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Posted: 03-10-2013 05:37 Post subject: What'll y'have?

Evening maddam / squire. What can I get for ye?

This thread is dedicated to the demon drink. The booze, the piss, the grog, the priest's resuscitation (here's to Spookdaddy's av). Please make sure you've had at very least a tipple before posting so as to guarantee maximum skullduggery. Mods, be advised, we are grown-ups and promise to keep within the bounds of board gentility ... Twisted Evil

2 questions:
1. What is the ultimate alcoholic indulgence for you?
2. What is your personal / local drinking culture?
(and just for spice and gossip, who are the board boozers?)

Let's get into it. Today I had a very easy schedule at work, so I dropped by one of my locals for a Guinness and ended up having three. Guinness has been my pint of choice for a decade now. When I returned from o/s, the local brews were no longer up to the mark. Adelaide has a very fine brewer called Coopers, but I made the most of cheap (often black-market) imports while in Korea and discovered that Guinness is probably the most hearty of all the brewed drinks I'd ever sampled. Each pint of Guinness is an individual, unlike most beers I've gotten stupored on. The pour is an event, the settling moreso. The first draw is heaven, and each one after that is anticipated with more than the usual relish. I am now a 100-pint member at 2 n a 1/2 of our local Irish pubs. The people who sink the black are kindred spirits and we share most of the good things in Irish life - Guinness, folk music and what has relatively recently come to be known as 'craic', though that mostly revolves around the prior two. My mother and aunt are both Guinness afficionados, and there's been a memorable ladies night or two around at ours in recent years all thanks to Arthur and his burnt barley. For me its gotta be a pint of plain.

Alcoholics welcome to spill their guts, but textually only. Consult your local peacekeeper before going the full rage online. Posting limit is .09%. Any overindulgence will be greeted with a howl and a cheer from the bar, but be aware that the local constabulary has an eye on their interests and twatworthiness will be wiped off poste-haste. They may yet ban me for contravention of the swilling promotion regulations.

It's a pleasure to be your publican this evening. Skinny's bar n grill open for custom. What'll y'have?

Posted: 03-10-2013 08:11 Post subject:

I'll have a glass of that lovely wine, normally expensive but inexplicably marked down for one day in Asda, which I gleefully bought and then left out at home for the cats to knock off and smash all over the kitchen floor before I'd even sniffed the cork. Sad

Posted: 03-10-2013 08:14 Post subject:

I've just been reading an article about mead making (in the US)
( http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24184527 ) so I'll start with one of those - what strengths do you have?

Ah, a good range! I'll start with a pint of the 5% ABV then. Cheers!

Mead's quite common here in Cornwall. There are several 'Meaderies', restaurants with an emphasis on mead, around the county. You can even buy it in supermarkets, but it seems to be aimed mostly at holidaymakers...

Bangs empty mug on bar...

Same again, please!

Posted: 03-10-2013 10:44 Post subject:

What does it taste like?

Posted: 03-10-2013 11:33 Post subject:

i didnt drink until i was 18 ... then i ran with the best for 20 years ... these days its coffee

Posted: 03-10-2013 11:54 Post subject:

Posted: 03-10-2013 20:46 Post subject:

Don't touch a drop these days, what with being diabetic etc.

Posted: 03-10-2013 23:53 Post subject:

I'm a fan of the single malts preferring the West Coast ones more. Particularly those from Islay.

One lump of ice, put it in the glass and pour whisky over until it cracks.

Slainthe!

Posted: 04-10-2013 12:36 Post subject:

I tried drinking when I was younger. Never really liked it. Red wine was about all I could really stand, and sometimes champagne. Grew up with a pathological craving to use brandy in cooking, though. I blame my grandmother's Christmas Pudding for that.

Decided I didn't like it, and had one really bad drinking experience on my birthday, and have had hardly any since. Occasional toasts (I've been to two weddings in my lifetime) and communion wine when I go to church (we're quite devout, Christmas and Easter).

Tea is my tipple of choice these days. Always has been, really, even when I did drink.

Posted: 04-10-2013 14:32 Post subject:

Posted: 04-10-2013 14:45 Post subject:

Ale, flat and hoppy - often Shepherd Neame's when I'm on my home ground. Anything with fizz - especially lager - gives me a shocking headache, but I may just persevere with decent chardonnay or champers if we're heading to the park with a hamper or the beer garden with good company. If the night's drawing to a close, I hope you'll join me with a generously-sized Lamb's Navy Rum and ice - failing that there's always a bottle at my place on top of the fridge.

I used to drink socially most days (pub for dinner after work) and to oblivion every weekend, but I simply can't do it any longer. I can still put it away all night without it sneaking back up or my collapsing, but the hangover is crippling and can last two days, and I no longer have the strength (read: stupidity) to drink it off with a hair of the dog.

Be warned: if you keep buying, I'll keep talking, and talking, and talking.

Posted: 04-10-2013 18:42 Post subject: Re: What'll y'have?

I can't drink, anymore, because I take a medication that first, makes the effect of alcohol stronger, then flushes all the medication (and alcohol). Since this is an anti-seizure medication, I can't take the chance.

I used to like rum, and most rum drinks. In university, we had rum 151. Ah, those by-gone days!

Posted: 04-10-2013 19:18 Post subject:

Ah, the lament for drinks past!

Not that my liver has gone - yet. Time was I enjoyed real ale but whatever lurks in wheat seems to lurk in John Barleycorn also. I still indulge on occasion but with full knowledge that I will pay for it not only in my guts but joints and muscles too.

On the bright side, only certain (hard to predict) red wines play merry hell with my sinuses. White wine gives me acid tum, more often than not, though I continue to consider Cava a very pleasing alternative to the Champagne I wish I could afford.

The ciders that are commonly available (at least in pubs) are unspeakably horrid. Though Wetherspoon's - to their credit - have surprised me with some good ones, served still out of boxes at a good price! The explosion of interest in cider has - so far - not led to much of the good stuff finding its way onto shelves up here. So it hardly fills the gap that beer has left.

I have never managed to achieve much in the way of addiction and was brought up to be wary of strong spirits especially. I tend to feel I have not had a proper drink unless it is red wine - maybe something other than alcohol is at work there.

I do try to watch the alcohol content of modern wines: a bottle that slips down very easily might be over a third of a bottle of spirits in strength.

If I had to name a favourite tipple, though, it would be Sherry. A good dry Oloroso does not need to be swigged in quantity to give satisfaction. Very drying to the system, says the old health monitor! Smile

I left out whisky. Embarassed

But since I can't afford the ones I want, I'll have to wait for Christmas.

edit: Surplus "of" spotted and killed in para. 4.
edit2: Slight rewording of para. 2. + addition of whisky comment.

Posted: 04-10-2013 19:44 Post subject:

There's some lychee wine I discovered at the chinese supermarket that I'm rather taken with at the moment. Very Happy

That place isn't all 'oral masochism' as some have alleged. Razz

If i'm out, generally I'd have a nice real ale if they have it, maybe Guinness if they don't, or maybe gin if I'm in the mood for that.

Sometimes I try the strawberry cider thing too... that tastes like liquid pudding.

Posted: 04-10-2013 20:58 Post subject: