stem and stein march 2013

1Stem & SteinMarch 2013

2 Stem & Stein March 2013


Mark & Pam

Hello everybody and welcome to the March issue of Stem and Stein magazine. We’ve had a long pretty cold winter but it looks like Spring is just around the corner. We’ve been out and about the last few months visiting wineries breweries and attending some great events for both beer and wine. We have been getting lots of calls and emails telling us how much they like the magazine. We’re glad that you’re enjoying it as much as we’re enjoying putting it together for you. Now that the weather is warming up a little we can begin to get out and start covering some of the outdoor festivals that are coming up in the next few months.You will most likely notice some changes and thing that we will be adding to the magazine as we start to grow. We’re happy that you all like the new magazine, so please keep those phone calls and emails coming.

Cheers,

CONTENTSStem & Stein March 2013

WineFestivals• 06

PerfectPairing

• 8

GreatBeerExpo• 16

HopCrop• 10

PUBLISHERSMark Ruzicka & Pam Mazalatis

EDITORBarbara Kolb

LAYOUT & DESIGNMcNabb Studios

www.mcnabbstudios.com

PHOTOGRAPHYMark Ruzicka & Kieran

CONTRIBUTING WRITERSJimmy Vena, Dr Audrey Cross,

Kevin Celli, Eric Wormann,Pam Mazalatis & Mark Ruzicka

– STEM & STEIN –PO Box 699 Lake Hopatcong, NJ 07849

Phone: 973-663-6816 • Fax: 973-663-6378www.stemandsteinnj.com

Stem & Stein is published monthly and reproduction of content is not permitted without the express written approval of Mark Ruzicka. Publisher assumes no financial responsibility for errors in ads beyond the cost of space occupied by error, a correction will be printed. Publisher is not liable for any slander of an individual, or group as we mean no malice or individual criticism at any time, nor are we responsible for the opinions or comments of our columnists, and promises, coupons, or lack of fulfillment from advertisers who are solely responsible for content of their ads. Publisher is also to be held harmless; from failure to produce any issue as scheduled due to reasons beyond control; all suits, claims, or loss of expenses; this includes, but is not limited to, suits for libel, plagiarism, copyright infringement and unauthorized

use of a persons name or photograph. Publisher does not promote excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages.


Like one of our fine wines here in New Jersey, the annual wine festivals promoted by the Garden State Wine Growers Association continue to get better each year. Last year’s six outdoor and one indoor festival provided great entertainment for the thousands of wine consumers that ventured out for a weekend of great wine, food, crafts and live music.

The 2012 season began with a sellout crowd of over 1,500 patrons at the one day Spring Fever indoor event at Branches in West Long Branch. It continued outdoors with great events that included the annual Memorial Day weekend Jazz & Blues Festival at Natirar Park in Peapack-Gladstone in Somerset County; the Labor Day weekend Jazz It Up Festival at Allaire State

ANOTHER BANNER YEAR Of WINE fESTIvALS PLANNEDACROSS THE STATE OF NJ • 2013

Park; Cape May Wine Festival at Cape May Lewes Ferry Terminal; a new event, the Jersey Fresh Festival at Burlington County Fairgrounds and ended with the Grand Harvest Festival at Fosterfields Historical Farm in Morristown.

Fosterfields is a real working farm, where tools, techniques, and materials of a late 19th Century farm are still used. The farm was once owned by General Joseph Warren Revere, grandson of Paul Revere. Wishing to preserve her beloved home and give future generations the chance to experience the sights, smells, and sounds of rural life, Caroline Foster in 1979 bequeathed Fosterfields to the Morris County Park Commission, to be preserved as a

“living historical farm,” the first in New Jersey. She lived 98 of her 102 years at Fosterfields.

The Grand Harvest Wine Festival featured 23 wineries offering nearly 250 locally-produced wines, food, crafts vendors, live bands and the opportunity to experience one of New Jersey’s significant historical farms.

At the Festival, attendees were


able to tour the historical farm and sample award-winning wines, shop craft tables and listen to great live music. The younger generation was also entertained in the Kids Zone, which featured face painting, sand art and other great fun.

Now, 2013 ushers in another great season of wine festivals beginning with the Spring Fever event at Branches on Sunday, April 7 from noon to 5 p.m. The event will be limited to just 1,000 tickets sold, with a ticket price of $30.00.

