a similar quantity of mushroom, on a rare sip the Chanterelles in this beer will really stand out and assert their flavour only to blend back in to the beer.
My main objection to this beer is the aftertaste which is long and somewhat reminiscent of pine detergent (an unintended adjunct?).
Brewing Notes for Future Recipes
I think the Chanterelles and Belgian Wit yeast ended up competing with each other rather than complementing each other. I thought their different fruit flavours would work well together, but I was wrong.
I think maybe mushrooms do better in stronger beers where unpleasant or unusual flavours are masked. When they work well, the mushroom flavours round out and complement the yeast flavours.
Chanterelle Belgian Wheat Recipe
Grains
| Weight (lbs) |
Weight (kgs) |
Grain |
| 5.5 lbs |
2.5 kgs |
Pilsner Malt |
| 2.75 lbs |
1.25 kgs |
Wheat Malt |
| 2.75 lbs |
1.25 kgs |
Wheat Flakes |
Hops and Adjuncts
| Weight (oz) |
Weight (g) |
Ingredient |
Time |
| 0.95 oz |
27 g |
Perle 5.7%, whole |
90 min |
| 6.4 oz |
180 g |
Chanterelles |
secondary |
Yeast
Wyeast 3944: Belgian Witbier harvested from lees
Brewing Schedule
Brewed: 10/07/2008
Racked: 10/30/2008
Bottled: 11/14/2008
Water
No water adjustments to local Pilsen-like water.
Brewing Stats
| Stage |
Time / Temp |
| Mash In Temperature |
140°F |
60°C |
| Mash In Time |
|
80 mins |
| 1st Rest Temperature |
156°F |
69°C |
| 1st Rest Time |
|
40 mins |
| Mash-Out Teperature |
172°F |
78°C |
| Mash-Out Time |
|
20 mins |
| Sparge Time |
|
80 mins |
| Boil Time |
|
80 mins |
OG: 1.048
IBU: approx. 17
Ferment Temp: 71°F 22°C
FG: 1.007
ABV: 4.9%
by Damon on December 27, 2008
Brewers have it pretty easy. Basically, all we do is create the conditions under which yeast will thrive. Yeast does all the work, we get all the credit. We make sure it’s not too hot or not too cold. We make sure it has enough to eat. And we try to protect it from bad influences like bully-bacteria and the yeast-gone-wild.
I started brewing after returning to Canada from the Lager Hell that is Japan partly because I never wanted to be without good beer again. I quite like Japan, but the country is not perfect. One big problem is the law against homebrewing. If I were to return and get caught homebrewing, however unlikely, I’d argue that the yeast was brewing, not me. I’d be right, but I’m not sure a judge would agree.
Fermentation is to Beer as Cooking is to Food
How many different ways are there to cook food? You’ve got baking, roasting, grilling, frying, boiling, steaming, curing, pickling, and probably a few more. But when you’re brewing beer you have just as many yeast strains as there are ways to cook food.
Yeast rounds out a beer’s character the way roasting does chicken, steaming does broccoli, or barbecuing does the lowly hot dog. It’s great to have so many different colours to complete our beers.
The Bad-ass Starter
My most odd or interesting yeasting practice (yeah I know yeasting is not a word, get over it) is the bad-ass starter. Bad-ass starter is just a cool way of saying really big starter.
How do I know it’s cool? My mom told me.
Whenever I plan on doing a strong beer, I make a weak beer with the same yeast first. Strong beers can take a long time to finish and doing one or three batches first makes a big difference.
Other than that, I do my best to keep the yeast happy and comfortable. They rarely communicate their appreciation, but I can tell that they are quite happy in the quality of the beer they produce.
For more yeast-related posts, check out this month’s yeast-themed Fermentation Friday hosted by Rooftop Brew.
by Damon on December 21, 2008
When deciding choosing a beer to pair with my duck breast prosciutto, I decided to begin by looking at foods that go well with prosciutto.
The classic combination is prosciutto and melon. I don’t know of any beers with melon flavours, but a nice fruity wheat beer should probably do the trick. I chose my own Almost Heaven Belgian Wheat Beer.
Another combination is prosciutto with plain bread or crackers to cleanse the palate without interfering with the flavours of the prosciutto. The obvious pairing would be a good, bready pale ale, but I decided to try something a little different: the classic Czech pilsner Budvar which is a little more bitter than pale ale, but not nearly as bitter as the original Pilsner Urquell, and has all the bread-malt flavours of English pale ale.
In addition to the the pairings derived at from common food combinations, I tried R&B’s Hopgoblin IPA, and two Belgian-style tripels Unibroue’s Maudite and Brooklyn Brewery’s Local 1 reasoning that the duck breast prosciutto could stand up very well to these strongly flavoured beers.
Finally, after reading Garrett Oliver’s prosciutto recommendations from (drumroll for Amazon affiliate link please) The Brewmaster’s Table
, I got some roastier or more caramelly beers to try with the duck breast prosciutto. My choices were Guinness, Fat Cat Brewing’s Pompous Pompadour Porter, and Aventinus’s Weizen-Eisbock (my first ever eisbock).
Tasting the Beer and Prosciutto
Just about any beer with duck breast prosciutto works acceptably well. The duck is quite fatty, but beer really cuts through the fat and salt quickly asserting its own characteristics. Having said that, there were some winners and losers.
The Winning Combinations
I’m quite gratified that my first choice was correct. The Almost Heaven Belgian Witbier was excellent. The fruit flavours and aroma really offset the saltiness of the duck prosciutto while the farmhouse flavours of the Witbier complemented the hints of game or duck from the prosciutto.
Probably the best combinations, though, were Porter and the Eisbock. In both cases the dark malt and caramel flavours complemented the cured duck, but I think it was the sweetness of the two beers that was the key to making the combinations work. Rather than cutting through the salty flavours of the duck, the sweetness balanced them giving the rich malts a chance to shine. The nutty caramelly flavours of the Eisbock in particular paired really well with the prosciutto. I imagine that a supremely expensive acorn-fed Jamon Iberico http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamón_ibérico must taste similar.
Finally, the Budvar was good. It didn’t complement the prosciutto the same way the other beers did. But it clearly cut through the salty cured meat flavours refreshing your palate without conflict.
The Losing Combinations
The astringent rubbing alcohol-like phenol flavours and spices of the full-bodied Belgian tripels, Maudite and Local 1, played dangerous game competing with the salt from the prosciutto. The Local 1 hit a bit of a sweet-spot and actually came out a little fruit-like which was quite pleasant, but mostly these two beers seemed in conflict with the prosciutto flavours.
The IPA also didn’t fare so well. It wasn’t horrible. It cut through the flavours of the prosciutto, but, like the Belgian tripels, the hop bitterness seemed in conflict with the stronger prosciutto flavours.
Final Pairing Recommendations
When pairing duck prosciutto with beer try one of the following recommendations:
- A sweet, dark, malty beer to balance the saltiness while bringing out the malt flavours. Try sweet stout, porter, nut-brown ale, any kind of bock, British mild.
- A fruity beer to complement the salty-cured meat flavours while refreshing the palate. Try any kind of European wheat beer, except possibly Berliner Weisse.
- A light-coloured bread-like beer to refresh your palate while letting the duck prosciutto shine. Try a good pale ale, blonde, or one of the less bitter pilsners.
by Damon on December 20, 2008
I posted most of the details for this recipe in my Belgian Witbier Roundup a few days back, but I really wasn’t feeling very generous in my evaluation and I left out a few minor details that make it more difficult to copy.
I only post recipes because they are interesting or excellent. The roundup’s comparison was interesting, but the Almost Heaven Belgian Wheat Beer is excellent. I not only nailed the style, but I’d say it is as good as the best wheat beers from Belgium. I’m normally more critical of myself than others and am kind of embarrassed by self-promotion, so when I say this beer is excellent you might want to believe me and try the recipe for yourself.
The aroma is full and rich with all the classic characteristics of a Belgian Wheat Beer. The flavour develops quite nicely with a mix of citrus fruit, spice, and farmhouse flavours each sharing prominence over time.
