P. S., I Love You

Porter & Stouts Tasting

We are honouring the last week of winter with a blind challenge taste-off of Porters and Stouts on Wednesday March 16 at 7 p.m. Our choice of dark brewed elixirs has little to do with the Irish themed week that a certain multi-national brewery would like you to associate with their black beer but owes more to the amazing selection of local craft brews in this style.

There will be ten samples in all: seven from casks, one on draught, and two from bottles. The cost of advance tickets is $19.50 (all in).

Porters: Great Lakes Merry Porter vs. Scotch Irish Black Irish Porter vs. Duggan's #8 Porter vs. Neustadt Pre-Ported Porter.

Chocolate Stouts: C'est What Steve's Dreaded Chocolate Orange vs. Black Oak Double Chocolate Cherry Stout vs. Muskoka Double Chocolate Cranberry Stout vs. Railway City Double Chocolate Cherry Stout.

Imperial Stouts: Wellington Imperial Russian Stout vs. Grand River Russian Gun Imperial Stout One thing is certain in this competition: In each round a black heart is sure to come out on top.

Wednesday March 16, 2011, 7 p.m. Advance tickets $19.50, all in, are available online.

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Robbie Burn's Hangover

Whisky Tasting Results

We put wood finishing to the test the day after Robbie Burn's birthday on Wednesday January 26, 2011. If you are interested to see if we came up with a "rule of thumb" about what barrels work best for aging, you will be disappointed. Between traditional sherry casks, Madeira, Sauternes, Bordeaux, and new French oak there seemed to be no discernable path to single malt glory.

The top "finishers" were Benriach Madeira, The Arran Sherry, and The Glenlivet French Oak. Although to be fair to the others, it should be noted that the difference in scores from top to bottom was less than three points.

While the scores were quite close, the flavour imparted by the barrels was very noticeable. Perhaps the lesson here is that wood does make a difference to quality, it just doesn't particularly matter which one. If you agree with this thesis then, of this group, the most attractive is probably The Glenlivet. At about $63 a bottle it offers the best value.

The full table of scores can be found here.

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I Hear A Tweet

It Must Be Spring