Espresso Stout Floats

Photo by Athena Damianos

Ingredients

12 oz Espresso Stout, I like Twisted Pine's
1 scoop French Vanilla Ice Cream
Whipped Cream and Cherry 

Directions

Pour stout into your favorite mug and add a scoop of ice cream.  Top with whipped cream and cherry.

Pearl Street Porter Braised Short Ribs

Recipe by Terroir Restaurant

Ingredients

1 – 12oz bottle Pearl Street Porter
¼ cup molasses
2 dried ancho chilies
3 cloves of whole garlic
¼ cup of tomato paste
1 cinnamon stick
1 carrot, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 daikon radish, chopped
1 stalk of celery, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 onion, peeled and cut into quarters
64oz stock (vegetable, chicken or beef) (low sodium)
salt and pepper to taste
2 ½ pounds of bison short ribs (beef if you can't get bison), bones separated

Directions

Cut the ribs between the bones creating individual bone-in pieces of rib. Rub with salt and pepper and set aside.

Heat a large skillet pan or pot with vegetable oil (about 1/8 inch deep). When hot, add bison pieces, brown on all sides over high heat and remove from pot.
Drain hot oil from pot and add 1 tablespoon of new oil, add carrots, daikon, onions, celery, and whole garlic cloves. Brown lightly.

Add porter and bring to a boil. Add tomato paste, molasses, ancho chili, and cinnamon stick. Stir to incorporate everything. Add the ribs back into the pot with the liquid.

Add enough stock to cover the ribs by 1/2 inch. Bring the mixture to a simmer, cover with a lid or aluminum foil, and lower the heat to medium low. Cook on low covered for 3 hours or until the meat pulls away from the bone. With a slotted spoon, remove the ribs and strain the liquid into a new sauce pan. Reduce the liquid by half and taste for salt. Add the ribs back into the liquid to hold until you are ready to serve. At this point you can serve right away or place in the refrigerator. The fat will naturally rise to the surface overnight and can easily be removed.

Serve with green chili and sweet corn polenta or mashed, roasted or boiled potatoes.

Snowmass Chili and Beer Festival

A festival devoted to chili and beer, how can you go wrong? The event featured over 30 different varieties of chilies and 50+ breweries pouring everything from beer laced with chamomile(Crazy Mountain Brewery of Vail) to the hottest beer in the world(Ghost Face Killah from Twisted Pine in Boulder). Top everything off with performances by Kyle Hollinsworth of String Cheese, The Wailers and P-Funk and you’ve got a party.

As far as the chili went, there were definitely some standouts this year. My vote goes to the friendly girl with the pulled pork chili. One of the most unique chilies I’ve ever had, both in flavor and ingredients – bacon, pork, beef, 3 kinds of beers and 3 kinds of beans. It was savory, sweet and hearty all at the same time.

Breckenridge Brewery brought out an Imperial Pilsner that was perfectly balanced at around 40 IBU’s and had a nice subtle malt backbone and just over 7% alcohol . Brew Dog, out of Scotland, was also pouring at the fest. Now, I consider Brew Dog one of the best breweries of our time, but they definitely out did themselves with a barrel aged IPA that picked up an incredible smoky peat flavor. While the peat flavor was the dominate flavor in the beer it was not overpowering in the least bit. This one is sure to be a favorite of the scotch drinkers of the world.