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I read an article that says crystal can be made with a metal oxide that's not lead, so looks like crystal doesn't strictly have to be leaded. Having 24% lead oxide (the EU regulation) just sounds bad news to me. Anyway, I visited a local whisky bar and had Suntory Reserve and AO. I liked both, but I gravitated towards Reserve more. It just feels more refined and I prefer the nose. There was a bottle of Royal on display but I was told that was the owner's personal bottle lol They served them on what seemed like legit Glencairn glasses (not like mine which are markedly less in make) and it was very nice. They also had a whisky water dropper which was new to me, but I used it (if a bit imprecisely, but just adding a bit of water seemed to improve the whisky).
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Sep 16, 2022 17:45
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Dr. Lunchables posted:No, I mean to say that by definition crystal must have lead. It’s not crystal if it doesn’t have lead. It’s just a finished glass.
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Sep 17, 2022 20:26
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A square is a rectangle.
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Sep 17, 2022 20:59
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gwrtheyrn posted:What you're calling crystal is also just glass. With lead. And it's not like that term has one definition just like there's not just one definition for whiskey in the world I'm fairly sure the definition of of crystal is lead glass. I guess you can extend it to glass with other metal oxides, but that I think is a later addition?
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Sep 18, 2022 00:51
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I’m sure crystal glasses all have planar shear faces instead of being amorphous fluid blobs Smash one and see how cool it looks
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Sep 18, 2022 01:03
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I lucked upon a couple bottles I've never had before: Basil Hayden Toast and Dickel 15yo single barrel. The Basil Hayden Toast is fine. Like a couple other bourbons out there, I don't understand why it's such a hype bottle. I especially can't see why people would pay like $150 for it. It's nutty and vanilla-y and pleasant, just not remarkable. I can see having this in a flask while camping or backpacking. This would be a nice sip in the evening, especially since it's lower proof and I don't wanna get hammered in the woods anymore. It's perfectly decent at the $45 I paid for it. The Dickel 15 year single barrel is  Yowza, this is exactly what I look for in an old-rear end bourbon. It's thick and funky, with lots of old forest and earth, but finishes really pleasant with spice and caramel. This is one of the better pours I've had in ages.
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Sep 18, 2022 22:07
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Heads-up to those interested that the Spirit Co is doing preorders on their advent calendars. This'll be my third year, I did the scotch twice and now looking at the Americana. It's fun and not a bad time to buy given the USD/GBP trend not a terrible time to buy if you're in the US either.
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Sep 29, 2022 04:12
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Carillon posted:Heads-up to those interested that the Spirit Co is doing preorders on their advent calendars. This'll be my third year, I did the scotch twice and now looking at the Americana. It's fun and not a bad time to buy given the USD/GBP trend not a terrible time to buy if you're in the US either.  just took care of the majority of christmas for me and my SO. The Americana looks like a pretty okay price for the pours listed.
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Sep 29, 2022 13:55
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Been looking at the higher end of popular Scotch blends. JW Gold NAS seems meh, but Platinum or 18 seems well-liked (are they the same? There is a JW 18 and a JW Platinum Label with an 18-year age statement). The general consensus on Blue is it's overpriced for what it is. How about the one in the fancy bottle, the XR 21? Now on the Chivas side, looks like they have many variations of the 12 where they age it in different barrels. Hmm. The 15 seems new but doesn't seem to have a lot of fans. The 18 is cheap for something with an 18-year age statement? Any goons enjoy any of these?
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Sep 30, 2022 01:35
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I really liked platinum, but it’s been about six years since I had it. It seemed much closer to its worth than blue.
