Boozers and Winos unite!

[PeterL22]

Tito's is my Vodka of choice, loving the liquor lesson Peter.

Thanks George - as with Maggie, once I've tried it (Titos) I'll have a better idea what to recommend. However, you may recollect me banging on about Death's Door from Wisconsin - really suggest you try it!

[PeterL22]

Part 1 (of several) on vodka - Polish Vodka - because they are great guys, crazy, fun and seem to be happy with life!

So Polish vodka is traditionally made from rye - but, we all think of potato vodka when we think about Polish vodka!
Potato vodka is actually more expensive to produce than grain vodka. Fun fact, - Stobrawa potatoes (never heard of them myself) are favoured because they have a high starch content and ferment better!
First recorded use of Polish word wodka is in 1405 - so sorry guys they were drinking it before US was even thought of! Jumping on rapidly - missing out the bit where a king gave every Pole the right to make their own vodka (some still do it), to the beginning of 19th Century when they started using potatoes!
Polish vodkas were graded into three categories to reflect purity
"Luksusowy" = luxury (think Maggie or Vicky)
"Wyborowy" = choice (think PeterL)
"Zwykly" = standard (think DrD, Walt or George).
Some distilleries still use this classification.
In 1973, the Government set up Distilling Industry Enterprise "Polmos" - where the state owned distilleries were called Polmos followed by the town where they were located. To add a curve ball the state ensured all recipes and methods of production were shared so each Polmos could produce every type of Polish vodka - but some were better than others so clever drinkers had their own preferred Polmos.
Come the real revolution - Solidarity in the 90s; and in July 1999 and the 19 major producers were privatised and the good ones thrived and the less good didn't. However, there are now over 1000 different types of Polish vodka.
God bless the EU because as with Cornish Pasties, Champagne etc only vodka made in Poland can call itself Polish - either by use of English word Polish Vodka or Polish version Polska Wodka.

Rye vodka to try - Wyborowa Exquisite (Turew Poland) - think roast brazil nuts and hint of marshmallow.
Potato vodka = Luksusowa (see above) - creamy vodka, good from freezer - one reviewer likened it to gin?!?


O - Early warning 4th Oct is National Vodka Day

[PeterL22]

Very quick side track - potato vodka in USA.
Well, I have been to Idaho - spent a long weekend in Boise, and visited the Potato Shop.
Well, Idaho is blessed with a few distilleries, and it is the home of the potato in the US - so I got to thinking - Do they make potato vodka in Idaho?
A little bit of research and I have found two distilleries that look great - Koenig in Caldwell, and Grand Teton in ?Driggs. The latter has a couple of versions the 100 looking worth a try.
Up to you to find out where your local stockists are

Bottoms Up!

[PeterL22]

Ok more vodka basics - what can you make vodka from (that will determine its taste)

Wheat (most used grain) - subtle aniseed, cracked pepper and lemon zest.
Rye - nutty sweetness, rye bread and brazil nuts
Maize/corn - buttery, corn on the cob
Barley - bready, light nutty, brioche sweetness
Potato - creaminess of texture,fuller flavour
Grape - strangely Ciroc (the leading grape vodka has a slight lemon zesty character.

Whatever you use the first step is Fermentation - culturing yeast under conditions to produce alcohol (hoorah).
With grain the first step is to heat the grain with enzymes (amylase and diastase) to break long chain starches down to simple sugars - to form a type of mash.
With potatoes - you clean them and scrub skin off.They are chopped and moved to a mash vessel where they wrecked with steam to release gelatinous starch.They are cooled to 60 deg C which is better temp for the enzymes to do their bit.Then 30 deg when yeast is added.

Interesting fact, ethanol is toxic to yeast and even ethanol resistant yeast can only survive a 15% ethanol alcohol by volume! Thus Fermentation produces a 7 - 15% liquid called wash (bit like a beer)>

The wash is then distilled usually by column or two tier methods to produce a 95% pure "Neutral Spirit". It's called that because all the taste has been removed. Most vodka producers actually buy in this Neutral or Base spirit rather than produce their own.

At this point the individual producers make their mark. The Base spirit is usually Rectified in purifying columns to removing off notes or odours. Water and the individual producers ingredients (from their own recipes) are added.


