The Grape and the Grain

While the conventional wisdom is that you should never mix the grape and the grain, when I ducked into Downtown this afternoon, they seemed against that. They were offering tastes of Lowlands whisky, and Australian wine.

Sizing it up for the Scotch was Auchentoshan Select, a mixture of unspecified ages, but likely around eight years or so. This was a light whisky, as the Lowlands malts tend to be. It had more in common with Irish whiskey to my palate than to its landsmen. They were also offering Glenkinchie 12. This was a reasonably Scotch, though it was a bit rough on its own. Lastly, they were offering the Littlemill 12. This was the best of the bunch, and actually quite tasty. However, given that the pricetag is double that of many amber spirits just as fine, it's a bit beyond my budget.

In addition, a brand rep from an Australian winery was offering his product. As I recall it was either Madison or Mason Hill. However, I could not find either in an online search. They were offering their chardonay, merlot, cabernet sauvignon, and shiraz. All the wines were quite nice, and, as I recall reasonably representative of their vintages. Unfortunately, I wasn't prepared to stop in, as I just ducked in to get out of the rain, so I couldn't take any notes. The wines seemed a bit high to my sensitivities, but as a Chicagoan, I still haven't really adjusted to Boston prices.

Stay dry and drink up!
The Scribe

The Session: A Celebration

For those of you who are new to the Dram, what I do here is blog on beer and cocktails, in roughly equal portions. This month I am also blogging on wine. However, in general, you can find reviews of beer, usually three per month, plus beer cocktails, and other cocktails as well. Anyway, onto the Session:

Unfortunately, I couldn't get a six pack of Tuckerman's, which I usually drink when I get down from the eponymous backcountry ski area, one of the deadliest in New England. Otherwise, I tend to drink a sparkling wine for celebrations. However, this ale made this selection hard. In addition, since this is wine month here at the Dram, I had to find a barleywine, which is a style I don't tend to drink. Then, serendipity struck.

This weekend was my roommate's twenty-first birthday. This seems like the sort of the special occasion asked for by our good host. One of our guests even brought a little Sierra Nevada barleywine bottled under the name "Celebration Ale." Honestly, could the synergy be any better?

It is an interesting beer. It's a miserable winter seasonal, because it is not much of a winter warmer. However, it made an excellent summer cooler. It is my honor to present:

Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.: 2007 Celebration Ale

Tasting Conditions: I enjoyed this winter warmer after work one day. I drank it from the bottle from, which had been sitting in the fridge for a few days. I drank it from a British pint glass of one imperial pint with room for some head proud of the pint mark.

Eye: This is a wonderfully honey amber ale. It had a lot of surge on the pour, but it subsided fairly quickly. The bottle is a fairly standard Sierra Nevada bottle, though it was in a winter theme.

Nose: There was a lot of good spicyness here, as well as some good hops, and some pleasant herbal notes.

Mouth: In the mouth this was a sweet ale with a pleasing bitterness. It was surprisingly refreshing for a winter beer, and had some Belgian tripel notes. There was also some sour, though more along the lines of cranberry than citrus.

Conclusion: I enjoyed this ale as a summer libation. However, I am not sure how it would taste in the dead of winter. In addition, I find winter ales to be the best seasonals. While this was good, other winter warmers do a better job in this regard.

Be sure to check out the wrap-up over at the Barley Blog.

May we have many more special occaisions,
The Scribe

Right Place, Right Time

There are some beers which are tied to a very specific place. For me, this is one such beer. already reviewed another offering from this distinguished brewery, their Pemi Pale Ale. The Pemi is by far my favorite Woodstock offering, but there is a place in my heart that loves their darker ale. Whenever we go up to the Loj, a log cabin in the White Mountains that Tufts owns, it is inevitable that we go over to the brewery and get some fresh brewed growlers of their Pig's Ear Brown. Two weeks ago we even got a fresh brewed keg of the Pig, as we affectionately call it. Without further ado, I give you:

Woodstock Inn Brewing Co.: Pig’s Ear Brown Ale

Tasting conditions: It sat in the fridge for about a month before being drunk, well chilled. Traditional 16oz pint glass. I enjoyed it just before dinner after a hard day.

Eye: A dark amber brown with no visible bubbles. The head remained for a little bit which suggests a decent quantity of protein in the beer, though the initial poor did not reveal significant initial head. The bottle was brown glass with just a traditional wood-look Woodstock Inn logo, and a cartoon pig.

Nose: The beer had a nice nutty odor that was noticeable with a sniff, but not neatly as in-your-face as the Smuttnose Pumpkin.

Mouth: The taste was quite nice. There was a nice hoppy front-end followed by a pleasant sweetness on the back end with a nutty aftertaste. On a second taste, the front had a slight spice-taste (that is a taste of spices, not a hot taste). The end had a nice slightly bitter hint that really gave a nice contrast to the rest of the beer.

