Q Chocolate

General Chocolate Interests

Category : General

Beerlabels and more

August 19th 2010 Posted at General
0 Comments

Thursday, August 19th 2010

The last weeks were very calm.  Vacation, degustation, checking beer and more.  It was time to make a beerlabel for the American market.  After playing around with some ideas a friend of me came up with this design.  Check it out.

The label is not finished yet but it surely shows what it is about.

Meanwhile, I also made caramel candy with Masareng palmsugar.  Unsuccessfully …  The sugar did not really melt and was smelling like .. burned palmsugar.

Things start running again and soon there will be more chocolate news again.

Cheers

Degustation after a month – Chocolate beer

July 25th 2010 Posted at Alcohol, Experiments, General, Projects, Test
0 Comments

Saturday, July 24th 2010

Tonight the pressure was getting too high.  I had to open one of these bottles that have been looking at me for almost a month.  The fermenting is over.  the second fermentation on the bottle should be over now.  Time to open one and check how it tastes.

I have a friend, Jim, from the USA and the first sip was left to him.

Oh yeah, and it was worth it.  Combined with Belcolade Papua New Guinea64 chocolate, the beer is dark in color with a smooth head. The flavor of oats, malts and a chocolate are balanced perfectly with the right amount of hops for a bittersweet finish.

You will hear more the upcoming days about the beer evolution.

Cheers

Alain

Hot July Nights in 2010

July 11th 2010 Posted at General
0 Comments

Sunday, July 11th 2010

This summer is rocking, but not for chocolate production.  We are suffering temperatures above 32 degrees Celcius.  I ain’t complaining, it’s summertime.

While strolling the internet on a hot evening I found this item : Le Whif.  It’s some device to vaporise food instead of eating it.  I never tried it but if you can get a hold of the item, please let me know your experiences.

Meanwhile, I am gonna take a swim.  Enjoy the summertime.

Alain

Botteling of Bio Choq beer

June 27th 2010 Posted at General
0 Comments

Sunday, June 27th 2010

Today I finally could bottle the Bio Shoq beer that has been brewn.  After 1 week of fermenting and 3 weeks of lagering it was ready to go into a bottle.

First of all, we added Arenga Palm Sugar and “champagne” yeast.  This makes sure that there is carbondioxide on the bottle after the maturing period of 12 weeks.  There are about 84 bottles of 70cl and 3 magnum bottles of 1,5 liter.

The barrels with beer

The beer after adding sugar and champagne yeast

Champagne yeast

Bottles

Final bottle and label :)

Corks and labeling machine

Now it’s waiting for the result.  Stay tuned for more news about brewing beer with chocolate.

Alain

Birth chocolates instead of sugarbeans

June 16th 2010 Posted at Chocolate, General, Projects
0 Comments

Monday, June 14th 2010

Today I have been working on a little gift for a birth of a little human.  Instead of giving sugar beans and other stuff my friends had a more creative idea and have chosen to give a little chocolate gift.  So many ways to say thank you.

There were 4 different flavours, acasia honey-cinnamon with dark chocolate, hazelnut-pralinee with milkchocolate, fresh mint with white chocolate and nougat cream (from Vital Nougat) with milkchocolate.

Congrats to the parents of Vic !

Alain

Lagering Bio chocolate beer

June 2nd 2010 Posted at Brewing, General
0 Comments

Monday, Mai 31st 2010

From now on the fermentation process should be over and it’s time to go into a next stage with the newly born bio chocolate beer.  The beer is being transferred in a new barrel.  This barrel goes into a cooler for about 3 weeks.  There were no additional herbs added.

The rest fraction of the yeast has been poured into a bottle.  If you take a closer look at the picture you can see that there is an upper dark part, which contains beer and then there is a ground of dead yeast.  The sugars have been completely changed into alcohol.  The beer has an alcohol percentage of 8,9%.  Which isn’t that bad.

The restfraction of the yeast looks like chocolate.

A first taste of the fermented liquid gave a sour taste with slight touches of cocoa.   I hope to know more soon when lagering is over.

Cheers Alain

February rants

February 22nd 2010 Posted at Events, General
0 Comments

Howdy,

February has never been so calm.  Experimenting with liquids and chocolate brought me further in my search to combine certain products with new flavours.  I finished a business course.  There are new idea’s for packaging and I wrote a marketing plan.  I hope to be up and running with my business soon.

I will be attending Intersuc, an international exhibition for sugar and chocolat and much more sweet stuff.

I hope to find new idea’s for more new chocolate creations.

I have been looking around for chocolate machinery.  A very interesting manufacturer is Selmi.  They have a wide range of chocolate machinery at a reasonable price.

Keep eating chocolate !

Alain

December 20th 2009 – Christmas Market Poesele

December 10th 2009 Posted at Events, General
0 Comments

—————– This is just an announcement —————–

On december 20th 2009 I will attending the Christmas Market in Poesele.  There will be fresh chocolate milk, milk / fondant and white chocolate beer bullets with 3 different beers (Kriek, Hoegaarden Grand Cru and Chimay) and there will be sweet Vital nougat to chew on while enjoying the atmosphere and Christmas music.  You will be able to eat something and drink a glass to keep you warm.

You can join the price draw to win a Chocolate Santa Claus !!!

Click for a Plan to Poesele City

Poesele City

Be There !!!!

Anis – Café praline by Belcolade

November 2nd 2009 Posted at General
0 Comments

Monday,  november 2nd 2009

Yesterday I have been busy testing a recipe that I got when visiting Belcolade last year.  It is originally from Belcolades chocolatier Stef Aerts.

