This immediately made me check out my go-to mail-order liquor spot, Astor in NYC. They have listings for Octomore, but all out of stock 
However, their search tool brought up a comparison to Port Charlotte, so now I’m curious what you and other folk think of that.
I’ve had the Port Charlotte and remember it being… unrememberable. Not enough peat for my liking, despite it being billed as a peaty whiskey. The comparison is probably because they both have peat, much in the way that a Ferrari and a Honda both have engines.
Oh, I’ve forgotten about Caol Ila. Great bottle for the price.
Lagavulin 12 is delicious too, but hard to find as it’s a once a year release. I was excited for the Lagavulin 8 and bought 4 bottles of what turned out to be barely drinkable piss. Huge disappointment there.
Ardbeg U (I can never spell that one) is nice if you like a sherried cask, but for the comparable price I’d rather have the Corryvrecken.
Kilchoman is pretty decent for peated whiskies, but hard to find in my area and their latest stuff has been hit or miss. Drinkable but not worth the effort of hunting it down.
A tasting vid by YouTube Scot bartender Cara Devine (her channel “Behind the Bar” is worth a follow) led me to the website for Kirin’s distillery located in the shadow of Mt. Fuji. As it’s near the new Fuji Motorsports Museum at Fuji Speedway, this looks like it will fit my itinerary nicely.
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I was just watching an old episode of Gadget Man and they demonstrated a little sonoc beer foamer. Has anyone tried something like that, or an aerator of any kind for their beers?
The use of sparklers in the UK for beer is controversial and seems to be along similar lines; you use it to get a better-looking and better-smelling drink, but I’m not sure the use case is there if you actually like good beer. If you like lager or shit beer, it will probably be quite nice to have it always be properly foamy and feel like it’s freshly-pulled/poured.
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Ended up gifted six cans of this wreck the hoose juice. It’s very, very nice. Spicy, with cocoa overtones, and ferociously alcoholic.
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Oh, if you’re going to bring stouts into this thread, you’re speaking my language now. Had a couple of excellent stouts with lunch at a local microbrewery yesterday, but I had to keep to the 4.5% ABV ones (one oatmeal stout, one peanut butter stout) because I had to pick up my sons from school. No 11.5% ABV coconut macaroon stout for me … this time.
I’m lucky that this area has a couple of excellent small breweries, and there’s a very nice craft beer store in town that stocks a great variety.
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We have a Binny’s near me that has more microbrews than I could ever hope to try. I also like the stouts and am always looking for new flavors. I particularly like the nitro/brewed stouts, though sometimes some of them are too sweet for my liking.
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Brew York rarely disappoint. I keep getting interesting beers from them, and this is no different. Citra, Simcoe and Strata. Very, very drinkable.
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Had a guided tasting session from Cloudwater Brew last night and while they were busy launching a core range of solid, mid-range beers that are more likely to appeal to the common gentleman, the session was aimed at giving you access to their high-powered high-concept stuff that they’ve been doing recently with barrel aging, under a new program (and a new manager, Brian Hung).
Barrel-aged saison with lemon and rose, using a custom-made yeast from the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology. This produced something like “But what if a cider fucked a beer and the beer got pregnant.” in my mouth, with a very straightforward nose and taste, a solid all-rounder from start to finish, but also the most unexceptional of the beers. Just a perfectly good saison.
At a mere 11.4%, this stout was the sort of decadent drink you could add cream to, or have with vanilla ice cream, or do literally any sort of dessert-based activity and have the flavours complement each other. Aged in port, single malt, and bourbon barrels, it was absolutely ridiculous, multiple layers of dark flavour, and lots of staying power. I could sip this forever.
So this was a sour to stop anyone in their tracks, 1 kilo of apricots per litre, with an astringent nose that was totally unlike the rich sherbert taste, which frontloaded a bunch of apples before finishing on apricots. One of our group literally could not drink this, so I had his.
Turns out Chuckleberry isn’t that bloke from Police Academy. Braggot mead and Belgian tripel, then fruited with chuckleberry, this was perhaps the most easy-drinking, light, refreshing, energetic, and at this point in the evening I realised I was drunk. Perfect for summer, plenty of complexity from the mead/tripel, but constant fruit notes throughout.
Another stout for end times, rum and bourbon barrel aged, 10.7%, turns out tonka beans are tastier than Tonka toys, thick caramel and vanilla flavours layered over each other. I cannot emphasise how decadent this stout was. It was like having the height of the British Empire poured into your mouth by some dedicated manservant, whom your father assigned to you at birth.
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Their leading sales tagline, clearly. Demand royalties.
Also I’m jealous.
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I bought a bottle of Angel’s Envy bourbon for a family party and it was decidedly underwhelming. I had heard good things but found it to be fairly pedestrian. There was a hint of orange but I didn’t pick up on some of the other subtleties that were advertised. It is t bad, but I’m not going to be raving about it, either. Perhaps it is because I’ve been enjoying the more herbal Japanese whiskeys this summer, but Angel’s Envy was good, but not outstanding in any way.
On the other hand, I have been loving my bottle of Drumshambo gunpowder Irish gin. I don’t sip gin often but I wanted something light for a summer night and this gin delivers in spades. You’re hit with the juniper up front like with many gins but there is a fantastic citrus and vanilla finish. Highly recommended to any fans of gin.
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Yeah! I had some of that Drumshanbo at a gin tasting about a year ago, and it was great. I’ve been meaning to acquire a bottle.
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Drumshanbo mixes particularly well with grapefruit flavors. It makes a very interesting gin Paloma, for example. I have found it challenging to use in a Gibson, though. Not as versatile as a standard London dry perhaps, but great in citrusy cocktails that use gin.
Do you have some Japanese whisky recommendations?
Fully agreed. Everyone raved about it but I found it drinkable at best, nothing fantastic, and certainly not worth the price point at all. I was interested to try their rye but not after having the bourbon, and again, not at the ridiculous price point for which it sells.
There’s better out there for less - I’ve been enjoying the Penelope cask strength lately, and the Old Line American whisky cask strength is fantastic.
I only just started trying the Japanese whiskeys but I believe @OhBollox knows a bit about them. My favorite so far had been the Suntory Toki because it nailed what I was looking for - a good summer sip. Sure, I like a spicy rye, but they fit the winter months much better. The Toki is a rather herbal whisky that refreshes in a summer evening.
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Back on the booze theme, and I’ve just received rum supplies. The Botucal (Diplomatico as was) is a reliable go-to rum, while I like everything that Admiral Rodney produces. Yes, that sounds weird to me too. The Bristol bottling, a Panama rum matured in American oak, is the experiment here, and is interesting, starting out very round and sweet and ending dry and reminiscent of a moderately peaty Islay malt. Pleasantly surprising.
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