Conclusion: Pig’s Ear reminds me of nights at the Loj, the log cabin owned by my school, often before leaving for a trip up some mountain or another. Tasted alone, the beer is good, quite good, actually, but not nearly as good as it was at the Loj. That’s not to say it’s bad, but I realize that a certain amount of my affection for the Pig is sentimental. I would still highly recommend this fine ale. It is an incredible beer.

A note on the photo. I am 99% sure that this photo is the right beer. However, the Pig was one of the earliest reviews I did, and it was before I put the bottle in the review, so I can't be one hundred percent sure.

Fair travels,
The Scribe

An Out of This World Liqueur

For those who are fans of Alton Brown and Good Eats as much as I am, the idea that pomegranate is an alien fruit comes as little shock. For the rest of you, and you are missing out, it still shouldn't be a big shock. Pomegranates are pretty fussy things, and kinda weird. Regardless, for the dinner I did at the beginning of the month, pomegranates were one of the key fruits. I used them in all sorts of applications, and I picked up a bottle of Pama to help in both cooking and whipping up a cocktail. We already covered the cocktail, well, mixed drink, as well as the banquet. However, here I have the liqueur. Apropos of last night's post on reviewing, since I did this review quickly in the midst of a very busy day, I just used a simple juice glass:

Pama: Pomegranate Liqueur

Tasting Conditions: I had a sip of this to taste it before making cocktails and cooking with it. I was fairly rushed as I had a lot of food to prepare. I had it warm, fresh from the store, and in a juice glass of about six ounces.

Eye: A crimson red liqueur that is gorgeously presented in the bottle. A square bottle tapering downwards elegantly presents the contents as a top shelf liqueur. In the glass, thick legs hint at a sweet digestif.

Nose: The nose is slightly mellow pomegranate, unadulterated by much else. However, there is barely any burn in the smell hinting at a very smooth dram.

Mouth: The taste is pure pomegranate with a bit of almost artificial sweet and sour on the back, and just a hint of alcoholic burn. A second sip makes the alcoholic burn and the artificial chemicaliness shine through more. There is very little complexity. Honestly, this could just by pomegranate syrup with a shot of vodka.

Conclusion: While I was tasting it, I happened to have some pomegranate juice next to me that I had reduced by half. The two were absolutely identical except for the slight chemical taste and a bit of alcoholicitiy. Now, I will suggest that you can get a bottle of overproof vodka or rum and a bottle of pomegranate juice (ubiquitous under the POM label), reduce the juice by half, and add it in a proportion of about three parts reduced juice to one part overproof spirit, and you probably have the same thing at two thirds the price for half again the volume.

Reviewing Spirits, Beer, Wine, and Some Miscelania

I thought that I would put forth my review methodology and some things I think are important in reviewing. I do this both so you all have a standard by which to judge my reviews and so that the internet community can give me suggestions on to how to improve my process.

First off, the glass. I currently use a Ministry of Rum official tasting glass for my reviews. It is a tulip shaped glass of approximately six ounces. Older reviews used a snifter of approximately eight ounces. Both are pictured to the right. Unfortunately, while I lived in a dorm, my care for my glassware wasn't incredibly good. While I did clean glasses before each review, they were allowed to air dry. However, the only spirits that were reviewed in my room were the Pampero Aniversario, the Bogle port, the Gosling's Black Seal and the Old Bushmills. Since then, I clean my glassware meticulously, and hand dry and polish it before each review. For beers, I try and use a British-style straight sided pint glass. I alternate between a sixteen and twenty-two ounce option. Obviously for larger beers, I use a larger glass.

Second off, the atmosphere. Since I believe that atmosphere and mood can play a huge role in how the spirit is reviewed, I do try and make a note of any especially relevant situations, be they health issues, mood issues, or whatever. I usually drink my drinks around ten or eleven in the evening, and almost always do so at my computer. I suppose I ought to make a standard tasting playlist, but that seems a little excessive. I also try and make note of anything special about the bottle. For example, whether it is new, or has had time to oxidize.

Third is my procedure. I usually clean the glass and grab an ice cube, and toss the ice cube in a clean auxiliary glass. Ice in our house doesn't tend to last a week, but I make sure that any ice is only a few days old at most, so it is pretty aroma free. Then I come upstairs to my room, pour out between an ounce and an ounce and a half, and take pictures, usually with both glass and bottle. Then I start writing the review. First I write down any relevant tasting conditions, then I describe the bottle, the colour of the spirit, and give the glass a swirl. I am looking for legs here, the dribbling down of the remnant spirit. I am not sure exactly what legs signify, and depending on who you read, they can suggest anything from the sweetness, to the alcohol content. After that is a swirl or two to help aerate the spirit a bit, and then I nose it. I usually do two simple sniffs, and then I tilt the glass until it is about to spill, and run my nose from low to high then high to low. I make sure I sniff it at least a total of three times. Then a sip neat, and two more. Each time I try and go deeper into the spirit. Then I add a bit of melt from the ice. I try and aim for a dilution of one part water to between three and five parts spirit. Three more sips, and I add what remains of the ice. After I add the ice, I try and wait a bit before I take my remaining sips. I should also note that I swallow. And that's how I review. For beer it is pretty similar, except I focus less on the nose, and obviously I only sip it neat.

