The Finer Things In Life

[FlaSoxxJim]

I found an overlooked 6-pack of Bell's Hopslam on a beer shop shelf yesterday. A Christmas Miracle!!

 

Mmmm hoppy.

[G&T]

Here's a little reminder about alcohol and driving, but with a nod to craft beer and higher ABV's. If y'all are driving, it's something to keep in mind.

Ratebeer

 

If a beer is 5% ABV, each drink will raise the BAC about .024

If a beer is 6% ABV, each drink will raise the BAC about .028

If a beer is 7% ABV, each drink will raise the BAC about .033

What does that equate to?

If Joe suddenly turns into a craft beer lover, and drinks 3 craft beers in a night, then plays a video game for two hours (same as in the previous scenario) if he’s drinking a 7% ABV (that’s .033 x 3 = .099 BAC) he’ll start off with a .099 BAC, and after two hours be down to a blood alcohol content of .059– which is not a great number.

 

 

 

[FlaSoxxJim]

I posted the list of fine spirits my fine Mother got me for Christmas on the Whatcha Get thread, but I'll repeat them here for those who may be more interested in such things. Apologies for double-posting, etc.:

 

Christmas Rum Miracle!

 

• Seawynde 92 proof Navy rum — a gorgeous blend of pot still Jamaican and Guyana rums that clearly smacks of Pusser's but also has a lot of its own character.

 

• Cruzan Single Barrel Estate — I've sipped this one here and there but never picked up my own bottle. Interesting light flavor notes and a nose that is really quite odd. 50/50 shot that this one will really grow on me.

 

• Matuzalem Gran Reserva — A Dominican rum I'd largely ignored until a shopkeeper gave me a free mini bottle to try that really impressed me. Not a huge depth of flavor, but nice caramel-chocolate notes give it more than enough complexity to be a fine sipper.

 

• Rhum Clement Shrub Creole. Martinique orange/rhum liqueur that I anticipate will sub very nicely for curacao in top-shelf (Appleton 12 year and Rhum St, James Royal Ambre) mai tais. Going to try one of these tonight.

 

• Last but not least, a bottle of my current favorite sipper — El Dorado 15 year Demerara!

[G&T]

I'm going to a Beersmas celebration in a couple weeks where we share bottled beer as presents and drink all day. Do any of you have a recommendation for a specific beer good for this season or brewery in general?

 

So what did you end up having?

[FlaSoxxJim]

Well, the Mrs. and I just returned from an honest-to-goodness Beervannah experience. A new local beer bar with a phenomenal selection (300+ bottles and drafts) tapped a 30-litre gravity-draw wood cask of 12% Aventinus Weizen-Eisbock and we were on hand for the first several rounds of the evening. What a phenomenal beer! I love this new bar.

[G&T]

Well, the Mrs. and I just returned from an honest-to-goodness Beervannah experience. A new local beer bar with a phenomenal selection (300+ bottles and drafts) tapped a 30-litre gravity-draw wood cask of 12% Aventinus Weizen-Eisbock and we were on hand for the first several rounds of the evening. What a phenomenal beer! I love this new bar.

 

Wow! That eisbock knocks me on my ass, but I would LOVE to try it on cask. Might mellow out the alcohol which I always found overpowering in the bottled version.

 

300 beers sounds like a lot, but let's face it, you've probably had them all

[FlaSoxxJim]

Wow! That eisbock knocks me on my ass, but I would LOVE to try it on cask. Might mellow out the alcohol which I always found overpowering in the bottled version.

 

300 beers sounds like a lot, but let's face it, you've probably had them all

 

Not quite, I've got my sights on at least 20 I've not had yet.

[The Gooch]

Does anyone here brew their own beer. I just got a beginners kit for Christmas. I am about to start brewing a German Light beer! I still need to get a brew pot, bottles, and caps however. Does anyone else here brew at home and know where to get the best deals on these/have any good advice for someone trying this their first time?

[FlaSoxxJim]

Does anyone here brew their own beer. I just got a beginners kit for Christmas. I am about to start brewing a German Light beer! I still need to get a brew pot, bottles, and caps however. Does anyone else here brew at home and know where to get the best deals on these/have any good advice for someone trying this their first time?

 

I'm semi-retired (too busy with work and family), but before that I'd been a hardcore homebrewer for years, starting with kits on hotplates in my college dorm room and eventually graduating to all-grain full mash 20 gallon boils using sawed off kegs as brewpots. Someone else here — daSox24 I think is out there brewing up a storm as well.

