Wine Guide Wine Resources At Your Fingertips

If you are not into home brewing beer, then we have good news for you. At least 400 bottles of a notorious, 32% alcohol by volume Scottish beer are headed for your shores. The subtly-named stout, Tactical Nuclear Penguin, will be sold in New York and California. You will be able to find it at, oddly enough for a company with a healthier-than-thou reputation, select locations of Whole Foods.

The Tactical Nuclear Penguin line was launched last November by Scotland’s BrewDog, and  roundly criticized for for its alcohol content.

It had a brief reign as the world’s most potent beer, until another European company released Schrosch Bock, with a terrifying 40% concentration. Of course, BrewDog couldn’t let this insult to Scottish pride stand, and quickly released Sink the Bismarck!, an even-more-leg-wobbling 41%. ( Running £40 it can only be bought directly from BrewDog.)

Tactical Nuclear Penguin takes its name from BrewDog’s controlled process, given as:

“For the big chill the beer was put into containers and transported to the cold store of a local ice cream factory where it endured 21 days at penguin temperatures. Alcohol freezes at a lower temperature than water. As the beer got colder BrewDog Chief Engineer, Steven Sutherland decanted the beer periodically, only ice was left in the container, creating more intensity of flavours and a stronger concentration of alcohol for the next phase of freezing. The process was repeated until it reached 32%.”

Time Magazine pontificates

“Even if these brands end up being carried by more bars and retailers, [some] firmly believe[s] that the beer’s high price will prohibit unsophisticated drinkers (read: high school kids at a kegger, or college students on spring break) from just picking up the stuff and chugging it. But you can’t deny that if the beer becomes more widely available in stores, or other brewers mimic BrewDog’s strategy, it could become hazardous. Since most drinkers don’t check alcohol levels on the label like the expiration dates on a milk carton, some unsuspecting soul with too much money to spare could sip a little too much strong stuff.”

Here are some frequently  asked items of interest about beer:

How do they make beer? With hops, barley and lots of love.

Can you do it at home? Yep, It’s not easy but is pretty straightforward.

Who first came across beer? At over 10,000 years old, beer has been with us a long time. While the exact inventor is lost in the mists of history, scientists have determined that Noah loaded beer on the Ark! Even our founding fathers quaffed a few( have you read anything about John Adams?)

Uh,number of calories in a brew? Not small -  It can range anywhere form 100 to 400 calories – that’s quite a workout to get rid of them!

What total percentage alcohol is in a beer? Depends on the beer – do you have to ask?

The alcohol stays with you for, uh, how long (not that I’m driving, of course)? On average from 6 – 10 hours.

Which beer has the largest alcohol content? Tactical Nuclear Penguin by BrewDog Brewery in Scotland. Sip carefully (although this was surpassed in February by a beer known as “Sink the Bismarck” also from BrewDog.)

How many beers are in a keg?  Somewhere around of 165 beers in the keg ( with standard 12 ounce cans as a measure).

Which country puts down the most beer? Texas? Actually, we found that the Czech Republic consumes 156 liters of beer per capita, far more than any other country, but closely followed by Ireland and Germany.

 Mail this post

Posted under Uncategorized

To those who love to taste wine, wine tasting is simply referred to as ‘tasting’. Wine tasting consists of analyzing different kinds of wine using his or her senses. It has become very popular today and even has special terminologies and can be termed as a profession. Most people in the business will agree that wine tasting is an art that allows participants to gain a greater appreciation for the various wines and winemakers as well.

Wine tasters limit the art of tasting to four main tastes. There are four primary tastes according to wine tasters: sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. They all agree that wine can be either one of those or a combination of two or more. Wine tasting is defined by not just the effect of tasting, but also the smell of the wine as well.

How Wine Tasting Is Done

Tasting is a fairly easy art and can be done at home or at a wine tasting party. The most important aspects to consider during the wine tasting process are the clarity and color of the wine, the smell and the taste. To determine the color and clarity of the wine, simply pour a glass of wine and hold it up in front of a white background and examine the wine. This should be done mainly from the edge of the glass to the middle.

If it is a red wine, tasters look for traces of brown, maroon, purple or brick. If it is a white wine, the colors to look for are yellow, green, amber, brown or gold. In addition, professionals check for traces of sediments in this stage by tilting and swirling the wine glass.

During the wine tasting process, smell is very important. The correct way to smell wine is by swirling the glass in order to eradicate some of the alcohol smell. It is important to smell the wine in a whiff in order to get the aroma that first strikes out. After that, the tasters then take a deep breath with their nose a few inches inside the glass in an effort to recognize any distinct aromas like berries, flowers, citrus or vanilla.

The real wine tasting process has to incorporate tasting the wine. What is known as the ‘attack phase’ involves sipping the wine and using your tongue to roll it around. Here, the first impression of the wine is registered.

The following phase of the process is what’s known a the evolution phase. This involves the discernment of the wine’s flavor profile. The final stage is called the finish and this is calculated by how long the taste of the wine will be retained in the mouth after swallowing. Wine tasting enables a person know whether they want more of the wine or if it was too strong or bitter for their liking.

See Also: Wine Tasting Invitation

Wine Tasting Gift Ideas

 Mail this post

Posted under Wine