The responsible drinkers thread

Euda...Hmmmm there's an idea. I DO have iceream in fact.

We had ice-cream floats made with lambic not long ago, I should try it with coffee liqueur.

I have determined that I really like hard milkshakes, alcohol in coffee, and hard coffee milkshakes. I was at a Starbucks with my girlfriend not long ago and we found ourselves wishing we could have them add a shot of Kalhua or creme de cacao.

I mean, I'm sure we could surreptitiously add it ourselves, but that's less convenient.

Purists will scream bloody murder but... iced Irish coffee...

Transferring our homebrew to bottles for fermentation today. In the meantime, sipping on a growler of pecan ale.

Drinking a 7 and 7 with neither 7 nor 7.

That is to say I mixed Canadian Mist with diet off-brand lemon lime.

I was planning on getting Jameson, but I'm not really used to spending $20 on a single bottle of something.

Also the diet sweetener is not diminishing my enjoyment next to regular sugar as much as I expected.

edited 18th Jul '14 7:45:28 PM by TParadox

There's a patisserie near my therapist's office with a large chunk of the menu devoted to various types of spirits they will happily add to coffee, but I don't remember if they offer iced. When I was dating a Columbia student we used to go there occasionally.

So I got drunk for the first time in months at a friend's birthday party last night. I forgot how good a well-made cocktail tastes. Either that, or sleeping with the birthday girl is putting a rose-colored tint on the rest of the evening.

I got a pretty good drink on last night. Canadian Mist + Sierra Mist x many while (because) watching Star Trek V.

Today was the moment of truth with our homebrew. A little more carbonated than we anticipated and probably could have gone without the chipotle pepper the kit included, but otherwise successful.

Next week we start a pecan ale like the one we bought from the craft beer store a few weeks ago. Already bought the malt, hops, grain, and yeast.

edited 26th Jul '14 6:28:18 PM by tdgoodrich1

Hot sake is fun to drink. The little vase thing bottle and matching shot glass really sold me on it. Japan makes everything cuter and more fun!

It's like well-packaged mulled wine, isn't it? Yet, without having to survive somebody else's idea of how to spice your alcohol.

Mind you, what you gain by losing the "gah: waaaaaay too much clove!" front you lose by gaining the "must select correct sake" one. Get the wrong sake over room temperature and... blergh.

edited 10th Aug '14 11:31:00 AM by Euodiachloris

Sake...shudder. Like sherry but so much worse. Horrid stuff - one of the few aspects of my visits to Japan I've actively detested. Japan makes excellent beer, though.

I really enjoyed cream sherry. You mostly hear about dry sherry, but I prefer sweeter drinks.

Also, sake is technically beer, since rice is a grain.

edited 10th Aug '14 12:15:17 PM by TParadox

Not terribly keen on Japanese beer. Their whisky, though, is delicious.

I have tried but I cannot like gin-and-tonics or margaritas.

Cider is so good for a sore throat. Of course, so is warm mead, but one of the two is very hard to find here.

@Leradny: I had hot sake with sushi for my twenty-first birthday, actually. Good times.

Today I tasted a bottle of my second homebrew (a Belgian Strong Dark Ale; my first brew was a hoppy APA — more or less decent, for a first try, but nothing to write home about) and I was pleasantly surprised.

It really mellowed out a lot in the bottle, a month ago that batch had an unpleasantly "hot" alcoholic taste but now it is completely gone. Now, if I may say so myself, it's really good, I like it better than most beers I ever bought. The taste of the caramel I made and added after the boil is just noticeable enough to make things interesting, and it meshes well with the somewhat fruity taste of the Citra hops, and the head is way better than that of my first brew (perhaps it's because I used some wheat this time? I heard that it helps with head retention).

I'm planning to let the rest of the batch age until about Christmas: it'll take some effort to forget about them until then, but it should pay off handsomely when I open them at last.

edited 11th Sep '14 9:48:35 AM by Carciofus

Ah. The whole "willpower problem".

Did somebody say...Belgian beer?

Behold, the (fermented) fruits of my trip to Bruges!◊

Looks great!

I'm currently in England; and, despite my moralizing in the other thread, yesterday I went and had a glass of Harveys Sussex Best Bitter. Not bad, not bad at all — perhaps a little sweeter than I'm used to, but very drinkable.

It was weird that the place that sold it advertised beer and food but for some reason did not sell food after 6PM: it's no big deal, but I was not expecting that. I suppose it's because of some sort of regulation?

That's the reverse of a lot of laws I've encountered. Many places in this country make it illegal to sell alcohol on Sundays, in Texas it's illegal to sell them in stores from ten or midnight (not sure which) until 6 AM, and I've been to bars that only start declining entry to under-21s after 10.

Not particularly. It depends on the pub. You get solid drinking-only pubs (at most, packets of crisps and bar snacks) all the way to family-orientated ones with all-day food service. <shrugs>

Also, top-notch gastro-pubs aka "restaurants that happen to be rather decent waterholes" or "waterholes that do a really good line in food". But, they will have set hours of service for food. Which will depend on the landlord: the sound advice for first-timers is always to phone ahead to make sure what the times are — or, if you're lucky, find their homepage (not all pubs have learned about this internet thing, let alone update their site enough if they have).

Well, the internet pubs have and do. Obviously.

Pubs: they're... complex.

edited 16th Sep '14 12:14:31 PM by Euodiachloris

Ah, I see. Thanks!

Oh, by the way — any suggestions for interesting beers I should give a try to, while I'm in South England?

edited 16th Sep '14 12:14:10 PM by Carciofus

South England: home of Bishop's Finger of Shepherd Neame fame: you mustn't leave the UK before giving their range a sample!

Or, how's about anything from Wychwood? My personal favourites include the various Hobgoblins. Their range is often seasonal, and I haven't been disappointed once.

Or... hmmmm: can't remember how Southern Badger is. Give me a tick... Yup, Badger: try Tanglefoot, if you can get hold of it (you should be able to).

But, if in doubt, the best rule of thumb is: find a local barfly. Ask him/ her what they would recommend. There are a lot of microbreweries dotted about with excellent ales, so keeping tabs is very hard work. Guest Ales at the bar are always worth taking a gamble with: you will lose some of the time... but, that's half the fun!

edited 17th Sep '14 7:33:20 PM by Euodiachloris