Tasting Notes: Barefoot Refresh "Perfectly Pink" Rose

Appearance: Pours a light, almost peachy/orangish pink.  Almost has a slight effervescence in the glass.  No legs.

Aroma:  Slightly sweet, peachy, but a little citrus as well.

Mouthfeel:  Light at first, but leaves a bit of a syrupy film behind.  Also get a little of the effervescence on the palate that I saw in the glass.

Flavors:  Sweet.  Lots of peach, a hint of strawberry and raspberry.  Tastes kind of like a peach flavored hard candy.

Overall:  For being a "new" wine from barefoot, this is pretty much the stereotypical California pink wine.  Which I guess could be good or bad.  It is sweet and slightly syrupy, low alcohol (just under 10%), and light bodied.  Very drinkable.  The kind of wine that gave "white zin" and "blush" wines a bad name in the U.S. wine market, but also got a lot of working and middle class people drinking wine.  For $8 a bottle, it's not terrible if you're looking for dessert or something incredibly drinkable on a warm summer day, but don't expect anything too complex or elegant from this one.

Tasting Notes: Ron Abuelo 12 Year

This is a 12 year aged Panamanian dark rum, which is surprisingly not terribly expensive for how great or old it is.  Keep in mind that aging in the Caribbean, the angel's share can be up to 10-20% annually.  So in addition to the time, rum tends to be expensive to age because you lose a lot of the original product!

Appearance:  Dark but translucent caramel brown.

Aroma:  Melting brown sugar, very mild alcohol aroma.

Mouthfeel:  Feels light, but does linger a little bit.

Flavors:  Brown sugar, caramel, but not overly sweet or syruppy, a little vanilla and a slight oakiness, warm finish.

Overall:  I am not a rum drinker.  And when I do, it's usually with cola, or poolside in a Miami Vice in Vegas or Mexico.  This rum is the exception.  It is sweet enough, but not overly sweet.  It manages to pull some of the heavier flavors that give burning caramel or melting brown sugar their flavors and smells and set them apart from white sugar, without becoming too sugary.  The oak and vanilla are there enough to give a little more complexity to what I usually think of as a fairly simple sugar and booze bomb of a spirit, but not so much as to muddle the sugar-based flavors.  Overall, this rum has a great balance, and a lot more going on than most other non-spiced rums.  It also warms you up quite a bit for a spirit which comes in at 40 proof.  This is a nice drink for a cool or cold day, by itself, neat or on the rocks, something I would rarely say about a rum.

Brewery & Tasting Room Review: New Glarus Brewing Company

Unfortunately I lost my phone between my visit and now, so there's no photos here...

That being said, I recently visited New Glarus briefly, and below are what I think every New Glarus fan should know about their brewery and tasting room:

The brewery is beautiful, both inside and out.  It is in a Swiss-looking farmstyle building, situated in the hills above the actual town of New Glarus.  The outside is stunning, and definitely worth a photo op.  The brewery itself consists of two parts for visitors.  The first is the brewery, gift shop, and tasting room (upstairs).  When you enter, you're in the gift shop and tasting room.  They sell lots of neat New Glarus, Wisconsin, and beer related stuff here, as well as have a small bar at the registers where you can buy their beers by the pint, or in tasting flights.  Either way, you get to keep the glass.  At $3.50 for three three ounce pours, the flights are a steal.  They usually have five or six of their brews on tap, so I always get two tastings so that I can taste them all.  When you purchase the tasting, they give you a wristband with little tabs they pull off for each beer.  You can refill them at your own pace (more on this later).  On both of my visits, they had their two most popular beers (Spotted Cow and Fat Squirrel), a few other year round brews, and at least one specialty beer on tap.

The brewery tour is self-guided.  It begins in the back of the gift shop, and then leads you through a small room with their many awards and medals on display (if Dan or Deborah Carey happen to read this, if you keep doing what you're doing, this room will need to move or expand in the not-too-distant future!).  You then go into the brewery itself.  While most of the equipment is either roped off or behind glass, it is all visible.  The staff in the brewery are very friendly, and will explain anything you have questions about.  You are free to walk around at your leisure and explore the brewery, beer in hand, and, since it's self guided, you don't have to pace your drinking to your exploring.  When your glass is empty, you simply go back, refill it, and start where you left off.