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Sep 30, 2022 01:36
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Lily Catts posted:Been looking at the higher end of popular Scotch blends. JW Gold NAS seems meh, but Platinum or 18 seems well-liked (are they the same? There is a JW 18 and a JW Platinum Label with an 18-year age statement). The general consensus on Blue is it's overpriced for what it is. How about the one in the fancy bottle, the XR 21? None of those are worth the price of admission IMO. I haven't tried the platinum, but the 18 was very nice and silky smooth, just not very good, iykwim. Just... Inoffensive. Imo the absolute best out of the JW lineup is the green label 15yo, which is a blended malt, meaning it only contains malt whisky from pot stills and no grain whisky from column stills. So idk if you're looking to expand beyond the popular stuff or not, but here are a couple of suggestions if you do: Some more off the beaten path blends that, imo, offer good value are Antiquary (12 and 21 come to mind), Black Bull (12yo and the 30yo if you can find it (unlikely)). Anything that Compass Box makes is excellent, their Great King Street blends are really good, and their lineup of blended malts is great (orchards house, spice tree, peat monster). They also do a blended grain whisky that's called Hedonism which has some very old grain whisky in it, and it's fantastic. Their one-offs are often stellar too, but come at a high price. Usually it's worth it. They have one now called Ultramarine which I think is a nod to JW blue label but I haven't dared to look at prices yet. Another good place to took for blended malt is Douglas Laing, their remarkable regional malts are very good. Rock Island, Timorous Beastie, Scallywag, etc. They often do age-stated expressions of these which are very good.
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Sep 30, 2022 06:11
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spankmeister posted:None of those are worth the price of admission IMO. I haven't tried the platinum, but the 18 was very nice and silky smooth, just not very good, iykwim. Just... Inoffensive. I looked it up and turns out that Platinum was renamed to 18 after all, so it's just the same thing. I have always heard good things about Green Label but it's getting harder and harder to find in stores because it's been discontinued, but I'll keep an eye on it! What's the difference between malt and grain whisky, anyway? Is one superior in quality to the other?
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Oct 1, 2022 07:32
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Lily Catts posted:I have always heard good things about Green Label but it's getting harder and harder to find in stores because it's been discontinued, but I'll keep an eye on it! Unless it's been discontinued again, it's back in the market. They discontinued it for a few years, but brought it back after that.
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Oct 1, 2022 08:02
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Lily Catts posted:I looked it up and turns out that Platinum was renamed to 18 after all, so it's just the same thing. I have always heard good things about Green Label but it's getting harder and harder to find in stores because it's been discontinued, but I'll keep an eye on it! Green Label should still exist, they just don’t make a lot of it. Malt whisky is whisky made entirely from malted barley. (A “single malt” whisky is a whisky made entirely from malted barley at one single distillery.) Grain whisky is made at least partially from other grains besides malted barley, though malted barley can still be included too. Malts are more expensive to make because malted barley is more expensive than, for example, corn or wheat. So typically malt whiskies are nicer than grain whiskies, but there are excellent grain whiskies and bad malts do exist.
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Oct 1, 2022 14:18
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This might be a stupid question but I just realized I never cleared this up. When blended whiskies use grain spirits, it's talking about grain spirits being added to the malt distillate before it goes into the barrel right? I hope they're not blending aged malt whisky with white cornshine after the fact and just making up the difference with colouring, although it tastes like that sometimes. This saves you money and barrel space so I don't doubt a distiller in some country in the world does this, but I hope this doesn't go on in the UK & US.
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Oct 1, 2022 14:42
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Scythe posted:Green Label should still exist, they just don’t make a lot of it. This is correct, additionally, grain whisky is distilled in continuous or column stills, which are much more efficient because as the name implies they run continuously, but they tend to strip more flavor away. Malt whisky is distilled in copper pot stills exclusively, which retain more flavor, but are far less efficient and more time consuming to use. Grain whisky can be very good, but as a rule of thumb, malt whisky is better. Blended whisky is usually mostly cheap grain whisky blended together with more expensive malt whisky to give it more flavor, body and complexity.
