What did you buy at the liquor store today? (2014 – 2015)

Czequershuus · September 26, 2015

Picked up some St. George Absinthe today. I have only had a few basic Absinthes before (Pernod, Kubler, Lucid), but this one blows them all out of the water. Cannot wait to start using it in cocktails.

Rafa · September 27, 2015

This stuff is gold.

Edited September 27, 2015 by Rafa (log)

mkayahara · September 27, 2015

This stuff is gold.

And, one assumes, is priced accordingly.

haresfur · October 4, 2015

Trying to keep up with the ~~Jones~~ Taylors.

Just tried the Nardini and it is very nice. I was worried that it would be one of Chris' wtf why would I put this in my body ideas.

The Teeling was a suggestion from a friend in Ireland and is tasty. I have no idea how it compares to other Irish whiskey.

lesliec · October 5, 2015

It's good when you have friends who go to foreign parts (the US, in this case) and bring back interesting things:

He also brought me some cinchona bark, which is destined to end up in ... something.

JoNorvelleWalker · October 5, 2015

Cointreau.

It was an emergency.

Moto · October 6, 2015

I picked this up while in New York(Brooklyn, to be exact) this past weekend. This has been in the shelf for a long time. I found it on the stores website at least two years ago. Since I am on a bit of a Caroni tear lately, this trip to NYC was the perfect chance to pick this one up.

I hope it was on the shelf due to placement on a high shelf or unfamiliarity, not because it does not taste good.

This particular bottling was finished in a Madeira cask. This appears to have been part of a line of wine cask finished rums that came out before the Renegade line.

The Renegade line had a similar line up of wine finished Rum but was in nicer bottles and much pricier.

Czequershuus · October 6, 2015

Picked these two new bottles up today. I have had much green chartreuse in my time, but finally decided to explore the yellow. Just opened the Sonoma rye, and boy is it interesting. There is a strong dry maple character, and some odd, rum like funk, I would almost say hogo, if you can have that in a whiskey. It tastes a bit young to me, but overall very likable.

blue_dolphin · October 6, 2015

IMG_9468.JPG

Picked these two new bottles up today. I have had much green chartreuse in my time, but finally decided to explore the yellow. Just opened the Sonoma rye, and boy is it interesting. There is a strong dry maple character, and some odd, rum like funk, I would almost say hogo, if you can have that in a whiskey. It tastes a bit young to me, but overall very likable.

I just "invested" in a first bottle of yellow chartreuse as well. I've been annoyed that the green version is stocked locally in both 750 and 375 ml sizes but the yellow is only available in the full size so I had to pony up the big bucks :biggrin: . I look forward to hearing what you do with it.

Hassouni · October 6, 2015

I picked this up while in New York(Brooklyn, to be exact) this past weekend. This has been in the shelf for a long time. I found it on the stores website at least two years ago. Since I am on a bit of a Caroni tear lately, this trip to NYC was the perfect chance to pick this one up.
I hope it was on the shelf due to placement on a high shelf or unfamiliarity, not because it does not taste good.
This particular bottling was finished in a Madeira cask. This appears to have been part of a line of wine cask finished rums that came out before the Renegade line.
The Renegade line had a similar line up of wine finished Rum but was in nicer bottles and much pricier.

What shop?

GarethLangston · October 6, 2015

I've also had yellow chartreuse delivered today. I also ordered green, which is inexplicably priced at £18 for 700ml on amazon. I'm not holding up much hope that they will send those.

Craig E · October 6, 2015

Vw88liL.png?1

Looks like you sprung for some Chartreuse instead of paying your power bill this month. I can appreciate those priorities!

Moto · October 6, 2015

What shop?

Heights Chateau on Atlantic. They also had some NY distilled rum but otherwise had nothing of interest. Also tried a shot of the Clement Homere at Mainson Premiere. It was just in an tumbler, not a glencairn, but it did nothing for me.

Tried to get to Astor Wines as they seem to be restocking their upper end rums but time didn't allow.

Where's your go to in DC lately?

Hassouni · October 7, 2015

Ace and Schneider's, for the most part

lesliec · October 20, 2015

'What did you buy' is not entirely accurate, but this is now on my shelf:

Not too bad for a first attempt. I'm not sure I'll be able to exactly reproduce it; it's a mix of ground and whole rye plus a small amount of a ferment I did using spent grain from a brewer friend. But I learned a few things along the way and as recently as last Sunday acquired another piece of equipment that will help me do grain ferments 'properly'.

