Other Drink Blogs - The Drunken Moogle

Just a quick shoutout to a super-geek drinking blog I just discovered, the Drunken Moogle.

Just the two most recent (currently) posts get me all tingly, I will definitely be making the Vera. I've watched Firefly through, and love Castle, so a manly-ass drink named after a sweet Space Cowboy Gun sounds great.

Anyway, check out the Drunken Moogle, it's fun, and while you're at it, check out some of the other drinking blogs on the right side of Redfacery

Cheers,
Redface

Red Wine - Resveratrol and the Search for the Elixir of Life

Well, that clears everything up for me. According to a new study in Cell Metabolism, there's still hope for winos everywhere that a life of swilling red wine will keep you healthy. In short, it was found that whether given in small, medium, or large doses, resveratrol, a naturally occurring "dirty molecule," helped American* mice live longer.

ScienceDaily.com

They can't yet identify what exactly is going on, but this article marks a positive turn in the experimental-drug-development phase for big pharmaceuticals hoping to find the anti-aging pill. I don't know about you, but I plan on sitting back with a few boxes and not worrying at all about this until they can inject the solution into my Orange Tyson Chicken or something.

Seatle Times - Think Inside the Box

*American here refers to the high-fat diet with which they are fed

Drink 'till your face matches the wine!
Redface

Kentucky Colonel

Sometimes I feel like all of my mixing and drinking cocktails has given me some kind of power to predict what a cocktail will taste like before it's mixed. That's part of my strategy for getting through undesired meetings (and worked well back in college too!). As I try to invent new cocktails, I imagine the taste combination. I could never have predicted the spicy, up front taste of the Kentucky Colonel.

from Dale deGroff's book:
Kentucky Colonel
2oz Bourbon
3/4 oz Benedictine (not B&B)
Dash Angostura Orange Bitters

Stir and serve either up in a cocktail glass or on the rocks in a whiskey glass.

This cocktail is delicious. If you've got set in your mind that "whiskey burns," then you are in for a surprise with this one. It doesn't burn even a little bit. I couldn't taste the orange bitters specifically until like the third sip, when the aroma of orange took over.

Put some color in your face,
Redface

It's Hop Season!

Spring is springing, with lots of rain and the occasional sun poking through the clouds... it is time to plant your hop rhizomes, good friends!

Mine are in containers so that I can attempt to move them with me to another region this summer, but most anywhere in the USA is ripe for planting in the ground about now as well... so get growing you green-thumbed growler-guzzlers!

Hoppily happy,
Mr. Beerd

Primary - Simcoe/Citra Hopbursted DIPA; Parti-gyle pt. 1 DIPA; Parti-gyle pt. 2 Weak English Bitter

Aging - Edwort's Organic Apfelwein; Witch's Brew Double Pumpkin Ale; Scotchadelica
On tap - Chilly FeBREWary Lager; Rastafar-Rye

Musical Beer Bottle

I hope these guys find a larger brewer and distributor, this idea is amazing!

Tuned Pale Ale

Beer bottles labeled so you know how much to drink for each musical note. Way cool idea, and to quote them: "Get some friends together with a case, start a band, and get Tuned"

 

I saw this on Laughingsquid.com

Stormy Whiskey

I'm a sucker for a bourbon drink. This cocktail packs an old-fashioned soda taste and seems to get refilled far more often than an afternoon libation really should. A Stormy Whiskey is a simple whiskey variation on a Dark and Stormy. I've put in some Creme de Cassis for a sweet floral counter-taste to the bitter ginger and the warm and tangy Wild Turkey. Kick-Ass way to finish off an afternoon after work in the spring!

Stormy Whiskey
2oz Bourbon Whiskey (Wild Turkey 101)
1oz Creme de Cassis
4-5oz Ginger Beer (Reed's is what I had on hand)

Fill Collins Glass halfway with ice, pour in ingredients and give it a quick stir with a barspoon. Sit back, sip, and get sloshed!!

