10th Anniversary Celebration

Great turnout at our 10th anniversary tonight. I am not sure if they came for the occasion or the 21yr old Balvenie. The scotch is delicious. Thanks to Ari at Apollo Liquour for hooking us up with such a treat. 

Here's a whiskey you guys need to try:

http://drinks.seriouseats.com/2013/10/compass-box-peat-monster-tenth-anniversary-limited-edition-whisky-review-scotch.html

Got it done

The new poker points grid is up and working. I entered in everyone but D?n something from June. Sure hope my point drought improves soon. Sigh. Also added the latest whiskey so that list is complete. Anything else I've fallen behind on? I'm thinking we only have one host option for August...a week from Friday. That's all from the cheap seats.

John B. Stetson Straight Bourbon Whiskey or June Whiskey Club

June Bourbonators has come and gone. Sucks to be those of you that didn't make. I paid $28 and change for this. It was actually a decent bourbon.  I did chase it with Lagavulin, but with a splash of water, this was an excellent sipping whiskey. An excellent value for the money. If you are paying attention, I'm watching "Beer Wars" behind the picture. Never seen it? Watch it. It's why I mock InBev or Miller Coors beer. Go craft beer!

90 Shilling was my beer of choice tonight. I think I made several converts. AA and KK were not my friends. I lost most of my poker hands getting it all in ahead. Variance is a bitch. 

Sigh. 

Spring thaw with a splash of severe storms

Winter, we think, has finally ended. Longest friggin' winter ever. So we got our March meeting out of the on the last possible moment. 

This month we are tasting the 15 year single barrel Balvenie. 

The details for our bottle are shown above. Tornado warnings are in the area. This whisky was really quite good. As you might expect from a single barrel, it's got a bit of burn. But the taste is outstanding. Smoky and a balance of peat. Not too sweet. I think this would be great with a view drops of water to help with the burn.

I'm out of the first tournament. Just couldn't get anything going and someone always had better cards no matter where mine started. Sigh.

British Tony and I might bring home the trophy tonight. I'm gonna need something to happen the second tournament, and tony to finally bust from this one. Double sigh.

Bulleit 10 year Bourbon

Lets see. I've checked into 9 beers so far tonight. Good times. This Bulleit 10 year bourbon was an excellent buy for the money. I picked this bottle up at Northwest Liquors here in Rochester. It retails for $49.99 locally. There's a picture attached here. Hopefully that worked. Group consensus: very good. Smooth. Just enough sweet. J-lo brought the 90 Shilling. I'm a sucker for a good scotch ale. Hopefully, I can finish these thoughts tomorrow. I feel a headache coming on tomorrow.

Superaged spirits: How old is too old for whiskey, gin, and chartreuse?- Slate Magazine

I found this article recently and thought I had to share it with everyone. Having attended a few whiskey tastings in my day and drank a few whisk(e)ys aged 30 and over, a lot of this came as no surprise. While it was fun to drink some aged spirits, I can't say that any of them really blew my socks off. The 30 year Canadian Club comes to mind. While it was indeed expensive and it sure was smooth and oaky, that's about it. No wow. Just "Hm, that's what a $200/bottle whisky tastes like."

Younger rye's are tasty. And 16 - 25 seems to be where Scotch gets awesome. Thoughts? What are your experiences?

We might need to take better notes at whiskey club :)

Superaged spirits: How old is too old for whiskey, gin, and chartreuse? - Slate Magazine:

'via Blog this'

A bourbon we should try

New Holland Beer Barrel Bourbon

http://www.drinkhacker.com/2013/02/11/review-holland-beer-barrel-bourbon/

Here's a bourbon aged in beer barrels. The beer? Dragon's Milk Stout, which is aged in bourbon casks. The perfect circle.

It gets an 'A-' grade from DrinkHacker, and is only $30.

Keep an eye out for this one.

Tony.

Poker points updated

The blog should be updated with everything from last night. I'm going back to bed now. So very sleepy.

D Bakes just dealt this...

and Danny folded.

Bulleit Rye

A smaller crowd this month so I found this on the top shelf at Northwest Liquor at lunch today. Not sure it's really a top shelf whiskey but really was bad at all. Our group tends to like the ryes and this didn't disappoint. A nice grainy flavor with just a very light sweet. The color is really a nice amber.

Some of us also got sample the Winter Warmer from New Glarus Brewing Co. A very tasty scotch ale. I've been missing scotch ales since Sam Adams quit making there's. On the tour of that brewery, I did ask. They ain't making it any time soon. Ugh.

As for the poker, ya, lets not talk about it. Card death with a new guy means I lose with AA vs A6o. Four card flush. Good times.

Whiskey time

The Robot Squad are state champions again, so the parents are enjoying a nice selection of bourbon and scotch.

10 years of Bourbonators

I've updated the poker points from Friday night. I think I might be able to do those from my phone now, we'll have to try it out some time.

I was noticing that the Bourbonators started in 2003. Colin and I were talking about it. I wasn't there when it started but he was and he thought it was summer or fall when they had the first meeting. Anyone remember? If my math skills are still working, 2003-2013 would be 10 years. Holy crap! Dudes kept this going 10 years!

Anyone interested in thinking about doing anything special to celebrate? A blow the budget kinda whiskey? Commemorative bowling shirts?

Discuss...

Costco has a very interesting store brand whisky

So, Tony found out that Costco has a 20 year old single malt Scottish whisky for sale at about $50. Sounded interesting, how bad could it be? It was finished in a sherry cask...that's usually a plus.

As it turns out, it's pretty darn good. Lightly sweet with a spicy finish, pretty much everyone was very pleasantly surprised with how it tasted. Maybe the rest of the guys will chime in and discuss this more.

We had 13 players for tonight's first tournament. I started by running decent hands into slightly better decent hands but some how avoided a lot of traps. In the end, I finished second and paid for the night. Ah, poker. How I miss you.

2013 Craft Beer Fest

I was getting really curious about if/when the Craft Beer Expo would happen, so I sent the organizers an email. His reply simply said May 4. It's on my calendar and the hall pass request has been made. Maybe even Lemmer and Ross could make a road trip? Thoughts?

Rideablity Whiskey and Wine tasting

Dawn is organizing a whiskey/wine tasting for Ridability. Since, it includes wine, it is a good opportunity to include the wives. It will be on January 24 at the Plumber House. Details are at https://www.facebook.com/events/398533860229682