Liquor Snob reports that Boston is banning the bottle. Boo!

All About Beer presents The Growler List: 125 Places to Have a Beer Before You Die

Martini Grove finds the world’s largest flask

Summer drinks are here! Starting with this tasty-sounding Bourbon & Peach Smash

College Drinker gives us the rundown on Everclear

And behind the cut, the perfect pour from a Japanese beer machine (it even tilts the glass!)
Read the rest of this entry »

I know it’s a bit early in the day, but screw it, it’s never too early to raise a finger to the man with one hand and raise a glass to your lips with the other.

1. You’ve already watched every video on YouTube

2. Nothing in the break room is made by Jose Cuervo

3. You’ve already emptied your flask and don’t want to lose your buzz

4. Because all of your friends are unemployed and at the bar already

5. All of history’s great guitar players were notorious drunks, so shouldn’t you be one when you play Guitar Hero?

6. Because you strongly believe that EVERY hour should be Happy Hour

7. You’ve got to pregame for bar trivia, because you’ll be damned if you’re going to be beaten by the “Sassy Secretaries” again

8. You need something to talk about at your next AA meeting

9. You’ve been looking for a slow time to hit on that bartender

10. Because it’s Tuesday

One of my favorite sketches from The Kids in The Hall, about a man who just can’t resist those girly drinks.

We gave you the heads up about it, we went, we drank, we laughed, and we’re pretty sure a bunch of people had a drunken good time.

The sake tasting was first up, starting around 6ish with our friends from Sake Story. They had a wide variety of sakes on hand and were more than happy to drop some sake science on how it’s made, the different qualities, and where each one was from. My personal favorite had to be Mighty Peak, an eaaaasssy drinkin’ sake from the birthplace of samurai warrior culture.

Toshi and friends on the verge of sake bliss

The night was just getting started though…more pics and tomfoolery after the cut! Read the rest of this entry »

Ask DrinkPlanner is a reoccurring feature here where readers submit their questions, and the crack team at DrinkPlanner does our best to answer. Got a question about booze? Ask us!

Here we are again on a Friday, and it’s time for another Ask DrinkPlanner. Hang on to your britches!

“Dear DrinkPlanner

Why is the hangover headache after drinking wine so much different/worse than with other types of alcohol?

Thanks,

Crushed by Cabernet”

The answer is…well there is no clear answer. Lots of theories out there, lots of small things that add up to the particular head-compacting pain wine (and red wine in particular) bring the morning after, so I’m going to do my best to try and sift through them and make some sort of sense out of them.

Some argue that there is no difference, that alcohol is alcohol is alcohol, and it doesn’t matter what you drink, the alcohol is the same. In a sense, they’re right, all alcohol is Ethanol (aka ethyl alcohol aka C₂H₅OH…science, bitches!) and it doesn’t matter if it’s tequila or whiskey or wine or beer, it’s the same chemical compound dehydrating you and convincing you that you should totally ignore the stinkeye that girl across the bar is giving you and see if she wants to make out. And if that was the only thing in booze, then they’d be right (though you still probably wouldn’t be making out with Sally Stinkeye).

So what else is in your booze? For starters, congeners. Congeners are impurities that occur in the fermentation of alcohol. These impurities are basically toxins, and by design, make you feel like a hot bucket of shit if you drink enough of them. The rule with congeners is: the darker the alcohol, the more congeners. That’s really one of the biggest selling points of quadruple-distilled uber-premium vodkas, is that they’ve got the fewest possible impurities in them, and therefore are less likely to make your head feel like it’s sitting under the tire of a dump truck. So your bourbons, brandys, aged rums and tequilas, and yes red wines fall under the banner of high-congener alcohols.

There’s also a possibility that sulfites are the cause of your pain, which occur naturally in all wines. However, less than 1% of the population is sensitive to sulfites, so it’s unlikely.

Could be a bad grape harvest.

Could be the wine is too young. Wine younger than three years has a higher concentration of impurities.

Histamines, tyramine, tannins…the list of possible culprits goes on and on. They’re all a bunch of little things that may be the reason. Or, more likely, it’s the combination of all these little things that adds up to one big headache.

Since the levels of all these things (and the age) vary from wine to wine, I suggest keeping track of which ones give you the worst headaches, and steer away from them. Eventually you’ll find one that you like and that doesn’t get into fistfights with your skull.

And so we come to the conclusion of another thrilling installment of Ask DrinkPlanner. Got a booze question? Ask DrinkPlanner!

I don’t think there’s a person alive who’d argue against Monkeys + Booze = Hilarity. If you find them, show them this video.

via:: College Drinker

We’ve written about our sushi-making friends over at Kuroshio before, and I just got wind of another fine deal worth passing on. This Thursday, April 24th they’ll have a certified Sake Master (or Tōji) there from 6pm-8pm to give you the scoop on numerous glasses of premium sake. All for only $3. If you’ve never been to a booze tasting before, I highly recommend it, as it really helps you gain a new appreciation for the stuff even if you’ve been drinking it for years. And if you haven’t, it turns you on to new and exciting ways to get blasted. Everyone wins!

