The Finer Things In Life

[FlaSoxxJim]

Yeah milk stouts are awesome. And Left Hand is the best I've tried.

 

We were back in Chicago for an engagement party last weekend. My father-in-law to be is getting into beers so we grabbed a bunch and I introduced them to some new stuff. Nothing new for the thread except for the Ommegang Triple Perfection which was phenomenal. Double Simcoe, Ommegedon, Hennepin, a bad raspberry lambic, Night Stalker and some god awful Wisconsin beers were featured. The WI beers made me yak.

 

Left Hand's milk stout is very good, but I think Mackeson is still the top dog in that style. Tough as heck to find in the states now that Hudepohl-Schoenling isn't around to contract brew it, sadly.

[G&T]

So a long while back a friend gave me a Dogfishhead Raison d'extra in exchange for dog sitting. I finally cracked it and I have to tell you, it might be the hardest to drink beer on earth.

 

Mind you all that don't know, it clocks in at about 18% ABV.

[FlaSoxxJim]

So a long while back a friend gave me a Dogfishhead Raison d'extra in exchange for dog sitting. I finally cracked it and I have to tell you, it might be the hardest to drink beer on earth.

 

Mind you all that don't know, it clocks in at about 18% ABV.

 

not exactly a session beer, is it?

[G&T]

not exactly a session beer, is it?

 

It's not exactly a drinkable beer. It's a syrupy mess.

[FlaSoxxJim]

It's not exactly a drinkable beer. It's a syrupy mess.

 

I'm not a huge fan either. With one or two exceptions, I much prefer when dogfish sticks with what they do best - high-octane high alpha American ales.

[G&T]

I'm not a huge fan either. With one or two exceptions, I much prefer when dogfish sticks with what they do best - high-octane high alpha American ales.

 

Yeah. I respect the efforts on the oddball brews, but just having a lot of alcohol does not a great beer make.

[FlaSoxxJim]

Yeah. I respect the efforts on the oddball brews, but just having a lot of alcohol does not a great beer make.

 

Last night made me rethink the oddball Dogfish offerings. The wife and I unwound over a nice Thai dinner with a big 750 of this year's Dogfish Sah'tea — brewed with rye, juniper, and black chai tea. The beer was memorably good. . . moreso than I had remembered it to be from last year. The first sip gave a distinctly Belgian impression, but I think that had more to do with the array of exotic flavors coming through than with affinity to any defined Belgian beer style.

 

I can't remember what I paid for the bottle, but it was probably in the $13-14 range. Sounds pricey, but you'd pay at least that much for a decent dinner wine and the Sah'tea really paired well with the curried and peppered Thai dishes.

 

Tonight I've adopted a different plan, and declared open war on the many nearly empty booze bottles taking up valuable space in the liquor cabinet.

 

Just a scant amount of Hayman's Old Tom left (wonderful sweet-ish Victorian era gin style). . . that's enough to mix up a perfect Martinez with some Cinzano sweet vermouth, maraschino liqueur, and a dash of Angostoura.

 

Just about out of Old Overholt Rye. . . full ounce of Ango, fresh citrus, and homemade orgeat to the rescue and we have a very nice Trinidad Sour.

 

With sours still on the brain. . . let's polish off the last bit of Pisco Capel and shake up a pisco sour — raw egg white in this one so give it an extra shake before adding ice to emulsify it all.

 

Dang. . . had no idea I was almost out of St. Remy brandy. OK, let's make a Japanese cocktail with maraschino, orgeat, and orange bitters.

 

Botran 8-year bottle with not even enough left in it to shake up a short hoist daiquiri. . . Hmm, let's finish off the Trader Vic "Authentic" dark rum at the same time (been taking up shelf space for probably two years), add a bit of St. Elizabeth allspice dram, a splash of white grapefruit, and you have a dobles daiquiri that even Ernest Hemingway could have been proud of.

 

So there you go. Six empty bottles out to the recycling bin, and it took only five cocktails to get there. Any one of them could have been polished off some time ago, but for the naked and vulnerable (and wholly irrational) feeling my soul has when I don't have at least a pour of [insert name of hooch here] on hand just in case somebody drops by for a drink and gets totally irate because I have to make his Ramos gin fizz with Plymouth instead of Hayman's. I know. . . The Horror!

 

At any rate, the hooch cupboard now looks downright bare. Maybe it's time to write a nice letter to the booze fairy.

