Working Weekends

 While everyone else seemed to have a rather inebriated weekend, I kept things relaxed and easy. On Friday a midst a tornado warning I drove over to the liqueur store to try something new. I only had a bottle of the homemade wine in the car (have i remembered to blog about that at all?) and decided I could use something different. I picked up a 6 pack of the Southampton Pumpkin Ale and a 4 pack of Kahlua mudslides hoping for a good time. At first I thought the Southampton might be a local beer. Turns out it is... to New York. Happily it wasn't overpoweringly pumpkiny and it had a nice finish. I'd consider this again, although it was on the spendier side ringing up at about 11 dollars for the 6 pack. 4/5 for being a not disappointing pumpkin ale at 5.5 apv, and 3/5 for value.

Next up are the Kahluas. Ever feel to damn lazy to mix a drink? Then try these out. They are super sweet, but still tasty. They are definitely on the girly side and a little spendy at over 6 dollars for the four pack, but hey, a girl deserves something nice now and again. Next time i'm getting the mudslide variety :). Please note, the bottles are extremely breakable, i had a few of these in with the 6 pack of beer. The bottle sweat caused the bottle to fall out and all the bottles to hit the ground, the only one that broke was the single full white russian in the bunch. So sad for me :/.
3/5 for taste, and 2.5/5 for value. Party on.

Adventures in Colorado (Take me back!)

 What better adventures are there to have than those that combine all the things i love together? Awesome people, awesome views, awesome body breaking treks and BOOZE! My labor day weekend consisted of driving down to Colorado, 18-20 hours in a car, quick camp, hiking like a maniac up a 14,000 foot peak! (WHOOT! we are awesome.) Then packing up and driving home. If you get the chance, you should do it too. It comes highly recommended.

 On the way down our caravan of cars got a little bit separated and we had to wait on a few people. The best way we could think of to fill this time was to head over to the wine tasting room right next to where we had stopped for a bite in the sleepy little Colorado town of Georgetown, Colorado. Canyon Wind (www.canyonwindcellars.com/ )offers 4 free tastings of their wines in their tasting room, which we happily took advantage of. With 3 of us, we tried just about everything on the menu. While mid-priced (meaning above my price range) I still managed to be impressed enough to walk out with a wine bottle. Yeah, I might be a sucker, and I usually do buy something at wine tastings. It is still pretty good, though! After the tasting I came away with a few findings. Their blended table wines, meh, only so so. However, some of their specialty varieties were damn good. They had two in particular that really impressed me. Unfortunately, they were both over 20 dollars. The 32 dollar Zephyrus was spicy, rich, and hardly sweet at all. I was in love. The Petit  Vedot was also quite fruity without being sweet. Really rich in flavor and just overall super yummy. I picked up a bottle of my third favorite, the cabernet franc. I'd never heard of this variety before, but apparently it is normally just blended for table reds. This is a rich, somewhat fruity red. Not quite as complex as the other two reds, it still 100% better than most of the 3 dollar reds i indulge in frequently.
It was quite refreshing to try wines that are left in their less sweet, or even dry states. Oh, Colorado. Don't let me leave you! I give the Cabernet Franc a 4/5 for yummy, and a 2/5 for value. I paid 20 for my bottle. Boo.

 Later on, when we had finally made it to the campsite, up the mountain and back down, it was time for some VICTORY BEER! One of the alumni from a club i'm in brought some delicious local beers that he was willing to share. I hypothesize that some of the reason he shared is because us less acclimated folks are funny to watch get drunk in the high altitude off one beer. Or he's just nice. Thanks either way, i think your taste in beer is amazing. The first one i tried was Old Chub Scotch Ale. This dark malty beer is award winning. At 8% it knocked me to my behind at 11,000 feet. I very much enjoyed its smooth flavors and rich overall taste. 5/5 for taste. I have no idea how much it costs, but since one was good enough to put me in a great mood all afternoon, i give it 5/5 for value.

 A little while later everyone else was drinking some hot chocolate. I decide beer was more my speed and picked up another out of the cooler. This extra special bitter from Ska brewing company, another local to the area, was also really good. In Indiana when they say bitter the beer tastes basically green from all the hops. This on the other hand was well rounded. Rich, highlighting a bitter, but delicious flavor, this is one esb that I would drink again. 4.5/5 for flavor. No idea on value :). It was a good afternoon.
Sadly, now, back to the real world. Boo.

