The Cocktail Hour: Oktoberfest Brews

We love Oktoberfest, the celebration of King Ludwig's marriage, here at The World on Wheels. We make it a point to attend one of our local celebrations each year.

We also love the special brews breweries make for this occasion each year.

One of my favorite selections from the 72 taps of T. Phillips Alehouse is the very well balanced Spaten Oktoberfest. Smooth, a tiny hint of sweetness, with just a hint of caramelly hoppiness, a pint goes down so well any time of year but it's of limited availability.

Recently, we had a barbecue over at my mother-in-law's house and tasted a few others to compare.

Widmer Brothers Okto was nice but a bit blander than the Spaten offering. OK but not worth the extra two bucks our local store charges for a six-pack over the other Widmer offerings.

Next, it was on to the Sam Adams Octoberfest beer (notice the Americanized spelling). This is better. Pretty tasty and I can drink it easily all night but noticeably sweeter than the standard-bearing Spaten.

Last was the Leinenkugel Oktoberfest from Wisconsin. With their overly sweet summer shandies, I wasn't expecting too much from this but it blew me away with just a tinge of caramelly sweetness finely balanced by a decent hoppy bite.  I'd like to find some more of this before the season's over.

Cheers!

Darryl

THE COCKTAIL HOUR: Tasting A Trio of New Motherlode Wineries

Now that we're pretty much settled into our new digs in Northern California's Amador County, it's time to visit a few new neighbors. Specifically, three wineries that we've never visited before...plus a quick stop at an old favorite for a fill-up.

First, it's a short seven minute drive to Tanis Vineyards, run by Andrew and Jill Tanis. Andrew is manning the tasting bar today and we taste some exceptional whites...Sauvignon Blanc and his nice, dry Muscat Canelli.

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The reds are very good, too. We especially liked his Petite Syrah and the Dynamite Red blend.

We take a few bottles and thank our new neighbor for his hospitality and move on just as a limo full of tourists amble into the driveway.

Back up on the other side of highway 124, the closest wine neighbor to Tanis is Convergence Vineyards. The wine is not quite in the same league as the similarly priced winery across the way.

We did enjoy their Killer Syrah, their port, and petite syrah. I asked for a bottle each of the port and the Killer Syrah but the overwhelmed lady at the tasting bar put in the El Diablo red blend instead of the syrah. I noticed when we got home...I'll drive back up tomorrow and trade it in for the one that I really wanted.

Before our next new winery, we pop up to the nearby Shenandoah Valley to one of our long time favorites, Bray Vineyards. Bray always keeps a barrel of a red blend handy that has a tap on it to fill growlers. I bring in two of mine for a quick refill and then we're on our way.

Our final stop is Avio Vineyards, up on a ridge overlooking Sutter Creek and Jackson near the Amador County Airport on Ridge Road.

It's slightly crowded in the tasting room but we get our samples to taste. We are pleased with the wines, they're very good and the icing on the cake is the pricing is 1/2 to  2/3 the price of the last two wineries we visited.

We ended up taking their zinfandel, barbera, and estate grown pinot noir home.

These three new-to-us wineries are great additions to our collection of frequently visited Sierra Foothill vineyards but we still have a long way to go until we visit them all.

Cheers!

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2019 - All Rights Reserved

THE COCKTAIL HOUR: Oregon Ale Taste Off

It's Oktoberfest season and here at The World on Wheels we're celebrating by focusing our Cocktail Hours on beer...

Tim and I are back again, this time tasting two Oregon produced ales.  Why?  Because this is what I found in the clearance basket at Albertson's!

The first ale is Drifter Pale Ale, produced by the Widmer Brother Brewery of Portland.  They're more famous for their hefeweisen and I'd never even heard of this ale before.  According to the brewery, there is supposed to be notes of citrus in the flaver.  It's an amber colored brew with a slight off-taste, probably that citrus essence they're going for.

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The second is Dead Guy Ale, produced by the Rogue Brewery out of Newport.  A cloudy, golden ale, this was made in celebration of the Mayan Day of the Dead.  The skeleton on the label makes it popular with Grateful Dead fans.  Smooth, and tasty, we liked this one the best.

Cheers!

-Darryl

THE COCKTAIL HOUR: Lounge 24, Riu's Do-It-Yourself Bar in Costa Rica

I think I count six bars at the Riu Palace in Costa Rica. There may be a couple more but there's definitely not any less. Plus, guests of the Palace also have full bar privileges at the Riu Guanacaste next door. 

