2012 – The year in beer

Posted on January 1, 2013 | Leave a comment

Well, it’s that time again.

Total Caps: 259

Breweries with more than 10 caps (as % of total):

Schlafly – 15.4%

Boulevard – 13.1% (80 Acre Wheat and Nutcracker)

Bell’s – 11.2%

New Glarus – 11.2%

Weihenstephaner – 9.3% (all Festbier)

Deschutes – 8.9% (all Black Butte)

Moosehead – 8.5% (all during the hellaciously hot summer)

Founder’s – 6.6%

I did a lot better job of taking advantage of the kegerator this year, enjoying:

1 -1/4 bbl The Civil Life Vienna

1 – 1/4 bbl The Civil Life Dunkel

1 – 1/4 bbl The Civil Life Milk Stout

1 – 1/6 bbl Perennial Artisan Ales Southside Blonde

1 – 1/4 bbl Odell IPA

1 – 1/4 bbl Pilsner Urquell

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2011 – The year in Beer

Posted on January 2, 2012 | 2 Comments

So, another year is in the books, which means another hour spent on New Year’s Day employing my children to sort and count the bottle caps collected from the previous year. As always, these simply represent every bottle of beer opened in the Nelson household during the previous year, regardless of who consumed them (though the vast, vast majority was me).

Total caps: 490

Breweries Represented: 28

Breweries with more than 10 caps (and % of total):

Schlafly – 17.8%

Firestone Walker/Nectar Ales – 12.4%

Budvar – 9.4%

Stone – 8%

Homebrew – 7.3%

Founder’s – 5.9%

Bell’s (all Two-Hearted) – 4.9%

Weihenstephaner (all Festbier) – 4.9%

Goose Island – 4.9%

Moosehead – 4.5%

Odell – 4%

Capital – 3.2%

Sierra Nevada – 2.2%

As “interesting” as these raw numbers are, I must add a few points for context. First, thanks to the generosity of Portland-bound friends Zac and Kate Duncan, I returned to the privileged class of people with kegerators, when Zac and Kate donated theirs to my cause.  Since that point, I’ve enjoyed the following:

1/4 bbl of Odell St. Lupulin

2 – 1/4 bbls of Odell IPA (2d keg in progress)

1 – 1/6 bbl of Urban Chestnut Zwickel (which lasted all of 7 days during the worst of this hateful summer’s heat)

1 – 1/6 bbl of Founder’s Red’s Rye

1 – 1/6 bbl of homebrew (still in progress)

So, taking the kegs into account,  Odell was far and away the most consumed brewery this year, basically tripling Schlafly. I’m very much in love with Odell’s IPA, and their St. Lupulin and (incredibly boringly named) Red Ale, all of which meld a serious punch of hop aroma and flavor, with a velvety malt load that just works for my palate. Founder’s also would get a significant bump, and Urban Chestnut would jump into the ranking.

Also missing from the above numbers are canned craft beer. I know I went through a couple of 12 packs of Capital Supper Club (thanks, Annie!) , and several (4, 5, 6?) six packs of Ska Brewing‘s Modus Hoperandi. I just did a crap job (read – no attempt at all) to track those this year. Sorry to the fine folks at Capital (who’d be finer if they distributed to St. Louis!) and Ska. Love your beers, but caps are easier to keep than cans.

Finally, I feel a need to explain the Moosehead entry. I grew up in Michigan, and, during college, Canadian beer was cheap.  Really cheap. In fact, when I moved to St. Louis, a case of Moosehead bottles at the store where I worked would set you back all of $12, and it was the most expensive of the Big 3 Canadian brands. When we were too flush with cash for bottom tier stuff like Weidemann’s, Beast or Schaefer (all at about $5 a case), but not spendy enough for craft, we went Canadian.

So, the summer of 2012 went through a rather oppressive phase. This isn’t uncommon (especially for someone from Michigan), but I was desperate for a beer I could chill and swill. I had been reading some mysteries set in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula during this period, many of which featured Canadian beer prominently. This triggered a nostalgic craving for some basic Canadian suds. Moosehead being the freshest of those at the Schnuck’s, I went with it. And enjoyed it. I might even do it again.