 

As far as advice, I'd say go ahead and brew your kit to specifications, but don't beat yourself up if it comes out iffy. Truthfully, those lager kits do a terrible injustice to budding brewers who should not be trying to brew lagers. True lagers need controlled cold fermentations and long conditioning that is beyond not just new brewers but probably 75% of all homebrewers.

 

Eventually, if you enjoy the process and want to stick with it, you'll want to brew ales. Ale yeast is much more forgiving of higher temperature fermentations, and ales are ready to drink in a couple of weeks rather than a couple of months. You'll also want to switch from cheap dry yeast to the more expensive but infinitely better liquid yeast cultures. And, you'll want to start using real hops and a little bit of specialty grain in your brews even if you are using malt extract (which allows yu to make perfectly food beer — most homebrewers remain content to use extract and specialty grains for a few years before making the jump to all-grain mashes.

 

I know in all likelihood I just confused the hell out of you. Don't sweat it and brew the kit. While you're waiting for the beer to ferment and then bottle condition, pick up a copy of Charlie Papazian's New Complete Joy of Homebrewing and dig in (Tex bought it for his son for Christmas I think!). This is the starting point for the vast majority of homebrewers who ever get anyshere with the hobby, and Papazian is pretty much the reason that homebrewing ever took off in the US.

 

"Don't Worry, Relax, Have a Homebrew"

 

[bmags]

so much caiparinhas with so many cachaças. Fav. so far is Cachaça Select.

[FlaSoxxJim]

so much caiparinhas with so many cachaças. Fav. so far is Cachaça Select.

 

Post some recipes for your favorites, I'm thirsty!

[bmags]

Often I don't make them, and really, the different ones I've tried have been mixtures with different fruits WITH the lime, and to me it just gets too sweet - but Brazilians f'n love sweet. Seriously, you should see how much sugar they put in their coffee (albeit it's much stronger). And they ALL drink chocolate milk for breakfast and eat cookies like everyday. (Huge generalizations).

 

But anyway, It's worth a try to cut some grapes in half, deseed, and smash alongside the limes and sugar. Even though the cachaça is like fire, with the ice and sugarfruit mixture, there is no burn. I mean, it's a tasty drink with a different taste, the way the sugar cane of the cachaça changes the flavor, but not my fave.

 

Just straight up limes/sugar/cachaca select for me.

[FlaSoxxJim]

Hard to beat the classic original drink I agree. But I'm intrighed by the theme and variations, and I have to respect the Brazilian perspective since it's their drink and all.

 

I'm apparently on yet another new year resolution diet (courtesy of the Mrs.), and I fear it's really going to cut into my libations for a while.

 

Edited January 6, 2010 by FlaSoxxJim

[FlaSoxxJim]

Yep, the diet thing has cut into the Finer Things for me for sure.

 

Chucking the diet routine this evening, tonight's spotlight rums were Sea Wynde Navy, Pusser's 95.5-proof, Cruzan Blackstrap, J Wray and Nephew Overproof, and Bacardi 8. As much as I really detest most of the Bacardi products, that's how much I like their 8-year — a quality rum that sips with nice depth, warmth, and complexity, but also mixes exceptionally well in any drink calling for a good PR gold rum. At $20 a bottle, it's cheap enough for carefree mixing and is also a great value-priced sipper.

[hogan873]

I began a self-imposed diet the week before New Years, and one of the things I cut out was the finer things...during the week anyway. Although there are those days after work when I really crave a frothy brew, I haven't cheated yet. The one good thing about doing this is how good the beer tastes Friday evening. Damn, now I'm "thirsty". Only two more days.

[FlaSoxxJim]

Been doing the same thing — no drinkies during the week to cut calories, and then rewarding ourselves on the weekend. Then stoopid Alton Brown had back-to-beck Good eats episodes on Sunday that spotlighted margaritas and traditional punches and so of course we had to mix up and compare several things for scholarly . . . *hic!* . . . purposes.

 

I'd actually like to talk margaritas with any folks who have dabbled more extensively than I.

 

An all-juice/no orange liqueur margarita that Alton made was very good. My wife usually dislikes the overly orangey margaritas (which is fine because I don't have to keep expensive Grand Marnier stocked at home), but she liked the Alton one. And she'll suck down the cheapo happy hour margaritas out at restaurants unless they're awful. On the other hand, I much prefer a straight-up hand-mixed margarita with blanco or reposado tequila (100% agave if the price is right), fresh lie uice, triple sec, and agave syrup to sweeten — that just tastes like a "real" margarita to me compared to the happy hour lime-aid mass mixed deals my wife likes. Still, when she tries scratch margaritas that I think are very god she usually complains about this or that aftertaste. Drives me nuts.

