I just picked up The Yamazaki Single Malt Whisky 12, from Japan. I’ve been looking at getting a new single malt, and have managed to avoid getting a Scotch yet again. I haven’t been doing this on purpose, but I just keep finding such interesting alternatives.
This whiskey is well-balanced and has a solid mouthfeel. It has a nice bit of smokiness and has a creamy full flavor.
I tried a few new beers in March, as well as rediscovered a few of my old favorites.
The two beers I have already had that I picked up this month were Honey Brown, by Dundee Brewing & Franziskaner, Heffeweizen.
I had a few other wheats this past month, and the Franziskaner was one of the better ones. It has a great fruit flavor and is easy to drink. Honey Brown has become one of my everyday beers since we moved from Wisconsin, and have been unable to get Spotted Cow on a regular basis. It is simple, easy to drink, and goes quite well with a lot of our favorites, such as tacos and burgers.
The two new beers in my fridge this past month were Smuttynose, Brown Dog Ale & Yuengling, Bock Beer.
I really enjoy the Yuengling Bock, but I don’t really care for the Smuttynose Brown Dog Ale. The Yuengling Bock reminds me of my favorite Texas beer, Shiner Bock. Both of these bocks are a little bit lighter than the heftier bocks that I enjoyed back in Wisconsin, but they are still both quite good. I don’t drink a lot of brown ales, but I usually enjoy them. There just seemed something off with it, the hops that were used just weren’t for me.
A few months back I made up some Limoncello, as well as some Orangecello, and I figured I would share the recipe with you guys. To the side here is a picture of all that is left.
A lot of recipes I found use vodka, I decided to use Everclear 191 instead and am quite happy with the results. A liter of Everclear is about $20 and it makes about 4 bottles of finished product, depending on how high of an alcohol content you want. Some states however do not allow Everclear to be sold, so if you are unable to get a hold of it I would recommend finding a recipe using vodka.
We peeled the skins off using a vegetable peeler, making sure not to get the pith, or the white layer. If your peel has to much pith you will get a bitter flavor. We peeled a total of 3 lemons and 3 oranges for our recipe. We soaked each set of peels in 250 ml, or about a forth of a bottle of Everclear, for about a week. The high proof of the Everclear really helps with extraction and we could notice the liquid changing color after only a few minutes.
Over the week, we shook the container to move the peels around, as they were piled up and some stuck out of the liquid for a few days. I don’t know how important this step is, but I’m a fidgety guy.
After a week, we made a simple syrup using two parts distilled water to 1 part sugar. I used distilled water for the same reason I used Everclear, we figured it would be the most neutral and interfere with the lemon and orange flavors the least. The simple syrup is made simply by cooking the sugar and water together. I used 4 cups of water and 2 cups of sugar, so I had extra simple syrup after it was added in. After letting the simple syrup cool for about a half hour, I added 500 ml, or about 2 cups of it to each bottle and let it sit with the peels for a few more days. This will make it about 25% to 30% alcohol, if you would like it a little lower just add more simple syrup.
After about 3 days, I poured the liquid out through a cheesecloth and funnel into a new bottle, chilled it and enjoyed that evening. Although the product is ready to go right away, we found after letting it sit in the fridge for a few days the alcohol and lemon flavors melded together more, and became smoother. Also we feel that lemons extract much better, and give a much richer flavor than the oranges. It could possibly be the type of oranges we used, but if I make it again I will be adding more oranges to the mix.
Celine and I spent this last week down in Richmond at Wineries Unlimited. We got to spend quite a few days with her family, as well as tasting wine and perusing the trade show floor. While in Richmond we got to try a bunch of wines from all over.
On our way home we stopped at Chrysalis Vineyards, recommended by our friend August, in Virginia, to do a tasting. We were quite impressed with the whole lineup of wines, and ended up picking up a few bottles ourselves. They have quite a few wines made with a Virginia native grape called Norton. The juice itself has a dark red color, so even if the wine is made in the style of a white wine, without the skins, the color is still red.
We spent the night in Gettysburg and visited August’s new place of employment, Adams County Winery. He showed us around and we got to taste a few of the wines as well.
What Tom is Drinking 