How 'bout some boozy whipped cream, baby?

Whipped Lightning is "the world's first alcohol-infused whipped cream."

Here's what Paste Magazine's Daily Awesome recently said about Whipped Lightning:


It comes in nine flavors, to boot, including German chocolate, caramel pecan, hazelnut espresso and strawberry colada.


Although the website stresses the perfect union of their Whipahol cream with cocktails, shooters and other drinks — we here at Paste think it’d taste dreamiest paired with today’s pumpkin pie.

Read the full post here.

You know, at the departed Living Room Coffee Bar & Used Book Store, I used to make myself "Poor Man's Sundaes." I took a soup-bowl sized coffee cup; I filled it with whipped cream; I drizzled chocolate syrup on top. OK, I dumped chocolate syrup on top. 

Can you imagine what a Poor Man's Sundae would be like with Whipped Lightning?

Changes for S.C.'s alcohol licensing for special events

From Adrienne R. Fairwell, public relations officer for the S.C. Department of Revenue: 

Change in Law - Special Event Permits to Sell Beer, Wine, Liquor Amended

Changes to issuance of alcoholic beverage special events licenses effective January 1, 2011

Individuals and organizations will soon see changes in the way they apply for special event licenses and permits due to legislation passed during the 2010 legislative session.

In order to obtain a temporary beer and wine and/or liquor license, the applicant must be a nonprofit organization and must follow the below mentioned guidelines:

• The non-profit must be exempt from federal income tax pursuant to certain subsections of section 501 of the Internal Revenue Code

• A criminal records check is required and must be conducted within 90 days prior to the date of the application

For purposes of this law change, non-profit organizations are those that are organized exclusively for social, benevolent, patriotic, recreational or fraternal purposes, and which are exempt from federal income taxes.

*Note: The new legislation applies to applications beginning on or after January 1, 2011. Therefore, New Year’s Eve events starting December 31, 2010 and ending January 1, 2011 will not be affected.

For a complete listing of ABL legislative changes please visit www.sctax.org and click on the Alcohol Beverage Licensing link.

The original version of 'Dry Web'

I'm still in London; more posts to come. 

Meanwhile, some of my most recent column was trimmed so a late news item could be squeezed into the Weekly Surge.

Specifically, the part of my column entitled "Dry Web" was trimmed, but the original was better, so here it is:

I was staying at a Baptist conference center the night before my PBR article was due.

I’m always racking up the frequent-guest points at Baptist conference centers, and cashing them in for sweet tea and potato salad.

I was there because my wife had gone the center’s accompanying girls’ camp during her growing-up years, and now my daughters are carrying on the tradition.

Don’t get me wrong – it’s a great camp, and the conference center’s room were cleaner than most hotel rooms. I guess working for cranky tourists is a little less motivating than working for the Almighty.

Anyway, I had to do a little PBR-related research to do, so I went online. The Google search returned the results, and I clicked.

Suddenly, a note popped up on the screen: the site was banned, for it fell within the “Alcohol/Tobacco Category.”

I knew I couldn’t bring any alcohol or tobacco – I was really proud of myself for not smuggling any in – but I couldn’t even read about it?

Wouldn’t it count as opposition research?

That’s why I’m an Episcopalian. Our little-known motto is, “The Protestants Who Drink.” Our Jesus turned water into wine, not Welch’s Grape Juice.

'Cleverest women are the heaviest drinkers'

I'm not making this up:

Those with degrees are almost twice as likely to drink daily, and they are also more likely to admit to having a drinking problem.

A similar link between educational attainment and alcohol consumption is seen among men, but the correlation is less strong.

The findings come from a comprehensive study carried out at the London School of Economics in which researchers tracked the lives of thousands of 39-year-old women and men, all born in the UK during the same week in 1970.

Read it all here.

Dan Aykroyd promoting Crystal Head Vodka

There pics are too good to pass up, even if they are a couple of weeks old.

NEW YORK - MARCH 18: Actor Dan Aykroyd promotes his Crystal Head Vodka at Park Avenue Liquor Shop on March 18, 2010 in New York City. (Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)
Content © 2010 Getty Images All rights reserved.

After the age of 25, we become slowly rotting fruit...

After the age of 25, we pretty much become slowly rotting fruit -- and this is a good thing. Consider it the miracle of fermentation.

Unusual vodka flavors

From one of the sidebars with my Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka cover story in the Weekly Surge.

Sweet tea flavored vodka makes sense to most of the folks we know.

But some flavored vodkas don't sound like such great ideas – peculiar at best.

We dug up a few unusual flavored vodkas and gave them thoughtful consideration.

