yum. i’ll hafta get me sum
~KM

Ardbeg has been named as World Whisky of the Year
A toast has been raised to a distillery in Islay as its tipple is honoured in a distinguished guide.
Ardbeg has been awarded the title of World Whisky of the Year in the Whisky Bible 2008.

The 10-year-old dram received another accolade after the bible also named it as the best Scotch Single Malt.

Aficionados say that Ardbeg has an overtly peaty, smokey flavour. It is also said to be surprisingly smooth on the palate with a warm finish.

Jim Murray, Whisky Bible 2008 author, who awarded the honour to the 10-year-old single malt, praised the drink as a unique product.

He said in his guide: “To me Ardbeg is - and always has been - the most complex malt on earth.”

He added: “I have been visiting the distillery for nearly 30 years - long before anybody had heard of Ardbeg.

“And because I have long regarded this as the finest distillery in the world, I actually try to handicap the sample to iron out any natural bias.”

1) grab a beer
2) grab another
3) shit, goto the store
just kidding
okay
I keep beer around to well kill time in between four finger golasses of bourbon. but I have found that by keeping scotch on hand i can do 2 things, the first is prolong the age of a bottle and the second is enqabling me to have good drink when I have no whiskey, well no bourbon.

Of I run low n scotch I like to keep tequila and I also like home made booze. I make my own coffee liquor and berry liquors, along with some creme liquors. And I make, well, I dabble in wine making. Last year was blackberry wine and plum. 2 batches of black berry. All 3, i think, were failures.

Anyway, I digress. Keep scotch around when you want somthing almost as good and tequila will do if its a good brand. I like Hornitoes, suaza, but other than than that I like’m all.
`~KM

For the past year, yea, its been that fucking long, I have been stuick on two bottles. Yea, only two. No, its not Jack Daniels. Its Evan Williams and Ezra Brooks. YEA, no shit. Even when I have loot to buy J.D. I buy Evan Willaims green  bottle. That shit rocks. Now, when you find yolurself in the need for high-proof booze, dude, ya gotta give Ezra Brooks 100 proof a go. Oh My. It is like, a little more musty than say Wild Turkey but its juist as good. Now, I like, I really like the oak barrel flavor in both booze and wine. Yum. More to come soon. I gotta do this stuff when  I am drinking, I think i’ll get the best honesty then. wahoo

P.S. oh and crap, I think I may like “La Bala de Plata”

`KM

It has been a while since I have posted anything about bourbon or whiskey in general. Well, that’ll happen. ANyway, I have been hittin’  alot of low end. Well, it used to be I would say hands down, the low end king was “R&R” and a time when I would spout, without a thought, “Jim Beam.” These days, its “Evan Willams.” Not even the green bottle, although that’s not bad, its the standard Evan. Its smooth, its not got that light, sharp taste like R&R and Jim, its more of a heavy charcoal like J.D., and it is very inexpensive. I think ‘ll start hittin’ this full time instaed of R&R when mixers are concerned. I mean sometimes we’ll shoot Jack bot mostly its R&R, cuz I am buying. That’s no more, it’s totaly Evans.

~KM

Having your alcohol with a sugar-free artificially sweetened mixer may cut calories, but it will also make you drunker, a study suggests.

“Diet” cocktails are more intoxicating - Yahoo! News

wow, this is cool stuff. I should also add that really the best way to _NOT_ ruin any whiskey or liquor is to drink it witth a splash of water and or ice cubes. But then again,  if you find yourself at a party and all they have is “beer” beer and Western Family vodka nd the likes ,it may be to your best interest to get drunk fast, and in that case, try diet soda, the science backs it up!!

The History of Moonshine

There has to be a good reason to go to all the trouble of makingmoonshine. Actually, there have been several reasons, but they all boildown to one thing: government control of the alcohol trade.

Moonshining began very early in American history. Shortly after the Revolution, the United States found itself struggling to pay for the expense of fighting a long war. The solution was to place a federal tax on liquors and spirits.The American people, who had just fought a war to get out from underoppressive British taxes (among other purposes), were not particularlypleased. So they decided to just keep on making their own whisky,completely ignoring the federal tax.

Photo courtesy National Parks Service The Blue Blazes whiskey still at Catoctin Mountain,Maryland, was a large commercial operation. More than 25,000 gallons ofmash were found in 13 2,000-gallon vats when the operation was raidedin July 1929.

For these early moonshiners, making and selling alcohol wasn’t a hobbyor a way to make extra cash — it was how they survived. Farmers couldsurvive a bad year by turning their corn into profitable whisky, andthe extra income made a harsh frontier existence almost bearable. Tothem, paying the tax meant they wouldn’t be able to feed theirfamilies. Federal agents (called “Revenuers“) were attacked when they came around to collect the tax, and several were tarred and feathered.

All this resentment finally exploded in 1794, when several hundred angry citizens took over the city Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. President George Washingtoncalled for a gathering of militiamen under federal authority.Thirteen-thousand troops dispersed the mob and captured its leaders.This Whisky Rebellion was the first major test of federal authority for the young government.

