24 Down

24 down, having brewed Dunkleweizen yesterday. Next up, Kolsch and California Common Beer, and then who knows?

My mistake

It isn't 16 down, I went back throught the blog and counted up, and it is 23 down, 57 to go after 30 months. Time to get brewing.

Brewing Doubles and Feeling.... Uh... Married.

Today, with a visit from Nick the Mighty Brewer, we brewed up two styles of India Pale Ale, English and American, both of which are going to be great. I expect to keg both within 10 days or so, though we will see. I want to have them both ready to head to the Cowtown Yeast Wranglers competition in February, which means they need to be bottled/kegged within about 2 weeks.

This means that we are 16 down and 64 to go, with a forecast of 2-3 more beers this month if the weather holds.

The world is my freezer.

Literally. The world is my freezer. I just made a big pot of soup and the portioned tubs of it are sitting on my deck because they it is colder out there than in my freezer, and also a lot more spacious.

For Christmas, I received a ton of great presents, one of which was Jim Murray's 2009 Whisky Bible, a document which purports to rate every known whisky. Scotch, Irish, English, Bourbon, Japanese, Nepalese, Norwegian, Spanish, Australian, and not the least of them is Canadian, or what we in Canada would call "Rye". Although a disproportionate amount of the text is devoted to Scottish Malt whiskeys, he repeatedly observes in his introductions to other sections that blended whiskeys are currently overlooked by whiskey drinkers around the world.

Being a patriot, and long having been an advocate of the principle that it is better to drink good rye than cheap Scotch, I turned my attention immediately to the Canadian section, where I found an interesting statement - that the 4 highest rated Canadian whiskeys in his book would give the four best whiskeys from any country a run for their money - presumably including Scotland. The second through fourth were rather obscure premium bottlings. The number 1 whiskey in Canada, described as a "National Treasure"? Bottom shelf booze. Literally. In my hometown, the top brand is a discount brand relegated to the bottom shelf, leaving room for more lofty drinks like Crown Royal.

Best Whiskey in Canada? Alberta Premium. So the man says. Who am I to argue?

A dedicated booze enthusiast, that's who. I went to the store.

This is a big whiskey. The Lagavulin of Canada. It grabs hold and shakes. Big body, big flavour, big aroma, big rye taste. Go get some if you are a rye drinker. It is worth the shame of being seen buying discount booze. This is a whiskey to run with the best premium spirits in the world.