You don't have to walk far to get your buzz on, that's for sure.

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One of the unique bars is Lounge 24, at the back of the lobby behind the coffee and pastry bar.  It gets its name by being open and available to guests 24 hours a day. Feel like a nacho and beer craving at 3 in the morning? This is your place.

A fairly good selection of quality snacks and bar food line the back wall. It's definitely a step up from the all-night offerings of the last Riu we stayed at in the Dominican Republic. For drinks though? You're on your own.

That's not a bad thing, it's just what makes Lounge 24 unique...all the liquor and fixings are there for you to make whatever you want.

Think the lobby bartender is making your mai tai too weak? Make it as strong as you want here.  It's a nice break and even makes a good arts 'n crafts activity for those who want to play with a little mixology.

Watch in the video above as Tim and I demonstrate how to make a mai tai in this little DIY bar off the lobby of the Riu Palace in Costa Rica.  As an aside, after we finished, the other people in the bar watching us film the video, had me make mai tais for the whole group.  For the rest of the week, wherever we went in the resort, when one of those guests would see me, I'd get a greeting "hey, Mai Tai Man!"

Darryl
Copyright 2016 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

THE COCKTAIL HOUR: The Matapalo

Coming to you from lovely Guanacaste, Costa Rica, it's Tim and Darryl with another new cocktail for you.

As you may know, when we travel, we like to create cocktails out of our room's minibar or local drinks. Today, with a free minibar and unlimited liquor courtesy of the Riu Palace Hotel, it's another new cocktail named after the beach we're residing on. This time it's Playa Matapalo.

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So, here we go...take a tall glass and fill completely with ice. Dump in a shot of dark rum, another of brandy and top off with Fanta and soda water.

The matapalo which, as you'll see in the video above, tastes remarkably like a picon punch of Basque fame.

Cheers from Costa Rica!

Darryl

THE COCKTAIL HOUR: St. Pete Pub Crawl, Part Two

Last week, we took you along for our warm-up pub crawl in St Petersburg, Florida. Today, we delve in a little deeper, hitting four pubs and a pizza joint. All are within a block from our hotel, in fact, we just walked across the street, went up one block, crossed over to the next one, and walked back to the hotel...all in one square block.

Easy walking and easy drinking.

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Another good thing about the bars along this route is that they seem to be in a perpetual happy hour during the daylight hours. I know, but we're beyond our nightlife days and enjoy an earlier party life now.

First stop, the Del Mar Gastro Lounge.  Almost all the bars on our walk had $2 beer specials on select varieties. Here, one of those varieties is Rolling Rock so it's a little better than the usual Bud or Coors Light specials you see. They're also 16 ounce tall boys, which went well with the pulled pork sliders we got to go with them.

The sliders and beer were delicious, cheap, and the cold beer really hit the spot in this Florida heat.

Next up is Mastry's, which is the alcohol pouring outpost of Mastry's sportfishing not far from here over on the bay. According to the signs inside, this is the city's oldest bar...and also voted the best dive bar in St. Pete.

I'd have to conduct a much deeper investigation to see if that's true but it is a nice, dark, cash-only spot where we get a shot of whiskey and some wine...served in disposable plastic cups.

Back out into the light and up the block, it's the Five Bucks Drinkery. The name says it all, although my drink...a Captain Morgan on the rocks...was considerably less at $3.

Letty met a couple of friendly dogs here, too.

Coming around the corner into the home stretch,  MacDinton's Irish Pub has just opened for the day. Inside, to the strains of AC/DC and Led Zeppelin, we have some beer and Jameson shots while having a lively discussion with the bartenders.

Lastly, it's Pacifico and slices of cheese pizza at Joey Brooklyn's about 100 feet from the hotel lobby. the Pacifico is good as always, the pizza...well...it'll do.

Cheers!

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2018 - All Rights Reserved

THE COCKTAIL HOUR: St. Petersburg Pub Crawl, Part 1

We can't come to a fun, Florida city like St. Pete and not try some of the local watering holes. This city is full of places to go have fun and that included their purveyors of adult beverages. 

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It took a couple of days and we really didn't stray much more than a block from our hotel so we could walk, with maybe a stumble or two, the entire way.

