CS Booze Club.

[KiaKat]

It's Kia - don't worry, a lot of people mix that up

Robert Parker is a wine critic who is frequently blamed for the current style of high alcohol, high fruit, and excessive manipulation that dominates the wine market. He's also the one who put in place the 100 point scoring system that is seen by a lot of critics (Jancis Robinson MW, for one, Alice Feiring being another) as being simply an excuse to drive wine prices up. and create a flat style across the globe with no sense of terroir. He's the founder and the primary critic at the publication Wine Advocate.

These days, wine isn't usually the simple process of grow grapes -> crush grapes -> ferment grapes -> bottle wine. Rather it's more like kill all the life in the soil with chemicals -> plant cloned vines that will give a specific flavour -> wait until they're almost all sugar -> harvest using machines -> kill the native yeasts -> add your own, custom-grown yeasts -> speed up fermentation -> adjust acid & tannin levels according to how late the grapes were picked -> add other chemicals and initiate processes like reverse osmosis (to reduce alcohol) -> put in small charred new oak barrels -> leave the wine there for 6-18 months to get vanilla, marshmallow, coconut, dill, tobacco, and butterscotch flavours -> adjust the tannin levels again to account for the oak -> bottle & sell.

These days my favourite wines are the ones made naturally, that show a sense of place (Loire Valley Muscadet Sevre et Maine with a briny note, or a Barolo that shows pine, dried rose petals, and mushroom over dry granite). But then I'm a bit of a wine snob at times. ^.^

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I love to join this but don't have the time nor the money to become too snobbish.

As far as beers go, I tend to gravitate toward Blue Moon and Guinness.

BTW, check out the sweet Guinness shirt my sister brought me back from Ireland. This isn't what it looks like exactly; just the best representation I could find of it on the web. I <3 my sister sometimes.

[blas]

I'm not a big drinker or bar person, actually quite the opposite.

But I love blended drinks. I love daquiris and especially mudslides.

Applebees makes them the best, but I've found an easy one to make at home that isn't too expensive. You could go the cheap route and just buy the premixed mudslide stuff from the liquor store and add ice cream, but I prefer to make it old style.

Vanilla ice cream, Kaluha, Vodka, chocolate syrup, milk, and whipped cream. Aka, a chocolate shake with some booze . You could also substitute Baileys if you prefer.

[AdminAssistant]

Fiance and I have both cut back on drinking, for both financial and health reasons. (Dad's currently in outpatient rehab for alcoholism, and knowing that those tendencies are hereditary has slowed me down a tad.)

That said, when I do drink I generally want a *drink.* I will have the occasional glass of wine. I like sweet reds the best, but they always make me so sleepy. Otherwise, I generally want bourbon, whiskey, or rum mixed with a dark cola. Add a lime, and I'm a happy Admin. My favorite combo is probably Maker's Mark and Dr. Pepper, or maybe Bacardi 8 and Coke. If I'm at a bar that doesn't have either of those (and one of my favorites does not stock Makers), then a Jack and Coke will do in a pinch. I do enjoy the occasional margarita, but only when I can get a real one, on the rocks, as God intended.

[Jester]

(This post is being posted in the morning because somehow I didn't hit the post button before I crashed last night....)

This was a lie. Not a half-truth, not an exaggeration, but a downright, blatant, bald-faced lie.

Truth of the matter (which I was actually embarrassed about this morning) is that while typing the post, I dozed off, winding up (somehow) in bed, and I woke up at 7 am, with both the post and the beer unfinished. Feeling like I should finish what I started, I very sadly dumped the warm VP, and poured myself a new one. At 7 in the morning. Purely for your benefit, mind you.

Why was I embarrassed? Not because I was drinking at 7 in the morning, but because I was drinking at 7 in the morning before work. But as it was only one beer, and it was only ever going to be one beer, I don't know what my problem was. But then, I am not exactly at my best in the mornings, as some of you may know.

Juan Gil is delicious, but it's starting to get a touch overpriced.

Twenty bucks is over-priced??!!?

Altos de la Hoya makes one that I drink frequently...

Care to give us the name of it?

I was merely saying that the place offers flights of tequila and flights of mescal.

Which brings up the obvious question: WHY?!?!?!......

I'm torn over that porter. I have a deep and abiding love of porters (probably my favorite type of beer). I also have a deep and abiding loathing of vanilla flavoured drinks. However, that fear and loathing comes from the sin that is French Vanilla flavoring for things like coffee, I actually love vanilla, I just fear the cloyingly sweet and perfume like flavours that are often associated with it. I think this is something I will have to hunt down and my my own decision of. I will admit I'm swayed by Jester's opinion on it, otherwise I would probably instinctively lean away from it if I ever saw it.

