CS Booze Club.

[thansal]

So, I had my first actual interaction with Tequila last night (I'm ignoring the many margaritas I have had, and the one time friends decided "oh, you have to have a shot of Tequila").

Another Museum of Natural History event, this time the topic was Chilies and Tequila (ps: Mole blanco? Amazing stuff, if you can get your hands on some do it, made with pine nuts and all sorts of awesome).

They had 3 Tequilas for us to try as well as a cocktail from the restaurant of one of the speakers. In this case they had brought Siete Leguas' Blanco, Reposado and Añejo.

The background we were given on Siete Leguas is that they still do all of their fermenting/distilling/roasting the old fashioned ways, and, until recently, was actually Patron. Due to Patron exceeding the capacity of their distillery, and their refusal to cut corners, they parted from patron and instead now offer it under their own label.

Obviously I'm fairly uninformed about tequila in general, but I will make what little comments I can, though I will preface all of it with saying I really liked all 3.

The Blanco: It has the distinct tequila smell and taste, which I can't even begin to describe (I guess it tastes like cooked agave), however it obviously doesn't have the terrible skunkieness that I associate with what little other tequila I have had. A lot of burn, but not enough to make it unpleasant. Even some caramel flavors I Wasn't really expecting. Hey, as I said, I liked it.

The Reposado: Still the main notes are (I guess) cooked agave, however it now also reminds me a bit of whiskey. This is the first time I have tried anything baring whiskey that was aged in oak, and it was really interesting to see just how much of Whiskey's flavor comes straight from the barrel it was aged in. The drink smooths out quite a bit over the blanco, and it's easier for me to sip.

The Añejo: It almost tastes like some one combined a shot of good whiskey with a shot of tequila. Again, smoother, more of the oak flavors, but with out losing the agave flavor.

I can understand why people would prefer blanco tequila over aged. The raw spirit has such intense and diverse flavors that it doesn't even need the aging for it to become more complex.


Oh, and the cocktail was interesting and fun. Blanco tequila, lime juice, cucumber flavor (not sure how) and jalapeno simple syrup with a chili pepper rim. Fairly dangerous as it barely tasted alcoholic and the heat was really nice.


Next month?
Tiki Drinks with Rum will be provided by Appleton Estate Jamaica Rum, El Dorado Rum, and Rhum Clément.

[Jester]

Oh, and the cocktail was interesting and fun. Blanco tequila, lime juice, cucumber flavor (not sure how) and jalapeno simple syrup with a chili pepper rim.

Probably from either muddled cucumber (later strained out for the cocktail), juiced cucumber, or more unlikely but still possible, a cucumber infused syrup.

Tiki Drinks with Rum will be provided by Appleton Estate Jamaica Rum, El Dorado Rum, and Rhum Clément.

If you get a chance, try some of those rums neat, or with one ice cube, rather than just in cocktails. And if by some chance they have El Dorado 25 year, steal a few bottles and RUN! Seriously, the stuff is magical, and easily one of the five best rums I've ever had. And I'm a rum guy at a rum bar!

If they don't have ED25 (we can't even get any from the distillery lately), look for El Dorado 21, El Dorado 15, El Dorado 12 (all lovely and somewhat similar to each other, but each still having its own identity), Appleton Estate 21, Appleton Estate Reserve, and Appleton Estate Extra. Also, while I am not a huge fan in general of French style rums (or rhums, as they call them), if you can, definitely try Clément Cuvée Homère. Pretty damn good stuff.

[thansal]

I'm actually really looking forward to the tiki one, I just have no clue if they will be giving us pre-mixed drinks or just straight Rum. I'm rather hoping for both :P

[Jester]

If it's about Tiki drinks, they will almost definitely be making cocktails, but it never hurts to ask for tastes of the base liquor.

[Jester]

Hockey Playoff Game Time Beer Reviews!

Bald Eagle Brown by RJ Rockers Brewing Company (Spartanburg, South Carolina): Lovely dark brown with some red highlights under the light. Subtle malty nose with hints of brown sugar. Tasty brown, very drinkable. Brown sugar taste there but not dominant. Good, tasty, worth having, but not overly memorable. Decent brown. Score: 6.5.

