To Arthur!

[CovenantJr]

Beer = revolting. Guinness, more so.

I've seen you sipping a pint.

I drink Guinness occasionally, but I'm not a big beer drinker. I'm not much of a drinker at all, and when I do drink I prefer red wine or (much to the horror of most of my friends) gin.

[Orlion]

I prefer....gin.

Is there no god? I've never had gin before, but I've heard that it's pretty awful.

At least in Ohio, you can find Woodchuck in any Krogers and in some Wal-Marts. Also, I've seen on tap at bars. As far as taste (I think I've had the summer draft, but I'm not sure...it's was the red one) it's kinda like the alcoholic part of beer (no hops flavor or aspirin taste in mouth) and a taste of apple that gets more prominent the more you drink of it.

[wayfriend]

I like stout, although not Guiness particularly. What I did love back in the day was this stuff:



Still, no beer should go unraised.

Cheers, Arthur.

[aliantha]

If you like apple cider, Menolly, you will like this stuff

I do like apple cider, ali. Hard cider is slightly carbonated as well, right? Sort of like Martinelli's Sparkling Cider, but with an alcoholic content? I think I would really like that a lot.

Not as carbonated as sparkling cider, but yeah, I guess there's a little tingle there.

[Loredoctor]

Beer = revolting. Guinness, more so.

I've seen you sipping a pint.

I was doing it for the Queen and the United Kingdom. How much more British can one be than drinking London Pride in a pub right near Regents Park.

[[Syl]]

Not the biggest fan of Guinness, but in honor of the occasion, the proper pour. It should not look like a chocolate milkshake, especially not in an Irish pub, even if it was in Lisbon.

On the subject of cider, Woodpecker > Woodchuck > Granny Smith. Strongbow, if you can get it (English import, though Woodpecker on tap is almost as good) is my personal favorite, and pear ciders are an abomination.

As for faires, why are you people wasting good money on cider when you can have mead?!

[Menolly]

On the subject of cider, Woodpecker > Woodchuck > Granny Smith. Strongbow, if you can get it (English import, though Woodpecker on tap is almost as good) is my personal favorite, and pear ciders are an abomination.

*nodding*
Strongbow is one of the brands suggested to me by either Stone or Av, if not both. So far, it is nowhere to be found here. I tried a pear cider at a new-ish restaurant to Gator Town called BJ's, and I was not impressed. I am glad to hear hard cider is not reminiscent of it.

As for faires, why are you people wasting good money on cider when you can have mead?!

I haven't had cider at a faire, as it hasn't been offered. But a bottle of mead at a faire is a must have at the Hoggetowne Medieval Faire, for me anyway.

[Savor Dam]

Almost a year ago, in the Beer thread in the Galley,

Actually, I've never even had any good mead. I'd love to try some, maybe even make it. Ki hates beer, so maybe that's something I could make for her.

I, too, have yet to find a mead that impressed me. Any recommendations, Syl?

Actually, I suspect a lot of the beer hate upthread may trace back to the substandard mass-market swill that often passes for beer. That really is just as revolting as Lore and a host of others say it is...but that is not what I mean when I speak of beer. While I do not brew my own, as does Malik, we have in common an appreciation for craft beers. In my part of the world, I recommend Black Raven, Mac & Jack's, Full Sail, and Deschutes.

[Warmark]

Beer = revolting.

I could not agree more strongly.

I'll third that.

The horrible things some people on this board say....

[[Syl]]

Well, the only "mead" I've seen in the stores is actually just white wine with honey added. Similar to the fake plum wines - not entirely horrible by itself, but a pale comparison. Sadly, there aren't any national meaderies that I know of. Your best bet is to just google map search for meaderies in your state. You can even order it online in some states. The local wine stores may or may not have some information. Ren Faires are, of course, the easiest place to find some.

I don't recommend the flavored meads, generally, as the fruit extract is often added after fermentation and is like syrup in your coffee (more of a chick thing), unless you're talking about true melomels. If you're really into the hoppiness of beer, there are also metheglins.

How to drink mead is kind of tricky, too. The flavors change as its temperature changes, and not for the worse like wine often does. It reveals different complexities. Mead also depends a lot on what kind of honey is used to make it (clover (not usually recommended), orange blossom, etc.). And to complicate it even more, there are sparkling and nonsparkling meads. I prefer little to no carbonation, straight mead, slightly below room temp. YMMV.

Just as I avoided wine for years because I associated it with champagne and cab, mead is just as tricky (moreso, I'd say, but I tend to like different varieties of mead more than I do wine). Sadly, it's not as widely available, so...

If all else fails, you can always make your own. Now that my garage is starting to stay cool enough for fermentation, I think I'm going to start with this simple, but somewhat ghetto method.

[Menolly]

I don't recommend the flavored meads, generally, as the fruit extract is often added after fermentation and is like syrup in your coffee (more of a chick thing), unless you're talking about true melomels. If you're really into the hoppiness of beer, there are also metheglins.

How to drink mead is kind of tricky, too. The flavors change as its temperature changes, and not for the worse like wine often does. It reveals different complexities. Mead also depends a lot on what kind of honey is used to make it (clover (not usually recommended), orange blossom, etc.). And to complicate it even more, there are sparkling and nonsparkling meads. I prefer little to no carbonation, straight mead, slightly below room temp. YMMV.