You have to make your own decisions. Myself, I love vanilla, though I do not drink coffee, so have never had such flavorings as you describe. I DO hate when flavors such as vanilla or fruit flavors are added to a beer and it is clear that the flavors were either an afterthought or that the brewer does not really know what they are doing. Neither is the case, in my humble opinion, when it comes to the Breckenridge Vanilla Porter. I, too, was skeptical when I first saw it. Of course, if you can, it would probably be best for you to buy just a single bottle, so you can decide for yourself what you think of it. Sadly, not all beer mongers offer such a fantastic service.

On a tangential note I feel like putting this out there: I'm a beer snob. If it has something other than Hops, Malt, Yeast and water I tend to want to stay away from it.

I am a beer snob, too, and I make no bones about it. But there are flavored beers that are not lambics, there are flavored beers that are very good, and there are even lambics that are very good. A perfect example of what I am talking about is raspberry beer. I've had my share of it, and most of it is dreck, as most of it is made by brewing beer and then adding raspberry extract to the beer to create the raspberry flavor. Contrast this with what the better brewers do, and what the brewer did at the brewpub I worked at years ago, which is to brew the fruit right into the beer. Our brewer literally threw bushels of fresh raspberries right into the hopper for each batch of the stuff. And it was awesome. The raspberry flavor was subtle, not over powering, and not cloying, but it was definitely there.

I love to join this but don't have the time nor the money to become too snobbish.

You don't have to be a snob. Just try things when you can, and report on what you like....and why. For that matter, feel free to report on what you hate. I have made no bones about mentioning the stuff I can't stand (Heineken Heineken Heineken Heineken Heineken), and will continue to do so.

As far as beers go, I tend to gravitate toward Blue Moon and Guinness.

Guinness is an all-time classic, of course.

If you like Blue Moon, and you get a chance to, try Shock Top or Bell's Oberon, both better versions (in my opinion) of the same style.

Also, while I have not tried this, I have heard good things about a Black & Blue, which is basically a Black & Tan, but with Blue Moon layered under Guinness rather than Bass.

BTW, check out the sweet Guinness shirt my sister brought me back from Ireland.

Sweet. Speaking of which, here is a Guinness hat I bought off of ebay a few years ago. No, that is not me....just someone wearing the same damn hat that I found online.

I love daquiris and especially mudslides.

Vanilla ice cream, Kaluha, Vodka, chocolate syrup, milk, and whipped cream. Aka, a chocolate shake with some booze . You could also substitute Baileys if you prefer.

A true Mudslide is made with ice cream, chocolate syrup, vodka, Kahlua, and Bailey's. You should try it sometime.

I do enjoy the occasional margarita, but only when I can get a real one, on the rocks, as God intended.

In other words, without fucking orange juice in it. I hate that.

[KiaKat]

Twenty bucks is over-priced??!!?

When I first started drinking it, the price point was around $13.

Care to give us the name of it?

Altos de la Hoya is the winery, and the label. It's a Monastrell, from Jumilla. Similar to the Juan Gil, but younger, and a bit less earthy. Up here, the distributor is Polaner, but I think they're local.

[Jester]

Tonight I am not drinking beer, but my favorite rum that I can afford, which is Pyrat XO Reserve. It's a lovely 15 year blend from Pyrat, a distillery in Anguilla, an island in the British West Indies. Pyrat is owned and distributed by Patron Spirits, so should have some amount of availability nationally in the U.S.

The XO is very smooth, with just a slight burn, and a prominent note of citrus. Not everyone loves it, but I do, and find it perfect for sipping. I drink it neat, but I have seen people enjoy it on the rocks, with a mixer, however people drink rum. It is a versatile rum, after all. And I am not locked into it being ONLY a sipping rum. Hell, I got my first (and only) win at a bartending contest making a cocktail with it, the now legendary very famous semi-famous somewhat well known occasionally heard of Keys Breeze.

Delicious. The kind of rum that can make someone who is ready to throw down a shot stop and sip the shot, despite such sipping of shots being foreign to them. Not only have I seen this actually happen, I have caused it on numerous occasions with this rum.

When I first started drinking it, the price point was around $13.

All well and good, but meaningless unless we know when you started drinking it. If it was last year, that's a huge hike. If it was 30 years ago, that is nothing. I presume it was somewhere in between those two extremes, though, and the time it's been will determine whether that's a huge hike or not.

Keep in mind, we may live in differently price-structured markets; Key West tends to be on the high end for prices for many things, comparable to NYC, San Fran, and LA. Which means a $20 bottle of wine here may be $15 somewhere else. Just saying.

[KiaKat]

$20 is about what it's running here, also. It's one of the few wines that seems to have a nearly-flat pricing across the country.

I first tried it almost four years ago. To compare: Another wine, also Spanish, but from Rueda rather than Jumilla, and from a winemaker that is a rapidly-rising star, has gone up one dollar in that same time period. The quality of the second wine (Dehesa Gago, from Telmo Rodriguez, if anyone is interested) has greatly increased in that time, whereas Juan Gil has remained about the same.

[thansal]

Thanks for the insight into modern wine production Kia. As I don't drink wine (at all) I have not payed much attention to it.


So, new (to me) beer:
Ommegang's Witte

I have mentioned my love of Three Philosophers, and Ommegang in general, previously, but this is the first time I'm having their wheat beer, appropriately named Whitte (actually just the name of a type of beer).

As with most Ommegang products it is bottle conditioned (so there is yeast sediment in the beer), and it has a champagne like cork, something I always get a kick out of (not sure why exactly).

It's a very good example of wheat beer as far as I care. The colour is pale gold, it's exceptionally cloudy, and the aroma is of citrus and spices.

The flavour is much as you would expect, though it's a bit spicier than other wheat beers, and the hops comes through a bit more than others as well (a plus in my book).

All in all a very good wheat beer, very robust flavours, and obviously something I will pick up again. It also has the advantage of only being 5% abv instead of Ommegang's normal tendency in the direction of 9%, meaning I (a serious light weight) can drink it and still be fairly highly functioning after the fact :P

[pitmonkey]

The local brewer is a little place that is open Friday and Saturday evenings only. He does have some on tap at a few local bars but it is nice to go to the tasting room and talk to him. Over the winter he had a blackberry stout that he aged in a bourbon barrel. It was so good. As for being a beer snob, Lets start a club.

[Jester]

They beer I'd like to talk about today is not going to win too many awards, is not a beer snob's beer, and will not set the beer world on fire.

But it's nice, and probably something most of you are unaware of.

Foster's Premium Ale. "But Jester, we know about Foster's!" Yes, you do. And no, you don't.

The Foster's you are familiar with, the one on draft in some American bars and the one in those big blue and gold oil cans, is Foster's Lager. Not the beer I'm talking about today, which is Foster's Premium Ale. Notice the difference in the third word. Yes, this is a different product. While the Ale comes in those big ole oil cans as well, you can tell the difference quickly because the oil can is green and gold, not blue and gold. Personally, I prefer it to the standard Foster's.

The Ale is a nice, drinkable, honest beer, something you could drink with anything, but that is better than the typical BudMillerCoors. Coming in the oil can as it does, it is good for two good pints each time. At just over $2 a can in my local grocery store, that comes to a dollar a beer. Not too shabby. And as I said, tasty and drinkable. Worthy of a whole review, examining its nuances? Nah. It's just a nice, honest beer. Try some.

Over the winter he had a blackberry stout that he aged in a bourbon barrel.

Oh, now THAT sounds gooooood....

As for being a beer snob, Lets start a club.

I think we just did.....it's called CS Booze Club.

[Jester]

This afternoon, I was gonna tell y'all all about Shiner Dortmunder Spring Ale. Sadly, I dozed off (i.e., passed out) before I really even tried the stuff, and by the time I came back to life, it was too warm to bother, and thus became a sacrifice to the Beer Gods.

So this evening, I meant to go to the Beer Monger. And when my friend Photo Dude texted me and requested my presence at a downtown bar, I figured that would be a good jumping off point towards coming back home and stopping at the Monger's.

So I get to the bar, and after buying me my first beer, Photo Dude, who was many things other than sober, got it in his head he had to leave me and go to the bar where his girlfriend was at. Great. This was after I had ordered food. And I'm not even overly fond of the food at this particular establishment. Whatever. So I scarf (most of) my food, drink a couple of Red Stripes, and head back home, with a planned stop at the Monger's. I figured I'd be there about 10 minutes, 15 tops, as I wanted to pick up a Dortmunder, but also hopefully get some other singles of beers I had not tried.

90 minutes after I got to the Beer Monger's, I was still there, talking beer and wine with the Usual Suspect, and although they were completely out of the Dortmunder, he had talked me into not one, but two mixed six packs of singles (12 new beers), PLUS a six-pack of Magic Hat Vinyl (their spring ale, and one of my favorites), PLUS a big boy of [something, can't remember what] (not that I needed much to be talked into this), PLUS the fucker gave me two small bottles of something by Flying Dog he was trying to get rid of, and just because they love me, he also gave me (yes, gave, as in free) a big boy of some Christmas ale, all of which will be reviewed in here in good time.

