The responsible drinkers thread

Something cheap. No point in anything better for cooking.

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I tried my Octomore. Absolutely stunning. Can still taste it on my tongue. Huge fruit flavors from the Sauternes cask it was matured in, not too much smoke though. Really nice barley notes in it too - it's sold me on both terroir in Scotch whisky and wine-cask maturation.

edited 19th Jul '15 4:11:36 PM by Achaemenid

Nice! Glad you liked it. I have to listen to Nick Cave, Greg Dulli or Morphine when I'm drinking a special Scotch.

I got to try a glass of High West Midwinter Night's Dram a few months back and nearly broke down crying in the bar when I realized I'd never be able to afford a bottle of the stuff - and I live in a county that gets High West in pretty reliably, just to add insult to injury. Although apparently there's a guy near me who port-finishes Rittenhouse, which apparently gets a pretty similar taste.

The worst part is that some good samaritan on Reddit tried to send me a sample, and the bottle broke in transit.

That's brutal. Utterly brutal.

Update regarding the sherry: I've now gone through two bottles, mostly using them for pan sauces.

My first bottle was Taylor dry, which turned out to be a somewhat misleading label. It's certainly about as sweet as I'd be willing to go for drinking, and dominated the sauce, but given how tasty the thing turned out I don't particularly mind.

Second bottle was Hartley & Gibson fino. As it turns out, there is such a thing as too dry - while I can certainly appreciate the crispness, it felt too delicate to complement the chicken when served alongside it, and all but disappeared in my pan sauce. I can see it working wonders with seafood, though.

Would an amontillado be a good bottle to pick up next? If not, what would you guys recommend?

In unrelatednews, my friend and I tried our first glasses of Wray and Nephew last night, which my parents were given as a gift fifteen-odd years ago. Sweet mother of fuck, that stuff is potent. Incredibly smooth for 126 proof and not actually that bad, but crazy strong.

edited 28th Jul '15 12:35:15 PM by KyleJacobs

If you're just using it for making sauce, why bother with anything better than cheap plonk.

Personally, I like Manzanilla.

Because I'm also drinking it alongside whatever the sauce goes on, and because there's a taste difference.

I need to find a liquor store that sells sherry.

Wait, is that technically a wine or a spirit? Either way, I don't think it's at grocery stores here, so my best bet is probably a beer-wine-spirits shop. The shops I've been going to don't sell beer and wine because grocery stores can sell that.

Sherry is classified as a fortified wine.

edited 28th Jul '15 7:04:18 PM by Rosvo1

I suspect that means it's both and neither per local blue laws.

In Oregon it seems easy enough to find in the wine section of decently sized grocery stores, if that helps

The last time I had it, I got it at Meijer in Indiana.

Now I'm in Texas, where anything stronger than beer, wine, and mixers are consigned to the liquor store ghetto.

Montgomery county's liquor is sold by the county. Given that it's actually cheaper than the private shops in DC and they have one hell of a selection (High West Bourye is on the shelves right now), I'm OK with that. Sherry is available in wine shops, though.

In unrelated news, I just bought a brandy snifter and fuck me if it doesn't make a huge difference to the aroma.

T Para: I was gonna mention getting liquor in Texas besides the liquor stores, but then I remember all those purchases were on-base. Including buying whiskey on Sunday, which made me giddy as I boldly flew in the face of Texas' stupid laws!

My military days did have some advantages.

Bloody feds flying in the face of sovereign state laws.

As I understand it, you can buy booze in Texas on a Sunday, it's just that the hours you can do so are shorter than they are the other days.

It's damn simple in Indiana, you just can't get a drink on Sundays. In Texas you have to know what time it is and what time they stop selling.

edited 30th Jul '15 8:20:37 PM by TParadox

I've had cream sherry before and loved it.

Regular sherry, however, tastes like that soy sauce cocktail I made a few times back when I inherited a bottle of soy sauce from the previous tenant and had hardly any money for food.

Tried some Bacardi Oakheart rum today.

Very nice.

Celebrating my birthday with a six pack from my hometown.

Firestone Pale 31. It's damn good if you can get your hands on it.

Once again, enjoying some hometown beer. Got the firestone sampler pack at a Bevmo in milpitas. All Pale ales. In order of preference:

Pale 31 > Firestone DBA > Union Jack IPA > Easy Jack

I'm usually an IPA guy, but their plain pales are just so good.

So I was going through the liquor store trying to find a beer I'd like to drink at a party in a hurry, and happened upon Mission Hard Root Beer. I thought, "hey, I'm very fond of root beer, I should try this!"

If you are very fond of root beer, do not buy this. It tastes like store brand diet root beer mixed with vodka.

If you can find it, the Not Your Fathers' hard root beer is delicious. However like $10 for a 6 pack is a bit steep. I'd rather just buy root beer schnapps for that price.

10 bucks for a 6 pack is expensive for you? That's just what beer costs where I am.

Beer can actually be good though.

And around here, I can get beer or cider for under $8 a six. I could probably get one of the garbage beers like Natural Light for under 7.

Responding to Mark.

I knew you were. I wasn't giving his answer for him, I was making a suggestion.