Whisky and Scotch Recommendations

Nice. Thanks for posting your recipe. I only recently discovered the Boulevardier, but haven’t tackled it at home yet.

I have zero experience with vermouth and didn’t realize it’s a fortified wine and should be refrigerated if not used right away. Glad I’m a nerd and do research before diving in.

We can drink together. I'll take all the sweet drinks off your hands. To me, even ordinary tea is extremely bitter. Sweet kills a lot of the bitter, so that's how I go.

I'll have to try to develop a palate for mixtures sometime, it does sound good.

But so far, I like my whisky like I like my computer desktop: neat.

I tried it with a number of bourbons, and Maker's Mark is a bit lighter, and it just fits the drink better.

Getting a better-quality vermouth made all the difference, and the way the aromatics play with the Campari is great, and, well, Campari is glorious because bitter is good and sweet is bad so there.

Farscry, this is a good place to start. But you can find many slightly differing lists of the cocktail canon all over, in books and on the web. The cool thing about these is that once you find a cocktail "type" or two you enjoy, you can start to play with the ingredients, and that's the fun of cocktails, really.

The wife and I have found a couple of YouTube channels we really like focused on making cocktails, and watching people make different cocktails makes you realize that lots of them use the same proportions, but with different ingredients, and there's really a standard format for a lot of them. A classic gimlet? 2 ounces gin, .75 ounce simple syrup, .75 ounces fresh lime juice. A quick whiskey sour? 2 ounces bourbon, .75 ounces simple syrup, .75 ounces fresh lemon juice. A pretty healthy number of the classic cocktails out there are really just three ingredients, with slight variations on those proportions, and then maybe a bit of soda water or ginger beer for fizz/flavor, but there really are basic themes to the recipes, and it's way less intimidating than I thought it was.

I have come to realize you need (A) decent liquor, (B) fresh citrus for juice, and (C) fresh citrus for the twist; it never occurred to me how important it was to have a solid piece of orange peel squeezed over the top to express the oils, and then have it in the drink providing aromatics. Makes a ridiculously huge difference, and I'm going to have lemons, limes, and oranges at all times.

YouTube channels I like are Cocktail Chemistry and The Educated Barfly, and just recently came across Behind the Bar.

Robear wrote:

Farscry, this is a good place to start. But you can find many slightly differing lists of the cocktail canon all over, in books and on the web. The cool thing about these is that once you find a cocktail "type" or two you enjoy, you can start to play with the ingredients, and that's the fun of cocktails, really.

Awesome, thanks for the recommendation!

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

YouTube channels I like are Cocktail Chemistry and The Educated Barfly, and just recently came across Behind the Bar.

I'll have to bookmark those too.

Also Difford's Guide has one of the better list of classic cocktails on the 'net (including variations over time) and they support the whole "put your bar in and we'll tell you what you can make" thing.

Ranger Rick wrote:

Also Difford's Guide has one of the better list of classic cocktails on the 'net (including variations over time) and they support the whole "put your bar in and we'll tell you what you can make" thing.

Oh maaaaaan, that site is going to kill me, because I'm having lots of fun making cocktails, and now I have many more options. Some strange-ass proportions, though; 5/12 ounce? Curse our stupid English measurement system. So, 5/12 ounce is . . . 13 ml, I think?

Fun site. Making cocktails tonight.

Dan, I wish you were local. Plays xbox, guitar, and boozes up - you are like my cool twin.

SallyNasty wrote:

Dan, I wish you were local. Plays xbox, guitar, and boozes up - you are like my cool twin.

I am local. You just live somewhere else.

Back from the depths I drag thee!

More whiskey cocktails. Kept seeing recommendations for a Penicillin, a Scotch cocktail, so gave it a shot. It's glorious. First, make honey-ginger syrup. 1 cup honey, 1 cup water, a six-inch piece of ginger chopped up, and bring to a boil. Let simmer for a bit, then put in the fridge overnight to steep, and strain it the next day.

The recipe I've been using for a Penicillin:
2 ounces blended Scotch (I bought a big bottle of the Kirkland 12-year, it's great for the price).
.75 ounces honey-ginger syrup
.75 ounces fresh lemon juice

Shake with ice; I actually like a bit more ginger spice, so I cut another piece of ginger and muddle it in the bottom of the shaker with the scotch. Strain into a rocks glass with a big ice cube. Then, the trick is, pour a float of very peaty Islay Scotch on top of it; I've got some Laprhoaig Quarter Cask that's just too intense for me, but putting maybe a half-ounce on top means it plays with the honey, ginger, and lemon really well. Per many recipes, garnish with candied ginger, but I don't have any, so I've been cutting a coin of fresh ginger and sticking it on the side of the glass to give a bit more aromatics to it.

The cocktail I have been making a lot lately is one I sort of made myself.

4oz Old Scout 107proof American Whiskey
2oz Cynar
juice of one lemon
juice of one clementine
1 tsp honey
1 dash celery bitters
1 dash angusturo bitters
2 luxardo cherries
Shaken over ice
garnish with a flamed lemon coin

Sounds amazing!

Paleocon wrote:

The cocktail I have been making a lot lately is one I sort of made myself.

4oz Old Scout 107proof American Whiskey
2oz Cynar

I got hungover just reading this far.

My pandemic special has been Wild Turkey 101 and Ginger Ale.

WT 101 is far underrated. Just some lovely juice.

Big fan.

SallyNasty wrote:

WT 101 is far underrated. Just some lovely juice.

Big fan.

Completely agree. As someone with an increasing collection of "nice" whiskeys, WT101 really is a great value and shouldn't be overlooked.

MilkmanDanimal wrote:
Paleocon wrote:

The cocktail I have been making a lot lately is one I sort of made myself.

