Whats in your Glass?

punkin

Tanqueray is still my favourite.

jacksonbrown

Anyone had a go at this?

LINIE AQUAVIT

Sounds interesting, have heard of similar things with whiskey and rum.
Selling hooch to a Muslim country was a bit of a dumb idea though. I guess they would have been picking up spices from the dutch and pushing it on them.
Flash website anyway. I wonder how much that cost them?

Edited by @Moonshine: That site supports HTML5 as well, if no Flash browser module is detected.

Skaal

Of the two brands commonly found in the USA, it is the lesser one, (Aalborg's Jubilaeum Aquavit is decidedly more complex) but in NO WAY do either stand up to a Gilde Aquavit - which is not available in the USA.

TheMechWarrior

Chenin Blanc. I can't believe it's taken this long for me to try it. Yum.

Moonshine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQKn5rRMjx8

Smaug

punkin

How is the XO? Better than the 23?

You have more money than me, or nicer friends. :x

Smaug

Color wise, Captain Ron's is clearly a bit more pale.

On the nose, Captain Ron's has more fruit/vanilla notes up front where as the Zacapa is a bit more like maple rather than vanilla.

The taste of Captain Ron's up front has a vanilla forward quality but not over powering. Then the molasses finish. I would say that this rum is two dimensional at the moment and with another 6 months worth of aging may very well become complex enough to be 3 dimensional. In other words a start, a middle and an end.

The Zacapa XO (6 to 25 solara) is also two dimensional (start and finish).

Both are nearly equal in smoothness. I was expecting the Zacapa to have a more viscous mouth feel comparatively speaking but they are really both equal in that regard. There is no mistaking that either rums are in fact rum. There is no hint of "home Made" at all. Captain Ron's rum could share shelf space with any number of premium rums IMO.

Though Captain Ron's package (teehee) is nicely done,,, with a bit of a label upgrade this rum is absolutely capable of occupying the top shelf.

I would drink this rum any day over a Zaya for instance. Which by the way is a $40 bottle here in the states.

The Zacapa is an $80 to $100 bottle here.

No slight on the other rums at all. Captain Ron's is just good.

punkin

Sorry mate i was asking about the Zapaca XO in comparison to the Zapaca Solera 23. I have tried the 23 but not the XO.

Smaug

XO is nice Punkin. Just not sure that it's 100 bux nice.

Was a birthday present.

Sunshine

@jacksonbrown said: Anyone had a go at this?

LINIE AQUAVIT

Sounds interesting, have heard of similar things with whiskey and rum.
Selling hooch to a Muslim country was a bit of a dumb idea though. I guess they would have been picking up spices from the dutch and pushing it on them.
Flash website anyway. I wonder how much that cost them?

Edited by Moonshine: That site supports HTML5 as well, if no Flash browser module is detected.

Selling hooch to muslims is not dumb at all. We have encountered on our trips in Syria (long ago, before the war) and many other muslim countries, that many of them really like a good spirit. You would be astonished, when you see what private households keep in stock there. Also, we from StillDragon Europe sell quite a lot of equipment to the Arabian countries. I am pretty sure, they don't make clear water with it. ;)

FloridaCracker

@Smaug said: Color wise, Captain Ron's is clearly a bit more pale.

On the nose, Captain Ron's has more fruit/vanilla notes up front where as the Zacapa is a bit more like maple rather than vanilla.

The taste of Captain Ron's up front has a vanilla forward quality but not over powering. Then the molasses finish. I would say that this rum is two dimensional at the moment and with another 6 months worth of aging may very well become complex enough to be 3 dimensional. In other words a start, a middle and an end.

The Zacapa XO (6 to 25 solara) is also two dimensional (start and finish).

Both are nearly equal in smoothness. I was expecting the Zacapa to have a more viscous mouth feel comparatively speaking but they are really both equal in that regard. There is no mistaking that either rums are in fact rum. There is no hint of "home Made" at all. Captain Ron's rum could share shelf space with any number of premium rums IMO.

Though Captain Ron's package (teehee) is nicely done,,, with a bit of a label upgrade this rum is absolutely capable of occupying the top shelf.

I would drink this rum any day over a Zaya for instance. Which by the way is a $40 bottle here in the states.

The Zacapa is an $80 to $100 bottle here.

No slight on the other rums at all. Captain Ron's is just good.

Thanks for the kind words @Smaug.

The labeling kinda started out as a running joke with my brothers. I "learned" Photoshop just enough to pull off what I have and figured it would be comical enough for friends and family. Dammit if I just forgot the barcode on the back :D

Considering that the rum was just distilled last October, I think that it is coming around nicely. Could be that it is Gen 8-9 from previous runs. Could be the US treatment before it went in the barrel. Could be the live dunder. Who knows? It is pretty much all I drink now and I just pour it on the rocks. I'm trying to figure out how to leave later runs in the barrel longer without over oaking. I've started a semi-solera process with 2 barrels and hopefully I can get to that three dimensional.

