haresfur

This topic came to mind as I was filling a flask with bourbon to take to a kayak gathering. I ended up with sort of a new-fashioned cocktail: Bourbon, Gran Gala, and Regan's Orange Bitters adjusted to taste (always an enjoyable way to attain balance if not reproducibility - or perhaps to lose my balance...). Who needs ice, anyway?

Fair enough but I would say, it is more that high alcohol beer cellars better, even fairly high hop ones like (at least some) barley wines, and that you wouldn't want to age any beer that has a distinct hop aroma/flavor as opposed to bitterness.

I was at a bar that used these. I think it made for a good show and was pretty efficient but not quite as fast as premade. At least you know the juice is fresh. You would need three sizes for oranges, lemons, and limes. Don't get the all plastic ones, mine didn't last the first lime.

??? I was under the impression that hops are a preservative and, in particular, IPAs were originally highly hopped specifically for aging on the voyage to India. Was I misinformed?

In my experience it makes a huge but hard to quantify difference.

Like my brother told me, "We chose the wrong parents." I think maybe 15 % reduction typically can be achieved with diet. You can alter the HDL:LDL ratio with diet and exercise bringing up the HDL. Time release niacin can help and has pros/cons vs statin drugs. I'm also a big believer in additional folate although that's an independent risk factor factor from cholesterol.

This was a good excuse to peruse CocktailDB.com looking for inspiration. With a limited bar currently, I decided to try the Martha: 1 1/2 oz bourbon - the surprisingly drinkable Blue Barrel from Aldis (kind of like Trader Joe's) 1 dash Orange Bitters - Regan's 1/4 oz Maraschino - Luxardo 1/4 oz Pastis - Obsello absinthe (wish I'd picked up some Pacifique before I left Washington) Build on ice in a rocks glass Float absinthe on top. Add lemon twist. This is a very "adult" drink. Perhaps a little sweet is needed when using absinthe instead of Pernod. But quite drinkable and satisfying.

Not in the business but when I worked in bush camps "up north" we had a cook and a "bull cook". The bull cook washed dishes, burned trash, etc. so the only thing he cooked was bull----.

Good tip. I started down this path but found I didn't have any Fee's Old Fashioned or Angostrua bitters so I morphed it into a Sazerac with Peychaud's, raw sugar, and Obsello absinthe. Very nice!

Agreed, that's why I spent months wiping scale off with cue-tips soaked in rubbing alcohol. But the systemic I used was basically the same stuff you put on dogs and cats for fleas and ticks (and was designed for agricultural use - unfortunately I don't know the exact product because it was a "gift" from an Ag research station). I would have waited a long time to eat fruit just in case but that was a moot point. It did get rid of the scale.

Welcome to eGullet! I can't answer your question directly but IIRC there are some decent restaurants there, maybe not some great ones. The demographics could affect that, but I'm sure good food is an approved vice I do remember accosting someone with a Starbucks cup on the street to find out where to get coffee! You could also consider the ski resort towns if that isn't too far to commute.

Perhaps somewhat related to the start-up bar thread and the budget liquor thread, but a different slant. Yes there's the really good stuff that you save for special occasions, there's the stuff you use sparingly but when you need it you need it, but what bottles do you find yourself restocking most frequently? Personally, I'd say rum but I solve that by just buying more varieties to spread the load. So I guess, right now it would be Campari. Maybe that will change in the winter.

I bought a bottle of Inner Circle 40%. Haven't quite made up my mind although it is infinitely better than the cheap Bundaberg. But I'll only try the more expensive B if I can get it in a mini-bottle or try someone else's. Still has a distinct estery? flavour that interestingly, seems to come through the ginger beer in a Dark and Stormy. Does anyone know if that is a feature of pot-still rum or where they make the cuts in the distillation? Any ideas of cocktails that will shine for this style of rum?

A lot of citrus are grafted onto dwarfing root-stock for growing in pots. Since this isn't the case with yours, you may end up with underground issues. Maybe you could re-pot frequently and clip roots back. I'm not much of a gardiner - I killed off dwarf Meyers lemon, lime, orange and calamondin trees but I mainly attribute that to them coming in with scale. I'm going to give lime and maybe lemon another go, but may try a full-size lemon since I have the climate for it now. So watch for pests. I did get rid of the scale with a systemic but it was pretty much too late.