Pot still finishing (as used by Mr Tito), is still practised by some good boutique vodkas. The Neutral spirit (around 96% pure) is diluted back to 50% alcohol, and thinned redistilled in a copper pot still The copper acts as a catalyst to produce which give fruity notes to the distillate. Also the copper removes unwanted sulphates (think rotten eggs).
The water added can have an effect - distillers want water low in natural salts, so often locate near artesian wells or natural springs and make great play of this in their promotional material.
Finally, things may be added to the vodka to enhance flavours. Commonly (and historically), it was honey - in trace amounts (especially modern Russian and "western" vodkas), it mellows the peppery attack of the ethanol and adds mouth feel.Glycerol is used to sweeten and increase viscosity and citric acid is routinely added as a preservative and to give that acidic/sour note. Note that these additives are only added in trace amounts.
Poland is different, on 1st Jan 2013 they introduced a law banning any additives other than water.Flavoured vodka does allow it , but only natural flavourings and no more than 100g of sugar per litre.

Complicated way of getting drunk - remember that when you next down a shot of vodka in one!

[PeterL22]

Part 3 - the last of vodka

Thought it might be fun to look at Nations and their leading vodkas - for the well-travelled out there (if you are Swiss, Colombian or anything and can give better local knowledge please feel free to help out!)

Sweden - Absolut - wheat vodka. & Karlssons Gold - potato
Poland - Chopin - another potato vodka & Belvedere - rye
France - Ciroc - grapes , also Grey Goose (popular in UK) - wheat.
Denmark - Danzka - wheat
Italy - Eristoff - wheat.
Finland - Finlandia - barley.
New Zealand ! - 42 Below (heard good things about this one ) - wheat.
Switzerland - Xellent (best name ever) - rye
Austria - Pfau Brambarus - potato & Oval - wheat
Holland - Ursus Classic - wheat & Ketel One - wheat
Scotland (please don't confuse with England!!) - lots of great distilleries (no surprises really) producing all sorts of spirits - Tanqueray Sterling - wheat
England (don't confuse with England) - Sipsmiths (reasonable gin too) - barley, Twisted Nose (local to me in Winchester) - try there wasabi vodka!
Russia - many many, but examples are - Imperial - wheat, Russky Standart - the best starter what vodka from Russia


That'll do to get you going!

And Maggie my Titos has arrived this morning - will try it later - all down to you so no pressure!

[PeterL22]

OK I lied about yesterday being last on vodka!
For the record the Titos vodka is really good - it is really clean taste and smooth. You can understand why he distills the spirit 6 times. Nice one Maggie!

A couple of quick fun facts/history on Russian vodka

Most Russian vodka is made from wheat - so have trace hints of aniseed. Usually sweetened with sugar or honey.
Probably they were at it in 9th century, but first recorded distillery (Khylnovsk) was in Vyatka Chronicle of 1174!
Vodka was used for medicinal purposes - reference in 1533 as zhiznennia vodka or water of life (familiar term to whiskey drinkers!).
Scientists got involved when in 1896 Mendeleev (Prof of chemistry at St Petersburg who created the Periodic Table) worked out that the optimum strength for vodka was 40%.
Vodka was (and is ) an integral part of Russian life and some say that the prohibition of alcohol during World War 1 may have contributed to the Revolution!
There endeth the lesson!

[PeterL22]

I love Gin - odd as when I was a callow lad I thought it was a girly drink for toffs!
So advanced warning that Gin is up next and to whet your appetites - 19th Oct is Gin & Tonic day (no idea why that date was chosen)!!
Consider it the Royalty of drinks (toffs again), and it goes back to the 1600s, when the quinine which gives tonic its bitterness was first used to ward off malaria.It is accepted that G&T was first started in India in the British Raj and that is why Mr Schweppes launched his Indian Tonic Water (actually made in London) in 1870.


Fun way to drink it - love the name - Tonic Boom!
Pour tonic water into "old fashioned" glass. Pour gin (good dry London Gin will work) into shot glass and hold it over the tonic glass. Drop shot glass into other glass and most importantly - DRINK.
Its basically a gin and tonic bomb! - someone once described it as "the thinking man's Jager Bomb"

Cheers for today - more tomorrow!

[PeterL22]

Believe it or not, I just found out (no idea why I didn't already know) , Sat 10th June (yep next Saturday) is World Gin Day - Cheers!!

[PeterL22]

How do they make gin?

Two stage process - first a "neutral spirit" is made and then it is by re-distillation with "botanicals" (seeds, berries, roots and spices etc).