The other part of the facility is their beer depot, located downstairs off the parking lot.  Here you can buy their beer for consumption at home or elsewhere.  It is minimalist and very functional, but the prices are great!

Pros:
- Friendly, knowledgeable staff throughout the building.  They will answer your questions, and can answer both in depth questions or simple ones, without making you feel stupid.
-You're right in the middle of the action.
-It's beautiful. The equipment is well maintained, and the views from both inside and outside of the brewery are wonderful.
-Obviously, the beer.
-Prices: Great beer at amazing prices.
-Walking around on the tour with a beer in your hand
-Since it's self guided, you can time your flight as you'd like.

Cons;
 -The self guided tour is best suited for people with intermediate knowledge of the brewing process.  For those with little knowledge, there isn't any signage or information about what you're actually looking at.  If you don't know what a mash tun, lauder tun, fermenter, bright tank, and packaging line look like, you might not get a lot out of the tour.  On the other hand, since it is self guided and they can't have people in the way of making their amazing beer, if you have a more advanced knowledge of brewing, you are kind of far away from the action, and might not get to see or learn the intricate details you're interested in.  Both of these are somewhat offset by the friendliness of their staff, who will all (even the brewers) stop what they're doing to answer any questions you may have (if you happen to catch one).  I would suggest that they continue to offer the self guided option, but a) put up some signs explaining the brewing process and equipment) and b) offer guided tours with brewery staff for those more interested.
-There's not really a good place to sit and enjoy a beer.  If you're shopping for souveniers or wandering around the brewery, this is fine, but if you're not done with your beer or flight when you're through with these activities, a couple of barstools would be nice.  In all fairness, I've only ever been in the winter, and they have a great patio off the gift shop which appears to have plenty of seating, and even an outdoor bar, not to mention an amazing view.  So maybe this is only a seasonal problem.
-With only 6 taps, and most of them with their more popular and/or year round beers, if you're already familiar with New Glarus, you might not get to try some of their more interesting beers before you buy them.
-The beer depot seems to be out of certain beers every time I've been.  I guess this is a good problem to have.  Also, the staff are very helpful with this.  If you're looking for a particular beer, they can tell you if and when they will have it in stock again.  Or, if it's a seasonal beer, they will make recommendations of places nearby that may still have some, since the brewery depot often sells out before other retail locations.

Overall: All of the cons seem to have a mitigating factor, so I would say this is a pretty great experience.  Definitely something worth checking out once.  Make room in your luggage or trunk, though, because their swag is pretty cool, and the beer is amazing, so it's hard to leave this place empty handed.

Tasting Notes: New Glarus Strawberry Rhubarb

This is (I think) a relatively new brew from New Glarus.  I was interested to see how this take on a fruit beer went, as it actually features the same balance in its adjuncts that brewers seek through traditional experience.  Sweetness from malt, balanced with bitterness from hops.

Appearance:  Pours cloudy, somewhere between light brown, ruby, and dark brown depending on how the light is hitting the glass.

Aroma:  Pure strawberry jam.

Mouthfeel:  Fairly light, rolls right through the mouth, not overly carbonated.

Flavors:  Not as full flavored or as complex as I was expecting.  Pleasant, but mild strawberry notes, with an earthy, vegetal, bitterness of rhubarb at the end.  Finishes with a pleasant, jammy flavor, but not overly sweet.

Overall:  Not my favorite New Glarus beer.  Glad I also smuggled some Serendipity back to Cali with me.  While I don't think this would be anyone's favorite beer, would be great for varied company.  Wild fermentation and unfiltered, but not overly tart.  Fruity, but not overly sweet.  Unique ingredients and definitely a creative recipe, but still drinkable.  Definitely a well rounded, fruit forward beer.

Specialty Beers and Why They Shouldn't Be So Special

Alright, so I'm going to take a little bit of a dig at the craft beer community here.

I think the craft beer community is trying to build its reputation by, in some ways, mimicking the wine industry, and the wine community, and there are some ways in which that's great, and some which just aren't a good idea.

One of those, in my personal opinion, is special or limited release beers, with a few exceptions.

