Beer Can Chicken

Tonight I am drinking the BIPA. Belgian IPA brewed on 3/20... Not prepared to do a full write-up yet, I have a bottle of Flying Dog's Raging Bitch (commercial inspiration) sitting in the fridge that I plan on doing a side by side comparison with. SPOILER ALERT... it's in the top three of my best batches. 

Has not fully dropped clear yet. Still has a little lingering chill haze, but I am guessing that will fully drop out with another week in the kegerator. Stay tuned for more!

Tonight, not much brewing action but doing some beer related cooking. I am doing a Beer Can Chicken. If not familiar, basic idea is you stand a roasting chicken up in the oven with an open can of beer inside the cavity. When you roast the chicken the beer boils and steams the chicken from the inside as it cooks, adding flavor and moisture. 

Had an old can of Bud Light in the back of the fridge for over a year and I thought it would be perfect... riiiighht... lol

First step, wash can.

 Next step (most important step), pour entire can of gross beer down the drain... couldn't even drink it, ugh...

 Fill now empty can with delicious homebrew (BIPA) add 3 cloves of garlic, and some rosemary to beer. Kegerator is a hot mess tonight, should have cleaned up before taking pics... don't judge, lol

Next, insert can into cavity of chicken and stand chicken up like a tripod. Totally winging it here... (zomg, winging it... lulz) Rub chicken with EVOO and fancy seasoning salt I had on hand. Red potatoes drizzled with EVOO and sprinkled with same seasoning salt in bottom of pan. Roasted at 375 degrees for 2 hours 40 minutes...

When I cut into it on the cutting board, it exploded with juice. Was not expecting and it made a huge mess that ran down the counter and all over the floor. I filled up just from picking while carving, so good...

 

Immediately after taking this picture I managed to knock over and smash my favorite tall draft glass all over the table. Total klutz...

I also used the BIPA in making the stuffing by replacing a half cup of water with beer! I don't think anyone noticed, but I thought it was good.

Minus the broken glass and spilled beer, it was a great family meal, even kids, who inherited their aunt's picky eating, liked the chicken. As good as the chicken was, I was blown away by the potatoes. Soaked in the drippings and seasonings, olive oil, omg so good...

Since the sink was now contaminated with salmonella/plague/supergerms, I decided I might as well mix up a batch of sanitizer and sanitize the sink. Figured it was a good time to take a gravity reading on the SMaSHed Pils.

Brewed 4/11, original gravity 1.064. 12 days later crystal clear, gravity at 1.010. Calculates at a respectable 7% abv. Also finished nice and dry, which is what I was going for when I mashed low. Ugh at myself for spacing out and freezing my tasting sample again... but first impressions from the too cold sample: Muted nose, I think I will go big on dry hop, 2 ounces maybe... Very fruity and citrusy hop flavor, maybe a little apricot? Nice bittering balance. Nice and dry, clean finish with a pleasant lingering bitterness. Everything I was going for, pretty excited for this one too!

During brew day, I made a last minute decision to increase all the hop additions, so I do not have the hops on hand to dry hop, even though it is ready. A trip to the LHBS (Local Home Brew Store) is in order. Also need some other small supplies.

That's it for tonight, time to start thinking about the next batch... Heard a rumor that DogFish Head might be pulling distribution from CT (DFH denies this rumor on their FB page) thinking it's time to work on some clone recipes for my fav DFH beers just in case. I think my 60 minute IPA recipe is pretty solid, thinking of trying something like Midas Touch... We'll see...