Sunday Night Suds - Saranac Red IPA

This week's Sunday Night Suds looks at Saranac Red IPA.

 

This week's post completes my review of the 2012 the Saranac Winter Box. As I have been mentioning in various posts over the last two months, the Saranac Winter Box has two of their better winter seasonal beers - the Chocolate Lager (reviewed here - http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2011/12/sunday-night-suds-saranac-chocolate.html ) and the Big Moose Ale (http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2009/11/sunday-night-suds-saranac-big-moose-ale.html ) along with four new varieties - the Black Bear Bock (http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2012/12/sunday-night-suds-saranac-black-bear.html), Belgian Pale Ale (http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2012/12/belated-sunday-night-suds-saranac.html), the 4059' Porter (reviewed last week here - http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2012/11/sunday-night-suds-saranac-4059-porter.html) and the Red IPA.

 

The experts at BA have classified this beer as an American Amber/Red Ale, which they define as:

 

Primarily a catch all for any beer less than a Dark Ale in color, ranging from amber (duh) to deep red hues. This style of beer tends to focus on the malts, but hop character can range from low to high. Expect a balanced beer, with toasted malt characters and a light fruitiness in most examples. The range can run from a basic ale, to American brewers who brew faux-Oktoberfest style beers that are actually ales instead of lagers.

I would not necessarily agree with BA as to their characterization of the beer as an American Amber. Although the category is apparently drawn wide intentionally, the beer leans more towards an IPA than an Oktoberfest type brew. I found that the beer had a nice hop bite with some piney aftertaste as well. The beer would go well with spicy chinese food or even lighter stews.

 

Saranac Red IPA is under the Kosher Supervision of the Va'ad of Detroit as is every other beer produced at the Matt Brewery plant in Utica, NY. Keep in mind, Saranac has begun to brew some of its High Peaks series off site and these bottles do not have kosher certification from the Va'ad of Detroit.

 

To see what the experts on Beer Advocate think about the Red IPA, please follow this link - www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/99/86600.

 

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 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 Vayechi

The following is a brief summary of thoughts said over by R' Frand on the parsha this evening. I have attempted to reproduce these 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 47:31 it is written that Yaakov knew that he was about to die and he called Yosef and asked him to come to his bed. Once Yosef arrived, Yaakov made Yosef promise that Yaakov would not be buried thereafter. Once Yosef agreed, the pasuk states that Yaakov got up and bowed to the head of the bed. Rashi learns from here that the Shechina is above the bed of a sick person. Even though Yaakov was weak, he bowed to honor the Shechina.

 

R' Frand quoted a sefer called Tiv HaTorah who asks - why is the Shechina on top of the bed of a sick person. He theorizes that when a person is sick he may take the attitude that Hashem has abandoned or hates him. However, the real reason that the person is sick is because Hashem feels that a person needs to go through this. This is the reason that Hashem is at the bedside - to let the person know, it is from Hashem and Hashem is there for the person.

 

The sefer Tiv HaTorah quoted a story involving R' Tzvi Kowalsy, who R' Frand said that he knew personally because he was the nephew of a fundraiser for Ner Yisrael called R' Chaim Nachman Kowalsky. When he was sick, people would come visit him and gave him kvitlach which he would put on top of his bed. He would put these kvitlach there because the Shechina was always present. The man did not feel that Hashem had abandoned him.

 

The second vort that R' Frand said related to Yaakov's exchange with Yosef wherein Yaakov says that he never thought that he would see Yosef again and now he sees Yosef's children. R' Frand asked - Yaakov came down to Egypt seventeen years before Yosef appeared at his bedside with Menashe and Ephraim. Yaakov had been living in Egypt for the last seventeen years and had obviously seen Yosef and his sons quite often. So why does Yaakov pick this time to say- I never thought I would see you again and now I even see your children?

 

R' Frand answered that people tend to forget events in their lives. We may have anniversaries that remind us of our weddings or the birth of a child or marrying off a child, but these become "old news." The pasuk tells this about Yaakov because every day Yaakov remembered that he never thought that he would see Yosef again and was so happy to see Yosef again.

 

The third vort said by R' Frand was given over in the name of R'Shmuel Birnbaum who was the former Rosh Yeshiva of the Mir in Brooklyn. R' Frand related that although the brochos given in the parsha may not all seem like typical brochos, they were in fact blessings as it is a great brocha to point out someone's strengths and weaknesses so that he knows what to work on the future. This can be seen in the brocha to Levi, where Yaakov points out Levi's trait of zealousness which Levi then develops and serves the Jews well at the Golden Calf. R' Frand pointed out other positive brochos before stopping at the blessing to Yosef.