A seventh festival has been added to the schedule with the Bergen County Wine Festival set for Overpeck County Park in Ridgefield Park, NJ on September 21 and 22. These festivals are the perfect way for wine consumers to sample a wide array of New Jersey wines from more than 20 wineries at each event. Don’t miss any of the chances to visit historic sites, hear great live music and sample the best our wineries have to offer by attending one of the 2013 GSWGA Festivals. Following is a complete

Jersey freshWine festivalSeptember 7 & 8, 2013Burlington County Fairgrounds (off Rt. 206), NJ

Bergen CountyWine festivalSeptember 21 & 22, 2013Overpeck County Park, Ridgefield Park, NJ

Grand HarvestWine festivalOctober 5 & 6, 2013Fosterfields Living Historical Farm, Morristown, NJ

Cape May Wine festivalOctober 12 & 13, 2013Cape May - Lewes Ferry Terminal, Cape May, NJ

schedule of festivals and wine trail weekends scheduled this year.

2013 Festival Dates2013 Wine festivalsSpring Fever Wine &Food TastingApril 7, 2013Branches,West Long Branch, NJ

Blues & Wine festivalMay 25 & 26, 2013(Rain Date: May 27) Natirar Park, Peapack-Gladstone, NJ

Jazz It Up Wine festivalAugust 31 & September 1, 2013 (Rain Date: September 2)Allaire State Park, NJ


PERfECT PAIRINGS(NJ Style)

fOOD & DRINK JIM MCGRADY

16. Praline Shortbread Cookies 15. Pork Belly Hash14. Cheese Stuffed Zucchini Blossoms 13. Roast Pheasant with sweet braised cabbage12. Walnut & Brie Tarts

11. Venison Stew10. Stilton Cheese Spoonbread9. Buckwheat Blinis with Smoked Salmon and Crème Fraîche8. Slipper Lobster Corn Dogs7. Fig & Gorgonzola Pizza6. Deep Fried Cheesecake Eggroll5. Braised Lamb Shanks w/ creamy polenta4. Chocolate Chile Bread Pudding3. Wild Boar Ragù2 .Red Velvet Whoopie Pies

and for all the true locavores…1. Smoked-Bluefish Pâté

I declare victory!!Somebody owes me a dinner.

Blueberry Wine Tomasello Winery

Throwdown time! I was getting ready to pair up one of Tomasello Winery’s fantastic N.J. reds for this edition of S&S. Then I did a little poking around about their history. What stood out to me was the embarrassment of awards that they’ve won making different varieties of their “World-Famous” (I hate that term, but in this case it’s true) Blueberry Wines. Our NJ has been the nation’s blueberry capital and Hammonton is the home of the largest blueberry farm in the

world, so this naturally this peaked my attention. However, some of my highbrow chef friends are not-so-sold on a highbush blueberry wine as it pertains to food pairings. So they challenged me to create a top ten list of dishes I could couple-up with this Jersey Shore fruit wine. Easy win for me because besides the obvious desserts… game meats, wild birds, soft cheeses, nuts and most things sweet & salty, are just a few of the perfect pairings that are in play here. So here we go………

25. Roast Tomato & Goat Cheese Bruschetta24. Lemon Ginger Bundt Cake23. Tea Smoked Duck Breasts22. Coconut Key Lime Bars 21. Potted Squab 20. Mighty Red Gumbo19. Camembert & Truffle Fondue18. Curried Pea Soup w/ ham hocks

17. Skirt Steak Fajitas


JIMMCGRADYExecutive Chef/Managing Partner at Maggiano’s Little ItalyRestaurantReality.biz

This dish is renowned as a hangover cure, so save a couple of mitts for the 18th.

Dublin Coddle: Nothing says comfort food like a magnificent Emerald Isle stew. Now, I’ve heard that the 4+ hour cook time for a coddle makes this the perfect dish for an Irish wake because it simmers unattended while everyone is at the church. Well, I don’t know about that because I’ve never witnessed much eating at one of our family wakes. Nonetheless, a true DC always starts and ends with bacon…enough said.

