The drinking thread

[ShadySands]

In the past week I've had a few fingers of the following

Barros 20 year tawny port

Zacapa 23 year rum

Breckenridge single barrel bourbon

Only thing I'm missing is a nice smoky, peaty Scotch

[Guard Dog]

There is no such thing as a nice scotch!

 

[Guard Dog]

On 9/8/2018 at 10:58 AM, Guard Dog said:

Last night I made 5 gallons of mead. Now we play the waiting game. See you in 9 months. 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JVNMmsN3Co

Guess what is about ready

 

[Maedhros]

Thorne & Daughters, one of many talented wine producers in South-Africa. This is their Tin Soldier Semillon, named so because Semillon was once the foot soldier of the wine industry there.

Great wine, btw. It's a white wine, but with extended grape skin contact.

[ShadySands]

Watermelon margaritas 

[ManifestedISO]

on the ale front, have mostly abandoned stouts and gone to gose, become best friends with berliner weisse (raspberry coffee ale, must try to believe)

 

spirit wise, still being best with bourbons, but enjoying a neat young irish whiskey by the name of Teeling that spent six months in a rum barrel

[ManifestedISO]

sorry to double but after Dark Phoenix we stopped by Stone and discovered a delightful staple reimagined

 

the standard is a dead ringer ... put your nose in the imperial is exactly like as if you made it with wheat bread (curiously it says the Liberty Station location but we landed at the main one up here in the north)

[Guard Dog]

Now that is wild stuff!

[ManifestedISO]

that rare occasion you try something new, a whole new genre, and it's so good you can't help but execute a Picard blouse pull at yourself for not having thought to explore before now...

 

saw this merely at our local grocer and loved that it declares to be a 'thinking person's gin' ... give it a try

 

[Keyrock]

I'm not usually into fruit flavored beers, I generally like my beer to taste like, well, beer, but I decided to give this a try. It's pretty decent, really easy drinking. If you poured me this into a glass and I never saw the bottle I might not know it was beer at all (until the alcohol headrush). It tastes like less sweet, lightly carbonated raspberry juice with a tiny hint of maltiness. I can't see this being a regular drink of mine, but it is pretty refreshing on a summer day, so I might sneak it into the rotation once in a while.

Edited July 12, 2019 by Keyrock

[majestic]

With today being annoyingly hot I went out and had a cold one:

[Azdeus]

My drink for the past weekend. It's quite enjoyable.

[Gfted1]

Ive always wanted to try absinthe. 

[Azdeus]

You should! Buy a small bottle and have a go, just look up how to properly prepare a drink, and DON'T shot it like many do.

[Keyrock]

I'm home from the road for a few days and decided to drink some local brews. The Carolinas have a veritable embarrassment of riches, if you're into IPAs, but, if you're like me and prefer lagers, your choices are far more limited. Still, I picked this up:

Pretty good. Fairly easy drinking and comes off smooth, but with enough robustness to satisfy my palette. It could stand to be a tiny bit more hoppy, for my taste, but overall it's the kind of no fuss, no muss, no spices, no fruits, no berries, old skool traditional lager that I tend to gravitate toward.

Edited August 20, 2019 by Keyrock

[Gfted1]

4.9%! Youre going to need to drink about 20 of them.

[Hurlshort]

Lagers are getting some love in the craft beer world, so there should be some good options out there now. It's a longer process than ales, so it can take a bit of patience.

[ShadySands]

Same problem I had when I first moved to Denver. The market was (and still is) flooded with IPAs and it took me a while to find what I liked.

[Maedhros]

Drinking some Syrah wines today. For men worried about wine not being masculine enough, this is the wine grape for you. Dark, dark stuff with associations to black pepper, dried blood, olives, licorice, blackberries, juniper, smoked bacon. Works really well along with large game animals.

[ShadySands]

4 hours ago, Maedhros said:

For men worried about wine not being masculine enough

Is this a common problem? Really curious.

[Maedhros]

6 hours ago, ShadySands said:

Is this a common problem? Really curious.

Not basing it on facts, just my observations where I feel like it's a trend that men prefer beer, and women wine.

[bugarup]

Drinking Laphroaig. Funny stuff, tastes like scorched tires but in a good way. 

[ShadySands]

Laphroaig is pretty good but I prefer Lagavulin 16 year. My second favorite is a blended Scotch, The Peat Monster. My wife says it smells like an old dirty sock but I say it's delicious.

[ShadySands]

https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2019/10/drink-like-swanson-nick-offermans-lagavulin-bottle.html

[Guard Dog]

I bought a bottle of the new offering from Maker's Mark; Maker's 46. As you all know I am a big fan of small batch bourbon. Much less so of big label blended brands. Well, Maker's 47 is advertised as "barrel strength" which I mistook to mean "not blended". That was my first mistake. Makers Mark is a pretty good product. For a big label. Ten years ago they had a black wax special edition that was really good. But the way I see it, I don't drink more than a few glasses a week (usually). I'm 48. I'm only going to live, what...  32 more years on the outside? 1660 more weeks? three glasses a week that's like 4900 glasses I have left. Life is too short to drink crappy booze. 

So.... where was I going with this? Oh yeah... Maker's 46. It's darker and definitely richer than regular Makers. But that owes nothing to the aging like you'd think. Along with being a slightly different recipe they used French Oaks to make the aging cask staves. Oaks are different in France I guess. The first problem is that it's aged six years. Bourbon should not be aged less than nine years IMO. Good bourbon should retain a little flavor from the aging cask but six years is like taking a bite of charcoal and chasing it with grain liquor. It tastes very oaky. Not good.

Second problem is it's 94 proof. Bourbon should not be more than 45% alcohol. This is a little obnoxious and kills the taste. Not that the taste was all that good to begin with. 

Third problem is it is too sweet. Bourbon should be dry and lightly sweet with afternotes of whatever spices were added to the mashbill. Sweetness kills the after taste and makes your mouth feel sticky. 

It's not the worst thing I've ever tried. Certainly better than the rot-gut brands like Jim Beam.... excuse me... just threw up in my mouth a little typing that name. But you are not going to live forever and there are better brands for you to try. Give this one a pass.

 

Edited November 18, 2019 by Guard Dog