A Texas Prairie Fire has similar ingredients, but is served as a shot. It is tequilla, lime juice and four drops of hot sauce served in a salt rimmed shot glass. It really clears the sinuses.

Four cases of Spotted (AKA Besotted) Cow to celebrate Independence Day with my large, thirsty extended family. They were happy to see me at Woodman's in Kenosha last night and I was happy to see them well-stocked with New Glarus

Davooda

Great Lakes Sampler, 12 rack including 3 each of:

Dortmunder Gold
Eliot Ness
Burning River
Edmund Fitzgerald

Usually available at my Jewel.

Davooda wrote:Four cases of Spotted (AKA Besotted) Cow to celebrate Independence Day with my large, thirsty extended family. They were happy to see me at Woodman's in Kenosha last night and I was happy to see them well-stocked with New Glarus

Davooda

Woodman's is one of the best places I know to buy beer - an amazing selection of Wisconsin craft brews.

Miller Lite(still using up the beer from the pigroast
Cuervo tequila (ditto)

later ill switch to the High Life, and some Cosmos made with Tito's Handmade Vodka from Texas.

should be a good night.

this weekend:

North Coast Old Rasputin RIS (Very good and only $8.99)
Arcadia Ales Cereal Killer Barleywine
Hitachino (sp?) Cappaccino Stout

also @ kuma's today:

some kind of Abbey Ale (very good)
forget what else

very good beers lately, usually followed up my Maker's Mark Manhattans... too good, dang this thread!

Half Acre Daisy Cutter and New Holland Imperial Hatter at the Bad Apple today.



Soon to be drinking the new Half Acre/3 Floyds collaboration IPA, Shewolf.

Kir Royale. My first cocktail I ever had, and still my favorite.

Such a cool label. Growler of beer should last through the day tomorrow.

Eager to tap our first Corny keg of homebrew tomorrow--an American Pale Ale, naturally--all American two-row, and Cascade hops.

Last night, and in a few minutes today, cosmos with this vodka:




not bad for an amature:

I went to a party last night and was served a Beck Blaufrankisch (forgot the vintage), a "multi vintage" Szigeti sparkling gruner veltliner and a 2009 Berger gruner veltliner from 1 liter bottles. The blaufrankisch was a pleasure to drink and an excellent accompaniment to the smoked brisket and sausages served for dinner. Best served a bit chilled, it was akin to a very good cru beaujolais from a good vintage. The sparkler was an outstanding apertif and seemed to be the beverage of choice for those remaining and drinking after dinner. It was very dry and one of the better sparkling wines I have tried outside of Champagne. The liters of Berger gruner were a pleasure to consume. This is what "fun size" should be all about. Make sure you bring something that would open a beer bottle if you want to consume one of these.

All of these were acquired recently at Wine Discount on Elston for under $10 a bottle (with the exception of the Berger which was about $11 for a liter). I'm not sure how much is left at this time, bit if you'd like something delicious for under $10, these three are big winners.

That Berger is great!
I got some from LTB board member Craig B. at his shop in Arlington Heights

http://www.gcwines.net/

Felt like the heat demanded gin...so, an "Improved" Old Tom Cocktail

2 oz Ransom Old Tom Gin
1/4 oz Demerara Simple Syrup
1 barspoon Luxardo Maraschino
2 dashes St. George Absinthe
2 dashes Bittercube Lemon Tree Bitters (sub any lemon bitters)
1 dash Bittercube Bolivar Bitters (sub Angostura or Fee's Old Fashioned Aromatic bitters)

A lengthy stir, then strain. Expressed some lemon oil over the top.

Love the Ransom gin in the summer. Finished in Pinot Noir barrels, it has amazing depth of flavor with some rather unique spices for a gin, but it's still gin, and makes for very refreshing sipping.

cranberry juice and Tito's vodka, then the High Life to celebrate the boys moving into 1st place.

Sparkling Strawberry Lemonade - Made the lemonade on the tart side to balance out the sweet strawberries.

Five different Stone beers paired with dinner at the Publican, the most memorable of which (Saison du Buff) managed to evoke both St. Germain (elderflower) and Fernet (menthol/eucalyptus). The 14th Anniversary Imperial IPA was also very good.

taking it easy tonight, just some High Life lights. while watching the Sox.

last night was Herradura silver, High Life, Bud Light, etc, etc.. @ the Widepspread Panic Show.