The last piece of administatia is that, as you probably noticed, I put an add up on my site. I feel it is fairly unobtrusive, and I hope you don't mind it. I am trying to move the site to its own domain, but I am trying to allow advertising revenue to pay at least half of the cost. I hope you all do not mind.

Best wishes,
The Scribe

A Fearless Spirit

When I was in Dublin, I had the joy of going to the Bow Steet Distillery where a very special spirit has been manufactured for over two and a quarter centuries. I wrote about the experience for Refined Vices, and you can read about it here. When I was in Israel, I stopped by the duty free. They had some very expensive bourbons (about twice what they cost in the States), some Scotch that was, while undoubtedly inexpensive, still more than I wanted to spend. Their selections of other spirits were...well...undistinguished. However, their price on Jameson Irish Whiskey was quite good. And so, now I give you my review:

John Jameson & Son: Original Irish Whiskey

Tasting Conditions: I had a glass of Jameson after a day of work and an evening of classes. The bottle was room temperature, and freshly opened. I used a tulip glass of approximately six ounces (a Ministry of Rum tasting glass).

Eye: In the glass, the whiskey is a wheaty-honey color with thin, bulbous legs. The bottle is, appropriately, green glass, with the Jameson logo, the Jameson family crest, and some details. While I could not find an age statement on the bottle, the whiskey is allowed five years in the barrel.

Nose: The nose is quite bready, alsmot like a very strong beer. Given that whiskey is, after all, basically very strong beer, I guess that is appropriate. There is a fair amount of burn, which almost covers up the vanilla notes, and some nutty notes.

Mouth: Neat, as the Irish take it, the spirit is just a little sweet, but the burn obscured any other flavours on the first sip. Another sip gave me a little bit of oakiness, and a slightly sour flavour on the finish. The more I sipped, the more rancid it tasted, so I elected to add a bit of water. The water improved it immensely. While it still had the same notes, the sweetness took on a more honeyed tone. The rancid, sour note moved towards citrus, and the burn stopped off a lot. The oak moved slightly towards caramel, but not much. Next, I added a cube of ice. After giving the ice a minute to melt, I took another sip. The ice further smoothed it, leaving citrus notes, as well as burnt sugar. The sweetness retreated a fair bit. However, on reflection, I think that the burn sugar was the source of the rancid taste I had earlier.

Conclusion: This whiskey was probably worth just about every penny I paid for it, but not much more. If I saw it again at duty free or on sale, I think I would probably pick it up, as a mixing whiskey, if nothing else. However, given what it costs in the States, I think I would stick with either Bushmills or Fleck'n as long as I am not taking it straight. However, for the occasional James and ginger, or the cocktail which calls for whiskey, this will make a nice addition to my liquor cabinet.

Slainte!
The Scribe

You Are Feeling Sleepy

If you aren't, then the next review might make you. The most noticeable thing about the beer I am about to review is its spirally label. In fact, some of my friends called it "That spirally beer" for a long time, and some continue to do so. Regardless, the Magic Hat brewery produces a large number of wonderful ales. I am about to review their flagship "#9" while their somewhat imaginative wheat beer (which I believe is available) is considered their "unfiltered offering" or "UFO" for short. It's a quirky brewery that generally produces quite good beer. Thus, I give you:

Magic Hat Brewing Co.: #9 ("Not Quite Pale Ale")

Tasting conditions: It sat in the fridge for about two months before being drunk, well chilled. Traditional 16oz pint glass. I enjoyed it just after dinner after a day of school. A touch of a cold did impair me a little.

Eye: A nice honey brown beer ("not quite pale," indeed!). A minimal head appeared on pour, but quickly dissipated. The bottle is traditional brown glass with a somewhat spiral-y “9” logo.

Nose: An ale-y honey meets the nose. Again it wasn’t super obvious, but it was there. A bit of a cold might have impaired my schnoz slightly.
Mouth: My first sip was unpleasant. The first thing I noticed was a bitter front. My second was quite nice. The front end sweetened up. The finish had an almost chocolate flavor, with a honey-caramel in the middle with just a bit of nutmeg.

Conclusion: The first sip was quite a turn off, and despite remembering enjoying the old #9 before, I was prepared to retire to the couch and end the review right there. However, a little perseverance paid of big. While I’m not sure I would keep this beer on hand, if a bar had it, I would certainly order it.

True Hoppines?

So, I think I'm starting a short string, or at least two, posts inspired by that most divine of flowers, the flower that gives beer its wonderful flavour: Hops. Today, I review Wyerbacher's Hops Infusion IPA. I acquired this bottle quite by accident, since I usually don't enjoy ales that are too hoppy. Here are my tasting notes:

Weyerbacher Brewing Co.: Hops Infusion IPA

Tasting conditions: It sat in the fridge for about two months before being drunk, well chilled. Traditional 16oz pint glass. I enjoyed it just after dinner at the beginning of a Saturday night.

