The Finer Things In Life

[witesoxfan]

Not that I am aware of anything to do with wine in this thread, but even s***ty wine, given a certain time period in a brown paper bag, over a year period, can do wonders.

 

I am actually currently consuming a very mediocre brand of Riesling, in the regards of Funf. It is a very, very cheap version of wine. It's amazing what one year in a brown paper bag, away from 99% of light actually does. It has been over a year since I bought this "bad" bottle of wine, but it's ultra sweet, tasting fantastic, and doing wonders to extend my drunkenness (I do firmly believe I can tell the difference between bad and mediocre wine. I still have never tasted good wine, white or red. This works for me right now).

 

 

Anyways, it's very, very sweet, but there is a good, tongue tartness that you feel at the end. I'll say mediocre wine after aging, becauze I have never intentinoally aged a bottle of wine. That one was great though, and better than those exact models nowdadays.

 

Trust me Flax and G&T, I'll get there. Give me 3 years. Hope both of you are still around. Hope I'm still around.

Edited September 6, 2009 by witesoxfan

[FlaSoxxJim]

mixing glass? I just pound that stuff with the long sticks.

 

 

There's nothing wrong with muddling and building the drink in the servong glass, but I find all the muddled lime gets stuck down at the bottom if I don't at least use a Boston shaker to give it a quick mix.

[FlaSoxxJim]

Trust me Flax and G&T, I'll get there. Give me 3 years. Hope both of you are still around. Hope I'm still around.

 

Becoming at least somewhat knowlegable about your adult libations is just an occupational hazard, so no doubt we all get a little more educated over time. Don't sell yourself short even now - if you are approaching alcoholic beverages with any desire to know something about them and not just a desire to get buzzed, you're already more comitted to the process than most people.

 

Wine is the one thing that I mostly go along for the ride on. I very much enjoy wine, but I admit that there are nuances to wine appreciation that I don't think I can ever really get. Come November, Rex will make fun of my enjoyment of "lollypop wine" when I get excited that the new Beaujolais nouveau comes in, but I like them so I'm happy.

 

I like rieslings too, when I'm in the mood. I know some of the better ones can benefit from proper aging, but I don't think I've ever had a standard riesling that had more than a couple of years of age. I have, however, experienced several mouthfuls of vinegar that used to be riesling that aged too long under improper conditions. Yuck.

[witesoxfan]

Becoming at least somewhat knowlegable about your adult libations is just an occupational hazard, so no doubt we all get a little more educated over time. Don't sell yourself short even now - if you are approaching alcoholic beverages with any desire to know something about them and not just a desire to get buzzed, you're already more comitted to the process than most people.

 

Wine is the one thing that I mostly go along for the ride on. I very much enjoy wine, but I admit that there are nuances to wine appreciation that I don't think I can ever really get. Come November, Rex will make fun of my enjoyment of "lollypop wine" when I get excited that the new Beaujolais nouveau comes in, but I like them so I'm happy.

 

I like rieslings too, when I'm in the mood. I know some of the better ones can benefit from proper aging, but I don't think I've ever had a standard riesling that had more than a couple of years of age. I have, however, experienced several mouthfuls of vinegar that used to be riesling that aged too long under improper conditions. Yuck.

 

ugh. That's actually what I figured would have happened with that bottle. I was admittedly quite drunk, but I haven't tasted sweetness in a bottle of wine like that in ages. The brown paper bag is actually a hell of a neat tool.

[SoxAce]

Becoming at least somewhat knowlegable about your adult libations is just an occupational hazard, so no doubt we all get a little more educated over time. Don't sell yourself short even now - if you are approaching alcoholic beverages with any desire to know something about them and not just a desire to get buzzed, you're already more comitted to the process than most people.

 

Wine is the one thing that I mostly go along for the ride on. I very much enjoy wine, but I admit that there are nuances to wine appreciation that I don't think I can ever really get.