The basic attraction to me, and many others, of the craft beer scene, is that anyone can get into it.  You can taste something truly special, and as pleasant as any nice bottle of wine, right in your own neighborhood, at a much lower price point.  Beer people, although a little quirky, are generally more down to earth than wine people, meaning anyone can jump into the craft beer scene, and have an enlightened and enlightening conversation about a particular beer or style without being intimidated by suits, somelier certifications, and fancy words, as well as high price tags.

Well, I think specialty and limited release beers are a clever way to build a brand, focusing on the "exclusivity" of it, but that exclusivity is exactly what many new beer drinkers are looking to get away from!

Simple differences make the rarity and price tags on some wines more acceptable than similar rarity and price tags on beer.

1)  Wine is a seasonal product.  While it is consumed year round, there is about a 3-5 week window to harvest, juice, and start fermenting grapes.  After harvest is over, what you have is what you have.

2)  Wine is much more a product of terroir.  While winemaking takes skill, and yeast, barreling, and other factors affect the finished product, a pinot noir made with the same yeast and same procedures from two different vineyards will taste different.  Again, what you have is what you have.

3)  Wine grapes vary from year to year, making some vintages just mediocre, and some outstanding.  Again, what you have is what you have.

4)  Beer, on the other hand, while ingredients matter, allows brewers much more choice.  All of the key ingredients in beer (with the exception of fresh hopped or fruit beers), are commodities.  They are available year round, and produced in excess of what just the beer industry uses.  While the barley or hop crop yield may affect the price of these commodities, more will be available.  And because of the way in which both barley and hops are processed, by the time barley becomes malt and hops become pellets, a certain consistency is achieved regardless of slight variations in the original product.  This means almost any batch of almost any beer is re-creatable (assuming the exact recipe was written down somewhere).

This is a huge difference.  Let's look at some legitimate (in my own opinion) reasons that beers can be rare (what I call the exception):
-Certain beers use ingredients which don't fit the general mold above.  Namely, fresh hopped beers, spontaneously fermented brews, and beers with fruit or other non-commodity adjuncts.  These beers could vary from batch to batch, even if they are made using the same recipes.  This means some batches will be better than others, and have an inherent value, and the beers will all have some value, as tasting them next to each other is a worthwhile exercise.
-Certain beers undergo treatment after fermentation which is less controllable.  The two major categories here would be barrel aging and keg/bottle conditioning.  Because the exact same barrel can't necessarily be re-used (and even if it could, the wood will have been changed by the first batch), barrel aging provides an inherently unique product.  Cask, keg, and bottle conditioned beers are subject to all types of factors after they leave the brewery's control.  Travel distance, time allowed for conditioning (does the yeast finish its work?), and temperature, altitude, and lighting conditions where the beer is stored will all create a variable experience for the drinker.  These beers are inherently unique.
-Beers which are not available due to distribution issues.  For many reasons (some legal or business related, some branding or personal preference related), most craft breweries don't distribute nationally or internationally.  Beers from great brewers which are not usually available in your area will, of course, have more value to you, and this is as it should be.
-Beers which have been aged.  If a great beer was made once, or even multiple times, and you managed to save a bottle or keg, this beer has some inherent value to it (assuming it's a beer that holds up well to aging, many of which fit into one or more of the above categories).
-A brewery is at capacity, and has decided, for financial or branding reasons, not to expand.  This is the area that has the most gray space in my opinion.  If a brewery is brewing at its full capacity, it simply can't make more beer.  This is a problem which most craft brewers hope to have one day.  They then have to ask themselves, 1) can we afford to expand (probably if you're selling that much beer!) and 2) do we believe that we can expand and still be the same great brand?  This is a tricky one, as as local, small batch focus is what draws many to craft beer.  Moreover, larger equipment yields different product.  And more small equipment, running concurrently, means owners and brewmasters have to give up some control of each batch, potentially losing consistency or quality.  When a brewery has decided that they don't want to expand, and their beers are good enough to sell out in their current market, it makes sense that their beers would sell out.