Eye: A cloudy falernum brown beer (think orange-honey for those not familiar with this Caribbean aperitif). On the pour it had a large head of about an inch and a half which subsided relatively rapidly to a more modest half inch head. The bottle is a dark brown glass with pictures of hops on the label. The words on the label are all in a sort of neon-light font which I find intriguing but slightly tacky.

Nose: Quite hoppy in the nose, as the name suggests, with a bit of honey behind it.

Mouth: Quite interesting in the mouth. It was a cool soapy-hoppy, almost sweet-lager-y front with an almost horseradish bitter finish. The second sip helped confirm my initial impressions with a very sweet middle reminiscent of honey, and a bitter finish, though the bitterness of the end was less than on the first sip. On my third sip, the sweetness really came through, though there is not much of an ending to this beer. Ultimately the best way I can describe the taste is similar to that of grapefruit pith.

Conclusion: While the first two sips hinted at some complexity, the remainder of the beer was simply sweet in the front and tasted more like a classic light lager on the finish with just a hint of horseradish. The flavor profile was very one dimensional. I could not find a price point for this beer, and did not buy the bottle I enjoyed. However, if it is in or above the price range of the Woodstock Inn, Long Trail or Harpoon ales, I will give this a pass. On the other hand, the sweetness might be welcomed by those who are less familiar with beer

So, as you can see, it wasn't quite a hit. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera handy when I wrote this review, so no pictures.

Happy sipping!
The Scribe

Again With the Lateness

Hello everyone. Today I did the review I meant to do last week: Bulleit Bourbon Frontier Whiskey. I found it to be quite yummy. On a related note, I'm leaving Friday night for Chicago. I will be making an appearance at Ed Hamilton's Chicago Rum Festival for the tasting Saturday afternoon as well as the Windy City Series, where I am sure the White Sox will tackle that other team they are facing quite handily. Of course, I will also be able to see lots of friends and family. I will be back in Boston on the following Monday, but in the meantime, I will be posting from Chicago. But anyway, onto the review:

Bulleit Distilling Co.: Frontier Bourbon Whiskey

Tasting Conditions: I enjoyed the Bulleit as a nightcap after a day of leisure. As per usual with spirits, I enjoyed it first neat, then with water, and finally a cube of ice in a brandy snifter of approximately eight ounces.

Eye: The most striking thing about Bulleit is its packaging. The packaging is clearly inspired by images of the old West. The form is vaguely reminiscent of an over sized hip flask. The cork fits well. The glass is embossed with the words "Bulleit Bourbon Frontier Whiskey" and then a label below repeats that information as well as all the other information that is needed. The spirit is a pleasant amber with slender legs. It is bottled at 90 proof and I could not find an age statement, though I would appreciate an idea of its age if anyone knows.

Nose: The first sniff really burned my nose. Again, a snifter might not have been the best idea, and I would generally drink this in a rocks glass anyway. The aroma is not the most pleasant with turpentine being the dominant note. Beyond that there are strong apple notes and a lot of nuttiness, with peanut especially strong.

Mouth: On the mouth this is gorgeous. Despite the aroma, it is silky smooth. It tastes almost like a Whatchamacallit bar with toffee and peanut tastes quite strongly. the peanut dominates the front with toffee and honey coming in on the middle and a vanilla notes finishing it out. A second sip leaves me nothing else, though I should note that the strength is quite evident with just a little numbness in the palate necessitating a brief wait between sips. Next up, the addition of water. I added just a dribble diluting it by no more than one part water to three parts whiskey. The water really doesn't change too much perhaps bringing out the vanilla just a bit more. Next up, the addition of a cube of ice. A swirl to cool and a sip... The ice really tones back the peanut flavors, which is to the good. It reveals more fruitiness which could be the apple I smelled. It also really brings the toffee notes to the fore, and adding them to the finish. For me, I think a cube of ice is the way to go with this spirit.

Conclusion: I really like the Bulleit. It is wonderful. It's like drinking candy from a first class confectioner. It is not overly sweet, and I found it a bit nutty until I added the ice, but with a cube of ice, this began to sing. It also works great in an old fashioned, especially when I used maple syrup or a vanilla syrup. This could well become a staple of my liquor cabinet.

Wishing you green pastures,
The Scribe

Picture to follow.

Better Late Than Never

I meant to go with the whole MxMo Bourbon thing and whip out a review of the Bulleit which was enjoyed in so many concoctions recently, including my own. Unfortunately, Wednesday rather snook up on me, and I did not recall that I owed you all a review until about three minutes ago. Unfortunately, with almost five minutes until midnight, I cannot really review a new product in the detail it deserves. Luckily, in addition to dozens of beer reviews stocked away, I also have a single spirit review as well. While I was really trying to keep the third Wednesday to sippers, I guess I will have to make an exception this week. I present you:

Old Bushmills Distillery: Original Irish Whiskey

Tasting Conditions: I was at a party where we were each supposed to bring some nips (50 mL bottles) of different spirits to try. Since my liquor store gets the same price for Bushmills and vodka, the choice was easy. At the end of the night, I brought this spare bottle home. I decided to pop this one open since it was a glass bottle and I was moving. It was stored in indifferent conditions for under a week, and tasted in a snifter of approximately eight ounces.

