Wine & Other Alcohol


Well, Christmas is nearly here, how about some mulled wine? Here's a recipe I usually use:

Ingredients
  1. 2 lemons.
  2. 2 oranges.
  3. 1 bottle of red wine.
  4. Nutmeg (to taste).
  5. Cloves (to taste).
  6. Brandy (to taste).
  7. 1 cup granulated sugar (optional).
  8. Herbal tea.
  9. 4 large cinnamon sticks.
Method
  • Slice the lemons and oranges.
  • Slowly heat the wine in a saucepan.
  • Add fruit slices, nutmeg, cloves and brandy.
  • Heat the mixture until it becomes hot but do not let it boil.
  • Blend in the sugar, cinnamon and Tea (To Taste).
  • Serve :)
 
Unfathomable Depths said:
Buckfast Tonic Wine - nectar of the Gods

I was planning to come in here and enlighten the masses of the greatness that is buckfast but you hae beaten me to it - in the very first post too. Excellent work sir.
 
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MDave said:
The whole 3 years I worked behind a bar, the only lager I really truly liked was Coors Light. Man, when we first got that in it was amazing. So fresh and cool. Customers seemed to avoid it though because it was a few pennies more then the other lagers we had on offer. So eventually it died. Such a shame. I don't drink anymore now :(

Coors is godawful shit. It's what Americans drink so they can tell people they "drank like 20 beers!" They leave out the part where they drank some of the weakest, most watery shit on the planet. I'm not big on lagers in general, but Coors is shitty by any measure.

Q: How is Coors Light like having sex in a canoe? A: They're both fucking near water.
 
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Ravnos said:
Q: How is Coors Light like having sex in a canoe? A: They're both fucking near water.
I've heard that slightly differently.
Q: What's the difference between American beer and sex in a canoe (or on a beach works too)?
A: One's fucking close to water, and the other is sex in a canoe.
 
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WizardStan said:
Ravnos said:
Q: How is Coors Light like having sex in a canoe? A: They're both fucking near water.
I've heard that slightly differently.
Q: What's the difference between American beer and sex in a canoe (or on a beach works too)?
A: One's fucking close to water, and the other is sex in a canoe.

I wouldn't want to malign all American beer like that. I've had some good stuff, like Anchor Steam or anything from Rogue, but the major breweries on both sides of the 49th are shit.
 
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Ravnos said:
It's what Americans drink so they can tell people they "drank like 20 beers!"

Why would they tell that to anyone, 20-ish beers, that's just a normal evening at my local pub??
 
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I reactivate this thread just to defend American beers, even though I'm not much of a beer drinker at all. There are lots and lots of very high-quality American beers - I just had one of these, for example. I never touch the mainstream beers at all.* Sure, it probably accounts for 95% of the beer drunk in the US, but it's hardly all there is - any local grocery store will generally have a wide variety of craft beers available.

*Okay, this is an elitist sentiment, but that's what this thread is for, right? :p
 
Part of the problem here was that for years the alcohol content in beer wasn't allowed to go over a certain percentage for whatever reason, I think most states were 6% but most beers didn't go over 5% anyway. A friend of mine went to Canada and brought back some Molson XXX..... holy shit, stuff is like moonshine compared to Budweiser. Those limits have largely been increased in most states so micro breweries have popped up everywhere serving extremely strong brews. BTW, if you want good American beer try Samuel Adams.

I also recently found out that Absinthe is now legal in the U.S. so I'm dying to try this stuff out after reading about it. Anyone ever try it? Seems the feeling from it is quite different from any other alcohols.
 
Orion4874 said:
Part of the problem here was that for years the alcohol content in beer wasn't allowed to go over a certain percentage for whatever reason, I think most states were 6% but most beers didn't go over 5% anyway. A friend of mine went to Canada and brought back some Molson XXX..... holy shit, stuff is like moonshine compared to Budweiser. Those limits have largely been increased in most states so micro breweries have popped up everywhere serving extremely strong brews. BTW, if you want good American beer try Samuel Adams.

I also recently found out that Absinthe is now legal in the U.S. so I'm dying to try this stuff out after reading about it. Anyone ever try it? Seems the feeling from it is quite different from any other alcohols.
Prohibition was a major factor in the disappearance of small breweries and distilleries in the US - major corporations were able to restart production, but with generally inferior ingredients (and I understand rationing due to WWII didn't help either).

There are no longer any federal limits (if there ever were any - I couldn't find any evidence of this) on ABV for beer, but state laws continue to vary widely (here in Ohio, only officially licensed liquor stores are allowed to sell any drink with an alcohol content above 21.4% ABV, but if you drive fifteen minutes to Kentucky this limit does not exist).