 

In Bereishis 49:22-23, Yaakov calls Yosef a "charming child." However Yosef is also called gorgeous, to the point that Egyptian girls would climb the walls of the palace to catch a glimpse of Yosef. This is abnormal as the positive attributes of a person do not generally include statements about him being "drop dead gorgeous." The Torah then continues (and as interpreted by Rashi) the Torah states that Yosef's brothers hated him and spoke with sharp tongues about him. But how is this a brocha?

 

R' Birnbaum stated that people gravitate towards those who love them and value them and speak nicely about them. People tend to avoid those who speak harshly to then and clearly do not value them. Sometimes a child will leave his home or his peers because he feels that he is not valued, but people who live on the street love him. This is the brocha and strength of Yosef. Yosef knew that his brothers hated him and sold him down to Egypt. Yosef came to Egypt and the girls swooned over him. He could have tossed his identity away and followed the Egyptian girls. But Yosef remained steadfast to his religion. This is strength of character, the same strength he had to resist the wife of Potiphar when he was 17 years old. This is what Yaakov was recognizing in the brocha.

 

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Monday's Musings on Sports from Tim to Egypt and Back

Nearly a year ago, the sports world was abuzz about Tim Tebow. Tebow had been a superior college quarterback who was given no chance by most pundits at succeeding in the NFL. The scouts did not think that he had the throwing motion nor accuracy to succeed as an NFL QB. Tebow was drafted in the late first round of the NFL draft by the Denver Broncos, but he had seen almost no action in his first year in the NFL.

 

Last year, the Denver Broncos were foundering and the team had gone through two ineffective QBs. Out of sheer desperation and to satisfy the demands of the Tebow fans who had followed him from college in Florida to Denver, the Broncos begrudgingly put Tebow into a game. And the team started to win. Although a careful analysis of the Broncos games can yield any number of reasons that the team won seven of the first eight games that Tebow started, the immutable truth is that the Broncos won the games that Tebow started. The games were often ugly, but Tebow just could not be denied.

 

I remember watching the first round playoff game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Denver Broncos last year. Pittsburgh was down Ryan Clark because of the altitude in Denver (for more on Clark see my post here - http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2012/01/mondays-musings-on-sports-santonio.html). I could not believe that the Broncos had been able to keep up with the mighty Pittsburgh Steelers, but somehow the regular session ended in a tie. A few minutes into overtime, Tebow his Demaryus Thomas with a perfect seam pass and he was off to the races. Although the Bronocos got punched in the gut the following week, the legend of Tebow was born.

 

A few months later, the Indianapolis Colts cut Peyton Manning due to concerns about his health and the fact that Andrew Luck had fallen into their laps. Peyton visited a few teams and took a couple of phone calls before he decided that Denver was his best choice as a free agent. Not long after, Denver traded Tebow to the Jets. And the Jets season was stillborn before they played their first game.

 

There have been far too many articles written about why Tebow was a bad fit from the start for the Jets. Be it Sanchez's fragile ego, the lack of a plan for the use of Tebow or the fact that the offense had too many holes which needed to be filled, the Tebow experimented was destined for failure.

 

So the Jets started their season and the Sanchize had some good and some not so good games. Still, their defense kept them in games and their playoff hopes were still alive at the midway point of the season. However soon after, Sanchez had some brutal games, none worse than the debacle against New England which gave the Jets their seventh loss. At this point, the Jets knew that another loss would doom their playoff hopes. When Sanchez started poorly against Arizona the following week, Jets Head Coach Rex Ryan brought in the backup QB, but it was not Tebow since he was unavailable due to injury. Instead, third string QB Greg McElroy saved the day and for the moment, the season.

 

The next week, the Sanchize was back in as QB and the team barely managed to scrape out wins against bad teams. Tebow eventually made his way back from injury, but he was not put in to spell an ineffective Sanchez. After the Jets were finally (mercifully) eliminated, the team announced that it would bench Sanchez and that ... McElroy would start the game against the SD Chargers. Although the Jets lost the game 27-17 and McElroy had flashes of competency (he was sacked 11 times), the Jets did not replace him with Tebow.