The production of the neutral spirit is similar to that for vodka with the distillation of the fermented wash to produce a rough spirit known as "low wines". Repeated distillation (rectification) of the low wines produces the neutral spirit.
Different distillers use different distillation methods for redistilling and extracting the flavours from the botanicals , but there are two main methods :

Steep & boil method - most traditional and most common method. A mix of juniper and other botanicals is steeped in neutral spirit which has been diluted with water to about 50% alc/vol.Some producers leave this 48hrs before distilling, but others believe that maceration stews the flavours so distill immediately. Whichever method is used, when the "maceration" is deemed to be done the mixture is distilled in a pot still producing a spirit full of the complex flavours of the botanicals - which is then diluted with water to the final strength.

Vapour infusion - the mix of juniper and botanicals do not come into direct contact with the spirit, but sit in baskets inside modified stills and come into contact with the vapour of the spirit.The botanical infused vapour then condenses to a botanical infused spirit to which water is added.
A variation on the "Steep & boil" method is Vacuum gin distillation , where the spirit is redistilled with the botanicals under vacuum conditions - the spirit boils at a lower temperature. Proponents of this method claim that it produces a fresher flavoured gin as due to the lower temperature, the botanicals don't get cooked during the process.
Another variation is where the individual botanicals are distilled separately and then the individual distillates produced are blended together afterwards. Pros to this could be more control for individual flavours, but traditionalists say that actually distilling the botanicals together allow the botanicals' essential oils to interact together .

Finally raging gin is not really necessary nowadays, and most gins are sold soon after they are made. However, there is a vogue for waging but well seasoned casks are required, and most gins are still only aged for 2 - 3 months. Indeed, if you let gin age for more than 6 months, it will become over dry and "woody".

[PeterL22]

Botanicals - name suggests flowers but far from it - I have a bottle of Moonshot gin (really lovely by the way) which has traces of meteorite containing moon rock in it!

Botanicals are the things distilled with the neutral spirit that combine to give THAT gin it's particular flavour. The aromatic compounds (often oils) found in the botanicals are absorbed by the spirit during the steeping or distillation process - see above.
There are hundreds of things used as botanicals but here a some common ones!

Juniper berries - Juniper is member of pine family and the best berries come from Tuscany and Macedonia.Some distillers keep the juniper berries for up to two years when they lose some of their moisture but retain their oil content. Juniper berries are fragrant and spicy with a bitter sweet taste and tones of pine, lavender, campground over-ripe banana with a peppery finish.

Corriander seeds - come from Morocco, Romania, Moldavia, Bulgaria and Russia. Vary depend on where they come from - Bulgarian seeds are more pungent than Moroccan. Essential oil in coriander is linalool with candied ginger, lemon and sage taste. Think naan bread!

Angelica root - key ingredient as it holds the flavours of other botanicals and holds them together. Most distillers think the smoothest and most mellow angelica root comes from Saxony (Germany). It has a musky, nutty forest floor flavour (think mushrooms)>

Lemon and orange peel

Orris root - perfumed flavour and like angelica root can fix flavours. Three to four year old plants are harvested, and then stored for two to three years before use. The botanical at that stage is very hard and is ground down to a powder. Manly sourced from Italy (Florence), it has bitter taste of parma violets, earth and cold stewed tea. One source says the smell remind of clean stables or hamster cage!!

Cassia - member of cinnamon family (sometimes called Chinese cinnamon).Comes from tree bark from Madagascar or Vietnam. Tastes of chewing gum, and cinnamon - think mulled wine.

Cardamom - grows in Malabar region of India. Tiny green or black seeds - green seeds used as considered to be more delicate. Adds spicy, citrussy almost eucalyptus flavour to gin.

Cubeb berries - member of pepper family , grown in Java. They add a spicy, peppery, lemony , pine/eucalyptus flavour to the gin.

Liquorice - comes from Indo-China and gives the obvious liquorice flavour, but also light, fresh, bitter-sweet woody-earthy taste. It also adds base and length as well as softening and sweetening and rounding off to a gin.


As I said - lets of other things can be considered botanicals - read the label or look at the distiller's web site and you will not only get a list, but also an explanation as to what each does to the gin and its flavour. The above are the commonest you will come across!

Anyone for bath-tub gin next time?

[PeterL22]

HAPPY WORLD GIN DAY - I'll drink to that!!