First of all I have made the anis liquor with Pastis.  I made the ganache based on Belcolade origin chocolate with cream and coffee.  The liquor comes first in the mould and then goes the ganache.

The result when you eat the praline is that you first have that fresh anis taste followed by a rich creamy coffee ganache.

Anis-cafe anis-cafe filling

Cheers

Alain

Le Salon du Chocolat Paris

October 17th 2009 Posted at General, Miscellaneous
0 Comments

Friday, October 16th I went to Paris for the International Salon Du Chocolat.  Meanwhile there was also the World Chocolate Masters competiton which has been won by a Japanese chocolatier, Hirai Shigeo.  The Belgian selection was Ryan Stevenson who ended on the 8th place.

The event was hosted by Barry Callebaut, which made this to an unforgettable day.  Check out the pictures.

Salon du Chocolat WCM WCM All of the participants Ryan Stevenson Ryan Stevenson Chocolatpiece Winner WCM Japan Ryan Stevenson at work
Aq @ WCM Paris My Favorite ... Apple Chocolate and art

Thanks to PMG for a wonderfull day full of chocolate and champagne !

Q balls with Kriek beer

September 28th 2009 Posted at General
0 Comments

A few days ago I tried a recipe from chef Maarten Pauwels from Brasserie Brouwershof in Haacht.

His recipe was based on Tongerlo Prior 9 beer.  I made a few changes and tried to make the ganache with Kriek Lindemans beer and with Belcolade chocolate Origin Noir Collection Peru 64 which has a bitter taste with a fruity aftertaste.

The original recipe from Maarten Pauwels is here :

Ingredients :
450 g cream
300 g Tongerlo Prior beer
190 g trimoline
550 g grenada chocolade
75 g butter

Preparing :
Melt cream, beer, trimoline and butter.
Pour onto the chocolate and stir well.
Let it cool down and fill your pralines.

My recipe with Kriek Lindemans and Belcolade Origin chocolate is following :

450 g cream
300 g Kriek Lindemans
200 g trimoline
600 g Origin Noir Collection Peru 64 from Belcolade
80g butter

I prepared the ganache the same way but I added some tempered chocolate after cooling down.  Otherwise the ganache was too fluid.  I used a flexmould to create balls and covered them again with Belcolade Origin chocolate.  The result is good.  A good texture with a fruity Kriek aftertaste.

kriek praline

I am still looking for all kinds recipes for beer pralines.

Enjoy !

Zotter, chocolate goes arty

September 28th 2009 Posted at Chocolate, General
0 Comments

A few days ago I got a wonderfull present.  It was a bag full of chocolate, straight from Wien, Austria.

The bag contained different chocolate from different companies.  The one that attracted my attention the most was Zotter chocolate.  Zotter chocolate is very special and contains different ingredients such as sellery and portwine, chili, kirsch with marzipan (one of my favourites), peanuts and ketchup, …  All chocolate is produced under the Fair Trade label.  There was also a piece of chocolate with cashew nuts !! … mmmmm amazing what they do with chocolate.

Zotter Chocolate

Zotter

I also received Mozartkugeln.  The Mozartkugeln are a real delicatesse.

Mozartkugeln

They contain a heart of hazelnutpralinee, a layer of marzipan with almond extract and then a fine layer of chocolate.  If you never tried one, I recommend them !

There was also some other chocolate I received.  Some were from Coppeneur – chocolate with rose petals and grappa and a piece of chocolate with brittle nougat, Hachez chocolate with 70% origin chocolate, Hussel chocolate 100% cacao with jasmin and last but not least Green and Blacks butterscotch chocolate.

Hussel Green & Blacks

Coppeneur Hachez

Thank you very much !!

Broodway @ Kortrijk

September 17th 2009 Posted at General
0 Comments

Wednesday, september 17th 2009

Broodway

Today, I went to an exhibition in Kortrijk, named Broodway.  It was all about baking bread, icecream and ofcourse chocolate.  If you are working in one of these categories, it was definately worth a visit.  The major chocolate companies were there such as Valrhona, Callebaut and some smaller.

I also spoke with Matthias Haeck from Vital Nougat.  Vital Nougat from Nevele has the best nougat you can find. You can use the nougat to make pralines and other fine chocolate products.  Please give their site a visit for more recipes.

Nougat

Chocolate in the Auvergne, France

August 26th 2009 Posted at General
0 Comments

Tuesday, august 25th 2009

While I was having a drink on a terrace from a bar in Bourboule, Auvergne in France I saw this artefact on their front.  I guess they used to make chocolate in this place.   When the chocolate was ready they let the clock make the bell noise to attract people.  Might be a true story, I don’t know.  But it looked surely great.

Chocolate Wake Up

Valrhona chocolate and Tour de France

July 19th 2009 Posted at General
0 Comments

Saturday, july 18th 2009

Today I was in Colmar, France to see the depart of the Tour de France etappe 14, Colmar to Besancon.  It’s amazing what circus the Tour de France has become since  it’s start.  Although it is fun to be part of it and see the heroes on the bikes.  The weather wasn’t that extraordinary but at least it stayed dry when the start occured.

While I was in Colmar I bought some high quality Valrhona chocolate.  See the pictures for yourself.

Valrhona Caraïbe Noisette : dark chocolate grand cru with split hazelnuts, 66% cacao

Valrhona Guanaja Grand Cru : dark bittersweet and elegant chocolate, 70% cacao

Valrhona Caraïbe Grand Cru : balanced and velvety dark chocolate, 66% cacao

I hope you have a good vacation.

Alain

« Older Entries

Copyright 2010 Q Chocolate | Powered by WordPress | Designed by Diamonds Designers