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 notprop wrote:
Heathen, Your biscuit is a scone.

This is why the Queen doesn't allow you to have the secrets of good beer, tis a punishment for naming things wrong.

No this is a Scone:




The Biscuit is made with buttermilk, and you put butter on it and have it with breakfast.

Sometimes you smother it in sausage gravy and eat it for breakfast with a side of bacon.


And since we are talking about booze and breakfast. Behold the Epic Breakfast.

Gravy on a biscuit?

No wonder Gordon Ramsey spends his time over there swearing at you!

By the way you scone appears to be a cake?

 DeathReaper wrote:

And since we are talking about booze and breakfast. Behold the Epic Breakfast.

Spoiler:

I forgot about this. Classic stuff. I actually made pancakes with Jack Daniels syrup for a friend of mine for breakfast after his bachelor party. It took quite a while to mull the whisky, but the outcome was pretty amazing tasting, and I don't even like Jack.

 Monster Rain wrote:
I think it's a good sign that given the choice between that substance and not drinking, I would choose the latter.

Aha! That was a test; now we all know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are not a debased, bum wine-swilling alcoholic homeless man and/or destitute student. Your lack of a secret is out!

Well we know he's not wine swilling anyway, the rest still seems up for grabs to me.

 notprop wrote:
Well we know he's not wine swilling anyway, the rest still seems up for grabs to me.

On the other hand, you may want to swill some wine yourself if you're going to be grabbing that. But hey, I don't judge other guy's tastes in internet strangers.

 Alfndrate wrote:
In America we have Apple Juice (which is squeezed juice from an apple, who knew!), Apple Cider (apparently called Soft Cider, which is similar to apple juice just with less babying), and Hard Apple Cider (implying booze). Everyone in this thread is talking about Hard Apple Ciders, I am talking about taking unpasteurized Apple Cider, putting some raisins, a little brown sugar, and something else (yeast maybe?) and putting an airtight seal on it. Then let it sit for a few weeks. My dad did this when he was in the seminary for two years (thankfully he left, or else I wouldn't be here ).

The difference between Soft Cider and Apple Juice is that soft cider is more akin to Orange Juice with "some pulp" It doesn't go through a filtration process like Apple Juice does, so there are "pulpy" pieces of Apple in it. There is an Apple Orchard about an hour and a half from where I live, they press their apple cider on an old wine press and don't pasteurize it, meaning there is just enough bacteria and organisms to feed on sugars and raisins in my cider for me to ferment it .

Going by this description - you don't have anything approaching a proper (scrumpy) cider, and what you call "hard" cider is about as hard as Mike's Hard Lemonade, right...? If that's the case, I do feel sorry for what you're missing out on.
This is the kinda stuff I mean:

That reminds me of The Fantastic Mr. Fox.

You Brits may have cider, but we have something even better:

 Super Ready wrote:

Going by this description - you don't have anything approaching a proper (scrumpy) cider, and what you call "hard" cider is about as hard as Mike's Hard Lemonade, right...? If that's the case, I do feel sorry for what you're missing out on.
This is the kinda stuff I mean:

Spoiler:

Um... Not exactly. Hard doesn't mean no harder than a mike's hard lemonade. Hard generally means, "alcoholic". So if you look at that jug you linked, it's 7.5%ABV, or 15 proof. Compare that to the Hornsby's 5.5% average (between their three main brands), Woodchuck averages around 5.5% as well. *shrugs* It doesn't really matter, "chain" breweries in the US average around 5 (Budweiser, the "King of Beers" is 5.0%) The average beer I drink is 7+. So ciders are a little bit stronger than your average beer here in the states.

Ooh, you get beers upwards of 5% now? Either that's changed since I last checked or I've had a very cruel stereotyping trick played on me. Either way, NICE.

Speaking of nice beers, I can't wait to get to the uni holidays and make a trip (a few trips) into the city to reacquaint myself with...



Because they have nice beer. And lots of it.