Edited July 4, 2010 by FlaSoxxJim

[iamshack]

Last night made me rethink the oddball Dogfish offerings. The wife and I unwound over a nice Thai dinner with a big 750 of this year's Dogfish Sah'tea — brewed with rye, juniper, and black chai tea. The beer was memorably good. . . moreso than I had remembered it to be from last year. The first sip gave a distinctly Belgian impression, but I think that had more to do with the array of exotic flavors coming through than with affinity to any defined Belgian beer style.

 

I can't remember what I paid for the bottle, but it was probably in the $13-14 range. Sounds pricey, but you'd pay at least that much for a decent dinner wine and the Sah'tea really paired well with the curried and peppered Thai dishes.

 

Tonight I've adopted a different plan, and declared open war on the many nearly empty booze bottles taking up valuable space in the liquor cabinet.

 

Just a scant amount of Hayman's Old Tom left (wonderful sweet-ish Victorian era gin style). . . that's enough to mix up a perfect Martinez with some Cinzano sweet vermouth, maraschino liqueur, and a dash of Angostoura.

 

Just about out of Old Overholt Rye. . . full ounce of Ango, fresh citrus, and homemade orgeat to the rescue and we have a very nice Trinidad Sour.

 

With sours still on the brain. . . let's polish off the last bit of Pisco Capel and shake up a pisco sour — raw eg white in this one so giver it an extra shake before adding ice to emulsify it all.

 

Dang. . . had no idea I was almost out of St. Remy brandy. OK, let's make a Japanese cocktail with maraschino, orgeat, and orange bitters.

 

Botran 8-year bottle with not even enough left in it to shake up a short hoist daiquiri. . . Hmm, let's finish off the Trader Vic "Authentic" dark rum at the same time (been taking up shelf space for probably two years), add a bit of St. Elizabeth allspice dram, a splash of white grapefruit, and you have a dobles daiquiri that even Ernest Hemingway could have been proud of.

 

So there you go. Six empty bottles out to the recycling bin, and it took only five cocktails to get there. Any one of them could have been polished off some time ago, but for the naked and vulnerable (and wholly irrational) feeling my soul has when I don't have at least a pour of [insert name of hooch here] on hand just in case somebody drops by for a drink and gets totally irate because I have to make his Ramos gin fizz with Plymouth instead of Hayman's. I know. . . The Horror!

 

At any rate, the hooch cupboard now looks downright bare. Maybe it's time to write a nice letter to the booze fairy.

 

You, my friend, need to somehow open your own bar or become a bartender in some schwanky joint back in Chicago before you go riding off into the horizon...

[G&T]

I don't think there is nothing more entertaining on this site than a liquor cabinet walkthrough from Flaxx. And everytime I wonder why I haven't started my journey through these drinks.

[FlaSoxxJim]

You, my friend, need to somehow open your own bar or become a bartender in some schwanky joint back in Chicago before you go riding off into the horizon...

 

I keep buying that lotto ticket and hoping. . .

 

I don't think there is nothing more entertaining on this site than a liquor cabinet walkthrough from Flaxx. And everytime I wonder why I haven't started my journey through these drinks.

 

Quite frankly, to most people it seems like too expensive a proposition to have a well-stocked home bar. Slowly stocking up over time, though, it doesn't have to be too bad.

 

Read through some recipes and find just one or two mixed drinks cocktails that use a few different ingredients and just shell out for those. Play around with those recipes and decide if you like the base flavor components as much as you thought yu would. Then maybe once per paycheck treat yourself to another new bottle — find new drinks that you have most of the ingredients for, and lowly add to the war chest that way. In a few months you'll have a respectable little home bar, and you'll probably have explored a couple different base spirits in a bit of detail.

 

Once you have a few different base spirits, liqueurs, syrups and mixers on hand, the CocktailDB website will come in handy. If you decide you like using a certain ingredient you can search this database and find a boatload of other drinks that use that ingredient.

Edited July 4, 2010 by FlaSoxxJim

[knightni]

Tonight I've adopted a different plan, and declared open war on the many nearly empty booze bottles taking up valuable space in the liquor cabinet.

Aw dude, you coulda made a Flaming Homer.

 

http://www.imdb.com/video/hulu/vi3527147545/

[G&T]

Breuery Orchard White is a really good beer. Fantastically spicey and a bit tart. I don't know that it's a great example of a white ale, but I love spice and tartness in a beer. Call it whatever style you want, it's a damn good beer.