In my mind, however, many craft breweries release "specialty" or "limited" release beers in small quantities (or brand them as if they have) for the wrong reasons.  Here's a list of those:
-To add value to the product (this is pretty rare on the brewer side, fortunately)
-To create buy in with accounts, who feel special being given this "rare" beer.  Usually, these allocations are highly sought after, and involve buying a lot of year round/open availability beers to "win over" your reps.  This flips the basic business relationship between a bar (customer) and a distributor (vendor), and also creates tension or competition between retail outlets, which, in the craft beer scene, should all be supportive of each other.
-To create a cult following behind a particular beer and build the brand of both that beer and the brewery as a whole.  Fortunately, these beers are pretty damn good.  On the other hand, if they're so good, and people love them so much, why aren't they made year round?  Beer should be an enjoyable hobby, not a task or a chore.  So why make people continue to call around about the availability of a certain beer, only to usually be told "We're not sure" up until a week or two before the release?  Why make people take time off of work, stand in line, buy tickets, and even fight for a pour of this beer?  If these beers are so good, and people love them, why not raise the price a bit (the one I have in mind is actually pretty reasonably priced wholesale), and make it year round, or at least multiple times a year?  Yes, your brewery may be at capacity.  But there's a few options here.  1)  Expand.  2)  Pull out of out of state markets to make sure you can supply your home state year round with the beers they want (again, the beer I have in mind has already done this once).  3)  Switch up your brewing schedule.  Many of your beers (to that same example) are hard to find year round because of your brewing capacity.  They're all great, but there are a handful people actually hunt down and wait in line for, including your special, February release beer.

The reality of it is, craft beer is supposed to be about making a great alcoholic beverage available to as many people as possible.  Releasing these beers once a year doesn't do that.  What it does do, is build a particular brand.  Again, not naming names, but the brewery I have in mind makes several hard to find brews.  They are all great beers.  I would argue that some of them (which, coincidentally fit into the categories I view as acceptably rare) are well worth the wait.  Others, including the rarest of the rare (the annual release is one of, if not the, most anticipated in the country), are great, but not all that special.  And eventually consumers will catch on to that.  Maybe a few years ago, a really great Double or Triple (oops, did I give it away?)  IPA was a rarity.  There are now several out there, including some year round, non-allocated brews, which easily meet or exceed the quality of some of these rare beers.

The smart move for these breweries, both from a business perspective, and from the perspective of giving craft beer lovers great beer, is to switch it up a bit.  Pull back on producing some of your other great beers, and make the "cult favorites" available year round.

Styles of Whiskey

Whiskey (or whisky) can be confusing, because it encompasses so many different flavors, and so many different styles.  Historically, there are four general categories of whiskey, based on the regions where they originated.  It is important to note that of late, more and more countries have started producing whiskey, and more craft distilleries are popping up who create whiskeys not necessarily true to they style of their home country.  What is listed below is based on style, not on actual country of origin.  While three of the four styles are actually internationally protected designations, and the U.S. has a couple within it, it is possible for a "Scotch" style whisky to come from the U.S., although it won't be called Scotch.

What is a mashbill?  Much of whiskey's flavor comes from the barrel it ages in, as you probably know.  But the base ingredients do tend to show some characteristics throughout.  Mashbill is a term for the recipe for original ingredients used.  In general, whiskey is made from some combination of four grains: barley, wheat, rye, and corn.  Two of these grains, barley and corn, undergo treatment before being used.  Barley is malted, or partially germinated, before being fermented, to release enzymes which break down starches into fermentable sugars.  Corn is cooked in order to start releasing fermentable sugars.  The main differentiation for each of the regions where a style originated is the mashbill.  It is important to note that almost all whiskeys are a blend of more than one grain.  When we say a "rye" whiskey, that does not mean the mashbill  is 100% rye.  Depending on the country, it means a large portion, probably a majority, of the mashbill is rye.  In fact, all whiskeys have at least some malt (malted barley) in the mashbill, as the enzymes produced by the malting process are vital to saccharification, or converting starch to sugar, in not just barley, but all of the grains used in whiskey production.

Irish Whiskey
Ireland is actually thought to be the birth place of whiskey.  Whiskey was then thought to be brought to Scotland by monks.  Irish whiskey (spelled with an 'e') is generally made with a mashbill of both malted and unmalted barley.  The unmalted barley contributes a spice and bite which is not present in most malt whiskeys.

