Kevin's Watch

I'm interested in the Japanese whiskys as they have compared very favorably with scotch in international tastings. I hear they are quite expensive though. Thanks for the feedback, I'll have to try Highland Park at the next opportunity. I looked it up and found out it was the only whisky to ever score 100 at a tasting.

Julie wanted to try limoncello. i'm thinking I will like it better with time. and that on a hot day, sitting outside near dusk it will be very refreshing. the tartness of the lemons was a surprise.

we would love to drink wine more often, but I usually only like wines after the second bottle. not good form on most occasions.

I love black Russians and decided on a whim to add the almond milk. (Julie has banned us from cow's milk for health.) very nice, the sweetness of the almond milk really stands out. using Stoli. which I think may be my favorite vodka. I used to drink Absolute, but kind of got over the appeal.

I prefer drinks with only one or two mixes, and don't really like sweet drinks. I have a bottle of Jamaican rum on my desk that has to be a good seven years since I last opened it. I mean to get to it one of these days.

and to be honest I am just as likely to drink a bottle of tequila. but vodka stands as my absolute favorite. I need to find some ginger beer so I can try a Moscow Mule.

last time I had gin and juice I loved it. Julie likes crown, me not so much.

and I love beer. a good dark, foreign beer. the darker the better. Julie says if you can walk across a vat of it, that's my beer. and whenever I get a draught, Julie has to take the first sip. house rules. the local German place has some outstanding beers on tap. and we are fortunate to have many fine English pubs in Houston. awesome beer and some damn fine food.

now I want a good pint...

When you finally make your way here, Sarge, you and Julie will be treated to the Black Raven, our local brewpup where you can have a variety of quite dark pints (or a sampler board to see what suits without having to down quite so many pints). Nice selection of paler ales, ciders and wines to satisfy Julie as well.

sd - it's a date. I had heard the northwest was lousy with great beer, .

Savor Dam wrote:Nice selection of paler ales, ciders and wines to satisfy Julie as well.

They didn't have cider the last time I was there. Have they added?

Menolly wrote:

Savor Dam wrote:Nice selection of paler ales, ciders and wines to satisfy Julie as well.

They didn't have cider the last time I was there. Have they added?

I have some hard cider in the fridge.

Vraith wrote:that's nifty!

I tend towards "rich" and smokey.

I'm not a whiskey drinker at all. On the extremely rare occasion, I might have a little Laphroaig.

--A

"Claret is the liquor for boys, Port for men, but he who would aspire to be a hero must drink Brandy!" [Samuel Johnson].

Speaking as a hardened drinker of no few years experience I think I have to go with Johnson on this one. I probably know most about Gin - I make a half decent Gin Fizz and have tried every recommended proportion for Gin Martini from 1:1 to pouring the gin and then whispering "dry vermouth" over the glass. [Churchill's recipie?]. Plymouth Gin, distilled only in Plymouth [by law] and coming in around 40% is nice, but not dry enough for me. Tanqueray, Bombay Saphire, Greenalls (nice, this one) - what can you say. I'm not keen on thone they recommend you drink with cucumber, what is is - ?????? Finally - it's true what they say. Drink lot's of Gin every day for a few days and most likely by the end you will be suicidal.

What do they call gin in the UK? Mother's ruin or something like that?

I suspect that's archaic now. It sounds like something from the gin craze of the 18th century.

You'd have to ask a Brit I guess, but I don't think I've ever heard it referred to as that in contemporary speech.

--A

thinking on Thursday while in Houston maybe stopping at the one of the English pubs and hoisting a couple pints...

and maybe getting Julie to buy me more Vodka.

You still hear the expression used here, but rarely. Yes, it refered to the 'gin-shops' of the industrial revolution era where women (and men) performing menial, filthy and often dangerous work would pour out of their jobs (post 12 hour shifts) and straight into the hovels where gin was sold so cheaply that oblivion could be purchased for a few meagre pence. They then fell out of the gin-shop, into their filthy ill-ventilated shacks (in Cornwall, on the very edges of the tin-mine slopes where the worked), slept it off for 6 hours before the whole cycle began again. [Wesley, travelling through the St Agness region of Cornwall noted the squalid shacks and shuttered gin-shops amongst the smoking vents and stacks of the mines, and said it was the closest thing to Hell he had ever seen.]

Is beer not ordinarily sold in pints in the States Sarge? I had a feeling that I could buy pints in both New Orleans and New York [the only two parts I have visited].

peter wrote: Is beer not ordinarily sold in pints in the States Sarge? I had a feeling that I could buy pints in both New Orleans and New York [the only two parts I have visited].

Drafts [or draught, or "on tap" if you prefer] at bars can usually be had by pint. Depending on where you are, sometimes the default is smaller [about 12 ounces], but almost every place has pint available.
And depending on where you are, there are lots of size options [I think Applebee's has a 23 ouncer?...a few places I've been, you can even get great big steins, or even those German boots.]

Vraith wrote:Drafts [or draught, or "on tap" if you prefer] at bars can usually be had by pint. Depending on where you are, sometimes the default is smaller [about 12 ounces], but almost every place has pint available.
And depending on where you are, there are lots of size options [I think Applebee's has a 23 ouncer?...a few places I've been, you can even get great big steins, or even those German boots.]

A half yard or yard is always fun for those who indulge, as well.

peter - for a pint I have to pop over to lake Jackson - the Worsthause is a fine German restaurant.

after that, it has to be Houston.

Menolly wrote:

Vraith wrote:Drafts [or draught, or "on tap" if you prefer] at bars can usually be had by pint. Depending on where you are, sometimes the default is smaller [about 12 ounces], but almost every place has pint available.
And depending on where you are, there are lots of size options [I think Applebee's has a 23 ouncer?...a few places I've been, you can even get great big steins, or even those German boots.]

A half yard or yard is always fun for those who indulge, as well.

I don't recall ever seeing one of them in the States...so you have inspired me to go on a quest.
[or perhaps start a movement...as a public service, of course.
"Every American has a Right to a Yard."...though my last one failed, all those years ago, campaigning to get U.S. McDonald's to carry beer like the European [[or at least the German]] ones did]

Vraith wrote:

Menolly wrote:

Vraith wrote:Drafts [or draught, or "on tap" if you prefer] at bars can usually be had by pint. Depending on where you are, sometimes the default is smaller [about 12 ounces], but almost every place has pint available.
And depending on where you are, there are lots of size options [I think Applebee's has a 23 ouncer?...a few places I've been, you can even get great big steins, or even those German boots.]

A half yard or yard is always fun for those who indulge, as well.

I don't recall ever seeing one of them in the States...so you have inspired me to go on a quest.
[or perhaps start a movement...as a public service, of course.
"Every American has a Right to a Yard."...though my last one failed, all those years ago, campaigning to get U.S. McDonald's to carry beer like the European [[or at least the German]] ones did]

Well...

Admittedly, the only place I've seen them was the Irish pub at Universal Studios Orlando, but perhaps other Irish pubs offer them as well?

As in "Houston - We have a problem." Sarge?

peter wrote:As in "Houston - We have a problem." Sarge?

nope Houston has a large variety of pubs and restaurants that cater to foreign and microbrews. Houston is awash in good alcohol.