Previous years are here:

2010

2009

2008

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A new project

Posted on October 14, 2011 | Leave a comment

Beer Wine and Whisky will live on, though I expect many of the new posts will be beer-related, and sporadic. My drinking really is cyclical, and wine, for no particular reason, has been out of favor. I think drinking too many “value” priced offerings during my days of writing for the RFT may have done my wine palate in.

Anyway, I continue to be on a whisky kick, and expect to launch a new blog related to that soon.  I’m writing again, and stockpiling some posts, so the new site has some content when it launches.  Thanks for the patience, and the kind words, and I hope you find value in the new blog.

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Nostalgia, Value and Pulling for the Underdog.

Posted on March 5, 2011 | Leave a comment

I have been on a roll lately. A whisky roll.  Well, and a whiskey roll.  By nature, I tend to go on spurts of drinking particular beverages. While I used to fret and analyze about why, now I just enjoy the ride.

Certainly, discovering the joys of whisky cocktails has been a major driver of my increased consumption, but other things are at work too.

While I’ve written mostly about Scotch these past years, Bourbon was my first whisky love. At some point, I geeked out to the extent that the few bottles I was buying were high end, and I found fewer and fewer situations where I’d prefer to sip a neat Bourbon over a neat Scotch. So, things just sat on my shelf, and I hadn’t picked up but one bottle of Bourbon in the past 2 or 3 years. Getting over the stigma of drinking Bourbon other than straight got the ball rolling again.

Next, it dawned on me that, living in St. Louis, I’m not too far from prime Bourbon territory. Which means – BOURBON ROAD TRIP! So, purely in the interest of being a well-informed visitor-to-be, I figured I should bone up on the produce of our neighbors to the east.  So far, I’ve managed my way nicely through some Old Forester, Four Roses (basic bottling), W. L. Weller Special Reserve, and Wild Turkey Russell’s Reserve 10 Year Old.  All in all, it’s been a great time.

Russell's Reserve 10, W. L. Weller Special Reserve, Old Forester, Four Roses.

Canadian whisky, on the other hand, is something I was totally ignorant about. Apart from the homemade whisky/honey cough syrup my mother made for us as kids, I’m not sure I’ve ever had a drop of Canadian whisky in my life. Despite its rampant popularity in volume sales in the U.S., it flew completely under my radar, as it does for a lot of whisky folks.

I do have some personal twangs of nostalgia for Canadian whisky, as it was my dad’s tipple of choice when we’d go out to dinner. At the local supper club (yes, we had those in Michigan too), it was a CC&7 (Canadian Club and 7-Up), but at “fancy” restaurants, it was VO & Ginger (Seagram’s VO, and Ginger Ale which, being in Michigan, meant Vernor’s).  Since Seagram’s VO was on sale at the local grocery for $12, I grabbed a bottle of that.

I’ve also been intrigued by the bevy of Irish whiskies showing up at local retailers. I’ve always enjoyed Irish enough to have a bottle around, but it’s usually been nothing other than the standard bottlings of Jameson or Bushmills, unless I was feeling flush enough to spring for a Red Breast. I started first with Powers, and was impressed. I’ll be back for more soon.

Islay Mist, Teacher's, Ballentine's, and Hankey Bannister

My old favorite, blended Scotch, has not been left out either. I’ve been working my way through some old favorites like Teacher’s and Islay Mist, but spreading out into others that my local awesome liquor store, The Wine & Cheese Place, stocks that so many other stores seem to skip right over

What many of the whiskies I’ve been sampling share is a connection with another time. Once, many of them were juggernauts in the market. Today, many have fallen well below eye level on the shelves. My heart is drawn to these whether it’s merely a desire to share something with a long gone loved one, or merely the old man with a bottle in his grocery cart. Plus, I can’t help but want need to know what the whisky in those bottles tastes like. Sure, some of the brands may bear little resemblance to what they once were, but, what if they do? What if there are whiskies that are simply the forgotten children of some massive drinks conglomerate’s marketing department? What if the people who make them still put their hearts and souls into them? I am compelled to find out.

