A long row of Longrows

Another whisky tasting in the Griffins Business Lounge is coming closer and therefore I put some Longrows in a long row for my pre-tasting. The order is going from the youngest to the oldest but with the Peated, which has no age, being the most peaty of the range, I put this one at the end to avoid an overloading of the palate with too much peat in the very beginning.

After the tasting I was pretty sure about the cigar to be combined with it but I also asked the question what people would combine with it. It's interesting too see that the feedback was unisono for all answers (and it matched completely with my personal impression): Magnum 46 is a very good choice to go with it.

BTW: I saw that Serge at Whiskyfun used the same header earlier this year, but in this case it's some kinda coincidence that I also used it.... it's an obvious pun that comes along with the name of the whisky. He'd 5 whiskys, I'd 6... so who had the longer row?

10yo.

Nose: hints of orange, lavender, honey, decent peat

Taste: pleasant sweetness (honey?), peat, fruity notes of grapefruit and orange

Aftertaste: Pepper and orange

Red, Shiraz Casks, 11yo.

Nose: Wine cellar, walnut, oak wood, decent smokiness, balsamico vinegar

Taste: tannins and grapes oviously coming from the wine, intensive peppery aroma, blood orange, ginger, wood

Aftertaste: Peppery, long and warming with a touch of peat

Rundlets & Kilderkins, 11yo.

Nose: smoke, redwine(?). pine, hints of tar

Taste: Sweet with tropical fruits, pepper, earthy, vanilla, burnt wood

Aftertaste: Smoke and tar with an intensive touch of pepper

14yo.

Nose: decent aroma of peat, cold smoke, apple, lemon

Taste: hints of sour notes, pickled cucumber(?), smoke and peat, woody aroma, getting medicinal, decent saltiness

Aftertaste: Long lasting with a mixture of smoke and some salt

18yo.

Nose: Fruitiness, soot, citrus(?), seaweed, minerally, tobacco

Taste: fruity with apple and papaya, limestone, oily, walnut, some pepper, vanilla

Aftertaste: Long with peat and ashes

Peated, no age

Nose: Decent smokiness, minerally, limestone, fresh

Taste: Hints of tropical fruits, limestone, white pepper, salt, seaweed, tobacco

Aftertaste: Long with a minerally touch and some peat

Cronut burger

I stumbled over this idea somewhere in the internet and I thought it would be a good idea to try it out.

The really special thing of that burger is the bun. It's no regular bun like you know it from 99 % of the other burgers, it's made with puff pastry. To increase the flavor experience the bun itself is topped with some Parmesan... the rest of the ingredients is simple and efficient: cucumber relish, green onion dip, bacon and of course a homemade beef paddie. Put it together in the right order and enjoy this flavor explosion!

09/06 - Where the amber nectar flows

Last year the patio of the castle Rapperswil was overcrowded with people and the organizers decided to limit the no. of entries for this year's festival. I'm sure that's a good decision to make it a little bit easier to get access to the stands of the different breweries and to make it more convenient for the visitors.

27 breweries, 52 beers... not too bad! Here's an extract of the beers I tried:

• Bierfactory/UG Braeu Hymn Bier, a Sour Ale with Raspberries
• Bad Attitude Ego, an Ale fermented with grapes
• Bierfactory Gikinger, a Red Session Ale with ginger
• Storm & Anchor Saison Rouge, a Red Saison
• BFM √225 saison Rhubarbe de Papa Péan (2014), another Saison
• BFM Abbaye Saint Bon Chien Grand Cru, a Barrel Aged Sour
• Barfuss Brauerei Sleeping Bear, an Amber Ale
• Doppelleu Brauwerkstatt Single Hop Black Ale, a Black IPA
• Officina della Birra SA Kremlin, a Russian Imperial Stout
• La Nebuleuse Malt Capone, a Robust Porter
• Echec & Malt Brewery Dulce Fuego, an Imperial Stout with cacao and chipotle
• Storm & Anchor Beast Double IPA
• Bierzunft Wehntal DIPA, an Imperial IPA with more than 100 IBU

As you can see this time I had a good bunch of sour beers and they're all really good but also the Stouts and IPAs were a good choice. Obviously I made my choice really carefully as there was no beer in my glass that I really disliked.

