Drink Of The Week

Civilian_Target · 21-07-2006 11:54pm

Nomination: Becks

Now that Becks has started to appear on the taps at pubs nationwide, what better time to recommend it for drink of the week. Brewed in Bremen in accordance with old-style purity laws (allegedly), Becks is a medium-light tasty but suprisingly strong pils made from south-German hops. Definitely and interesting alternative, but possibly has too much of a poncy image associated with it (if you worry about such things!)

The Sweeper · 22-07-2006 10:28pm

Their non-alcoholic is also quite palatable.

<_<
>_>

...or so I'm told.

boneless · 29-07-2006 1:13pm

I was in London this week and had the pleasure of tring a few pints of Tribute Ale. It's a cask conditioned Cornish beer with a lovely malty, slightly sweet taste and a wonderful aroma... pure beer Heaven... 4.2% abv.

hamsterboy · 15-08-2006 3:34pm

Be careful with this

Kender
Ingredients:
1 2 lt bottle of cider (or equivalent amount). The better the cider the better
1 ltr bottle of West Coast Cooler
1 bottle of Buckfast

Method:
Blend in a bucket or something similar!

Invented by me and a few mates in Enniscorthy in the early 90's.

Blub2k4 · 15-08-2006 3:39pm

hamsterboy wrote:

Be careful with this

Kender
Ingredients:
1 2 lt bottle of cider (or equivalent amount). The better the cider the better
1 ltr bottle of West Coast Cooler
1 bottle of Buckfast

Method:
Blend in a bucket or something similar!

Invented by me and a few mates in Enniscorthy in the early 90's.

What, no skittles? no cough medicine?

If you want a nomination to put in a bucket then you should really go with Sangria.
In fact I'll nominate it now with a recipe to follow.

Blub2k4 · 15-08-2006 3:45pm

Sangria.

a bucket
2* bottles of red wine, quality is not important in fact it should not be a good wine.
1/3 bottle of vodka
1/3 bottle of brandy (not cognac buy cheap stuff)
1-2 litres of orange juice
2 litres of white lemonade or soda water, depends how sweet you like it.
a few tins of cocktail fruits or peaches with syrup
Some lemons and oranges segmented with the skin on.

Throw the whole lot in a bucket and let it sit overnight, it's great for barbecues and when you have lots of people over, it's essential to get a few bits of fruit in the serving vessel so a ladle is handy for serving.

Be careful with this stuff, it tastes like there's no alcohol in it, but it has a kick.

You can vary it from this basic recipe using anything along the lines of what is above, or more or less of any ingredients.
This is my recipe and there are lots of variants, I dont claim that this is a genuine recipe but it's a passable substitute and really tasty.

noby · 16-08-2006 11:06am

hamsterboy wrote:

1 2 lt bottle of cider (or equivalent amount). The better the cider the better

For something that's being thrown into a bucket with buckfast, I'm at a loss as to why you would use a good cider.

hamsterboy · 16-08-2006 11:18am

noby wrote:

For something that's being thrown into a bucket with buckfast, I'm at a loss as to why you would use a good cider.

If you try it with a bad cider you'll find out why I suggested a better one. Althought the ingredients look rough (personally I hate Buckfast) this actually ends up a quite pleasent punch. I made heaps of it for a family gathering a while back and everybody loved it, grannies and all. Never told them what was in it tho

Blub2k4 · 16-08-2006 11:52am

hamsterboy wrote:

Never told them what was in it tho

Yes, quite, that would definitely be the best policy with that one alright.

<edit> it actually sounds like the contents of a gay tramps toilet bowl the day after a particularly hard session.

The Hill Billy · 16-08-2006 12:15pm

hamsterboy wrote:

The better the cider the better

noby wrote:

I'm at a loss as to why you would use a good cider.

By "better" I think that our young afficionado means that it should contain the same amount of alcohol as a bottle of aftershave.

Blub2k4 · 16-08-2006 12:21pm

I think the cider quality thing may be related to nasty after effects, but you've already given up any claim to decency by mixing buckfast with cider (or anything else for that matter) in the first place.......

noby · 16-08-2006 12:57pm

To be honest, and apologies Blub, I'm sure your sangria is a fine drink, but when any cocktail starts with the instruction "Take one bucket..." I'm a little sceptical.

Blub2k4 · 16-08-2006 1:09pm

noby wrote:

To be honest, and apologies Blub, I'm sure your sangria is a fine drink, but when any cocktail starts with the instruction "Take one bucket..." I'm a little sceptical.

