I likes sipping on this, neat. Truly the Cruzan® flagship. Cruzan® Single Barrel Rum is a medium-to-full-bodied blend of vintage rums aged from 5 to 12 years—then aged in “new” oak casks for approximately one additional year—and sold in individually numbered bottles. Smooth....tasty....fire
Unfortunately, you what you guys make up for in the name of liquor, you lose in the name of actual beer; its a sad fact I know but American and probably Canadian beer is awful. There, I have said it- <dons tin hat>. Westons cider- a customer of mine used to supply the apples for this. Apples for cider production are worth about £130/tonne, unfortunately there is a shortage of cider apples so the UK now imports a good proportion of its requirement as apple concentrate- de-watered goo that arrives in containers they just hoover out so your distinctly cider might well be made from some apples which are distinctly un-British. An interesting fact I heard about Cider the other day is that in the UK now far more cider is consumed than lager, which I found very surprising. As for Lager, In my opinion the finest of them is to be found in Europe, where they invented it, and I don't think you can beat Grolsch.
I'll give you lagers for sure. U.S. ASLs are terrible — worse even than Canadian ASLs or Asian lagers and a far far cry from Mexican ASLs like Pacifico. Haven't had many Euro lagers, but it's hard to imagine anything being worse than macrobrew like Bud or Miller or Pabst. Even our northwest variations, Rainier and Olympia, taste like varying degrees of cat piss. So without having too much experience with Euro beers, I imagine where the U.S. excels is in microbrew. Particularly ales. You can get a fair sense for the culture from many ratings websites. I stick with BeerAdvocate. I can only hope I'll get overseas someday and taste some Euro microbrew.
Not generally a fan of SoCo, but holy shit is that commercial majestic. I'd buy it just because that dude is a bawss.
Some of my favorite stuff comes from back home in Washington, mainly Ballard and Red Hook. Their ESB is hands down the best brew in all the PacNW. I also enjoy Pike Place Brewery's Kilt Lifter and have gotten thoroughly kilt lifted off of that on several occasions. Pyramid also makes some lovely libations and their Apricot Ale is a lovely ale great for warm afternoons and sitting on the porch shooting the shit. Take a quick jump south into Oregon and I enjoy Widmer Hefeweizen and Full Sail's Amber Ale. They are also home to Rogue Ales that houses some delicious bits of beer. Double Dead Guy Ale and Shakespeare Stout are most enjoyable. Deschutes Brewery also makes one of the few porters that I enjoy drinking, that being the Black Butte Porter. In my own backyard, I have the luxury of being around the likes of Stone Brewery, Sierra Nevada, Firestone Walker, Russian River, Ballast Point, and Green Flash Breweries. Stone's Ruination is the best IPA I've ever had the chance to put to tongue. And your evening ends in ruin should you imbibe it heavily through an evening. Sierra Nevada offers quite a few tasty items and their Summertime lager is a favorite. Firestone Walker's Velvet Merlin oatmeal stout is the perfect thing for a cold day. Ballast Point have a great amber ale that goes well with burgers and pizza. That's just a stroll down the west coast for beers. When it comes to booze, I enjoy a run of the gamut best left for another day to list out.
I see your SoCo man and raise you Mr. Bundaberg. Someone I aspire to be. [video=youtube;w4hnebYrtrs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4hnebYrtrs[/video]
You listed all of my favorite things in that tiny little post! Kilt Lifter is hands down the best scotch ale in the northwest. (Best in the world is Skullsplitter) I am such a beer snob that MOST of my beer is imports, the obligatory Guinness, Duchesse de Bourgogne, Old Engine Oil etc. Some of my go-to beers domestically are Irish Death (or its younger brother Mocha Death) Koko Brown by Kona Brewing co., Arrogant Bastard from the aforementioned Stone Brewing, and Freya's Gold and amazing little Kolsch beer!
Bump. This almost fell off the first page. The What are we drinking?? thread is way too important to let die, people.
