jovialmonk.com.au

[The Monk]

Cajun ale was Ale and Vienna malt plus some Vienna malt & wheat.

Poured pretty clear, nice white head that stayed around. Carbonation was there but nit excessive.

Nice hop nose, not sure but think I smelled the bittering addition of Simcoe more than the later Saaz addition. Flavors were fine, no obvious faults, just no real 'wow!' factor for me.

Black Sheep Ale, presumably named after the beer brewed by a renegade Theakston family member. Darker from Amber malt and a tad of chocolate. Hops were modelled on that of the Chief Strange Bull 7 hop additions bitter.

Poured well, good head retention, nice slightly lower carbonation. Decent bitterness (i.e. pretty noticeable) but it was smooth and clean, good old simcoes. Mouthfeel was amazing! hop flavor balanced by malt.

this one would be my pick, but I do like a beer to be decently bitter!

[Todd]

Tom,
Thanks for the comments.
Considering the Black Sheep Ale was only 2-3 weeks in the bottle, I reckon I'll see a good beer in a couple more weeks. Yeah, I loved the beer and brewery when I visited Masham......top spot!
The Cajun Ale was brewed recently with 06 hops, so the citrus passionfruit flavour/aroma was not as prominant as usual. I'll wait for your new Simcoe to arrive, and show you this beer has a few fancy moves!

I'll drop in a couple more BSA's, since it was your pick.

Cheers
Todd

[The Monk]

Cool. I was recently given a small bottle of quince wine by a customer who rented my corking machine. He said it tastes like sherry, will see!

Customer also said he makes a 'better quince paste than Maggie Beer!' Big claim!

Quinces should make an appearance soon, hmmmm pears and quinces poached in red wine, oooohhhhh!!!!!!

Easy peasy, core, peel & cut up some nice firm new-season pears. In a reasonably big pot put a glass of good red wine (not Grange but not 'cooking wine' or rough red either!) and one of water. Add spices, couple sticks cinnamon (NOT cassia, cinnamon) 6 cardamom, few cloves, chunk of a nutmeg, pinch mace yadda yadda. Bring to a boil, add Muscovado sugar to sweeten to taste, stir to dissolve sugar, lower heat and simmer poaching stock for 10 minutes. Add the pears and simmer until pears nearly soft.

By this time you should have a quince (must be yellow all over or it ain't ripe) peeled & chopped up, so add these to the pears dummy! Simmer until pears & quince are soft and cooked. Nothing stopping you from stirring in a handful or two of couvouture chocolate chips and/or some sultanas right at the end.

Dunno how quinces bake, but pears do so a treat! I like Williams or Duchess pears, try and choose all of similar shape & size. Peel & core, put in oven proof casserole. I then shove a handfull of sultanas down the hole where the core was, jamming them down to form a plug. Then follows couvouture chocolate & sultanas in layers until the hole is full. Pour over Kahlua or Tia Maria and pour some into the casserole, sprikle outside of pears with little bit caster sugar.

Bake in 180-200C oven until pears are soft. So yummy, I rush the main course to get to the pears!

[Todd]

Mmmmm, sounds good, even for 8:30 in the morning. I'll pass on to the wife who's the sweets cook!