4oz Old Scout 107proof American Whiskey
2oz Cynar

I got hungover just reading this far.

It isn't for the uncommitted.

Someone should have told me a long time ago that Laphroaig Triple Wood is an incredibly smooth yet peaty scotch.

My tongue doesn't taste like a campfire.

Vrikk wrote:

Someone should have told me a long time ago that Laphroaig Triple Wood is an incredibly smooth yet peaty scotch.

My tongue doesn't taste like a campfire.

An amazing scotch! I love everything I've tried from Laphroaig. It's the distillery that got me into scotch in fact.

I made a very irresponsible snap decision and spent the insane money (probably some pandemic retail therapy...) to purchase a bottle of Bruichladdich Octomore 11.3. It arrived a couple weeks ago direct from the distillery. I have to say, it's like no other scotch I've ever had. While the cost was brutal and I won't be spending that much on a single bottle for another very long time, it's quite incredible and I'm actually glad I picked it up. I'd compare it maybe to the difference between a regular stout like a Guiness and a heavy imperial stout. There's just so much "more" there. Amazing.

Vrikk wrote:

Someone should have told me a long time ago that Laphroaig Triple Wood is an incredibly smooth yet peaty scotch.

My tongue doesn't taste like a campfire.

I need to find someone who has that one so I can sample theirs; when I first got into whiskey, my wife, knowing I like smoky beers, asked someone at a good whiskey store what she should buy for me, and she settled on the Laprhaiog Quarter Cask, which I still characterize as "Band-Aid smoked over a campfire". I can't drink it. The other day I picked up some Ardbeg An Oa, and it's lovely. I love peaty Islay scotch that tastes like a wildfire. I just don't like the ones that taste like there was a catastrophic fire at an iodine factory.

d4m0 wrote:
Vrikk wrote:

Someone should have told me a long time ago that Laphroaig Triple Wood is an incredibly smooth yet peaty scotch.

My tongue doesn't taste like a campfire.

An amazing scotch! I love everything I've tried from Laphroaig. It's the distillery that got me into scotch in fact.

I made a very irresponsible snap decision and spent the insane money (probably some pandemic retail therapy...) to purchase a bottle of Bruichladdich Octomore 11.3. It arrived a couple weeks ago direct from the distillery. I have to say, it's like no other scotch I've ever had. While the cost was brutal and I won't be spending that much on a single bottle for another very long time, it's quite incredible and I'm actually glad I picked it up. I'd compare it maybe to the difference between a regular stout like a Guiness and a heavy imperial stout. There's just so much "more" there. Amazing.

From the reviews I've read, this decision sounds neither irresponsible nor does the money spent sound insane. Kudos!

SallyNasty wrote:

WT 101 is far underrated. Just some lovely juice.

Big fan.

As I've gotten more into whisky, I've learned to appreciate that neither price nor age necessarily correlate with quality.

WT 101 is a great bang-for-your-buck bourbon, as well as many of the "Old"s (Forester, Fitzgerald, etc.) that are usually on the lower-end of the shelf.

As someone who searches out interesting things, I started out assuming Jack Daniels and Jim Beam and the like had nothing to offer me, but they do a lot more than their run-of-the-mill releases that you're thinking of, and many of them are delicious and reasonably priced.

d4m0 wrote:

Bruichladdich Octomore 11.3

On the other hand...

I've had the chance to try one of the Octomore releases and you're right, they have SO much going on (besides just lots of peat). One of my favorite things I've tried.

I'm also a sucker for releases that do something special (the .3 releases use barley from their own fields on Islay, rather than sourced).

My not-even-vaguely hot take is there's a pretty solid proportional relationship between price and quality when it comes to Scotch, but that doesn't exist for bourbon and rye; the latter two are expected to have a bit of bite to them, so you can get something really big and flavorful and, sure, there's some harshness there, but that's part of the fun of bourbon. I find myself consistently buying Woodford Reserve's standard rye, it's just great stuff for the cost, and every time I try an expensive bourbon I'm weirdly disappointed it's so smooth and non-aggressive, because I want to be punched in the face.

Scotch, on the other hand, is a @#$!!! trap, and every time I buy a more expensive bottle, the cheaper bottle ceases tasting quite as good as it used to.

This is also true for fortified wines, which are usually blends with added liquor. You can find a good inexpensive port and each year, it will taste roughly the same, even though the vintages differ. You don't have to buy the fancy stuff, just buy what you enjoy.

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

Scotch, on the other hand, is a @#$!!! trap, and every time I buy a more expensive bottle, the cheaper bottle ceases tasting quite as good as it used to.

haha yes! This has been my experience too, much to the chagrin of my bank account. Along the same lines, Bruichladdich just made their latest Black Art release available. The last one pulled in all kinds of "best of the year" awards. I've had my finger on the buy button a couple times now but I really can't, especially after the Octomore. I'm just going to try and enjoy what I have as much as possible.

More reasonably priced, the best I've had recently is the Bunnahabhain 12. Delicious and smooth all the way. I'll be trying more from that distillery for sure if I can find it.

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

My not-even-vaguely hot take is there's a pretty solid proportional relationship between price and quality when it comes to Scotch, but that doesn't exist for bourbon and rye; the latter two are expected to have a bit of bite to them, so you can get something really big and flavorful and, sure, there's some harshness there, but that's part of the fun of bourbon. I find myself consistently buying Woodford Reserve's standard rye, it's just great stuff for the cost, and every time I try an expensive bourbon I'm weirdly disappointed it's so smooth and non-aggressive, because I want to be punched in the face.

My trouble with a smooth bourbon is that it's too easy to overindulge. I've got a bottle of Four Roses I keep overdoing it.

I get it.

It's so good. And it's not even the expensive Four Roses. But I don't think I'll get it again unless it's a special occasion.