The Wine, The Beer & The Ugly
Harvest Wine & Spirits is a little wine shop with a big heart! Located at 842 Farmington Avenue in West Hartford, Connecticut, Harvest is a relaxed, laid back space where we go to buy wine, shop the best selection of beer in Connecticut's capital city and get our swerve on... always a great tasting going on, some great artists being featured and boss tunes playing.
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With the arrival of Jim Beam’s Jacob’s Ghost we turn to our friends at Drinkhacker.com who decided to reach out to Beam’s master mixologist Bobby Gleason to celebrate its release. He took Jacob’s Ghost for a spin to see how it fares in some old classics.
Ghost Cosmo
2 parts Jacob’s Ghost
1 part orange liqueur
1 part white cranberry juice
½ part fresh lime juice
Build all ingredients over ice in a mixing glass, shake and strain into a chilled glass. Garnish with cherries.
Jacob’s Julep
1 part Jacob’s Ghost
¼ part lemon juice
1 pinch of cane sugar
Molasses to taste
Mint leaves
In a Collins glass, dissolve the sugar in a splash of water. Fill the glass with crushed ice and add Jacob’s Ghost. Stir in all remaining contents until the glass becomes frosty, adding more ice if necessary. (Don’t hold the glass in your hand while stirring.) Garnish the glass with sprigs of mint.
Jacob’s Old Fashioned
1 part Jacob’s Ghost
¼ part honey syrup
6 dashes Angostura bitters
6 dashes Fee Brothers Aztec bitters
Lemon zest
In a mixing glass, combine Jacob’s Ghost, honey syrup, Angostura Bitters and Fee Brothers Aztec Bitters; shake and strain into an old fashioned glass with ice and finish with a lemon zest.
(via Recipes: Jacob’s Ghost White Whiskey Cocktails)
HOP VODKA
2.28.13 - Does the arrival of hop vodka mean we are becoming obsessed with hops? First there was Charbay Hop Flavored Whiskey, a whiskey maker’s infusion of Racer 5 IPA beer into an alambic-pot-distilled whiskey aged in French oak barrels. It was the partnership between two Northern California craft artisans, the distiller Charbay and the brewery Bear Republic. More on Zester Daily: » Cocktail Hour: Discovering the subtle allure of vodka » Cocktail Hour: Bitter Campari soothes winter woes » Cocktail Hour: Custom-craft your own gin, it’s easy » Oh hoppy day: The art of the brew Continuing the trend is San Francisco-based Anchor Distilling, the spirits extension of world-famous Anchor Brewing, whose staffs have quite naturally figured out a way to use the goodness of the hops they could smell wafting around their shared building space to make the world’s first hop vodka, Hophead. These fun new drinks capture our increasingly fervid love affair with hops, exemplified best by the six- to eight-hour waiting times endured the first Friday of February along the sidewalks circling Russian River Brewing Company in Santa Rosa, Calif.. This is when and where brewer Vinnie Cilurzo releases his once-yearly Pliny the Younger, a triple-hopped version of his already maniacally sought after double IPA Pliny the Elder. This year the lines grew longer than ever before, signaling a seriously intense devotion to the pursuit of good hops by hops lovers the world over. Many are hoping this will bode well for the burgeoning return of hops to Hopland, a small town in Mendocino about a half-hour north of Healdsburg along Highway 101. Hop vodka revitalizes Hopland The Hopland Brewery is thought to have been the first post-Prohibition brewpub in California. Opened in 1933, its operation created a renewed chance to use all the hops that were being grown about the place around then. But over time fruit orchards and wine grapes took over and the demand for hops went into decline. Locals are trying to reignite the currency for hops, at least on a small scale, with Oakland-based brewer Adam Lamoreaux of Linden Street Brewery leading the way. Lamoreaux has partnered with Gary Breen, who bought the old Haas Hops Ranch, (also the former site of the Fetzer Valley Oaks Ranch), outside of Hopland a few years ago and has recently opened Piazza de Campovida in town, a place to find a fair few small-batch Linden Brewery brews. Adding to that town’s momentum is the new Hopland Ale House a few doors down, where the Mendocino Brewing Company once stood, with 8 beers on tap and the hope to further interest in locally grown hops. Until that day, this spring enjoy a double helping of hop flavor with this blend of hop vodka and single-hopped beer into one hyper-hopped Shandy and contemplate the possibilities.