Following the tour they’ll be hosting a comedy show from 8pm-10pm. While I’ve never heard of any of the people featured, they all look funny, so I guess that’s a plus (minus Brooke Cochrane, who looks mighty cute [Editor's note: Still a plus]). The best part? Due to Cobb county’s backwards happy-hour/drink special laws, they’ll be featuring a $3 sake tour special all day. So you might as well sit around and oggle Brooke laugh your ass off and drink sake for a few more hours on the cheap.

Bonus Drink Special!: They’ll also be featuring $1.50 Miller Lite pints.

And as always…tell ‘em DrinkPlanner sent ya!

UPDATE* I just got word that Kuroshio is now carrying Dogfish Head’s 90 Minute IPA! If you haven’t had this fantastic super-hopped craft beer before, it’s quite the treat. Not only that, but they’re selling the bottles in the $5-5.50 range (I wasn’t able to nail down an exact price) while most places are selling them in the $7-7.75 range.

via:: Kuroshio Sushi

I gotta say, I love my family. Not bragging or anything, but they’re probably the greatest bunch of people to ever walk the earth. It’s been proven by science, so please don’t try to dispute it.

Need an example? We all got together for my Dad’s birthday this weekend and had a rollicking good time as always, and in the middle of the revelry, my sister stopped mid-sentence, her eyes bulged wide, and she turned to her husband and said “OH, we’ve got to show him that thing…the thing from the wedding shower yesterday!” My brother-in-law thought for a second, and then said “Oh yeah! Go get it!” As my sister raced to go get her purse, I glanced quizzically at my brother-in-law as he patted me on the shoulder and with a knowing smile said “You’re going to like this”.

When she returned, she produced from her purse a treat the likes of which I’d never seen: a small foil replica of a Jack Daniels bottle. They informed me that inside was a small chocolate bottle filled with what they were pretty sure was Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey. Naturally, they were bringing it to the expert me for verification.

Apparently the shower they’d attended the day before was of the “stock-the-bar” variety (which, if you’re getting married anytime ever, is the one party you should have, probably three or four times if possible). There was a bowl set out with these inside, and apparently everyone at the party was blind, because they all neglected these little nuggets of liquor-filled gold. There was a variety of them, from Malibu coconut rum to Jack to Galliano to several flavors of Stoli. They (my sister and husband) only noticed them as they were leaving, and they also noticed that the bowl was practically full. So they did the only thing anyone in their right mind would do, and snuck a generous handful (or three) into my sister’s purse (Classy? Arguably not. Smart? MOST DEFINITELY.)

So here I was, with this little treasure they’d brought me. They recommended I eat the entire thing at once, as a half-bite would result in a broken chocolate mess, with booze all over my hands and clothes (and while I love that New Drunkard smell, you know who likes it even more? COPS.) So I unwrapped the precious thing and greedily popped it into my mouth. Oh yes indeedy, this was definitely the same stuff that Jasper “Jack” Daniels had first distilled in 1866 (well, more or less). The combination of the whiskey and chocolate was quite the heady elixir. I immediately held out my hands, like Oliver Twist asking for more, but was soon disheartened to learn that they’d only brought me the one. Honestly I don’t blame them for keeping ‘em for themselves (or more likely, they drank all the others already), it’s great stuff.

Driven by desire to track down more of them, I pieced together the foil wrapper I’d cast aside in my haste, and under the recognizable Jack Daniels insignia I pieced together the words “Anthon Berg“. Being the interweb sleuth that I am (yep, I know how to use GOOGLE!) I quickly tracked down sources where the hooch-filled delicacies could be obtained en masse. Amazon seems to have the best deals on them (96 mini-bottles for $35!?! Hells yes!), which is why I’m sharing that very link with you good readers.

So there it is, one of the millions of reasons my family is the friggin’ bomb and yours is a bunch of paraplegic hobo pedophiles with scoliosis and pronounced lisps. Have fun next Thanksgiving, losers!

*Title shamelessly cribbed from one of my favorite t-shirts ever, found at The Onion

Hot on the heels of our Black & Tan post on Friday comes this offer for a free “brolly” from Bass ale, which appears to be a tool similar to a pouring spoon meant to be used to properly layer a Black & Tan.

So go right here and give them your precious information and get a brand new shiny brolly for your efforts!

Now you don’t have to ask for one for Christmas.

Somebody Facebook bumper-stickered me with this the other day, and I thought it was good enough that I should share it with you all.

Have a great weekend!

via:: someecards