 

Man... Is it sad that I knew around 75% of the wine mentioned in this thread, and I've drank some of the stuff for years, and I'm barely turning 23? Though I must say I'm still learning as far as wine but I was once never a fan of it back when I was 12-17 years old in the prime of my drinking, calling it a really old/rich people's drink. Then again.. I was exposed to alot of s*** as well.

Edited September 6, 2009 by SoxAce

[bmags]

Give me a malbec and I'm happy.

[G&T]

So I returned from Florida and the Cigar City choice was the Humidor Series which was, likely, the one that Flax was talking about. I split the 750ml with my brother (which is only fair I suppose).

 

This beer was excellent. I am not a hop head, but this was really a wonderful example of balance. Plenty of floral and citrusy hops. Grapefruit and pine. This was countered by the malty sweetness, and perhaps a bit of fruit. I love to get the bottom of the bottle and get some of that yeast. While it didn't add much in the way of flavor, as would be the case in a Belgian offering, the yeast here was great and mellowing out the hops. As it warmed it turned into smooth but complex beer. The alcohol was very well hidden.

 

It's a shame there wasn't more, but that was apparently the only Cigar City the store had in stock.

[FlaSoxxJim]

G&T, I'm glad you were able to try the Humidor Ale, and I'm excited you dug it. I've been craving it ever since finishing that first bottle.

 

But for me, it's been more rum and less beer for the past week. Though not nearly enough of that either.

 

I spent the Labor Day weekend over in St. Petersberg and then Kissimmee hanging with the wife and kids. These jaunts usually provide me with an opportunity to stock up on a couple of rums that don't come my way — in particular of late the Pusser's 95.5 proof that I often gush about here, and a must-have rum for me. Sadly, I couldn't track it down this trip. (I also learned that it can only be got in the US these days by dealing with a UK reseller, as it is a product that isn't officially available stateside for the time-being.

 

Big-time bummer, but fortunately the Rum Gods did not completely abandon me, because this weekend I actually did manage to find the two biggest rum bargains of my life. In the same liquor store in St. Pete I found sitting n a closeout table, a $23 bottle of Oronoco from Brazil — absolutely the best white rum you've never had, as well as a $19 bottle of Depaz Blue Cane Martinique rhum agricole — a terrific, mellow agricole that could single-handedly turn the world on to funky, earthy traditional Martinique rhum. The Oronoco is usually a $40 bottle, and the Depaz is a bargain wen it turns up for less than $30. Yea me!

 

So. . . what am I drinking tonight? Actually, it's neither of these fine products. No, listening to the first two innings of tonight's meltdown ballgame I realized early on ot was an overproof night.

 

Seriously, I already had an evening of extract liqueur and cocktail syrup preparation planned, which means I had a fresh bottle of J Wray and Nephew Overproof Jamaican white rum on hand. I know I've already yammered on about JWray so I won't be redundant, other to say that if this rum is off-putting or even revolting on the first sampling, please give it some time and then come back to it. It is a unique product from an historic distillery, and it absolutely grows on you with time.

 

Not a sipper by any measure, JWray is a punch rum with a character unmatched by any other product. There is hardly a household in Jamaica that doesn't have a bottle of the stuff on hand. New houses and babies both are reportedly christened with the stuff, and one reported tradition is to pour the first shot from a newly opened bottle on the ground to give an offering back to the earth.

 

Anyway, tonight I have yet to go to my own "Three of Strong" Jamaican punch that is my wheelhouse JWray cocktail. Instead, I went totally Island Style with JWray and Ting and Jasper's Punch. The first of these drinks is supposedly the Jamaican equivalent of a traditional Bermuda Dark and Stormy. I cut the JWray to 1 1/2 ounces and include a full 1/2 oz fresh lime juice for the version that best suits my fancy. For the Jasper's I dutifully recreated the Jasper's Mix recipe that Steve Remsberg provided in the linked KP blog thread, but otherwise remained true to the Ted "Dr. Cocktail" Haigh recipe.

 

And the verdict on the evening's cocktail selections. . . ? Sox are down 10-3 in the top of the 9th and I finally don't even give a cr@p. That's got to be some good $hit I'm drinking to take me to my Happy Place, despite this 2009 slow-motion train wreck of a team we have.

