The Finer Things In Life

[StrangeSox]

Anyone know where to get some Don Q rum around Chicago?

[G&T]

Anyone know where to get some Don Q rum around Chicago?

 

Binny's website says they have it.

[StrangeSox]

I've tried finding it at their stores (Downers Grove and Orland) with no luck.

[FlaSoxxJim]

Anyone know where to get some Don Q rum around Chicago?

 

Hard to imagine it not being readily available in Chicago. It's everywhere down here. I particularly like the Limited Edition Gran Añejo they produce.

[StrangeSox]

We're about to finish off our bottle from PR but don't want to until we've another source.

 

It was $10/L or something ridiculously cheap like that at the airport.

Edited October 1, 2009 by StrangeSox

[FlaSoxxJim]

We're about to finish off our bottle from PR but don't want to until we've another source.

 

It was $10/L or something ridiculously cheap like that at the airport.

 

The Añejo or something else? Don Q actually outsells Bacardi in PR.

[StrangeSox]

Just the regular stuff, cristal I believe.

 

The most popular beer there, Medella Light, is pretty awful.

[FlaSoxxJim]

Just the regular stuff, cristal I believe.

 

The most popular beer there, Medella Light, is pretty awful.

 

I've seen very mixed reviews of Medella, but my taste buds would likely agree with yours if i ever get a chance to try it. AZ pox on me for having not yet made the trip to PR.

[G&T]

If you like Scottish Ales (which I do as well, obviously), another one I found in Chicago that was quite good: Stone of Destiny Ale, from the Lia Fail brewery in Scotland.

 

I've not had it, but I'll take a look for it.

 

This got me thinking, I don't spend a lot of time looking through the English and Scottish beer sections at the bottle shop even through traditional English ales are very good. I'll have to make some changes. Although, Fullers ESB is a favorite with steaks or burgers.

[FlaSoxxJim]

I've not had it, but I'll take a look for it.

 

This got me thinking, I don't spend a lot of time looking through the English and Scottish beer sections at the bottle shop even through traditional English ales are very good. I'll have to make some changes. Although, Fullers ESB is a favorite with steaks or burgers.

 

Fuller's ESB is my wife's favorite bottled British ale that we get here. I'm a London Pride person but I like the ESB as well.

 

I adore English ale and only wish we had the cask real ale here. Two weeks pub crawling around the UK was pretty much beer Nirvana for me.

 

As far as draught keg ale here in the states, there's a handful of pubs that try to approximate the carbonation level of cask ale by serving the keg beers from a beer engine (hand pump) under blanket carbonation. It goes a long way to softening the character of the beer but it's still not the real deal.

[NorthSideSox72]

Here is an interesting question for the beer snobs... if you have to drink a macro, what do you like? There are a few mainstream-ish beers I can tolerate or even enjoy... Dos Equis Amber, Kirin, Guiness of course. Michelob used to make a Dry beer that was probably the best Big-3 US brew that one could get (which is to say it was OK).

 

[FlaSoxxJim]

Not the Michelob, but certainly I can drink any of the others you mentioned. But going by your broad definition of a mega, I'm quite happy with lots of the Sam Adams offerings.

 

Now if you want to limit yourself to Big 2 or Big 3 it's a tougher matter. There isn't a single Miller product I care for. From Coors, I can choke down a Killians and I can tolerate Blue Moon if a real witbier is unavailable. From Anhauser, not including their 50% stakeholder claim to Red Hook (which I find enjoyable if not stellar), I think the only AB offering I would consider willingly drinking is the Bare Knuckle Stout. If I'm really slumming I will choke down a Mich Amber Bock for the purposes of fitting in with the rest of the ham-and-eggers.

Edited October 1, 2009 by FlaSoxxJim

[G&T]

Fuller's ESB is my wife's favorite bottled British ale that we get here. I'm a London Pride person but I like the ESB as well.

 

I adore English ale and only wish we had the cask real ale here. Two weeks pub crawling around the UK was pretty much beer Nirvana for me.

 

As far as draught keg ale here in the states, there's a handful of pubs that try to approximate the carbonation level of cask ale by serving the keg beers from a beer engine (hand pump) under blanket carbonation. It goes a long way to softening the character of the beer but it's still not the real deal.

 

There's a place here called Mahars which serves real cask condition ales. A very rare find. Unfortunately, the bar kinda sucks.

