Review: Shock Top Honey Bourbon Cask Wheat Beer
This new Belgian-style unfiltered wheat ale from Shock Top is brewed with honey and caramel malt, then is aged on “bourbon cask staves” (so, not in casks). What’s wrong with that? Just about everything. The nose offers vague honey intertwined with hospital notes. The body is thin. And the palate is simply bad: Melted Bit-O-Honey…
Original Recipe: Hot Buttered Holiday
Hiram Walker recently sent out to a bunch of drink writers and other industry types a package of three mystery products. The goal: Make a cocktail out of whatever you get, and see which one gets the most “likes” on the company’s Facebook page. This turned out to be tougher than I thought. I received…
Review: Deschutes Brewery Fresh-Squeezed IPA (2014)
This otherwise traditional is stuffed with fresh mandarin orange character, literally to the point of overflowing, courtesy of its generous Citra and Mosaic hops dosage. (As it warms up, the fruitiness becomes even stronger… hence the name.) The finish is plenty bitter and surprisingly drying. Overall this is a fun beer, but the orange character…
Review: Wines from Merryvale and Starmont, 2014 Releases
New wines from Napa’s Merryvale Vineyards and its second label, Starmont. Thoughts follow. 2012 Starmont Chardonnay Carneros – Typical of California Chardonnay. Oaked, but not overly so, with a big, buttery core that leads to restrained notes of pineapple, green apples, and vanilla caramels. Better with food. B / $22 2012 Starmont Pinot Noir Carneros – Simplistic…
Recipes for National Iced Coffee Day
April 21st has been designated by those who designate such things as National Iced Coffee Day. One of these days we’ll design a calendar with all of these holidays for reference (unless someone already has, in which case please point us in that direction). As an alternative to the usual Frapuccino, we present a couple…
Review: NV Monmousseau Cremant de Loire
When is Champagne not Champagne? When it’s Cremant, sparkling wine that’s made in the same style as Champagne, but elsewhere in France. Cremant d’Alsace, from the mountainous region near Germany, is the best known Cremant-producing area, but the Loire Valley makes it too. Cremant de Loire became an official AOC in 1975, and these wines are…
Book Review: The Best Craft Cocktails
This is the kind of cocktail book that’s fun for everyone. Novices can flip through and look at the pictures (nearly every drink is shown in full color), and pros can get inspiration from the largely unique concoctions on offer. In The Best Craft Cocktails, Jeremy LeBlanc and Christine Dionese offer 75 recipes. That’s not…
Review: Novo Fogo Cachaca – Silver, Barrel-Aged, and Antiquado Cocktail Kit
Most cachaca is barely palatable if you don’t dump a ton of lime and sugar into it to make a caipirinha, but Novo Fogo is clearly focused on quality. Using organic ingredients, the distillery produces both a silver and a barrel-aged version of its spirits (the latter is really the best way to experience this…
