Kevin's Watch

Goin' Back to Houston, as sung by someone with an intimate familiarity with alcohol.

Savor Dam wrote:Goin' Back to Houston, as sung by someone with an intimate familiarity with alcohol.

great song.

sgt.null wrote:

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.

Yes - I'm starting to like the sound of Houston for some reason

So, I was watching the local morning news today...reasonably local, about 90 minutes away...
And found out there is a pub, this place:
merlinsrest.com/

The owner said they have 270-something single-malt Scot and 60-something single-malt Irish, plus blends and such...
I think I might have to go there.

I think you should, and you should take a cigar with you as well.

I may well have told this story above, but I onse visited a similar establishment in Oban in Scotland where the landlord was so in enthusiastic about his collection that he spent most of the night literally giving me tots of his favorites!

This post is an attempt to give you a heads up about a great bourbon that is reasonably priced and soon to be extinct. Elmer T. Lee is arguably the father of single barrel bourbon. Google and read about him if you like.

The reason I have brought this up is that Buffalo Trace Distillery has a bourbon named after him. The bottle even portrays his image. He agreed to let the distillery market him on the condition that he hand picked the barrels to be bottled. Elmer T. Lee died last summer. You cannot find his bourbon in liquor stores in Kentucky. It's sold out. Why? At the retail stores it's a $32-35 bottle that compares with $70 bottles. In fact, go to Craigslist Louisville or Lexington, KY and it's $60-65 a bottle.

How can you benefit? Well, outside of Kentucky, it's still fairly plentiful. I bought a case for $427 including tax yesterday. I was not in KY and the place had 4 cases. I wish I had bought two.

Bourbon vs. Scotch. No contest - a good scotch every day! Are you with me?

peter wrote:Bourbon vs. Scotch. No contest - a good scotch every day! Are you with me?

Not every day. I rate Scotch higher. But Bourbon is nice, [a recent--relatively-- addition for me...I hadn't paid attention to bourbon for much of my life] and the better choice in some contexts.

In fairness I can't pretend to be an expert on bourbon whisky - I've only dunk it a limited number of times and have actually really enjoyed it when I have. Similarly with rye whiskey, which is I think even less well represented in the UK; I think I've only had it on one occasion, but remember it being very soft, and highly palatable, almost herby in it's flavour.

peter wrote: Similarly with rye whiskey, which is I think even less well represented in the UK;

Rye had a tough century and more...but it's making a bit of a comeback lately.
It's even made some inroads into beer. Several small and medium size brewers are producing...I don't know if any of the big boys are yet.

I don't like whiskey. sickest I ever got from drinking was on Cutty Sark. the one other time I got sick drinking was with vodka. but that was likely food poisoning.

not bad for some 30 years of drinking. to only have been sick twice, no?

Cutty Sark is some horrible shit. Drink a proper scotch sarge!



Life is too short for the cheap shit.

I had some Frank Sinatra Jack Daniel's about a month ago. A friend had bought it, I would never pay for whiskey, not being a fan myself.

It was pretty smooth, and it was a whiskey.

Those old Irish can brew a good drop o' whiskey as well. Bushmills and Jamesons are the two best known ,but interestingly there seems to be a whole crop of new Irish distillers coming 'online' in the next year or two[check out the Wikipedia page on Irish Whiskey]. The Dingle Distillery [est. 2012 - so whisky has not yet had time to reach it's statutory 3 years ageing in the barrel to be marketed yet] is the one that interests me most. I know the Dingle Penninsula and if anybody knows how to pull up a good hard liquor it's those boys!

Doc Hexnihilo wrote:Cutty Sark is some horrible shit. Drink a proper scotch sarge!

Ahh...Cutty. Intimately involved in a number of my [and several cousins] early experiments with drunkenness. There was always some left over in my Grandmother's basement after the Uncles and older cousins Friday night poker games.
Or Old Grand-Dad. [which I thought, but had to check, cuz of peter, while still a bourbon has fairly high rye.

Hah!
So, a link showed up in my Facebook feed today. Thought it appropriate-ish.

www.buzzfeed.com/rachelysanders/bourbon ... g?bffbfood

Vraith, very appropriate-ish post. Thank you. Def gonna make some of those dishes.

Having tried many whiskeys, I prefer bourbon. Some scotches are pretty good. Irish whiskeys are the worst and lowest class of this family with Canadian rye a close second.

Many serious whiskey drinkers consider Crown a drink for pussies. Ignore them, they have esteem issues. Crown is not one of my faves, in fact, I never buy it, but there is nothing wrong with it- it's very smooth- weak finish- which is what I suppose people dislike- and many people do like.

Julie likes Crown. I can take it or leave it.

I love vodka. black Russians being my favorite drink. but I will drink vodka with just about any fruit juice. have not tried grape juice yet. keep meaning to.

tequila is a favorite as well. drink that straight.

I used to enjoy rum when I was younger, but haven't touched it in years. have a bottle of Jamaican somewhere around the house.

I have been known to enjoy gin and juice as well.

sgt.null wrote:Julie likes Crown. I can take it or leave it.

I love vodka. black Russians being my favorite drink. but I will drink vodka with just about any fruit juice. have not tried grape juice yet. keep meaning to.

tequila is a favorite as well. drink that straight.

I used to enjoy rum when I was younger, but haven't touched it in years. have a bottle of Jamaican somewhere around the house.

I have been known to enjoy gin and juice as well.

Vodka is an extremely good mixer... and you don't have to shell out a wad of cash to get something "good" (i.e. passable).

What's a good tequila? I've never had one which didn't make Pabst Blue Ribbon seem like the best drink ever in comparison.

I like gin, but I haven't had any since the Gin War. There were no winners in the Gin War.