Scotch Whisky
The Scotch spell whisky without an "e."  Scotch whiskey can vary tremendously in style, but it is usually malt-heavy, using only malted, and no un-malted barley.  It is traditonally aged in used sherry barrels, giving an extra sweet note to the whisky.  Malt for Scotch is traditionally kilned (malt must be heated in a kiln in order to halt germination once all necessary enzymes have been released), using peat-fired kilns.  This imparts "peat reak," a unique combination of smells and flavors.  Peat imparts smokey, earthy, pungent, and even slightly salty flavors and aromas into a whisky.  The peat is more prominent in some whiskys than others.
Different styles of Scotch-malt vs. grain, "single malt" vs. vatted, etc.
Even within the Scotch family there are distinctions.  People often get confused by these and think "single malt" is in contrast to "double malt" or something similar.  The easiest way to understand a Scotch label is to split the two descriptors apart.
Malt or grain refers to the mashbill.  Malt whisky indicates a whisky made entirely from malted barley.  Grain whisky referes to a whisky made from a mixture of malt and other grains.
"Single" Malt or Single Grain refers to the whisky being made at a single distillery.  Most Scotch distillers own multiple distilleries, and they transfer whisky between them all of the time, or even buy from other producers to create their blends.  Blended, vatted, or simply "malt" or "grain" whisky is a whisky made by blending barrels from different distilleries.
There is a common misconception that "single malt" is always better than other Scotch whiskys.  This is simply not true.  In fact, they are often interesting and bold, highlighting the distinct flavors imparted by different climates and different production methods.  But blending allows a distiller or bottler to create a consistent, quality product which has exactly the flavor profile they are looking for.  The whiskys are different, but there are some very good, and very pricey, blended whiskys out there.

American Whiskey
American Whiskey (with an 'e'), generally refers to Bourbon and Tennessee whiskey (speaking in terms of style).  These whiskeys are at least 51% corn, giving them some sweeter flavors than many other whiskeys.  They are also aged in new, American oak barrels.  This leads to them having very distinct wood-derived flavors, rather than simply mellowing or absorbing other sweet spirit flavors from their barrels.  Bourbon does not have to come from Bourbon County, or even from Kentucky.  Tennessee Whiskey, on the other hand, must come from that state, and must undergo charcoal mellowing after aging.   It is important here to note that the U.S. is undergoing a bit of a craft spirit surge right now, and many American Whiskeys are actually crafted to mimic other styles.  They will be labeled as American Whiskey, but be modeled after Scotch, Irish, or Canadian styles, or present a whole new idea of what whiskey can be.

Canadian Whisky
Canadians follow the Scotch spelling, but the style is quite different.  Canadian whisky is also heavy on corn in the mash, but also generally has rye as well.  Canadian whiskys can legally be labeled "rye whisky" even if there is no rye in them, as the term is legally synonymous in Canada with "Canadian Whisky."  The corn provides the same sweetness that it does to American whiskeys, but the rye adds a slightly lemony, spicy, flavor to they whisky, as well as a dry, slightly harsh finish.  Also, Canadian whisky producers often ferment and distill each grain separately, then blend the spirit either right before, or even after, aging.  This allows each grain to develop its own unique characteristics, and allows the distiller to create a blend of those characteristics.

Tasting Notes: 2011 Trefethen Family Vineyards Chardonnay

Appearance: Bright, straw yellow.  Very little in the way of legs.

Aroma: Bright, citrus, lemon, just a touch of butter/creaminess.

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied.

Flavors: Refreshing, crisp, slightly acidic, and with more prominent wood notes than on the nose, although only a little bit of butter.  More the fresh, woody, oaky, flavor, than the malolactic flavor a lot of heavily oaked chardonnays have.  Lingering citrus and oak finish.

Overall:  A balanced chardonnay.  Not super tart or acidic like some 100% stainless California Chardonnays can be.  But also not completely overcome by malolactic fermentation.  Very little butter flavors, and definitely still light and crisp, rather than creamy like some oaked Chardonnays.  Probably not a favorite for fans of either super citrusy, fresh, or super buttery, creamy Chardonnays, but a good balance of the two.