Edited September 9, 2009 by FlaSoxxJim

[FlaSoxxJim]

Still enjoying the Wray and Nephew cocktail exploration this evening, I tried a Hawaiian-style mai tai made with JWray and submitted online at the always informative Ministry of Rum site by the owner of the Rum Bar in Philly. I had a chance to visit the Rum Bar this past April, and they were among a very few bars I'd ever been to that completely blows my home rum selection out of the water (Check out their lineup). Being a work-related trip, and being that I had to split my evening leisure time between Rum Bar, old friends, and the unbelievable Monk's Cafe that I've mentioned here before, I didn't nearly do this place justice. In fact, I almost exclusively stuck to their cocktail menu instead of soaking up all the fine sipping rums the Rum Bar had on offer. Have to find an excuse to get back to Philly ASAP.

 

As for the JWray-laced Hawaiian mai tai . . . It's actually about as good a Hawaiian (read: juice-saturated) mai tai as I've ever had. I sub'd house favorite Coruba for the Whaler's dark rum, and I mixed it in rather than floating, and danged if it doesn't yield a very nice, well-balance mahalo mai tai. The usually dominant overproof presence of the JWray is almost non-existent — you really have to swirl this one around in your mouth to pick it up to any degree. To tell the truth, I'm not even sure I'd pick this one out as having a full ounce of JWray in it if I was tasting it blind.

 

So. . . where am I on this one. I'm liking it quite a bit, but I'm not tasting the in-your-face Wray like I am used to doing in most Jamaican-slanted cocktails that use it. And for that matter, I was fairly certain that tasting those very dominant Wray notes in a drink as sublime at a mai tai would be a detractor. Instead, I find this is a drink were the overproof plays a quite capable second-fiddle to the dominant fruit juice, orgeat, and dark rum flavors, though it asserts itself incrementally as the drink progresses.

 

Going to be mixing this one up again in the near future for sure.

Edited September 9, 2009 by FlaSoxxJim

[FlaSoxxJim]

Falernum production has taken three days here at Casa de Flaxx. A tad too much ginger heat in what I bottled yesterday (new recipe), so I needed to cut it back with simple syrup. No worries, it leaves me with three bottles instead of the two I intended to make, and I've turned enough people here nto the stuff that I always end up giving away bottles.

 

If either of the two commercial brands sold in the US (Fee Bros. and John D. Taylor) came anywhere near here i probably wouldn't bother. Or, at least i'd be able to taste the commercial products and decide if it's worth the effort. Seeing as I've gotten to the point of making most of my own cocktail syrups, I assume I would still end up doing the same with the falernum.

 

Sweet-tart, complex funky stuff. Lime zest and clove flavors extracted with overprof rum, also usually containing ginger, almond extract, and other savory spices, and then topped up with simple syrup. A very interesting (if sweet) liqueur in its own regard, it's a key "secret" ingredient in scads of classic cocktails. It is also half of the heart and soul of this crazy Corn 'N Oil drink I keep yammering on about.

 

For anybody looking to try making their own falernum at home, there are several very good online recipes. For the lazier types lucky enouh to come across the commercial products, splurge and pick up a bottle. Then get a bottle of Cruzan Blackstrap Rum. Then run home. Then place a single ice cube into a snifter and pour 1 1/2 oz each of the blackstrap and the falernum into the snifter. Swirl, smell, taste, savor, and then wonder why such a phenomenal and perfect cocktail is almost unheard of today.

 

Enjoying the fruits of my labor now. Wish I could upload these flavors for you all the be able to experience.

 

The rum would have made piracy an acceptable line of work methinks.

 

 

 

[G&T]

Yesterday I found myself a Smuttynose Baltic Porter at the bottle shop. Cracked it open tonight and I'm finishing off the bomber as I write. Smuttynose is a great brewery which comes out of New Hampshire. It's sold in the Northeast exclusively (I think). Some of their finery includes Old Brown Dog and Really Old Brown Dog which are English "old ales", and their Scotch Ale, which is a favorite of mine, though tough to find fresh. In any event the Baltic is supposed to be one of their finest.