We're starting off in what in no way can really be called a pub. The Annex 400 is a lunch counter, plain and simple, but they do serve beer and wine. We're starting here because we can get some of their great, inexpensive food in our stomachs before we start.

It's a nice, fat mug of cold Blue Moon with the requisite slice of orange in it to get us started.

Just around the corner is the Thirsty First Lounge, a day drinkers delight morphing into a loud, live music joint later in the day. It's just this side of the nice side of being a dive bar but the bartenders and locals are a friendly bunch, not to mention their prices are unbelievable...$3 well drinks and select  beers are also $3 until 7:00pm.

Some whiskey sours and Shocktop beers set us on our way.

On the other side of our hotel, on Central Avenue, we end up at Caddy's, one of those ubiquitous Florida joints with the live band playing outdoors like you'd see in Key West.

Their three dollar Moscow mules will put us in the mood to finish the day back on the waterfront at the sunset happy hour at the rooftop Canopy bar overlooking Tampa Bay.

Cheers!

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2018 - All Rights Reserved

The Cocktail Hour: The "King" of Beers?

Let's admit it...life's too short to drink bad beer but now Budweiser has a new variety that they claim has...wait for it..."Taste!"

I guess that means that for all these years Budweiser never really had any. Can't argue with that.

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Anyway, Tim and I had to put this to the test. On a nice, sunny Southern California afternoon, we decided to settle it. I went to our local liquor dealer, got a can of original Budweiser and a bottle of the new Budweiser Black Crown, a darker amber 6% alcohol beer.

Watch the video above to see the results.

Never say we don't take one for the team here at The World on Wheels...

Cheers?

Darryl

THE COCKTAIL HOUR - Paso Robles Beer Tasting

While the Paso Robles area is justifiably famous for its vineyards, wineries, and wine, one of America's most popular microbreweries resides here.  Firestone Walker, makers of the Double Barrel Ale (DBA) has a decent sized operation south of town.

They also have a restaurant to the south in Buellton, but we're just here to taste the beers.

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Here at the brewery, they have a nice tasting room with 14 taps (just installed the day before we were here). For $6 you can taste 4 of their brews.

 

We taste the DBA, Solace...a wheat beer, a hefeweizen, a porter, a honey blonde, and IPA, and a red ale.  While we enjoyed the DBA, Solace, and the honey blonde, the rest were average to a bit heavy for us.

So we're kind of indifferent to Firestone Walker. The beers in Denver were much better as was Sierra Nevada up north in Chico, which also serves a vast variety of tastes at no charge...but wait...what's that across the street?

Watch the video above as we find a very nice ringer, right across the street from the FW premises.

Cheers!

-Darryl

THE COCKTAIL HOUR: Red Solo Cup

Finally...a drink for the rest of us.

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In honor of Toby Keith and his song, here's a concoction guaranteed to impress, easy and cheap to make...the Red Solo Cup!  Here's the recipe, don't go overboard on high quality ingredients...the supermarket generic stuff will do:


INGREDIENTS


3 oz. white rum
1 oz. amaretto
3-4 oz. cranberry cocktail
Juice of 1 lime
splash of grenadine


Take rum, amaretto, lime juice, and cranberry cocktail and put in a shaker half full of ice. Shake well, pour into two red solo cups...not blue, not yellow...filled with ice. Float the grenadine on top.


Cheers!

Darryl

The Cocktail Hour - Bomb Pop

Remember the ice cream man coming down the street on those hot summer days when we were kids? Running outside, flagging him down and...for me...spending a quarter for a big, cold, red, white, and blue Bomb Pop.

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Well we're all grown up now but we don't have to give all of our childish ways up.

Here is my adult version of a bomb pop...

INGREDIENTS

half ounce grenadine
juice of half a lime
2 ounces cranberry cocktail
2 ounces blue curacao
2 ounces white spiced rum

Use a pint glass. Put the grenadine and lime juice in the bottom. Fill the glass with crushed ice. Carefully pour in the cranberry juice, followed by carefully pouring in the curacao to make a blue layer over the red. Float the rum on top.

You can drink as is, or after admiring for a couple of minutes, stir it up and it becomes a grapecicle.

Cheers!

Darryl

THE COCKTAIL HOUR: Moscow Mule

I have a theory...that my wife likes Moscow mules so much not because they taste good (they do!) and have a good kick but that it gives her a reason to go shopping for the copper mugs used for the drink.