If Wikipedia is to be believed, only Utah and parts of Maryland still impose any limits on beer, except occasionally the really strong stuff (usually 13-16% is the limit; I understand that Sam Adams had some limited-edition variety that was 20+ %ABV, which could only be sold in certain states).
 
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I went to a local expo of beer (it was for a friend's birthday). I'm not much of a beer drinker (I barely drink at all), but the mead was pretty good.

I think Absinthe being legal in the U.S. has something to do with it not being the real stuff. But I could be wrong.
 
Gerix said:
I went to a local expo of beer (it was for a friend's birthday). I'm not much of a beer drinker (I barely drink at all), but the mead was pretty good.

I think Absinthe being legal in the U.S. has something to do with it not being the real stuff. But I could be wrong.
Interesting, I looked it up after reading what you posted. It seems Absinthe sold here is only legal if it is thujone(wormwood) free. But anything under 10ppm is considered thujone-free and from what I read most "real" Absinthe doesn't contain much more than that anyway, the site I read stated most in Europe are 15ppm. Guess it's just a way for retailers to side-step that ridiculous law over here.

Tom', you are right, it was a state thing only. The federal government didn't regulate alchohol content. Here in Jersey it was 6% up until about 7 years ago or so. But we still have have weird laws in this state. In most other states you can go into a grocery or a convenience store and buy beer, not here. Only bars and liquor stores are allowed to sell it while if you go to New York, 20 minutes from me, you'll see that liquor stores are not allowed to sell beer, you have to go to a grocery or convenience store to buy it.... weird!
 
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I have Absinthe at home, really nothing special except that my bottle is 84% alcohol spirit, it tastes like very strong pastis.
But I prefere much more the taste of a good pastis.

If you ever come to brussels, http://www.deliriumcafe.be/ has about 2000 beers on the menu...:)
 
I had one of these today. I pretty much agree with the reviews on that site - it was very good. I had it with steak and potatoes, I don't know how traditional that would be, but I liked it. :p

At 10% ABV it's the strongest beer I've tried so far.
 
good american beer off the top of my head:
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Torpedo, and Bigfoot Barley Wine
Great Lakes Nosferatu, Burning River, Commodore Perry, and Blackout Stout
Anything made by Dog Fish Head specifically their 90 min IPA
Hoppin Frog Double IPA
Victory Hop Devil
Goose Island IPA

This is really just the tip of the iceberg, America has the most micro breweries in the world and there is no denying that there is damn good beer here in the states. I've had a ton of imports in my day (used to be all that I drank) and they are good but real american micro brew wins by a landslide. When people hear "american beer" they think of bud, miller, and coors. but those companies aren't even american owned anymore. Good riddance, their beer really is piss water for people who don't like the taste of beer. Real american beer is damn good and its fun as hell discovering all the hidden gems out there.

The only thing more fun is making your own beer. I got into it as a way to get beer when I was to young to buy it. ;) Now I have a blast creating my own unique beer tailored to my own tastes. It doesn't get any better or fresh than that. Plus it's cheaper :)

btw, on the high powered beers, I wouldn't buy anything over 12-14% unless it says Ice Brewed or Ice Distilled on it. When fermenting beer, the yeast eats the sugars from your mash and poops out alcohol. Each yeast stain can only withstand a certain concentration of it's own alcohol-poop before it dies. Most for beer are around 10-12%. There are some that go as high as 20% but those tend to have a bad aftertaste. You know that dirt cheap 20% vodka they sell at the supermarket that tastes like ass? They use a similar strain of yeast, it produces high alcohol but at the cost of the taste. This is why you can buy up to 20% at any store in Ohio, to get higher you have to distill which is Government Controlled. However, the government doesn't consider Freeze Distilling illegal (yet), so a good brewery will freeze distill beer (ice brewing) to raise up the alcohol content. Yes this is exactly what Bud Ice is, just a ice distilled Budwiser (aka butt wiper) but the problem they have is that they started with shit and end up with shit. If you make a really good stout and you age it in a bourbon barrel and then freeze distill it up to like 20-30%, thats some damn good shit. I tasted one at a beer festival once, I killed to many brain cells to remember the name of it now. Beers like that are hard to find and expensive to make and buy (you have to get the beer really cold to get those kind of alcohol levels and you loose a lot of volume). Check out Sam Adams Utopias to see what I mean. Granted thats on the high end but if I had the money I'd buy one :)

Barley wines are strong too (9-14%) and very good. Seek ye out the Bigfoot :)
 
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