Finally is, frankly (crassly?), money. There is tremendous value to be had in these whiskies I’ve been exploring. The 1.75l bottle of Old Forester I’ve been enjoying? $23.  That’s 39-1.5 oz. “servings” of Bourbon, or less than $0.60 a pour – the equivalent of finding a very good craft beer for $3.60 a six pack, or a potable bottle of wine for $2.50, neither of which is happening any time soon. So, I’m free to explore with a relatively clear conscience.

As I’m finishing these bottles off, look for some detailed posts on what I found, as well as some nuggets on the history of the brands and distilleries. I can tell you now that some are amazing bargains that really should find a place on your bar! And some that you’re probably just as well off letting me take for the team. But most of all? I’m having fun.

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Posted in Blended Whisky, Blends, Bourbon, Canadian, Single Malt, Whisky

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2011 – The year of drinking down my wine cellar

Posted on February 2, 2011 | 1 Comment

Over the years, I’ve realized that I have way more wine than I need. If this were merely an extra case or two sitting around the obvious “drink more” would apply. Unfortunately, in my pre-kid days, my wine budget greatly exceeded my (much more limited) common sense – there was so much to try, and, not surprisingly (from hindsight) I didn’t like some of it.

Twice in the past I’ve attempted to right size my cellar by selling chunks of it off at auction. This worked well, but I’m now at a stage where I still have probably twice as much as I need, and it’s almost all geek bottles that don’t have a good potential for resale. So, I hereby declared 2011 the year of Drinking Down My Wine Cellar.

I figure that I need to cut it about in half. Step number 1 in this process is: Don’t buy any more wine. Not that I’ve been buying a lot over the past 5 years or so, but this year it’s zero (sorry Jeff and Paul!). Step number 2 was to dedicate one of my wine racks in the cellar to all the bottles that should/could be drunk this year – some are past their prime, others are out of favor with my palate preferences at the moment, some are just plain mysteries!

Step 3 was a mental realignment – I set myself free to pick any bottle from the “drink in 2011″ rack, at any time. Normally, wine selection at my house comes with a varying degree of (not unpleasant, but overwrought) anxiety over just what bottle to pull. Now, I just grab the first thing that catches my eye.

This has resulted in an uptick in the amount of wine being consumed, and the cellar depletion is continuing apace. I have (almost thankfully) pulled several bottles that I expected were bad, and found them to be so, and, almost gleefully, poured them down the drain. But, I’ve also found some gems – a ’98 Ridge York Creek Zin being the prime example so far.

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The Year in Bottled Beer Drinking – 2010

Posted on January 3, 2011 | 1 Comment

As always, my children were put to work on New Year’s Day sorting and counting the bottlecaps I have collected over the previous year.  For those who are new to this game, I collect the caps from every bottle opened for drinking at my house and keep them in a big jar.  This includes bottles opened by guests, at parties, etc. and were not all consumed by me!

2010 was my first full year without a kegerator, which definitely boosted the number of caps (I also kept track of cans in a spreadsheet and these are included in the numbers below).  The total for the year was 756 beers consumed.  The brewery breakdown is as follows for all breweries that had ten or more beers consumed:

Homebrew – 16.1%

Schlafly – 15.3%

Bell’s – 8.2% (over 2/3 was Two-Hearted)

Ska – 7.1%

Budvar – 5.5%

Weihenstephaner – 4.6% (all Festbier)

Sierra Nevada – 4.1%

Founder’s – 3.7% (all Red’s Rye, except for a single Breakfast Stout)

Capital – 3.6%

Big Sky – 3.4%

Lagunitas – 2.5%

Southern Tier – 2.2%

Ayinger – 2.1% (all but two were Oktoberfest)

New Glarus – 2.1%

Odell – 2.1% (all St. Lupulin)

New Belgium – 1.4%

Tallgrass – 1.4%

Pedantic aside:  Jolly Pumpkin likely would have made the list, near the bottom, but their caps are plain.  This year, I’ll be sure to identify them myself.

