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Alcohol Exchange Network 2009, now with more class!
ElectricTurtle
SeeressWARegistered User regular
SeeressWARegistered User regular
Somebody mentioned in the Seattle restaurants thread that there was no alcohol exchange thread yet, and so this year I'm starting it. There'll be no foolish beer guzzling or silly decoctions in this thread. As such, I don't expect many of you to appreciate the subtle science and exact art that is true alcohol appreciation; however, for those select few who possess the predisposition, I can teach you how to bewitch the mind and ensnare the senses.
Anyway, for this to work, those who are interested should post where they are coming from, what they're looking for, and what they are likely to bring to trade. Arrangements for the physical handoff can then be made here or via private message.
REALLY USEFUL EDIT:!!::
Because WA is really backward about booze, the state is the only entity allowed to sell hard liquor, but that also allows people to easily find what they can get via the state's search engine for things stocked and list of unstocked special order stuff.
It should be fairly well known already that I hail from the Seattle area, and I am desirous of meads (except from Eastern Europe), nihonshu (more commonly known as sake, and specifically nigori, kimoto, or taru with bonus points for genshu), and white wines (especially German and Greek).
Details are expansive, so I'm spoilering them:
I am making a tradition of buying a case of Sky River Mead each PAX, as everybody seems to like it, with good reason. It's probably the best mead in the state. I pick it up in person directly from the brewer way the hell up in Sultan, WA. If somebody is looking for a good sake Seattle is one of the few places that carry wide selections. Let me know if you're looking for something specific and I'll try to leverage Sake Nomi or Uwajimaya, or I can make recommendations.
Now proceed with your ramblings about different proof values for Everclear if you must.
Anyway, for this to work, those who are interested should post where they are coming from, what they're looking for, and what they are likely to bring to trade. Arrangements for the physical handoff can then be made here or via private message.
REALLY USEFUL EDIT:!!::
Because WA is really backward about booze, the state is the only entity allowed to sell hard liquor, but that also allows people to easily find what they can get via the state's search engine for things stocked and list of unstocked special order stuff.
It should be fairly well known already that I hail from the Seattle area, and I am desirous of meads (except from Eastern Europe), nihonshu (more commonly known as sake, and specifically nigori, kimoto, or taru with bonus points for genshu), and white wines (especially German and Greek).
Details are expansive, so I'm spoilering them:
Where mead is concerned the selection around here is woefully limited, not to mention it's not a widely produced or distributed category to begin with. In addition to Sky River, I'm well acquainted and fond enough of Lurgashall (except their metheglin, which I hated), and have that in stock. I've heard a lot of good things about meads from Colorado and New Mexico, and would appreciate their acquistion. I had a Polish mead the name of which I've forgotten that was so abhorrent that I've written off Eastern European mead entirely. Also, I find mead and/or honey mixed with other juices or wines to be disgusting. These things are usually marketed as 'meade' or 'honeyed wine' and the sight of such may bring me to break the bottle over your head.
I don't have much to add on the subject of sake, except that I've yet to have a good namazake and would be especially grateful to be introduced to one that somebody thinks is at least above average. (If anybody really cares, I ramble about my sake experience and recommendations here.)
Riesling is overexported, so I'd really like to get my hands on some good examples of more minor German whites, like Elbling, Freisamer, Huxelrebe, and Reichensteiner. I wouldn't pass on a good Gewürztraminer, ever.
Most of my Greek focus has been on Retsina, though all I've discovered is that I only like Kourtaki, which luckily is easy to find. If I never see another Malamatina it will be too soon. I've had some bottles of Mavrodaphne and Muscats from Samos and Limnos, all of them good. Believe it or not, I've yet to have an Asyrtico and would welcome a good one.
Although my appreciation of Italian whites isn't very broad, my wife got me hooked on Moscato d'Asti and I haven't met a vintage I didn't like of that apellation.
I don't have much to add on the subject of sake, except that I've yet to have a good namazake and would be especially grateful to be introduced to one that somebody thinks is at least above average. (If anybody really cares, I ramble about my sake experience and recommendations here.)
