Screech

Don't worry, I'm not posting about the episode of Saved By the Bell when the gang drank devilish alcohol. As the Olympics in Vancouver near their end, I figured it appropriate to write about a traditional Canadian spirit called Newfoundland Screech. Sure, Newfoundland is on the opposite side of the country as Vancouver, but this drink is popular across the entire country of our neighbors to the north. So what is screech and what's with the name?

Originally from Jamaica, screech is a strong rum that was exchanged for salt fish from the Canadians. Canadians grew fond of this strong booze with no particular name other than rum until WWII (or so the story goes...) It's said that during the war, American servicemen stationed in Newfoundland were shown a bit of hospitality by the locals. An American commanding officer was offered some of this rum after dinner, saw his host toss back a shot and followed suit. What ensued was a shrill noise uttered by the commanding officer; a sergeant pounded on the door asking what the "ungodly screech" was and it's all history from there...

I looked to see if this screech was available for sale online but was unsuccessful. This seems appropriate anyway because during my research, I came across the screech ritual and decided this is probably the best way to try screech for the first time...

This "screech-in ceremony" basically consists of three parts: downing the screech, kissing or licking a codfish and answering correctly the question, "Is ye an honorary Newfoundlander?" to which you answer, "Indeed I is, me old cock, and long may your big jib draw." Cock is an old term for a friend, but I wouldn't go calling a bunch of Canadians cocks, and jib refers to the sail on a ship, so basically you're saying "Smooth sailing my friend." Upon completing the ritual, you receive a screecher certificate. Sure, it's touristy, but I'll certainly do it if I make my way up in the area.

As you can imagine, you can find plenty of homemade videos of this ritual on YouTube but I found one particular that I think tops all of them:

Dogfish Head Olde School Barleywine

Barleywine is nothing to mess around with. Although beers such as the recently launched "Tactical Nuclear Penguin" from Brewdog in the UK set records for highest ABV (this one at 32%), topping even Sam Adams' Utopias, generally barleywines have the highest ABV of the different types of beer. They start at around 8% but usually reach near or into the teens. This explains the name, barleywine; "wine" because the ABV is in the same range as wine, however, it's still considered beer because it's made from grain rather than grapes.

I've had a handful of barleywines: Bigfoot Ale by Sierra Nevada, Blithering Idiot by Weyerbacher, and Old Crustacean by Rogue to name a few. Dogfish Head's Olde School has the highest ABV of them and of most barleywines in general, as explained by Sam Calagione in the video below. That high ABV definitely comes out in the taste, which is fiery sweet. It's definitely a slow-sipper, good for dessert and you probably don't want more than one at a time.

The high ABV makes this beer great for aging. In fact, the label includes an interesting little idea if you want to do just that:

"Directions: Open bottle, pour contents into two snifters. Enjoy. OR: Walk hand-in-neck into the middle of the woods. Use a shovel to dig a 2 x 2 hole three feet deep. Seal the bottle in a plastic bag. Place in hole and pack with dirt. Memorize location & leave. Return exactly one year later. Dig up bottle, open and enjoy."

I know that people actually do this. I've heard stories of people doing this with entire sixtels or even 1/4 kegs of other aging beers. Personally I didn't bury mine out in the woods, but I did save it for over a year. I've actually never seen this in any store; the bottle I consumed was a gift. So bottom line: if you see this in stores, pick it up.

Now here's Sam to explain the beer better than me:

The White Russian

Ian Fleming wrote twelve novels about James Bond, establishing such a reputation of the character that other novelists continued the tradition with more works of fiction, all of which have inspired 22 film adaptations to date. Though it didn't take ALL of that to associate the "shaken, not stirred" martini with him, James Bond is one of the only popular culture characters to be directly associated with a specific cocktail.

Of course, it only took one film for The Dude to be forever associated with the cocktail known as the White Russian. Though The Dude also referred to them as Caucasians, any Big Lebowski fan will attest that it's impossible to think of this cocktail without thinking of The Dude. Throughout the film, The Dude drinks about 9 of these, including the one that was drugged by Jackie Treehorn, the guy who "treats objects like women."