"i could see the music"....

the wimperoo wrote:

I really enjoyed the She-Wolf over the July 4th weekend. Definitely more of a Half Acre beer than Three Floyds (which is to say not uber-hopped up), very refreshing and tasting great fresh from the conditioning tanks and into the bottle and into my glass.

Over the weekend, I opened up the last bomber I had and, wow, what a change (not necessarily a good one). In the two weeks or so since it was bottled, the citrus really shot to front along with a cloying sweetness and I found the balance completely out of whack. I still finished it, of course (it wasn't that bad), but I was surprised at how quickly and how drastically the flavors changed.

For those who are interested, Half Acre's next limited release should be on sale soon. From a tweet on July 16: HalfAcreBeer: Just tasted Freedom Of '78 Guava Wheat IPA out of the fermenter and it's rounding out to be just as strange as we were hoping. #weirdbeers (and the follow-up from later that day: HalfAcreBeer: @chicagogluttons maybe next Friday, but no one really knows. It's pleasantly batsh*t in this place.)

Goose Island (Clybourn) released an Imperial Black IPA last week and I enjoyed a glass or two of those quite a bit. There was also a new stout that was good -- nothing too exciting, really, but it seemed to be a solid, well-made stout (maybe a little high on the ABV at 6.5% for a basic stout). The collaboration beer with Paul Kahan, the Golden Jet (a Belgian-style Saison) was very good, too. I preferred it to the Bayless collaboration, Marisol, which I found to have an unpleasent bitterness like you get from tea that has been steeping for too long. They're going to be brewing a Black Wit soon that already has me intrigued.

danimalarkey wrote:Definitely more of a Half Acre beer than Three Floyds (which is to say not uber-hopped up),

Interesting. I love Half Acre and Thre Floyd's precisely because I think both of them are very generous with the hops in beers that should be that way. The Daisy Cutter, in particular, is very hoppy and, while I haven't had the "Double Daisy Cutter," I like the sound of this description on the Half Acre website: "there's enough hops to recede your gums".

Maybe it's just that Half Acre uses a different hop variety/blend? I think most every FFF beer has a very particular hop nose; while Half Acre is hoppy, as well, I find it more balanced. I can't tell Chinook from Cascade from Amarillo hops, and I'm guessing it's something of a trade secret what hops a brewery uses, but maybe others can pinpoint things a little more specifically.

Kennyz wrote:

danimalarkey wrote:Definitely more of a Half Acre beer than Three Floyds (which is to say not uber-hopped up),

IThe Daisy Cutter, in particular, is very hoppy and, while I haven't had the "Double Daisy Cutter," I like the sound of this description on the Half Acre website: "there's enough hops to recede your gums".

While the Daisy Cutter is hoppy, I don't find it unpleasant like I do many hoppy beers. The Double on the other hand I couldn't stand.

SSDD

Lugana San Benedetto from Zenato Vineyards in Italy. It seems to me that it has more character than your typical pinot grigio. Available at Binny's. It is a bit more expensive than average pinot grigio -- $11 or $12 a bottle.

My fav is Caesars.

I am going to go have one right now. I got busted with call tracking, be careful.

trying something new tonight

I think I like the other Goose Island Belgian-styled beers better

I'm gearing up for 1998 Gaja Costa Russi, Sori Tildin and Sori San Lorenzo Thursday night.

mhill95149 wrote:trying something new tonight
...Fleur...
I think I like the other Goose Island Belgian-styled beers better

I tried this at a tasting in a Whole Foods. They said it's the first of three planned Belgian Ales for the 2nd half of this year.

It's definitely more floral than the others and not something I could drink a lot of, but I enjoyed it. But, I agree, I'm still more likely to buy Sofie, Matilda, or Demolition (my favorite). I like that they're continuing the success they've had with these ales and putting out a broad spectrum of flavor. This brewery has come a long way from Honker's Ale.

TAC Quick with German wines:

2007 Kruger-Rumpf Binger Scharlachberg Spatlese
2003 J-J Christoffel Urziger Wurzgarten Riesling Auslese-3-Star
2007 Willi Schaefer Graacher Domprobst Spatlese

The residual sugar is a perfect foil to the heat in most of the dishes.

deesher wrote:TAC Quick with German wines:

2003 J-J Christoffel Urziger Wurzgarten Riesling Auslese-3-Star

Nice wine.... did you get it from PC in CA when they were selling it for something like $14?