Bottling Beer

Pouring

One of my favorite parts about brewing beer is bottling it. It shows your one step closer to having a finished drink :)

Buying a six-pack you don’t event think about the cap unless it’s Magic Hat or Lion’s Head with a fun message, but when you home brew, bottling is part of the process.

Here are the items you need to bottle beer...

Caps and "capper"

 

1.) Oxygen Absorbing Caps
2.) Capper tool
3.) Bottles
4.) Brewed beer
5.) Case to store them in

Empty Bottles

Once your beer is ready to bottle you pour the beer from the 5 gallon containter into the bottle leaving about an inch at the top.
Then you take a flat cap and place it on top of rim. Take the round secure holder on the bottom of red capper and place over the cap.
Pull and press down both handles on red capper till you almost squeeze the bottle. Then lift it off and you have a capped beer bottle!

Capped Bottles

Test Shoot: Crayfish

Here are some picks from my test shoot with Crayfish. I was lucky I got some, their season ended in May

Crumble Crostini

What Ya Need:

-Leftover bread sit out overnight (sourdough)
-Olive Oil
-Sea Salt
-Crushed Red Peppers



 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cut up the bread into inch slices, than tare the bread into small approximate inch cubes but not perfect.

Place flat on a baking sheet or stoneware.

Drizzle olive oil over the pieces of bread than sprinkle on top sea salt and red crushed peppers.

Place into the oven and let cook for 10-15min or until golden brown on edges.

These are great to pop in your mouth or I put them on my salad. :)

My #PBW2012

The first 10 days in June are Philly Beer Week. After this post I will probably have one more night of tasting beer and specialty foods.

Joe’s family happen to come down on Sunday the 3rd so we all decided to go to Monk’s. I know I go there all the time but their beers are always different and always good. We ordered the usual Spanish Flies and Ghent mussels (which were perfect). I started off strong with a double IPA by Sierra Nevada. It was something new by them and was full of aromas and had a strong finish. After that I had the Dogfish Saison.

We departed from the folks and ventured down to Stateside. I haven’t been there since I photographed their pickled dish appetizers about a month ago, so I was craving more. Stateside is a whiskey bar with great craft beers. They had some specials going on for Beer Week and you could tell by the crowds of people standing outside. It was a beautiful day so all the windows were open and the sun was pouring in. I had a Victory Hop Devil which was fine considering I was still feeling the earlier drinks. I love their huge concrete bar that wraps from the front door to the opposite wall. For how crazy busy it was the bartenders had their ears open and jumped right on our orders.

By the time we left the skies had opened and got drenched all the way home. That was ok because there was a pint of Ben and Jerry’s waiting for us at home.

Stateside
1536 East Passyunk Ave
Philadelphia, PA 19148
http://statesidephilly.com/


Monk's 
264 South 16th Street
Philadelphia, Pa 
http://www.monkscafe.com/ 

Beer Week
http://www.phillybeerweek.org/index.cfm

Nancy Ori's Travels to Italy

Nancy Ori is starting on a journey to create a cookbook on regional Italian food.

I have been teaching photography in a remote region in the hills of Italy and have been to the same town three times now with my students with a fourth trip planned for October. I have gotten to know everyone who lives there practically....about 200 in the hilltop town. Three chefs have shared their recipes with me and I have photographed the region quite a bit. I want to do the cookbook as a sample of my work, a learning experience to photograph food, and as a gift to the many people who have been involved to produce my workshops. They will all be featured in the book. I will very likely not make any money on it but will have a great experience putting it together. The three chefs have cooked for my students each time so they will get a copy to remember my trips. The B&B where we stay will be happy to get a copy since they will also be featured along with their chef. It is kind of a community project.


The town is called Casperia and is located in Lazio about an hour south of the Tuscan border.
During the workshop we had a chef at the B&B who prepared all the breakfasts and two amazing dinners for us. The second chef gave us cooking lessons and learned how to make Stringozzi, a local pasta that is all one long piece of dough. That was probably the most interesting thing we saw and how they roll it out.

I would say that the Stringozzi is something that has been handed down through the generations of the ladies who were demonstrating the pasta making. 

The third chef was the featured person at La Tacita, an exclusive resort restaurant in the countryside of Casperia. He is a two star Michilin chef which over there is quite something. There are only 37 of them in all of Italy.

You Tube Links:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Raa2vizSVM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDDr3wou5Fk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhYxVOzs0HM