San Fran Shandy
Serves 1
Created by Russell Davis, 2012 National Bartender of the Year, for the launch of Hophead.
Ingredients
2 ounces Hophead vodka
1 ounce fresh lemon juice
½ ounce ginger liqueur
½ ounce honey syrup
½ ounce egg white
2 dashes Angostura bitters
3 ounces Anchor Brewing Brekle’s Brown Ale
Half on orange wheel
Directions
1. Combine Hophead, lemon juice, ginger liqueur, honey syrup, egg whites and bitters in a shaker and dry shake to emulsify egg whites.
2. Add ice and shake vigorously until proper dilution.
3. Strain into a chilled fizz glass.
4. Empty ice out from the shaker and fill it with ale to create a froth
5. Pour this froth over the drink in the chilled fizz glass and garnish with half an orange wheel.
San Fran Shandy. Credit: Courtesy of Anchor Distilling Company
(via Cocktail Hour: Hopheads Celebrate Hop Vodka | Virginie Boone)
The Stouts of Widmer Brothers Tasting @ Harvest Tonight!!!
Join us for a special Harvest Beer Tasting featuring the stouts of Widmer Brewing….
Join Us Tonight from 530pm - 8pm (or until the brews run out)…
842 Farmington Ave., West Hartford, CT 06119
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Milk Stout
We don’t cry over spilled milk, but spilled Milk Stout?
That’s a different story. This complex brew has a rich chocolate malt character accented by a silky smooth mouthfeel and touch of sweetness the use of milk sugar. Cascade hops help balance the beer and give a wonderful aromatic flavor. Prost! to not wasting a drop!
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KGB Russian Imperial Stout
Full, Dark and Complex
Using roasted barley, chocolate malt and Midnight Wheat, KGB has a color that is as dark as a torrid past, a body as full as a well-kept dossier, and a taste as complex as a conspiracy theory. First brewed in 1998 and a longtime favorite in the Widmer Brothers Gasthaus Pub, KGB was bottled and released as the W’11 release, the brewery’s spring seasonal in 2011. KGB is the first of three limited releases in the Widmer Brothers W Series in 2013.
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Chocolate Russian Imperial Stout ’13
Brewed with Ecuadorian Cocoa Nibs
Released in January 2013 alongside KGB Russian Imperial Stout and Raspberry Russian Imperial Stout, Chocolate Russian Imperial Stout ‘13 is the ninth release in our Brothers’ Reserve Series. We took our delicious KGB Russian Imperial Stout and put another new twist on it. Our brewers threw Ecuadorian cocoa nibs into the brew to create a decadent and complex beer that is shore to hit your sweet spot. Chocolate Russian Imperial Stout ’13 offers flavors of cocoa, roasted barley and coffee, balanced out by a unique hop profile.
We May Not Be Posting, But We’ve Been Tasting Some Great Wines Lately! Beautiful Chilean Selections From Classic Producer Concha Y Toro…
Harvest Wine Tasting: Chile Featuring Concha Y Toro…
Join us for Harvest Wines Friday
We’re Tasting from 5:30pm…
842 Farmington Ave., West Hartford, CT 06119
Featuring…
Concha Y Toro Gran Reserva Serie Riberas
Gran Reserva Serie Riberas is a special selection selection of Gran Reserva wines coming from vineyards located close to different river basins. This translates into unique, distinctive fresher wines.
Tonights Wine Selections…
Gran Reserva 2011 Sauvignon Blanc
From Ucúquer Vineyard, south bank of Rapel river, central Chile. Aged 6-months in stainless steel tanks. Straw-yellow color; vibrant and round with citrus and mineral notes. Clean finish.
Gran Reserva 2010 Carmenere
From Peumo Vineyard, north bank of the Cachapoal River, central Chile. Aged 13-months in medium-toast French and American oak. Dark purple color; bright black fruit, spice, cedar notes. Supple tannins.
An evening of great craft beer, food, friends, and stories.
Featuring guest speaker, Jeff Nelson of Stone Brewing.
