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Guys... let's have an honest talk about hard drinks.


Eclipse

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Apple cider (soft, of course) is delicious. I can't wait for it to come into season. I've never had egg-nog, and I really don't think it's something I'm worried about.

 

I've never enjoyed alcohol. The few sips of wine I've had were nasty, and hard liquors smell nasty. Beer smells and tastes bad as well. I really don't see the attraction, although I've been told it comes with age.

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I'm not sure it's age exactly, but an acquired taste. Not for alcohol itself, which is just nasty at any age. But alcohol is a good solvent for a lot of strong flavors, so a lot of interesting tastes are in alcoholic beverages. Also a lot of powerfully bad tastes. This is in principle why there is such a huge range of prices for wines and liquors. The bad stuff is really bad, but the good stuff is pretty good.

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Originally Posted By: Master1
I've never enjoyed alcohol. The few sips of wine I've had were nasty, and hard liquors smell nasty. Beer smells and tastes bad as well. I really don't see the attraction, although I've been told it comes with age.
Yeah, alcohol tends to be an acquired taste. And as I said earlier in this thread, you're not missing much. For me, the novelty of drinking alcohol wore off early; I was an altar boy at one of the local churches, and was volunteered once too many to help finish off the communion wine after mass.
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Originally Posted By: Student of Trinity
Never make eggnog with scotch. Some recipes call for it, but it tastes really awful. Scotch is fine straight or with water, if you like scotch, but it doesn't really mix well with anything.


try it with butter

i don't think that's actually how you're supposed to make butterscotch but if you have enough of it it starts to taste good eventually

Quote:
Brandy is much nicer in eggnog, but rum is probably best of all, or a mixture of rum and brandy.


using rum for any cocktail except a daiquiri or a mojito is pretty much a waste

Originally Posted By: Khoth
I had no idea that there were things called cider that didn't have alcohol in them.


it's okay, i didn't know this until i was about 17

the thing called cider that doesn't have alcohol is apple juice with pulp in it by the way

Originally Posted By: The Mystic
Yeah, alcohol tends to be an acquired taste. And as I said earlier in this thread, you're not missing much. For me, the novelty of drinking alcohol wore off early; I was an altar boy at one of the local churches, and was volunteered once too many to help finish off the communion wine after mass.


so if you wanted to conduct a church service in the middle of a lake would you need an altar buoy
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Add sugar and butter to rum and you have the two essential ingredients of deliciousness (fat and sugar) and a common additive (booze). How can it go wrong?

 

—Alorael, who was surprisingly old when he learned that hard cider and soft cider really are the same drink but for the alcohol.

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Originally Posted By: Dikiyoba
Originally Posted By: Master1
I thought the communion wine was special or something...

Once it's consecrated, I don't think you're allowed to put it back. So if you plan for too many people, you have to do something with the extra.
And I remember hearing somewhere that it's considered some kind of sin to waste it, so it pretty much has to be drunk. [sarcasm]And don't worry that you're making a twelve-year-old rather intoxicated, since he's got a designated driver anyway. Plus, the teacher will understand why one of her students has a hangover come Monday morning, since he goes to the Catholic school next door.[/sarcasm]
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Originally Posted By: Master1
Apple cider (soft, of course) is delicious. I can't wait for it to come into season.


It is in season. Where are you in the world, roughly? I'm in New England which of course is the place people usually think of when they think soft cider, so that may be why I can get it and you can't, if you're somewhere else.
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I'm in Oregon, also in the mid-lats, where we also grow apple trees commercially. Hard cider, at least traditionally, is what happens naturally to cider. Cider itself is the result of a process that involves first macerating whole apples, and then crushing the resulting pomace so that all the liquid is separated from the solid. It has no pulp, and isn't apple juice.

 

If you have extra hard (real) cider, a neat trick is to freeze it. The resultant liquid is highly alcoholic, and is called applejack.

 

(ps, Thuryl, rum in Australia is a LOT different in taste than that commonly found in the states.)

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Originally Posted By: Naughty Salmon
(ps, Thuryl, rum in Australia is a LOT different in taste than that commonly found in the states.)


That's kind of a sweeping statement to make, considering how many different kinds of rum there are in the first place.

oh hey i remembered a few other valid uses for rum: mai tai, long island iced tea, pina colada, hurricane

rum and coke is also acceptable as long as it's not very good rum and you don't want to impress anyone with your good taste (and before you ask, no, even adding lime and calling it a cuba libre will not impress anyone)

egg nog is still not on the list though

dammit, now i want a mai tai but i don't think i have any orgeat syrup in the house
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Originally Posted By: The Almighty Doer of Stuff
It is in season. Where are you in the world, roughly? I'm in New England which of course is the place people usually think of when they think soft cider, so that may be why I can get it and you can't, if you're somewhere else.

 

I'm down in the Mid-Atlantic. It probably is coming into season, and I just haven't noticed yet. I'll have to check when we go shopping today or tomorrow.

 

Originally Posted By: Thuryl
rum and coke is also acceptable as long as it's not very good rum and you don't want to impress anyone with your good taste (and before you ask, no, even adding lime and calling it a cuba libre will not impress anyone)

 

My mom's favorite drink is Rum, and she has been known to drink rum and coke. Now, keep in mind that this is a woman who drinks maybe 3 glasses of wine a year. We have some rum and other stuff above the fridge. Half of it (at least) is older than me.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Atlantic_States

 

I don't think I've ever heard Maryland described as southern. It borders the north side of DC, it was a border state in the civil war, and these days it has little in common with the south when it comes to politics, industry, or anything else, really. So I'm curious what you mean, Master1.