Eye: In the bottle, Bushmills is a yellowish flaxen color. In the glass, the color doesn’t change at all. A swirl reveals legs that start thick, but get quite narrow as they slide down the class. The whiskey comes in a square bottle that tapers as it gets to the top. Certainly compared to the other nips I bought, it was the nicest. Having seen the full size bottle, it is quite similar to the nip.

Nose: There is a nice aroma with just a hint of smoke. The aroma is fairly smooth without too much alcoholic kick. Otherwise the aroma is slightly bready and quite nutty, though the two are fairly similar. There was also a hint of vanilla and a lot of peanut.

Mouth: I started, as I always do, with neat spirit. The taste was quite rich, and surprisingly smooth for such an inexpensive spirit. The front was buttery and smooth with a bit of honey and caramel, and perhaps a touch of vanilla. As it moved towards the back, the caramel became almost more like a nut brittle, and I got a lot of peanut butter on the finish. There was also a somewhat spicy element there as well. I moved on to the second stage: dilution with still ice water. The water did not change the flavor noticeably, though it became even smoother with less bite. The spiciness was also a touch more noticeable. The texture became slightly more buttery, but not much. For the final taste, I added a cube of ice. The ice really brought out the nuttiness on the front, while it became less noticeable on the finish. It also brought vanilla notes to the fore.

Conclusion: This is a wonderful whiskey, certainly for a beginner, which I undoubtedly am. It was smooth and yummy and creamy, and, most important, extremely cheap. At $15 for a bottle (buying nips), this is almost the same price as drinkable vodka or decent white rum, and yet it’s completely sipable neat even by palates that aren’t so used to straight spirits. I would be interested in using this as a mixing spirit. This is definitely staying on the shelf. How you drink it is up to you. I am not sure how I will, because it’s quite good however you enjoy it.

I should add that I enjoyed this spirit a week or so later. I didn't find it quite as nice. Perhaps it was the choice of glassware...or lack there of. While it faired nicely in a snifter, when moved to a plastic keg cup, it didn't do nearly as well.

I meant to have a picture to post, but unfortunately I forgot to take one. Next time!

Best of health,
The Scribe

An Ode to an Earlier Season

I came across this seasonal offering about a month ago. Now I really like fall and winter beers. They are nice, and spicy and full of yummy deliciousness. Yet the spices we associate with the festive season between Thanksgiving and New Year's (at least in America) are really spices that I associate with the islands: Nutmeg, Pimento, and Cinnamon. Toss a Scotch bonnet in and you have a gorgeous jerk marinade. So in addition to being the flavours or winter, to me, at least, they are also the flavours of summer. With that in mind, I present this quite tasty seasonal offering:

Smuttynose Bewing Co.: Pumpkin Ale

Tasting Conditions: It sat in the fridge for about a month before being drunk, well chilled. Traditional 16oz pint glass. I enjoyed it as a celebratory drink after finishing finals.

Eye: A nice amber with a little Champaign-like fizz. Very little head, and dissipated quickly. Nice bottle with a big ripe pumpkin on the front.

Nose: The nose of this beer was very impressive. It hit me like a kick in the butt. There was lots of cinnamon, and just a touch of the namesake pumpkin. The smell was strong enough it was obvious even from the bottle. It smelled almost like mulled cider but without the apple, which suggests cloves, a dash of orange, and a hint of nutmeg. A little harshness on the nose was evident as well.

Mouth: The first thing to hit me was a pleasant sweetness and warmth. A definite taste of pumpkin. The ale had a certain lightness to it, with a very nice effervescence. In a lot of ways, it reminds me of an IPA, though it’s definitely darker. There was a hit of the spices that I smelled, and a very definite cinnamon-like heat, though the other cinnamon flavors were much less noticeable. On the downside, there was a certain soapyness, though I don’t mind that flavour.

Conclusion: A wonderful winter seasonal. I definitely enjoyed it. Perhaps one of the few Smuttynose offerings I can say that about. As a seasonal, I have a hard time keeping it stocked but I'll probably keep an eye out for it when the seasons roll around again.

A Rum Dear to My Heart

I am about to review Gosling's Black Seal, and even as I was writing the review, I put in the caution that as someone who spent a lot of my childhood in Bermuda, Gosling's has a special place in my heart, whether as an ingredient in cake, or rum peppers, or, on my most recent trip, as a drink. However, I am also not used to sipping mixing rum straight, and while I think the Black Seal is at the top of the mixing grade, I would still class it as a mixer not a sipper. With all that said, my review:

Gosling's: Black Seal Rum

Tasting Conditions: Before I continue, I should point out that I love Gosling’s. As someone who spent a large part of my childhood in Bermuda, I view Gosling’s as one of those things that’s in my blood, like sherry peppers and rum cakes. In fact, I was probably eating Gosslings from birth in the form of rum cakes, rum peppers, and other similar delights. This, obviously, will color my review. Anyway, I felt that a nice dram of one of my favorite spirits was an obligatory birthday ritual. I used a brandy snifter of approximately eight ounces for my taste.

