Le Gimp

It's been a rough last three months. Hope everyone has a better new year. I hope to learn to make Italian Dry Cure Salami this spring.

Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing by Rytek Kutas (1984 Macmillan Publishing Company, NY ISBN 0-02-566860-9) Also good is ChaRcuteRie by Michael Ruhlman & Brian Polcyn (2005 ISBN0-393-05829-8) .

Only if you consider a shag rug to be fuzzy.

Tri-Cities Area. Johnson City. About 90 mi ne of Knoxville.

Started out with a bomber of Don de Dieu. Now on to a glass of Bourbon Barrel Barley wine. Tomorrow is the company Christmas Party. Lots of food, and a cash bar (Bleh). I need to get the engine back in the Prizm as I have a two day window of temps near 50F. Then after I get it running, I can start tearing down the Sportster.

A glass or two of clandestine Vert, followed by some IPA. I'm trying my best to kill the keg so I can put a keg of Trippel in the refrigerator, but the keg of IPA just goes on and on.

Nice clandestine Vert, followed by Old Rasputin, and now a 2005 BigFoot. The BigFoot has aged nicely.

I've never heard of a gin that was distilled more than once. Multiple distillations are used for progressively selecting cuts for whiskey, Vodka, Rum, and scotch which start out as a mash. Absinthe is not mashed. It starts out as base alcohol (which may have been multi-distilled) and has herbs added, macerated, and distilled (much like Gin). No reason for a distillery to distill it more than once, unless they screw up and are recovering the alcohol to start over.

That's why we use kegs now days. Don't want to bottle, ever. No problem. Then again, that is probably why my meads are still in kegs and carboys.

Crap, don't they realize that any alcoholic beverage over about 50% will de-fat tissue? Doing shots of anything like that is a sure way to damage your esophagus if nothing else. I think that is why Everclear is limited to 50% in some states.

One of my favorites. Then again people say all my taste is in my mouth.

Le Artisinal, Clandestine Clandestine Beer. It's Friday.

Sorry, reminds me of the shark repellant dye we had in the NAVY.

Gin and tonic this afternoon while glazing a window. And busting a window, and replacing a window, and glazing a window. Fresh clandestine Vert. Sazerac (Overholt). Ballantine IPA Clone attempt (not good but drinkable).

Mead is the easiest-to-make alcoholic beverage on the planet. And it is relatively inexpensive. Honey has gone up a good bit lately, but it still is reasonable. You can make a mead as sweet or dry as you wish by selecting the yeast you use along with the expected alcoholic strength. You can always use Sorbate to arrest the yeast, but I prefer just to keep adding honey till the little buggers poop out.