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Heaven: I feel I ought to like this but I DON'T

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  • Another one who prefers beer, preferably English bitter, although IPA in summer is OK. I'm picky about the stouts and porters, but like them in winter, Guinness is better with Dublin water, Murphy's on tap is good if you can get it.
  • I know lots of women who like beer. Why get sexist about it? (Wild Haggis, I'm looking at you).

    ;)
  • stetsonstetson Shipmate
    Since we're onto beer, bitter etc, I'll just say that I dislike all alcohol, and, contra the theme of this thread, don't really feel that I should like it.

    Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the buzz, the problem is the physiological effects; it's a drug that definitely has a noticable impact on your physical state. I honestly don't understand how anyone can down a few pints, and head home to eat dinner and watch TV in tip top shape. At the very least, the dizziness is gonna be inconducive to that.

    And the hangovers, ugh. It's pretty much the next day, shot to hell. Asking me if I want to go out drinking is like asking me if I want to have the flu the next day.
  • It can certainly befuddle you. I tend to tread very carefully with alcohol of any kind these days, both my father and brother had/have drink problems.

    I tend to skip it entirely during Lent and Advent and feel I could do during other fasts.

    I'll generally have a pint or two during the week and perhaps share a bottle of wine with my good lady wife over the course of a weekend, although she has to drink very moderately due to her condition.

    I'll very rarely go for a whole evening session in a pub. I'll have perhaps two pints when compering a Poems & Pints at my local and maybe 3 or 4 during the course of a whole day at the town's music festival, but that's only once a year.

    I like proper cider but will only have about 2 or 3 a year. A bottle of gin will last me a long time and a single malt will last me years sometimes.

    The rest of the time it's ale and wine for the most part, sometimes lager with food.

    Some weeks it'll only be a bottle of beer on a Thursday, say, and wine on a Saturday and Sunday.

    It depends.
  • balaambalaam Shipmate
    fineline wrote: »
    And like the people who say they’re not racist but hate everyone equally, I can honestly say I dislike all sport equally, regardless of its country. Hate would be too strong a word - even dislike is too strong a word, now I think of it. I simply find nothin
    mousethief wrote: »
    balaam wrote: »
    I did not mean to start a pond war. I really like all the football codes except one, it happens to be the American code, nothing against Americans there.
    You were just another brick in the wall. Or the lack of a brick which allowed the flood of the usual America-slagging to pour through. We're getting so fucking sick of it.

    There were two deliberate digs to British sport in the post:

    When I said it was the start of the football season, only for the 20 teams in the Premier League, all other teams had already started their season.

    Then there was the mention of Rugby League being superior to Union, posted knowing that Union fans far outweigh League fans on the Ship.

    But mention the reasons that I don't like the American Code, and I become accused of starting a pond war. My target was wider than that.
  • All I know, @Gamma Gamaliel, is that beer lovers here seem to go nuts over the craft IPAs and over-hopped beers and can’t get enough of them. Give me a Yuengling instead any day. Or much better yet, give me a bourbon.
  • The beer lovers were starved for years, at least since Prohibition. When brewing started back up again after it was repealed the brewers went for lowest common denominator tasteless fizz. US beer became a national scandal and a disgrace.

    So the craft brewers are to be commended for actually trying to brew something interesting to drink. The trouble was, they'd lost the art of cask-conditioning and also hopped their brews to high heaven and beyond.

    As for bourbon, what's that? Scottish whisky I know, Irish whiskey I know, I've even had Welsh whiskey, but what is this bourbon of which you speak?

    ;)
  • I've not had Yuengling. Looks like it gets reasonable but not great reviews on line. It's described as a 'regular guy's beer'. Nothing wrong with that.

    I prefer ales to lager but Yuengling sounds a better bet than Miller or Coors.

    Samuel Adams is ok. Brooklyn Lager is ok too, a Viennese style. I wouldn't go out of my way to drink either, mind but then I'm an ale bloke. But I wouldn't turn my nose up at them like I would at a Coors or Bud'.
  • I have nothing at all against Scotch or Irish whiskey. I enjoy them both. But bourbon is God’s gift to my people in the American South. As Walker Percy said, “Bourbon does for me what the piece of cake did for Proust.”

