Scotty’s Drink of the Week from the Kickstarter episode of Sanity Claws Radio!

Traveler’s Time Traveler Strawberry Shandy – Historically speaking, the shandy is a style of beer originating in Germany.  Traditionally, a shandy is a 50/50 mix of a pilsner and lemonade and is consumed seasonally in the spring and summer months.  Beer aficionados commonly refer to a shandy as a radler (the original German name for this concoction).  What the Traveler Beer Company has created here is an unoffensive, lightly flavored, strawberry-alcohol beverage.  Checking in at 4.4%, this is a slightly better alternative to Leinenkugel’s *shudder* Summer Shandy (seasonally available starting in… February?  /PublicShaming)

Consensus 3/5 – Average, but not bad.

 

 

Honey is a wonderfully diverse booze ingredient that can compliment a variety of styles of brewing, vinting, and distilling.  The crew put together a great sampler of extremely tasty beverages.  And, though many photographs were taken during the show, this one truly exemplified exactly how we all felt by the end of the night!

Honey Liquors

Dogfish Head’s Tweason’ale – A new year-round offering from Dogfish Head combines buckwheat honey with strawberries to make liquid magic!  A sweetly refreshing wheat style beer delivers a crisp flavor that doesn’t overstay its welcome.  This beer is certainly worth a try if you ever run across it, and is hopefully signaling the way forward for the use of honey in brewing.  At an ABV of 6.0%, Tweason’ale also happens to be GLUTEN FREE!

Wild Turkey’s American Honey Whiskey – The first, and by our measure still the best, of its kind.  This honey whiskey is just that: whiskey with honey in it.  But it is magnificently smooth drinking in warm weather.  86.6 proof and freaking amazing.

Barenjager Honey Liqueur – The most recognizable and widely distributed of the honey-based liqueurs, Barenjager is quite sweet without being overly sweet and makes a rather pleasing dessert beverage.  Barenjager can be consumed straight, but is featured in a variety of popular cocktails.  70 proof.

Chaucer’s Mead – The original honey-based adult beverage, mead was discovered on accident when some Vikings’ honey stores got wet and fermented.  The rest, as they say, explains the prevalence of Mead Halls in Beowulf… or whatever.  Chaucer’s Mead is vinted in California and is widely regarded as one of the finest examples of a mead that is produced in the U.S.  Take it from us when we say, “That s**t is good.”  ABV – 10.5%

Scotty’s Drink of the Week from the E3 2014 Roundtable episode of Sanity Claws Radio!

Short’s Cinnabilly – This summer seasonal from Short’s Brewing boasts a mixture of cinnamon sticks, brown sugar, and vanilla with flavors ranging from toasted almonds to graham crackers.  Yes, the flavor palette is as complex as it sounds.  No, it does not blend well.  This beer tastes at best confusing and at worst muddled.

Scotty – 3/5 (Average, but unique); Jon, Steve – 2/5

Scotty’s Drink of the Week from the Controversial Topics episode of Sanity Claws Radio!

SoCo Lime – Another in the line of ‘traditional bar shots,’ this one is likewise rather vanilla – both in complexity and originality.  Add 1.5 oz of Southern Comfort to a shot glass then add a splash of sweetened lime juice.  That’s it.

Side note:  It took us months to get a picture for this post, mostly because nobody actually wanted to purchase a bottle of Southern Comfort.  Once we finally got the hooch, the sassy, old cat in the picture refused to move away from the area where we were staging the photo.  But after waiting as long as we did for this picture, we pretty much just said, “F**k it,” and ran with what we feel should be Southern Comfort’s new ad image.  There.  It’s done.