2010 was definitely the Year of Beer for me.  For whatever reason, my wine consumption was much lower than normal, and whisky was negligible until the last couple of months of the year.  I was pleasantly surprised to see homebrew already taking the quantity crown since I only resumed brewing part way through the year.  I expect its lead to increase in 2011 as I’ve been brewing regularly, and, apparently, drinking my homebrew regularly as well (that hasn’t always been the case).  In 2011, I’ll be shooting for better balance between beer, wine and whisky, and overall lower consumption.

Oh, and hey Capital! You see that you clocked in at #9 overall when you’re not distributed within  250 miles of my house? Please get a distributor in St. Louis.  I’m far from the only one who would buy a lot, as we have a severe craft lager deficit!  My consumption of Budvar would disappear if I could get Capital Pilsner here.  Thanks.

Previous Years are here:

2009

2008

Pedantic aside: My kegerator was up and running during ’08 and ’09, so the bottled numbers are much lower than this year.

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My Whisky Cocktail Light Finally Clicks On

Posted on September 13, 2010 | 10 Comments

Perhaps I’m a bit slow on the uptake – scratch that. I am without a doubt a bit slow on the uptake, but I am also capable of getting into a rut without realizing it. In this case, it was a well-intentioned, and apparently well-ingrained habit of drinking my whisky neat, or at most with a splash of water. On the hottest days, I might subject a light whisky or a robust bourbon or rye to a single ice cube. But at no point did the idea of significant dilution figure into things.

The seed for experimentation was planted with a Twitter message from my virtual (only in the sense that we’ve only communicated online, rather than sitting down and enjoying each other’s company over good food and drink) friend Todd Abrams (@Swigs_ and well worth following), one of the very talented team behind the excellent Gourmet Underground blog (which grew out of his and Evan Hansen’s blog Swigs). After reading several cocktail posts (a subset of libations I’ve generally eschewed since an ill-fated freshman year experiment to drink our way alphabetically through Mr. Boston . . .), I asked Todd for a book recommendation or two from which to begin exploring cocktails. His response (paraphrased)  made an immediate impact on my whisky drinking prejudice – there are no good books – you like whisky, so start experimenting there – Manhattans and the such.

Cocktails with whisky? But I only have “good stuff” that should not be drunk any way other than neat. So, I mentally filed away Todd’s advice (and kept a keen eye out for some decent sweet Vermouth to take up his Manhattan challenge). I did drop $50 on a bottle each of Rothman & Winter Creme de Violette and Luxardo to make a whole bunch of Aviations a la Swigs (the post which sparked my cocktail book recommendation question).

I did finally pick up a bottle of Dolin Sweet Vermouth, but haven’t gotten around to making a Manhattan yet. I did, however, see a tweet from someone I follow about them enjoying highballs lately (can’t remember who & searching for it didn’t work – let me know & I’m happy to amend the post to give credit!). With the warm late summer days, and not quite cool enough for neat whisky nights, this lodged somewhere in my brain. It was brought home when I was meandering the almost overwhelming whisky selection at the Wine and Cheese Place on Saturday. Guilt over the number of unfinished bottles of whisky in the basement prevented me from picking up a new bottle but my feeble brain did manage to remember to buy a bottle of club soda to run a highball experiment with some of the orphan bottles I had at home.

So, last night I dared to add club soda to whisky, and it was good. So far, I’ve tried it on two bottlings I haven’t poured a dram of in about a year – Arran Non-Chill Filtered (which I find a bit butyric straight up) and the SMWS bottle I got upon joining – a cask strength Auchentoshan that always seemed hot and a bit feinty.  In highball form both were a hell of a lot better than any prior experience I’d had with them. Downright enjoyable in fact. I’m quite sure that had I not taken this step, these two bottles would have sat for years more on my shelf until I finally got sick of seeing them there and poured them down the drain. Being served with soda is undoubtedly a more noble fate than that!

Am I completely over my aversion to mixing things into whisky? No. But, I think the door is finally unlocked to some serious experimentation on my part. And I’m looking forward to it.

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Posted in Blended Whisky, Blends, Single Malt, Whisky, Whisky Cocktails

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