    :wink:
  • A Feminine ForceA Feminine Force Shipmate
    edited August 2018
    The beer lovers were starved for years, at least since Prohibition. When brewing started back up again after it was repealed the brewers went for lowest common denominator tasteless fizz. US beer became a national scandal and a disgrace.

    So the craft brewers are to be commended for actually trying to brew something interesting to drink. The trouble was, they'd lost the art of cask-conditioning and also hopped their brews to high heaven and beyond.

    As for bourbon, what's that? Scottish whisky I know, Irish whiskey I know, I've even had Welsh whiskey, but what is this bourbon of which you speak?

    ;)

    Sour corn mash whiskey (with an "e") the original moonshine. The most efficient way for the Appalachian corn farmer to add value to his commodity and economically ship it over the mountains to markets on the east coast. Jim Beam, Maker's Mark, Tennessee Sipping Whiskey.

    Awful stuff but I must thank those who drink it for their empty oak barrels are essential to the flavor of many fine Scottish single malt whiskies (without an "e").

    I far prefer bourbon cask single malt to sherry cask single malt, though both are cracking good.

    AFF





  • Sure. I'd imagine I'd enjoy a bourbon if I ever visited the South. I've an idea that US moonshine and whiskies taste like treacle, though. I'm sure the proper bourbons don't but why would I drink it over here when there are so many Scottish single malts to choose from?
  • I have never had bourbon, but would probably like it.

    But I am sure it is not like a proper Scotch. Each of which is different.
  • RossweisseRossweisse Hell Host, 8th Day Host, Glory
    It was a wonderful day when I recognized that I just don't like beer, and that I don't have to drink it. Give me a glass of wine (but please, not a cabernet nor a chardonnay), a glass of cider, or a wee dram of Highland Park or The Dalwhinnie.

  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    I have never had bourbon, but would probably like it.

    Absent you from felicity no longer. Wrap yourself round a glass of Maker’s Mark or Woodford Reserve.

  • I've an idea that US moonshine and whiskies taste like treacle.
    Moonshine can vary widely depending on how it’s made, whether legally or illegally. I’ve had moonshine that was delicious and moonshine that reminded me of kerosene.

    Meanwhile, what is this treacle of which you speak? :wink:
  • balaambalaam Shipmate
    Firenze wrote: »
    I have never had bourbon, but would probably like it.

    Absent you from felicity no longer. Wrap yourself round a glass of Maker’s Mark or Woodford Reserve.

    I'd add Wild Turkey to that list.
  • MooMoo Kerygmania Host

    Sour corn mash whiskey (with an "e") the original moonshine. The most efficient way for the Appalachian corn farmer to add value to his commodity and economically ship it over the mountains to markets on the east coast. Jim Beam, Maker's Mark, Tennessee Sipping Whiskey.

    The original moonshine is a clear liquid which is traditionally sold in canning jars. There was a time when you could not make or sell it legally. Then the authorities realized that people bought it because they liked it, and if it were legalized, the state could collect tax on it.

  • balaambalaam Shipmate
    On the subject of whiskies, I drink single malts a lot, so I am supposed, by those who are supposed to know better than me, not to like grain whiskey. Bit Greenore single grain, from Ireland, is lovely and smoooth (with at least 3 os).
  • balaam wrote: »
    Firenze wrote: »
    I have never had bourbon, but would probably like it.

    Absent you from felicity no longer. Wrap yourself round a glass of Maker’s Mark or Woodford Reserve.

    I'd add Wild Turkey to that list.
    You really can’t get much more Southern than Wild Turkey.*


    *Some would say much more redneck. I’m totally okay with that.

  • A Feminine ForceA Feminine Force Shipmate
    edited August 2018
    Over thirty years ago, my parents laid in a bottle of Jim Beam for my wedding reception at the request of the single guest who drank bourbon. When he arrived, he drank all the single malt and left my father with a bottle of impotable (is that a word?) bourbon. Nobody in my family touched the stuff.

    My parents passed away last year and I have been tasked with organizing the estate, and what do you know? There's an unopened bottle of Jim Beam in the back of the liquor cabinet.

    The words of a George Thorogood song are resonating in my head right now.

    AFF
  • Treacle?

    Something thick, viscous, sweet and treacly ...

    ;)

    I have absolutely no idea what bourbon tastes like but have some kind of idea that it would taste something between Southern Comfort and a boiled sweet or cough mixture.

