It was inevitable. If there was a special Deadpool Aviation Gin bottle then there was going to be a Wolverine one as well. This will probably be hard to find and harder to find both.
Now, where is the Wrexham bottle?
Red and Now Yellow
Book Review – Love & Whiskey
I love hidden stories of history being brought back into the light and Love & Whiskey by Fawn Weaver does that while also showing how Uncle Nearest Whiskey came to life.
It is quite a tale. A distiller lost to history who is rediscovered and in a very short amount of time becomes the namesake for a new whiskey from people who would normally not be in the whiskey business.
After finishing the book, my first thought was how did Weaver have the energy and time to do all this? She read about Nathan “Nearest” Green then flew to Tennessee and from there Uncle Nearest was born. First as a book idea and then as a whiskey. She and her husband then had to learn the place and the people and create something that was a true value add to the community. All the while getting the needed funding and being very careful to not step on the toes of Jack Daniels and the behemoth Brown Forman too much.
This book easily straddles the past and future. It is a propulsive read with short chapters that keep you reading just one more. What struck me was how well Weaver built cultural capital with the people of Lynchburg and how quick she was to make decisions on creating a scholarship fund and creating a tourist attraction distillery.
I also came away real hungry for food from some of the restaurants in town. With an Uncle Nearest Cocktail as well.
and maybe there will be another chapter…
Bâtonnage
So, yes, this is not beer related or cider or spirits. In fact it is my fourth pick of alcohol but the really short video does show how one little thing can be done that really changes the flavor of your favorite drink. Plus the name is real cool too.
Review – Livewire Cocktails
Time to check out a new to me, bartender focused canned cocktail brand, LiveWire.
I started with Golden God who looks like a Doctor Who villain and has apricot, green tea and elderflower on top of Rye Whiskey and Brandy. GG pours white with a hint of taupe to it. Sweetened green tea hits the nose first. Both sweet and tart in flavor. Apricot reigns supreme here which leads me to believe that the brandy is a bigger player than rye. The brandy does show up after the apricot plays out. Not bad if a touch too sweet.
Tropipop is big, big on that candied coconut flavor. The pineapple comes in behind but is a clear second fiddle to the coconut. Coming in third is the rum. Which makes sense when you find out that Casa Magdelena from Guatemala is a blanco / light rum. I might have added a third flavor to tone down the coconut.
The winner is Golden God but both were a little too light on the abv and too sweet overall.
Old Potrero 12-Year Christmas Spirit Whiskey
I have never been one of those Christmas in July people or Christmas in November person either. But this Anchor adjacent 12-year California Whiskey has certainly turned my head based just on that nostalgic Our Special Ale style label. Bet it tastes good to if the quality is near their gin.
Beer Cocktail Day – Guinness Punch
Well, I will need to try this during the summer….
A few years back, I was instructing at a summer school on the culinary history of the Caribbean. During the interactive workshop, students devised food rituals, summoned significant food memories, and crafted a Caribbean cocktail. They chose to make a Guinness Punch—a favorite on several British-colonized islands. This mixture of strong stout beer, creamy, sweet condensed milk, and a hint of cinnamon and nutmeg is a delightful fusion of flavors.
Guinness was known to me through both sides of my family. The Irish connection was apparent since Guinness was founded in Dublin, but why was it also known from the Caribbean side? As it turns out, in the seventeenth century, the Irish were engaged as contract laborers on plantations in the Caribbean. Due to their substantial presence in the area, Guinness decided to export beer there—with more alcohol and hops, ensuring it stayed good during the transatlantic journey. When I learned this, I felt a strong sense of connection: the unlikely merging of two clashing cultures had given rise to something beautiful and tasty and no, I’m not referring to myself!
Ingredients
- 1 bottle (500 ml or roughly 2 cups) of Guinness West Indies Porter
- 1 cup (250 ml) (oat) milk
- 1/2 cup (120 ml) of condensed milk
- ⅛ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ⅛ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg, plus extra
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons overproof rum (high-alcohol rum; optional)
- ice cubes, to serve
Instructions
- Place all ingredients, except the ice cubes, into a blender and pulse several times. Serve in glasses with ice cubes and a sprinkle of freshly grated nutmeg on top.
Heard this on the Good Food podcast. Which I highly suggest listening to.
Beer Cocktail Day – Beer Jello Shots
I have never been a “shots” type of drinker. I prefer to analyze and enjoy the first few sips of beer or a spirit before then relaxing into it. The whole down the gullet thing never appealed. Candy-fying it with jello seems even weirder still but for those that love their gelatin and alcohol mixed, there is…..THIS.
Family # 2
I will be heading north to Portland in July and one spot that is on the must stop list is the new Portland location of Salem-based craft cider producer La Familia Cider Company The Hawthorne location, formerly the Portland Cider House, opened on June 5th.
There will be 29 taps that will pour 15 ciders from La Familia and other producers, and the remaining 14 taps will serve craft beers. There will also be Cider cocktails plus a small menu featuring Mexican food made from locally sourced ingredients.
Really, F It
Back to the world of two favorite C’s of mine, cider and charity as 2 Towns Ciderhouse has announced the release return of its F*Cancer branded cider which is in collaboration with fellow Oregonians Silver Moon Brewing and Crux Fermentation Project. This years label design brings some names into the frame which is a cool way to honor and applaud.
Book Review – Dusty Booze by Aaron Goldfarb
As, maybe?, promised. Here is my review of Aaron Goldfarb’s Dusty Booze.
By the time you reach the end of Dusty Booze, you will not at all be surprised that there are people who collect famous distillery water. Not a rare spirit, no, but vintage waters.
This fascinating look into one corner of the collectors niche has two things going for it. One is the through spine about a collection of liquor from an old Howard Hughes office that had sat untouched for years. Second is the inclusion of a how to or what to collect if you wanted to start “dusty hunting”.
Now I should go back and explain what that term means. It is the art of finding old and therefore probably dusty bottles of vintage spirits. And some of these are old. From different eras of distillery ownership to grains grown using older agricultural methods to the type of heat source used.
It is about connecting a liquid time capsule of the time that the bottle was filled and the years preceding that it was aging.
This book is filled with characters. But the one drawback of the book was that most of them were of the same ilk. A person with a collectors mentality, who had time and money to be able to spend thousands of dollars to buy, for example, eight thousand miniature liquor bottles and then pick out the five hundred that interested them and selling the rest. Each individual dusty hunter seemed, well not at all individualistic.
But on other hand the diversity in the spirits was wide. Cognac, gin and even creme de menthe were covered. And the world was covered too. Scotland to Japan to Germany and the U.S. all played a part in this craze.
Goldfarb is funny and personal and sarcastic throughout the book and that side-eye style works really well to puncture the fact that this is a book about booze.
And that Howard Hughes office. Well, it was in the same building as the long gone Hollywood Brewery.