We have a local company's apple cider that is 8% IIRC. Pretty good stuff, although I am sadly nowhere near a bottle to verify that percentage

A friend of my family once shared some of his homemade wine with us over Christmas. I swear that stuff had to have been at LEAST 30%. I about choked on it going down from the shock.

 Grey Templar wrote:
We have a local company's apple cider that is 8% IIRC. Pretty good stuff, although I am sadly nowhere near a bottle to verify that percentage

A friend of my family once shared some of his homemade wine with us over Christmas. I swear that stuff had to have been at LEAST 30%. I about choked on it going down from the shock.

We had a Ukranian neighbour who used to distill his own vodka. I was so young at the time (mid primary school) that I didn't know the differences in alcohol or anything, and my brother and I kept pestering dad to give us some because everyone was toasting and being loud. I have no proof of this but I'm pretty sure he gave us about 3 drops in a shot glass of water. Still enough to have us gasping (ahh to be young and innocent again). He gave me a bottle of it later in life and I drank it with my friends at some point during high school, and we finished about half of it and then kind of forgot about it in a friend's freezer. Cue 4 years later we are playing poker and run out of booze. He cracks open his freezer and way in the back is an old, familiar bottle...Jesus I don't know if alcohol like that can get worse over the years, or if my taste just improved, but it seemed more potent. It was ridiculous, practically rocket fuel.

My mom has an unopened bottle of corn liquor sitting in the kitchen that's going on 50 years old. Its really just decoration but its still full of liquid. I'm very tempted to open it and see what it tastes like. Or if it will immediately evaporate

 rubiksnoob wrote:
You Brits may have cider, but we have something even better:

Spoiler:

You've quite clearly never heard of what my dad likes to call 'Holy water'

Protip-Don't breathe near it.

 Super Ready wrote:
Ooh, you get beers upwards of 5% now? Either that's changed since I last checked or I've had a very cruel stereotyping trick played on me. Either way, NICE.

You're quite the cheeky donkey-cave tonight .

But yeah, the "average" American beer (i.e. found fething everywhere) averages at 5% or so. There are stronger beers here, in fact this bad boy would knock you on your arse:



A Russian Imperial stout that's 15%abv (30 proof), is a dark as night, thick as motor oil and tastes like glorious dark beer, chocolate, and red wine (due to the fact they age it for a bit in a wine cask).

I've only had it once in my life, it changed me... before I met the Dark Lord, I looked like this:


Now I look like this:


Seriously though, there is no need for beer, wine, or booze snobbery in general... Unless someone says they like Mike's Hard, Zima, or light beers... We all just enjoy booze.

[quote=Seriously though, there is no need for beer, wine, or booze snobbery in general... Unless someone says they like Mike's Hard, Zima, or light beers... We all just enjoy booze.

I've had a thought along the OP.

Beer before hooker , always a looker?

 Super Ready wrote:
Ooh, you get beers upwards of 5% now? Either that's changed since I last checked or I've had a very cruel stereotyping trick played on me. Either way, NICE.

The last 5-10 years here have seen an influx in microbeers, which is basically a fancy way of saying, "expensive good beer".

There's a bar two blocks from me that sells nothing weaker than 5.5%. Most of their beverages are in the 8%-15% range. I've woken up a couple times from going up there in my bed not remembering leaving.

Concerning cider, we have a thing here (mostly homemade) which involves a crockpot, everclear (90% alcohol), cinnamon sticks, and what is normally nonalcoholic cider, which is basically spiced non-pasturized pressed apples. The latter you can normally only get in the fall during apple season, but the entire concoction is divine, and something I make every year for Halloween. It is certainly not for either, the weak of heart, or those with low fortitude saves.

All this talk of strong ciders reminds me of a perry I had at a local beer festival.