For those unfamiliar with beerology, a "big boy" is basically a bomber, a big bottle of whatever beer is in question. These are usually not cheap, so I don't often buy them, since if I don't like the beer in question, I'm out about 8-15 bucks.

By the way, below is the receipt from the Beer Monger's. Yes, that's one purchase from a liquor store. If I had any shame, I might feel some right about now. (I don't. So I don't.)

For the moment, I am enjoying the hell out of a St. Martin's (see previous posts).
Mmmmmm....St. Martin's.
What are YOU drinking?

[Jester]

Ah, good beer. (At least I hope so.) Trying some more new (to me) craft beers from the Beer Monger. Actually have a fridge stocked with them. And will be reviewing them and other beers over the next however long.

Sadly, yesterday at the chicken wings cookoff and today at a memorial service and later at dinner all I had was crappy beers, i.e., Bud and Corona. 'Nuff said there. On to the (hopefully) good stuff!

Red Brick Helluva Bock (Atlanta Brewing Co., Atlanta, Georgia). Okay, with an eye-catching label and a hilarious spiel upon it making fun of those who live up North (no, seriously!), I already am hoping this is a good beer. It is amber in color, almost honey, and translucent. Subtle nose, smelling of good honest beer with almost a whisper of honey. (Note: you can read the text of the beer label at the link.)

FIRST SIP: Oh, that's niiice. Tastes just like it smells. A nice, honest beer, with just a hint of sweetness, perhaps honey, perhaps not. But it reminds me of honey. (I have a major thang for honey.) It's tasty, but not so refined that you wouldn't enjoy drinking it every day. And light enough where it would be a great beer on a hot sweaty day, which not all craft beers are. This is the kind of beer I could see stocking my fridge with on a regular basis.

Of course, those of you that live up North, good luck finding this, as their label not only makes fun of you, but implies that they don't ship to the Hinterlands. Your loss, our gain.
I should note that a lot of online beer reviewers do not agree with me on this, and some of then flat out pan this beer, but fuck 'em....a lot of these people also worship at the IPA Altar, and I've established my general dislike for that style. Also, my reviews are based on my tastes alone. Generally speaking, if you like Killian's Red or Dundee's Honey Brown, I think you'd like this. Conversely, if you don't like those two, you probably won't like this.

[Jester]

Second beer!

Shipyard Wheat Ale (Shipyard Brewing Co., Portland, Maine). I have generally been impressed by the brews of Shipyard, including their Export, Prelude and Pumpkinhead. And I love wheat beers. But so many of them are disappointing. Here's hoping Shipyard delivers again.

The nose is wheaty with.....something sweet. Hint of banana, maybe? Subtle, but there. A good omen.

FIRST SIP: Nice. Different. Wheaty, slight hint of banana, smooth, hints of other spices. Tasty. Comparable to Bell's Oberon, but somewhat different. A little crisper and drier than Oberon.

As a wheat beer, it's nice but not overly memorable. As a product of Shipyard, it is hugely disappointing, as I generally expect them to blow my socks off. Decent beer. I'd drink it. Wouldn't go out of my way to order it, but yeah, it's nice. I wish I could say more about it, but sadly, that pretty much sums it up. (Still worlds better than Widmer's hilariously bad excuse for a Hefeweizen, though.) The reviewers seem to agree with me that this is average at best. For non-hefeweizen wheat beers, Bell's Oberon is a better option, as is Shock Top.

[TowelKing]

Not sure how, considering my borderline alcoholism, I missed this thread but I did. So I'm joining in now.

I love beer. I adore beer. Hell, I fucking worship beer. Unfortunately, I have yet to find a good liquor store in Edmonton that I can buy single Craft beers at. If anybody knows.....
I'm honestly not real picky about what beers I drink when I'm out on the town (MGD, Corona, Keiths IPA, never Bud), but I enjoy Rickards Dark, when they have it on tap.
Sleeman HB is good too; I just started drinking that again recently.
The other thing I am known for drinking is Rye (or other whiskeys depending on my mood). My two stand-by's: Crown Black Label, and Forty Creek. Every once in a while when I can afford it, I live grabbing a bottle of Glenlevit to drink neat.

I am always interested in expanding my horizons. It's been years since I enjoyed rum, I can't drink well rum, and I can't drink Captain Spiced. Any suggestions?
Oh yeah, the last rum I enjoyed was Mount Gay.