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Had any one here had Doc Swinsons? My local bottle store apparently got find in and emailed about it, but I haven't seen it before so not sure what to think.
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Feb 14, 2021 04:29
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Carillon posted:Had any one here had Doc Swinsons? My local bottle store apparently got find in and emailed about it, but I haven't seen it before so not sure what to think. It's sourced, so 🤷♂️ If it's the latest batch it's from the 15 year mystery mashbill that's been popping up all year so it would basically be the same as Three Chord Whiskey Drummer, Old Soul, Old Bones, and Hunt & Gather
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Feb 14, 2021 14:06
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Casu Marzu posted:A bottle of Rittenhouse 100 is cheap as hell and it's a fantastic rye for the price Rittenhouse and Old Forester 100 are my go-to cheap ryes. Edit: speaking of rye, what do you all think about Whistlepig? I got the three piglets gift box (10, 12 old world, 15 estate oak) and while all three are enjoyable, I certainly wouldn't pick up any for the MSRP. Toebone fucked around with this message at 16:00 on Feb 14, 2021 |
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Feb 14, 2021 15:56
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Toebone posted:Rittenhouse and Old Forester 100 are my go-to cheap ryes. It's good but not worth the money since it's all either Alberta or MGP-sourced.
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Feb 14, 2021 16:06
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spankmeister posted:It's good but not worth the money since it's all either Alberta or MGP-sourced. Yep, I was gifted a bottle of Whistlepig 6yo and while tasty, I would never have paid MSRP for it.
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Feb 14, 2021 16:40
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I’ve been trying my hand at more cocktails lately, beyond the standard old fashioned that is. A couple that I really like so far: Gold rush: 2 oz bourbon 1 oz honey syrup 3/4 oz lemon juice Lemon peel garnish Basically a whisky sour with honey syrup instead of simple, really tasty though! Tried it with an egg white and a dry shake and that was good too. Honey syrup is super easy to make, and it’s a nice little change from simple syrup. I’m going to make sure I always have some made to try in other drinks too. Amaretto Sour: 1.5 oz amaretto 3/4 oz bourbon 1 oz lemon juice 1 oz rich simple syrup 1 egg white Combine all and dry shake, then strain, then shake with ice to chill, strain into glass. Yeah yeah, everyone has heard of amaretto sours before, but I’ve tried one in crappy bar before and it was nasty. This was absolutely sublime. I think it’s better if you use a stronger bourbon, I used WT101. Clover club: 3 oz gin 3/4 oz raspberry syrup(I used grenadine cause I didn’t have any raspberries) 1 oz lemon juice 1 egg white Same method as above, dry shake, then shake over ice, strain into glass. Okay, this one isn’t a whiskey cocktail, but it was super refreshing and would be a great Valentine’s Day drink for someone! With grenadine it was like hot pink, pepto bismol color.
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Feb 14, 2021 17:54
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Gold Rush looks really good. Lately I’ve been making a simple cherry old fashioned. In a rocks glass filled with ice: 2 oz. bourbon 1/2 to 1 oz. simple syrup Few dashes each of Angostura regular and orange bitters Dash of vanilla extract (optional) Top off with 1-2 oz tart cherry juice, stir If you’re feeling fancy you could add a luxardo cherry (and a bit of the syrup they come in) as well
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Feb 14, 2021 19:13
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DoctaFun posted:I’ve been trying my hand at more cocktails lately, beyond the standard old fashioned that is. A couple that I really like so far: Hey we have very similar taste in favorite cocktails! Gin isn't my favorite spirit, but I love a good (and probably oversweet) Clover Club, and it's very easy to impress people when it ends up a nice pink color that you pour into a frosted glass from the freezer. I usually go with: 1.5oz gin .75 simple .75 lemon juice 1/8ish oz of grenadine 1 egg white If you have the ingredients, I think you would like an Improved Whiskey Cocktail.
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Feb 15, 2021 02:15
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Professor Wayne posted:Hey we have very similar taste in favorite cocktails! Gin isn't my favorite spirit, but I love a good (and probably oversweet) Clover Club, and it's very easy to impress people when it ends up a nice pink color that you pour into a frosted glass from the freezer. I usually go with: It’s shameful, but I’ve never had a sazerac before, so I have all these ingredients except the absinthe. I will pick some up though because both of those sound awesome!
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Feb 15, 2021 03:38
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It looks like Japan is finally taking action to clamp down on fake "Japanese whiskey" products: http://www.yoshu.or.jp/statistics_legal/legal/pdf/independence_07.pdf
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Feb 16, 2021 23:56
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Good!
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Feb 17, 2021 00:05
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Vox Nihili posted:It looks like Japan is finally taking action to clamp down on fake "Japanese whiskey" products: Excellent. I might start buying Japanese whisky again (in 2024 when the transitional period is over lol).
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Feb 17, 2021 01:01
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I'll be interested to see what changes. Not everyone making "Japanese whisky" is a part of that organization. Niigata Beer for example, with their Shinobu whisky.
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Feb 17, 2021 07:33
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Really all everybody. Someone gifted me a bottle of willett pot still reserve. It was a nice gesture, but it’s quite literally in drinkable for me. It just tastes like wet grass. I tried it in a Manhattan and couldn’t even drink half of it. It’s seriously a drain pour for me.
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Feb 18, 2021 01:03
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DoctaFun posted:Really all everybody. Someone gifted me a bottle of willett pot still reserve. At least you have a cool looking infinity bottle now
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Feb 18, 2021 01:19
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DoctaFun posted:Really all everybody. Someone gifted me a bottle of willett pot still reserve. I wasn't a huge fan of it either, but it did quite well in ice cream and baked goods in place of vanilla. I'm pretty sure I used the majority of my bottle was for bourbon ice cream and chocolate chip cookies.
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Feb 18, 2021 02:31
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It's probably a pretty good pan deglaze or marinade too
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Feb 18, 2021 02:37
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Casu Marzu posted:I wasn't a huge fan of it either, but it did quite well in ice cream and baked goods in place of vanilla. I'm pretty sure I used the majority of my bottle was for bourbon ice cream and chocolate chip cookies. Dammit all, I loved the stuff. I smoke cigars socially, and have had about half my ghetto-dor full of Cuban products for the last decade. I didn’t think the whiskey was too strong, but it was sublime with a Cuban cigar! Cubans always taste floral and dry hay/grassy to me, and even when I’m home smoking a cherry tobacco in my pipe it’s good enough to brag about. I could definitely see it being horrible in a mixed drink, though, and to be honest if just sipping before bed there are better choices.
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Feb 18, 2021 06:08
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DoctaFun posted:Really all everybody. Someone gifted me a bottle of willett pot still reserve. Had to look up what this was and realized it's the one I've occasionally thought of picking up just because it looks neat. Don't think I even knew what kind of whiskey it was.
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Feb 18, 2021 13:56
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I haven't tried Willet but a friend described it as a $20 whiskey that comes in a $30 bottle.
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Feb 18, 2021 14:00
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I'd prob buy another if it was $30, just for the unique bottle. It's like $50ish here for the 750 and there's no way I'm dropping that kind of cash on it.
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Feb 18, 2021 16:46
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Anything in a bottle that obnoxious can't be good
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Feb 18, 2021 18:34
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Toebone posted:I haven't tried Willet but a friend described it as a $20 whiskey that comes in a $30 bottle. Their rye is extremely solid. I don't know what they're doing with the bourbon to screw it up!
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Feb 18, 2021 20:18
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Vox Nihili posted:It looks like Japan is finally taking action to clamp down on fake "Japanese whiskey" products: First casualties: Nikka has added notes on their website acknowledging a number of their products do not meet the new standards. They have apparently been blending Ben Nevis distillate into Nikka From The Barrel and at one point even into Nikka Coffey Malt, among others. https://www.nikka.com/eng/brands/coffey-grain-malt/
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Feb 18, 2021 20:19
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Vox Nihili posted:Their rye is extremely solid. I don't know what they're doing with the bourbon to screw it up! anything in the "willett family estate" line is good, as is noah's mill and rowan's creek (imo); johnny drum is meh the rest are trash
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Feb 18, 2021 20:24
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Vox Nihili posted:First casualties: Nikka has added notes on their website acknowledging a number of their products do not meet the new standards. I've always known about Nikka from the barrel, but blending in pot still whisky in a column still malt is pretty heinous imo. e: oh it looks like they re-distilled ben nevis new make in their column still. That's less bad I guess. spankmeister fucked around with this message at 20:38 on Feb 18, 2021 |
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Feb 18, 2021 20:35
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spankmeister posted:I've always known about Nikka from the barrel, but blending in pot still whisky in a column still malt is pretty heinous imo. from the website description it sounds like it was distilled at Ben Nevis, and then went through a second distillation in the column stills
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Feb 18, 2021 20:37
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For someone who is somewhat uninformed, what would the purpose of that be? It isn’t like a gin where they’re filtering it through botanicals in the distillation process, so all I can imagine is that they’re buying whiskey from somewhere else, distilling it in a column still to make it blend better, and using it to stretch their native product?