    I don't know why I have that impression.

    Perhaps I ought to taste some and find out.

    For Rosseweisse and others who have abandoned beer ... what can I say?

    Mind you, even the best beers can vary, particularly if they're not kept or cellared properly. I had a pint of Adnam's Broadside in a pub in Kent this summer. The barrels were racked behind the bar rather than kept in the cellar and hand-pumped. Nothing wrong with tapping it straight from the barrel of course but in this instance the Adnam's tasted like ditch water ...

    I'd have been embarrassed to introduce it to anyone from overseas.
  • I have absolutely no idea what bourbon tastes like but have some kind of idea that it would taste something between Southern Comfort and a boiled sweet or cough mixture.

    I don't know why I have that impression.
    Nor do I.
    For Rosseweisse and others who have abandoned beer ... what can I say?
    ”Thanks, that’s more for me”?

  • Sure. I'd imagine I'd enjoy a bourbon if I ever visited the South. I've an idea that US moonshine and whiskies taste like treacle, though. I'm sure the proper bourbons don't but why would I drink it over here when there are so many Scottish single malts to choose from?
    They're not the same thing. North American whiskys incl. bourbon aren't smoked. It's possible to like them both without thinking one supplants the other.
  • While we're on the topic of whisk(e)y, being Canadian I always feel a little unpatriotic when I say I do not like Canadian (rye) whiskey. It's made from Canada, full of Canada goodness, but it tastes to me like I imagine a hangover feels.

    AFF

  • balaambalaam Shipmate
    I have absolutely no idea what bourbon tastes like but have some kind of idea that it would taste something between Southern Comfort and a boiled sweet or cough mixture.

    I don't know why I have that impression.

    Perhaps I ought to taste some and find out.
    So you've tasted Southern Comfort, a liqueur and imagine that American whiskey would taste like that?
    That is like tasting Scotch whisky based liqueur Drambuie and imagining that Scotch tastes like that.
    Whiskies are not sweet like liqueurs.

    You need a better imagination. Or taste some.

  • mousethief wrote: »
    It's possible to like them both without thinking one supplants the other.
    From your keyboard to the entire internet's ears...
  • Climacus wrote: »
    mousethief wrote: »
    It's possible to like them both without thinking one supplants the other.
    From your keyboard to the entire internet's ears...
    If only.
  • I acknowledge a fail of imagination. I'm just being honest. It may be an irrational impression but it's one I've had. It could be a Pond bias or based on the impression that most US food and drink - at least in its highly commercialised or international forms is either very adolescent - loads of sauce or additives - or unspeakably bland.

    I'm sure that's not the case on the ground as it were and in people's homes and that it varies according to context just as good and drink does over here or anywhere else in the world.

    Other than the coffee, most of what I ate and drank in New York was pretty dire, but then you could spend considerable time in London and not eat anything worth eating.

    So, yes, I ought to try a bourbon and yes, I appreciate that it's not the same as a Scots whisky in the same way that a Czech pilsner is not the same as an British ale and that each should be judged on their own individual merits.
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    edited August 2018
    How does someone get to this age without being passed a bottle of JD at some time?

    I know it doesn't call itself one, but as https://thewhiskeywash.com/whiskey-styles/american-whiskey/jack-daniels-bourbon-definitive-answer/ points out, it might as well be, taste-wise.
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Having drunk distilled liquors from Ireland, Scotland, England, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Croatia, Greece, Albania, USA, Canada, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, Japan and China, I can assure you it’s all good. Well, maybe not the Albanian raki, that was a bit rough.
  • Calvados is variable in my experience. The Normandy exchange students used to bring a bottle each when they came to stay: one bottle could be lovely, the other paint stripper.
  • Nobody's ever offered me a bottle of Jack Daniels, Karl.

    Whatever that says about me or anyone else, I don't know.

    I've never gone out and bought a bottle of it either.
  • Firenze: have you thought of running tours?
  • Firenze wrote: »
    Having drunk distilled liquors from Ireland, Scotland, England, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Croatia, Greece, Albania, USA, Canada, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, Japan and China, I can assure you it’s all good. Well, maybe not the Albanian raki, that was a bit rough.
    Make sure to start at the beginning of the list and by Albania the raki would probably taste better.
  • I like to like beer but.......................
    My son likes good craft ale and spent time working at a CAMARA event and loved it......and the ale!

