Head to Head: Alcoholic Root Beer! Not Your Father’s vs. Rowdy
Two makes a trend for us today, with a duo of alcoholic root beers hitting the market at the same time, one from La Crosse, Wisconsin-based Small Town Brewery, the other from Stevens Point, Wisconsin-based Berghoff. Both are not root beer soda with alcohol added but rather flavored beers/malt liquors with the spices integrated into the…
Review: Alaskan Brewing Company Imperial India Pale Ale and Pumpkin Ale
Two new brews from Alaskan — another large format IPA in the Pilot Series and, of course, a new, seasonal Pumpkin Ale. Thoughts follow. Alaskan Brewing Company Imperial India Pale Ale – This new Pilot Series offering pours a dusky light brown. Crisp and plenty bitter, it’s got loads of freshly baked bread plus a…
Maker’s Mark Launches Avant Garde Single Barrel Program
Big news for Maker’s Mark fans today: A new Private Barrel program will let you create bespoke Maker’s — but it goes beyond letting you pick a barrel. Maker’s is going to let you choose the exact type(s) of wood to be used as extra staves in a finishing barrel where your chosen whiskey will…
Review: Bib & Tucker Small Batch Bourbon 6 Years Old (2015)
A newer part of the 35 Maple Street collection, Bib & Tucker is sourced bourbon from Bardstown, Kentucky (sorry, Indiana!), in barrel for 6 years. No mashbill information is available. The whiskey cuts a frontier style on the nose, hot and loaded with lumber notes, cut with vanilla and some rye-driven spice. The body follows…
Review: 2013 Sequoia Grove Chardonnay Napa Valley
This latest release from Napa’s Sequoia Grove is classic, buttery Chardonnay, offering an archetypal vanilla-apple core. It features an ample body with plenty of length, but there’s not much in the way of nuance from start to finish. The back end is a bit too lingering with sweetness, that vanilla component lingering for the long…
Review: Santera Tequila, Complete Lineup
Santera is a new Highlands-based tequila, 100% blue agave, and bottled in an understated, classy decanter. We tried all three standard expressions. Thoughts on each follow. All are 80 proof. Available in New York (for now). Santera Tequila Blanco – Unaged. Modest, but present, agave character is backed by earthy, stony, and flint-like notes. Some…
Review: Jameson Wild Sloe Berry Bitters
Unveiled for Tales of the Cocktail 2015, Jameson released its first-ever bitters, taking them to an unexpected and exotic place: the sloe berry. The sloe berry is primarily known — OK, exclusively known — for its use in sloe gin. Here, Jameson blends up sloe berry distillate, Jameson whiskey, a mix of bittering agents that includes…
Review: Mister Katz’s Rock & Rye
New York Distilling produces a number of craft spirits, including this Rock & Rye, which takes the company’s own young rye whiskey and blends it with rock candy sugar, sour cherries, cinnamon, and citrus. It’s both a balanced and flavorful spirit, with those cherries and cinnamon notes both strong on the nose and the palate. The body…