Bakon Vodka: Comedian Jim Gaffigan once said, “To improve other food, they wrap it in bacon.” Now he must be weeping with joy. A product of Seattle-based Black Rock Spirits, the bacon-flavored vodka is only available in Washington state – so far. “This is the only vodka you’ll ever want to use to make a Bloody Mary,” the Bakon Web site boasts.

Charbay Green Tea Vodka: Everyone knows that green tea provides outstanding health benefits, and Napa Valley distillery Charbay offers just what you’d expect from California: The right to get smashed under the pretense that drinking Green Tea Vodka is really good for you. No word on how much better you'll feel in the morning if you go with a non-green-tea vodka.

DoubleEspresso Vodka: Maybe this will help if you’re tired – tired of relying on that same old Red Bull and vodka pick-me-up. Apparently concerned that its own Espresso Vodka won’t do the trick, the Van Gogh Vodka company also offers a Double Espresso Vodka, complete with “double caffeine,” to make sure we can party all night and at least 'til noon.

Three Olives Grape Vodka: If you want to spike grape Kool-Aid, why not just add Everclear?

Rehorst Citrus & Honey Vodka: The classic home remedy for sore throats with a new twist: vodka instead of whiskey. Rehorst has taken the two dominant flavors in TheraFlu Nighttime Severe Cold & Cough and added them to the potentially antiseptic flavor of vodka. Rehorst Citrus & Honey Vodka is now available in the cold & flu section of your local drug store.

-Colin Foote Burch

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

icerocket tags: beer beverages food humor vodka

Beer-and-cheese pairings!

Have gouda with your bock.

Have feta with your pilsner.

Have limburger with your lager.

See many, many more beer-and-cheese pairing suggestions at this great site.

Dominion Baltic Porter Winter Brew: The right kind of porter

I bought Dominion Baltic Porter Winter Brew at a Safeway in Reston, Va., this past Saturday evening.

Essentially a local beer, it was brewed at the nearby Old Dominion Brewing Co. in Ashburn, Va.

Porters and I haven't always gotten along. Sometimes they're too smoky for me; sometimes they're too bitter and dark, and I'm saying that as a fan of dark-roast coffees and dark chocolate.

Sipping the Baltic Porter this evening, I am relieved to taste one of the most agreeable roasted pine-nut flavors I've ever had in a beer.

The fine line between roasted nuts and burnt nuts is often crossed in brewing (and crossed in nightclubs, but that's another story).

This porter belongs in the rich, hearty, comfort-food category, as long as you like roasted flavors in your beers. Speaking of comfort foods, the Baltic Porter is a high-gravity beer, advertised at 7 percent alcohol by volume.

My six-pack of Baltic Porter was priced at $8.99.

May your White Russians be tanned

I guess the colder air makes the richness of a White Russian more appealing.

Here's the recipe I've been using:

10-ounce glass filled about two-thirds with ice

1 ounce of Kahlua

2 ounces of Ketel One

Top off with half-and-half

However, you can go for more punch (and less fat) if you increase the liquors and decrease the half-and-half.

In other words, you can give those White Russians a tan.

Or a deep tan.

This Christmas, I think we can all agree: Russians are far too pasty-white.

But I'm thinking we'll want to skip the outright Black Russians -- we really want a little of that comfort-food factor, courtesy the half-and-half.

Let's go for the Deeply Tanned Russian.

The Deeply Tanned Russian offers the potency we need with a touch of comfort.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Season's Greetings.

American Ale: That Bud's for me

As I write this, I'm sipping beer from a coffee mug. It's fitting. I arrived at beer snobbery through the unlikely path of coffee snobbery.

While in college, I tried the coffee at Cup a Joe on Hillsborough Street in Raleigh, N.C. All the beans and brews were roasted in-house, and with the first sip of that French Roast, I entered a religious experience that henceforth consigned all the Folgers and Maxwell Houses to the shadows of the unredeemed.

When I opened the late Living Room Coffee Bar and Used Books in Myrtle Beach back in 2001, I purchased beans for brewed java and espresso from Larry's Beans, another small, regional roaster, because I knew the quality was going to be better than anything I could get from the big distributors.

In other words, in that one sip at Cup a Joe years ago, I learned that every product had a big brand for mass consumption as well as little-know artisan brand hidden in an out-of-the-way shop. Today I prefer the local and regional microbrews, and scoff at the Budweisers of the world.

Budweiser's American Ale has shut me up.

Figuratively speaking. I'll keep writing for now.

Bud's American Ale seemed like a cynical ploy to appeal to the pickier beer drinker, except that the quality of the beer takes the cynical part out of the ploy.

I never liked the idea that Bud's lager - the brand's best known beer, the one everybody calls Bud - was made with rice as well as barley. The company must have decided that a good remedy would be to make an all-malt ale, an ale made with nothing but barley, and to enhance it with Cascade hops from the Pacific Northwest.