Kerberos Tripel by Flying Dog Brewery (Frederick, Maryland): Golden orange (orangey gold?) in color. VERY subtle nose. A bit sweet, a bit beery, but not much for the nose to grab a hold of. The taste is very much that of a Belgian tripel, with its distinct but not overpowering sweetness. While it is not normally my personal preference, a pretty good Belgian-styled tripel. (As a tripel, you expect high alcohol, and Kerberos delivers, at 8.5% ABV.) Score: 6, though I must reiterate, this is not normally my preferred style.

Lancaster Milk Stout by Lancaster Brewing Company (Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania): Pours like motor oil. Blacker than black, tan creamy head. We are off to a great start for a guy like me! Malty but mellow nose. Hints of dark chocolate and roasted coffee beans. Oh. OH. OH! This is a very tasty milk stout indeed. More assertively than in the nose, the taste has flavors of roasted coffee, cocoa, various chocolates, and even a hint of dark brown sugar. Sweet and malty with just a hint, the right hint I should add, of bitterness. All around, a delicious dark beer. The only flaw it might have is that it could have some more flavor, and can after a while seem slightly watery....but these are very minor things in a beer that is worthy of your attention, love, and respect. I score it an 8 out of 10.

[Jester]

Hockey time....and rib time. And with ribs....BEER! (Duh.) In this case, Ayinger Fest-Marzen, which has been sitting in my fridge a while....probably since my previous trip to Miami, which would be last summer, I do believe. Or maybe it's from my local beer monger....hard to remember, honestly.

In any case, the color of this beer is a nice light amber, appropriate for the style. The nose is slightly sweet, somewhat heathery, with a hint of malt. And the taste is pure Octoberfest.... a lovely autumn beer that still manages to be somewhat light (for the style), with a hint of spices and citrus zest. Very well done, Ayinger. I think I am going to have to give this beer an 8.

[KiaKat]

Raventos I Blanc "de Nit" Rosé 2009.

Hot DAMN but this is some good bubbly. I'm actually on day two of it - Husband and I opened the bottle last night, and I just poured out the last glass. Still holds on to the lemon (think almost-too-tart lemonade) and the faint, barely ripe, tart strawberry. Remarkably mineral, though less so than last night (I swear, it tasted like I'd just put my nose up against a wet ocean rock). The bubbles are holding on (not surprising for a traditional-method bubbly), if not as mouth-filling as last night.

When we opened it, the dominant notes were white cherry, tart strawberry with hints of candy, and a floral hint (rose? carnation? something very pink), with a slight saline characteristic, which is normal for Cava. It's beautifully representative of the type. The main grapes used in this, as in any Cava, are Macabeo, Xarel-lo and Parellada. Being a rosé, they've also added 5% Monastrell (known in France as Mourvedre), to create the colour and add the red/pink flavours. Raventos i Blanc is situated right in the middle of Penedes (the Cava region of Spain), near the Mediterranean, which allows the flavours to be a bit lighter and influenced more by the ocean than most of the world's sparkling wines.

Although the land has been owned by the same family for half a millennia, they've only been making Cava for the last quarter of a century. And they're doing a damned good job of it. I think this might be one I grab a half case of for summer sipping.

[Jester]

Hosted an awesome beer tasting for my friends this week, but that's for a later post. This one's for a new beer for me.

It's pretty much known that Weihenstephaner Korbinian Dopplebock is one of my all-time favorite beers. Since I started rating beers on a ten scale, I VERY rarely give out nines, and have given out only one ten: to Weihenstephaner Korbinian Dopplebock. So naturally, when I was in Miami last month, I picked some up...and also picked up another beer from Weihenstephaner, their Festbier. (5.8% ABV)

The Festbier pours a light golden amber; not the yellow of "fizzy yellow beer" that so many beer snobs mock in typical American macrobeers, but a deeper and yellower color, with almost a hint of orange. The nose is subtle, light, and very fresh. No skunkiness here. A hint of honey, a touch of heather, almost even a hint of a spring breeze. This is demure but friendly beer!