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Oct 1, 2022 14:57
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A Jupiter posted:This might be a stupid question but I just realized I never cleared this up. I could be wrong here but my impression is that the vast majority of blending is done after aging, for exactly the cost reasons you specified, including in the US & UK, whether or not what you're adding in to the malt is neutral grain spirit or something nicer (e.g. a single grain whisky, etc.). Blending after aging saves you money and also enables you to be more consistent in flavor/texture/etc. The effects of aging are somewhat unpredictable even for master distillers, so I believe the earliest blends came about as an attempt to create consistent enough whiskies you could build a brand around (and of course it being cheaper is a nice bonus, from the distiller's perspective).
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Oct 1, 2022 14:58
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A Jupiter posted:This might be a stupid question but I just realized I never cleared this up. Blending is done after aging. There usually is a short period where the different whiskies are "married" together, but they usually aren't aged together. In Scotch whisky it's not allowed to blend fresh distillate together with older whisky, all whiskies in the blend need to be at least three years old. spankmeister fucked around with this message at 15:25 on Oct 1, 2022 |
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Oct 1, 2022 15:22
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One thing to add to this is some blenders will make a blend and age that blend further in yet another barrel as a double oak or barrel finish They can also legally designate these as single barrel (at least in the US) as long as it all came from one finishing barrel This creates weird situations where you have single barrel bourbons finished in a cognac cask with 500 bottle yields
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Oct 1, 2022 17:06
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Dugal's Five Rivers Canadian Whisky - $39.95 - Wonderful happenstance. I was walking around the LCBO a couple of months ago and picked this one up on a whim, thinking the worst that could happen is it ends up as a mixer. Has the same caramel, vanilla, and fruity notes you'd expect from non-rye Canadian whisky, but it has a smooth finish and light hints of oak. There was also something else in it, and it took me a while to realize that I get hints of juniper or pine or something, because it's unlike any other whisky I've tasted. I'm not saying it's all that great, but it's definitely worth finding for $40 if you ever find it. I didn't know it at the time, but they advertise Punjabi spices, which are present but definitely subtle.
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Oct 11, 2022 17:21
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So that lovely PBR white dog is down to like $5 a bottle at my Total Wine & More so I thought I’d give this a try. Out of the bottle it was pretty hard to drink- super abrasive and seems more like an industrial solvent than a whiskey I broke apart a 1x8” charred oak spiral and let the wood do it’s thing Color sequence: Day 0: totally clear Day 1: healthy person’s piss Day 2: dehydrated person’s piss Day 3+: critically ill person’s piss It’s been in since Friday and I figure I’ll leave it in for another week or so. It’s still kind of harsh but actually pretty drinkable now and has some discernible caramel and dark fruit notes.  tldr: lol nice self-oak dumbass Bouillon Rube fucked around with this message at 18:49 on Oct 11, 2022 |
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Oct 11, 2022 18:40
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I just got a bottle of New Riff 6 year malted rye, and I like it... but my brain can't figure out wtf I'm tasting specifically. Like I'm not great at elaborate tasting notes anyway, but this is throwing me hard. Uh...powdered sugar, dried orange, herbal tea? I just made that poo poo up, I really can't parse this because it's way different from every other rye I've had.
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Oct 13, 2022 01:34
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Any of this stuff worth trying to buy? VA ABC barrel picks Oct 17 Bulleit Bourbon Single Barrel Courage & Conviction Single Cask – Bourbon Finish Courage & Conviction Single Cask – PX Sherry Finish Elijah Craig Private Barrel – Barrel Proof Four Roses Private Selection Barrel Strength George Remus Single Barrel Collection Heaven’s Door Cask Strength Single Barrel Bourbon Myer’s Single Barrel Select Rum Russell’s Reserve Single Barrel Bourbon Woodford Reserve Personal Selection Barrel Yellowstone Hand Picked Collection 102 Proof Yellowstone Hand Picked Collection 109 Proof Yellowstone Hand Picked Collection 115 Proof
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Oct 13, 2022 21:01
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Comb Your Beard posted:Any of this stuff worth trying to buy? VA ABC barrel picks Oct 17
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Oct 13, 2022 21:12
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Four Roses Single Barrel/Barrel Proof private picks are usually pretty stellar, same with the Elijah Craig SBBP. With prices being where they are, I feel like good rums and good agave spirits could also be sleeper hits, that Myers single barrel rum could be good if the price is right.