 

This is essentially a stout, if there is a real difference between porters and stouts to begin with. There's a lot going on here. Raisins and port along with coffee and chocolate. This one is really a great porter/stout. Highly recommended.

[FlaSoxxJim]

Yesterday I found myself a Smuttynose Baltic Porter at the bottle shop. Cracked it open tonight and I'm finishing off the bomber as I write. Smuttynose is a great brewery which comes out of New Hampshire. It's sold in the Northeast exclusively (I think). Some of their finery includes Old Brown Dog and Really Old Brown Dog which are English "old ales", and their Scotch Ale, which is a favorite of mine, though tough to find fresh. In any event the Baltic is supposed to be one of their finest.

 

This is essentially a stout, if there is a real difference between porters and stouts to begin with. There's a lot going on here. Raisins and port along with coffee and chocolate. This one is really a great porter/stout. Highly recommended.

 

I'm actually drinking from a Smuttynose pint glass at this very mo'. Drinking a rum cocktail rather than beer, mind you, but it should still count for something.

 

We started into a conversation about certain beer brands that don't weather the ravages of time and/or mishandling well, and Smutty is absolutely one of those in my experience. I haven't had their porter or their Scotch ale, sadly.

 

Smuttynose has a connection with Shipyard in the person of brewmaster/brewery planner Alan Pugsley. And, a lot of the Shipyard products suffer from the same instability issues imo. Shipyard's Old Thumper, at it's best and freshest and most unbruised, is as authentic and rewarding an English-style beer as I've tasted from a US brewery. Past it's prime or manhandled along the way, it's a thin, barely drinkable cardboardy mess. And down here it's 50/50 whether you'll get Jeckyl or Hyde. I'd absolutely turn more people onto that beer if I could count on some product consistency. I hate telling someone they need to check out a certain beer when there is such a high risk of the bottles they find being cr@ppy.

Edited September 11, 2009 by FlaSoxxJim

[G&T]

Smuttynose lasts longer than Shipyard, IMO. I've had Shipyard from Maine to New York (which should be as fresh as it gets) but it's always a crap shoot. There's a particular taste that seems to be present in their bottled offerings that I can't place, but I get in some bottles of Sam Adams as well. I don't think I've ever had a bad bottle of Smutty, but I'm caution to get the freshest possible bottles. The cool thing about being in the northeast is that Smuttynose is sold in some grocery stores.

 

Speaking of Sam Adams, I had the first Octoberfest of the fall last night. I wasn't too impressed with the flavor in this batch. Seemed thin, not as malty as I remember. While Sam Adams should be a consistent brewery, given its size, I can generally tell the difference between the seasonal batches. Particularly this years Summer Ale was much fuller and sweeter than last year's.

 

Oh well. Victory Moonglow will be coming out soon and all will be right in the world. Weizenbocks are the nectar of the Gods.

 

Another thing about the Baltic Porter. The porter is part of the Smuttynose Big Beer Series which is made is small batches and generally sold locally. This was my first Baltic Porter, which is a style in itself. It evolved from, what I can tell, from the Russian Imperial Stout, but the Baltic is a lager (bottom fermented), and lacks some of the roasty flavors generally contained in the RIS. Because it is a lager rather than ale, I found it less fruity as well. Nevertheless, a very full bodied beer which was far deeper and more complex than I expected. I recommend being in the mood for something rich and dark before tackling a bomber of this one.

Edited September 11, 2009 by G&T

[G&T]

Yesterday was an interesting day. My In-Laws-to-be were in town for the weekend from Chicago. We ended up taking them to Cooperstown to see the Hall of Fame. This is basically a staple of an Albany visit because there isn't much else to do. After that, I wanted to head to Ommegang to see if they had anything that wasn't readily available in stores. Turns out they were having "Harvest Fest." They had a decent lineup of their normal offerings, plus some Liefman's. They also had their Obama-gang Porter, which is VERY difficult to come by. it was only $4 for a 16 oz. cup. Here is the commercial description:

 

The TTB won’t let us call the beer Obamagang on the keg label. So it will be known legally as Inauguration Ale 2009, but the tap handles will be more...um...direct. The style lies between a porter and stout, with a bit of Kriek and a touch of chocolate blended in. It will be on draft only, beginning with the inauguration - in limited areas including DC, NYC, Syracuse, Philly, Chicago and Boston.