The taste....well, you expect high quality from a brewery that bills itself as "the world's oldest brewery" (they've been brewing for about 600 years or so!), and Weihenstephaner delivers. American Big Beer Makers should take note--THIS is what a lighter beer can and SHOULD be. Light, refreshing, but still tasty and flavorful, with subtle nuances of spice, but nothing overwhelming. Nothing I can really pin down, other than this is a superlative alternative to BuMiCo pisswater. Oh, hell, it's not even an alternative to that swill, it's a better alternative to most lighter beers.

And a very clean finish, I just noticed. Very clean. It is not the flavor punch in the mouth that the Korbinian is....it merely caresses your palate, and then it's gone. This is not a fashion queen, but the girl next door playfully flirting, hoping you'll notice.

Yes, I am getting poetic about this beer....because this beer is worth getting poetic about. If this were more readily available in bars (it is not available at all in Key West), I would probably never drink another Corona. I could drink this all day during football season...and would if I could. And on my next visit to Miami, I plan on stopping at my favorite liquor store up there, and picking up not just mstoore Korbinian, but more Festbier as well.

Hey, Bud Light? THIS is drinkability! Not that tasteless watery crap you produce....THIS is drinkable, because it's light, it's refreshing, and it actually has an excellent taste to it.

The folks at Weihenstephaner continue to blow me away. This is an easy 9.

(Jester, what is a festbier? What is the style? Good question....I have no idea, but decided to review this beer before I looked that up, as I didn't want any other reviews to influence me. And holy crap, it turns out that festbier is a marzen, aka an Oktoberfest. Although the name gave me an inkling, I never would have guessed from the taste. Definitely light for a marzen, but still incredible.)

EDITED TO ADD: Damn! Just went in to the kitchen to get the rest of the Festbier (the bottle holds more than my pint glass will), and was assaulted with the sickening smell of some microwaveable mini burger crap Mr. Anti-Social had nuked. Blech! Thank the beer gods that smell has not permeated my room, or it would just about kill the wonderful mood that the Festbier had set for me.

[KiaKat]

Question for the boozegeeks.

I'm putting together a tasting for one of the leaders of the Natural Wines movement. My current thought is to focus on two winemakers, one known for quality, the other known for being weird. Both are from the same region (Loire Valley), and have a wide range of wines available.

Would you be more interested in the weird grapes/blends that they use, or the "normal" ones? Or would it make more sense to have mostly normal, but one really odd wine from each of them?

[Jester]

My personal opinion is that, if you are trying to showcase the vintners in question, offer up what you believe to be their best or most impressive wines, be they weird or more standard.

If you think the people at the tasting are adventurous, feel free to go with some more of the weird wines. If they are more wine snobs or unadventurous types, you might want to lean more towards the normal ones. If you know your audience, it is easier to pick the wines.

How you do it is up to you, of course. But much depends on what you want to showcase, and what you think your tasters will be ready and/or willing to try, as well as what you think they might enjoy.

[KiaKat]

I ended up going with a mix. One of the vintners is particularly well-known for being high-quality and not obviously "natural," so I chose an offbeat sparkling, two Sauvignon Blanc based whites, a white blended from two somewhat unusual grapes, as well as an offbeat light-bodied red and a heavier red that is standard for the region, but still somewhat unusual. The second vintner is uber-natural (uses horse carts to haul his hand-picked grapes), so I went with one weird red and two normal reds from him. We'll see what the Boss has to say about my choices, though I think it's a fascinating tasting.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

While I was on vacation, I drank a couple bottles of Moose Drool brown ale by Big Sky Brewing Company of Missoula, Montana. Apparently it's the most popular beer in Montana or something. At least that's what some advertising for it I saw said.

It's pretty good. If you like dark beers like Guinness you will probably like this.

Tonight I picked up a few things at the Grocery Store of Awesome and visited the liquor department, where lo and behold I discovered Moose Drool in the beer cooler. So I bought a six pack of it.