As always people ask you at the end of the day: what was the best beer you had? Difficult question and I don't want to narrow it down to just one but let me pick out one of each style:

• BFM Abbaye Saint Bon Chien Grand Cru in the category "Sour" (closely followed by Hymn Bier from Bierfactory/UG Braeu)
• Echec & Malt Brewery Dulce Fuego in the category "Stout"
• Storm & Anchor Beast Double IPA in the category "IPA"

Additionally there were also the tastings... beer and cheese or beer and chocolate. Last year I decided for the cheese and I heard good things about the combination with chocolate therefore this time I went with the chocolate. The combos of beer and chocolate were all very interesting and worked fantastic.... but: the chocolate from Felchin was really outstanding, the beers were are very "exotic". Out of the 5 served beers I would only drink two of them without the chocolate which was the Gikiginger of Bierfactory and a Barley Wine of which I don't remember the name anymore. I think it's more difficult to find the matches for beer and chocolate but for the next time my choice will be again cheese and beer...

After attending the festival in 2014 together with Michel our group was bigger this time as some more of our friends joined us. We also met some of the guys that with whom we'd a lot of fun last year and we also met some new guys. It's the same as with all other kind of festivals: it's always the same crazy bunch of guys who join, so we'll see each other again next year for sure.

08/28 - Drink local, smoke Cuban

Usually drinking local (beer) for me means to enjoy a cold Sonnenbräu Lager but in this case we are talking about another brewery in our area which is also still a private brewery, Schützengarten.

The guys from the brewery brought a range of 4 of their beers for us to enjoy them with some nice cigars which've been selected by Portmann Tabakwaren:

• Weisser Engel, Hefeweizen
• Klosterbraeu, Euro Pale Lager
• Schwarzer Baer, Munich Dunkel Lager
• Gallus 612, Old Ale

The first cigar was one from the Dominican Rebublic (I didn't smoke it and already forgot the name) but I enjoyed a Diplomaticos Bushido ER Asia Pacific 2014 with the first two beers, the second one's a Por Larranaga Picadores.

Enough said. I hope you enjoy the pictures of the evening and my brief description of the beers we had, all explained and added with some more background information by Richard Wüst, beer sommelier of the Schützengarten brewery.

Weisser Engel, Hefeweizen

An intensive smell bananas first, later some yeast and lemons. The taste is some kinda sweet-sourish flavor and very smooth and creamy in the mouth. The banana aroma is very present and lingers long in the mouth during the finish. A good starter and a good beer to go with a cigar.

Klosterbraeu, Euro Pale Lager

Roasted malt and some herbs are the dominating aromas in the nose. In the mouth the same aromas are present: roasty malt, some herbs, cereals... all added by a very decent hoppiness but all in all it's lacking some body. The finish is surprisingly long with a pleasant touch of bitterness. A good beer but not so much my liking.

Schwarzer Baer, Munich Dunkel Lager

It's getting darker now... caramel malt, hints of nuts without being too sweet. Very creamy in the mouth with flavors of dark roasted malt, bread, plums... very pleasant and refreshing with a medium finish. A good company for the first half of this well smoking Picadores.

Gallus 612, Old Ale

Hops, fruit and berries in the nose. Big surprise: junipers have been used in that brew. Maybe that's it what makes the taste so specific... Hoppy notes paired with red berries, roasted coffee, pleasant to drink and very good with the cigar. A good balance to some of the bitter aromas during the second half of this young cigar.

08/26 - Tubos of the Titans

Another report with pictures in black and white, another tasting evening, another outstanding good cigar: Bolivar Churchill A/T from 2001. I know that there are a lot of rumors especially about the years 1999 to 2001 in regards of quality, taste etc. I had many cigars which proved that the cigars from that period are (at least now) amazing cigars, this one was another very good example of an excellent cigar!

14 years old, stored in a aluminium tubo with a very limited aeration. The result: on one hand this cigar still has some typical aromas of a young cigar but on the other hand the smoke is very creamy and smooth. It's definitely an example which shows that cigars and blends have changed significantly over the last decade, nowadays you won't be able to find a cigar of that quality (or at least it will be more than difficult!).

The detailed reviews you can find again on feltedhat.com, where all the tasting sheets are saved as a pdf file. The outlook for the next smoke is also very promising as there is the chance to smoke a very special and limited cigar, stay tuned for that at the end of November.