 

This beer was pretty phenomenal. Chocolate and roasty with a graham cracker finish. Light on the palette for a porter/stout. I couldn't taste much "kriek", but I think if I had known it was there and looked for it, I might have searched out the cherry. Very smooth, nevertheless. Unfortunately they weren't selling it from their tasting room.

 

What they were selling was their "Cave-aged" beers: Hennepin, Abbey, and 3 Philosophers which are aged in the Howe Caverns for a year. My future father-in-law demanded that he buy me something so he bought the Hennepin. I haven't cracked it yet, but I'm interested to see what changes are made, if any.

 

Switching gears: what do people look for in a sipping liquor? Specifically, what makes a rum a sipping rum? I'm not much into hard liquor and I'd like to learn a few things about tiki drinks and the world of the hard stuff.

[FlaSoxxJim]

The Ommegang trip sounds phenomenal. That and Cooperstown/HOF remain on my life's to-do list.

 

Other than rum and single malt scotch, with maybe a little tequila, small batch bourbon and rye whiskey thrown in, I'm actually not a huge spirits person. That may be due to the fact that with 20-30 different bottles of rum in the cabinet I just can't fit anything else.

 

Sipping spirits are simply those that the drinker finds palatable enough to sip on their own, straight, served neat with water, or with a bit of ice and maybe a squeeze of lime if it's rum. Most of these have been mellowed out and rounded with some wood aging, and that kicks their price up compared to the more run of the mill "mixer" spirits.

 

You have to try a few things and decide what you like, if anything. Being well up on the beer learning curve, I don't have to tell you to be open-minded, and to go back to something if it really didn't catch your attention the first time around. A very small splash of still water and some time sitting in a snifter often wake up flavors that are not apparent the first time around, but some spirits are enhanced this way and some are not. As always it comes down to individual preference.

 

Pay attention to veteran sipper and their suggestions, but in the end you are going to decide what you like. For single malt, for example, I respet the opinions of those that really go in for the Highland malts, but for me they are not what I seek out. Give me a bold, smokey-peaty Islay malt instead, and I'm in heaven.

 

I'll talk your ear off about rums, but what makes a good sipping rum depends on what flavors you are looking for. Some of my favorite sippers are more scotch-like than rum-like, and others like Zacapa 23 and Zaya are full of wonderful flavors but are devoid of some of the basic flavors typical of most rums.

 

Order a Laphroaig single malt neat with a glass of water if you find yourself out at a decent bar. Enjoy that adventure and get back with your thoughts.

 

Happy travels!

[bmags]

I was about to ask if anyone in Chicago knows of the best liquor store for choice. I'll ask this again when I get back in months/year. In the mean time, Flaxx give me a nice american cocktail I can make with whiskey, likely johnny walker red (available everywhere here) for 3 young Brazilian ladies.

[FlaSoxxJim]

I was about to ask if anyone in Chicago knows of the best liquor store for choice. I'll ask this again when I get back in months/year. In the mean time, Flaxx give me a nice american cocktail I can make with whiskey, likely johnny walker red (available everywhere here) for 3 young Brazilian ladies.

 

Well. . . Old Fashioned, Whiskey Manhattan (if you can get vermouth), Whiskey sour (use lemon juice and simple syrup rather than pre-misex sour mix if you can). . . . all of those work. Go to a good online booze blog like Kaiser Penguin or Ted haigh's CocktailDB and see what kind of recipes you can find.

[bmags]

yeah, not sure I can find the bitters down here.

[FlaSoxxJim]

yeah, not sure I can find the bitters down here.