Spotted Dick: No St. Patty’s day would be complete without my grandma’s version of Irish soda bread. I’m not sure why she didn’t call it soda bread in the first place, because I always got it confused with that nasty suet pudding (not a perfect pairing). I guess I never recognize the implied innuendo in a name….

FU Sandy!

fU SANDY! Flying Fish Brewery

When I first started writing for Stem & Stein, I eyed the upcoming St. Patrick ’s Day and circled it as a great day for the perfect beer pairing. Was I going to go with a Beamish Stout? Or an Irish cream ale? Well, a few things have changed since then, so I’m gratefully going to go with this unique American pale wheat ale. Flying Fish Brewery has really stepped up to the plate and created this interesting hybrid in hopes of raising over $50k for hurricane relief, by donating the whole lot. The formal name is actually “Forever Unloved” (uh, huh). Unfortunately, by the time you read this, if you haven’t gotten some already, it’ll probably be gone. (they only made about 86 barrels). FF’s hop experiment is a winner and I hope to see more of this conundrum, from these mad scientists. This enchanting ale will pair perfectly with your corned beef & cabbage, fish & chips or even the “Salmon of Knowledge”. However, despite their pub popularity, those dishes are more for the Irish elite. As for me…I’m going to bust out some rustic old family recipes and hoist a growler to the following perfect Irish pairings. Éirinn go Brách!Even my nutty churchlady grandma (R.I.P. Maggie McGrady) who didn’t drink beer or curse would have gotten her Irish up for a big....FU SANDY!

Cockles for Molly: There is a beloved old folk song about a

stunning fishmonger Molly Malone who sold her cockles & mussels on the poor streets of Dublin. The sad unofficial anthem speaks to the fare of the day. Since Ireland is almost totally surrounded by water, cheap seafood has always been a staple of the peasant diet. The Irish have been known to use a gifted ale, such as this, when steaming cockles, winkles & whelks… just seems that none of it ever make it into the pot.

Boxty: Almost every cuisine has its version of a potato pancake, So, what makes this so special? Well, because this “poor house bread” is clearly the ugliest…in a cute kinda way though. The Irish’s renowned use of potatoes and leftovers are the makings of culinary lore. A resourceful paddy needs only two fresh grated potatoes and some practical use of the remains of yesterday to feed a family of six. “Boxty on the griddle, boxty in the pan. If you can’t make boxty…you’ll never get your man”Crubeens: Crunchy pig trotters are the quintessential pub food. The yummy gummy-iness and bacon-y, saltiness of this finger food cries out for ale like FU. In fact Dublin pubs are known to put free bowls of them along the bar so that their patrons grow thirsty for just one more pint. Crispy pigs feet can be messy to eat, but just dive right in. Before they are fried, they are braised with veggies to create a fatty, gelatinous paw with tender lightly salted meat.


HOP CROPGUEST WRITER Dorothy Bloy

Beer is considered food in our house—not because we are consummate partiers—but mainly because my husband, John, brews his own beer using hops grown in our New Jersey backyard. Ancient brews were made from water and grain. At the dawn of beer making, the mixture stood outdoors in vats where wild yeast settled in to ferment the brew. In the mid 1800s Louis Pasteur demonstrated that live yeast used in a fermentation process produced alcohol, and yeast was added to the ingre-dients list. Like many traditional foods, the ingredients in beer and ale recipes vary ac-cording to regions, cultures, and climate. Hopped beer traces back to recipes from the Middle Ages. Hops act as a natural pre-servative. They also provide a degree of bitterness and aroma and balance out the sweetness of the fermented sugars derived from the grains. Today, hops play a major part in craft brewing. Willamette, Cascade, Simcoe, and Citra are popular American high alpha acid hop varieties. With the development of these hops, America’s brewers have broken away from classic European brewing recipes and now cre-ate unique American-style high alpha acid beers. American IPA, East Coast, and West Coast are regionalized brews now impart-ing their influence on traditional British and German breweries. Fallout from this explosion of craft brewing includes indi-vidual home brewers who grow their own hops. Like grapes for wine, the same hops grown in different climates produce dif-ferent qualities. Hop plants imported from Germany and England, for example, pro-duce different results in beer craft-brewed here in the U.S. than in their native coun-tries. Home hop growers add another layer of variables. My husband’s hops are spe-cific to the soil in our backyard, his wa-tering habits, and his fertilization methods. The end result is the distinct personality of John’s home brew, and the reason for ex-citement when family and friends gather to sample a new batch. It is an opportunity to participate in a unique event—a taste of the latest experiment. The consensus among the hop-growing subculture is that no beer is ever perfect. Although some come very close, there is always room for tweaking, and discussion ensues on the possibilities of future brews. These self-proclaimed beer scholars sit and sip and discuss their cow manure mixtures and worm tea fertil-

