Smirnoff Blue Label & Absolut Red Label (50% Vodka's)

Dave_Kilkenny

Smirnoff Blue Label & Absolut Red Label.
I've had both in the Uk but never came across them in Ireland, Iv check the local tesco and dunnes and couldnt come across them.

Any suggestions in the Kilkenny-Waterford area to get them.

Also is their some legislation in place to prevent the sale of high alcohol drinks in Ireland. Never seen Absinthe sold here either, and I'm not just referring to wormwood absinthe but **** off strong alcohol content absinthe.

BeerNut

Dave_Kilkenny wrote: »

Any suggestions in the Kilkenny-Waterford area to get them.

The Wine Centre in Kilkenny and World Wide Wines in Waterford are, I'm told, the best offies round those parts. Try them. But I've only ever seen those vodkas at airports.

Dave_Kilkenny wrote: »

Also is their some legislation in place to prevent the sale of high alcohol drinks in Ireland.

Nope. You can buy 90% ABV poitín in Celtic Whiskey. Much above that is impossible under the laws of physics (which, despite the best efforts of Fianna Fáil, still trump the the laws of Ireland).

It's just that the market sector of number-chasing ABV twitchers isn't large enough to justify the outlay of importing really strong booze. I buy my absinthe in Spain.

pa990

i've seen blue label smirnoff in either dunnes or tesco within the last two months.. for the life of me cant remember which store it was

Dunnes have the smirnoff blue label. One of the bigger stores would be more likely to carry it.

Molloys Clondalkin

Blue label is widely available at 45 per cent abv. theres black label too thats maketed as small batch vodka but Ive never tried it.
could I recommened 42 below from New Zealand distilled 5 times and is so smooth without the heavy overtones of sugar or glyceriene that you would find in smirnoff or grey goose.

rubadub

Molloys Clondalkin wrote: »

Blue label is widely available at 45 per cent abv. theres black label too thats maketed as small batch vodka but Ive never tried it.

Yep, blue for the market here is usually 45%, I thought it was common enough here, it is 50% in most airports.

The black is very nice (and I am no fan of smirnoff red -the budweiser of vodkas), it is a pot still vodka. I think it is one of the better value "premium" vodkas, I got a load of it cheap years ago, think it was priced wrongly, it was lovely & smooth, one of the few I would drink neat. The black I got was 40% and I do prefer a slightly stronger one than the 37.5% which most are, I remember gordons gin dropped to 37.5% in the UK and they had to change back to 40% due to customer demand. I think it was lowered to get in a different vat or duty bracket, not sure.

BeerNut wrote: »

Nope. You can buy 90% ABV poitín in Celtic Whiskey. Much above that is impossible under the laws of physics

about 96% is the limit, after that you have to "dry" it with chemicals, and it could get close to 100% but is usually toxic due to the drying chemicals (let alone the booze!), also if it is left open in the air it absorbs moisture and dilutes itself back to 96%. At that strength it seems to dry my teeth, about 60% would be my preferred strength.

Finlandia is €16 in tesco at the moment, they keep having vodka offers lately.

Dave_Kilkenny

rubadub wrote: »

The black is very nice (and I am no fan of smirnoff red -the budweiser of vodkas), it is a pot still vodka. I think it is one of the better value "premium" vodkas, I got a load of it cheap years ago, think it was priced wrongly, it was lovely & smooth, one of the few I would drink neat.

Nice to see a good vodka chat going on around here for once, anyway just thought id let you know DrinkStore.ie have Smirnoff Black Label (700ml 40%ALC) for €30

Molloys Clondalkin

30 euro sounds a bit heavy for smirnoff black label!!
IDL are doing a deal with most of there spirits we have finlandia for 15.99 too along with a lot of there range. its the pre budget/pre christmas warm up now.
Has anyone ever drank 96-100 percent poitin??
and what was it like never tried it myself I must go and find a nice relaxed bottle of hackler to sample. (yea yea safe at 40% I know Im a whimp )

BeerNut

Molloys Clondalkin wrote: »

Has anyone ever drank 96-100 percent poitin?

As rubadub says above, it's basically a physical impossibility outside a lab.

Molloys Clondalkin

exatly! even at 90% it would be an achievement to handle the ether !

rubadub

Molloys Clondalkin wrote: »

Has anyone ever drank 96-100 percent poitin??

I have drank 96% spirits, it sort of feels dry on the teeth like I was saying before, it can also sting the mouth. If you hold normal vodka under your tounge it will sting in a similar way as it starts to absorb through the thin membrane. It is not easy on the stomach at that strength so it should be diluted. It is also hard to gauge how much you have drank.

Most commercial vodkas would be distilled to above 90% and then diluted back down to 40%. To get from say 10% to 40% is pretty easy in a potstill, it then exponentially drops off. e.g. it might take 2 passes in a potstill to get from 10 to 70%, but could take another 2 passes to get from 90 to 92%. Commercial stills will use special refluxing fractionating distillation columns or be "continuous stills", I designed one which in a single pass was the equivalent of ~25 potstill passes, and could get to 96% in one go.

This is why potstill vodkas would cost more, it requires more time & energy to do it. The copper in the stills are said to remove/neutralise nasty flavourings in the spirits. In stainless steel stills people have found improvements in flavour by adding in some copper in the vapour path.

Most people overestimate the strength of illegal poitin due to the poor taste, I am pretty good at gauging strength and have probably never tasted a "farmers poitin" stronger than 60%. Like other illegal drugs they often get cut/diluted along the way. A lad in work had some poitin and I reckon it was under 40%, though tasted vile so they all reckoned it was strong. I have an alcohol hydrometer (not a homebrew one) so can test strengths.