Mmminty Cocktails

Before the bottom of my first bottle, Creme de Menthe has become an ingredient I should have bought long ago. After drunkenly adding it to a shot of brandy a few nights back because I wanted a stinger to go, I decided I should go ahead and try out a few good looking recipes that make different uses of Creme de Menthe.

First off is the Consolation Cocktail. I chose this to start because of my love for gin and the simple ingredients. With ingredients only a step removed from a Gin Cocktail or a Gin Sour, the Consolation does a great job of smoothing over a bunch of pretty strong tastes.

Consolation Cocktail
1 1/2 oz Gin
1/2 oz Creme de Menthe
1/2 oz Lemon Juice
Dash Angostura Bitters

I thought the lemon was a little too much, so I lowered it to only 1/4 oz the second time around. I think this is a better balance of the four, but whatever you prefer. The refreshing quality of the mint goes well with the juniper taste of good strong gin. I'd drink one of these again!

Image from Absolut website recipe

Although I'm fairly certain it is not a problem too many men encounter, I'm sure there are times when your ladyfriend needs to be reminded not to be a bad girl? Anyway, I can't seem to find any information on where this cocktail comes from or what gives it its name. The base of brandy and sweet vermouth is such a palate pleaser that there are dozens of variations you can add to them to make a suave-tasting cocktail.

Lady be Good
1 1/2 oz Brandy
1/2 oz Sweet Vermouth
1/2 oz Creme de Menthe

The Lady be Good did not surprise me. It tasted like a Stinger with sweet vermouth, and I'll gladly try this one again.

Congratulations, Yuengling!

D.G. Yuengling and Son is now the largest All-American brewery, having just passed Boston Beer Co. in production a few weeks ago. Thankfully, Budweiser and MillerCoors do not count since they are no longer American companies and some of their production is overseas.

As a personal fan of Yuengling lager as well as Yuengling Black & Tan, I tip my glass to them. It is refreshing to see such a successful family owned & operated business.

-Mr. Beerd
Primary: Chilly FeBREWary Lager; Rastafar-Rye
Aging: Witch's Brew Double Pumpkin Ale; Edwort's Organic Apfelwein
On tap: Chilly Guestroom Lager; Dunkeldude; Shovel I.P.L.

Happy FeBREWary!

So I had a freezer bag of huckleberries hiding in the back of my freezer. Knowing that frozen berries always turn mushy after thawing (due to the destruction of cellular tissue in the freeze-thaw process), I decided to try an experiment that now will definitely become a new constantly rotating side-project to my home brewery... fresh fruit liqueur! (Legal notice: The method I am illustrating here is for information only. To my knowledge "freeze-concentrating" is not the same as distilling as it requires no still, and is thus legal. If you decide to do it yourself, it should be strictly for personal use and not for sale or distribution.)

This method works with almost almost any fruit or berry as long as it is not extremely acidic (i.e. don't try this with lemons) as it will be harmful to your precious yeast.

Step 1: Freeze your fruit, for a while so you're convinced the cells have no chance of surviving the next step.
Step 2: Thaw your fruit (or berries).
Step 3: Mix approximately equal portions of your fruit (by volume, not mass) with water and corn sugar.
Step 4: Bring up to a boil to homogenize your solution and to kill any pesky lactobacteria.
Step 5: Allow to cool to room temperature, then pitch some champagne yeast into it.
Step 6: Wait a few weeks for the fermentation to stop bubbling. Then wait a few weeks longer.

Step 7: Strain out your fruit-wine. If you want to just stop here, that's your choice. Mmmm.... wine.

Step 8: Pour into a vessel & stick in the freezer for a few days.
Step 9: The freezing point of alcohol and of juice are both lower than that of just water, so when you take it out to thaw, the alcohol and juices should thaw first before the water. It'll take some time, but pour out all of the good stuff you can even if it means towards the end it's looking water because you can repeat step 8 again for more Oomph.
Step 10: Imbibe responsibly! What was once around a 10-13%ABV fruit wine is now over 30%ABV. I plan on enjoying this drink with the person who so graciously gave me her spare huckleberries!

Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some new equipment to test out... all-grain batches of greater volumes of beer ahoy! Why is it that the only month whose name commands me to brew is also the shortest month?

Cheers,
Mr. Beerd

Primary: Shovel I.P.L.
Secondary: Witch's Brew Double Pumpkin Ale
Conditioning: Dunkeldude
On tap: Chilly guestroom lager; Slippery willy

The Irish Settler

This one is a straight cocktail recipe. I was after a boozy concoction that used Creme de Cassis a few nights ago and could only find a few recipes I had the materials for on hand. So I did what anybody in my situation would do - I adapted one of the ones I couldn't make to have my own invented cocktail.

The Settler (or Settler Highball)
2 oz Brandy
1 oz Creme de Cassis
Seltzer

Shake brandy and Creme de Cassis, then pour into a highball glass and add the seltzer

Not having any unflavored seltzer around, or any unflavored brandy, I opted instead for an Irish version. The result, the "Irish Settler," is delicious, aromatic, and definitely a keeper.

Irish Settler
2 oz Irish Whisky
1 oz Creme de Cassis
1/2 oz Orange Liqueur

Shake and pour into a small brandy snifter. The cocktail is purple, smooth, and has the botanical flavors of the elderberry and orange. Put another way, it tastes dandy, packs about 2 drinks worth of alcohol into a cup, and gets a nod of approval from my hardest-to-please taster.

Enjoy!

Revisiting Ouzo

It was a while ago that I first tried Ouzo - see the Satanic Cocktails post about it here - and I have been slowly working my way through bottle after bottle ever since. Most often I drink a tall glass of it as I cook dinner.

Take a quick read of Kerasma.gr for good info

Following Zane's experience in the Episode on Lesbos (Yes, I know I've mentioned that episode already), I pour a half a glass of ouzo on a few ice cubes and then add a few dashes of cold filtered water until it starts to emulsify. If 'emulsify' means nothing to you, watch the darn episode already! If three or four shots of 80º liquor is more than enough to put you over the edge before dinner, stick to a smaller glass.

To try out my ouzo in a few different and faster ways, I went for a few of these ouzo-based shooters. Overall, I still prefer a straight glass of ouzo, but since I have been taking more shots than mixing cocktails the last few months, these certainly did the trick.

World Famous TKO

One shot into the list I knew I was in trouble. The TKO seems odd by ingredient, but is smooth and warm. The combination of strong and herbal tastes in the tequila and ouzo was offset well by the coffee liqueur. After four or five of these, I started to have a little trouble getting the proportions right, and the taste suffered.

TKO
1/3 Tequila
1/3 Kahlua
1/3 Ouzo

When I'm taking a shot of a liquor I like, I tend to give it ever the slightest swish in my mouth. Contrary to a stiff shot of shitty whiskey or warm vodka, I like to treat a shot of something I enjoy sipping just like a larger than average swallow from a rocks glass. Whenever I try this with shooters I am a little wary - if someone has gone through the effort of publishing a recipe that doesn't always mean they have the slightest clue about whether something tastes good. I can't be the only one who's ordered or received some dishwater shooters in the past.

The Vulcan Mind Probe Shot was next - well technically I didn't make it past the TKO the first night so "next" really means a few days later in this case. Due to my trouble mixing smooth TKOs later into the night, I hoped that a recipe that's 1/2 and 1/2 ouzo and rum would be easy enough for my thick fingers to pour.

Vulcan Mind Probe
1 Part Ouzo
1 Part Rum

This works well as a double shot, though I would say the taste is anything but easy to take down. The combination of the black rum and ouzo I used made for a powerful taste that stayed in my throat. It was not especially pleasant, so I went back for more TKOs afterwards. In the end, I didn't really mind the powerful taste of bitter chocolate licorice I got from this, since by the time I'd had two or three of these, I was deep enough into my drinking night that it was fine.

Good luck trying some Ouzo. It's well worth it.