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The El Malpais joven/blanco, taken as shots, is one of my favorites. Helluva mescal for helluva price. Fuego! Fuego!

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"By the fig, the olive..." Surat Al-Teen, Mecca 95:1"

GI BCS on tap at Dirty Nellies in Palatine today! $9 a snifter.

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my food shots

Shot of Antique straight Kentucky bourbon 86 proof from a decanter, bottled in 1969.

You're damn right. It was literally half the price of the rest of the mezcals at Binny's, and is fantastic. And surprisingly versatile.

This evening, I had a hankering for a mezcal-based cocktail again, but was in the kitchen didn't feel like walking to the bar in the front room (major first world problem, I know), so I mixed some things I was in the mood for with some things that were within arms' reach, and stumbled ass-backwards onto a winner:



Watermelon Mezcal Something-or-other:
1oz white rum, muddled with enough watermelon to yield about 2.5oz of liquid once forced through a strainer
1oz reposado mezcal
0.5oz fresh lime juice
5 drops Bittercube Jamaican #2 bitters
A splash of simple syrup (only because our watermelon wasn't all that sweet)
A small pinch of salt (I used Himalayan pink)

Shake with ice, strain into an ice-filled lowball, crack some black pepper on top. Drink it on an empty stomach, then make another one, splash rummy watermelon pulp all over the counter, forget to add the salt, the bitters, and the simple syrup, then wonder why it doesn't taste nearly as good as the first one.

Dogfish Festina Peche! http://www.dogfish.com/brews-spirits/th ... -peche.htm
This is a near perfect summer beer IMO.

Picked up some bombers of She Wolf last night at Half Acre and my oh my is that a tasty beer.

It has a silky smooth texture and color similar to a belgian. But the initial flavor reminds me of Zombie Dust and the finishing notes remind me of a not quite as bitter Daisy Cutter. Very interesting flavor profile and texture imo.

They still have some bombers left today but they won't last too long I don't think.

Light (?) and stormy: 3-year Rhum Barbancourt, lime juice, Maine Root ginger brew. Cool, refreshing drink. Yum! And so easy!

An Imperial Schwartz, which is a bourbon barrel aged vanilla porter. If you haven't had this, it's a must. They only have a small amount left. Definitely worth a try if you happened to be in Flossmoor and stop by the brewery.

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"Skin that smoke wagon and see what happens..."
- Wyatt Earp, Tombstone

Had an impromptu dinner party last night with some beer / wine friends and the star was the
2011 Black Tuesday


the beer flight was stellar last night!

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my food shots

Wow! My kind of dinner party!

When can I get into your beer cellar?

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Chicago Craft Beer Week!

Looks like a great night to me!

Am I crazy that I didn't really like the Bourbon County? I had it this past saturday night at Goose Island, it seemed way too sweet to me.

I made a great drink the other night I discovered in Esquire called the Industry Sour. Equal parts fernet branca, green chartreuse, lime, and simple made a very tasty cocktail. I was starting to regret my purchase of fernet branca as I didn't love most the drinks I've made with it but this drink made me glad to have it. I can definitely see making a lot more of these in the future. Very simple to make and very complex.

I wouldn't say that you're crazy. BCS is probably the most barrel-forward stout I've had and, yeah, you're going to get a lot of vanilla, toffee, sticky sweet notes on the nose and the taste. Nothing wrong with you if you don't like it! I would suggest picking up a 4-pack while they're still laying around and letting them sit for at least a year -- I think it will really make a huge difference. Flavors are going to mellow out a great deal and become a little more rounded. Personally, if I'm drinking a barrel-aged stout, I want to taste that barrel -- so something so barrel-forward as BCS is just music to my ears.

As to what I'm drinking tonight -- and my apologies, no pictures -- it's this year's vintage of Bourbon County Stout Coffee (bottled 11/12/12). Holy crap... so much coffee on the nose/aroma. Maybe a little too much, but... but no, just enough. Carbonation is really low, though -- like, on the second glass, there was none. Not even the teensy-tiny bubbles you might see around the edge of the glass. Still very tasty, even if the MSRP this year went up to ~$20/bottle. If you haven't found a bottle yet.... well, it's probably too late now; look for it on draft, maybe?

Though I will say that compared to getting bottles of Cherry Rye, Coffee was pretty easy to get. Good lord, I don't think we've seen a release like Cherry Rye since CBS from Founders; and yet the lack of Cherry Rye feels much more brutal. I know I pounded a lot of pavement looking for Cherry Rye and couldn't get a single bottle. The kicker, so to speak, is that I'm pretty sure I wouldn't like it -- and yet, yeah, I still want a bottle (or 2!). I'm contemplating trading away one of my remaining bottles of Bourbon County Vanilla or King Henry but I know I like those, so... Blerg.

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best,
dan

With just a little bit of footwork I've managed to find a few bottles of Coffee, but Cherry seems totally MIA. If people have been selling the Coffee for $80 (nuts, I say), I've seen a few bottles of Cherry going for $200 (more nuts, I say).

BTW, as recently as Thursday night I hit a spot that had a four-pack of BCS, a few bottles of BCS Coffee, and a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle Lot B, so this stuff is still out there. I joked to my wife that were I the second market type, selling the PVW alone would fund the haul, and then some. Though personally, I think the second market on this stuff is insane and makes me uncomfortable. I've heard stories of people selling their slots for KBS day at massively inflated prices to people in the back of the line. That's just uncool.

I agree with you, but to play Devil's Advocate those prices are so high because crazy people are willing to spend that much.