    The first time I went to Ireland I was determined that I would try and like Guiness. Guess what?
    Yes.....................yuck.

    Never mind I've discovered "Cardiff Gin"
  • Er ... that's not actually beer ...
  • I was told, when getting the taste for bitter at university, that I was likely to change my taste buds to still crave that bitterness, and the other thing that provides it is tannin. So I guess that's why I drink builder's tea, with the teabag still in going nice and bitter.
  • I have put some bourbon on my wish list. So I will probably get some at some point.

    I suppose I assume it tastes like Southern Comfort, but less smooth. The flavour being similar, the texture and feel being different.

    I will see. I like SC, incidentally, so it is not a bad thing.
  • Craft beer and real ale aren't the same thing.
  • I think it in this thread where people have been complaining about cricket.

    I find this unacceptable but rather than fire off a Hell call, I have decided to educate instead.

    Therefore you will find a handy-dandy, cut-out-and-keep guide to God's Own Sport
    right here at Cricket - An Explanation for the Unenlightened.

    So, you too will soon know your Googlies from your boxes, and your Wrong-Un's from your leg-byes.
  • EnochEnoch Shipmate
    Not liking Guinness is a concept I find difficult to get my head round. It would be like not liking Wadworth's. Mind, no modern Guinness is a patch on the draft cask conditioned variety one used to get in Ireland 50+ years ago, which took about 5 minutes to pour. It was gradually topped up from a jug with the part of the previous glass in it, while the head was slowly skimmed off into the jug with a wooden spoon to wait for the next person. The time it took, though, might explain why I don't think it's sold that way anywhere now.

    About 35 years ago, I had a glass of genuine poteen, which is a different version of what I assume moonshine is. It was strong, harsh, fiery and sour. If you were drinking just to get drunk, you'd get there cheaply and quickly. And I'm sure you'd regret it in the morning. But for all the sentiment, it wasn't a patch on the products of Bushmills et al.
  • If you mixed SC about 50-50 with simple syrup and boiled it down, it would be great on waffles.
  • balaambalaam Shipmate
    Craft beer and real ale aren't the same thing.

    Some real ales are also craft beers, but most craft beers are keg. I'm afraid this format does not let me upload the Venn diagram.

    In fact I cannot think of any beer type that does not overlap with another. Even ale and lager have an overlap in Kolsch. A must if you are ever in the Bonn/Cologne area.
  • balaambalaam Shipmate
    KarlLB wrote: »
    How does someone get to this age without being passed a bottle of JD at some time?

    I know it doesn't call itself one, but as https://thewhiskeywash.com/whiskey-styles/american-whiskey/jack-daniels-bourbon-definitive-answer/ points out, it might as well be, taste-wise.
    Bourbon must be distilled in Kentucky, JD is distilled in Tenessee. That is the only difference I know of. It is quite similar to Jim Beam.

  • mousethiefmousethief Shipmate
    edited August 2018
    Bourbon has a 51% minimum corn content requirement, along with other requirements (wikipedia is your friend).
  • 95% of bourbon is bottled in Kentucky, but apparently that's not a requirement.
  • It's interesting you think Jack Daniels and Jim Beam are similar. I find the former undrinkable, and the latter quite pleasant.
  • Perhaps, then, Balaam we need to coin somevnrw phrases to distinguish cask-conditioned from keg.

    I'm a simple soul. In my book craft is simply posh keg.

    But yes, beer styles do overlap and some milds are not that different from some bitter ales, although other than in the English Midlands it's difficult to find a mild these days.
  • Do they make pilsners in Blighty?
  • They make lager. Badly for the most part. Our ales can be outstanding, our lagers piss poor.

    There are some decent microbrewery lagers but those brewed by the big breweries are like cat's pee.

    I'm more of an ale drinker, but do like some of the proper Czech and German pilsners.

    Lager goes better with curry and Chinese food, and pizzas of course.

    I wouldn't go into a pub and order a lager. If there were no hand-pulled ales on offer I probably wouldn't be in there in the first place, but suppose I was, I'd rather have a non-alcoholic beverage than drink an industrial commercial lager.

    I'll sometimes have a bottle at home when it's hot, or with food, but on those rare occasions I'd go for a Czech or German lager rather than a British one - although if some of the better brands were more readily available I'd have one.
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