A new recipe, a mistake, and a great new sweet beer discovery.

So for the past several months, and I guess years, I have been experimenting with cooking more . Rather than go out to bars and knosh on greasy french fries, I have been cooking my own burgers, wings, and other good treats.

This year has become the year of the burger. when a local restaurant closed for a month or so, the time was right. I searched for recipes, talked to friends about what they liked in or on burgers, and came up with a list of recipes.

I made the first one about two weeks ago, and have been tinkering with it since. Originally it was in a book as a combo beef, red bell pepper burger garnished with basil. Tempting yes, but I need some more heat and more flavor for my tastes. Subtracting the basil and adding a jalapeno pepper was crucial.

The icing on the cake, was when I decided to add guacamole to the burger as a topping. I had a burger that had the guac as a topping in Newport months ago, and it was delicious. The combination of the bell pepper for flavor, the jalapeno for heat, and the guac for a mellow flavor addition really balance well.

If you wish to have the recipe, please e-mail me. agogliati.michael@gmail.com.

Now, on to the mistake and the discovery. I rarely make mistakes with my beers. This was one of those cases. while the beer itself wasn’t a mistake,pairing it with the burger was. During a microbrew hunt, i found Never Summer Ale by Boulder Brewing in Colorado. For some reason, I got it in my head that the beer was a summer ale. It’s not…not even close.

It is described as a winter warmer by some reviewers, and it is in fact a winter ale. The beer is great, it’s a fruity ale, that pours well, displays a great amber, almost red in color. It sits at almost six percent alcohol, but doesn’t seem as potent. I can imagine that the beer would be great in the winter time, and I look forward to drinking it then, not in May and June.

Lastly, the discovery. I was covering a beer tasting event for work and found a raspberry beer that is almost a champagne. The beer is Lindeman’s Framboise. It is best served with chocolate dishes, ice cream or in the summer with fruit dishes. I drank it straight up, and was blown away with the flavor. The beer is incredible.

So there you have it, a burger, two beers and…no dogs yet. Still working out the details. So Fill it up, drink it down (responsibly) and have fun!

Cheers!

Mike