Have you had previous vintages of the coffee as well? If so, how would you say this year compares? I'm curious as to how the different choice of beans effects the beer. I've had the La Tortuga coffee from Intelligentsia before and loved it, so I'm definitely looking forward to this one.

As for me, I was lucky enough to be able to buy 2 coffee and 2 cherry rye this week. I'm thinking of drinking one of each fresh and then trying them again with a little age on them to see how they compare.

Planning on getting to these tonight or early next week

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Compared to previous years, the La Tortuga version is, I think, a little more coffee-forward. Or, at least, it's brighter and... sharper? If that makes sense? But is that from the actual beans or a change in how they brew it? I don't know -- I'm skeptical that different beans make much of a difference (just like how I'm skeptical that different bourbon barrels, with some notable exceptions, don't make a difference, either). I believe that they brewed the coffee cold and then added it -- but, again, I don't know if that's new for this year or just how they've always done it.

I wouldn't sit on it too long, either. I've also read that the brewers really want those bottles of Coffee finished within 2 months. I wound up sitting on a bottle from the 2010 release for about 2 years and the coffee was all but gone. Just a coffee grounds-type bitterness on the nose. Up to a year, though, I think the coffee is still very noticeable (and enjoyable!) but if you have 2, I'd definitely open one sooner rather than later just to get a sense of what the brewers intended.

I've been hearing about bottles of Cherry Rye showing up at some restaurants/bars (Hopleaf and Haymarket -- I'd guess Revolution, too, and probably Publican or PQM). $41 at Haymarket, though, which is in line with on-premise mark-ups but still a bit high for me. I'm going to mix some Madame Rose with the regular BCS and pretend that it's Wild Cherry Rye.

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best,
dan

I totally get the buyer's market issue. What's too bad is that because of that, I wouldn't feel comfortable, say, selling any bottle at cost, because I would not want the bottle to go to someone who is just going to flip it for profit. Similarly, I would not want to reveal (at least publicly) stores or sources that have bottles, because I wouldn't want the collector hordes descending on it and cleaning it out. The free market is fair, as far as that goes, but the flipside is that it screws with the equilibrium to such an extent that it seems unfair.

I was really excited about the search for a cherry, but not only has that been fruitless, I may have over-cherried with last summer's Founders. (That's me turning into a cherry, a la Willy Wonka).

Interesting, thanks for the advice. I generally like my coffee-forward stouts (such as Bell's Java stout) as fresh as possible, but I wasn't sure if the bourbon characteristics would influence this at all. I'm planning on sharing one in a couple weeks on my birthday (big number 22 haha!) with my Dad.

Heads up that there appear to be a couple of dozen cases of the BCS currently at the South Loop Binny's. $21 a 4-pack.

Hey Folks! I worked on the BCS Coffee Stout (I work for Intelligentsia and try to help out with all the beer projects. ) this year and I can say with 100% certainty that different coffees dramatically change the profile of the beer. They all tend to taste pretty good (The heat from the alcohol and all the other stuff going on w/the beer assures that.), but the coffees really do present themselves very differently. We tried 4 variations w/the team from Goose before deciding on the Tortuga, a few weeks later we had coffee farmers visit from 20 different countries and John from Goose was gracious enough to brew up 6 different variants using different coffees! I have to admit, I was a little shocked how different each one was - I'm never sure how much actual coffee character (besides the typical aggressive chocolate/caramel/bitter coffee notes) cuts through that massive beer.

Sorry to hijack the thread! Some photos from that tour here, including a great shot of Don Fabio Caballero, the guy who produces the La Tortuga coffee from Honduras. He was really stoked to visit and thrilled about the way Goose chooses to spend a bit more for super high quality, Single Origin coffee for their beers.
http://ecw.intelligentsiacoffee.com/blog/day-1-goose-island-brewery-tour/

Also, the carbonation in coffee beers is usually quite a bit lower because the small amount of natural plant fat in coffee (lipids) kills carbonation.

CHEERS!

Thanks for chiming in jmc! That's really interesting stuff. I was always curious how they decided which specific coffee beans to use for a beer like this. I would have loved to try the 4 different coffee variations side-by-side. Of course, you can do something similar with the different vintages of the Bourbon County Coffee Stout, but it isn't a perfect experiment due to the aging. Great pictures, as well!

Echoing wjb302, thank you, JMC, for the additional commentary! Very interesting to hear, too, about the lipids working against carbonation so much. Never knew that - like Jesse Pinkman once said, "Yeah, science!"

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best,
dan

My first Negroni with Carpano Antica Sweet Vermouth WOW, so good!

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sundrop diet with huge amounts of Citrus Vodka.
Wife is on a rampage, this allows me to live.

Those new, 375-ml bottles actually make a great thing even greater. It's a much more workable size for home use. The larger bottles are actually 1-liter and they get pruney way before I can work through them.

=R=

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I just wanna live until I gotta die. I know I ain't perfect but God knows I try. --Todd Snider

Twitter: ronniesuburban

Exactly! Never bought it due to it's size.

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i found the 375l. size bottles of carpano antica at the south loop binnys last week. i don't believe it's available everywhere- i had to call around to find it. if you like a negroni with the CA you might try a boulevardier. griffin, one of the terrific bartenders at scofflaw, shared his recipe and it's delicious: 2 parts bourbon, 1 part CA, 1/2 part campari (though i've found aperol also works well). i believe a boulevardier is kind of a subset of a negroni.

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"the only things money can't buy are true love and homegrown tomatoes" (guy clark)