Uses for Alcohol beside drinking it.

There are many uses for alcohol beside just drinking it. I bet you have never even thought about it. Well, until now neither have I. Here are just a few things I found out some I might even try myself.

Do you have stinky feet? Soak your feet in alcohol. The high alcohol content will kill the odor-causing bacteria

Did your car battery die? Well I have a solution to that too. Red wine can bring that battery back to life. Red wine is an acidic liquid that allows the electrons to flow freely between positive and negative terminals of the battery, providing sufficient energy to start the engine. How to: Safety googles and rubber gloves, carefully pry the cell cover off the battery with a screwdriver (without getting battery acid on yourself). Using a funnel, pour a little red wine on each of the battery cells. Then reseal the cell covers. Let the car sit for no more than an hour, restart the engine and drive directly to get a new battery.

Run out of windshield washer fluid? While you are grabbing  that red wine might as well as grab that vodka. It will come in handy if your windshield-washer reservoir is empty. In a gallon jug  mix 3 cups of vodka with 4 cups of water and 2 teaspoons of liquid dishwashing detergent. Shake well then pour into the reservoir. That’s it!

Where is the vanilla? There you are making cooking with the kids and low and behold you are out of vanilla extract. No need to panic you can substitute an equal amount of Frangelico and Baileys Irish Cream.

Your stuck on a plane next to gasious maximus.  You’re 30,000 feet up in the air, and your seatmate rips one. Where are you going to go? There’s only one thing to do: Order a whiskey from the flight attendant and ask for a napkin. Dampen the napkin with the whiskey, and breathe through it. “Whiskey masks the scent of the sulfur compounds responsible for the foul-smelling odor,”

You have a problem with slimy invaders in your garden? The only good snail is one cooked in butter and garlic. To rid your yard of the slimy invaders, bury a jar lid that the rim is level with the soil, then fill it with beer. Slugs and snails are attracted to the yeast in beer and overindulge until the drown.

You over do it with the perfume? You smell like you just bathed in a tub of your favorite cologne. The nearly odorless spirit will knock out that scent.

The baked chicken looks great but does not look it. About 15 minutes before you are ready to take it out of the oven, brush the skin of the chicken or turkey with white vermouth. The sugars in the fortified wine will give the dish a rich brown color.

 Is your hair looking dull or flat? To add volume to your mane, have a hops shampoo. In an enamel-lined saucepan set over medium heat, bring 3/4 cups of beer to a boil, then simmer briskly until reduces to 1/4 cup. Cool then mix with 1 cup of your regular shampoo. Transfer it to a jar with a lid and shake before use.

It’s the day before Easter and you forgot the dye. Red wine to the rescue again. Well, here is how you get purple eggs just dip it in that glass of red wine. Want to make designs use a white crayon before you dip it into the wine.

Is your backyard getting over run by poison ivy? Kill the noxious weed with a mixture of 2 tablespoons vodka and 2 cups of water. Pour the solution into a spray bottle and spritz away. Vodka’s dehydrating action will kill the poison ivy soon after the leaves are saturated.

Does your lawn need a lift? You’re not the only one whose spirits are lifted by beer. Lawns like it, too. Add brewski to the reservoir of a 10- or 20-gallon hose end sprayer and water your lawn with the mixture every three weeks or so. The sugar in the beer stimulates microbes that help to break up the soil.

So alcohol has many great uses other than making you forget your troubles.

 

 

 

The Difference Between Whisky and Whiskey.

When we talk about the difference between whisky and whiskey to our customers most just say they want it spelled the regular way. Well most don’t realize that there are even 2 different ways to spell it or it has two different meanings. That being said I thought I would research it so that I myself could explain it to them if they wish to know.

The main difference between scotch and whisky is geographic, but also ingredients and spellings. Scotch is whisky made in Scotland, while bourbon is whiskey made in the USA, generally Kentucky. Scotch is made mostly from malted barley, while bourbon is distilled from corn. If you are in England and ask for whisky, you’ll get scotch. But in Ireland, you’ll get Irish whiskey notice the extra ‘e’ lets got to that.

Until the late 19th century, most of the world spelled whisky without an ‘e’. Even the major Irish distillers, then the biggest in the world, followed the practice, as did American distillers.

In 1860, the Gladstone government passed the Spirits Act. The act allowed whisky blenders, for the first time, to create blends consisting of grain whisky and single malts. At the time, Ireland was the center of the world’s whisky production.

Irish distillers were producing around 70% of the world’s whisky. Irish whiskey was the most popular in the world, even out selling its Scottish rivals in England and Scotland.

The Scots spell it whisky and the Irish spell it whiskey, with an extra ‘e’. This difference is the spelling come from the translations of the word from the Scottish and Irish Gaelic forms. Whiskey with the extra ‘e’ is also used when referring to American whiskies.

American whiskey we have our own color too. The difference between Tennessee Whiskey, like Jack Daniels and Bourbon is that the  spirit is distilled, Tennessee Whiskey is filtered through sugar-maple charcoal. This filtering, know as the Lincoln County Process, is what distinguishes Tennessee Whiskey from your average Bourbon, like Jim Beam. The name Bourbon, comes from an area known as Old Bourbon, around what now is Bourbon County, Kentucky.

So, in a nutshell the name is based on factors such as the type of cereal grain used in the distilling process as well as how and where it was produced.

 

 

 

What does a Cooper do?

Traditionally, a cooper is someone who makes wooden, staved vessels, held together with wooden or metal hoops and possessing flat ends or heads. Examples of a cooper’s work include casks, barrels, buckets, tubs, butter churns, hogsheads, firkins, tierces, rundlets, puncheons, pipes, tuns, butts, pins and breakers.