Eye: Gosling’s, is, well, it’s Gosling’s. In the bottle it’s black as a pirate’s heart, while spread out in the glass, it’s gold like a pirate’s treasure. (Like that diametabole there? I did too!) It develops thick, stubby legs, quite slowly. The bottle is a classic wine-style spirits bottle, as opposed to a bubble-necked bottle, with the Gosling’s logo black seal balancing a barrel of rum on its nose. I should note that the origin of the name is in a black seal as in black sealing wax which closed the bottles a century ago, not as in the animal.

Nose: A very potent rummy smell reaches the nose, adulterated with a bit of toffee and caramel. The smell is a bit rough, suggesting that this might perhaps be more of a mixer than a sipper.

Mouth: On first sip, this one kicks like a mule, and you can tell that this, this is rum. This is no delicate brandy or haughty fashionable tequila. This is a rum, and while it is far from the kill-devil that they drank in the days of Captain Kidd, it’s still quite a potent potable. While I think the closest thing it comes to is toffee, as the nose suggests, for someone who is not used to drinking spirits neat and especially mixing spirits at all, it’s an experience. Adding a bit of water makes this a bit less rough, and brings out what might be banana notes, or perhaps even mango.

Conclusion: The black seal will always have a place in my heart, and with a cube or two of ice, is surprisingly drinkable straight given its price point (though at least one of my local liquor stores counts it a top shelf rum…at under $18 a bottle with tax oh joy of joys). That said, I think taken neat it is a bit rough for my tender young palate, and while a bit of water smoothes it out a bit, I still prefer it on the rocks. That said, it’s an excellent mixing rum, especially with a bit of Barrett’s ginger beer.

A Slightly Better Cider

If you recall, three weeks ago, I reviewed Woodchuck's Granny Smith cider. I suggested that they offered many other varietals, and I would try some of them. Well, today I follow through on that promise with their Amber:

Woodchuck Cider: Amber Varietal Cider

Tasting conditions: It was stored for a while at room temperature in dark conditions for a while before I had the chance to drink it. Traditional 16oz pint glass. I enjoyed it with dinner while watching a movie.

Eye: Like most ciders, this is a dark yellow. Like other ciders, and some beers, it comes in a squat glass bottle, green in this case. The label continues this coloration, adding red. There is cute picture of a marmot enjoying a red apple on the label. On the pour, there is a significant amount of head, but it dies down quite quickly.

Nose: A slightly acid sweet apple aroma was evident immediately on opening the bottle. After the pour, the aroma quickly spread throughout the room.

Mouth: With the first sip, my thoughts immediately went to Martinelli sparkling (soft) cider. With more tasting, I tasted more of the taste of the hard cider. Still, at least when warm, this tastes close enough to good apple juice to fool a lot of people.

Conclusion: This is quite enjoyable. I think perhaps, it might be just a bit better a bit cooler than I tasted it tonight, since usually I enjoy this cider a little more. As that statement suggests, however, I go to Woodchuck’s offerings often for cider, if for no other reason that they are the best readily available cider in the northeast. I have tried three of their offerings: Granny Smith (which I reviewed), Pear, and Amber. I enjoy the amber the best.

Picture forthcoming.

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An Irish Day in an Irish City

Three quick scenes for you all:

I went to the St. James Gate Brewery and the Guinness Storehouse. Now, personally, I think the tour was a little on the pricey side. You got to see how they make Guinness Draught Stout. The one really cool thing is that during the tour you get to taste Guinness that has not been through the secondary fermentation ("unconditioned"). You can taste the amount of flavor that the conditioning adds to the so-called "mild" beer. Afterwards, we were treated to the Guinness Storehouse annual St. Patrick's Day festival. This involved all the Guinness you can drink, learning to pour the perfect pint of Guinness yourself (which may be available all the time, I'm not sure), and tasting random dishes like Guinness-bread with salmon, some dish based on Guinness sour cream, and so on. Not too much needs to be said on the brew itself. If you don’t know what Guinness tastes like, you should. It’s quite a heavy beer that reminds me of coffee with a bare hint of sweetness and a fair bit of bitter. An Irishman informed me that the whole “perfect pour” thing promoted by Guinness is a load of tosh (surprise! surprise!), but that there is one surefire way of knowing a good pint: Hold your glass up to the light, and if any regions appear brown or red, or anything other than flat black, you should order something else for your next round.