I'll hook you up with a bottle of the next stuff out of the barrel and we'll see if it gains complexity.

jez

Enjoying a beer in the pool

punkin

looks great Jeeza

DonMateo

Hey @Smaug,
I lived in Peru for 8 years and I can tell you that all Piscos are not created equal and the Peruvian Piscos are by far and away the best. The town of Pisco is in fact located about 300kms south of the capital Lima. Chileno piscos are terrible by comparison. I have lived in Chile for about 3 or so years and I have yet to find a Chileno Pisco that is decent.
You should try and make a pisco sour which is just a fantastic drink, but only with Peruvian Pisco.

Smaug

Thanks for chiming DonMateo.

So far I have only tried the brands from Peru.
This one is by far the best that I have tried.

Smaug

This one here was touted as the best available. But I do not agree. The package is nice but the pisco is not as aromatic or as smooth as the Encanto.

Moonshine

What Happens To Your Body When You Stop Drinking Alcohol (Video) @ Facebook

DonMateo

My favourite is Biondi Pisco. It comes in a small 500ml bottle. Porton is OK but Encanto is better as you say. There have been a lot more pisco brands pop up recently as it becomes more widely known in in the US and there are more sales. When I first went to Peru about 15 years ago good pisco was only found in Peru. I live in Mendoza Argentina and a couple of people are making it here and its pretty good.
Cheers Matt

DonMateo

@Smaug,
Try and make a pisco sour. You take about 2 shots of pisco, a little bit of sugar, mix in half an egg white and some lime juice and shake the shit out of it. Then pour it into a glass and add some bitters on top. It tastes like a marguariata only a lot smoother. No sourness. Very very addictive. And the other thing that the do in Peru that not many people will have heard of is they make what is called a coca sour, you get the leaves of a coca plant ( yes the source of cocaina) and you stuff a 2 litre coke bottle full of these leaves and then fill it full of pisco and leave it for about 24 hours. Then you make a pisco sour out of it. The alcohol leaches some of the narcotics out of the leaves and it goes into the drink. A couple double coca sours and your flying I can tell you. No hangovers the next morning.

Smaug

Sounds delightful.

I have seen a few pisco sour recipes on you tube. I will make some soon.

grim

What's the size of the Pisco market here in the US? I found some reference to the Peru pisco imports in 2012 only being $2 million.

Smaug

I assume very small @grim. Regular folks don't seem to even know what it is.

DonMateo

Yep Pisco exports to the US only started a couple of years ago. I think there was some protection policies in play. I miss having some pisco sours and great peruvian seafood in Lima. Its the only thing I miss about Lima.

Smaug

DonMateo, have you seen a pisco operation?

The Encanto rep explained that they single pot still. I don't see how they get the product that bright with only one run as claimed?

grim

Photos of the Encanto still: Making Pisco in Peru

Smaug

Is that a pre heater? Yeah that is a wash preheater as found on old school aude vie still.

Would like to know the preheat temps of that wine? Can do the same thing with the SD rum rig.

DonMateo

@Smaug,
I havent seen a Pisco Operation but I understand they basically make a wine with the grapes and skins all in of a specific type of grape. Where it grows its very sunny and dry about 300 days a year. Its at the top end of the Atacama. Anyway The grapes they use are very sweet so with the yeast they have I know they get wine or a mosto as its called at about 15 %. I havent heard any of the pisco distilleries using fractioning columns as they almost all use the big copper pot stills and I think they only do one pass. Most of them just use one pot still from what I have read about. The still in the photo looks like a Charentrais french manufactured still and it if you ever found it it wouldnt surprise me if that is where it was made. Historically the majority of well made equipment for most things in Peru has been imported.

I think the secret to making it with only one pass is the type of grape they have and getting a really high level of alcohol in the wine and then doing a slow pass on it. I have seen a few photos of Pisco distilleries in Chile and they all have one big old Copper pot still. I once went to a wedding where the cousin of the bride, belonged to a family who owned one of the famous pisco distilleries in the town of Pisco. This guy bought some family reserve that was about 5 years old, they age it in glazed ceramic amphoras actually. That stuff was amazing. Like really nice vodka but with a really subtle almost lemonly taste. The grape variety they use are a certain type but its like a really light dry Chenin blanc. If you drink the wine its kind of blueeehhh non descript too light for anything but once distilled its magic.

The guy told me about how they made it but the next day I couldnt remember anything except the guy bringing out this 10l carboy of this amazing Pisco. After that it was a blurrrrrr. My girlfriend at the time told me a story about gate crashing some very stuffy wedding of her cousin and I was so drunk I could barely stand up let alone say a word in Spanish. She must have been making up that story as I would never do something so embarrassing.

Kapea

@jez said: Enjoying a beer in the pool

Broken glass is pretty much invisible underwater.

FloridaCracker

Bottles and pools are a bad combination. Never seen one around a pool.