Victory Beer Blog

Life in a growing American brewery

Cooking with Beer this Thanksgiving? 4 Amazing Recipes

Friday, November 12, 2010 at 7:49pm

About this time last year we shared with everyone our picks for pairing Thanksgiving Dinner and Victory beer, but for 2010 we wanted to take it one step further. This year we asked our acclaimed Brewpub chefs to compile their secret recipes featuring Victory beer. As soon as we saw what they put together we knew that it would make this year’s Turkey Day one for the history books. We hope you experiment with these recipes (see below) and let us know what you think. Feel free to upload pictures and thoughts to our Facebook Wall, our Flickr Account, or hit us up on Twitter. Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Prima Poached Shrimp

5 lbs. 16/20 shrimp (shells on)
68oz Victory Prima Pils
2 white onions, chopped
3 lemons, quartered
10 whole peppercorns
1 bay leaf

Bring all ingredients except the shrimp to a boil. Once at a boil, add shrimp and poach at medium high heat for 6-7 minutes.

Serve hot or submerge in ice water to serve cold.

HopDevil Brussel Sprout Hash

1 lb brussel sprouts, trimmed
1 ½ cups sliced shallots
½ lb butter
1 tbsp minced garlic
12 oz. Victory HopDevil Ale
2 tbsp cider vinegar
4 tsp sugar

Melt butter in large sauté pan. Add garlic and shallots and sauté until translucent. Add the HopDevil Ale and reduce by half. Once reduced, add the cider vinegar, sugar and brussel sprouts. Continue to cook for 3-4 minutes until most of the beer is gone. Season with salt and pepper.

Pumpkin Apricot Cheesecake with Graham Cracker Crumb

2 ¼ lbs. cream cheese
¼ cup Victory Golden Monkey
¾ cup pumpkin puree
1 ½ cups sugar
¼ cup brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp clove, ground
¼ tsp nutmeg
3 eggs
2 egg yolks
1 cup dried apricot puree

Recipe for graham cracker crumb
¼ cup sugar
2 cups chopped pecans
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
4 oz. melted butter
Combine all ingredients. Press into cheesecake pan to form crust.


Combine all ingredients and mix thoroughly. Assemble recipe for Pumpkin Cheesecake Crumbs. Spread thin layer of pureed apricots on top on crumbs. Spread cream cheese filling evenly over apricot puree. (Tip before baking: tap pan on table surface to remove air bubbles). Bake in water bath at 350° for 20 minutes.

Rosemary and Sage Stuffing with Helios Ale

2 onions, diced
1 cup celery, diced
1 large focaccia, staled one day
8 sprigs rosemary, destemmed
¼ cup sage, chopped
3 eggs
½ cup scallion, sliced
Victory Helios Ale (or chicken stock) as needed
salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients except Helios. Use the Helios to moisten the stuffing. Put mixture into a greased baking pan or casserole dish and bake at 325° for about 30 minutes or until top is golden brown.

Monster Mutant Mashups?

Thursday, October 14, 2010 at 4:36pm

Victory RELUCTANTLY explores the art of mixing beers.

It’s October and that means two things. Phillies post season baseball and Halloween. While we celebrate the Phightins every day, we thought this year we would throw a little treat into our bag of tricks. It’s no secret that ever since Bill and Ron started producing beer there have been Mad Beer Scientists who mix them together to see what happens. Some German trained brewers may scream in horror at the mere idea of mashing together their pure-bred flavors, but we convinced Victory Brewmaster Bill Covaleski to try these mutant beers on camera for the first time and give his real opinion.

For those mad ‘mixologists’ at home, here is a quick guide to the Victory’s Monster Mashups:

  • Silver Back: 1/2 Golden Monkey and 1/2 Storm King Stout
  • DarkDevil: 1/2 HopDevil and 1/2 Storm King Stout
  • Monkey On The Moon: 1/2 Moonglow and 1/2 Golden Monkey
  • Don King: 1/2 Donnybrook Stout and 1/2 Storm King Stout
  • Mad Monkey: 1/2 Golden Monkey and 1/2 Mad King Weiss
  • Victory Half n’ Half: 1/2 Prima Pils and 1/2 HopDevil

Have you created your own Mutants with Victory beers? Are we missing any from this list?

A Nervous Brewer on Wine Library TV?

Sunday, September 19, 2010 at 8:00pm

 

Victory Co-Founder prepares before his appearance on Wine Library TV with Gary Vaynerchuck.

I’ve watched Gary Vaynerchuk’s Wine Library TV off and on for some time now, in an attempt to build my wine knowledge and maybe score some new flavor discoveries at a discount. I have to admit, the education is not going all that well as my scattered brain is piling wine detail upon detail, losing the proverbial forest for the trees.

