Edmund’s Oast ‘8 and All’

American Strong Ale

I’m going to preface this review with some other stuff going on. I just listened to Marty Bent’s ‘Tales From The Crypt’ podcast, #325 – Texas beef and decentralizing the food supply with Texas Slim, Cole Bolton, and Parker Lewis. This episode, as well as any that Texas Slim and Parker Lewis and Cole Bolton, are a part of, was FIRE. If you aren’t paying attention to the food industry as a consumer and are trusting the big money industrial food complex to feed you with good nutrition, then you need to get on board and buy local. Support your local rancher and local farmer, bypass the major industrial producers, and eat better and secure your food future. It really is endangered.

While reviewing this fine ale, I had also grilled a denver steak. I had never heard of a denver steak prior to the first time I heard Texas Slim talk last Fall on TFTC (and I’m 51 and have eaten a bunch of beef over the years). He had a good point that you need to support your local rancher by buying all of the beef offered, not just ribeyes. There’s a lot more to a cow than ribeye, sirloin and ground beef, and the rancher needs to figure out what to do with all the other parts of the cow that aren’t top sellers. A denver steak is part of this remaining beef after you take “the good stuff”. Buying the rest of the cow (after shaking your rancher’s hand) helps stabilize his bank account to enable him and his family to keep producing quality beef generation after generation. And don’t get me on inflation and the loss of the dollar value and how it undercuts the ranchers profit. It’s a brutal business. God bless the local rancher and farmer.

And this denver steak was damn good. I wrote this on April 23, 2022 and the denver steak was $9.99 a pound at a local quality butcher shop. The sirloin was $23.99 a pound. I had two steaks in the package for $11.50 total and cooked one. And this denver steak was really good. I cooked it on the grill at medium high heat for about 4 minutes a side and got a really nice, tender medium steak. I added a bit of salt and it was good, really good. I’m looking forward to the other steak tomorrow. Just a side note – I bumped up my meat protein, cut out sugar 95% and cut carbs 95%, starting lifting weights and have lost 14 pounds in three months (along with the muscle mass that is noticeable now). And I’m feeling really good. To help your local rancher, get them to listen to the podcast above and also get them to visit the beef initiative.

Ok, back to the beer. This is the Edmund’s Oast ‘8 And All’ – it’s an homage to the unknown and unnamed slaves who produced a beer under the label of Edmund Egan during the slavery years of Charleston, SC. It references the deliberately erased history of Black slave brewers and attempts to “amend these unfortunate truths”. It references Gullah Geechee dishes of red rice, fried okra and boiled peanuts to enjoy while drinking this ale. I would agree, they would be outstanding while drinking this brew. But I was just as happy with 8.5% abv with a salty grilled steak. It’s strong (just like its description), with a hint of bitter, but drinks smooth. Enjoy!