Ken Schramms Book Hyped In "Slate"

**wildaho** · 03-11-2008, 05:28 PM

Originally Posted by wayneb

But with only three commercial distillers licensed for export out of Ireland these days, how do you get your hands on a proper selection of single-malts from there? I enjoyed some of the Irish single malts that I tried when I was in Ireland (back in the 80's -- too long a time ago), but I've never seen any of them on the shelves at my local Liquor stores.

Pot still labels like Connemara are still better than the blended excrement, such as baseline Jameson's, Tullamore Phew, and Bushmill's bland, that most folks mistake for Irish whiskey -- and I can get some locally. (I will update with a note here that I have not tried Bushmill's single malts. The Black is a tolerable blend, but if I should spend the extra $$ for a 12 or 16 year old Bushmill's malt IYO, I'll give 'em a shot sometime.)

I found the Bushmills 10 and 16 year old single malts in my local liquor store about a month ago. The 10 was $35/fifth and the 16 was I think $47. I opted for the 10 (green label) and was verrrrrrry pleased!

Lew Bryson had a great interview with the distiller from Bushmill on his STAG blog a while back. He goes into the differences between malt whisky, pot distilled and grain spirits and how the different distillers go about building the different types. Bryson also recently interviewed the distiller from Jamesons but hasn't got that one posted yet.

**wayneb** · 03-11-2008, 05:48 PM

Hmmm... I'll have to look for those Bushmill single malts then! Have you ever tried the Connemara? Although it is a pot still mix, it has a nice smoky, peaty note that reminds me of some Scotch single malts that I've tried.

I wish I had the time and budget to sample more Scotch single malts -- my exposure is limited to maybe a half dozen or so, but my favorite of the ones I've sampled so far has to be the first that I ever had, a 15 year-old Laphroaig that I first tasted back in 1982. Yeah - I like them dark, intense and complex!

**butterlily5** · 03-13-2008, 03:47 PM

Sorry it's late, but Thanks, Vicky!
I will difinitely look into that, and the meaderies you mentioned; If I can, I'll try to go directly to the meadery.

As for the rest of this thread, I was at my LHBS this weekend, gabbing (can't get away from there, don't know why....) and some guy mentioned he had read this article, and I had to apologize to him. I'm a decent parrot, so I'm glad I had been following this thread (and the others) about the article, and myself and my LHBS guy assured him that the author did more to show his ignorance on the subject than to inform others. And I let him know that, although there's a severe vacuum of good meads in the area (I've only been able to find Chaucer's so far), I urged him to do a google search for meaderies and find one he can get to. So here's hoping for another convert!

You guys lost me a while back with the whiskey line. I used to be a much heavier drinker than I am now (any good squid has to be!), and with all the wine tasting my self and my wonderful husband have done, my true appreciation was brought around by a Pieroth wine distributer housed next door to my husband's office (he's since gone), and boy, that's some amazing stuff! My husband fell in love with their 2004 Freinsheimer Rosenbuhl Eiswein-Pfalz (aka icewine) which I'm under the impression is no longer widely available. I've come to find that anything Reisling is my wine of choice.

As for liquors, I'm a Tequila girl myself. Haven't found one I don't like yet. But, I don't drink much at all of anything any more. I drink vodka when I'm sick, that's the most in one sitting I do. Sad. Can't wait till my meads are done!

**webmaster** · 03-13-2008, 04:25 PM

You are entirely welcome, Butterlily. I wouldn't worry about apologizing to folks for Day's lack of research, just send them here. If they spend a few minutes on GM, they'll realize that there's more to mead than the ramblings of one person who didn't research his subject first. Shame, that. GM benefited from it, we got an upsurge in traffic for a few days, and hopefully a few more people learned something about mead. But Day did himself and the readership of Slate a disservice.

Send your friend here to look for meaderies:
http://www.gotmead.com/index.php?opt...d=91&Itemid=44

::shaking head:: Amazing what you can find on the *website* (website, what website you say?). Y'know, that place called Gotmead.com? LOL.......

**wayneb** · 03-13-2008, 05:21 PM

Originally Posted by Vicky - GM Founder

::shaking head:: Amazing what you can find on the *website* (website, what website you say?). Y'know, that place called Gotmead.com? LOL.......

Oh! You're talking about all that stuff on the pages surrounding the forum!!