But I keep coming back to the “Thundershow” for the show of it. Chock full of passion and wide-eyed exuberance, Gary ‘Vee’ literally tackles wine each day in an effort to wrestle it and it’s mysteries to the ground, for all to enjoy and learn from. His energy and enthusiasm is genuine and bordering on maniacal.
With this in mind, I sat down in his studio/office in New Jersey on Monday, to expose three of our beers to the man that is the online king of wine. Me, nervous?
As you’ll glimpse from the show, Gary represents a unique personality that can focus passion into an intelligent endeavor. A product that folks want to consume. I am not talking about consuming wine. Sure, that is one of the results of his teaching. But his real product is education. And he dishes this valuable stuff out for free.
What young man would take time each day to self produce an educational show that broadcasts free of charge?
The answer is a young man that recognizes opportunity. I realized that the beautiful multi-story wine, beer and spirits emporium that Gary oversees there in Springfield, New Jersey is pretty unique in it’s attention to detail, inventory and merchandising. Momentarily, I had difficulty envisioning the family beer and spirits shop that Gary tells me he grew this out of over the last decade. But, looking at and listening to Gary in person, it is abundantly clear that an entrepreneurial fire burns brightly in him, turning many opportunities that other souls would simply overlook, into chances to excel and set new expectations for the audience he serves. Offering a public service, I truly hope that Gary is getting rich doing this. 
Oops, there I go, cheering for capitalism. Seriously, this guy should be cheered on as he’s taking risks and harming no one.
Cheers,
Bill Covaleski

 

Episode 1:

 

Episode 2:

Thanksgiving Victory

Thursday, November 19, 2009 at 3:35pm

Yesterday we tweeted (yes, it’s officially a verb) the question that’s on everyone’s mind the week before Thanksgiving, “What Victory Beers pair best with Thanksgiving?” You didn’t disappoint with your answers. Here are a couple of our favorites:

‘Storm King Stout is better with Pumpkin Pie than whipped cream!’ – TheWhiteLilKim

‘Variety pack. I give my family members a choice.’ – chriscavallucci

‘I’m bringing a case of Lager to my Thanksgiving feast, fingers crossed that everyone doesn’t drink beer & leaves it all to me!’ – Chroma914

‘Yakima Twilight. Does it go with much on the table? No. Does it matter? Not to me!’ – whatsbilldoing

While we would never contradict someone’s taste we’ve put together a short guide to what we’ve found works at our own Thanksgiving tables. Try bringing a couple new beers to Thanksgiving and make it an event to remember (and trust us, if you bring Golden Monkey it will be).

Golden Monkey: This is Victory’s turkey beer for sure. Turkey is relatively neutral in it’s character and Golden Monkey adds enough spice and sweetness to enhance the flavor but not enough to overwhelm the T-Bird.

Yakima Twilight: Think Candied Yams with carmelized Marshmellow topping. The sweetness of the yams are a beneficial opposition to the boldness and bitterness of Yakima.

Prima Pils: It’s an aperitif perfect for watching the football game with. Goes nicely with shrimp cocktail and the accompanying horseradish and tomato sauces.

HopDevil: HopDevil always pairs nicely with cheese. Consider a fresh Cheddar in your au gratin potatoes and you’ll have people talking. Sooo good.

Lager: If you’re going to have only one Victory Beer this Thanksgiving your best bet would be Victory Lager. It’s the jack of all trades that’s just flexible enough to go with everything, but not assertive enough to clash with anything.

Storm King: If brownies are on the dessert menu you would be doing a disservice to your guests by serving anything other than Storm King. It’s rich and sweet characters make it a natural partner for anything chocolate. The jury is still out on wether or not it works with pumpkin pie, but we’d love to hear what you think.

Getting hammered by your beer? Try Pilsner.

Monday, August 31, 2009 at 5:58pm

A good pilsner doesn’t hammer you over the head. It’s subtle, it’s got some structure, and most important, it’s refreshing. With IPAs, if I have more than one or two, my tongue feels as if it’s coated with hop resin and malts.

- Bill Covaleski

It seems Bill’s subtle approach to brewing Pilsners is paying off . . . Gourmet Magazine just named Prima Pils as one of the best examples of a Pilsner in the world! Just look at the company we hold in this article and you’ll see why we’re so excited.

*Bill has nothing against IPA’s ;-)

Why does The New York Times think the Yankees need Victory?

Wednesday, April 29, 2009 at 3:23pm

 

The Victory Prima Pils, which was our No. 1 pilsner four years ago, again came in on top. It seemed to be alive in the glass, with wonderfully refreshing bitterness to balance the floral and citrus aromas.

According to Eric Asimov’s latest article in the The New York Times, our bat buddies up the Jersey Turnpike have a very serious and immediate problem (besides facing our Phillies). They don’t have Victory! More specifically they don’t have Prima Pils or any craft brewed Pilsners, for that matter. While we are obviously biased to the merits of Pilsner, we think Eric makes a really good case for why Pilsner should be the official beer for any ballpark . . .

That’s the nature of pilsners. The good ones don’t demand the spotlight. They enliven and refresh without diverting your thoughts from the game, or whatever else is at hand. And like good aperitifs, they stimulate the appetite — take note, stadium vendors — not for fancy foods but for the straightforward pleasures that you could once take for granted at a ballpark.