Review: Drinking Hangar 24 Vinaceous and Chocolate Porter with Owner Ben Cook
We’ve covered the brews of Redlands, California-based Hangar 24 before, and recently owner Ben Cook (and his crew) descended on SF for San Francisco Beer Week to pour some beers and talk about what his growing brewery’s been up to. With 25 different beers made in 2012 (all available only in California; Las Vegas and…
Etch Your Own Flask… And Win One!
Hip flasks are a dime a dozen these days — but one you get to engrave yourself, with your favorite logo, initials, a picture of your kids, or whatnot, now that’s worth checking out. PersonalizedFlask.net may be a rather obvious name, but it’s a website that makes, well, personalized flasks. They are stainless steel items,…
Review: Jim Beam Signature Craft 12 Years Old
This past February a cadre of young, good-looking spirit scribes were assembled at Beam’s brand new Global Innovation Center, a $30 million compound with an aesthetic somewhere between a high-tech office and the Hall of Justice. Many new products were premiered for our consideration and tasting. However, the diamond in the rough which caught our…
Review: Black Velvet Toasted Caramel Canadian Whisky
A funny thing happens when I try to type “Canadian.” I always mistype “Candian” instead. Never has that been a more apropos typo than with Black Velvet’s Toasted Caramel Whisky. Flavored with a hefty dose of “natural toasted caramel flavor,” this sugar bomb is so dense with sugar it’s actually difficult to swallow it. The…
Review: Kirk and Sweeney Dominican Rum 12 Years Old
35 Maple Street — the California-based folks behind Uncle Val’s gin and Masterson’s rye whiskey — has turned its sights on yet another spirit: rum. Maple isn’t messing around with Kirk and Sweeney (the name refers to a rum-running schooner that worked the Caribbean in the Prohibition era), an intense Dominican rum with 12 years…
Review: Deerhammer Down Time Single Malt Whiskey
Take Deerhammer’s pot-distilled, 100% malted barley Whitewater whiskey and throw it in a new oak barrel (with heavy toast/light-medium char), and see what happens. This Colorado-based “hybrid” whiskey reportedly spends less than a year in half-size barrels, which creates a light-brown yet pleasant looking whiskey. The nose is intensely woody, hinting at sweetness but dominated…
Alcohol + Ice Cream = Book Reviews
It’s the last great frontier for alcohol: Frozen dessert treats. Booze is tricky in frozen desserts because it lowers the freezing temperature of whatever you add it to. A bottle of vodka in the freezer doesn’t freeze, even at 0 degrees Fahrenheit. Add it to ice cream the wrong way and you get more of…
Review: Michter’s US-1 Original Sour Mash Whiskey
Michter’s is the It Company of the American whiskey world right now, its from-the-ashes story bringing many fans forward to hear about its charms. Michter’s is a brand that dates waaaay back to 1753 but which went bankrupt in 1989. In 1990 the company was rescued and relaunched, and only in the last five years…