grows upward using suckers or tendrils, bines grow in a helix wrapping around a support. The hops like to climb to heights of twenty feet or more in one growing sea-son. They grow clockwise around their support—if you start them counterclock-wise they will unravel in protest. This is an autonomous characteristic and nothing whatsoever to do with the earth’s rotation around the sun. (Other bines, such as hon-eysuckle, climb counterclockwise.) Once established, hops will grow up anything, but in order to harvest efficiently, the bines need to be taken down completely. Har-vest includes cutting the bines down to the ground ready for next year’s growth. John uses as many natural materials as possible with the exception of the PVC pipe he dug into the ground to support the bamboo pole structure of his hop frames. He is careful not to use pressure-treated wood or any material that might leach chemicals into the soil. From the crossbar of his bamboo frame, he hangs natural jute staked in the ground just next to the emerg-ing bine. He artfully created his lashed bamboo framework for two reasons: First and foremost to guarantee the purity and security of his crop, and second, to harmo-nize his crop with the ascetic landscape of our backyard. Despite their awkward supporting struc-ture, hops are lush plants and a unique gar-den attraction. Each September when it’s time to harvest, it’s almost sad to see them go. After cutting the bines at the ground, John and company lift the framework up and out of the ground pipe and lay them down. The hop flowers are plucked off and laid out in single layers on drying trays. For our labor, we are gifted with a piney sweet fragrance and fingertips tinged yel-low from lupulin, the glandular hairs of the hop. After the hops dry out naturally for three or four days, John uses a vacuum sealer to package the hops in measured amounts needed for his recipes and stores them in the freezer. The entire process from ground, to kitchen chemistry, to bottle, to glass is a rewarding experience with equal parts planning, preparation, persistence, and pleasure. In fact, the success of John’s hop crop inspired his plans for an all-grain, local (as in our backyard) brew. If my hus-band got his wish, he would replace our lawn with barley. The biggest advocates for this project are our two sons, whose job it is to mow the grass.

ization, evoking images of old time farm-ers chatting outside a country store. Of course nature likes to thwart any at-tempt at cultivation, but help is only a blog away. Home hop growers share their meth-ods and mishaps with gusto. Soil can be amended naturally using manure (plenty of that around), and water can be collected in rain barrels and dispensed. Hops are rel-atively hardy plants. Here in New Jersey, the deer don’t bother with them, and the fo-liage is far too prickly for resident rabbits and groundhogs. For John, insects prove to be the biggest menace. Early in the grow-ing season, he spends time hand-picking

caterpillars off his plants. Fortunately, these leaf predators are large enough to see and easy enough to remove. Wooly aphids, aptly described as a piece of white lint with legs, sometimes appear on young leaves as well. They can be treated with in-secticidal soap provided the hops have not yet emerged. However, once the flowers bud anything you spray on your hops may flavor them. Purists would rather take their chances with insects than compromise the natural flavor of their hops. By far the biggest challenge to the home hop grower is creating the framework on which the plants will grow. Hops, plant-ed as rhizomes, grow on bines. A bine is a twining plant stem. Unlike a vine that


Everyone knows that the fastest growing segment of the beer industry over the past decade has been craft beer. At the midpoint of last year, craft beer was up 12% by vol-ume, with the number of breweries operating in the United States hit a 125 year high. But if you ask the average beer drinker to define a craft brewery, some of the answers may surprise you.