Picture a hot summers sunday afternoon in a leafy pub garden and and Englishman and his South African friend trying to out drink each other. Progressively more diverse ales and ciders were chosen and quaffed until while chatting to the barmaid she revealed they still had a cask of perry from last year that was 18% when laid down the year before.

Man! that stuff was like a cross between acetone and pear drops, but because we were sort of competing at that point neither of us would admit it was foul and kept drinking it. Two pints we had, all i can remember is being served a fantastic rib and noodles dish and not being able to taste anything at all. I think I was asleep by tea time!

 Alfndrate wrote:
You're quite the cheeky donkey-cave tonight .

Generally - yes, absolutely. But that one comment was genuine. I'm really pleased you guys can get proper beer now. In fact, I've had Dark Lord once... and yeah, potent isn't it?!

Strongbow just is not very good for Hard Ciders, Angry Orchard is the way to go.

 KalashnikovMarine wrote:
Strongbow just is not very good for Hard Ciders, Angry Orchard is the way to go.

I'm Kronk and I approve this message.

daedalus wrote:Concerning cider, we have a thing here (mostly homemade) which involves a crockpot, everclear (90% alcohol), cinnamon sticks, and what is normally nonalcoholic cider, which is basically spiced non-pasturized pressed apples. The latter you can normally only get in the fall during apple season, but the entire concoction is divine, and something I make every year for Halloween. It is certainly not for either, the weak of heart, or those with low fortitude saves.

We call it Apple Pie over here in Ohio... I don't get drunk off of it D: For my birthday, one of my fraternity brothers (a man who is on the verge of being a "good ole boy" if you know what I mean) made me a bottle of this stuff, I drank the whole bottle that night, and was stone cold sober (didn't drive, wouldn't think of driving after having more than a glass of booze just in case), and the only thing I had was a freaking sugar rush

Super Ready wrote:

 Alfndrate wrote:
You're quite the cheeky donkey-cave tonight .

Generally - yes, absolutely. But that one comment was genuine. I'm really pleased you guys can get proper beer now. In fact, I've had Dark Lord once... and yeah, potent isn't it?!

You certainly haven't been to America recently In the past 6 years, I've been enjoying microbreweries, and they tend to not go below 5.5% but most of them average more than that. We Americans have certainly developed quite the beer culture in (I want to say) the past 15 years or so. Also, how the feth did you get Dark Lord? It's available once a year, I was only lucky enough to have it because I went to a beer tasting in Chicago at a web developer's conference I was attending .

KalashnikovMarine wrote:Strongbow just is not very good for Hard Ciders, Angry Orchard is the way to go.

That's the third one I was trying to think of .

My ex from the UK smuggled me a bottle of this once.




I don't remember much, but I think it was good...

 Alfndrate wrote:

daedalus wrote:Concerning cider, we have a thing here (mostly homemade) which involves a crockpot, everclear (90% alcohol), cinnamon sticks, and what is normally nonalcoholic cider, which is basically spiced non-pasturized pressed apples. The latter you can normally only get in the fall during apple season, but the entire concoction is divine, and something I make every year for Halloween. It is certainly not for either, the weak of heart, or those with low fortitude saves.

We call it Apple Pie over here in Ohio... I don't get drunk off of it D: For my birthday, one of my fraternity brothers (a man who is on the verge of being a "good ole boy" if you know what I mean) made me a bottle of this stuff, I drank the whole bottle that night, and was stone cold sober (didn't drive, wouldn't think of driving after having more than a glass of booze just in case), and the only thing I had was a freaking sugar rush

Maybe he mulled it too long? I had a galleon jug of the stuff that absolutely destroyed about 5 people at a party once. Admittedly, they weren't drinkers, but still...

 daedalus wrote:

 Alfndrate wrote:

daedalus wrote:Concerning cider, we have a thing here (mostly homemade) which involves a crockpot, everclear (90% alcohol), cinnamon sticks, and what is normally nonalcoholic cider, which is basically spiced non-pasturized pressed apples. The latter you can normally only get in the fall during apple season, but the entire concoction is divine, and something I make every year for Halloween. It is certainly not for either, the weak of heart, or those with low fortitude saves.