Uh-oh!! Now I've done it...

**ken_schramm** · 03-19-2008, 08:33 PM

So if you haven't been following Phil Dunlap's "Ink Pen," you gotta get on board with this week's strips. He's riffing on the article in "Slate." He even alluded to the comment on Roquefort in my reply in the discussion forum in this strip. This is great. I don't know if I'm supposed to be flattered, but I am.

It doesn't matter if he's making fun of mead. Or me. He's talking about it, and that's all that matters.

I've never been alluded to in a United Press Syndicated comic before. Sorry, but I think that's cool.

Ken

**Launcelot** · 03-19-2008, 08:41 PM

Ok, at the next gathering, book two chairs for Ken... He ego will be riding shotgun..

Sorry brother, I had to say it...

In any case, yeah, we actually have a thread going elsewhere where you were quoted and it was commented that it was very obviously a reference to ya.

Good on ya brother, you are all famous and stuff.

--L

**webmaster** · 03-19-2008, 09:00 PM

I am *so* cracking up here!!! That strip is a hoot. He may be funning on mead, but I *love* that he's talking about, and not just for one strip, but *3* so far.......

I also think its interesting that he alludes to your response to the article, Ken, rather than the article itself. Shows how much of his ignorance Day displayed that the responses are what is informative, not the article itself......again, way to go, Ken!

(Funny, you've never brought out the furs and Viking helmet tho.....I though that was Glens' thing)

**ken_schramm** · 03-19-2008, 09:32 PM

Originally Posted by Launcelot

Ok, at the next gathering, book two chairs for Ken... He ego will be riding shotgun...(snip)

Good on ya brother, you are all famous and stuff.

No worries here, mate. My ego is regularly kept in check by the typical interchange on the plane as I fly to another mead speaking appearance:

Guy next to me: "Business or pleasure?"

Me: "I'm going to give a presentation. I wrote a book on Mead."

Guy next to me: "You wrote a book on Meat? Like Steaks and stuff?"

Me: "No, Mead. It's Honey Wine..."

The flight attendants are indifferent and unimpressed, and sell more Bud Light. The conversation shifts to sports.

Ken

**webmaster** · 03-19-2008, 10:54 PM

LOL....yeah, I think I'm going to have to make a t-shirt about that......

"Mead, its like, honey wine, ya know?" or maybe just a picture of glass of mead and a picture of a cow inside a circle with a line through it......

My conversations tend to go more like:

Other person: Where are you going?
Me: To judge at a commercial mead competition.
Them: Meat?
Me: No, mead. With a 'd'. It's a honey wine.
Them: Oh, like that viking thing. Is it like beer?
Me: No, it's a wine made with honey instead of grapes....
Them: (in triumph) Like Beowulf! (or Thirteenth Warrior or whatever periodish flick they saw with mead in it)
Me: Um, yeah. Like that.

Vicky - "Mead, its that Beowulf thing" (t-shirt coming soon

)

**Launcelot** · 03-20-2008, 12:13 AM

Ok, I have to say, of all the things I have done in life... I never expected making mead to be one that got me a lot of attention.

So, couple days ago, I met this nice lass, she's a chef... I was like "cool, she cooks".

We had a longish conversation over drinks, and discussed wines and beers, and I mention I make mead...

Yeah, conversation went much like the previous ones, then she asked what it tasted like... AH HAH! Second date scored.

Second date...

I give her some of my finest...

Evidently I did something right, she is completely hooked...

Oskaar, Ken... Folks, you two get a free meal on me next time we bump into one another... Ken for kicking off the actual process of thinking through how to do it... Oskaar for coming up with the reminder that I need to stick to traditional ones first.. because a oaked show mead just managed to score more points than I ever thought it would ::laughing::

--L

**gbobeck** · 03-20-2008, 02:54 AM

Originally Posted by Vicky - GM Founder

LOL....yeah, I think I'm going to have to make a t-shirt about that......

"Mead, its like, honey wine, ya know?" or maybe just a picture of glass of mead and a picture of a cow inside a circle with a line through it......

Lol. For some odd reason, this is the first thing which came to mind...
http://picasaweb.google.com/gbobeck/...02901903602850

**CBiebel** · 03-20-2008, 03:49 AM

I've had similar experiences in the liquor store where I work. One time I asked one of the beer saleswomen if she had ever tried mead. She started laughing. I asked her why, and she said, "Have I ever tried meat?"

I had to explain that I had said "mead" with a "d."

Then I asked one of the wine salesmen if he had heard of mead. He said, "Oh yeah! We sell that. The company is called Bunratty..."

The funniest part was when my bosses asked me what mead tasted like, and I said, "Well, it doesn't really taste like anything else. It tastes like mead." (I kind of explained it using Sake. People ask what Sake tastes like, but it has its own taste, so you say, "It tastes like Sake....")

Well, we ended up going to their house for a party and I brought a bottle of Redstone Mountain Honeywine. I gave them a sample and asked them what it tasted like. They said it wasn't like anything they've had before. Like I said, mead tastes like mead...

BTW, I once had my neighbor (a regular wine drinker) try some mead "blind" (I just poured it and said "Try this and tell me what you think it is"). She guessed Gewurztraminer (assuming it was a wine). I guess I converted her a bit because she ended up buying a bottle of the Redstone Mountain Honeywine for her niece for Christmas. She says she's waiting to taste my homemade stuff when it's ready.

**CBiebel** · 03-20-2008, 03:59 AM

Originally Posted by Launcelot

Oskaar for coming up with the reminder that I need to stick to traditional ones first.. because a oaked show mead just managed to score more points than I ever thought it would ::laughing::

--L

Well, I have to comment on this one. My nephew got us hooked and we've only done traditional meads with him (although I did a couple of JAOs). When I've presented some other mead styles (like the Redstone Vanilla/Cinnamon Meth) to my sister-in-law, her reaction was always "Why mess with a good thing? Nick's traditional mead is so much better than the this stuff..."

**wayneb** · 03-20-2008, 11:38 AM

Absolutely the only way to get people to know what you're talking about is to offer them a taste or two of some of your own. I've won over the whole office to mead as a special occasion drink. I brought a few bottles of my stuff to our Halloween party last year, and I was asked to bring more for Christmas, and now I'm on the hook to bring a case down for every office party. Once people try it, most can't get enough of the stuff.

**gbobeck** · 03-21-2008, 03:10 AM

Originally Posted by wayneb

Absolutely the only way to get people to know what you're talking about is to offer them a taste or two of some of your own. I've won over the whole office to mead as a special occasion drink. I brought a few bottles of my stuff to our Halloween party last year, and I was asked to bring more for Christmas, and now I'm on the hook to bring a case down for every office party. Once people try it, most can't get enough of the stuff.

I agree. I was able to convert a few people in my research lab by offering a sample of my own. The professor I work for is considering taking up home brewing because of it, and one of my fellow lab workers shocked me by saying that mead was the first wine he actually liked.

**Launcelot** · 03-21-2008, 03:58 PM

I had one person look at a glass and say "I don't like white wine" I explained it wasn't wine...

It took a little nudging, but now I have to crack a bottle at every visit...

Good thing I have the habit of big batches...

So, Oskaar, if I have to start storing in the un-temp controlled garage for bulk aging, is that a problem?

::grins::

--L

**webmaster** · 03-21-2008, 04:12 PM

Wayne, like all alcoholic beverages, temperature changes affect the taste of the drink. Leaving mead (or wine/beer/liquour/etc.) in an uncontrolled environment risks the mead. I store mine in my basement, which stays between 68-72 year-round.

I wouldn't recommend bulk aging in a non-controlled environment, especially if you expect it to get warmer than cellar temps for any length of time.

Vicky - who paid (and then regretted it) for a glass of what turned out to be a really crappy riesling last night when attending a Mannheim Steamroller performance

**wayneb** · 03-21-2008, 06:46 PM

Originally Posted by Vicky - GM Founder

Wayne, like all alcoholic beverages, temperature changes affect the taste of the drink.

I know that....

**webmaster** · 03-21-2008, 10:11 PM

Sorry....I really have to learn to read slower.....

...Launce....I meant Launce....really. I read your response, then his, then, well, you saw. LOL. Hey, whaddya want, I'm a blonde....

On another note, take a look at the Ink Pens' ongoing mead strip:
http://www.gocomics.com/inkpen/2008/03/21/

I know he's capping on our favorite drink, but I've been getting some laughs from the series......