This one is bottled (for now) at 50%. It's not a match for Rittenhouse 100, but the day may come.

**ChrisTaylor** · October 20, 2015

What was the aging process, les?

lesliec · October 20, 2015

Couple of small oak barrels - two and three litre - with a bit of time in glass with oak chips to start with. The two barrels gave different levels of 'brown' (the bigger one is new so coloured up quite quickly). Overall, the finished product has had about six months in different bits of wood.

Craig E · October 21, 2015

Couple of small oak barrels - two and three litre - with a bit of time in glass with oak chips to start with. The two barrels gave different levels of 'brown' (the bigger one is new so coloured up quite quickly). Overall, the finished product has had about six months in different bits of wood.

Is there a difference in effect between the chips and the barrel?

lesliec · October 21, 2015

It's really just a time thing. A barrel has a lower proportion of wood surface to spirit than chips so does its thing more slowly; the larger the barrel the longer it takes (all else being equal). But as I noted, all was not equal; the larger-but-previously-unused barrel put a lot more oak into the spirit faster than the smaller-but used-for-a-few-other-things one.

But the end result is pretty much the same however you do it.

Rafa · October 21, 2015

With due respect to the good Colonel, it's a little bit more complicated than that--there's much more to barrel aging than just the rapid imparting of oak char flavors that happens early in the process. To get at the distinction in a somewhat roundabout way, here's Dave Pickerell :

All that being said, there ARE limitations to small barrel maturation that need to be addressed. Clearly, the extraction rate of the wood chemicals into the liquid solution happens at a substantially accelerated rate, based on the surface area to volume ratio of the barrel. This is both a strength and a weakness. Since the depth of character of a barrel aged spirit is mostly a function of the complex series of chemical reactions that happens post-extraction, there is an inherant problem. These reactions are driven principally by time. As such, it is unlikely that the complexity and depth of character normally associated with traditionally barrel aged spirits can be developed inside small format barrels. This is due to the fact that extraction does not stop; and allowing the spirit to sit in the wood until the depth of character develops will also result in extracting far too many wood tannins, resulting in a characteristically one dimensional woody product.

Obviously wood chips aren't the same as small barrels, and have their own set of differences from conventional barrel aging, but Pickerell's larger points about the differences, informed by his chemical engineering background and decades of whiskey-making, stands. I don't mean this as size-queenism--small barrels and wood chips have their place--but just in answer to Craig's question. Congratulations on your first batch of whiskey! I hope to try some of your hooch someday.

lesliec · October 21, 2015

Indeed, sir. Thank you for the clarification.

A 225-litre barrel is unfortunately somewhat beyond my ability to both fill and store, but I think would certainly give a more refined result than my little fellers. But for something I can get finished in my lifetime the small ones will do.

Should I ever manage to get to NY (or your path lead you here) I shall be delighted to provide samples.

Czequershuus · October 24, 2015

A few new acquisitions. The scotch and vermouth were purchases, the gin a gift from a thoughtful boss.

The Ransom is some gorgeous vermouth, very like my favorite Noilly Prat but with even more herbal depth. The Highland Park is really good, utterly moreish, a really nice combo of honeyed and smokey scotch characters. The Aviation is cool, a solid juniper flavor with a lot of spice as well.

Also, better lighting for my picture this time

scubadoo97 · October 26, 2015

Picked these up in a store in Atlanta the other day for Manhattans

tanstaafl2 · October 27, 2015

Gin Barrel aged orange bitters. That is an interesting combination! Where did you find that?

I like the RR SB rye so far based on the one bottle I have so far but I wonder if there will be some consistency from barrel to barrel. Can't recall if they have a barrel number annotated on the label.

haresfur · October 27, 2015

Gin Barrel aged orange bitters. That is an interesting combination! Where did you find that?

I like the RR SB rye so far based on the one bottle I have so far but I wonder if there will be some consistency from barrel to barrel. Can't recall if they have a barrel number annotated on the label.

Interesting. Never mind the bitters, where is the barrel aged gin?

Sign In

What did you buy at the liquor store today? (2014 – 2015)

Recommended Posts

Similar Content

Recently Browsing 0 members