Riesling is overexported, so I'd really like to get my hands on some good examples of more minor German whites, like Elbling, Freisamer, Huxelrebe, and Reichensteiner. I wouldn't pass on a good Gewürztraminer, ever.
Most of my Greek focus has been on Retsina, though all I've discovered is that I only like Kourtaki, which luckily is easy to find. If I never see another Malamatina it will be too soon. I've had some bottles of Mavrodaphne and Muscats from Samos and Limnos, all of them good. Believe it or not, I've yet to have an Asyrtico and would welcome a good one.
Although my appreciation of Italian whites isn't very broad, my wife got me hooked on Moscato d'Asti and I haven't met a vintage I didn't like of that apellation.
I am making a tradition of buying a case of Sky River Mead each PAX, as everybody seems to like it, with good reason. It's probably the best mead in the state. I pick it up in person directly from the brewer way the hell up in Sultan, WA. If somebody is looking for a good sake Seattle is one of the few places that carry wide selections. Let me know if you're looking for something specific and I'll try to leverage Sake Nomi or Uwajimaya, or I can make recommendations.
Now proceed with your ramblings about different proof values for Everclear if you must.
ElectricTurtle on
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As for what I could be looking to trade for, pretty much anything. I love trying new things, but will not pass up a good mead. I do not like anything made from hops so I am not a big beer drinker, but will be willing to try a good wheat beer if anyone has some they're willing to part with.
I probably wont have enough alcohol for a straight bottle for bottle trade, so I'm hoping for a drink for drink type of trade.
I usually have an assortment of various libations with me at any social gathering, as that's pretty much how I roll.
Veevee: No problem with by-the-glass trading, there are always plenty of hotel parties to facilitate that.
Anngaricus: Isn't there a significant ethnic German population in WI? Any German wine shops around?
The_Flatline: Holy crap, homebrew mead? That sounds awesome. What would you be interested in getting in trade for it?
It depends on a number of factors. Half of it is earmarked towards my assistant, who was kind enough to supply the equipment we needed to ferment all that stuff.
It also depends on how it turns out. I haven't actually tasted it yet. If it's ass I won't bother.
Finally, it depends on how much is left. If I have a 6 or 12 pack of bottles, then I'll probably just give a couple away and drink the rest in a fine display of viking prowess with whoever happens to be around me at the time.
Same goes for any beer that might make it up with me. I'll probably have some german apple wine with me that goes over well with most of the ladies out there.
For beer snobs traveling to Seattle, you should grab lunch and brews at the Tap House Grill at least once. 160 on tap.
The beer goes in your checked luggage. Then once you're here, just buy new clothes.
Yeah, but then it will be all shaken up. Not good. Google tells me that there are "cask beers" that I could make with no carbonation, but I don't know enough of them to tell if that is something I'd like. I'd be a bad bitch if I could figure out the Guinness widget at home.
Good luck as it took Guinness years and $13 million to figure out the rocket widget.
As for the trade I am down to try and bring bottles of beer from Texas to Seattle in exchange for highly rare brews.
I am def down for a Taphouse run but sadly I have had almost everything there already and have never even been once.
Interesting thing, before Anheuser-Busch was bought out, you could go to Busch Gardens and do this private beer tasting thing they had. AB had created a nitrogenated stout that was only distributed to a few select bars that in my opinion was far superior to Guinness. I asked why they didn't sell it to the public and was told it was becuase AB couldn't figure out how to make reliable widgets. After the buy out, they threw out the whole project along with the private beer tastings, it's a shame.
@Frightfully English I would be down for a swap, you will be going to Seattle which seems like the land of the IPA and as for fruity beer it depends. If you are looking for American lambics, there are none really worth noting compared to the Belgium cousins. If you are looking for more things like Pyramid Apricot, Buffalo Bill's Pumpkin, and stuff along that lines, then the US might be able to help you out. Whatever you do, don't fall for Sam Adam's Cherry Wheat, tastes like a bad Hef with 'Tussin mixed in.
For a good taste of what counts as quality in America, I'd suggest anything brewed by Dogfish Head. Especially if you like IPA's.
I'd agree on the rest of their selections, but I'm telling you this stout was beyond fantastic.
2- 18 cans case of Guinness.