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Feb 18, 2021 21:35
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Deceptive Thinker posted:anything in the "willett family estate" line is good, as is noah's mill and rowan's creek (imo); johnny drum is meh Fancy-bottle Willet is a stupid marketing gimmick.
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Feb 18, 2021 21:55
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Vox Nihili posted:First casualties: Nikka has added notes on their website acknowledging a number of their products do not meet the new standards. Wow, more than I expected. Glad Taketsuru is OK; From The Barrel is really surprising to me, since I always thought of that as premium stuff, but if that's got non-Japanese ingredients it's not surprising that Days, The Nikka, and Super all also do. This made me wonder about their Japan-only cheap brands, since you can get Nikka Black Clear in like any convenience store for like $5, so if From The Barrel has non-Japanese ingredients, there's no way Black Clear is all-Japanese. So I went to the Japanese-language site; my Japanese isn't really good enough to be sure, but it doesn't seem like their Japanese-language site includes any of the notices that the English-language one has. If I'm reading the regulation properly, it is saying that you may use "Japanese whisky" on your labeling if you meet the criteria, and that you may not if you don't, but it doesn't say that you must call your whisky "Japanese whisky". Generally (from what I can tell via photos, and what I remember from my last trip) Japanese packaging in Japan just says ウイスキー which is literally just "whisky", not 日本のウイスキー or any other way of explicitly saying "Japanese whisky". I wonder if cheap whiskies in Japan will just not label themselves Japanese so they can just keep including non-Japanese ingredients, and "Japanese whisky" will be for premium brands only, even in Japan. Either that or the Japanese side of Nikka is just being a bit slower to react.
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Feb 19, 2021 15:41
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Going off of a article on breaking bourbon, I decided to pick up a bottle of St. Elmos and tried myself a famous “Elmos Cola”. This is just whiskey in a cherry coke. What the heck.
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Feb 20, 2021 02:24
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Scythe posted:Wow, more than I expected. Glad Taketsuru is OK; From The Barrel is really surprising to me, since I always thought of that as premium stuff, but if that's got non-Japanese ingredients it's not surprising that Days, The Nikka, and Super all also do. It's possible that stuff like Nikka Super is failing to qualify on one or more of the other criteria. I doubt they're putting quality Ben Nevis malt distillate imported from the other side of the planet into their cheapo brands. Frankly the Ben Nevis distillate blended in (and of course the higher proof) might be what make From The Barrel such a standout.
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Feb 20, 2021 03:41
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Scythe posted:I wonder if cheap whiskies in Japan will just not label themselves Japanese so they can just keep including non-Japanese ingredients, and "Japanese whisky" will be for premium brands only, even in Japan. Either that or the Japanese side of Nikka is just being a bit slower to react. This is the only reason that Nikka and Suntory agreed to the new standards. Kakubin and Nikka Black aren't entirely whisky -- they both use molasses-based spirit that's imported in bulk from South America, then rectified in Japan. They will continue to label such bottles as simply "whisky" because that's what the liquor tax code allows. The throngs of people drinking highballs at izakaya aren't going to care that it's not distilled in Japan, and not entirely whisky. The legal definition of whisky in Japan is still the same. That's going to be a much harder nut to crack. I spoke to Tsuchiya-san about this last year. Some other things that remain unaddressed: -Certification/approval of bottles and a sticker indicating the bottles were approved, driving awareness at the consumer level. We have the JSS Mark for sake and shochu/awamori, but nothing similar exists for Japanese whisky. -Punitive measures for offending members of JSLMA -Aged shochu being labeled as Japanese whisky outside of Japan (shochu makers aren't members of JSLMA)
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Feb 21, 2021 09:46