Pop culture association aside, White Russians are dangerously delicious cocktails; The Dude had good taste. Consisting of vodka, coffee liquor (usually Kahlua) and cream (or 1/2 & 1/2, milk, etc.), what you get is a creamy concoction that goes down easy. Since the drink is basically a creamy coffee flavored drink, coffee drinkers with a love for the various flavors of Coffee-Mate can add a unique spin to the drink (Coffee-Mate comes in seasonal flavors such as Eggnog, Pumpkin Spice and Peppermint Mocha as well as interesting Italian-inspired flavors like Creme Brulee, Tiramisu and Hazelnut Biscotti).

Traditional or not, just remember when you're drinking a White Russian, stay away from nihilists, don't roll on Shabbos, refrain from peeing on anyone's rug and if anyone bumps into you, be sure to say "hey! careful man, there's a beverage here!" The Dude abides.

Rogue Hazelnut Spice Rum

You may recall back in August, I posted about Rogue's Dead Guy Whiskey, one of six of the spirits that they distill. To reiterate, Rogue is an excellent brewery, one of my favorites. Fortunately, most of the beers that they brew are easy to find in the Northeast and (as far as I know) most of the country. Their spirits, however, are not. In a trip I took to Arizona a couple of weeks ago, I couldn't help noticing that an impressively stocked store carried a few of the Rogue spirits.

Since I already tried the Dead Guy Whiskey, I really wanted to try one of their other unique liquors, their Hazelnut Spice Rum. Since it's rum, naturally the bottle sports an image of a pirate, more specifically Blackbeard. An interesting blurb on the bottle explains how Blackbeard, at well over 6 feet, used to weave gunpowder-laced wicks into his full beard and light them during battle to intimidate opponents (yeah, I'd say a menacing tall pirate with a beard on fire would do the trick).

Anyway, on to the taste. As with most liquor, I like to try new ones (especially flavorful ones such as this) without any mixers or frills, so I tried it on the rocks. If you like the smell and taste of hazelnuts, you'll love this rum. There's not much to it other than a great toasty aroma and a smooth sweet taste, due to the ingredients: 100% pure Hawaiian cane sugar, toasted Oregon hazelnuts, bitter orange peel, Madagascar bourbon vanilla bean, cinnamon and clove. Rogue's website does offer some drink recipes, a couple of which I'll have to try:

-The Hazel-Coffee: equal parts Hazelnut rum and Kahlua with a dash of bitters
-Fuzzy Nuts: 1 part Hazelnut rum with 1/2 parts Irish cream and Amaretto

Castle Lite Advertisement

I saw this advertisement on YouTube and had to look into it. The advertisement is from Castle Lite, a beer from South Africa. As it turns out, South Africa is like a mecca for burnt out musicians that were popular in USA, clearly evidenced by this recent ad...



Opening up a Castle Lite creates an impromptu performance by Vanilla Ice...who wouldn't want that?

Boilo

There's over a foot of snow on the ground. I've got that fuzzy feeling, being warm indoors looking out at the beautiful snow-covered trees. And now I feel even more warm and fuzzy because I'm drinking Boilo. Boilo, you ask? Well if you're concerned I've resorted to drinking household chemicals due to the snow storm, worry not...boilo is a consumable spirit and I'll tell you all about it...

My parents had a holiday party back in December and naturally received more than a few gifts of various types of booze, but one was foreign to us, this homemade drink called Boilo. Boilo is a holiday drink from the "coal region," northeastern and central PA. To put it briefly, it's a spice and fruit flavored drink with a kick, served warm for those cold winter nights. Traditional ingredients include oranges, lemons, raisins, honey, cloves, caraway seed, anise, ginger ale and lest we not forget the liquor. Apparently, traditional boilo is made with moonshine, but over the years, boilo makers have turned to whiskey, more specifically a blended whiskey called "Four Queens."

Since it's a snowy night, I thought it only appropriate to try out this regional drink, to stay warm of course. Two words come to mind when sipping on it: Hoooo Doggy! It has that wonderful kick that warms your center. Since I now live in boilo territory, I think I may have to make a batch of this next Christmas.