Despite the failure of the rebellion, moonshining continued throughoutthe United States, especially in Kentucky, Virginia, the Carolinas andother southern states. Excise taxes on alcohol didn’t go away, somoonshiners always had incentive to avoid the law. Gun fights betweenmoonshiners and revenuers became the stuff of legend.

These battles escalated in the 1860s as the government tried to collect on the excise tax to fund the Civil War.Moonshiners and Ku Klux Klansmen joined forces, and many pitchedbattles were fought. The tactics of the moonshiners grew more desperateand brutal, intimidating locals who might give away the locations ofstills and attacking IRS officials and their families. The tide ofpublic sentiment began to turn against the moonshiners. The temperance movement, which sought to ban alcohol, gathered steam as the United States headed into the 20th century.

In the early 1900s, states began passing laws that banned alcohol sales and consumption. In 1920, nationwide Prohibition went into effect. It was the greatest thing the moonshiners could have asked for.

Suddenly, there was no legal alcohol available. Thedemand for moonshine shot up like a rocket. Moonshiners couldn’t keepup with the demand, which led to cheaper, sugar-based moonshine, aswell as watered-down moonshine. The distillers would do anything toincrease their profit. Organized crime blossomed as speakeasiesopened in every city — these secret saloons had hidden doors,passwords and escape routes in case the “Feds” ever showed up toconduct a raid.

When Prohibition was repealed in 1933…..

HRead the rest at “How Moonshine Works”

I thought this was approppriate.~KM

Puritans To Prohibition

The Puritans loaded more beer than water onto the Mayflower before they cast off for the New World. 1
While there wasn’t any cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, or pumpkin pie to eat at the first Thanksgiving, there was beer, brandy, gin, and wine to drink. 1.1
A brewery was one of Harvard College’s first construction projects so that a steady supply of beer could be served in the student dining halls. 2
The early colonialists made alcohol beverages from, among other things, carrots, tomatoes, onions, beets, celery, squash, corn silk, dandelions, and goldenrod. 3
The manufacture of rum became early Colonial New England’s largest and most prosperous industry. 4

Tavern owners enjoyed higher social status than did the clergy during part of the Colonial period. 5
A traveler through the Delaware Valley in 1753 compiled a list of the drinks he encountered; all but three of the 48 contained alcohol. 6
The first Kentucky whiskey was made in 1789 by a Baptist minister. 7
The distillation of whiskey led to the first test of federal power, the Whiskey Rebellion (1794). 8
During the Colonial period, alcohol abstainers had to pay one life insurance company rates 10% higher than that of drinkers. Of course, today we know that abstainers tend not to live as long as moderate drinkers. 9
The laws of most American colonies required towns to license suitable persons to sell wine and spirits and failure to do so could result in a fine. 10
Colonial taverns were often required to be located near the church or meetinghouse. 11

George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson all enjoyed brewing or distilling their own alcohol beverages. 12
The Colonial Army supplied its troops with a daily ration of four ounces of either rum or whiskey. 13
Abraham Lincoln held a liquor license and operated several taverns. 14
Religious services and court sessions were often held in the major tavern of Colonial American towns. 15
In the 1830’s the average American aged 15 or older consumed over seven gallons of absolute alcohol (resulting from an average of 9 1/2 gallons of spirits, 1/2 gallon of wine, and 27 gallons of beer), a quantity about three times the current rate. 16
Thomas Jefferson wrote the first draft of the Declaration of Independence in a tavern in Philadelphia. 17
Every signer of the American Declaration of Independence drank alcoholic beverages. 17a
The first signer of the Declaration of Independence, John Hancock, was an alcohol dealer. 17b
Before he took his famous ride, Paul Revere is reported to have had two drinks of rum. 17c
The patriot Patrick Henry (“Give me liberty or give me death”) was a bar tender. 17d
President Martin Van Buren was born in his father’s tavern. 17e
Alewives in Colonial America brewed a special high proof “groaning ale” for pregnant women to drink during labor. 18
“Root beer” was a temperance product developed in the hope that it would replace beer in popularity…….it did not. 19

the original text weas scammed from here.

~KM

I was vacationing in the Dominican Republic (okay, okay, job hunting, sheesh) and I got to experience a drive thruy bar. Huh? yea! You drive up, roll down your window, and ask for a rum and coke (or martini or whatever) and they make it, pour it into a acup, take your money, and you drive off.

How cool is that????
~KM

This is not a review. Just some thoughts. Firstly, I got to watch a program on Makers Mark. Yummy. Great history. I will soon hafta review the show and write a complete write up. For now, I went to the bar last nite to watcha show of a buddy of mine, Psycho 78, and as such I wanted (or needed) a few drinks.First drink I had was Woodford Reserve. Good stuff. Nexct I had a Wild Turkey. Now, Wild Turkey is perhaps my most favored bourbon at the moment. Strong finish, smooth, strong character. After that, I went to Makers Mark, but I’ll be damned if MM wasnt $1 more than the Turkey!! Ack. I didnt do that twice. Sheesh, for $1 more you get like 10 more proof? In comarison, the MM was similar to the WT but with a light finish, that embodied only part of your mouth. Still, for a $1 more?? Give me a break!!!
~KM