2- bottles of Jameson wiskey.
1- bottle of cheap sake
1- bottle of Kahlúa
1- bottle of Level vodka
When commercial beer is shipped fully carbonated it gets shaken all to hell and back too during transit. If you're going to arrive a day or two early, I wouldn't worry about it. The pressure will build some, and then it will just go back into solution, especially if you refrigerate it.
I've *mailed* cases of beer through the mail before, with great success. It's expensive, and requires about a mile of bubble wrap, but it's entirely doable.
Home experiment time: Shake the hell out of a can of soda, and then give it 45 seconds, and then open it. It might spray a little, but by that time most of the pressure has returned to solution.
Also, the Guinness widget is used to create the creamy head you get from a nitrogen spigot. It's already "carbonated" as much as is needed when you're going to drink (which isn't much).
It made me giggle with glee.
Also, I am all about drinks that taste like warm apple pie. Totally for this.
I currently reside in Texas and am heading to Austin (where the alcohol is far more plentiful than in my small town), so I can scour the city for anything that they might have there... My second home is Ohio and I will be making a return there this summer, so if there is anything from that region (the only thing I can think of off the top of my head is Purple Trillium), then let me know and perhaps I can grab some.
I enjoy wine a lot. Red or white, everything from the snazzy and sophisticated to the cheap and girly. Although, I usually only get girly wine so my boyfriend won't drink it...
Boone's Farm? :P
Bleh, I remember being subjected to that when I was sick in Cali on New Year's. That was the worst New Year's ever. My then-fiance-now-wife wanted to go to Disneyland after visiting the Cali side of her family for Christmas, but I came down with a cold so hardcore I couldn't do anything but sit in the hotel room drinking Boone's Farm crap. It was like flat, mildly alcoholic strawberry soda. My wife went to Disneyland with her sister. (Not that I really wanted to go to that meretricious commercial compound in the first place.)
Not quite THAT girly, although a gal friend of mine back in Ohio enjoys the Strawberry Daiquiri flavored Boones. It's only mildly okay when you treat an entire bottle like it is one drink.
I was talking more like... Chardonnay. Or a dessert wine. I had a Praline flavored dessert wine once that was delicious.
Sweet alcohol takes me to "puking drunk" faster than normal liquor.
I even like my mead somewhere between dry and sweet.
I just wish I could bring more than 1L of it into the country. Damn duty free limits.
Can you mail more to someone? I'm not sure how that works, to be honest, but I know a friend used to mail alcohol from Germany to the States...
ETA: Ooh, and I get to pack my mini-drinking horn, too. Double-yum!
-- Publisher, Saucy Goose Press
-- On Twitter @trishalynn
That does it, I have to get my own drinking horn. (I think my grandparents have one somewhere too. My family's Norse-German and seems to lean more to the Norse.)
Drinking horn = Epic win.
I haven't brewed any ales/beers for a year or so, but I used to do it quite a lot. Anyone interested in trading/sharing/pilfering if things work out and I brew some? I'm not sure what I'll make yet.
ETA.Confidence
EscapeTheAsylum.com
Hell yeah I am totally down for homebrews. I will have to bring DAS BOOT!
And, DAS BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTTTTTTTTTTTT
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Well, it's not that impressive becuse it's more shot-glass sized than it would be tankard or whatever-sized. However, it does means it's perfect for port or mead. It's pretty awesome because I bought it at a Renaissance Faire, and being able to walk around and whip out my horn whenever I passed by a place that served mead was awesome.
-- Publisher, Saucy Goose Press
-- On Twitter @trishalynn
Prost in Seattle has one. It is gigantic; I drank it with 4 other people and ... it was still painful.
2L with four people!!?!?!?! It's probably due to having drinking issues but last night everyone had 3 Mississippi Muds each while playing Heroquest.
On the topic of drinky, I recommend a trip to Full Throttle Bottles for beverage enthusiasts. It's just south of downtown and, as you can see from the expansive list, well worth the visit!
Holy crap, that place looks awesome! I've never seen a place stock so many meads. I'm definitely going there next week after I get paid. :winky:
However the first thing I thought of when I saw the name was this:
Can't always be drinking fancy beer all the time.