Most beer drinkers will tell you a similar story. They might describe a craft brewery as a small brewery that doesn’t sacrifice quality for quantity. They might say that craft beer is more flavorful than other mass-market domestic and import beers. But what about gray areas like nationally-avail-able Samuel Adams, Coors-owned Blue Moon, or American adjunct lager Yuengling? The Brewers Association coined the term “craft brewery” and has three quantifiable criteria. The first requirement for a brewery to obtain the “craft brewery” tag is that the brewery must be small. How small? The brewery must not exceed 6 million barrels of beer per year. To put that in perspective, in 2010 Anheuser-Busch produced about 18 million barrels of Budweiser alone. The Boston Beer Company (Samuel Adams) is currently the largest American craft brewery, producing about 2.5 million barrels of beer in 2011. The second requirement is that the brewery must be traditional; they must brew at least 50% of their beers using all malts. The basic recipe for beer contains four ingredients: water, hops, yeast, and malted barley. In order to cut costs and lighten the body and flavor of beer, many breweries use an adjunct to supplement the malted barley. The most common adjuncts for American adjunct lagers are corn or rice. This disqualifies many breweries, most notably Yuengling, from being defined as a craft brewery since their flagship lager uses corn as an adjunct. The third requirement, which has created much controversy in the indus-try recently, is that the brewery is independent. A craft brewery must be at least 75% owned or controlled by a craft brewer. Over the past decade two companies, Anheuser-Busch InBev and SABMiller, have spent approximately $200 billion to purchase other breweries. Most of these breweries are located outside of the United States market, but many are small breweries that Anhueser-Busch Inbev and SABMiller are using to enter into the craft beer market. Goose Island, Shock Top, Leinenkugel’s, Blue Moon, Henry Weinhard’s, Killian’s, Batch 19, Third Shift, and Redd’s Apple Ale are all owned by those two companies, therefore none of them are considered craft breweries according to the Brewer’s Association guidelines. As the craft beer market continues to grow breweries will continue to blur the lines between what is and is not a craft beer. But luckily, as the market grows, there will be more and more options to choose from.

Cheers!

By Eric Wormann

When Is A Craft Beer Is Not A Craft Beer?


COOKING WITH WINE & BEER CHEf JIMMY vENA

Midas Touch Ancient Ale

Back in 1970, when I was still living in Jersey City, my Great Aunts would forage for wild mushrooms behind the Two Guys from Harrison store located on route 440.I can’t imagine that anybody (at least I don’t know of any and I know a lot of Foodies!) still does any “Urban Foraging” for their mushrooms. Not sure if the poisons in the soil would outweigh the danger of the mushrooms.These women were extreme cooks long before anyone even thought of the Food Network. There was a kitchen and a huge dining / preparation table in the basement of the two family house that I lived in that. There, my Mother and her Aunts prepped macaroni, breads and sausage from scratch. One of my Aunt Tillie’s, (I had two, Big Aunt Tillie and Little Aunt Tillie) Little Aunt Tillie, was proud to claim that she had never in her lifetime consumed store bought sausage or macaroni. The wild mushrooms they foraged would have been prepared in a tomato ragu and served over soft polenta.These days of course our foraging is done at our supermarket produce isle or on line.Even the term “wild mushroom” has been tamed down to domesticated “exotic mushroom”. Dried or fresh exotics can bring out big earthy flavors that go great with beer or wine.Midas Touch is one of a recent splash of “hybrid beer/wines”, made by introducing grapes (in this case Muscat Grapes) into the brewing process. The result is awesome! Does it sound like I like this Ale?

Because I’ll say it again, I couldn’t have enjoyed this hybrid ale any more on this rainy February day. The grapes give a perfect sweetness and smoothes out this beverage in the best way.So, I did not make Little Aunt Tillie’s Wild Mushroom Ragu (which probably had some of Uncle Larry’s homemade red in it) instead I came up with this recipe for

Sauté Exotic Mushrooms with Midas Touch Ale

Served over toasted Corn Rye and Cream Cheese1) Saute 1 tablespoon of chopped fresh garlic in olive oil until brownThen add and sauté..2) 1 - 1 oz package of dried (follow directions to reconstitute) Exotic Mushrooms3) 4 oz of sliced fresh Crimini MushroomsWhen the saute pan begins to dry deglaze with4) 3 oz of Midas Touch Ale5) season with a few leaves of fresh sage, salt and pepper6) add 2 oz of whole butter and reduce over high heat7) toast some good corn rye until it’s really crispy and smear it with cream cheese8) serve the mushrooms and sauce over the toast.

The creamy cheese, crispy toast, soft and chewy mushrooms with the slight sweetness and even tones of the ale made a great winter lunch.


ChefJimmy

Owner/Exec Chef

Chef On Wheels , LLC

Renaul WineryChardonnay

I always get a chuckle when an eatery uses say basil, onions and peppers in a dish and calls it “Chicken Italiano” or they add jalapeno and cilantro to make “Shrimp Mexicali”..you get the idea.Many years ago (1988, ouch!) when I wrote my first of many menus for Anthony’s Brielle House, I was experimenting with a chicken dish. My family, friends and front of house crew liked it so I decided to put it on the menu. Now it’s what to name it, when you make a new take on an already tried and true recipe a Chef can get away with calling it Chef So and So’s Chicken Yada Yada..people have an idea what they are getting. But something that needs a description, that doesn’t have a name ..no matter how good it is can be a tough sell. A good chef has the crew try the dish, explains how he created the dish and the front of the house tries to sell the dish. Often, certainly I have, a chef will offer an incentive program on a new item. “The server who sells the most of Yada Yada Chicken (with a minimum of say 5 for the night..10 servers @ 5 each….) gets a bottle of this wine” (usually a free sample bottle given by a distributor ..a wine they will be selling next week).The recipe I made with this very drinkable Chardonnay from Renault Winery is the chicken dish that I had created. And to get a chuckle out of naming it I went with Chicken Romano, I decided on Romano because of the cream and butter in the preparation. Now, I have no idea if the thousands of guests who enjoyed it over some 15 years knew why I called it Romano, really that didn’t matter..they ordered it, enjoyed it, ordered it again, some

server got his/her bottle of sample wine and the house made a profit on it. Ahhh, a Chef’s job done!

Chicken ala Romano1) take 4 – 3 oz chicken cutlets and use a mallet (or a rolling pin) to pound2) a thin slice of prosciutto on top of each cutlet3) dredge in flour4) sauted over high heat in a mix of oil and butter (prosciutto down first)5) after turning and 4 minutes of cooking deglaze with6) 3 ounces of Renault Winery Chardonnay7) reduce and add8) 4 ounces of Heavy cream9) reduce and add10) 3 ounces of butter and 5 table spoons of good grated cheeseYou will see the cream and wine thicken..keep stirring..add11) 4 ounces of marinara sauce, s & p, fresh basil

Serve over pasta..in the picture I have it over whole grain spaghetti at Anthony’s I served it over fettucini.


Which means that the terms can be used to note light in color, light in flavor, light in alcohol content, or merely be used as part of the name of the brand name of the beer. Read the nutrition information on the back label to see how much carbohydrate and calories are in a beer. Here’s a handy comparison chart of LIGHT beers. Note that regular beers usually contain around 11 grams of carbohydrate. So the first three, Michelob Light, Sam Adams Light and Labatt Blue Light contain almost – or more- carbs than the majority of beers not labeled light or lite. Again, read the back label!Light Beers Carbs (gm) CaloriesMichelob 11.7 134Sam Adams 9.7 124Labatt Blue 8 111Heineken 6.8 99Busch 6.7 110Bud 6.6 110Amstel 5 95Coors 5 102Coronoa 5 105Keystone 5 104Miller 3.2 96Natural 3.2 95MGD 2.4 64 Bud Select 55 1.9 55 So what should you do if watching your carbs? The “golden” rule is to stick to 2 servings of beer or wine daily if you are a man and one if you are a woman. Read beer labels to find low carb – low calorie choices. If you prefer wines, drink dry rather than sweet style wines. And if consuming distilled spirits, avoid the mixers which can be loaded with sugar.

WINE & HEALTH AUDREY CROSS, PHD, JD

Dr. Audrey Cross, a renowned nutritionist who owns Villa Milagro Vineyards with her husband, Steve Gambino, will provide monthly reviews of wine & health issues for Stem & Stein.www.DrAudreyCross.com & www.VillaMilagroVineyards.com

