The FYM Bar - All Alcohol Discussion Here

[Angela Harlem]

Originally Posted by RedRocksU2

Well, we did open a couple of Dom Pérignon bottles to celebrate the purchase of a business, just a few days ago.

But nothing compared to you.

sounds exciting! what kind of business? aren't you in sales or something?

[dan_smee]

Originally Posted by The Sad Punk

Come to SA?

ive been. ive tried the best of barossa, margaret river, all over sa, canberra, and the hunter is by far and away the best :P

[toscano]

Originally Posted by Diemen

Bringing this thread back from the dead.

I had the chance to indulge myself (and my family) with lots of tasty alcohol over Christmas break with the family. I had a $40 bottle of Belgian beer that was simply amazing (Scaldis Prestige - my brother in law got it from one of his clients), I tried a bottle of Caol Ila 17 year Cask Strength single malt that was just amazing - smoky & peaty but so refined, with the smell of smoke and the sea all in one. I also had the chance to compare Macallan 12 to Glenlivet 12. There is no comparison - Macallan hands down. Glenlivet tastes pretty unrefined and a bit gasolinish in comparison.

And then there was quite a bit of wine to be had:
Rosenblum 2005 Rockpile Road Zinfandel -
Lucien Albrecht 2006 Gewurztraminer Reserve (had this one at Thanksgiving, too)
Porter Creek 2005 Reserve Pinot Noir
Hartford 2005 Land's Edge Pinot Noir
2005 Zabrin Atteca Armas (Spanish Garnacha) - holy crap this was good!
1998 Merryvale Profile - My sister bought a case of this when her first daughter was born. Very tasty stuff.
2005 Chateau Doisy-Vedrines Sauternes - if you've never had Sauternes I highly recommend it - it's a white dessert wine from Bordeaux that is just amazing. Probably my favorite drink of the holidays.

Amazingly no one got drunk (or hungover), but there were quite a few of us who were pleasantly buzzed for much of the evening!

And just today I've had the chance to compare the Macallan to a brand new bottle of Lagavulin 16 (it's New Year's eve, and I deserve something special! ). As nice as the Macallan is, the Lagavulin is on an entirely different level. Much more complex - smoky, spicy, peaty but oh so smooth and balanced. Reminds me a lot of the Caol Ila, actually (both come from the same region). Turns out I'm not afraid of peatiness.

Anybody else indulge in some good stuff over the holidays?

If you like Peaty try Dalwhinnie 12, reasonably priced too.

Hadn't seen Caol Ila 17, I have a 12 which I recently took out 3rd mortgage to buy.

For Macallan lovers like myself, I'd also recommend indulging/splurging on a Glenmorangie Quinta Ruben (formerly Glenmorangie Port Wood finish which I discovered in my Dad's liquor cabinet over Xmas in Scotland, he can't really drink hard liquor anymore, so I did the honors for him)

[RedRocksU2]

Originally Posted by Angela Harlem

sounds exciting! what kind of business? aren't you in sales or something?

oops, just read this...sorry for not responding Angie.

My wife and her sister purchased an appraisal business.

[Angela Harlem]

Originally Posted by RedRocksU2

oops, just read this...sorry for not responding Angie.

My wife and her sister purchased an appraisal business.

No probs! Best of luck to you all with the new business!

[Dreadsox]

I just was given a bottle of Laphroiag Quarter Cask.....OH MY GOD

[Diemen]

Ooh! I'm still loving my Lagavulin.

I just found the most kickass wine store just a few blocks from my house. Not the biggest selection, but what's there is carefully chosen and the prices are outstanding. Plus there are dollar tastings on saturdays, and if there's some left over he'll let you taste for free on Sunday (as I found out ).

[toscano]

Originally Posted by Dreadsox

I just was given a bottle of Laphroiag Quarter Cask.....OH MY GOD

That's quite a benefactor you have, that's some goooooooooood stuff !

[Dreadsox]

No ice will be touching this baby!

[purpleoscar]

Had a beer comparison over two days:

Good beer:











Worst beers (IMHO):


(Seemed like a bad version of Heineken).


(The bottle smelt like skunk afterwards. On the bottle it said "Thessaloniki industrial area". That can't be good. )


I'm looking for the supposed "best beer":



I wonder if anyone has tried this one?

[GirlsAloudFan]

Easily the best beer I've ever had. Delirium Nocturnum. Go.

[Diemen]

Nice resurrection - I was thinking about bringing this back myself...