 

As far as macros:

Blue Moon

Miller Lite

And I just found out that Mich Ultra tastes like Miller Lite

[StrangeSox]

For majors, I can drink Blue Moon or Killians without a problem.

 

Medalla Light tasted like somehow watered-down Miller Lite. I don't quite know how they did it.

[FlaSoxxJim]

Happy Day! My beer peddler did manage to get a couple cases of the Sierra Southern Hemisphere Harvest Ale so I picked one of those up at the bargain-basement price of $6 and I'll be enjoying that tonight. She (yep, my enabler is a she) also advised me that there are going to be only three cases of the upcoming Sierra Estate Harvest Ale shipping to the east coast and she will be receiving one of them!!! It definitely pays for the shopkeepers to form good relationships with their distributors.

 

I also procured two pumpkin beers to sample this weekend, The Dogfish Punkin Ale already mentioned here and also Post Road Pumpkin Ale out of the Brooklyn Brewery. I know I had that one last year but can't recall much about it. I think it was part of a pumpkin food orgy, had alongside of Flaxx' Famous Butternut Squash Soup (This soup will get your girlfriend pregnant it's that good), pumpkin bread, pumpkin pie, more pumpkin beer, etc.

 

If I recall correctly, that one tasted sort of like pumpkin.

 

 

Also picked up a bottle of Woodchuck oak-aged cider that is really good stuff.

 

We got down into the 60s the last few nights (a veritable arctic blast for September/early October down here), so it's time to break out the fall brews in earnest.

[FlaSoxxJim]

I cracked the Sierra Southern Hemisphere Harvest Ale on Friday night, and split it with Mrs. Flaxx. It was drinkable and balanced with interesting hop flavors, but it was not nearly as in-you-face with the fresh aroma hops as I thought it was going to be. Overall body and character is on par with Celebration, and in a couple of weeks when my beer shop blows these out at $4 a bottle I'm sure I'll pick up a few. Overall though, I expected more from this one.

 

Haven't had either of the pumpkin ales yet, but out at a city art festival yesterday I worked up the courage to try one of the Jack's Pumpkin Spice Ales for the sake of comparison. Pumpkin and spice were understated and my wife and I were actually able to get through this one without to much grumbling, even going as far as following it with a Michelob Marzen. I'm grading both of these AB beers on a very generous curve (any port in a storm, etc., they were the best of the bad choices at the festival), but they weren't entirely awful. Weak body and adjunct flavors dominate the middle and finish, but that's to be expected in from AB beers. Glad there are much better beers out there, but we survived a couple of these.

 

On the tiki front, while out at the art fair I picked up a tin of Lyle's Golden Syrup from the downtown UK import shop (also picked up scones and clotted cream which we had for breakfast along with steel-cut Irish oatmeal and Earl Gray tea — yum!). Lyle's Golden Syrup is a British iinvert sugar cane juice and is a perfectly workable substitution for pressed cane syrup in cocktails like Martinique 'Ti Punch. I have two very good Martinique rhum agricoles on hand (including Depaz Blue Cane agricole which I got at a steal for $19 last month from a store who didn't realize it usually sells for about twice that). So last night we finally got around to watching our first episode of Mad Men while enjoying a couple of 'Ti Punches made roughly according to Trader Tiki's recipe below and with the lime reduced to a squeeze of the end slice which is then dropped in as a garnish:

 

Ti’ Punch

 

* 2 oz Rhum Agricole

* 1/4 oz Cane Syrup

* 1 lime quarter

 

Into an Old-Fashioned glass, squeeze the lime wedge, being sure to express some oils along with the juice, and drop into the glass. Add the sugar syrup and Rum, swizzle until completely mixed. Add cubed ice to dilute, if so desired. Lime and Sugar amount can be changed to taste.

 

This drink has been interesting for me because I have altered the amount of syrup and lime I use over the last year as my taste for rhum agricole has matured. With my first agricoles I used a lot of syrup and lime to stand up to the distinctive earthy harsh (in a good way) flavors characteristic of this style of rum. As I have come to crave those flavors, I use much less sugar and lime, and although I'm very content to drink these neat without anything the interplay of rhum, lime and sugar in the 'Ti Punch is brilliant. Seeing as this is how they do it in Martinique, I figure it's good enough for me.