Iodine-131 has a short half life - about 8 days. What that means is that it takes very little of it by mass to produce enough radioactivity for the procedure (in other words it has a high specific-activity). So for that reason it won't have any significant impact on your overall iodine level. Also, it decays to xenon-131 so between that, and excretion, it goes away without much unintended good or bad effect on your thyroid.

Agree totally about the Campari. As far as the runners-up go, I don't have access to many of them but Cassis is high on my list and I'd add some pastis or absenthe, a coffee liqueur, and probably Drambuie as being good to have. Amaretto, too, if only for making cheesecake.

I can't (and wouldn't want to) take credit for this one: light rum ginger beer vanilla ice cream Make a float. Actually this tames the ginger beer bringing out the rum and was quite tasty. Um, would that be called a "Stormy Whiteout"? On a related note, Starbucks coffee liqueur is really nice over ice cream.

So no egg yolks but whites are ok? What about pasta? You could make that at home if the commercial isn't allowed.

If you still have the cherries maybe try putting them in a bowl with sugar to make a syrup/cut the booziness? Seems like they could then be put into a dessert or maybe even some sausage or gallantine/terrine/whatever. I did pretty much the same thing - some in brandy and some in rum and the cherries were too "boozy". I was in the process of adding more and more sugar to the mix and sampling periodically when the experiment was terminated because of my move. I'm thinking of making some 2:1 sugar syrup with 80 proof spirits next time, throwing the cherries in the hot syrup, then letting them cool and sit in the cupboard for a couple of weeks or more.

With the price of liquor here??? I can't think of too many particularly Australian cocktails but I'm a newcomer. And as much as I hate to disparage anyone's local spirits, I can't deal with Bundaberg rum - the ginger beer is good, though. 1806 in Melbourne does a nice Australian variation on the blue blazer: Black Blazer Inner Circle dark rum with black chocolate This variation was created at 1806 by Stacy Field as a variation of the classic drink, using the old style of blazing the booze with modern ingredients that would not have been around an 1800s gold field. In honour of an Australian variation we use the award winning Inner Circle Navy Proof dark rum and organic black chocolate, all burnt in the traditional style.

Aldis had several varieties of "Single Origin Dark Chocolate" - a concept I hadn't seen before. The brand is "Choceur" (shouldn't that be "Chocoeur"?) and is made in Austria. I picked bars of Madagascar and Ecuador to compare. The Madagascar chocolate is described on the package, "Our premium dark chocolate is produced from cacao beans sourced exclusively from Madagascar to create and indulgent, luxurious chocolate. The flavours are unadulterated and exude fine characteristics of strong fruity flavours with hints of citrus and berries." It has 65% cacao. The Ecuador pack says "... The high cacao content produces a robust and complex dark chocolate full of spice and red berry flavours." It has 75% cacao. So the difference in content makes it kind of hard to compare, but I suppose they chose the recipe based on the supposed strengths of each region's product. The Ecuador did seem "earthier" to me, not just stronger, but I wouldn't say I have an educated palate. So anyone else encountered this concept? Does terroir matter for chocolate or was it just an extremely clever way to get me to buy 2 bars (and probably go back for more varieties in the interest of research )?

Maybe "bourbon" was too hard to spell or didn't fit on the glass

I'm not fond of Angostura bitters. I've never tried a Manhattan that I liked. I do plan on learning to like gin, even if it kills me. I like Canadian whiskey and think it's all right to call it rye. I sometimes like sweet drinks and am even willing to drink pink ones. And on the food front, my father always insisted that real cream be whipped with a hand mixer, not electric... maybe that's why I use the aerosol stuff. I dislike potatoes unless they are brown and crispy. I do like boxed mac & sleaze (but my home-made stuff is better - especially when I throw in some smoked salmon).

I think in Pennsylvania (or at least at Penn State) the small bottles of Rolling Rock are called "ponies".

Oh! I'd forgotten about Mickeys! And a really large bottle (3 L??) was a "Texas Mickey". Alcohol does seem to breed weird slang or units - magnum and all those other wine bottle sizes. And I've heard for a 24 bottle case of beer: a flat, a slab, a two-four, and I'm sure there are others. ETA: Is mickey a Winnipeg thing?