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After being very picky about it, I just went ahead and ordered a set on Amazon. They came in last week so, already having the ginger beer and vodka in stock, Tim and I set out to try our hand at it.

The results can be seen in the video, above.

INGREDIENTS - (1 drink)

2-oz vodka
6-oz ginger beer
juice of one lime
sprig of mint

Pour the vodka into the mug. Cut off a few leaves of mint from the sprig and put into the mug. Muddle the mint in the vodka.  Put in the lime juice, fill cup with ice, fill with ginger beer and stir.

Garnish with the rest of the mint sprig and a slice of lime.

Option 2 is to add a splash of Cointreau or Grand Marnier to the drink

Option 3 is to add a splash of sweet and sour

If you want it sweeter, you can also add a splash of grenadine.

Postcript: my wife returned the mugs and will buy a set she likes better.

Cheers!

Darryl

THE COCKTAIL HOUR: Elko, Nevada Pub Crawl

Idaho Street...or highway 535...is the main thorough fare of Elko, Nevada. You'll find all the main gas stations, hotels, fast food joints, and casinos along this street. A block south is a square, with no name that I can find, that is bordered by 3rd Street on the west, 8th Street on the east (where the centennial railroad water tower is) with storefronts lining Railroad and Commercial Streets on the north and south. In the middle is a large parking lot with room for hundreds of cars.

Since no one else has seemed to name it, I'll call it "Railroad Square" because the parking lot is where the train tracks used to be long ago.

Along the edges of this square, I count eight bars and one casino. Not all are open the afternoon we're here but it looks like we'll be able to hit most of them that are.

Before we start drinking, we check out the Cowboy Arts and Gear Museum, located in the former saddelry of G.S. Garcia who fabricated western saddles and gear here from 1894 through 1933. After that, we spend a few minutes two doors down at a still functioning saddle and gear store, JM Capriola.

Now, we can start our crawl. First up is Machi's Saloon. A few patrons are sipping the appropriate Basque libation, picon punch, while we strike up a converstation with them over our whiskey sours.

One of the cowboys at the bar tells us of the syndicate he runs to buy a horse to run in the big horse race that is run during the county fair each September. His buddy tells us about where this desert town's water comes from (underground) and the dozen or so commercial gold mines that still operate in the region.

Next up is another couple of sours at the Stockmen's Casino where, since I'm feeding the video poker machine at the bar, are free. Well, I do spend two bucks on poker but the free drinks are a pretty good trade.

We come across a lovely little dive bar called Goldie's on the other side of the square. They don't have the ingredients necessary for a whiskey sour so it's just shots of Maker's Mark for us while we get to know some more locals and their young, friendly pit bull who gets lonely whenever one of them goes to the bathroom.

Lastly, we head a couple of blocks away to the Toki Ona, a local Basque watering hole and restaurant, to have a couple of picon punches while deciding to stay for dinner.

It's a nice taste of what this small city has in store and we vow to come back and try some of the other closed locations on another trip.

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2022 - All Rights Reserved

The Cocktail Hour - A Trio of Tripels

It's another stop on the wide world of beer as Tim and I put three tripels to the test. A tripel (or triple, or trippel...depeding on how the brewery wants to spell it) is simply defined as a Belgian strong ale.

Why tripel? It's hard to pin down. My research points up to two reasonable explanations...

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1. It's got more alcohol than a dubbel, which has more than a regular ale. Legend has it that this is where the "X" in describing alcohol. A keg of Belgian ale would have an "X" for a regular ale, "XX" on the keg for the next level of strength, and "XXX" for the strongest.


2. It uses triple the amount of malt in the fermentation...this is the description New Belgium Brewery uses on their  entry, so I'd give that some credence too.

Today, we've got a true Belgian Abbey Tripel in the Petrus Gouden Tripel and two American contenders.  New Belgium...you might be familiar with their Fat Tire brand...from Colorado with their trippel, which they also add a little coriander to, and Andersen Valley Ale from Boonville in Northern California, near Ukiah and Mendocino.


All were very good but one really stood above the others for superior taste and drinkability...and it's probably not the one you guessed.


See the video above for the whole tasting and see who came in head and shoulders above the others in this strong ale taste off.

Cheers!


-Darryl

THE COCKTAIL HOUR: Cool Caribbean

Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue...oh wait, I'm getting off track but we are doing something blue today.

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We're visiting the land of blue cocktails today with this one.  Actually, I was just playing around but this came out so good, I had to add it to the Cocktail Hour Canon.

