Sunday Night Suds - Saranac Vanilla Stout

This week's Sunday Night Suds looks at Saranac Vanilla Stout.

I was very excited when I first saw that Saranac had begun distribution of their 12 Beers of winter. As usual, the box contains six varieties (two bottles of each) of Saranac limited edition brews. This year's variety box included two holdovers from last year - the Rye IPA (reviewed here) and one of my favorites, the Big Moose Ale (reviewed here). Much to my wife's chagrin and despite her lobbying efforts, the 12 beers of winter did not contain the Maple Porter which she has described as equally suited for a brew or to have with ice cream.

The Saranac Vanilla Stout is one of those beers that the good folks at FX Matt produce on a limited basis every couple of years. I believe that the last time that this was produced was winter 08-09.

As classified by the experts at BA, the Vanilla Stout is an American Stout which they explain are :

Inspired from English & Irish Stouts, the American Stout is the ingenuous creation from that. Thankfully with lots of innovation and originality American brewers have taken this style to a new level. Whether it is highly hopping the brew or adding coffee or chocolate to complement the roasted flavors associated with this style. Some are even barrel aged in Bourbon or whiskey barrels. The hop bitterness range is quite wide but most are balanced. Many are just easy drinking session stouts as well.

The Saranac Vanilla Stout is not an easy drinking session beer as the brew leans to the heavy side and seems more akin to a chocolate stout than anything else. I did not taste the vanilla in the brew (it is an additive and not hop derived) and although I followed the bottle's exhortation to try with a piece of dark chocolate, I did not find the pairing to my liking.

Bottom line - if you are looking to try out a new stout and are OK with just drinking one or two, give the Saranac Vanilla Stout a shot. Just don't go into this expecting Guinness...

Saranac Vanilla Stout is under the Kosher Supervision of the Va'ad of Detroit, as is every other brew produced by Saranac. To see what the experts on Beer Advocate think about Saranac Vanilla Stout, please follow this link http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/99/45428.

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver.

If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable).

Finally, if you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com/ to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Vayeshev

The following is a brief summary of two vorts said over by R' Frand on the parsha. I have attempted to reproduce the vorts to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Frand.

In Bereishis 37:3, the Torah writes that Yaakov loved Yosef more than any of the other brothers because he was a "ben zekunim" - a child of Yaakov's old age. Rashi explains that Yosef was a ben zekunim because Yosef was born when Yaakov was old. Yet this presents the obvious question - Binyamin was eight years youger than Yosef, so why wasn't Binyamin the ben zekunim?

The Rashbam answers the question by explaining that Yosef was already the ben zekunim for eight years before Binyamin came along. Since Yosef was entrenched as the ben zekunim in Yaakov's eyes, Binyamin could not displace him.

The Chizkuni offers a darker answer to the question. He notes that that Rachel died when Binyamin was born. As such, when Yaakov looked at Binyamin, he was reminded that his favorite wife had died while giving birth to Binyamin. This prevented Yaakov from having a close relationship with Binyamin.

Later in the parsha, Yaakov sends Yosef to look for his brothers who are herding sheep in the city of Shechem (Bereishis 37:12-13). R' Frand quoted R' Gifter who asked why we need to know that they were in Shechem? R' Gifter answered his own question by noting that Shechem was the site of the brother's greatest show of achdus. At the risk of their lives, the brothers went into Shechem and went to war for their sister's honor. Yaakov knew that the brothers had issues with Yosef and therefore he tried to put them all together in a location which would reignite that sense of achdus. Unfortunately, by the time that Yosef gets there, the brothers have already left Shechem and the rest is history...

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com/ to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up.

Sunday Night Suds - Leinenkugel Sunset Wheat

This week's Sunday Night Suds looks at Leinenkugel Sunset Wheat.

Every time that I drink this beer, I seem to have chili around. I first picked up this brew when our daf yomi group was making our siyum for Horayos. Since it was a Thursday night, the siyum belonged to Bency S and he announced that he was going to be serving chili at the siyum. A couple of guys brought cake and crackers, but I wanted to bring beer, because that's what I do. I went down to the Beverage Barn looking for something in the fridge which would work and I saw the Leinenkugel Sunset Wheat. I had never tried this version of Leinenkugel, but since they make a quality brew and witbiers usually go well with smoky chili.

When I showed up at the siyum I was surprised to learn that the chili was vegetarian. Would a witbier do well with a meatless chili? The overwhelming answer was yes. Although the crowd was made up of mostly non-beer drinkers, they all enjoyed the Sunset Wheat with Bency's overspiced chili. I brought one of the left over bottles home and Mrs Kosher Beers really enjoyed it too.

Fast forward to dinner this evening and I had my last bottle of Sunset Wheat was chilling in the fridge waiting to be the subject of this week's post. My oldest daughter Penina asked Sarah to make Mexican food for dinner, which for us means hot wings, chips and salsa and chili and rice. This time the Sunset Wheat really worked with the chili. I don't know if its the coriander or other spice/flavor that they add to the brew, but this souped up Witbier is a great pairing with chili.

Leinenkugel Sunset wheat is certified kosher by the Orthodox Union, although the product currently in the marketplace does not yet have an OU on the label. If you would like a copy of the LOC please contact me via email.

To see what the experts on Beer Advocate think about Leinenkugel Sunset Wheat, please follow this link http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/710/29015.

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver.

If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable).

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com/ to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Vayishlach

The following is a brief summary of a vort said over by R' Frand on the parsha. I have attempted to reproduce the vort to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Frand.

