Tag: What To Know About
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Lambics: What To Know
Lambic beers are a little bit like blue cheese or marmite. No, it’s not because the flavor necessarily mimics the creamy stinkiness of blue cheese. It’s because lambics, like many of the best things in life, are an acquired taste. Lambic beers are renowned for their funkiness. They can be hay-like or cheesy or musty,…
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Hoppy or Bitter: What To Know
From acidic and tart to floral and fruity to citrusy and sour – the world of craft beer has a wide variety of adjectives to describe the vast spectrum of flavours it has to offer. You’ll also come across the word ‘hoppy’ – a term that’s often used to highlight a beer’s bitter notes. Turns…
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Stout: What To Know
Not all stouts—a style marked by the use of roasted malts and barley—are created equal, with alcohol levels, recipes, flavorings and textures running the gamut. From the traditional stouts that emerged after porter rose to popularity in England in the 1800s to today’s kaleidoscope of craft variations, the characteristics found within the category are myriad. To help demystify…
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Syrah: What to Know
What is meaty and fruit-driven and pairs perfectly with robust winter fare and grilled summer favourites alike? The answer: syrah. Beloved for its signature dark fruit flavours, high acid and prominent tannins, this hardy grape variety is responsible for producing some of the most delicious wines on earth. Whether vinified varietally or tossed into a…
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Pot Versus Column Stills: What To Know
Start a conversation about many of the world’s beloved spirits and the subject will quickly turn to ingredients and ageing. Distillation, on the other hand, is often overlooked, even though it is one of the most impactful aspects of spirits production. The varieties to know are pot and column distillation, named after the stills in which they…
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Verdejo: What to Know
Fans of refreshing white wines generally consider sauvignon blanc and pinot grigio to be the obvious choices. However, in the realm of thirst-quenching whites, there are a plethora of interesting varieties to discover. Enter verdejo, central Spain’s claim to zesty white-wine fame. This is what to know about the grape, plus five delicious bottles to try.
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Distillation: What To Know
A modern distillery kind of looks like it belongs somewhere in the Chocolate Factory (maybe adjacent to the “Fizzy Lifting Drink” room?): depending on what’s being distilled, there might be tall gleaming columns connected by a network of tubes or massive, rounded pots that look like giant copper Hershey Kisses. Believe it or not, these…
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Beer Styles: What To Know
If you’re new to the beer scene, I have some bad news (but it’s good news really): There are a lot of different kinds of beer. Saying that you’d like a beer, isn’t going to get you very far. If you’ve ever had a slight panic attack in an Off Licence trying to figure out what…
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Irish Whiskey: What To Know
What is Irish Whiskey? Irish Whiskey is a mash of cereal grains, fermented, distilled and matured for a minimum of three years inside wood casks on the Island of Ireland. What is the difference between Irish whiskey and Scotch? The difference between Irish whiskey and Scotch isn’t worlds apart and they can be seen as…
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Whisk(e)y Types: What To Know
What’s the difference between a Single Malt Scotch Whisky and a Blended Scotch Whisky? Or between a whisky, a whiskey, a bourbon, a Tennessee whiskey and a rye? Let’s start with what they have in common. In its widest definition, whisky is a drink distilled from the fermentation of malt – that’s any grain that…
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