$65 per person, not including tax & gratuity
Reservations required ~ 860.236.6299
Spiritual Leader-Shaped Pear
A farmer out in China by the name of Hao Xianzhang has been creating some brilliant Buddha-shaped pears that are set to become available in the United Kingdom soon.
Hao has been spending the past six years developing his technique of creating pears that grow into the shape of one of the worlds most talked about spiritual teachers. These Buddha-shaped pears are grown in custom individual moulds that are placed onto the growing pear. It is believed that if you own one of these good luck will be around you. Hao has already created 10,000 of these miniature edible Buddha’s
Reblogged from Visual Amor
Harvest’s February Cask Tasting
Join us at Harvest Wine & Spirits for our monthly Cask Event… This month we will feature Thornbridge County Brew Hall of Derbyshire, UK. alongside Birrificio del Ducato of Parma, Italy
We’re Tapping at about 5pm Friday February 22nd… We expect the beers to last until some time on Saturday so if you can’t make it Friday stop by early on Saturday to sample as well!!!
Harvest Wine & Spirits @842 Farmington Ave., West Hartford, CT 06119
The beer being featured on this wonderful evening of free beer and good vibes…
Blueberry Nightmare Del Ducato, Italy
96 at Rate Beer! ONE TIME BREW!
9.5%
This beer is an extension of Del Ducato’s Verdi Imperial Stout. My Blueberry Nightmare is a stout brewed with hot chili, then aged for 2 years in oak barrels with blueberries.
Sounds harmless enough, but the result is just crazy!!!! Words really cannot describe it…
Sour- funky- acidity…really in a world of its own! Opaque black in color with just a touch of carbonation (not much). Quite acidic and very intense! This nightmare is sure to leave a lasting nightmare!
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Halcyon
98 by Ratebeer
7.7% abv - English Imperial IPA
This beer is similar to what original IPAs would
have been like back in the days in England.
Rich fruit and hop character in aroma. Chewy,
juicy malts and intense hoppiness coming
through in mouth with a hint of tangerine and
pear drops. Ends with a well-balanced bitterness.
The cask tasting will serve as a warm-up for the Thornbridge Brewmaster Dinner on Monday, May6th at Half Door Pub…
Available Beers for Purchase to include Thornbridge Kipling, Jaipur, Halcyon, and St. Petersburg… As well as a very limited amount of uber-rare Blueberry Nightmare bottles…
Thornbridge County Brew Hall
Innovation. Passion. Knowledge
Derbyshire, UK
It all started in the fall of 2004- when the idea of brewing their own beers was brought up between friends. By the spring of 2005- the group had begun brewing a couple of beers on a fairly regular basis and by the summer they brewed Jaipur for the first time. Two months later it won the their first beer award. This was the start of what would become one of UK’s most innovative young breweries. Over the past 8 years - Thornbridge had accumulated over 200 industry & consumer awards. They are constantly pushing the boundaries of brewing.
They harness their passion for great flavored beer and give the beer the “Thornbridge Never Ordinary” treatment.
Kipling
95 by Ratebeer & Exceptional by Beer Advocate!
5.2% abv- South Pacific Pale Ale
Kipling a golden beer with an exquisite
passionfruit, gooseberry and mango aroma.
Named after the windows in the brewery building
that came from the caravan owned by English
author Rudyard Kipling.
The beer is single hopped with Nelson Sauvin
hops from New Zealand, that imparts the tropical
fruit like flavors. The beer’s initial sweetness and
medium body are balanced by a lasting grapefruit
like bitter finish. Winner of at least 22 awards!!!
Jaipur
96 by Ratebeer & Exceptional by Beer Advocate!
5.9% abv- India Pale Ale (IPA)
A wonderful IPA that has a beautiful light
golden appearance. On the nose, sweet
citrus notes prevail reminiscent of candied
lemon peel and combined deliciously with
hints of sundrenched tropical fruits.
To taste, the immediate impression is soft
and smooth but this rapidly builds around
the mouth to a crescendo of massive
hoppiness accentuated by honey with an
enduring IPA bitter finish.
Halcyon
98 by Ratebeer
7.7% abv - English Imperial IPA
This beer is similar to what original IPAs would
have been like back in the days in England.