In the beginning of the fourth aliyah, the parsha tells the order of the introduction of Yaakov's family to Esav. The Torah recites at Bereishis 32:6 that the shfachos and then their children came forward to greet Esav. The next pasuk indicates that Leah then came forward with her children and afterwards Yosef and Rachel. Rashi explains that the reason that Rachel followed her child instead or preceeding him was that Yosef reasoned that his mother was beautiful and that he did not want Esav to eye her. As such Yosef said I will block him (a'akvenu) from seeing her.

R' Frand quoted the sefer Seder Hadoros which teaches that Yosef at the time was either four or six years old. R' Frand then asked, given Yosef's diminutive stature, how could he have prevented Esav from seeing Rachel? Furthermore, even if he could get in the way for a moment, Esav would just walk around so that he could see Rachel!

R' Frand then quoted a medrash which states that Yosef grew to be six feet tall when he attempted to block Esav. However, Yosef could not have known that this would happen and could not have been anticipating it when he stood in front of Rachel, so why did he act?

R' Frand answered by quoting the Tolner Rebbi that Yosef's use of the term a'akvenu teaches that Yosef reasoned that even if he could just block Esav for a little bit, it would be worthwhile. This was Yosef's game plan - even a little is better than nothing.

R' Frand then told a story about the Tolner Rebbi and the birth of his son. The Rebbi had two daughters before having a son. He wanted to name the boy after his father in law, but his father in law's middle name was the same as the Rebbi's first name. He also knew that while his father in law was alive, his father in law believed that one needed to use both the names of the deceased when naming. The Rebbi was unsure how to proceed, so he sent a messenger to the Gerre Rebbi to ask the question. He received back an answer - nothing is nothing, if you do this it will at least be something (R Frand said this in Yiddish and it sounded much better that way).

This was the message and the method of Yosef. Even if someone cannot be completely successful, he should try and do what he can, rather then giving up.

R' Frand brought a proof to this from a medrash about Yosef's interaction with Potiphera. The Torah writes that every day she tried to seduce him, but he resisted. The medrash explains that she said to him - one day you will give in to me. Yosef would respond to her, this may be correct, but it will not happen today. This was yet another example of Yosef's method of looking at things in smaller increments and doing what he could under the circumstances.

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up.

Monday's Musings on Sports - When Not to Follow One's Nature

As regular readers of this blog are aware, the Monday post was usually devoted to sports with highlights and analysis of the Max Kellerman show which formerly aired on 1050 ESPN Radio. Although Max resigned from 1050 more than a year ago, I have tried to continue the tradition of linking sports to Torah which I believe was an undercurrent of the Max Kellerman show.

Over the last few weeks, the National Football League has begun to crack down on blows to the head, tackles where the aggressor leads with his helmet, and hits on players who are defenseless or otherwise unprepared for the shot. This enforcement was not the result of any change in the rules, but rather an attempt by the NFL to deter players from being too agressive in their play.

Following the NFL's announcement in Week Six, the pundits began to speculate as to the cause of the NFL's actions and whether it would impact on the quality of play. Most writers suggested that the league was cracking down as a result of the number of concussions and other serious injuries which had already been incurred this year. But the main focus of discussion was whether the league's enforcement would cause players to change the way that they tackled. While players had been taught since high school the method to maximize impact when hitting other players (glorified on sports TV networks), the rules change/enforcement would penalize players severely for those hits, regardless of whether the tackled player was hurt.

In the first few weeks since the NFL's announcement, the early returns indicate that players are forgoing the "knock out" hit and are attempting to tackle lower or in some cases, slower.

The discussion as to whether players would change their method of hitting made me think of a vort that I heard from Rabbi Mansour about Avraham and Yaakov. Avraham's nature was one of chesed - kindness towards all. Hashem tested Avraham by making him believe that he would have to sacrifice his son Yitzchak on an altar. When faced with this test, Avraham could have said - sorry, this is against my nature and I can't do it. Had Avraham taken this tact, he would have demonstrated that the motivation for his chesed was not divine, but rather was because he felt that he needed to be a nice guy. Therefore, Hashem tested him to see if he would go against his nature.

Similarly, Yaakov's nature was one of truthfulness. As such, Yaakov was tested in that he was told to dress as his brother Esav in order to obtain the bechor's bracha. Yaakov could have resisted this test by stating that he could not lie. Instead, Yaakov davened to Hashem that he should not be influenced by this single act of deception.

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up.

Sunday Night Suds - Red Baron Lime

Continuing with the lime flavored beer reviews which started last week, this week's Sunday Night Suds looks at Red Baron Lime.

As discussed in last week's post, there are a few kosher lime flavored beers. The "oldest" of the kosher lime flavored beers is the Rising Moon (reviewed here), the Blue Moon spring seasonal beer which is brewed with kieffer lime leaves and lime zest. More recent entries in this field are the New Belgium Skinny Dip (reviewed here) and most recently, Miller Lime Chill.

Suffice it to say that all lime flavored beers are not created equal. While the New Belgium Skinny Dip and the Blue Moon Rising Moon provide drinkable brews with a hint of lime essence, the Red Baron Lime is like drinking a beer with a dum dum lollypop at the bottom of the bottle. The lime flavoring added to the brew hits you when you open the bottle and keep coming at you with every sip. I tried pairing this brew with various foods and there really was no flavor that was not overwhelmed by the lime flavoring in the beer. I even "tried" sharing this brew with Mrs Kosher Beers and she wanted nothing to do with it.

Red Baron Lime is certified kosher by the COR. Although the Red Baron Lime is not listed on their website as one of the approved beers from the Brick Brewery, I confirmed with Rabbi Norman of the COR by phone that the Red Baron Lime is acceptable. As to whether you would actually want to drink this beer, that's up to you...

For the experts' take on Red Baron Lime click here http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/416/54086.

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver.

If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable).

If you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click http://www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com/ to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!