My friend, the Condiment King, sent me an article yesterday entitled "Suds With Securb: Ten Boilermakers Every Beer Drinker Should Try" (click link above). The author, Bruce Owens, endeavored to make "adult" boilermakers, with ingredients other than rail whiskey and a Budweiser. There were some interesting suggestions, many of which I aim to sample, but the only one I had ingredients for already on hand was the Guinness and shot of Kahlua (see a picture here). Here's Bruce's take on this particular cocktail:
"The shot glass hit bottom and the head instantly started to rise. Obviously there is no change in color. There is a ton off coffee in the aroma playing off of the roasted malt. OK, this is good. It is a coffee Imperial Stout. This has a nice initial dry palate and finishes slightly sweet. As you drink the beer, the coffee flavors rise to the top and get more pronounced. The dry stout and the sweet Kahlua play off of each other very nicely."
Here's my take:
"holy shit, get me a garbage can, I'm gonna puke."
This tasted nothing like Guinness nor Kahlua. Instead, imagine if an average tasting IPA was deconstructed into syrup and carbonation, like you would find if you ordered a Pepsi from a soda fountain. Now imagine that the syrup from this soda-IPA went rancid, and the carbonation machine was slowly grinding itself into grit, and depositing said grit into the glass. This is what this drink tastes like.
When Condiment King sent me this article, he asked whether anybody could "shoot" these drinks. I initially thought these would be sipping-only drinks. But, if my experience is any indication of the rest of the list, the only way to put this down is to hold the nose and gulp it down. You don't want that flavor to linger. At all.
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This does not surprise me at all. I also find Bruce's logic regarding what constitutes a Boilermaker to be somewhat arbitrary. Dropping Kaluha into a Guinness is a Boilermaker, but dropping a shot of Baileys and Jameson into a Guinness isn't? How does doubling the number of liquors make that any less of a drink? Further, how does doubling the number of liquors prevent something from being a Boilermaker, but sipping (rather than chugging) does not?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I wholly support people chugging Bruce's suggestions. You know, because chugging Dogfish Head 90 Minute and Chimay can't lead to bad things.