Bath tub gin is all you Yanks' fault! Prior to prohibition (boo hiss) a cocktail would cost around 20 cents. During prohibition, a shot at a speakeasy would double in price, and could go up to as much as $3 in a top end club.
Basically, this gave an incentive for people to mix drinks at home and you could impress your friends (if you didn't kill them) with your Martini mixing skills. If you couldn't afford the bootlegged imported gin, the alternative was to rustle up your own spirit by mixing industrial alcohol and turpentine in a baht tub! Then you would mask its rank taste by adding creams and sweetness.. Believe it or not, this adulterated "gin" lead to an increase in drinking among women , a rise in spirits consumption. Yep Prohibition worked really well!
There is a British gin that is still marketed as Bathtub Gin - believe it or not. It is produced by the mysterious Prof Cornelius Ampleforth (whether he uses a bathtub is unknown), and has Juniper, Coriander, Orange peel, cinnamon, cloves and cardamonm as botanicals - which are steeped in high-proof spirit giving the gin a daffodil hue.

[PeterL22]

Before we leave gin, here are 10 really good ones to try - in no particular order

1. Monkey 47 - from Bavaria (but its OK the distillery was started by a Brit) - really smooth. 47 comes from 47% proof and 47 botanicals. Bottle is really cool too - like an old fashioned medicine bottle. If you want to go one better (and can get hold of it) go for the Distillers' Cut - heaven in a glass.
2. Saffron - from France (Dijon) and completely different. Its saffron coloured as it has saffron as a botanical (rare in gin - price of saffron and powerful taste). Not day tp day gin but great fun now and again
3.Aviation - from Oregon (Portland) - beloved of mixologists - early pioneer of craft gin movement. Also fits with classic Aviation cocktail.
4.Tarquins - from Cornwall. With a name like Tarquin the guy should make great gin!Unusual botanicals include citrus fruits, cacao, pink peppercorns and violet leaves. He also does an aniseed spirit called Cornish Pastis, so what's not to like?
5. Sacred - from London. Great husband and wife enterprise with interesting varieties - loved the coriander version.
6. Plymouth gin - from Plymouth (otherwise they couldn't call it that). Unique with Protected Geographical Origin - and there is only one distillery in Plymouth! Really fresh juniper and lemony bite!
7. Zuidam Single Barrel Zeer Oude - in truth a Geneva from Holland. Some people liken the taste to Canadian whiskey, so different from "normal" gins - I drink it neat
8. Death's Door - Wisconsin. You'll know I love their vodka and Wonderment, so no surprises that the gin is good too!Botanicals are local, including Michigan grown coriander and fennel. Lots of lemony/fruity notes. Lovely!
9. Egerton's Original Pink Gin - London. Pink colour is achieved by extract of pomegranate after distillation. Very nice refreshing drink and fun because of the colour!
10. Shares Blue Magic Gin - Portuguese form Alentejo region. Really great fun!Blue colour comes from a flower - blue pea. When you add tonic, the magic happens and your drink turns pink. Tastes great too!

[Maggie Green]

Jesus Peter, do you still have a liver?

[Kirstie]

This is a complete list of wine or drinks I've Had and Enjoyed:

Hazlitt Red Cat (my first ever wine. xD)
Yellow Tail Moscato
Barefoot Red Moscato
Barefoot Moscato
Hazlitt White Cat
Barefoot Sweet Red Blend

French:
Fat Bastard Carbanet Sauvignon 2014
Le Rosé de Mouton Cadet Bordeaux 2015
Barton and Guestier Vouvray Chenin Blanc 2015

Italian:
Ecco Domain Merlot 2015
Bella Sera Pinot Grigio 2015
Fontana Candida Frascati 2014 (YUM.)
Bolla Pinot Grigio 2015
Pio Chianti 2014 (Very strong, at least to me. But maybe this is how Chianti's are?)
Castel del Monte Rupicolo 2013
Cavit Pinot Grigio 2015

Mixed Drinks (a glass or cans):
Kiwi 'Rita (Outback Steakhouse xD)
Seagram's Escapes: Jamaican Me Happy
Bud Light Lime: Peach-A-Rita
Bud Light Lime: Cran-Ber-Rita
Extra Kinky: Blue

Rum:
Bacardi

Vodka:
SKYY Vodka
Smirnoff

So far, anyway... ;)

[lovelyexxxotica6]

My favorite drinks of all time is either a cranberry and vodka or amaretto sours..... if im in the mood for some wine i definitely pefer pink moscato, but im not too big on drinking beer....