I also went to the Old Jameson Distillery. The distillery tour was even pricier than the Guinness tour, and shorter. However, I think from a functional point of view, it was a much more informative tour. They show you the process of fermenting the mash, distilling it in pot stills, and aging it. The aging was the most interesting as they displayed barrels that were aging Jameson at one, three, five, ten, and eighteen years. You can see the angel’s share (almost 50% for the eldest cask), and how the color changes, and also how the color is leached from the wood. Then we got to taste. Some members of our tour were given the opportunity to do a tutored comparative tasting of several products of Irish Distillers. The traditional drink of Irishmen (nope, it’s not Guinness) is whiskey. Unlike their neighbors to the east, they spell it with an “e.” This is a surprisingly good whiskey, given its price point. Sipping it neat, on the rocks, or with a little water was a completely inoffensive experience, despite the fact that this dram is a lot younger than anything any single malt Scotch whisky drinker would ever consent to putting in his or her body. As to how it tastes, well, let’s just say it was a nice, complex whiskey, and I may have had a few too many drams for anything more sophisticated than that.

Lastly, we went to the St. Patrick's Day festivities in the city center. There was a fun parade, though I saw far too many American marching bands for my preference (including the Fighting Illini!). Afterwards we went to the Irish Folk Music and Dance festival where we learned Irish dancing. We stopped in a number of bars, including the Palace, the Temple Bar, and Dublin's oldest pub, the Brazen Head. However, the highlight was a little pub on Thomas Street known as Nash's. If you have the opportunity, I would definitely stop in there for a bit of honest "craic." Unlike the other pubs we visited in Dublin, where the only Irishman in the place was the publican, at Nash's, the only ones in the pub who weren't locals was us. There was a lot of singing. They'd sing us their songs, and then make us sing them ours. Unfortunately, coming from all over the wold, we didn't have too many of our own songs to sing them, but it was still good fun.

And on that note, I take my leave. Next up: A review of some cider.
The Scribe

A Superb Beer

I spend a lot of time in Woodstock, New Hampshire. (For those who are interested, the music festival was outside of Woodstock, New York.) In addition to being a great gateway to the White Mountains, where I love to go backpacking, mountaineering, skiing, and touring, the town is also home to the Woodstock Inn. The Woodstock Inn Station and Brewery is a microbrew with four main ales, an equal number of so-called "specialty" brews (including an amazing root beer), and five seasonal offerings. I tried one of the "specialty" ales, their Pemi Pale Ale, which is named for the Pemigwasset River Valley where the Inn is located, over my birthday. As you can see from the following review, I liked it a lot. You will probably see the remainder of the Woodstock line reviewed here as I get the time, and the beer.

Woodstock Inn Brewery: Pemi Pale Ale

Tasting conditions: It was stored for a while at room temperature in dark conditions for a while before I had the chance to drink it. Traditional 16oz pint glass. I enjoyed it as the second drink of the morning on my twenty-first birthday.

Eye: The first thing that caught my eye about this one was the label. While it’s a fairly traditional Woodstock Inn bottle and label, the logo on this one is a large spotted fish (a trout, perhaps?) drinking a pint. The other noticeable thing was the amount of head. As you can see from the picture, this one was pretty frothy. While I usually poor straight in to see how much head there is, I had to pout this one in three pours into a glass a third again bigger than the beer to allow the surge to settle. I will say that after the initial pour, the head settled fairly quickly, and in the time it took to write this, the head has almost completely collapsed. As to the color, this is on the dark side for a pale ale, closer to the red ale region. It’s a middling brownish honey.

Nose: A touch of hops added to a bready aroma gives you the nose of this beer, which is quite subtle.

Mouth: My first impression was that this is an incredibly bitter beer. I almost tossed the beer after the first sip it was so bitter. It definitely should have been drunk a bit colder than I drank it. However, behind the bitterness, it almost tastes like a stout with a nice chocolaty-fruitiness that is quite pleasant. The second sip allowed the bitterness to retreat. My theory was that the head held most of the bitterness. A taste of just the head confirmed my theory. Unfortunately, a lot of the complexity retreated with the loss of the head. It was still there, but much more subtle. In its place, a good, honest beery-ness with a nice hopiness came to the fore. A pause to write allowed some nice sweetness to come in on the tail. There’s a lot going on here, far more than I can describe.

Conclusion: This is one of the better beers I’ve had, and throughout my travels, I’ve had many. The subtlety of this beer is exquisite, and the flavors amazing. This bottling will definitely be a staple of my pantry for a long time to come. I simply can’t say enough about this beer. Next time I’m in New Hampshire, I will have to pick up a growler and make some syrup. The complexity suggests, to me at least, that this could make wonderful beer syrup as well as a great cocktail focus. While it might not carry as much punch as a spirit, the complexity exceeds many whisk(e)ys, and if you could bring out the goodness of that first sip without the overwhelming bitterness, you would have a wonderfully complex drink.

Good Rum and Bad Tequila

We went out to dinner last night at a little Mexican joint, and being young college kids, decided to get thoroughly sloshed on margaritas. While each pitcher was enough for all of us to have two and a half large glasses, when we decided to move from the expensive pitchers made with ingredients like lime juice, Grand Marnier, and Cointreau to the cheap pitchers made with margarita mix, triple sec, and cheap tequila, despite the fact that we were all getting happy, it was both noticeable and unpalatable. The lesson: Don't use mix, and, further, don't use crappy tequila.