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Hmm. A little googling reveals that the issue is not as clear-cut as I thought. The general consesus appears to be that Maryland has clear Southern heritage, that a decent chunk of it "feels" more Southern in terms of geography, but that the majority of its population live in the areas with a more Northeastern culture. Interesting.

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Originally Posted By: Tyranicus
Having been to Maryland many times, I can honestly say that I would not call its weather southern. Sure, it may be a little warmer down there than here in PA, but it's a far cry from the oppressive heat and humidity of the deep south


My country is still colder than yours, bucko.
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I camped for a weekend at 40 below. (That's where the two scales coincide.) In fact I slept one night in a hollowed out pile of snow. I had an air mattress and a good sleeping bag, so I was cozy.

 

Noteworthy was that when somebody failed to connect the fuel tank properly to the naphtha stove (it's a fussy connection), the naphtha that sprayed out all over the stove case froze instantly. In fact the fuel pipe became blocked with frozen naphtha. Then somebody else apparently mistook the blockage for normal ice, and decided to melt it with a lighter. Fortunately they were bright enough to do all this outside the tent, because the resulting pillar of fire was a good four feet high, and lasted several seconds.

 

(The fuel did not freeze solid in its tank, so I figure the freezing of the sprayed-out mist was an interesting effect of self-cooling by evaporation. Or maybe we had just kept the tank warm; I forget, now.)

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Yes, Maryland. I can't remember any specifics, but I've been in some pretty cold places. Our friends have a cabin up in northern Wisconsin, and we wintered there once. The plumbing was frozen solid, and the outhouse was frozen too. We used the foot or so of ice to brace the pillar for the pier out in the lake/pond thing. It was a long time ago, but I remember it was very cold.

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Originally Posted By: Excalibur
Ever ride a bike in 0 degrees Fahrenheit? (~-18 Celsius)
Originally Posted By: w of the dueck clan
ever waited for a bus when it's 20 below, not counting the wind chill?
Ever rotate stock in a walk-in freezer that had a malfunctioning temperature gauge? The gauge was stuck at 2 degrees Fahrenheit, and since it was supposed to be 0 degrees or cooler, the refrigeration unit kept running and running and running, making the actual air temperature around -30 Fahrenheit.

Originally Posted By: Student of Trinity
Noteworthy was that when somebody failed to connect the fuel tank properly to the naphtha stove (it's a fussy connection), the naphtha that sprayed out all over the stove case froze instantly. In fact the fuel pipe became blocked with frozen naphtha. Then somebody else apparently mistook the blockage for normal ice, and decided to melt it with a lighter. Fortunately they were bright enough to do all this outside the tent, because the resulting pillar of fire was a good four feet high, and lasted several seconds.
Reminds me of the time I was stupid enough to spray lighter fluid on a fire I had going in a barbecue grill. Burned all the hair off my right arm--and I count myself lucky that's all I burned.
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Originally Posted By: The Mystic
Reminds me of the time I was stupid enough to spray lighter fluid on a fire I had going in a barbecue grill. Burned all the hair off my right arm--and I count myself lucky that's all I burned.

I once turned the gas on to the barbeque, with the intention of lighting it, but I got distracted and went off to do something. When I came back to light it, a wall of flame shot up through the grill and burned a bunch of the hair off my hand.

Yeah...it's kind of stupid to leave flammable gas running...
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Originally Posted By: The Mystic
Ever rotate stock in a walk-in freezer that had a malfunctioning temperature gauge? The gauge was stuck at 2 degrees Fahrenheit, and since it was supposed to be 0 degrees or cooler, the refrigeration unit kept running and running and running, making the actual air temperature around -30 Fahrenheit.


Worse than that, I've spent a couple hours in one doing inventory. Although, I think ours was on down to -20º.
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Originally Posted By: Master1
Today in Chemistry, our teacher couldn't get the Bunsen burner to light. He would crank up the gas, try to light it, and fail. He eventually got it going, and ended up with a flame fluctuating from 8 to 12 inches in height and 1 to 3 inches in width. Funn!

What's more fun is when you accidentally drop lithium into the barrel of the Bunsen burner.
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Originally Posted By: Excalibur
Originally Posted By: Master1
Today in Chemistry, our teacher couldn't get the Bunsen burner to light. He would crank up the gas, try to light it, and fail. He eventually got it going, and ended up with a flame fluctuating from 8 to 12 inches in height and 1 to 3 inches in width. Funn!

What's more fun is when you accidentally drop lithium into the barrel of the Bunsen burner.
Last year, I stuck a bunch of potassium into a beaker full of water. Thankfully, my nose wasn't an inch from the beaker like it usually was.

Alkali metals ftw!
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Originally Posted By: Excalibur
What's more fun is when you accidentally drop lithium into the barrel of the Bunsen burner.


Nononono, you've got it wrong. What you do is powder the lithium, and add it in small quantities to a mixture of iron oxide and aluminum. The result is thermite, a powder that, when lit, will reach over 2500 degrees Fahrenheit. Have fun melting through the engine of your car!
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