Ian Coutts's Blog

Back to the garden

My kind of local eating starts with a trip to the all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet in Renfrew.

There’s a logic here, really. Buying stuff to plant in the garden means going into Renfrew – our nearest big town, with about 6,000 people. That’s an all-day outing, which means lunch in town. And that means either the chip truck or the Chinese buffet. At $9.75, about double the price of the large fries, the lure of the buffet is irresistible – especially on a calories-per-dollar basis.

So, replete wit...

A Tale of Two Ciders

Last fall we reaped a bumper crop of apples, and one beautiful weekend in October pressed them to cider. We ended up with six carboys – about 30 gallons – ready to ferment over the winter in the cool of the cellar. We pitched one with champagne yeast, because we were curious to see what difference natural versus commercial yeast would make.

We’ve never used commercial yeast for our cider before, just trusted to nature. That’s despite the grim warnings from the experts. Those random yeasts in...

The three habits of highly effective microbrewers

Photo courtesy of Stone City Ales

In the past couple of years, I’ve spent a lot of time around people who were starting up craft breweries or at least trying to. Partly, I guess, that was because I was researching my new book, which is about brewing beer from scratch.

I’ve had a couple of people ask me if I’ve ever thought about starting one myself, and my answer has been no – even brewing for my own use stretches me to the limit. But, because starting a brewery seems to be a common dream, the...

The Thrills are not quite gone. Alas.

Doctors bury their mistakes; journalists print theirs.

The instructor told us this joke years ago when I was doing a copy editing course. I probably hadn’t given it a moment’s thought in three decades. What brought it back was the pumpkin ale we made last fall.

We thought it might be good to do a seasonal beer. So we worked up recipe involving commercial ale yeast, a mixture of malt extract and some specialty malt, and pumpkins from the farm. The last of these we roasted in the oven to sterili...

Adios a Millie

On December 22, 2005, our daughter left our house in Mexico in search of tortillas and came back instead with a miracle: a small black street dog with soulful eyes, half-cocked ears and a tail that curled over her back in a perfect circle. From the moment we saw her, as sad and dusty as she was, we knew this was the dog for us. In honour of the season and the chance that brought her to us, we called her Milagro, Spanish for miracle. She instantly became Millie and, just as instantly, an indis...

A Beer-Driven Menu

By Catharine

When Ian decided to gather some top beer writers to tap into the (hopefully) “Perfect Keg” of beer he’s been working on for three years for his book of the same title, my thoughts turned immediately to the food to serve with it.

The menu would have to be meat-heavy, I figured. The beer experts would all be male (Mirella Amato, the sole potential woman, and one of the world’s first female Master Cicerones, unfortunately had to decline Ian’s invitation). As well, on the heels of the...

The forecast: cloudy with chowder

By Catharine

The long, warm fall seems finally to be drawing to a close. There’s a week of rain in the forecast, and a chance of flurries at the farm on one of those days. We’re definitely moving into the season of what Ian calls “brown food” – comforting dishes that warm the house as they cook while filling it with the most delicious smells. Last weekend it was turkey pot pie to use up the last of our (Canadian) Thanksgiving meal. Tonight, seafood chowder with garlicky cheddar biscuits (recip...

Is this the best apple pie in the world?

Guest post by Catharine

Those who follow Ian on Twitter may have noticed that his profile includes the words “pieman extraordinaire.” This is no idle boast. The man has a way with flour, lard, sugar, apples and spice.

But he’s as discerning with his pie filling as he is with his beer ingredients. Nothing but the Wolf River as his raw material, thank you very much.

Ian arrived at this position initially by default. The orchard at our farm is very old and, sadly, few of the trees produce much fru...

Cider weekend: Guest post by Catharine

The discussions started a few weeks ago, up and down our road. When would we press the apples?

When the apples are good, the three farms along the road pool all the fruit and do a massive pressing, then divvy up the juice. Our next-door neighbours get to choose the date – it’s their press.

There was no juice last year, because of the drought. We got apples only from our oldest, most faithful tree, the Wolf River. Plenty for pie fillings and apple sauce, for sure. But our others failed, and so...

Saison opener

Three years ago, as a follow-up to my last book on beer, I launched an experiment in beer-making. I decided to try to go from complete brewing neophyte to vertically-integrated brewmaster – growing my own hops and barley, doing my own malting and even cultivating my own yeast – and to write a book about it. All the ingredients would come from my own “beeroir,” a 200-acre farm tucked into some of the most remote hills on this continent. Along the way, while working on the manuscript for my pub...