I have had that last one, oscar. It is quite tasty indeed, though I don't know if I'd call it the best beer in the world. One of my personal favorites is Gulden Draak:



Loads of caramel, honey and cinnamon flavor, without being overly sweet or too thick. Good call on the Delirium, though, GAF.


On the scotch front, my roommate got me a bottle of Talisker (10 year) for my birthday:



I finally opened it up yesterday. I prefer the Lagavulin by a fairly large margin, but the Talisker is still a nice scotch. Much spicier, with some bitterness and tons of smoke and peat, but isn't as well-balanced or complex as the Lagavulin. I may try cutting it with a little water to see what that does to it, as straight the heat/spice is a little too dominant.

[purpleoscar]

Man some of these beers are hard to find. I'll guess I have to lurk in eBay to find them.

These guys had a blind taste test and felt the Rochefort 10 was by far the best.

http://www.beerpal.com/forums/topic....,blind,tasting

[Vincent Vega]

House of the 131 beers.

You know where to find me when I visit Hamburg.

[Diemen]

Originally Posted by purpleoscar

Man some of these beers are hard to find. I'll guess I have to lurk in eBay to find them.

These guys had a blind taste test and felt the Rochefort 10 was by far the best.

http://www.beerpal.com/forums/topic....,blind,tasting

Rochefort is awesome stuff - definitely worth seeking out if you can get it. The Rochefort 8 is also really, really good.

[purpleoscar]

Originally Posted by Vincent Vega

House of the 131 beers.

You know where to find me when I visit Hamburg.

Yeah Europeans have good taste.

[purpleoscar]

Originally Posted by Diemen

Rochefort is awesome stuff - definitely worth seeking out if you can get it. The Rochefort 8 is also really, really good.

I'm going to have to do a lot of hunting because these monks don't make it easy:

Rochefort Brewery - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The brewery is located inside the Abbey of Notre-Dame de Saint-Rémy, near the town of Rochefort, and has been brewing beer since 1595. There are approximately 15 monks resident at the monastery. The monks are very secretive about the brewing process, and the brewery is not open to the public, therefore much of the information publicly known about the brewery comes from only a few sources.

Like many strong Belgian beers, those produced at Rochefort age well and can be cellared for at least five years whilst maintaining quality. Each of these beers is brewed to the same recipe, with the only difference being the alcoholic content. The water for the beers is drawn from a well located inside the monastery walls.

As with all other trappist breweries, the beer is only sold in order to financially support the monastery and some other good causes. The monks will not increase production based on demand or profit motives, but only enough to support themselves, resulting in a fairly limited supply of beer availability. In practice, there is currently no shortage through regular channels.

Westvleteren Brewery - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The current production is 4750 hl per year, and this is not expected to be increased.

Aside from the brewery itself, the only other official sale point for the beer is the abbey-owned In de Vrede, a cafe and visitor's centre opposite the abbey. All beers can be bought there for immediate consumption or take-away, depending on availability (however, prices are higher than at the abbey). Often there is no beer available at the shop. The shop also sells cheeses made at the abbey, yeast tabs (not yeast to make beer but dead yeast for health) and other Trappist products.

Buyers of the beer receive a receipt with Niet verder verkopen ("Do not resell") printed on it. The abbey is very much against resale of their beer, and it is their wish that the beer is only commercially available at the two official sale points. To this end, any Westvleteren beer which is sold anywhere else in the world is grey market beer, as no wholesalers or pubs are supplied with the beer, and the abbey is actively working to eliminate the illicit sales.

These monks man! If they produced more they could build more monestaries.

[Diemen]

Do you have Beverages and More in Canada?

Oops, just checked - only in california. That's a shame, they're a great store for alcohol of all sorts.

[VintagePunk]

In Canada, for the most part, you can only buy beer and liquor in specially licensed stores - rules differ minimally from province to province, but are very similar for the most part. For instance, in Ontario, you can only buy liquor, wine and some beer in government owned liquor stores, and you can buy beer only in beer stores. There are a few privately owned wine stores, though.

Alas, no walking into a convenience store at 2 am to buy a 6 pack, or grabbing some beer in the grocery store for us.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquor_store#Canada

[AliEnvy]

Originally Posted by VintagePunk

Alas, no walking into a convenience store at 2 am to buy a 6 pack, or grabbing some beer in the grocery store for us.

Unless you're in la belle province. That's definitely one of the things I miss about living in Montreal.