 

I also have an Ommegang Zuur I'm the fridge, a Flemish Red supposedly it has a bit of sour but we will see.

[FlaSoxxJim]

Been to try to diet a bit so I hadn't enjoyed any adult beverages all week until we went out to catch a minor league ballgame last night and I had a couple of beers. After coming home I figured I'd already fallen off the diet cart so I might as well have a rum drink. Not wanting to go too overboard I opted for something on the lower cal side and made something I've wanted to make for a long time.

 

Ron del Barrilito 2-Star PR rum with coconut water is supposedly a traditional and popular way to drink this particular rum in Puerto Rico. Tried it first using unsweetened coconut water but it really didn't cut it. Much better with sweetened coconut water — unfortunate because I was hoping to come up with a sugar-free summer rum drink alternative to all the high-cal tropical drinks I tend toward. The trad PR version uses fresh young coconut water which does have more sweetness to it than the canned unsweet stuff, so I think using the sweetened cans is closer in taste to the authentic drink.

 

It's actually pretty good, and grew on me with each sip. The rum comes through nicely and the coconut water and a twist of lime are a light tropical compliment. I'll definitely take this one out for the upcoming family beachside vacation.

[G&T]

Maybe someone here can help me with this. There is a certain flavor in some beers, usually questionable micros, that immediately gives me a headache and makes me nauseous. And then there is a restaurant here that makes me sick whenever I get a beer on tap. I get sick immediately from only a few sips.

I figure the restaurant doesn't clean their lines, but I know immediately that the beer is bad because of a certain flavor that I gues is like cardboardy or licorice. I know that flavors indicate different things but when I taste I know I have to stop. Anyone know what might cause such a fast reaction and fit that flavor profile?

[StrangeSox]

I keep buying that lotto ticket and hoping. . .

 

 

 

Quite frankly, to most people it seems like too expensive a proposition to have a well-stocked home bar. Slowly stocking up over time, though, it doesn't have to be too bad.

 

Read through some recipes and find just one or two mixed drinks cocktails that use a few different ingredients and just shell out for those. Play around with those recipes and decide if you like the base flavor components as much as you thought yu would. Then maybe once per paycheck treat yourself to another new bottle — find new drinks that you have most of the ingredients for, and lowly add to the war chest that way. In a few months you'll have a respectable little home bar, and you'll probably have explored a couple different base spirits in a bit of detail.

 

Once you have a few different base spirits, liqueurs, syrups and mixers on hand, the CocktailDB website will come in handy. If you decide you like using a certain ingredient you can search this database and find a boatload of other drinks that use that ingredient.

 

Thanks for that link. We have a bar full of mixers but never know what to do with them.

 

I have some Jack Daniels Single Barrel waiting for me tonight. I've also discovered recently that Buffalo Trace whiskey mixes very, very well with some cola.

 

[FlaSoxxJim]

Maybe someone here can help me with this. There is a certain flavor in some beers, usually questionable micros, that immediately gives me a headache and makes me nauseous. And then there is a restaurant here that makes me sick whenever I get a beer on tap. I get sick immediately from only a few sips.

I figure the restaurant doesn't clean their lines, but I know immediately that the beer is bad because of a certain flavor that I gues is like cardboardy or licorice. I know that flavors indicate different things but when I taste I know I have to stop. Anyone know what might cause such a fast reaction and fit that flavor profile?

 

You are right about different flavors meaning different things, and you are entirely correct about the iiffy small brewers (especially extract brewpubs) having serious issues.

 

From most of my experience, the cardboard taste in beer is a sign of oxidation. In and of itself, oxidized beer might not make you nauseous although it is pretty revolting for most style (British real ale being an exception in that slight oxidation is part of its traditional flavor profile).

 

Usually though, a pub willing to sell you oxidized beer has been lazy in other aspects of its brewing. I'm not sure what your licorice flavor is, but it maybe the same as my number one least favorite beer off flavor, shich I describe as tasting like you are chewing on rubber tires or burned. I've encountered this in many iffy brewpubs and I don't think it's a beer ingredient per se. Rather, it's either a residual flavor from bad line sanitation, or maybe even some rubber gaskets somewhere along the line degrading, or a preservative or foaming chemical additive. . . I don't know. Whatever it is I hate that flavor and I pretty much write off a pub as a bad idea if I encounter it more than once in a blue moon.

 

Taking a different tack, here's another snippet on beer headaches.

[FlaSoxxJim]

Thanks for that link. We have a bar full of mixers but never know what to do with them.