Edited October 4, 2009 by FlaSoxxJim

[Disco72]

I finally tried out some fall beers while watching the Bears game today: Dogfish Head Punkin Ale, Bells Octoberfest, and New Belgium Hoptober - all on draft at one of my favorite local establishments. I liked all three. Usually, I prefer hoppy beers first, but the New Belgium was 'crisp' hoppy as opposed to 'strong' hoppy, and I really enjoyed it.

[Dick Allen]

Tito's vodka. Make sure its chilled. If chilled is better than any other vodka IMO on the market. Pretty shocking since its made in Texas. I received a bottle as a gift once and have turned several people on to it. Its tremendous.

[FlaSoxxJim]

Tito's vodka. Make sure its chilled. If chilled is better than any other vodka IMO on the market. Pretty shocking since its made in Texas. I received a bottle as a gift once and have turned several people on to it. Its tremendous.

 

For the longest time I was convinced that all decent vodkas were practically indistinguishable, but a recent side-by-side blind comparison at a spirits store promotion carsed me to revive my opinion. I now consider them to be nearly indistinguishable, if they are consumed straight and side-by-side. In a mixed drink, I'm still not convinced any of the super premium brands are worth shelling out for compared to the acceptable results you can achieve with a mid-grade vodka.

 

On the other hand, if someone had the audacity to suggest that all gold rums were the same and you might as well save a few dollars and use Bacardi Select in all your rum drinks. . . Well, then there would be trouble.

 

 

[southsider2k5]

For the longest time I was convinced that all decent vodkas were practically indistinguishable, but a recent side-by-side blind comparison at a spirits store promotion carsed me to revive my opinion. I now consider them to be nearly indistinguishable, if they are consumed straight and side-by-side. In a mixed drink, I'm still not convinced any of the super premium brands are worth shelling out for compared to the acceptable results you can achieve with a mid-grade vodka.

 

Did mythbusters do pretty much exactly that?

[FlaSoxxJim]

Did mythbusters do pretty much exactly that?

 

Yep, which is partly where my original, marginally informed, bias likely came from. I was genuinely surprised that I could taste enough difference between two vodkas that I could say I preferred one to the other. Thrown into a mixed drink though, I think anybody would be hard-pressed to tell much of a difference.

[FlaSoxxJim]

A quick and very important question for you drinking Chicagoans:

 

Do Chicago liquor stores carry maraschino liqueur?? Luxardo is the most common brand but there are a couple others (Maraska, Giffard, Stock are ones I know of) that make it to the US.

 

 

The stuff does not get to Florida. Period. My folks are coming down from Chicago in a few weeks to do the snowbird thing, and I'll have the Old Man pick me up a bottle if I can confirm its availability.

 

Thanks!

 

 

 

[FlaSoxxJim]

Nothing from the Chicago boozers about the availability of maraschino liqueur?

 

Anyway, I'm driving myself crazy trying to tweak a cocktail to really make it sing, and it keeps eluding me. The source cocktail is a ca. 1962 drink called Pieces of Eight from a long-defunct Marina Del Rey, CA restaurant of the same name. From Beachbum Berry's Grog Log recipe, it's amost an excellent light and crisp cocktail with lots of fresh citrus juice, passionfruit syrup, and light rum. Mixed to specs it doesn't quite come together, being simultaneously too tart and too syrupy with not quite enough rum flavor to hold it together. A couple iterations yesterday (*hic!) had me adding a small amount of dark Jamaican rum to cover some middle ground, while further iterations this evening (*HIC!!) have me cutting the citrus (liem and lemon juce) and the passionfruit syrup, and adding a splash of Kamora coffee liqueur. Better now, but still not quite there.

[dasox24]

This year I'm trying to conquer the task of drinking about 100 beers I've never had before. Here's how my list is going so far:

 

Xingu Black Beer

Rogue Dead Guy Ale

New Belgium Fat Tire

Sweetwater Blue

Newcastle Brown Ale

Woodchuck Amber

Guinness Draught

Killian's Irish Red

Rolling Rock

Shiner Bock

Kelpie Seaweed Ale

Harp Lager

 

My favorites have probably been the Xingu, Sweetwater Blue, and Newcastle. Though, I haven't had one I didn't like. I need to step up my game. At this rate I'll only get about half way, but that's fine since I'm a poor college student that shouldn't be buying these expensive beers anyway.

[southsider2k5]

Just because I love you Jim...

 

http://www.binnys.com/spirits/Luxardo_Mara...eur_125511.html