So as I drink Bud's American Ale from my prized CNN coffee mug (speaking of big brands for mass consumption), I'm tasting a solid amber brew and a finish that leans toward the dry side. I didn't quite get the advertised "noticeably citrus aroma," although I tasted a bit in the finish. If I hold the coffee mug under a light, I can see that the color scale runs to the deep and dark side of amber.

The most informative thing I can say, however, is this: My respect for Bud and its big parent company Anheuser-Busch is bubbling upward.

I've seen six-packs of American Ale bottles selling in the $6.14-$6.59 range. Go to www.budamericanale.com and click "Find It" for local bars and stores that carry this ale.

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Get your beer news published in the Weekly Surge

You can make a comment on this blog post.

You can email me at beerpour@yahoo.com .

Either way, I'll give extremely serious consideration to your beer specials, your new beverage arrivals, or your upcoming adult-beverage related events in the greater Myrtle Beach area.

Cheers!

Beer tasting today (Saturday, Oct. 11)

Jim Varcadipane recently purchased Atlantic Discount Spirits at 2901 U.S. 17 South in Garden City Beach, and today is the final day of his BeerFest, which has featured some local and regional distributors.

Varcadipane said each distributor should have approximately 12 different beers. Here's a look at today's schedule.

3:30-6:30 p.m., Saturday (Oct. 11): Advintage Wines of North Charleston and Aleph Wines of Columbia have the wares, along with regional distributor Republic National.

Call 357-6232 or visit www.atlanticdiscountspirits.com for more information.

Two special events at Atlantic Discount Spirits in Garden City Beach this weekend

Later today (Friday, Oct. 3), Atlantic Discount Spirits will have a tasting with Crown Royal, Cask 16, Zwack, and Kettle One Citroen. The tasting runs 3:30-6:30 p.m.

And on Saturday (Oct. 4), also 3:30-6:30 p.m., the store will have a tasting with Forty Creek Barrel Select Whiskey and Charter 101.

Atlantic Discount Spirits is located at 2901-A U.S. 17 South in Garden City Beach.

Rogue Morimoto Soba Ale with Chicken Salad

I had just written an article about beer-and-food pairings. I had not included chicken salad in the beer-and-food pairings mix, but the next day, a friend visited for lunch and we had chicken salad sandwiches with Rogue Morimoto Soba Ale.

Excellent pairing. My friend agreed. I knew it would be close. Rogue includes little pairing icons on its larger, single-sale bottles (one pint + six ounces), and the Morimoto Soba Ale included a fish icon and a bird icon. Morimoto Soba Ale was light enough and zippy enough to compliment white meat, even when that white meat is mixed with mayonnaise and grapes.

You can read the beer-and-food pairing article here.

Give Michelob a chance

I'm continuing to reevaluate my beer-snobbery.

I had basically written off the big domestics in favor of microbrews and imports, until twice recently I dined at Chuck's Steakhouse, 9695 Kings Highway on Restaurant Row in Myrtle Beach.

My wife and I always love the food at Chuck's, but the steakhouse has only one beer on tap, Michelob Lager, plus a tap for the beer substitute Michelob Ultra. (They also have a selection of bottled beers.)

But Chuck's knows how to make the most of that Michelob, offering a big, frosty, 28-ounce goblet for $5.50.

On both of my recent visits, the goblet was perfectly frosted.

I thought the Michelob had interesting hop characteristics, followed by a pleasant dryness.

It was not the blandness I had come to expect from big domestics. Michelob had something going on. It paired well with steak. I finished the goblet smiling.

Later, I went to the Michelob Web site, which claimed that their lager is made with European hops and "a 100-percent-malt blend." Meaning: no rice, no corn, just barley malt. What a difference.

Myrtle Beach Bike Week 2008: Offical Bud Can

For this year's bike week, Bud is flooding the Myrtle Beach, S.C., area with 6,000 cases of themed 24-ounces cans (left) and 15,000 cases of 12-ounce cans.

Myrtle Beach Bike Week 2008; The Dog House on Restaurant Row

 

New TBonz summer seasonal gets a name

New South Brewing Co.'s new summer seasonal for TBonz Gill & Grill restaurants is...

AMBER WAVES SUMMER ALE.

This brew will be amber colored and slightly malty with a mild hop character, according to the TBonz Mug Club Newsletter.

Look for it on-tap Friday, May 9.

cheers,

Colin

Wise words from Magic Hat's hI.P.A.

I opened a bottle of Magic Hat's hI.P.A. -- delightfully, if heavily, hopped -- and found this under the bottle cap:

Don't pour
Sap
on your
Lap