Almost Heaven Belgian Wheat Beer
Grains
| Weight (lbs) |
Weight (kgs) |
Grain |
| 5.5 lbs |
2.5 kgs |
Pilsner Malt |
| 2.75 lbs |
1.25 kgs |
Wheat Malt |
| 2.75 lbs |
1.25 kgs |
Wheat Flakes |
Hops and Adjuncts
| Weight (oz) |
Weight (g) |
Ingredient |
Time |
| 0.95 oz |
27 g |
Perle 5.7%, whole |
90 min |
| 0.21 oz |
6 g |
Anise Seed crushed |
3 min |
| 0.74 oz |
21 g |
Indian Coriander ground |
3 min |
| 0.28 oz |
8 g |
Valencia Orange peel |
finish |
| 0.10 oz |
3 g |
Grapefruit peel |
finish |
Yeast
Wyeast 3944: Belgian Witbier harvested from lees
Brewing Schedule
Brewed: 10/07/2008
Racked: 10/30/2008
Bottled: 11/14/2008
Water
No water adjustments to local Pilsen-like water.
Brewing Stats
| Stage |
Time / Temp |
| Mash In Temperature |
140°F |
60°C |
| Mash In Time |
|
80 mins |
| 1st Rest Temperature |
156°F |
69°C |
| 1st Rest Time |
|
40 mins |
| Mash-Out Teperature |
172°F |
78°C |
| Mash-Out Time |
|
20 mins |
| Sparge Time |
|
80 mins |
| Boil Time |
|
80 mins |
OG: 1.048
IBU: approx. 17
Ferment Temp: 71°F 22°C
FG: 1.007
ABV: 4.9%
Notes
- Decoction mash that went reasonably well. The Mash-In was a bit longer and lower than I wanted due to my relative inexperience with decoction mashing.
- The Wyeast 3944 needs a lot of headspace. It’s probably best to aim for a lower initial volume and add water later.
- The Wyeast 3944 takes a lot of time to finish. I added Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale to help finish off the fermentation.
by Damon on December 19, 2008
Reading about The Mad Fermentationist’s account of making duck breast prosciutto inspired me to try to make some on my own for Christmas.
Duck Breast Prosciutto
Making Duck Breast Prosciutto
After checking a number of different recipes online and also consulting at the local salumeria, I made a few adjustments to the Mad Fermentationist’s recipe:
- salted for 28 hours
- washed salt off with wine
- coated with white pepper, garlic powder, fresh thyme and rosemary
- aired for 13 days at °37 F (°3 C).
I followed the Mad Fermentationst’s recipe in every other way.
Tasting the Duck Prosciutto
The meat is quite firm and jerky-like at the narrowest edges, but the texture of most of the meat is very close to prosciutto.
The big difference between duck and regular prosciutto is that the fat in pork is marbled throughout the meat whereas duck fat all sits on top of the meat. There’s also a lot more moisture in duck fat than pork fat. Normally prosciutto is sliced thinly, but this is even more important with duck breast prosciutto because a large mass of moist duck fat in your mouth isn’t very pleasant. But the fat on thinly sliced pieces almosts melts in your mouth and blends in with the meat.
My duck prosciutto tastes like cured pork with a slight overtones of game. The white pepper comes through quite nicely and it is noticably salty. The thyme and rosemary are really evident in the aroma, particularly when opening the package, but they blend well with the other flavours in your mouth.
Modifying the Recipe
I’m pleased with how this recipe turned out, but there are a few things I’d like to try.
I think it would be better if it weren’t quite so dry. Next time I make this I’ll reduce airing time to 10 or 11 days. From what I can gather after reading a number of different recipes online, the airing time seems to depend on the temperature and humidity. I’ve seen instructions ranging from “hang in a dry area” to “hang in a moist area” and “hang in your refridgerator” to “hang at room temperature (in a warm region no less!).” I decided to play it conservatively and keep everything (salting time, airing time and temperature) on the safe side.
Another thing I’d like to try is to marinade the duck breast in wine or beer and herbs before salting. It seems a little silly adding liquid before drying, but it also might be the best way get milder herb flavours in to the prosciutto.