Coopers were tradesman who made casks, buckets, barrels, and containers for flour, gunpowder, tobacco, shipping, wine, milk, and other liquids. Coopers were standard fixtures on ships, as well as on plantations, breweries, wineries, distilleries and any other industry that required containers for the commodities they produced. In the 1700’s all shipping containers were made of wood and would have been shaped like barrels.

The construction of a barrel (more accurately called a cask) took skill, experience, and significant manual labor. It was very difficult to construct the perfect cask, with a bulging round center and with sides that taper inward toward both ends. Clear white oak staves were split from the centers of mature trees. The tight cooper would then fashion the wooden parts with axes and knives before gathering them in a circular formation and securing them with iron rings. The staves were then heated to make them pliant (flexible) and pulled together with a special tool called a windlass. They were then banded with hickory hoops. Grooves were cut into lips that were formed to make sure the barrelheads fit tightly. Next, the lid was made. Finally, the cooper would cut a hole in the top and side and then fit the holes with plugs. This was done so people could see what was in the barrel.

The word cooper comes from the Middle English word “couper,” which means tub or container.

New Flavors For Whiskey

One of the newest trends in the world of spirits is flavoring. These new flavors only begin with cherry, cinnamon, maple, apple, and honey. While you may be used to seeing these new flavors for vodka, with bizarre flavors based off of fruity cereals and whipped toppings, other spirits are beginning to join the trend. Whiskey, one of the most tradition-bound of liquors, has begun to join the ranks of flavored spirits like vodka. Take for example the classic Wild Turkey – with a twist. Wild Turkey Liqueur is a honey-infused bourbon that hit the market in 2006 as American Honey. But that the just the first of many. Once Jim Beam released its cherry bourbon, known as Red Stag, in 2009, the flood of flavored liqueurs began. Flavored American whiskey like Heaven Hill’s Cherry Reserve, or Brown-Forman’s Early Times Fire Eater, are now the rule rather than the exception. Spicy cinnamon, sweet honey, apple-maple – whiskey manufacturers are embracing natural flavors that bring out the more subtle flavoring of the classic whiskey.

American whiskey manufacturers are not the only ones getting in on the flavor racket. Canada has, naturally, begun to come out with maple-syrup flavors of whiskey and bourbon. In Ireland, Bushmills became the first whiskey of its homeland to release a flavored bourbon – the Bushmills Irish Honey. In April of 2013, Dewar, the Scotland-based distillery, released its Highlander Honey.

Whiskey distilleries know where the wind is blowing, and it is likely the trend will continue to grow before plateauing. Industry research for 2013 has shown that there has been a seventy-five percent growth in the introduction of flavored whiskey, as well as a forty-percent jump in flavored bourbons. And the manufacturers are not the only ones who have taken notice. Bars and other businesses that serve spirits are stocking up on flavored whiskey and bourbon. Some of them have even begun devoting sections of their menu to the phenomenon.

As with any popular trend, there is of course controversy over whether flavored whiskey is “good” for the spirit’s image. There are those who think flavoring is a great way to introduce non-whiskey drinkers to the beverage: as their tastes evolve, the logic goes, they will move on to classic whiskey, leaving the flavored versions behind. But purists argue that flavored whiskey, like flavored vodka, does nothing more than appeal to those interested in nothing more than appeasing their sweet tooth.

These same skeptics were not moved when even the great Jim Beam introduced Red Stag. Even Jim Beam itself was not sure that joining the trend was the right move. But despite these worries, the market for flavored whiskey is still growing. Indeed, later this year Beam will be releasing yet another flavored drink, Hardcore Cider.

Geijer Glogg An Amazing Drink

The Geijer Glogg is a perfect Scandinavian drink. In various aspects, it is similar to aquavit for the reason that each of these are distilled into a transparent fluid and the spirit is amplified by the inclusion of a variety of spices. Individuals have been well known to apply various kinds of spirit for this reason. Grain as well as grapes are common examples in this respect. They are used to prepare a drink which is much like vodka or perhaps an un-aged brandy. When the maker is contented, the fluid may then move forward to the spicing phase. Connoisseurs like Anthony Dias Blue have composed a lot about the glogg. In his work entitled Complete Book of Spirits, he has written that Scandinavians drink aquavit is a kind of fruit punch and spiced wine that is offered warm. You might be lured to compare the Geijer Glogg with a British mulled wine which is quite similar. People who want to make their own blend can perform a Google search to discover the recipe furnished by NPR. It requires numerous ingredients like port wine, cloves, one orange, white sugar, cardamom seeds, pinot noir, cinnamon sticks, ginger, raisins, aquavit and blanched almonds.

The steps required include boiling, soaking and steeping which makes it obvious that selling the drink in ready-made bottles as Geijer Glogg is an excellent idea .Making one from scratch is just a lot work for common people.

So now we have an interesting query: Is the Geijer Glogg among those ready to drink mixed drinks? These RTD liquors have captured the market so extensively and people who love purity are complaining. However, the manufacturers of Geijer Glogg are fast to contradict this. The drink was registered as a liqueur in San Francisco’s World Spirits Competition. The federal bureau in-charge of these things agreed upon by classifying Geijer Glogg as such and placed it under the “herbs and seeds” group.

It’s difficult to debate with the government nowadays; therefore, let us not argue about this. Geijer Glogg is a liqueur.

The company behind it states that Geijer Glogg is a mixture of water and a spirit which has been infused with ginger, cardamom, cloves and other spices. The alcohol matter is 40 proof. Geijer Glogg may then be regarded as low proof, gently sweetened infused spirit. It reminds about the German bitters and the Italian amaro liqueurs.

Since the description is cleared up, what exactly is the suggested way of intake? The manufacturer of Geijer Glogg offers a few recommendations. These may be compared with other drinks to give a much better idea for readers.