Unfiltered

Thanksgiving is now a thing of the past, and I hope that my little guide was helpful to everyone, and that you all had a great time feasting. It’s now time to get out all of the lights, Christmas trees, and holiday decorations and get all festive! It’s also time to think about parties, entertaining guests, so why not inject the festivities with beer? I have a couple, if not more, blogs on this subject in the coming weeks mostly because I love Christmas, it’s truly the most fun holiday for me. You get to give gifts, spend time with family and friends, eat, drink, be merry- all that good stuff. Since I have already purchased our tree, put up the lights (while most of you were in line at some big box hell hole last weekend), it’s time to talk about PARTY TIME!! Since this is part one, I am going to give some previews of what is coming up.

A couple of close friends of mine who enjoy the holidays and craft beer much like I do, have an annual holiday beer party. This is an outstanding idea for a get together. The premise of the party, other than having a lot of fun is for everyone to bring different holiday beers for everyone to try. It doesn’t have to be a straight up six pack of one type, it can be a bunch of different singles put together as well. Most areas of the country have someplace to purchase single beers and throw a bunch together, weather it’s a wine shop, beverage warehouse, Packie (if you live in the northeast), Whole Foods Markets and some regional grocery chains generally have a some as well.  This year I asked them if we could do a little interaction with the guests and get their feelings/ratings of all of the beers, and pair some foods up with the beers. So we are going to give this angle a shot it will be fun and we are going to do some video of it so you can get a feel for it. The food is going to be of the snacking/appetizer variety so we have a few things to pair up with the range of beers which run the gamut of flavors and styles. If you are interested in my ratings for these beers and others I have put up a Facebook page that has ratings brewery info and will have some other things that won’t be on here, so give me a like at (insert link) and you can get all of my input. So here is our menu, in the follow up post I will throw the recipes up for them.

Sausage Balls (yeah I know, you are a 3^rd grader stop laughing)

Curried Chicken Salad

Goat Cheese and Tomato Jam Spread

Eggplant Caponata

Butternut Squash and Tahini dip

Assorted salty snacks

So there’s the menu. I’ll give you a rundown on the reasons we chose these killer snacks in the next post on the party. Stay tuned for more. I am, as we speak constructing a brunch for your Christmas morning that is powered by craft beer, and fueled by local businesses here in wonderful Cleveland Ohio, it can be (recreated elsewhere to an extent) and well is going to be awesome if I can tout my skills for a moment. If you are interested in my ratings for holiday beers and others I have put up a Facebook page that has ratings, brewery info, and will have some other things that won’t be on here, so give me a like at Unfiltered on Facebook and you can get all of my input.