Just as I avoided wine for years because I associated it with champagne and cab, mead is just as tricky (moreso, I'd say, but I tend to like different varieties of mead more than I do wine). Sadly, it's not as widely available, so...

If all else fails, you can always make your own. Now that my garage is starting to stay cool enough for fermentation, I think I'm going to start with this simple, but somewhat ghetto method.

*squirreling this away for cho's mead making Centaurs in Moonshine*

[aliantha]

That looks pretty darn easy, Syl. It's difficult to find mead hereabouts -- I needed some for an event a couple of months ago and had to go to three grocery stores to find a bottle. When I was in college, tho, there was a local winery that made a perfectly presentable mead that also had the virtue of being dirt cheap. Ah, Camelot Mead -- if only I could find you now....

BTW, I got the cider at the Potomac Celtic Festival, not the Rennfest. I don't think they were serving wine at all, but I could certainly be wrong about that....

[Cagliostro]

I worship at the Church of Guinness, and I missed it yesterday. Damn. Probably because I was alone with the <1 year old infant, and I had to wake up at 2am to go to work at 3am. But tonight we are getting together with friends, so I'll have to have double the amount of Guinness to make up for it.

There are a lot of meaderies around Colorado. There's a whole mead and wine area in western Colorado (around Grand Junction). I went to a wine festival there once and found myself in love with mead instead. I guess in that area, the fellers with the grapes are stingy, so for the people that were shut out of the business of wine making, they instead rebelled and started making mead. And I think that is where I had Camelot mead.
Boulder has a nice meadery as well, and someone I know used to work there. She still buys mead for gift giving occasions. And it always makes me happy.

Oops, I take it back. I haven't had Camelot mead, but I've been to this meadery. If you look at the names of their meads, you will see why I made that mistake.

[CovenantJr]

The best mead I've had so far is this one, which I tried with Nav and Gart at a beer festival in London.

On the subject of cider, Woodpecker > Woodchuck > Granny Smith. Strongbow, if you can get it (English import, though Woodpecker on tap is almost as good) is my personal favorite, and pear ciders are an abomination.

*nodding*
Strongbow is one of the brands suggested to me by either Stone or Av, if not both.

Ew. Strongbow is the Coke of cider. Very fizzy and not very apple-y, with a strong aftertaste of vomit. Seriously.

Lots of people like it though, and I do have it occasionally if I'm in a pub and don't want beer. It's the one cider that's guaranteed to be served in every pub, anywhere in Britain, ever.

[Menolly]

The best mead I've had so far is this one, which I tried with Nav and Gart at a beer festival in London.

On the subject of cider, Woodpecker > Woodchuck > Granny Smith. Strongbow, if you can get it (English import, though Woodpecker on tap is almost as good) is my personal favorite, and pear ciders are an abomination.

*nodding*
Strongbow is one of the brands suggested to me by either Stone or Av, if not both.

Ew. Strongbow is the Coke of cider. Very fizzy and not very apple-y, with a strong aftertaste of vomit. Seriously.

Which brand do you recommend I keep an eye out for, Cj?

[[Syl]]

Heh. Seeing as how that would compare to Miller Lite here, I can see the revulsion. That's also why I'm not the biggest fan of Woodchuck. It's not bad (unlike Granny Smith, though if the aplley-ness is your thing...), but it's often the only cider you'll find in the grocery store. I've only had Strongbow twice, once in Palma and once back in the States, so... But it's been the only cider that actually makes me feel like I'm drinking alcohol, and the only one that actually has something of a stout taste. I've put away most of a six pack of Woodchuck several times and felt nothing more than a full stomach. Which is strange, since I don't need (or want, generally) to drink that much beer and cider's alcohol content is higher.

Ah, and I was just at the grocery store. Saw a two-pack of Guinness with two porter glasses for five bucks and snagged them up.

[CovenantJr]

Personally, of the fairly easily available ciders, I'm inclined to favour Scrumpy Jack. It's not really scrumpy, despite the name. It's in the same sort of ballpark as Strongbow, but a little stronger and with a (to me) more pleasant flavour.

But it all comes down to personal preference really. Most of my Strongbow-swigging friends can't stand Scrumpy Jack. At the moment, the main rivals to Strongbow in pubs etc are Magners and Bulmers. They might be easier to find than Scrumpy Jack in the US. Maybe.

[Menolly]

Thanks, Cj!

[Avatar]

I prefer....gin.

Is there no god? I've never had gin before, but I've heard that it's pretty awful.

*shakes head* People have no taste. Now, I'll freely grant that gin on it's own is pretty awful. And there's no doubt that tonic, on it's own is almost equally awful. However, combine the two and a marvellous alchemy takes place...

( I drink it too. One of the few spirits I do drink in fact.)

Oh, and on the subject of mead, I've only ever had some Polish mead that friends brought for us, but it was awesome. And very very warming.

--A

[CovenantJr]

*shakes head* People have no taste. Now, I'll freely grant that gin on it's own is pretty awful. And there's no doubt that tonic, on it's own is almost equally awful. However, combine the two and a marvellous alchemy takes place...

A few years ago a colleague introduced me to orange juice as a mixer for gin. That's the way I usually drink it now.

I wouldn't drink gin straight (though I do like the way Bombay Sapphire smells).