After sobering up, I realized that Wednesday was coming up and I had a spirits review to do. I know, I know, the sacrifices I make for you, my noble blog reader. I decided to review a wonderful gem of a rum:

Ron Pampero: Ron Anejo Aniversario

Tasting Conditions: I purchased this bottle for my twenty-first, and sampled it then. I pulled it out for this review. While I had a not insignificant quantity of margaritas earlier, this review was a few hours later, and I feel quite sober.

Eye: The rum pours a gorgeous middling gold, though my understanding is that it is, in fact, a fairly dark rum. It is a shade or two paler than Gosling’s Black Seal. The legs were fairly thick. The rum comes gorgeously packaged, with a squat, round bottle coming in a leather sack. A fine presentation. I sampled the rum this evening in a snifter of approximately eight ounces.

Nose: The nose was quite potent in the snifter suggesting that perhaps a tumbler might be the better service vessel. A low-to-high sniff reveals quite pleasant toffee notes, as well as caramel, vanilla, and just a bit of smoke, or possibly coffee. There is also, perhaps, an orange and berry aroma.

Mouth: I could taste some of the toffee simply inhaling the odors. On the taste, I got a nice honey flavor, tempered by caramel, vanilla, and a little fruitiness, perhaps apple. A second taste revealed additional vanilla, and some citrus notes. I found this rum to also be quite smoky. At this point I added a few drops of water (between two and three parts rum to one part water). The water revealed a pleasant buttery texture which I quite enjoyed, but did not add any flavor notes, as such. It did, however reduce the smokiness. I tossed in a cube of ice to further dilute and cool my drink. The ice suppressed the vanilla to a large extent, while bringing the citrus and caramel to the fore. It also changed the texture from the wonderful buttery sensation to almost that of ice water. The smokiness increased from the diluted version, though not to the extent of the neat service.

Conclusion: This rum is certainly a sipper. I tend not to be a neat spirit drinker, preferring my spirits at least with a splash of water, and usually a cube or two of ice. While I know I have just lost all credibility with my readership, I felt that this could have been sipped neat. It did, however, profit immensely from the addition of water. I felt the buttery creamy texture to be just gorgeous. I felt that it suffered a little when the ice was added, but it was still quite enjoyable. The price point of this rum ranges from just a tad above my stock aged mixers (Gosling’s and Mount Gay), to the mid-range of what I consider reasonable sippers. At the higher price point, it is acceptable, and I would certainly keep some around. At the lower price point, however, this rum would be a staple, and I would be happy to mix with it, which would generate a really gorgeous drink.

A Glass of Cider to Start Things Off

Good morrow folks. I woke up this morning, and decided to enjoy a nice glass of cider as my first drink of the morning. What? I'm turning twenty-one. There will be much drinking today, and it may as well start early! Unfortunately, the liquor store not being open, I couldn't pick up a nice bottle of Champaign or anything else, for that matter, but chose to enjoy a glass of Woodchuck Draft Cider's granny smith varietal cider. Here is my review. It should be similar in format to the other reviews I will write:

Woodchuck Draft Cider: Granny Smith Cider

Tasting conditions: It was stored for a while at room temperature in dark conditions for a while before I had the chance to drink it. Traditional 16oz pint glass. I enjoyed it as the first drink of the morning on my twenty-first birthday.

Eye: This is a little light in comparison to other ciders: a pale wheat color. Like other ciders, and some beers, it comes in a squat glass bottle, green in this case. The label continues this coloration in two shades of green. There is cute picture of a green tinged marmot (perhaps he’s jealous?) enjoying a green apple on the label. Do I sense a theme here? My only complaint about the packaging is it’s a bit, well, green and bland. On the pour, there is a little head, but it dies down quite quickly. On the other hand, it bubbles fairly continuously, much like Champaign. In fact, I would say if this came to me in a flute, I would assume, based on sight, that that was what it was.

Nose: The comparison to Champaign continues through the nose. There is a little fruitiness there, and a bit of must, and a lot of what I associate with carbonation in fermented fruit drinks.

Mouth: Even in the mouth, it might be mistaken for Champaign. I would say that this compares favorably to something like, say, an extra brut from a house like Korbel. The carbonation was somewhat evident on the tongue, and while it got more apple-y as I drank more, for the first sip or two, you could easily have given this to me in a flute, and I would have assumed you had bought Champaign. As I enjoyed more of it, I found more depth of flavor, with a little apple, approaching a profile that was reminiscent of say, Strongbow. However, I must say that it seems fairly one dimensional to me.

Conclusion: This is a decent cider, but I would not hurry to keep it in stock. Woodchuck brews significantly more complex, cidery ciders than this. On the other hand, since it could have been mistaken for Champaign, I think that it may have been appropriate for the occasion on which I drank it.

Picture will be forthcoming soon.