We call it Apple Pie over here in Ohio... I don't get drunk off of it D: For my birthday, one of my fraternity brothers (a man who is on the verge of being a "good ole boy" if you know what I mean) made me a bottle of this stuff, I drank the whole bottle that night, and was stone cold sober (didn't drive, wouldn't think of driving after having more than a glass of booze just in case), and the only thing I had was a freaking sugar rush

Maybe he mulled it too long? I had a galleon jug of the stuff that absolutely destroyed about 5 people at a party once. Admittedly, they weren't drinkers, but still...

Possibly, but he doesn't get drunk on it either (this is also a guy that passed field sobriety after 19 shots of Jack Daniels and blew a .08). There are other people that have a glass of it, and they're feeling pretty good... I'm not an Legendary drinker, but I can hold my own for awhile (2 summers, I could put down half a bottle of jack and then would find myself up until 6 in the morning), but I have seen people obliterated by the same batch that my bottle was in. And when I say bottle, I mean a fifth .

 Super Ready wrote:

 Alfndrate wrote:
In America we have Apple Juice (which is squeezed juice from an apple, who knew!), Apple Cider (apparently called Soft Cider, which is similar to apple juice just with less babying), and Hard Apple Cider (implying booze). Everyone in this thread is talking about Hard Apple Ciders, I am talking about taking unpasteurized Apple Cider, putting some raisins, a little brown sugar, and something else (yeast maybe?) and putting an airtight seal on it. Then let it sit for a few weeks. My dad did this when he was in the seminary for two years (thankfully he left, or else I wouldn't be here ).

The difference between Soft Cider and Apple Juice is that soft cider is more akin to Orange Juice with "some pulp" It doesn't go through a filtration process like Apple Juice does, so there are "pulpy" pieces of Apple in it. There is an Apple Orchard about an hour and a half from where I live, they press their apple cider on an old wine press and don't pasteurize it, meaning there is just enough bacteria and organisms to feed on sugars and raisins in my cider for me to ferment it .

Going by this description - you don't have anything approaching a proper (scrumpy) cider, and what you call "hard" cider is about as hard as Mike's Hard Lemonade, right...? If that's the case, I do feel sorry for what you're missing out on.
This is the kinda stuff I mean:

Wow, that looks amazing, I've never tried scrumpy, is it one of the best?

Alfndrate wrote:You certainly haven't been to America recently In the past 6 years, I've been enjoying microbreweries, and they tend to not go below 5.5% but most of them average more than that. We Americans have certainly developed quite the beer culture in (I want to say) the past 15 years or so. Also, how the feth did you get Dark Lord? It's available once a year, I was only lucky enough to have it because I went to a beer tasting in Chicago at a web developer's conference I was attending .

Actually, I've never been but I speak to American friends fairly regularly and my girlfriend moved here from the States about 14 years ago. So I can tell you it's not been as long as 15 years, at least not in Minnesota... but with conversations with those friends, booze doesn't exactly always get brought up, so yes I'd easily miss it.

I had Dark Lord here in the UK at a beer and ale festival - there's a body called CAMRA (CAMpaign for Real Ale) that runs them, and two week-long ones in particular, where there are a lot of guest beers and specialties, one-offs and yes, foreign beers that you just *cannot* find elsewhere in the country. I've also had its spiritual successor, Supreme Overlord, which is even worse better.

unmercifulconker wrote:Wow, that looks amazing, I've never tried scrumpy, is it one of the best?

It is indeed. "Scrumpy" is the type of cider, though there are a lot of sellers that use the word in their brand's name, "Scrumpy Jack" being probably the most widely-known here. It's cloudy and still, but also tastes much stronger (which can be more bitter and/or sweeter) so I guess you could say - scrumpy is to fizzy cider as cloudy lemonade is to Sprite.