Here's the recipe...
2 oz. coconut rum
1 oz. blue caracao
1 oz. lemon juice

In a glass full to the rim of ice, pour in the lemon juice, rum, and blue caracao...in that order. Enjoy.

Cheers!

Darryl

THE COCKTAIL HOUR: Crimson Cooler

Looking for something a little different, I stumbled across this one with a bottle of whiskey in hand in the kitchen.

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As noted, it's a whiskey based drink, imparting that sweet, southern taste into the glass.

Mix all ingredients in a cocktail shaker and pour into a highball or pint glass over ice.

INGREDIENTS (two drinks):

3 oz. whiskey
2 oz. Grand Marnier or triple sec
4 drops bitters
Cranberry Cocktail

Cheers!

Darryl

THE COCKTAIL HOUR: A Big Ole Taste o' Texas

I wanted to run this cocktail hour a couple of weeks ago but I never figured it would be so darn hard to find a bottle of Lone Star beer in this state.  I'd about given up when I saw that Bevmo listed online so the next time I was at their store, I stopped in a grabbed what may be the last six-pack in Southern California.

To go along with our recent trip reports on Texas, we wanted to do a taste-off of the two most iconic Texas beers, Lone Star and Shiner Bock.

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It's 105 degrees on the patio, so we move this shoot into the house. My neighbor Scott joins Tim and I as we pop open a couple of cold ones to evaluate.

The Lone Star, made by Miller in Fort Worth, under contract to brand owner Pabst, is a pale lager. It's a weak tasting beer, like many other macro brews like Bud, Coors, or even it's sibling brand, PBR.  It'll do on a blistering day like the one we're experiencing today.

Shiner Bock is made by a much smaller company, Gambrinus, in the little town of Shiner, half way between San Antonio and Houston

It's a darker beer but the taste is still weak, maybe just a tad more barliness than Lone Star. Neither have any hoppiness to discern.

We give just a slight edge to the Shiner Bock but neither one are going to the top of our shopping list. Still, it'd be a fine beer to pull a chair and watch some chicken sh*t bingo with.

Let's close with some Texas beer drinking music...

Cheers!

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2017 - All Rights Reserved

THE COCKTAIL HOUR: A Drinking Tour of St. Croix

On location in St. Croix in the Virgin Islands, join us for a drinking tour of the island.

In the video below, we visit one of the island's legendary rum distilleries.

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While Cruzan is the traditional St. Croix rum, it's facilities are old and inaccessible to wheelchairs. Fortunately, Captain Morgan rums relocated here a year ago and their brand new, state-of-the-art distillery is.

We also turn into a bunch of posers as we learn the official Captain Morgan pose.

Next, it's on to frozen banana daiquiris at the Mt. Pellier Domino Club, more famous for the residents that make beer-swilling pigs of themselves but the drinks are still cool and refreshing at the bamboo bar in the middle of the jungle.

We make sure we get all the free booze we can get at the hotel by going to the weekly happy hour, the wine tasting, and the rum tasting (there's Cruzan!).

We almost lived at the beautiful waterfront Fort Christian Brewpub where, in addition to the great beer, we meet the chicken wing eating tarpon of St. Croix.

It's all in the video above, come along...

Cheers!

Darryl

THE COCKTAIL HOUR: Crucian Rum Punch

This week, Tim and I are coming to you from the beautiful island of St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Our quandary: we're not staying at an all-inclusive resort and have to pay for the majority of our drinks. Our solution: make a new, very easy to make, delicious cocktail that we can mix using cheap local ingredients.

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The result is this rum punch using rum, cranberry-raspberry cocktail, and lime juice.  Here's the recipe...

INGREDIENTS

1.5 oz rum
2 oz cranberry-raspberry cocktail
juice of half a lime

In a lowball glass filled with ice, squeeze in lime juice. Pour rum in, then cranberry-raspberry cocktail. Drink.

It's that easy...

Cheers!

Darryl

THE COCKTAIL HOUR: The Bolo

A classic drink from the Prohibition era, the Bolo.

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Here is the recipe...


INGREDIENTS (Two Drinks):


3 oz. light rum
1 oz. lime juice
2 oz. orange juice
4 dashes of bitters


Put all ingredients into a cocktail shaker half full of ice. Shake and strain into two cocktail glasses.


Cheers!

Darryl