Because it was too amusing not to try

I should know better, I really should. But somehow that doesn't stop my masochistic tendency of trying different low calorie Michelob drinks. The other night while in the supermarket picking up the classic single girl combination of Ben and Jerry's and beer, I decided to try something new. Something I hoped would be refreshing, or at least funny. I guess its sort of funny. Michelob makes something called 19th hole, which i think is supposed to be a classy series of mixed drinks that come in a can. I bought lemonade iced tea. It contains 4% alcohol by volume. And well, about 2% flavor by volume.This light beverage costs around 5 to 6 dollars for a 4 pack of 16 ounce cans. At least it has quantity on its side.
As for taste, Tyler, Kerri and I decided it tasted like something you would find in a half filled solo cup the day after a barbecue... with just a hint of dead fly.
It gets a 1/5 for tastiness, and a 1/5 for value. Again, very little value in these drinks, better to just make your own. The only redeeming factor for it is that when cold, and i'm thirsty, i will consume it.
Another winner, Michelob. Keep up the work, i suppose.

Why drinking then Whiskey isn't a good idea.

Remember the post about fireball? Well this little gem is from the same day. We are lucky I remember it. Leonard Kreusch Riesling. While I'm not normally a riesling person, due to their tendency to be cloyingly sweet and well, kinda gross, this one might make me change my mind on the whole low priced riesling category. I'm not sure who's bottle this was, Adam, Junior, or Kumar's, but it was darned delicious. Cheers to you good sir! Also, cheers for opening it when i needed it most.
Ok, back to the wine. This light wine is actually fairly dry, and at about 8 dollars a bottle, I'd say this would be great for a date or night of relaxed drinking. Not so much for when your friend (me) is on a bender. I'll give this wine a 4.5/5 for flavor :D! and a 5/5 for value. Mostly for resuscitating rieslings as a drinking and overall enjoyable drinking experience. Until, of course, I decided to drink more cinnamon whiskey than my poor liver could process.
Cheers!

When you aren't sure where or when....

I've still got something of a backlog of wines I have tried to get through. Sadly, however, I don't escpecially remember consuming this one. It was about 2 weeks ago now, but the wine didn't really make a big impression on me. The local supermarket was having a clearance sale making this, if i recall correctly, palatable wine about half or less of what it usually costs, at about 5 dollars for the bottle.
Also I didn't buy it, Mike, the now ex did. I'd hate to enjoy his choice, but it couldn't have been that bad. I always remember a bad wine. Ugh. The internet say this is a fairly fruity red for a noir, that goes down smooth. I'm going to agree for lack of opposition.
Wine. Drink it. 4/5 for taste (unremembered), 5/5 for value. I love a sale wine that i can enjoy enough to not complain about later. (thats 3/5 normally, i'd never spend more than 5-8 on this wine).

Ways to Celebrate getting Dumped

How do you celebrate getting dumped? I prefer the old fashion method of killing brain cells in a social situation with something delicious in a cup. The drink of choice yesterday evening was the ever loved Fireball Cinnamon Whiskey.

It has come up before, and it will come up again on this blog, since Fireball, AKA time machine, is one of my top hall of fame, best loved hard liquors. Originally "discovered" or at least the first time i tried it was on a mythical shenanigans weekend to Nashville. Later nick-named timemachine for its ability to transport you magically into the future, and somehow never with pants on. This drink makes its way to most social events and celebrations. Even for breakups. 

A bottle of fireball costs between 16-19 dollars at your local liquor store. It tastes just like the candy but packs a punch. You can drink it straight failure easily (that was the poison method last night at least) or you can mix it. My preference is in coke, mmm.... Its a 5/5 for awesomely yummy, and a 4/5 for value. Sadly, I have to shell out almost 20 bucks to enjoy the stuff. Worth it every time, though.

The photo below is odd and old, but I think it describes how awesome fireball is. 

Cheers! 

Take a moment to enjoy the times. And the cider.

I might be slightly behind in my blogging due to the wondrous stresses of graduate school and life in general (i'm talking about you! stupid, broken, car!). Anyways, a few weeks back, in celebration of the pre leaving event for one of the Denver-bound hero's, Derrick picked up a 6 pack of the not terribly overpriced angry  orchard cider. I've blogged about this brand before, when i picked up a 6 pack of the ginger apple cider. I might not be sure about whether or not I liked that flavor, but when it comes to plain old cider, i'm a fan. This was the Crisp variety, as opposed to the dry or ginger. Along the lines of a Woodchuck cider, this was sweet, almost soda sweet, bubbly and delicious. Nothing too classy, but its a good pick for some weekday drinking.
Also, their website (angryorchard.com) is mildly entertaining and has a long list of cocktails you can make using their cider. Mmmmm sounds like something i might have to try this fall. I only lament that to get local cider I have to drive all the way down to Indianapolis. Booo.
Tonight: Strong possibility of picking up a growler from Peoples brewing company!