The Cheese Board, what are you drinking?

~$45. i hate bevmo but there's not another proper store in my immediate area afaik to look for this kind of ingredient

ouch! yeah it's $25-28 here in Oregon

Ugh that's bad. The amaro sibilia I got was $51 and I was waffling on whether I would rather get a sherry and ny amaro but decided to just go with it. When you travel at least you know what to make room in your luggage for.

Also when I was in astor wines I saw a 70 proof cynar and I just could not deal with figuring out if that was something I wanted or not.

It’s good!

has there ever been a quincie/Yerac irl crossover? sounds like a rollicking good time

I don't think so. Although DC/NY did have some crossover episodes.

oh! this is 70 proof @ least. so maybe it wasn't highway robbery after all. only other amaro option at that store was a nonino which of course i'd want to try @ some point.

it WAS good (i have no basis of comparison obvs). did not taste/seem like i was drinking a refreshment w/that much 'hol

Saint Germain negroni (subbed in for the gin) and a splash of cassis. Superb.

I got a manzanilla sherry (tio pepe) last week and we are making ahi poke tonight. I think that might work together.

I am drinking lambrusco full-time right now. Red wines without food are too much, usually--I don't have energy to cook or eat at night so I'm not pairing wine with dinner--but lambrusco is perfect.

https://images.vivino.com/thumbs/5ieZiblIQe2wBEPMsQy9FA_pl_375x500.png

Also has the added attraction of the cork being secured with a giant metal staple that you have to pry off.

This one is pricier--around $22 a bottle at the only place I know of that carries it:

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1016/7695/products/SAETTI_LAMBRUSCO_2015.jpg?v=1503543284

i ordered this gin. it's blue!
https://www.tableandvine.com/labels/B1000004827.jpg
also on the way Amaro Dell'Etna
this all better not suck

I had some sfumato for the first time yesterday. This is one of the few amari that I so far think I like better straight rather than mixed with something. I get so much green, vegetal stalk when it's mixed. I should take a pic of my growing amari collection at some point. so pretty.

Tonight I am drinking a natural wine, a montepulciano from australia. I just got to the end of the bottle and was a bit startled about the amount of upright sediment leftover for a young wine.

"a montepulciano from australia" sort of sounds so inconcgruous to this know-nothing. was it to your liking? have never done the natural wine thing.

went out for natural wine (a bugbear is that this is pretty much necessary in vancouver, where little of what is available in bars and restaurants can be bought at a store) on friday night.

had a couple of bottles

milan nestarec - forks and knives white

czech wine made from müller-thurgau. surprisingly acidic, very refreshing and drinkable, and with some yeast flavours you may associate with natural wine but not too "barnyardy"

and

angiolino maule sassaia

made from garganega mainly (with trebbiano?) which was softly fruity and quite mineral

It's this producer called Delinquente wines from Riverland. I had been seeing their bottles all over the place (very noticeable labels.) It was completely fine for the price point. I had a lot of natural wines in the last month because I was back home in ny and trying to taste a bunch since things are hard to get where I am. Natural wine is a huge category, they are made in all sorts of styles. My spouse hates most of them because they sometimes referment in the bottle or get weird surprise offtastes because they aren't usually filtered or fined so they aren't as stable. I don't mind when wine get on the verge of kombucha.

xpost was I with you? I had that czech muller thurgau on sunday evening.

small world!

i also had an old vine riesling from central valley and got a georgian white that was more straightforward for the non-natural wine lovers I was with.

That's so funny that we both just had that bottle. I thought it was more esoteric and agreed to get it because my friend had been wanting to try it and I am up for anything.

i googled it at the bar and some website said they did 4000 bottles for the year or some such amount, so reasonably esoteric

That's a pretty small amount but we are in large cities I guess.

went out to astoria, mostly honestly so i could try out the beers. buoy had a pretty nice cucumber gose called "benedict cumberbatch". i really enjoyed fort george as well - they had the best poutine i've had in the state of oregon and an excellent hazy ipa called "skies of wonder". i got a growler of that one to go. i'm really liking the "hazy" ipa trend that's started - i was never really into ipas until the hazys came around. i'm also loaded for bear on bottles, more than will actually fit in my fridge.

I'm a big fan of both Buoy and Fort George brewing, they do great work in general. The pub is also nice as you note.

Yeah I love the hazy things. Such a welcome change from years of being bludgeoned with hoppy bitterness. Found a Bell's "Official" hazy @ local store the other day. Have never tried theirs and am looking forward to later today.
Xpost

I also enjoy the hazy ipa trend, but I've found they don't have the same flavor when canned/bottled. If you can go somewhere where they're on tap, I'd recommend it

The Alchemist, Tree House, Trillium & Other Half pretty much drove the haze craze strictly on can sales over the past few+ years, so that's a rather refreshing take mh.

Maybe I'm wrong! I've had the same hazy beers in can and on tap, some on tap right where they were brewed, and it seems to lose something. It could also be my small sample size.

It looks like that Bell's one that outdoor_miner mentioned is available around here on tap and, hopefully, canned. I'll see if I can do a taste test.

Part of the mythology of Heady Topper (from The Alchemist) is that because the beer was so ugly (hazy, opaque, un-fined/filtered) the packaging says "Drink From The Can!" on it. I think they started canning it in 2011.

all right, I’ve had 30oz of Bell’s Official from the tap. now to track down some cans

well, i think they're tasty enough. the dough recipe worked fine. but maybe i didn't boil 'em long enough and also could have taken them further in the baking bc they're pretty overly soft and chewy and got no crispy exterior. will def. try again in the near future. i put caraway and black sesame seeds on 'em.
https://i.imgur.com/0djkhTs.jpg

shite, wrong thread!

well that Bell's Official hazy didn't impress. i liked it alright but had expectations i guess for my first offering from them. just didn't have much oomph/complexity. i'll stick with hazy little thing and not think twice fwiw

Where do you live outdoor_miner?

So Cal, in a little town called Redlands east of L.A. (not by choice, mind)

try Bell’s Two-Hearted Ale, kind of their signature

Not that I’ve had it in a long time but i always liked Bell’s Two Hearted.

my closest bar (that isn’t the cheese bar!) had an excellent two-hearted special on tuesdays for a long time. 20oz pour for $5

oh damn, I've raced bikes in Redlands.

I would head over to Hangar 24 and see if they have any of these:

https://hangar24brewing.com/beers/l-39-ipa/

I've never had it, but I have had several batches of their Pugachev's Cobra and it is extremely well made. I can imagine they did a good job with the L-39?

and two-hearted rules!

haven't been to hangar since the summer, but i'll def go and look for that (probably not today on account of redlands' classic bike race that's going on all day and my abode is damn near the middle of it). ritual is another good brewery in town but i don't think they do hazy rn.

Haha, sorry about that... it's a fun race though!

was out for natural wine on saturday. had a bottle of Monastero Suore Cistercensi Coenobium Ruscum. Verdicchio, Malvasia, Grechetto, Trebbiano.

made by nuns. two weeks sur lie, so barnyardy as heck, hot on the nose, minerals, caramel. nice wee wine.

i've had one of their wines! not that one tho, the one i had was their more normal white

i dont think 2 weeks on lees necessarily means that a wine will be barnyardy?

oh yeah i think i should have said "also".

skin contact too i should note

i guess the difference between the ruscum and their other white is the other one is not skin contact

White wines typically don't get barnyard aromas, because that is usually associated with brett (wine fault) and those yeasts can't deal with higher acidity.

Btw which wine bar do you usually go to?

(some people do like brett in their wines)