 

To his credit, through it all, Tebow has been stoic and has not publicly said a bad word about Jets ownership, management, his teammates or coaches. In fact, each time that Tebow is interview he does everything but criticize the Jets or call anyone out.

 

Tebow's positive demeanor despite his humiliating treatment brings to mind a vort I saw in the name of the Netziv about Yosef. In last week's parsha, Yosef finally breaks down and tells the brothers that he is really Yosef. Prior to this event, Yosef sends all the Egyptians out of the room so as to not embarrass the brothers. Once the Egyptians have left, Yosef says to his brothers - I am Yosef, is my father still alive. The Netziv asks - why is it that Yosef does not say "I am Yosef who you sold down to Egypt?" The Netziv answers that even though the Egyptians were out of the room, Yosef was concerned that they could hear him speaking from their location in the antechamber and in an attempt to protect his brothers from embarrassment, Yosef did not fully call his brothers out.

 

This is the way of all those who think positive and know that what matters is what they can do, not putting others in their place.

 

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Belated Sunday Night Suds - Saranac Belgian Pale Ale

This week's (belated) Sunday Night Suds looks at Saranac' Belgian Pale Ale.

 

Due to the fact that yesterday was the Jewish fast of Asarah B'Teves, I deferred this week's new brew until tonight. (Unfortunately, I have yet to find a beer that goes with lasagna which was what Mrs KB made to break our fast).

 

As I mentioned last month, the Saranac Winter Box has two of their better winter seasonal beers - the Chocolate Lager (reviewed here - http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2011/12/sunday-night-suds-saranac-chocolate.html ) and the Big Moose Ale (http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2009/11/sunday-night-suds-saranac-big-moose-ale.html ) along with four new varieties - a Red IPA, Black Bear Bock (http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2012/12/sunday-night-suds-saranac-black-bear.html), Belgian Pale Ale and the 4059' Porter (reviewed last week here - http://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2012/11/sunday-night-suds-saranac-4059-porter.html).

 

The Saranac Belgian Pale Ale is a very good American take on a Belgian Pale Ale. The beer has a good amount of spice which emanates from the yeast. It also is not very heavy in its alcohol taste nor content (it is 5.4% abv which is on the lower end of the spectrum for this style) would allow you to have more than one if you had the desire to do so.

 

The flavor profile also allows for a variety of pairings (but sadly, not lasagna). The beer would go well with rich poultry dishes to lightly spiced meat, but not stews/cholent. I had the Saranac Belgian Pale Ale with chicken and spiced red quinoa and the pairing was quite good. If you have tried a combination that works for you, please shoot me an email or post a comment with your thoughts.

 

Saranac Belgian Pale Ale is under the Kosher Supervision of the Va'ad of Detroit as is every other beer produced at the Matt Brewery plant in Utica, NY. Keep in mind, Saranac has begun to brew some of its High Peaks series off site and these bottles do not have kosher certification from the Va'ad of Detroit.

To see what the experts on Beer Advocate think about the Belgian Pale Ale, please follow this link - www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/99/86607.

 

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 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 Vayigash

The following is a brief summary of thoughts said over by R' Frand on the parsha this evening. I have attempted to reproduce these 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.

 

This week's parsha contains the culmination of the Yosef story as Yosef reveals himself to the  brothers and asks whether his father is still alive. The revelation takes place after Yehuda pleads with Yosef that the brothers have an old father who needs them and that they must be allowed to return with Binyamin.

 

R' Frand asked - why is it that Yosef listens to Yehuda now when he had not paid him any mind before when Yehuda had told the same story? R' Frand offered two answers to the question.

 

The first answer proposed by R' Frand relates to a Rama in Shulchan Aruch. The Rama states that when a person is about to begin shemoneh esreh, he should take three steps back and then take three steps forward. The Rama quotes the Rokeach who explains that the source for this act is that the Tanach contains the word Vayigash three times - each of which making reference to davening. The word is written once by Avraham and once by Eliyahu, both in instances where it is obvious they are in the act of praying. However, the Rokeach states that Yehuda was also praying when he spoke with Yosef and that this act of prayer was enough for Hashem to influence Yosef to forgive the brothers.

 

R' Frand said that we see from this that there are times when a person prays and they feel he is not being answered. The gemara in Berachos says that if a person prays and does not receive an answer, he should pray again. We also see a similar concept by Moshe in Parshas Vaeschanan that Hashem told him - stop praying because if you pray one more time, I will have to allow you to enter the land of Israel.