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So I just did another blind with an old Russell's reserve sample from a few years ago, a fairly new Weller FP store pick bottle from the fall, a nearly empty Old Forester 1920 that I'm trying to kill, and Bardstown Discovery series #4 The Russell's fell to a clear last place, but the top three were closer and while the winner was clear, it wasn't a game changing standout. Banana, heavy cereal and sugar and other oddly tropical notes made me confused as to what the Russell's was, but also pushed it to the back 1920 had the complexity, caramel, berries and cherries, and a "cinnabon liquid sugar" note that was great, but also a bitter almost sour oak funk that pulled it behind the winner which hit all of the same notes without that. Likewise, the Weller FP was like tasting a super sweet cherry rock candy, but lacked the other rollercoaster components of the other 2 contenders. In the end the Bardstown bested the Weller and the Old Forester, hitting the good notes of each, without their downsides. Is it worth it's $130-150 price point though? More blind tastings are needed... Edit: looking back at my tasting notes for 1920 over the past 8 months or so I've been doing blind tastings to see how consistent they've been - that bitter note has been there every time, and so has the "sugar frosting" or a similar note Deceptive Thinker fucked around with this message at 21:35 on Feb 21, 2021 |
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Feb 21, 2021 21:24
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zmcnulty posted:The legal definition of whisky in Japan is still the same. That's going to be a much harder nut to crack. I spoke to Tsuchiya-san about this last year. Super interesting, thanks for this.
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Feb 22, 2021 15:10
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Well, in what can only be described as my most pretentious and preposterous use of $40 this year, I bought one of these: True Cubes Clear Ice Cube Tray: 4-cube tray https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07422QWCP/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_N0JEBK6474DAVZPAM0VV It makes 4 big cubes at a time, and they are perfectly clear. It uses directional freezing, which I’ve learned is the only reliable way to get perfectly clear ice. The contraption is three parts, it has an insulated box(except for the top which is exposed) made out of plastic. Then there is an inner silicone tray, which holds 4 cubes worth of water, and then another silicone tray that sits on top of the inner tray, this is what you see in the picture. The upper silicone tray has small holes in it that drain to the bottom tray. You put them all together, and SLOWLY fill the top tray with tap water. That’s it. Put it in the freezer for *ahem* 18-22 hours, and that’s it! They freeze from top to bottom, all the impurities are pushed to the bottom tray of cubes, and you’re left with beautiful, tasteless, slow melting ice cubes. If you time it right, the bottom cubes will be slushy and not fully frozen, while the top cubes are perfect. It takes a little finagling to get the silicone trays apart, but it’s not too bad. And yes, you read that right, It takes 18-22 hours to make 4 ice cubes. I know what you’re thinking, ‘But that’s a really long time to wait for 4 ice cubes’. And you’d be right. It’s ludicrous. I take up about 1 cubic foot of my freezer in order to make 4 ice cubes per day. But you know what? It’s pretty G D satisfying. It’s a better drinking experience, one cube lasts for 2-3 drinks, and I feel like I’m at a fancy cocktail bar every time, which is something that I can’t do with the pandemic. It works great right out of the box. This is a dry week for me, so I should have a nice little stockpile by the time I have my next cocktail. You can store the cubes in a ziploc in the freezer, so I’m planning on making enough to send to family/friends as well. In short, A+, would recommend if you’re in the position to spend $40 on a 4 cube / day ice maker. You’re worth it.
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Feb 23, 2021 19:13
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The main problem with those silicone things is that silicone loves to soak up smells of anything else in your freezer, which it then passes onto the ice. Rubber and plastic are slightly less bad at this, but with silicone you’re going to have ice that smells like chicken stock or tomato sauce or whatever unless your freezer is just ice and glassware. I’m thinking about just getting a big rectangular Tupperware (like gallon ice cream sized) and an ice pick, and freezing a huge block then cutting big cubes to order (and discarding the cloudy bottom). Can’t decide if it’s too much effort though.
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Feb 23, 2021 19:18
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I want one of those but I'm not really willing to give up the freezer space.
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Feb 23, 2021 19:28
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They are entirely unreasonable devices, huge and take a long rear end time to freeze ice. But drat it’s clear!! Everyone thinks they’re too cool til the ice is clear
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Feb 23, 2021 19:35
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I’ve got some massive silicone cubes. Is it possible for me to make a ghetto version of this ? Hmm
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Feb 23, 2021 19:37
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