The first thing that comes to mind when drinking McSorley’s Irish Pale Ale is that this beer makes me want cheese. Like, really good Dubliner Irish cheese.

(My husband says breathing makes me want cheese. But anyway. Back to the beer.)

This brew, which is 5.5% alcohol by volume, is interesting. It’s somewhat sharp and lightly carbonated, with a seriously bitter aftertaste. And it’s got some bite to it, too.

There’s just a hint of hops and a hint of malt – it’s very balanced -  and it tastes slightly of caramel and wheat. And, to be honest, it tastes kind of like that cheese. Which isn’t a bad thing.

This isn’t the best beer I’ve ever had, but it definitely kept my tastebuds engaged and I’d drink it again.

I honestly can’t decide how I feel about Pete’s Wicked Rally Cap Ale. One sip and I think it’s great; another, and I think, “Meh.” I am confused, and I don’t like it when beer confuses me.

This American blonde ale, which is 5 percent alcohol by volume and brewed by Pete’s Brewing Co. in San Antonio, is just OK. It’s a summer seasonal beer with a hint of lemon, and not much other flavor. It’s also fairly light-bodied and not very carbonated.

This beer is decent – I’ve had worse – and I’m sure I could drink several, as it seems to be the kind of beer you could chug easily after a long day working outside. And perhaps that’s what the intent is. But as far as the taste goes, I’m not sure if I’d want to.

I like beer, and I want to like this beer. But it kind of reminds me of my college boyfriend in the sense that perhaps, while it has good qualities, we’re just not quite right for each other.

We like buffalo anything quite a bit at our house, and we love us some pizza. So when I found this recipe a while back, I knew it was one that would be in our weekly meal rotation quite often, with some slight modifications. If you like buffalo-style chicken and you like pizza, you won’t be disappointed in this dish.

Here’s how we make our own version of buffalo chicken pizza. You need:

One pre-made pizza crust–we prefer a wheat crust, or a Boboli crust

One chicken breast cut into small pieces

1 tbsp olive oil

1/2 cup buffalo sauce

1/2 cup low-fat Kraft Three-Cheese Ranch dressing

1 1/2 cups shredded reduced-fat mozzarella cheese

Preheat the oven to the temperature your crust instructions dictate  (usually 425 degrees).

Put the buffalo sauce and the olive oil in a frying pan. Add chicken and heat until chicken is cooked.

Spread ranch dressing over the crust, then top with half of the mozzarella.  Then add the chicken pieces, and spoon some of the sauce from the chicken on to the pizza. Then top with the rest of the cheese.

Cook in the oven for about 15 minutes, then finish by putting the pizza under the broiler for a couple minutes.

Bonus: IPAs go great with this pizza. I like pairing it with Dogfish Head”s 60-Minute IPA.

Andrew Deci, Flickr

Is beer tasting the new wine tasting? (Orange County Register)

Boston Lager cupcake recipe (By Lander Sea Food Tales)

Bacon boiled into ‘uncommon’ Santa Cruz brew (The Californian)

Avery Brewing 17th Anniversary Lager:… (Beers, Beer, Microbrew)

jeffsmallwood, Flickr

Free Wine Tastings in New York City (Suite101.com)

Wine tasters embrace Twitter (Sydney Morning Herald)

Last call for Virginia liquor stores? (NBC Washington)

Millennials: The next generation of wine judges (Mercury News)

Late summer wine picks (ChefMom)

– Cheers

lopolis, Flickr

Hilarious response to BrewDog’s End of History beer (Tom Scott)

Beer Review: Rogue Yellow Snow IPA (JackMcIntyre.net)

Point Brewery adds raspberry Saison (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

booleansplit, Flickr

Canadian cows drink red wine for better flavor (Dr. Vino)

Restaurants uncork more wines by the glass (ABCNews)

How to choose wine for vegetarians and those who love them (The Awl)

Simple trick to remove aluminum bottle covers (Baltimore Sun)

– Cheers

Simon, Flickr

Help choose a name for Silver City Brewery’s new Belgian Blonde Ale (Seattle Beer News)

Tips for brewing on a budget (Brew Plus)

BrewDog’s James Watt responds to critics (beernews.org)

Short’s Spruce Pilsner – beer of the week (Slashfood)

Wild Blue Lager review (The Beer Mob)

I was with my parents recently shopping at Williams Sonoma and they were eying a pizza stone that’s specifically made for a grill. I immediately said, “don’t waste your money.” I’m sure it’s a very good product, but why not just cook the pizza directly on the grill? That’s what we do, learning only by trial and error, but no expensive cookware needed.

So, here is step-by-step, how to cook pizza on the grill:
Since we were making two pizza’s we added flour and split 8 oz of dough into 4 oz. balls:

Next using flour, roll out the dough to desired thickness:

After dough is rolled out, spray or brush both sides of dough with olive oil (we use Extra-Virgin).
Heat grill to 350 degrees.

Lay out dough evenly directly on grill for four minutes or until the top  bubbles up and bottom begins to brown.

Remove the crust from the grill, lightly browning only one side.

Add toppings.

Place the pizza back on the grill for about 10 minutes

Cook for 10 more minutes, keeping grill at 350 degrees

Click here to see the recipes we made and the Clipper City beers we paired with these pizza’s & get our recipe.

I should preface this post by saying that I know virtually nothing about beer and food pairing.

Last time we made grilled pizza (see  how-to grill pizza), we decided to try something new. Landon (my husband) picked out two beers and I chose pizza toppings we thought would complement those brews. We recently went to Clipper City Brewing so we so we decided to use a couple of the beers we picked up.

The pairing

Combo 1: Clipper City Hop3 IPA
I read that IPA goes well goat cheese, so I built the following recipe around that:

Veggie, goat cheese & prosciutto pizza
goat cheese
red sauce
sauteed baby bella mushrooms
spinach
red onion
balsamic glaze
prosciutto
mozzarella


Combo 2: Clipper City Red Sky Saison Ale
I read that Saison goes well with Old Bay, so I decided to come up with a Cajun inspired pie:

Cajun Pizza
red sauce
mozzarella
Andouille sausage
garlic
green pepper
red onion
crawfish tails
Old Bay

The results

Combo 1: The goat cheese pizza was divine and combined with the Hop3 the flavors became a divine experience. The flavors of the goat cheese, sauce, balsamic and vegetables seemed like it was tripled. The prosciutto got a lost a little bit though. It was nice for a varied texture, but I didn’t really notice the flavor at all. Which is very surprising since prosciutto is so salty.

Combo 2: First of all, the crawfish tails were a bad bad idea. We picked up frozen and they added a fishy taste that was not pleasant. I removed them all from pizza and while the fishy taste was mostly gone, I still noticed it a little. Other than that it was really good. The sausage was really flavorful and the beer seemed richer combined with the spicy ingredients. The Old Bay was a nice touch and I would like to make this pizza again without the crawfish.