 

This is the message of the story - when Yehuda prayed again while speaking to Yosef, it was enough to allow Hashem to push Yosef to relent.

 

The second explanation which R' Frand referred to came from the Ohr Hachaim Hakadosh. He writes that the way that a person thinks about another is the same way that a person thinks about him. He compared it to looking in a mirror or pool of water - the way you look when you look into the reflection will be what you see back.

 

The Ohr Hachaim explains that previously Yehuda despised Yosef and it was obvious on his face. This time, Yehuda worked on himself to act warmly towards Yosef and be nicer and kinder. This was what pushed Yosef into revealing himself to them.

 

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 - Is there an NHL anymore and how R' Aharon Kotler met the Mob

With all the serious events which occurred over the last few months, I wanted to try to lighten things up by looking at what has become a joke of a league - the NHL.

 

During the last twenty years there have been three work stoppages in the NHL. The first came in 1994, the season after the NY Rangers won their first Stanley Cup in more than fifty years. The NHL was riding a wave of popularity with Wayne Gretzky in LA, the Rangers as Stanley Cup champs, Jaromir Jagr driving the Pittsburgh Penguins and a young goaltender named Marty Brodeur about to enter his prime.

 

And then, the league locked out the players and the season did not start until January 1995. The season was shrunk to nearly half of its usual length (48 games) and the fans shrugged their shoulders and watched basketball instead.

 

Nine years later the NHL again locked out their players after they could not come to an agreement on an extended Collective Bargaining Agreement. This time, there was no mid-Winter compromise and the 2004-2005 season was cancelled. When an agreement was finally reached, the league also hammered through some competition rule changes which included the use of shootouts to settle regular season games (instead of ending in ties). The resultant product was more exciting, but the fans and players lost a season of hockey.

 

After the LA Kings finally won their first Stanley Cup last spring, the league again locked out its players. As of my writing this post, all NHL games through New Year's have been cancelled and other than hockey purists, no one seems to care.

 

A few weeks ago I was in a sporting goods store with one of my daughters and I said to one of the clerk's - when is there going to be hockey? He pointed me to the hockey merchandise. I said to him - no, when will there be any hockey games. Although he worked in a large national sporting goods store he was clearly oblivious and he responded to me - they will start playing games in a few weeks.

 

What the NHL fails to understand is that by cancelling games they do more than just hit the players in the wallet. They deprive people of their livelihood and drive fans away from a sport which could use all the exposure that it could get. While the ultimate dollars and sense is certainly important, the prospect of cancelling a full season for the second time in less than a decade, threatens to make hockey irrelevant.

 

So to return to the reason that I started this post, I saw an article which made me laugh, even though it is more pathetic than anything else. As was reported in the Yahoo Puck Daddy blog (http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck-daddy/leafs-joffrey-lupul-discovers-nhl-lockout-extends-restaurant-224713372--nhl.html) an NHL player was denied service at a sports restaurant in Toronto which is owned by the Maple Leafs. The reason given by the restaurant is that during the NHL lockout, the team may not permit the players to have access to any of its facilities, including team owned restaurants. The player joked in the article that it is OK for the restaurant to sell jerseys with his name on them for $300 a pop, but he can't get a reservation at the restaurant. I had to wonder whether the Cablevision owned NY Rangers had cancelled service to any Rangers player.

 

The humor of the story and the fact that the team's lack of perspective on service at the restaurant made me think of a story that Rabbi Frand told last Thursday Night about R' Aharon Kotler and Joe Bonanno. During WWII, some boys from a yeshiva had tried to escape Europe by crossing through Nazi allied Italy. They were captioned and imprisoned and faced certain death. R' Aharon Kotler and R' Moshe Sherrer went to Joe Bonanno to see if he could use his influence in Italy in order to obtain the students' release and safe package. During this meeting, Joe Bonanno asked R' Kotler for a brocha (blessing). R' Frand stopped his telling of the story and asked the audience - what kind of brocha can you give a murderer? He continued the story and explained that the blessing given by R' Kotler was that Bonanno should die in his own bed (as opposed to prison or at the hand of an enemy).

 

While this may not seem like a blessing to you or me, it was very valuable to Joe Bonanno. (The story concludes that twenty years later a limo pulled up in Lakewood as Bonanno's son wanted a similar bracha. However at this point R' Aharon Kotler was long deceased). Still it is a strong indicia of the power of perspective.

 

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