What Makes a Great Lager? 3 Speed vs. Captain’s Log
What makes a great lager? I wish I knew for sure. It’s a bit tricky. Lagers are renowned worldwide for their drinkability, their simplicity and — perhaps unfairly — their mediocrity. They are the beers your sports-loving uncle drinks. They’re the cheap pints, and the cans…
Basil Hayden’s Bourbon: Good for Bond, Not for Me
When you think of James Bond’s drink, you think of – well you know what it is. But it’s not simply agitated vodka drinks the suave spy goes in for – it’s bourbon too. In the 2011 Bond novel Carte Blanche, James keeps Basil Hayden’s…
Wine Tasting: Less Bullshit Than You’d Think
Ok, let me be quite frank. There is some element of bullshit to wine tasting. Wine tasters and critics who are able to eke out every faint soupcon of flavour may tend to exaggerate just a tad. And what about those wine critics who were…
Lot 40 Whisky Has a Lot to Offer
Canadian whiskey has traditionally gotten a bad rap. Mostly thanks to brands like Canadian Club serving the “bottom shelf mixer whiskey” slot with extreme consistency (although their Chairman’s Select Rye proves they can deliver a decent dram.) But dawn is breaking for Canadian whiskey lovers,…
Stoneleigh Sauvignon Blanc Is a Lavish, Balanced Wine
I’ll never forget the first time I tried Stoneleigh Sauvignon Blanc. I was much younger, and at the time a complete red wine evangelist. I sneered at white wine and drinkers of it as an inferior class. As it turns out (unsurprisingly) it was me…
Alcohol-free April: A Month In Review
Well, I did it folks. One whole month without booze. It wasn’t pleasant, but I learned a whole lot about what abstaining is like (SPOILER: it sucks.) I have an enormous amount of respect for people recovering from alcohol addiction, and I’m going to try…
German Beer Purity Law: The History (and Future) of the Reinheitsgebot
With a half millennia of history, the Reinheitsgebot (commonly anglicized to German Beer Purity Law) is as deeply ingrained in beer culture as, well, grains. It turned 500 years old on April 23rd 2016, celebrating a law that for many decades made “German beer” synonymous…
German Beer Purity Law: 500 Years Old & Time to Die
If you’ve ever had the dubious pleasure of tilting back a can of Holsten Premium, you’ve probably noticed the proudly displayed banner at the can’s bottom that reads “GERMAN PURITY LAW OF 1516.” This purity law doesn’t refer to, uh, other infamous German purity laws,…
Alcohol-free April 2016: Update #1
Two weeks in to no-alcohol April. You probably expect this post to be relatively uplifting and – at its essence – I think it is. But the reality of not being able to drink when you A) want to and B) can’t… well frankly it sucks….
Yellow Rose Rye Is a Tasty Texas Whiskey
Many people sipping American whiskey can get stuck in a rut bouncing between two states — namely Kentucky and Tennessee. But there’s amazing whiskey being produced all over America (one of my favourites is Rittenhouse Rye, made in Pennsylvania.) Recently I added to this list with Yellow Rose…