 

I have some Jack Daniels Single Barrel waiting for me tonight. I've also discovered recently that Buffalo Trace whiskey mixes very, very well with some cola.

 

Buffalo Trace is good stuff, and the distillery makes a lot of very good products.

 

Get adventurous and try the Buffalo Trace with this one from CocktailDB. Don't be put off by the use of maple syrup as a cocktail ingredient, it's a very traditional ingredient that we've just forgotten about in modern days. I think this drink is a winner.

 

 

[ptatc]

Buffalo Trace is good stuff, and the distillery makes a lot of very good products.

 

Get adventurous and try the Buffalo Trace with this one from CocktailDB. Don't be put off by the use of maple syrup as a cocktail ingredient, it's a very traditional ingredient that we've just forgotten about in modern days. I think this drink is a winner.

 

I asked this in another thread but don't know if you saw it, is that a young Declan MacManus in your avatar? It looks like him but I don't think I've seen it.

[FlaSoxxJim]

I asked this in another thread but don't know if you saw it, is that a young Declan MacManus in your avatar? It looks like him but I don't think I've seen it.

 

Indeed it is. On a big Costello kick of late, and he's always been one of my favorites.

[ptatc]

Indeed it is. On a big Costello kick of late, and he's always been one of my favorites.

 

Mine too. I've seen him many times over the years in large and small venues. Always an excellent performer.

 

[Heads22]

I was just introduced to Summer Shandy. I'm a fan.

[FlaSoxxJim]

I picked up two new rums on vacation to the other side of the state that I've been searching out for a while.

 

Khukri Rum from Nepal (!) is one I'd only seen in the expensive (but totally cool), khukri knife-shaped bottle, but I found a normal bottle for $19 and picked it up. Really impressive complexity in this thick sweet rum. Maybe not quite a Zaya or Zacapa 23, but it's got some interesting spicy notes that neither of those have so it should make an intruguing sipper.

 

I also found a bottle of Old Monk 7 Year Rum form India (!!). This is reportedly the 3rd largest selling rum in the world and it's taken me a couple of years to actually turn up a bottle in Florida. Definitely not the refined sipper the Khukri is (and only costing $16), a bit medicinal actually, but some interesting flavor notes going on for sure. It's traditionally mixed with cola and other mixers so I'll need to experiment with it.

 

That said, both of the suggested traditional drink recipes on Old Monk's Wikipedia page sound absolutely horrid — so naturally I'll have to try them

 

A popular cocktail consists of mixing one fourth portion of old monk with one fourth portion of wine and half a portion of beer. This is referred to as "Bellur Blockbuster" and is more potent than any one of the ingredients consumed singly. Another drink formulated by the NITK Basketball Team called "Blondie Can't See" is created with one part Old Monk, 2 parts Sprite and 3 parts Water, leading to a drink that soon became a phenomenon in some parts.

 

Ah, this one from the Ministry of Rum web pages sounds a little more promising:

 

Maharadja`s revenge

 

* 2oz Old Monk Rum

* 1 oz Apricot brandy

* 3/4 oz fresh squeezed lime juice

 

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

Edited July 25, 2010 by FlaSoxxJim

[FlaSoxxJim]

OK, I mixed up the "Blondie Can't See" with Old Monk, Sprite and water, and it was substantially better than expected. The Old Monk has enough going on in it that it stands up to the 5:1 dilution factor and comes off as a sweet, complex rum in this low-octane long drink. Tried it again subbing club soda for the water and it's a little more lively, but I think I'll flip the ratios on the sprite and water/soda the next go 'round.

 

Pleasantly surprised by this one.

 

 

[G&T]

Drinking a Dieu du Ciel Equinoxe du Printemps. This is a Scotch ale brewed with maple syrup. I happen to love this brewery. One of the best on the planet. This beer is a bit syrupy in texture and the alcohol is present but not sommich as to be off putting. Think of Raison de Extre if it wasn't so over the top. The description says it all. It tastes like a very god Scotch ale mixed with maple syrup. There is the hint of peet on the pallette bitmfinishes with maple. Certainly interesting. The alcohol flavor makes this a sipper (it is 9.7%) and difficult to say I would grab again. But it goes nicely with this fried cheesecake and ice cream.

 

Oh and Ommegang Zuur is a pretty solid sour. A bit more cherry than I would like but if you see it, might be worth grabbing m

[3E8]

I was just introduced to Summer Shandy lemonade. I'm a fan.