 

Here's Ted "Dr. Cocktail" Haigh's Whiskey Sour recipe that requires only whiskey, lemon juice, sugar, and orange juice if you like.

 

 

[bmags]

that's brilliant. Thanks flaxx.

[FlaSoxxJim]

I think I'm going to try making my own orgeat syrup soon. It's the almond syrup that is the "secret" ingredient in an authentic mai tai, and it's about the only syrup I still buy commercially rather than making from scratch. I usually use Torani and am pretty happy with it. It's a lot better than Collins and I don't have to mail order it like Trader Vic's. But, if I'm using high quality Jamaican and Martinique rum/rhum in my mai tais, I'd hate to think I'm still getting less than perfect results by using commercial brand orgeat.

 

Mind you, my mai tais already totally kick a$$ (enjoying one with Appleton reserve and Rhum St. James Royale Ambre right now), so this tweak may make them immorally good.

 

Several well-regarded recipes are available online. This is the one I'm leaning toward.

 

Oh, and if you think I'm alone in my Quixotic quest for the perfect mai tai, take a look at RumDood's Month of Mai Tais (and counting). The Dood's basic recipe ratios of:

 

1 oz Rum #1

1 oz Rum #2

.5 oz Orgeat

.5 oz Clement Creole Shrubb

.25 oz Simple Syrup

.75 oz Lime Juice

 

. . . is what I use for a classic mai tai, except that I'll use traditional orange curacao instead of the Creole Shrubb liqueur unless I'm really going all out.

 

This is the drink that launched a thousand tiki-torch festooned ships, and more people are discovering the beauty of traditional mai tai recipes compared to the cheap juice-loaded imposters served in modern bars.

 

DRINK MAI TAIS!!

[bmags]

so you don't need to make a whole pot of simple syrup huh.

[FlaSoxxJim]

Switching gears: what do people look for in a sipping liquor? Specifically, what makes a rum a sipping rum? I'm not much into hard liquor and I'd like to learn a few things about tiki drinks and the world of the hard stuff.

 

I never specifically commented on the part about your wanting to explore classic tiki cocktails. First off, let me say you are a fine human being, Bravo!

 

Second, I'll urge you to seek out lots of good authorities on the subject, but in particular you need to become acquainted with the works of Jeff "Beach Bum" Berry. The thoroughly reserched books by this self-proclaimed "urban anthropologist" have single-handedly saved literally hundreds of classic drinks from extinction as the last of the old guard bartenders die out and take their cocktail secrets to the grave with them. Jeff's Grog Log and Intoxica are now-classic self-published, no-frills recipe books that are out of print and tough to track down, but are due to be republished as an expanded single volume, Remixed, due out in November. This book, and Jeff's phenomenal follow-up Sipin' Safari are absolute must-haves if you want to get serious about classic tiki cocktails.

 

If you are more technophile, then you want to get the brand new Tiki+ Recipe App for iPhone and iPod Touch that includes just about every recipe from the Grog Log, Intoxica!, Sippin’ Safari, and also drinks from Jeff's food and drink book, Taboo Table.

 

The drinks forum at Tiki Central is also a great clearinghouse of information, and many professional tiki bartenders and other industry types post there. Good drink blogs like those mentioned here earlier are also great sources of information. The Ministry of Rum and Scotts Rum Pages are good places for rum reviews, though like all critical reviews your impressions of various rums may not fully jibe with theirs. Still, as with reviews on Beer Advocate and elsewhere, it is educational to read what sorts of flavors other seasoned tasters are picking out in these products and to try to see if you can pinpoint some of them in your tasting.

 

I had better stop now so as not to give you info overload.

 

 

[FlaSoxxJim]

so you don't need to make a whole pot of simple syrup huh.

 

Gosh no, one cup of water and two cups of sugar is good for 12 oz. or so of 2:1 syrup that will last a good while. There is actually not a huge spoilage issue because of the super-saturated sugar levels, as long as you use up a batch in 1-2 months or so.

[bmags]

Ahhhhh

 

YOU CAN SAVE IT.

 

It all seems so obvious when you spell it out for me.