Brewery Spotlight: Epic Brewing Company (Part II)
Continuing from our recent Brewery Spotlight, today we are rounding out the last few beers from Epic Brewing Company. Epic Brewing Hopulent IPA looks every much the part of an imperial IPA, with a dark amber body, snow white head, and cloudy appearance, but despite this and the name, this isn’t your run-of-the-mill hop bomb.…
Review: Flipflop Rum – Silver and Spiced
Best known for its ultra-affordable, thong-friendly wine series, Flipflop (or all-lowercased flipflop, as they write it) is now branching into rum, with two equally affordable sugar-based spirits. There’s not a lot of information on provenance available: They hail from “the Caribbean” and are four-times distilled, but that’s all the info provided. We tasted both of…
Review: Belvedere Intense Unfiltered 80 Vodka
Is “intense” something people normally want from their vodka? Made from single-estate Dankowskie Diamond rye in Poland, Belvedere distills this vodka four times then bottles it unfiltered for your happy consumption. (Note: There is also a Belvedere Intense that is filtered; but this version typically goes by the nickname of “Belvedere Unfiltered,” even though the…
Review: VnC Pre-Mixed Cocktails
Pre-mixed cocktails continue to grow in popularity. VnC, which is based in New Zealand, takes it to the ultimate conclusion: The cocktails not only have the alcohol already in them (in addition to natural juices), they’re packaged both in party size bottlings and in single serve versions, which we reviewed. Each 200ml cocktail comes in…
Review: Shock Top Lemon Shandy
From now until the end of July, our friends at Shock Top are offering this seasonal release, a classic Lemon Shandy reminiscent of the classic beer and lemonade combo. It’s not my favorite from this brewery: The base beer is a lightly spiced Belgian wheat brew, which is harmless enough with a bit of coriander…
Tasting Report: Wines of Howell Mountain 2012
The northernmost section of the Napa Valley AVA, Howell Mountain is literally the top of a mountain due east of St. Helena. (The AVA starts at 1400 feet, where the fog breaks, and goes on up to the top. Like most mountain AVAs, Howell Mountain is sunny and cool, with a level climate. The vast…
Review: Karlsson’s Gold Gammel Svensk Rod 2008 Single Vintage, Single Potato Vodka
I say Celina, Solist, and Sankta Thora. What comes to mind? If you said Nordic maritime vessels, you are unfortunately incorrect. The answer: They are all white potato varieties grown in Sweden – and used in the production of Karlsson’s Gold vodka. I reviewed Karlsson’s Gold early in my Drinkhacking career, and found it a…
Review: Milagro Tequila UNICO
Aiming to “redefine” the tequila world, Milagro is releasing a new joven tequila with an outrageous price tag. Just 1,200 bottles of UNICO have been made, starting with a “kitchen-distilled” base of white spirit produced with 13 kilos of agave per liter. This base is blended with aged stock (the details of which aren’t released),…
