Alcoholic Art - Liquor Under A Microscope

Just a story I stumbled upon.  The whiskey picture is now my desktop background.  Enjoy!

I also really like the English Pure Brewed Lager pic.

"Party Beer"

When choosing which "party beer" to buy, I think there are a lot more factors than are usually consciously acknowledged.  Whether you're bringing a six pack to a byob party, or stocking a fridge for a house party, what you pick out matters. 
A few years ago, as I hosted weekly pre-party power hours, one week I had forgotten to get the drinks for the girls who weren't drinking beer with everyone else.  I called a friend and begged him to stop by the distributor and pick up a case of Boone's Farm.  After pleading, and promising never to make him get it again, he did.  Rather than letting him carry it out, the clerk carted it out for him and loaded it into the car.  My friend couldn't show his face there for months without getting laughed at. 




I mention this story for several reasons:  Even when hosting a power hour, most of your guests have strong preferences on what they drink.  If you want them to come next time, you have to ensure they're happy, even if their drink of choice is... ...gross.  Secondly, the brand of booze favored varies among groups of friends, and over time.  Rarely are brands set in stone, but no matter what amount of beer you're buying, you'll make a better choice if you think about the size, type, and purpose of the party.

Personally, I have no go-to beer.  I drink or bring Lion's Head whenever I can with people from college, as it's a local beer in PA.  I drink or choose PBR quite often as well.  What's your go-to, and for what kind of gathering?

Your Inner Monkey

There are many sayings about people and drinking - From Homer Simpson to Winston Churchill, most of the world's movers and shakers have had something memorable to say about alcohol.  I have always held the loosely defined belief that there is a good reason that alcohol has been around as long as it has - it serves a significant purpose. 

Your inner monkey - that guy inside you that so many people are afraid of - if you take the time to find out what kind of liquor makes you tick, well, he appreciates it.

Anyway, take the time to realize that the inner you expresses itself in many ways, but never so purely as when you drink alone.  Notice yourself in company, and if you're anything like me, you tend to keep the same overall qualities, but cater your language, posture, diction, and general behavior to the social norms to the company at hand.  This makes it hard sometimes to slow down long enough for a personal tuneup,  Well.  Take that time.

One whiskey at a time,
Redface

Homebrew Update - Drinking!

Well, this is certainly overdue.  I had the first bottle of Red Irish Ale two weeks ago, and it was delicious.  As I'd said, I was skeptical about it at bottling time.  The amount of sediment was off-putting, and the taste was overpowering.

I guess this makes me a little more experienced at brewing now, as I'm more willing to be comfortable with a strong taste or a doubtful beer.  Lesson learned - don't jump the gun.

The Red Irish Ale was just a shade or two darker than it could have been, and a shade or two cloudier than it could have been, but as my father said "I've bought ales at brewpubs that were worse than this." Now that's the kind of endorsement I love.

If you brew, I must recommend that you take the investment and buy a few cases of 22oz bottles (or pint ones if you'd really prefer), because it is worlds away from the labor that went into finding, washing, de-labeling, and sanitizing bottles when I made wine for years.  I'm sure there are many more erudite recommendations I could make, but in terms of hassle saved, having clean, unused bottles was a huge step up.  Next I think I'll spring for a bottle-washing brush, I'm getting tired of using the bent-hangar-and-rag method.

I'll include pictures when I get to it, but don't hold your breath - I'm away for the rest of the summer adventuring among other things - posts should be spotty.

Drunken Parrots

I've heard of monkeys that steal your booze at resorts but I've never heard of drunken parrots before.  I hope all of them recover - and we don't find out the drunkenness is actually something like lead poisoning.

A Short Slide Into Jerry Thomas Territory

Now, admittedly, mixed drinks are not paintings, sculptures, novels, or poems.  They are disposable and, frankly, not a little bit disreputable, standing roughly in the same relation to the culinary arts that American motor sports do to automotive engineering or hot jazz to musical composition: they smack of improvisation and cheap effects and even the most august of them lack the cachet accorded to fine wines, old whiskies, and cognac brandies.  They are easily abused; they can degrade lives and even destroy them.  Even if appreciated in moderation, they are appreciated in surroundings that rarely lead to detached meditation on truth and beauty (if those are not the same thing) or constructive engagement with the great moral and social questions of the age.  And yet neither are they contemptible.  A proper drink at the right time - one mixed with care and skill and served in a true spirit of hospitality - is better than any other made thing at giving us the illusion, at least, that we're getting what we want from life.  A cat can gaze upon a king, as the proverb goes, and after a Dry Martini or  Sazerac Cocktail or two, we're all cats.

Imbibe!, David Wondrich, page 10