On a different note, is Sierra Nevada Pale Ale any good? I've been wanting to try it for some reason.

[Jester]

I've been drinking Moose Drool for a couple years now, whenever I get back home to Arizona, as they have it at many bars.

As for Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, I like it, and it is available in a lot of places, because it is really good, but it is definitely hoppier than, say, Moose Drool. It is a Pale Ale, and these are traditionally hoppy (not IPA hoppy, but a nice bite nonetheless), but I think Sierra does a nice job with it. Ironically, while I love the Pale Ale, which is their flagship beer, everything else I've tried by them has been, to me, disappointing, ranging from mediocre and boring to just downright bad. Damn shame, because they have the Pale Ale down pat.

[Jester]

A couple of quick beer reviews from my last night in Houston. I have more notes that I took while I was here, but I have a couple beers that I picked up for this last night in the hotel room (tomorrow is going to be stupid early, so I am not going out). So why not a couple quick reviews while I'm (supposed to be) packing up for the flight home?

Before the reviews, a couple quick notes:

Review #1: Flensburger Weizen, a wheat beer from Germany. A light amber in appearance, with just a little haziness...I don't think this is technically a hefeweizen. The nose argues with the appearance, and says that this is, in fact, a hefe. Strong wheaty and banana aromas wafting up from my glass. Oh, this is quite tasty. Still don't think it's a hefe, but a very flavorful wheat beer with gobs of personality. The banana flavor is strong but not overpowering, and the mouthfeel is smooth and almost honeyish. I would definitely drink this again. A bit light compared to most hefes (which it really isn't), but still quite tasty. 7.5.

Okay, this next one, how could I resist them? The brewery name is Jester King. Seriously, how could I NOT get them? Especially when the beer guy at the store I was at recommended them so highly? From their offerings, I selected their Black Metal Imperial Stout, which the bottle says is an unfiltered, unpasteurized, bottle-conditioned ale, apparently done in the farmhouse style, which I am admittedly unfamiliar with. It pours thick and dark, almost cascading in the glass Guinness-style (almost), and giving you a black beer with a thick, foamy, tan head. The nose is interesting; dark, a bit smoky, with a hint of roasted malt, almost coffeeish...but just a hint of that. Actually something unpleasant on the nose. Hmmm....

Definitely a different beer. There is a dark, bitter, roasted malt/coffeeish taste to it, but something else I can't quite identify. It is rich, and it is interesting, but I'm not sure I really like it all that much. It's an odd one, this, and I'm rather saddened that something from a brewery called Jester King, of all things (they're from Austin, TX, if you're wondering) would put out something so odd and disappointing. I mean, it's not horrible, and I will finish the (large) bottle, but that as much as my commitment to finish what (beer) I start as it is because I spent a few bucks on this large bottle, and I'll be damned if I waste the money or the beer. And, of course, I am trying to get tired so I can get to sleep earlier than normal, as I have to wake up at a stupid time to get to the airport. Score: 5. It's not average, as the score suggests, but the good parts and the bad parts end up averaging each other out. So, the strangest 5 I have ever given.

EDITED TO ADD: Okay, the Black Metal grows on you. It's still funky and weird, but I have to punch the score up to 6. Not exactly a ringing endorsement, but it is an odd beer, and it very much threw me. It still does.

[thansal]

I mean, it's called Black Metal Imperial Stout, it can't be very drinkable or else it wouldn't live up to it's Black Metal roots! :P
Either that or they make it like the Black Metal Vegan Chef does...
Black Metal Vegan Pad Thai


So, my new beer is Allagash Black. Allagash White is one of my standards, it's a very good Belgian Style Wheat beer, and one of the standards I reach for when I want a wheat beer.

Allagash Black is a Belgian Style Stout, and it's amazing. I'm a huge sucker for good coffee flavoring, and this really delivers in the department. It also has plenty of chocolate flavors, and a nice amount of hop bight (though mainly overpowered by the malt flavors).

Seriously, I don't know how I have managed to miss this beer so far, I don't even think I have SEEN it before, yet I see other Allagash offerings all over the place.