Your New Year’s Resolution to exercise more and eat less is hopefully still in tack. If so, you may be getting a bit weary of all the restrictions and wondering if there are ways to indulge while remaining on track. So you ask, might low-carb beers or wines be a way to enjoy a drink without risking your diet? Wine and beer are fermented beverages that start as carbohydrates - sugars from grapes for wines or from grains – usually barley – for beer. During fermentation, yeast converts those sugars to alcohol. In wines, residual sugar (carbohydrates) determine the level of sweetness of the wine – from completely dry (no remaining sugar) to sweet (2-4% residual sugar) to some dessert wines to which sugar is added. “Hard” liquor – distilled spirits like vodka, rum, whiskey, etc. have zero carbs as the distillation process concentrates only the alcohol. However, mixers such as fruit juices, flavored syrups and fruit concentrates can be very high in carbohydrates. And liqueurs, which have added sugar, such as Crème de Menthe, Bailey’s or Amaretto, can have as much or more sugar as a serving of ice cream. According to the USDA, a typical glass of dry wine contains 1.8 grams of carbohydrate. However, they specify that this is “carbohydrate by difference” meaning that after all other calories in wine are accounted, there are remaining calories that are designated as “carbohydrate.” However, since there is no sugar left in a wine that has been fermented to complete dryness, it is more likely that this “carbohydrate” is glycerine, which is a form of alcohol. Wines with some residual sugar do contain carbohydrates. For example, Sutter Home Muscato, one of today’s most popular wines, contains 11.4 grams of carbohydrate in a 4 oz serving while its White Zinfandel contains 8.3 grams. Generally dry wines are not advertised as “low-carb” even though they contain no to “low” carbs. By contrast, you commonly see “light” or “lite” beers. But be warned. The word “light” or “lite” has no legal meaning. It is not a regulated term.

Low Carb Beers & WinesCan They Help You Control Your Calorie Budget?


This year the third an-nual International Great Beer Expo was once again held at the Meadowlands Expo Cen-ter. This event featured over a hundred beers from more than twenty Countries such as Japan, Germany, France, Belgium, Italy, Ireland, Mexico, Austria, Nicaragua,Thailand, Po-land, New Zealand, Indonesia,, Sweden and China just to name a few. Of course, New Jersey was represented by local brewers Flying Fish East Coast, Ramstein, Boaks, New Jersey Beer Compa-ny, Cricket Hill Turtle Stone and Cape May Brewing. There were beer related seminars. The first seminar was on careers in beer featuring Gary Rosen, Craft Beer Special-ist for Shore Point Distributing, Bernard Johnson, Regional Sales Manager for Unibroue USA and Natalie DeChico, New Jersey Sales Manager for Weyerbacker

and Tara Nurin, local beer and wine journalist. The seminar started with a discussion on how to break

into the beer industry and start a new career. The perks of being in the beer industry was covered, as well as the challenges that one fac-

es working in the field. The next seminar was the Bruton Story..........an informative talk with Birrifico Bruton, founder and Lacopo Lenci on how he has brought his Ital-

ian made beers to the United States. Last, but not least, a cooking with beer seminar was presented by Michael Battaglia. This seminar fo-cused on the fundamental re-

lationship between food and beer and how they can be married in a variety of ways. This live cooking demonstration showed how to prepare a variety of beer infused recipes.

This event had something for everyone..........a nice mix of vendors selling all kinds of beer related products, hats, shirts, hot sauce or just about anything you could have wanted. The event was put on by Starfish Junction who produce a number of upcoming beer events like The Philadelphia Craft Beer Festival at the Phila-delphia Navy Yard on March 2nd and the Spring Craft Beer Festival at the Nassau Coliseum on March 9th. If you didn’t make it to the event this year, we hope to see you all the next time the international Great Beer Expo comes to town. Check them out on the web at www.greatbeerexpo.com.

by Mark Ruzicka


KROGH’SCASK CONDITIONED ALES

KROGH’SCASK CONDITIONED ALES

kroghs.com CALL USTODAY!

OUR CASKCONDITIONED

ALE TAPSEVERYOTHER

MONDAY AT 5 PM!

23 White Deer PlazaLake Mohawk ◆ Sparta ◆ Phone: 973-729-8428

F E B 2 5DRY-HOPPED

SIMCOEPALE ALEM A R 1 1

WHITEINDIA

PALE ALE


Your Pet’s Home Away From Home

• BOARDING • DAYCARE • GROOMING

Make yourReservationTODAY!

stem and stein march 2013

Documents

stem steinmarch

stein magazine

issue of stem

weekend of great wine

annual wine festivals

contentsstem stein

indoor festival

thousands of wine consumers