I get you completely, I felt the same but I thought the least I could do would be to populate the "drinks in buckets" space in peoples heads with something half sensible.
I think the bucket for the bucket drink could come in handy twice during the whole affair.

<edit> I also successfully employed my recipe (with bucket) at a week-long festival in the UK this month, thanks to an empty flower bucket from Asda and it went down a bomb in field tests

noby · 16-08-2006 1:41pm

Anyway, back to reccomendations.
I'm sure I've mentioned before how my local (small) spar holds a regular stock of Shepherd Neame (Bishop's Finger, Spitfire) in amongst the usual stuff.

Well imagine my surprise when I went in two weeks ago to find two new additions: Whitstable bay organic ale, and 1698 bottle conditioned Strong Ale.

(Photo taken from www.bottledbeer.co.uk)

It's the finest Ale I've had in a long time, obviously helped by the fact that it's readily available on my doorstep. I would encourage anyone to go try it.
Because it is BC, there is a lot more going on in this beer, flavour-wise, but everything is nice and subtle. The higher alcohol content is very warming too. Maybe I should stock up for the autumn.

randomname2005 · 28-08-2006 10:15am

My nomination for drink of the week is Innis and Gunn oak aged Edinburgh Ale. Although not available in every off license there have been a few locations listed in this forum.

The Hill Billy · 28-08-2006 1:20pm

My vote is for a new addition to the Aresti range of chileian red wines - Aresti Carménère. I got it in a Centra over the weekend. Supervalu also hold the Aresti range.

At 6.99 it was an absolute bargain. Full bodied, good legs, redolent of blackberries & chocolate.

You could drink it by the pint.

Blub2k4 · 28-08-2006 2:42pm

So far this week
Innis & Gunn 1 vote
Aresti Carmenere (meh not doing accents) 1 vote.

The Gentleman · 09-09-2006 9:00pm

Does anyone reading this thread drink Glenlivet or Glenmorangie?

fourmations · 23-09-2006 2:11pm

do you not mean glenfidditch?

DrIndy · 15-10-2006 4:51pm

fourmations wrote:

do you not mean glenfidditch?

No, glenlivet is the single malt.

I have tasted it, but my preference in whiskey/whisky is Johnny Walker Black Label. I often find that single scotch malts have an unbalanced taste and you need to blend them to have an all-encompassing aroma.

This of course does not disrespect the truly excellent single malts.

The problem with single malts is also that unlike in ireland, where many barrels are "married" to ensure an even flavour, single malts come straight out of one barrel and thus can have variations in flavour bottle by bottle.

chillywilly · 10-11-2006 1:00pm

my nomination isnt as fancy as the rest of your nominations but i knows what i likes and i likes what i nominate!!

Fosters new(ish) beer....fosters twist.

its brewed with citrus hops to give it a bitter kick and i have to say its so easy to drink and the after taste is lovely.

so, yes...go and try some, delicious in my opinion!

(oh and im not a big fosters original drinker)

The Hill Billy · 06-12-2006 2:10pm

This week I be mostly drinkin'... Weston's Organic Cider.

Beautifully smooth for a strong cider & a perfect accompaniment to winter stews & game.

feylya · 06-12-2006 2:12pm

Hill Billy wrote:

This week I be mostly drinkin'... Weston's Organic Cider.

Beautifully smooth for a strong cider & a perfect accompaniment to winter stews & game.

I got some of this in Tesco's a while back. Just picked it up cos it looked interesting. Absolutely gorgeous. Quite dry I seem to remember.

racso1975 · 18-12-2006 6:22pm

My vote is pimms number 3. its amazingly tasty you add apple juice boil till hot then drink and it is so tasty

oblivious · 18-12-2006 6:27pm

feylya wrote:

I got some of this in Tesco's a while back. Just picked it up cos it looked interesting. Absolutely gorgeous. Quite dry I seem to remember.

I think they a sweet cider which not fermented out like the strong one

Mr Magnolia · 11-01-2007 9:44am

Don't know if it's been mentioned but Chimay Red is a superb beer, nice and fruity, can't recommend it enough really. Needs to be served at around 9 degrees though, straight from the fridge is a little too cold.

chimay_red.jpg

oblivious · 11-01-2007 9:54am

Sparks400 wrote:

Don't know if it's been mentioned but Chimay Red is a superb beer, nice and fruity, can't recommend it enough really. Needs to be served at around 9 degrees though, straight from the fridge is a little too cold.

chimay_red.jpg

Had to explain that in a couple of places, apparently no one looks at how the brewer recommends storing their beer. Also Chimay blue can be laid down for a number of year, apparently it will develop a port like quality!

gurramok · 23-06-2007 7:06pm

Beamish maybe for drink of the week?