If you're interested, you can easily find recipes online, including here.

The Burger King Whopper Bar

"Can I get a whopper, fries and a Bud?" Ask that at any of the roughly 8,000 Burger King's across the USA and you'll be denied the Bud...except one. If you were to guess where, you may think Vegas but no, it's another party town: South Beach.

The news was released a few weeks ago and the plans are set for around the middle of this month for a BK in South Beach to start serving Budweiser (boo!) aluminum bottles at a "whopping" $4.25 (sorry, the pun was unavoidable). If ordering an extra value meal with one of these beers, it'll cost you about $7.99. This move is to try to pick up declining sales and compete with other alcohol-serving traditional restaurants.

I can hear it now..."hey, want to go to that nice Italian restaurant, get some wine, have a good meal...?" ("umm, we could...or we could just go to Burger King and have a Budweiser!") "Great idea!!"

I'm not surprised that all Burger King joints (and all other fast food joints across the country) don't serve beer by this point, but I am surprised that it hasn't already caught on in tourist-heavy and metropolitan areas, especially considering beer has been served in fast food restaurants in Europe for a long time.

Frankly, I don't really care because I very rarely eat fast food and never drink Bud. Unless they open up In and Out Burger with microbrews on tap in the Northeast, I won't be drinking and fast fooding.

Arizona Trip - Beer

I was in Arizona a couple weeks ago and had a fantastic time seeing the sights, relaxing, eating and of course, drinking. I did a tad bit of research before flying west on the Phoenix beer scene and came up nearly empty; there are not many breweries in the state of Arizona, let alone the greater Phoenix area. However, my second thought was that the local beer stores would certainly have different distribution rights than stores back home.

A trip to "Total Wine" (which certainly had much more than just wine) was a great success...

The first beer I set my eyes on was Shiner Bock. Brewed in Shiner, Texas, in the Spoetzl Brewery, I've read in multiple places how this is people's "go-to" beer. Interestingly, this brewery celebrated its 100th anniversary last year. A German man, Kosmos Spoetzl, started the brewery with the hope of bringing some German brewing tradition to this country. Thus, the bock became the brewery's staple beer, a dark, malty beer apparently high in food energy. In fact, German monks who were required to fast during Lent drank bock for sustenance (Keep that in mind...Lent's around the corner). Anyway, Shiner Bock is nothing amazing but I can see how people adopt it as their session beer because it's very drinkable. I'd equate it to a German-style, Southern US equivalent of Yuengling.

The next beer I picked up was from a brewery that I really wish would distribute out here to the northeast: New Belgium from Fort Collins, CO. I've read a lot about the origin and reputation of this great brewery whose flagship beer is Fat Tire Amber Ale, available in both bottles and cans. I had a couple cans of it during the trip and although I haven't had a LOT of them, it was definitely the best amber ale I've ever had. The other offering I had from New Belgium while in AZ was their first of four organic beers that they offer, their Mothership Wit, very tasty in the sunny weather.

One other single bottle I picked up is something that is available here in PA but isn't really something that I'd buy an entire case of: Cave Creek Chili Beer. It started out being brewed in Cave Creek, AZ, but is now brewed in Mexico. The story goes that Ed Chilleen started brewing a basic beer which gained in popularity in AZ. When people requested a lime with his beer, he put a chili in it instead. Some people actually liked it and the rest is history. Now, all of the beer actually comes with a chili inside. It was interesting to try, similar to Rogue's Chipotle Ale, but since I'm not exactly a masochistic beer drinker, I probably wouldn't pick up any more of this. And no...I did NOT eat the chili.

There was one local beer that I had during the trip from a small brewery based in Tempe with a brewpub in Scottsdale, next to Phoenix. Four Peaks Brewery only distributes within the state lines, but has a nice collection of brews, some of which have earned awards at the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) and World Beer Cup. I had a nice tall glass of their 8th Street Ale on tap, an English-style bitter Pale Ale. Considering how small the brewery is, the beer was very good.