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Oct 13, 2022 21:13
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I bought a bottle of Foursquare 2009 a few months ago and I'm about ready for another one. I hope rums don't become the new bourbon, because this poo poo is too delicious
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Oct 13, 2022 21:19
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Infinite Karma posted:Four Roses Single Barrel/Barrel Proof private picks are usually pretty stellar, same with the Elijah Craig SBBP. Those are the ones that stand out to me too FWIW
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Oct 13, 2022 22:01
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GD_American posted:I bought a bottle of Foursquare 2009 a few months ago and I'm about ready for another one. I hope rums don't become the new bourbon, because this poo poo is too delicious Can anyone recommend a good rum <$30? I always drank poo poo like Sailor Jerry and Kraken in college…which don’t really taste like anything. But after trying a bottle of Stolen Overproof a few months ago I’m kind of interesting in revisiting rum.
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Oct 14, 2022 03:53
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Bouillon Rube posted:Can anyone recommend a good rum <$30? What do you like? There are a ton of good rums under or around $30, but rum is a wide category, maybe the widest. Do you want clean or grassy or funky? Do you want clear and light or sweet and amber or woody and aged?
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Oct 14, 2022 04:02
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Scythe posted:woody and aged? This for sure
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Oct 14, 2022 14:01
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Has anyone tried buying Japanese whiskey recently? The Yen is like 30% weaker against the Dollar than any other point in our lifetimes.
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Oct 14, 2022 14:58
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Bouillon Rube posted:This for sure I like Diplomatico Riserva Exclusiva.
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Oct 15, 2022 22:13
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In no particular order: El Dorado 12 year old Doorly's 12 year old Bacardi 8 añejo (not bad for a huge brand) Appleton 12 Smith & Cross (funky jamaican!) I don't have a great handle on US pricing but these should all be around that mark
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Oct 15, 2022 22:31
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Josh Lyman posted:Has anyone tried buying Japanese whiskey recently? The Yen is like 30% weaker against the Dollar than any other point in our lifetimes. AFAIK nobody is making their Japanese whisky prices cheaper because of this. You'd have to convert USD to JPY and buy from Japan for this strategy to work.
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Oct 16, 2022 02:23
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sean10mm posted:I like Diplomatico Riserva Exclusiva. I need to grab a fresh bottle of this, drat
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Oct 16, 2022 02:31
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Feeling a little irrationally drawn to the Lagavulin 12 bottles at the store (2021 and 2022 releases). Any experience? I’ve had and enjoyed the 16.
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Nov 2, 2022 02:30
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Nuurd posted:Feeling a little irrationally drawn to the Lagavulin 12 bottles at the store (2021 and 2022 releases). Not with the more recent ones (but the new label design has had me eye it for acquisition more than once) Generally the older ones I've had were a brasher, smokier, higher proof version of the 16
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Nov 2, 2022 03:07
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Deceptive Thinker posted:Not with the more recent ones (but the new label design has had me eye it for acquisition more than once) Hm, never had an older one. Good brash, or bad brash? Higher proof and smokier seem good on their own, especially to open on a special occasion.
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Nov 2, 2022 03:40
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Nuurd posted:Hm, never had an older one. Good brash, or bad brash? Higher proof and smokier seem good on their own, especially to open on a special occasion. Just that the flavors are more "in your face" rather than subtle
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Nov 2, 2022 11:55
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somehow haven't posted in here at all despite my increasing obsession with whisky. the current bottles on my desk are laphroaig 10 (pretty great but not as good as ardbeg 10 imho) and four roses small batch (delicious and ludicrously affordable, maybe the most cherry-forward bourbon i've tried so far).
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Nov 3, 2022 12:07
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