[Kirstie]

Only drink I'm afraid to try is tequila...because the Kiwi Margarita drink I had made me feel so sick...so I'm just afraid it'll make me feel that way again. Lol.

[PeterL22]

Jesus Peter, do you still have a liver?

I do Maggie - and I expect its larger than yours - LOL!

[PeterL22]

OK Kirstie - I was thinking of starting on Tequilla tomorrow. Not a massive fan myself, but unless I get any other requests I'll make a start.
For those of you worrying that I'm an alcoholic (you know who you are Ms Green), honestly I'm not - I do love to try different spirits (and beers) but a couple of glasses at a time is enough - you end up with loads of open bottles in the house, but you can take your time to work through them.
A bit like men's penises to my mind - quality is better than quantity (its how I console myself).!

[PeterL22]

It's tequila time! (Actually 24th July is National Tequila Day in USA - advance warning)

I'm not a big fan myself - but maybe I haven't explored it enough yet!

Named after the Mexican town of same name in state of Jalisco. It is made from cooked and fermented juice of the agave plant which resembles a cactus.
It can only be produced in 5 Mexican states - Jalisco, Nayarit, Michoacan, Guanajuatoand Tamaulipas (no idea how to pronounce most of those.)
The town of Tequila was established around 1530s but the spirit may have been around before - so did the drink take its name from the town or vice versa. Irrelevant now as there are 20 distilleries in Tequila nowadays.
A local drink called pulque is enjoyed by locals - fermented agave before its distilled - which is flavoured with pineapple lime and vanilla etc. It is milky and slightly fizzy and vinegar-esque!
There are three different types of process to make tequila
1. Traditional - uses a masonry oven called a"horno" to cook the pinas, then shredding with a stone wheel, fermentation in an open tank and distillation in copper tanks.
2. Modern - cooking the pins in an autoclave (basically a huge steam pressure cooker), shredding with roller mill fermentation in stainless steel vats and distillation initialness steel stills
3. Industrial - uses diffusor to extract starch from raw agave and distillation is in column stills.
To be labelled as "Tequila" it only needs 51% agave with sugar being fermented to get the rest.
Standards of Tequila have been much improved by the setting up of the Tequila Regulatory Council in 1993 - and there has been a massive increase (especially in US) of tequila made with 100% agave.
Worm in the bottle? - common misconception is that tequila has a worm in it - wrong on to points. Firstly, its a moth larva not a worm. Secondly, its not tequila , but mescal (also from Mexico) that sometimes has one in it!

Tomorrow - more on tequila

[PeterL22]

So following on from yesterday - another shot of Tequila!

As I said yesterday you can think of two sorts of tequila (one classification)
100% agave - no additional sugar added to agave before fermentation. They must be bottled within production region, and are generally the best tequilas.
Mixto - the percentage of agave has been allowed to fall from 100% in 1949 to 51% nowadays for a spirit to qualify as tequila. The mixto tequilas are not labelled as "mixto" but just as tequila - so if you want 100% agave you need to look for 100% agave on the bottle. The mixto may be more to your liking because the agave notes will be more subtle in the mixto.
Mixto tequilas are really best for mixed drinks.
You can also categorise Tequila by length of aging - going from shortest to longest
Blanco (AKA Silver or Plata) tequila - aged 0 - 59 days - usually colourless and transparent (some say ages in the ground rather than in the barrel).Only small amounts of flavourings added so purists say this is the true expression of tequila.
Joven - (AKA Gold or Oro) tequila - Joven means young and these are usually blends of aged and unnamed tequila.also known as Gold or Oro as they may be that colour - unfortunately that may be due to addition of flavourings (e.g. caramel). Look for gold tequilas with Reposado on the label for a tequila that has aged tequila in the blend!
Reposado - aged tequila (60 days plus)- term introduced in 1968 and means "rested". A resposado tequila must be "rested" in oak or Holm oak casks or vats called pipones for at least 60 days.
Anejo - (AKA extra aged) - aged over 1 year. Caramel may be added to adjust colour and enhance flavour.
Extra Anejo - (AKA Ultra aged) - aged over 3 years. Recently categorised in 2006 - some connoisseurs compare this to fine French cognac so it can be costly!

Finally - Curados - flavoured tequilas (natural ingredients ) such as lemon, orange tangerine, strawberry pineapple and pear. You can do this yourself by infusing the straight tequila with fruit!