Rich fruit and hop character in aroma. Chewy,
juicy malts and intense hoppiness coming
through in mouth with a hint of tangerine and
pear drops. Ends with a well-balanced bitterness.
St. Petersburg
96 by Ratebeer
7.7% abv- Russian Imperial Stout
Rich and dark with a smoke, subtle peatness and the power of dark malts. Molasses and liquorice and chocolate
goodness all wrapped up in a smooth, warming liquid. Finishes with a distinct humming bitterness carried well by
the hop and malt combo!
Birrificio del Ducato
Parma, Italy
Beginning in 2007, Ducato Microbrewery is today’s most awarded Italian brewery. It is located in Roncole Verdi, a small village in Parma County, birth place of world’s renowned composer Giuseppe Verdi and also home land of prestigious food such as Parma ham (Prosciutto) and fizzy wines such as Lambrusco and Malvasia. A land portraying a history of daily sacrifices and great passion.
Today Ducato keeps growing by launching a new craft beer line named BIA. This is a high quality beer (unfiltered and unpasteurized) targeting large distribution and featuring its own web site and on-line “viral” advertisement. On the other hand, the investigation on beer aging moves on, targeting both the experts and the connoisseurs of this style worldwide. In light of its success, Ducato Microbrewery has recently expanded by acquiring a brand new facility to increase production and enter the international market.
Also available fron Del Ducato
La Luna Rossa
A blend of different beers, some of which are barrel aged up to 2 years with morel and amarena cherries. Intense amber with ruby highlights, the nose is extraordinarily complex with fruity aromas of morel and amarena cherry perfectly blending with subtle ethereal notes, acetic and lactic flavors and hints of oxidized malts. It has a sapid, full mouthed lasting palate with a magnificently elevating sour finish. A beer for strong emotions, it is an homage to all lovers beyond time and space.
Harvest Saturday Beer Tasting w/ Peak Brewing
We’re Tasting w/ Peak Organic of Maine from 5:30pm Saturday February 16th
@842 Farmington Ave., West Hartford, CT 06119
Peak is a craft brewing company, dedicated to making delicious beer using local, artisan and organic ingredients.
With roots in home brewing back in the 90s, brewer Jon Cadoux set about combining his love for beer with an ethic for sustainability. Whenever possible, he would go out and find ingredients from local organic farmers for his homebrews. It was a defining day when Jon discovered that you don’t need to sacrifice flavor for sustainability, but that better ingredients actually made the beer more delicious.
simcoe® spring ale
We love the piney, fruity flavors of Simcoe® hops. This is a classic pale ale, single-hopped and dry-hopped with Simcoe. We cold condition this beer and give it a restrained malt profile, so the hops really pop, like flora in spring. Our friends Patrick, Jason and Brad grow these luscious hops and we hope you enjoy them as much as we do.
ABV: 5.4% IBUs: 66
Suggested food pairings: Risotto, Fish Tacos, Lamb, Salmon
IPA
This unique India Pale Ale features our favorite hops—Simcoe®, Amarillo® and Nugget. A generous Amarillo and Simcoe dry hop provide for an assertive, hop-forward nose and front palate. We don’t use traditional bittering hops in our IPA, providing nothing but stimulating citrus and floral characteristics.
Inspired by a recipe from our good friend and fellow homebrewer Tim from the North Shore Homebrewers Club.
ABV: 7.2% IBUs: 76
Suggested Food Pairings: Spicy foods, pesto, smoked meats, mild cheddar or mild blue cheese, gorgonzola
hop noir
Hop Noir is a delectable Black IPA, dripping with piney, aromatic Centennial hops. The malt base is dark and rich, anchored by organic black malt. This provides a strong foundation for the extravagant kettle hopping and dry-hopping that this beer experiences. Enjoy with a night-light.
ABV: 8.2% IBUs: 98
Suggested Food Pairings: Brie, grilled vegetables, lamb shank, pungent cheeses
oak aged mocha stout
This is an extravagant, immoderate beer. We mixed together our three favorite things – beer, chocolate, and coffee. A rich stout serves as a backbone, with organic black malt and chocolate malt providing a luscious foundation. During the boil, we add artisan chocolate from your friends at Taza. During conditioning, we add coffee from our friends at Coffee by Design. Then, this concoction is oak-aged, resulting in soft vanilla notes. We hope you enjoy this beer as much as we do.