They've won a Gold Medal at the Monde Selection awards in Barcelona!
http://www.breakingnews.ie/business/mhkfgbauojql/

rubadub · 25-09-2007 11:59am

gurramok wrote:

Beamish maybe for drink of the week?

They've won a Gold Medal at the Monde Selection awards in Barcelona!
http://www.breakingnews.ie/business/mhkfgbauojql/

I like beamish, and I always thought if it costed MORE than guinness more people might try it, it has a weird stigma attached to it.

kifi · 10-11-2007 6:12pm

rubadub wrote: »

I like beamish, and I always thought if it costed MORE than guinness more people might try it, it has a weird stigma attached to it.

That's a good pint. No apologies

HashSlinging · 08-12-2007 3:54am

Just a little tip more than anything, I'm a total novice when it comes to actually picking wines, ya know its pot luck, but I recently picked up a book on cab-sauv and to my amazement have started to pick really good wines, cant believe it.. anyways my tip is that when looking for a nice wine from chile, pick one from the CENTRAL VALLE as they all seem yummy, on my third different one from region and yup its good...7.99 dunnes MONTGRAS .

All you pro's know the deal.

The_Conductor · 08-12-2007 10:28am

HashSlinging wrote:

Just a little tip more than anything, I'm a total novice when it comes to actually picking wines, ya know its pot luck, but I recently picked up a book on cab-sauv and to my amazement have started to pick really good wines, cant believe it.. anyways my tip is that when looking for a nice wine from chile, pick one from the CENTRAL VALLE as they all seem yummy, on my third different one from region and yup its good...7.99 dunnes MONTGRAS .

All you pro's know the deal.

Personally I don't think its pot-luck at all. We have actually started to stock nice wine in this country- a few years ago if you went to buy a bottle of wine you were typically looking at a fiver bottle of plonk. People don't appreciate that if they invest just a little bit more that the quality they are buying increases exponentially.

A few examples of really nice wine out there this weekend- Superquinn are giving away a very drinkable bottle of Prosecco (commonly known as Italian Champagne) with every 60 Euro of shopping until Sunday. Tesco have a very drinkable Chablis at 9.99 in their Premium Range (with 30% back in additional club-card points). Even my local is getting into the act, with a box of 2 bottles of Beaujolais Noveau (excuse my spelling) for 25 Euro.

Personally I cannot stand the bog standard Cabarnet Sauvignon from Chile (or indeed California either), it'll never beat a decent Chablis- which we can now readily get even in Tesco......

Everyone to themselves......

el dude · 12-12-2007 7:00am

I want to get a few different sparkling wines as gifts for a few friends. Want to spend around €20. Love some suggestions.

The_Conductor · 12-12-2007 8:39am

el dude wrote:

I want to get a few different sparkling wines as gifts for a few friends. Want to spend around €20. Love some suggestions.

Proseco is about a tenner a bottle and quite drinkable. Its more fruity than Cava and not nearly as dry- its really good ice cold?

Theatrebuff · 17-12-2007 9:53pm

Cosmopolitan

1 1/2oz. Vodka
1/2 oz. Cointreau or Triple Sec
3/4 oz. Cranberry Juice
1/4 oz. Lime Juice

Combine all ingredients in cocktail shaker with ice. Shake well.
Strain into a cockail glass, and Garnish with a lime squeeze.

Mr Magnolia · 17-12-2007 9:58pm

One of my fav's Theatrebuff. I ball some Galia Melon and add one or two of them to the glass.

Oh, always triple sec for me.

Theatrebuff · 17-12-2007 11:27pm

Have you ever tried using pomegranate juice fresh or packaged instead of cranberry?

Mr Magnolia · 18-12-2007 11:47am

No, but I will. Sounds like it could improve it. Thanks.

grenache · 02-01-2008 10:19pm

The best sparkling wine around is definitely Green Point NV, a terrific sparkler from Victoria in Oz. Its owned by Moet Hennessy group, who know a thing or two about sparkling wines. Its majority Pinot Noir, minority Chardonnay blend gives it a soft peachy fruitiness, while its yeast flavour is very subtle, something i like about it. In other words, it doesn't taste of fresh baked bread, like so many other sparkling wines! You can get it for around €23, more pricey than your average sparkler, but definitely worth it.

