BIG American Double Imperial Stout goes to the test... with a Dane coming to the top!

In the grand scheme of things, when it was time to have a good old Russian Imperial Stout... I know I could sit back and relax, enjoy some good simple ABV and enjoy the malty and sometimes big goodness. Then I realized stouts could also be big in ABV beyond my comprehension.

Enter two big giants ready to do battle on the American Double Imperial Stout beer war. Here we have Mikkeller Black (17.5 ABV), in it's standard form (don't get me into all those wax capped bourbon aged barrel variations of I could only dream about tasting..), against... an evil looking incarnation... a very silverly looking devil of it's own from Avery brewery... Mephistophele's Stout (ABV 16.8).

I tasted and compared both of these. This was great for a nice winter day as snow has been falling of late. Strangely enough, I actually prefer these high ABV concoctions to other big carbonated beers with lower ABV. Sometimes sipping these is like imbibing a great wine. One was truly great indeed! Can you guess which one?

Only way you can find out is watching below! (or try them both yourself!)

Cheers!

Unusual Summer DC in September, calls for the Dark N' Stormy

A funny thing happened in DC during the month of September. It turned to a brutal nearly code red August summer day. Temperatures swelled suddenly from the cool Fall days past, to a sudden hot high 90s. It was humid, it was sticky, plain and in short... it was summer in DC again one of those awful ones. I thought Fall drinks were on the way, but suddenly... they weren't!

So I thought I was done with summer drinks and mojitos and the like. But nope I was wrong.

With crisis comes opportunity, and with that I could crave something to beat the heat, and that little something something.. is none other than a Dark N' Stormy. The best thing about them, they are stupid easy to make.

First off a real good Dark N Stormy uses Ginger Beer. NOT GINGER ALE! like some other people use. I go for two types of ginger beer particularly.

The first type is one that I see quite often and I'll occasionally use in a pinch, and that's DG brand. It has a very ginger sharp taste to it, one that really cuts. The second I use is a much different a subtler one made by Reed's. Reed's ginger beer, is not as high on ginger (although the taste is there), but its filled with tropical fruit and aroma. It's VERY good if you can find it.

Ginger beer is basically a concoction of ginger and soda if I could explain it simply. If you want to put ginger root in a bottle and sell it as soda pop that's what you get. The hot ginger taste I find can really cool you off and its sweet. The DG brand is much sweeter than Reed's.

That said the next important thing is the rum. Not just any rum. A true Dark N' Stormy is made with Gosling's Black Seal rum from Bermuda. It has a big dark color, a seal on the bottle, and has this (to my senses) great toffee and smooth rum flavor.

With the really hot weather all of a sudden, I found myself desiring this tasty beverage. It turned out opportunity provided me a chance to get it sooner than I expected.

Watch the quick video below to understand how to make one. CHEERS!