 

So anyway. . . triple sec, Cointreau, or Grand Marnier. . . what do others see as the more traditional liqueur for a margarita?

[hogan873]

The last thing I am is a wealth of information when it comes to liquor. However, I do love a good margarita, and margaritas are my wife's favorite. I've had some good ones out at restaurants and bars. Sometimes even the plain old margaritas are made extremely well. One liquor that I have experimented with (for the first time at a restaurant in Tampa years ago) is Midori. A well made Midori margarita is one of my favorites.

 

I haven't tried it, but I've heard that the Chipotle margarita at Outback is awesome. There's something else with the chipotle (pineapple?) but I can't remember. And Olive Garden has the Italian margarita...still have to try that, too.

 

Thanks, now I'm craving a margarita.

[FlaSoxxJim]

I like Midori in some things but I haven't had a Midori margarita. A margarita made with a splash of Chambord is nice. And I had one at the killer Tequila Cava at EPCOT made with St. Germain elderflower liqueur that was exceptional.

 

I'm almost out of Triple Sec so I'll splurge on the next bottle and get Marie Brizard and not cheapo DeKuyper. Then if I make up a straight-up classic 'rita and the wife makes her icky face, then I know I should just stick with Cuervo and the lime-aid antifreeze-looking margarita mix for her.

Edited January 28, 2010 by FlaSoxxJim

[FlaSoxxJim]

Cheating and going off the diet a little before the weekend, the wife and I just did a little bit of a margarita throwdown.

 

I couldn't locate any Marie Brizard but I did trade up from DeKypur to Bols on the Triple Sec. In side-by-side tastings, I give a slight nod to Bols, but it mar not be worth the $5 difference. Then again, a bottle of triple sec gets used an ounce at a time or less so $5 more won't kill me.

 

For kicks, we mixed up a cheapo happy hour 'rita with decent tequila — El Jimador Blanco — which is a bargain 100% de agave tequila at $20. The good tequila made the cheapo-rita drinkable, but just barely.

 

Next we compared two hand-mixed fresh lime margaritas in a 2:1:1:0.5 proportion of tequila:lime juice:triple sec:agave syrup, with the difference between the two being the tequila we used. Used the El Jimador Blanco in one, and Sauza Commerativo Anejo in the other — which I think is another decent $20 tequila but it's not 100% de agave.

 

On tastinge the two, my wife immediately figured out it was the aftertaste of the Sauza that she wasn't liking the other night. I think aftertaste has negative connotations so I ill talk about the finish flavors of the drink, but I did agree that I liked the finish of the El Jimador mix better than the Commerativo. In the admittedly limited scholarly sipping of god tequila that I've done (being the rum guy and all), I know I usually prefer reposado and anejo teqilas to the young blancos, so I don't know if the preference for the blanco here is because it's 100% agave or not. El Jimador also makes a value-priced 100% agave reposado, so we'll have to get a bottle of that and make the more meaningful comparisons of he two El Jimador tequilas.

 

I wish good tequilas were not as expensive as they are, because I just can't afford them unless I gave up the rums. I'm enjoying the brief margarita detour at any rate, even if it's not on the diet.

[FlaSoxxJim]

Diet be damned.

 

My copy of Ted (Dr. Cocktail) Haigh's revised and expanded Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails arrived via UPS yesterday after a prolonged wait while Amazon tried in vain to locate the other drink book I ordered and finally sent this one along.

 

Fabulous book. History, vintage photos of ingredients, barware, and mixologist manuals, and detailed recipes for 100 drinks lost in time that never should have been. Unlike most of my explorationst that are rum based, this book has had me mixing up many fine rye-based cocktails, had me reaching way back on the shelf for the neglected vermouths, and has me thinking I might actually like gin more than I usually admit.

 

The recipes are alphabetical, and I'm invariably missing some key ingredient for most of the included cocktails, but I've mixed up several of the entries that I have had the ingredients for, and there hasn't been a bad one in the bunch. My new cocktail discoveries this weekend have included:

 

• The Algonquin Cocktail — Rye, dry vermouth, and pineapple juice — really surprised how well the pineapple goes with the rye and vermouth.

 

• Blinker — Rye, grapefruit juice, raspberry syrup. Traditionally this was done with pomegranate grenadine but the raspberry really makes it pop.

 

• Curacao Punch — brandy, curacao, Jamaican rum, and other good stuff.

 

• East India Cocktail — brandy, raspberry syrup, Angostura, curacao, maraschino liqueur — Drinking this one now. . . very nice and different.

 

• Bronx and Bitters (aka the "Income Tax Cocktail") — The Manhattan's long-lost brother (all of New York's Boroughs had classic cocktails named in their honor), with gin, red and white vermouth, fresh-squeezed orange juice, and bitters, this is a drink Don Draper would love.

 

• Japalac — named after a Glidden paint product of the 1930s (and not an ethnic slur), rye, vermouth, fresh orange juice, and fruit surup come together well in this short drink.

 

I'm supposed to ba back on the Diet Train come Monday. But I'm only up to "J" in the book!!

 

Edited February 1, 2010 by FlaSoxxJim

[G&T]

The beer has been cut down recently, but the bday lineup, which I haven't even finished off yet, was:

Victory Storm King (in honor of the Siberian cold we had over the weekend),

Saison Dupont: with best wishes (a favorite),

Duvel for dinner (went to a restaurant and ate some Korean Pork belly with kim chi - one of the best foods i've ever eaten), and

some Sam Adams brewmaster's collection for sessioning.

[FlaSoxxJim]

The beer has been cut down recently, but the bday lineup, which I haven't even finished off yet, was:

Victory Storm King (in honor of the Siberian cold we had over the weekend),

Saison Dupont: with best wishes (a favorite),

Duvel for dinner (went to a restaurant and ate some Korean Pork belly with kim chi - one of the best foods i've ever eaten), and

some Sam Adams brewmaster's collection for sessioning.

 

Nice birthday beer menu. Dupont Saison is an all-time favorite, and there are not enough good things to be said about Duvel.

 

This Ted Haigh cocktail book continues to be worth it's weight in gold. I got it primarily for the drinks that were not tropical/tiki or rum-based, but it has gone and cleared up a several-months' point of consternation for me on the rum punch front as well.

 

There was apparently a long-time guru barman named Jasper LeFranc at a famous Montego Bay bar in Jamaica who concocted a secret syrup mix that made his rum punches absolutely sing. Like the painkiller, the Ray's Mistake, the rumrunner, etc., this concoction has been guessed at and approximated by several folks with varying success. I tried a few of these guesswork versions and they flirted with greatness but never quite came together to the point where they could have been the same stuff that made old Jasper famous. But now, right here in my new drink book, Mr. Cocktail spells out THE recipe for Jasper's Mix, and it ROCKS! Lime juice, sugar, grated nutmeg, and a fairly insane amount of Angoustura bitters (the missing ingredient in some of the other approximations). Equal parts Jasper's mix and Coruba creates a rich, complex planters punch, while equal parts Jasper and JWray Overproof makes a rum punch that puts some of my efforts to shame.

 

Unfortunately, the stuff won't keep well with all the fresh lime juice in it. I think the secret is going to be knowing when you're going to want these drinks and to mix up a half-bottle batch beforehand. But, dang, I'd really like to keep this stuff on-hand in the fridge all the time.

 

[southsider2k5]

Hey Flaxx, I miss getting the Labatt's 50-50's... What is the best Canadian beers like that I can get ahold of around here? I am a fan of Moosehead, but it isn't the same.

[FlaSoxxJim]

Hey Flaxx, I miss getting the Labatt's 50-50's... What is the best Canadian beers like that I can get ahold of around here? I am a fan of Moosehead, but it isn't the same.

 

Depends on what you are looking for in a "Canadian beer". For my money, I haven't tried anything that touches Unibroue which produces world-class Belgian style beers.

 

That said, I have a soft spot in my heart (holdover from mis-spent youth) for a few of the more traditional Canadian lagers and "cream ales" — most of which are themselves actually over-sweet and over-carbonated lagers. Red Cap, O'Keefe, McAuslin (several), Robin Hood Cream Ale, and yes, the venerable Labatt 50 were college-day favorites because thay actually had a bit of character to them.

 

There's a bunch of Canadian craft micros and brewpubs I'm dying to try and haven't yet been able to, so obviously there are huge gaps in my Canadian craft beer experience.

 

ETA: And how did I miss the most important Canadian Brewery of all??

 

Edited February 2, 2010 by FlaSoxxJim

[Disco72]

Depends on what you are looking for in a "Canadian beer". For my money, I haven't tried anything that touches Unibroue which produces world-class Belgian style beers.

 

My dissertation advisor got me 2 of Unibroue's Trois Pistoles and 2 of the Maudite as a gift for reaching a data collection milestone. I can't wait to give them a try!