The_Conductor · 03-01-2008 10:56am

grenache wrote: »

The best sparkling wine around is definitely Green Point NV, a terrific sparkler from Victoria in Oz. Its owned by Moet Hennessy group, who know a thing or two about sparkling wines. Its majority Pinot Noir, minority Chardonnay blend gives it a soft peachy fruitiness, while its yeast flavour is very subtle, something i like about it. In other words, it doesn't taste of fresh baked bread, like so many other sparkling wines! You can get it for around €23, more pricey than your average sparkler, but definitely worth it.

I'd nominate Prosecco Chiara- its 9.99 a bottle, and good luck to anyone trying to tell it apart from Veuve Cliquot.....

Quality · 07-01-2008 5:58pm

el dude wrote: »

I want to get a few different sparkling wines as gifts for a few friends. Want to spend around €20. Love some suggestions.

Marks and spencers do a good selection of sparkling wines and cheap champagnes.

There prosecco is very good.....

The_Conductor · 07-01-2008 7:26pm

Quality wrote:

Marks and spencers do a good selection of sparkling wines and cheap champagnes.

There prosecco is very good.....

Personally I think its rather dry. O'Briens now have Ciara for about 12 Euro- hard to beat....

roadruner · 08-03-2008 3:50pm

Cointreau (ORANGE Liquir)
Baileys
Créme de mente

done right you have a drinkable irish flag
drink enough of it and you'll be fluent in Bulls***

The_Conductor · 08-03-2008 7:26pm

Shudder......
You have to drink it immediately or else the Baileys curdles......
Its also incredibly sweet- not to everyone's taste......

Ps- the shudder is a result of memories of drinking 2 litres of Cointreau in 2 litres of orange juice about 10 years ago....... shudder.......

Quality · 08-03-2008 7:49pm

I'd say it would be a shot rather than a long glass...

Sarky · 14-04-2008 6:50pm

This thing still working?

I'd like to put forward Jack Daniels single barrel for nomination. I found it in a pub I rarely frequented (but do so more now :pac:) for the ripe old sum of €5.60.

Y'know the way regular JD is pretty harsh, and not exactly the sort of thing you might drink neat for preference? Single barrel doesn't have that. It's a really nice smooth drink, a touch sweeter than most whiskies I've had (apart from Southern Comfort). It smells great, it looks great, and it tasted good enough to shut me up for half an hour while I just sat and enjoyed my drink. Made of win. And maybe some awesome.

the beer revolu · 17-09-2008 6:32pm

Sarky wrote: »

Single barrel doesn't have that. It's a really nice smooth drink, a touch sweeter than most whiskies I've had (apart from Southern Comfort).

Southern Comfort isn't whiskey.
It's a whiskey based liqueur - like Drambuie or Irish Mist.

Sorry if that seem pedantic but for years that "Southern Comfort is my favourite whiskey" thing has bugged me.
Just wanted to set the record straight.:)

the beer revolu · 17-09-2008 6:38pm

smccarrick wrote: »

Personally I cannot stand the bog standard Cabarnet Sauvignon from Chile (or indeed California either), it'll never beat a decent Chablis- which we can now readily get even in Tesco......

Everyone to themselves......

While I'm on my pedantic horse..........

I don't think Chilean or Californian Cabernet Sauvignion would be competing with Chablis considering Cab Sauv produces red wine and the Chablis area produces only white wine!

TheLoc · 23-09-2008 9:46am

Tequila sunsrise for me.

3 shots of tequila, Fresh orange juice, ice, grenadine. throw it all in a mixer and taste the sunshine. refreshing and gets u light headed, quickly.

Also for beer..... LEFFE is the greates beer available in Ireland. savage honey after taste and its strong. a bit expensive compared to other drinks in the off licence but still well worth it. €7.99 for 4 bottles. 6.7% i think.

Sarky · 15-10-2008 2:45pm

Tried a Lithanian beer called Svyturys Ekstra last night. Really tasty crisp sweet beer, the kind you could drink all night. I happily obliged.

And since the pub bought directly off the brewery it was €3.50 a pint, but that's neither here nor there.

Drink Of The Week

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