Sips, Suds, & Smokes

SIPS  Episode –  A mélange of great whiskey released this Spring. We cross the streams with Bourbon and Scotch. Good ol Boy Mike broke the world record for nosing a glass at 4:28 with the Week of Peat. Brent discovers that peat is not a baking spice. A long discussion if we agree to disagree does that mean we agree or agree to disagree? Oh the Weller fan boys are already lined up for this one.

SIPS  Episode –  A quick shot episode cover a couple of recent releases. For some reason the slow guy always gets the wood and so does the Old Forrester 1910. The Elijah Craig Barrel Proof C919 is nearly hazmat declared. Still quite tasty.

SUDS  Episode – Could gluten free beer be the best beer in Canada? Nope. But we do pick up the topic to help those seeking a gluten free beer. While there is not a huge selection of gluten free beer, we still taste a wide range of products to help you navigate this narrow category of beers. It feels like a Summer of Questionable Decisions in an Ex-Amish kinda way.

SUDS  Episode -  A Listen & Learn episode featuring De Brabandere  with a mix 6 pack of Petrus that brings up a conversation on issues with beer distribution. While yeast settlement is normal, these beers were packed with an unsightly proportion of yeast. The yeast floats in the bottle as it’s moved and most of this is a by-product of time & gravity.

SIPS  Episode –  A Distillery takeover from Compass Box. John Glaser is the master of all things whiskey and has created blends that are the envy of the industry. Harmeet manages to blame his mother for all of his inequities in life. Our consensus is that a 2nd fill sherry butt is preferable :-P

SUDS  Episode – A brewery takeover with a flight that really won us over. Edmunds Oast is a brewery, retail shop, and restaurant in Charleston, SC. Mike moves to the uncharted space of pairing with roadkill. Next time we’ll have to sample the food along with the beer. A Pils that is a solid candidate to make our best of Season 8.

SIPS  Episode –  Didn’t you want to meet the kid that ate the paint chips? This is about as close to doing so that we can arrange. Several distilleries rose to the need for hand sanitizer and switched production to meet the demands of their communities. This noble jester could not pass before us without our twist on reviewing and rating these products. Oh, we know you have your favorites, but how...

SUDS  Episode – Good ol Boy Dave cranks up the Summer of Bad Decisions with a triple blind tasting. We had no idea what we were tasting or rating. The reveal was this was a flight of non-alcoholic beer. We’ve heard from several of you to cover some topics without alcohol and we’ve been ignoring those requests. Seriously, we know there are several good reasons why this might be your thing, so let u...

SIPS  Episode – The Baker’s Bourbon from Jim Beam recently changed the product offering from a small batch to 2 versions that are now single barrel and age stated. Baker’s 13 was Good ol Boy Mike’s Product of the Year 2019. Now more widely available, we review both products.

SIPS  Episode –   We catch on some new releases for Bulleit, Frey Ranch, Chicken Cock, Clonakilty, Rampur and Ardbeg. Justin is here to let you know that the Bulleit has a long Spinach. This is a great flight to celebrate World Whiskey Day or just any Tuesday. Guessing how many sheep are on Islay is actually a real Scottish sport.

SIPS  Episode –  We catch up with the latest release from Lux Row Distillers. Most of the Blood Oath Releases in one flight. Brent gets confused with Rum and Whiskey for a brief moment.  Maury discovers the use of his toes for counting and thinks that Cognac does not work well on a Rum finished whiskey. Confused? So were we.

SUDS  Episode – We cross the streams and talk about beer that has elements of Rose wine. There is a wide variety in this flight. This is also not chick beer only. This episode was recorded while exercising best practices of social distancing. Actually, Canada has requested to practice being socially distant on a permanent basis with Mike.

SUDS  Episode – A brewery takeover of Flying Fish Brewing Company from Sommerdale, NJ. This is the good part of Jersey. Will a sustainable garden make better beer? Mike manages to get banned from 3.5 new states during this episode. We have the sneaky feeling that Jersey Juice is trademarked but for a completely different product.

SIPS Episode – We come back and refresh our most popular episode ever, THE perfect mint julep. Thanks to the 10M plus people that have enjoyed the original episode. We add some challengers to the discussion from The Violet Hour & The LushUs Life Trashy Mint Julep.

SIPS  Episode –  An odds and ends show of recent releases. Some great stuff in this flight. Justin manages to be the most verbose he’s ever been. He identifies PX sherry in a non-PX sherry finished whiskey. Such an amazing skill. He’s a lover of prunes and aspires to be the most regular Jew on his block.

SIPS  Episode –  One of our favorite independent bottlers That Boutique-y Whiskey Company with a great lineup for this flight. Harmeet actually agrees with everyone else for 37.8% of the time. Made Man Brent displays feats of strength by detecting peat through glass. Justin returns from dialect class to demonstrate that he learned how to make a drunk Irishman sound like he visited South Africa.

SUDS Episode – As Julieanna waxes on about her loathing relationship for Western PA, the rest of the cast is unbiased. Mike discovers that he does not like Loganberry, shocker. Maybe if they put fries in some of these beers, they would have been better, Primanti’s style. There are a few gems you should check out.

SUDS  Episode – Dave has always wanted to cruise the Hershey Highway….. to discuss beer in Eastern PA. Where was your head at? This is part 1 of 2 on East v. West PA Beers.

SUDS  Episode – Right off the beaver trail is Baxter Brewing in Maine. We snagged a variety pack that you should check out after you check out our comments.

SIPS  Episode – Tomatin is a rather large distillery making wonderful products. We settle the question “ If you shoot a mime, do you need to use a silencer?” Heaven Hill ventures into another Rye, but on the Elijah Craig brand? A die hard, go to pours brings it to remind everyone that fabulous whiskey can be found and affordable.

SIPS  Episode – Ah the French. On this episode we find some French whiskey that Brent still can’t stand. Armorik has a great product line that many have passed over simply because of the geographic confusion of French whiskey. Sherry butts are big™ , this needs to be on a T-Shirt.

SIPS  Episode – Quick Shot Episode about a new product from Woodford Reserve Batch Proof  and some new products from David James. See if you can get your head around a bourbon splitting the aging in TN and KY. I just heard some of you lose it. The David James American whiskey is from Indiana. They should have gone for the trifecta and tossed in a product from ADL.

SUDS  Episode – Just off the Pike is Lord Hobo Brewing’s taproom from Woburn, MA. Apologize for the longest 1st segment, hang tough as we do actually cover all 9 beers.  Like Boston needed even more righteous beer. Solid examples where the Double version is NOT better. Hip waders will pair well with this episode.

SIPS  Episode – Quick Shot Episode about this project that we have been watching in development for years. One of our close colleagues moves from whiskey critic to whiskey producer. Four Gate is a very interesting partnership with Kelvin cooperage. These are unique products and currently only distributed in KY and TN. Please send us a splinter extraction tool if you have one after we reviewed some...

SIPS  Episode – We take on all of the ineptitude to pronounce wines from Spain correctly. We cover most of the Pommery products and some select great white Spanish wines from Rias Baixas. Safety tip- Drinking wine does not help you pronounce non-native words any better, however it is more entertaining.