ABV: 8.4 % IBUs: 22
Suggested Food Pairings: Delectable Deserts, Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches, and Salted Pretzels
![GRAB A SIX OR SINGLE AT HARVEST NOW!(via America’s First Craft Beer Makes a Comeback [PICS] New Albion Bottles – Beer Street Journal)](http://25.media.tumblr.com/b913ff036a4a764ab3cdd4a0b8200167/tumblr_mgrzm6kTFY1qbb9jdo1_400.jpg)
GRAB A SIX OR SINGLE AT HARVEST NOW!(via America’s First Craft Beer Makes a Comeback [PICS] New Albion Bottles – Beer Street Journal)
Austin from Thomas Hooker sampling Chocolate Truffle Vanilla Coffee Bean Stout at Harvests’ First Cask event of 2013… Looking forward to February when Olde Burnside Brewing will be bringing in a very special cask of a favorite of ours… Penny Weiz with a special twist for the Harvest faithful!
Stift Engelszell: the new Trappist brewery » Beer Travel | DRAFT Magazine
The world’s eighth Trappist brewery serves beer in Von Trapp style.
By Evan Rail
Fans of monastic beers had to get a start on their travel plans upon hearing about the arrival of the world’s eighth Trappist brewery, Stift Engelszell, which opened this past summer. Located in a remote corner of Upper Austria, Stift Engelszell lies halfway across Europe—a good 500 miles—from the traditional Trappist homelands of Belgium and Holland, in a scenic valley straight out of “The Sound of Music.” With an annual production scheduled for just 2,000 hectoliters (about 1,680 barrels), Stift Engelszell is easily the smallest Trappist brand, cranking out less than half of what Achel brews, and just a tiny fraction of what is produced by giants like La Trappe and Chimay. A few tips for your trip:
How to Get There: The nearest big city is Passau, a cool university town about 18 miles up the Danube (and across an irrelevant, now completely unused border) in Germany. Rent bikes in Passau and cycle to the monastery’s village of Engelhartszell: The well-paved bike trail follows the river through breathtaking scenery of soaring hills and swooping valleys, though the easy-to-pedal trail itself runs flat. And from late April through early October, daily passenger ferry boats make the journey on the water. 
What to Expect: A beautiful setting, meditative calm and the air of long-established spiritual practice—but no pub or café, at least not at the abbey itself. (Bars and restaurants in town stock other local beers, but the monastery production has been too small to regularly supply anyone else.) To sample the wares, your best option is picking up some bottles and a block of cheese at the monastery’s own shop, then picnicking on the riverbank. What to Drink: To slake your thirst, try Benno, the monastery’s hoppy, saison-style golden ale, about 7% ABV. Fans of strong dark ales should try Gregorius, whose pronounced Dutch cocoa flavors belie its 9.7% ABV. Both are made with local hops and an addition of local honey (though neither is meant to be a “honey beer,” per se). Gregorius has been pouring in the United States since late last year; Benno arrives shortly.
What to See: Originally built in 1293, the abbey is home to amazing architecture, most of which arrived courtesy of a Baroque-era rebuild. Art geeks can gawk at the main chapel’s massive ceiling fresco, a vintage-1957, Cubist-style depiction of the nine choruses of angels by the Austrian modernist Fritz Fröhlich, which makes a marked contrast to the circa-1760 statues of angels and the main altar’s Gothic-era crucifix, which dates from 1147. If you stop for a snack at the Klosterkrämerei café across from the church, you might even get to chat with one of the monks over a beer.
(Published January/February 2013 From Draft Magazine)
There Will Be Bourbon: Black Pepper and Bourbon Caramel Chews
We love candy almost as much as we love bourbon, so when we saw this recipe at Mercury News to make candy with our favorite spirit, we knew it was only a matter of time before we made some. The timing is perfect, as a bundle of these makes a wonderful small holiday gift.
Black Pepper…
Reblogged from There Will Be Bourbon
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