Author Archives

Unknown's avatar

Dom

I grew up in Natick, Mass, and was raised on everything Boston. I received a media production degree from Quinnipiac, which has gone under-utilized for years. Now, thanks to my wife, I'll be traveling the world alongside a member of the Unites States Foreign Service, beer in hand, while I finally put some of that college knowledge to use.

What’s Dom Drinking Now? Fall Edition

By on • ( 1 Comment )

I can tell you what I’m not drinking. Pumpkin beer. I’ll leave that to all the basic bitches and whatever their male equivalent is. For me, fall is all about Oktoberfest and cocktails. I’ll write about my favorite Oktoberfest beers in a later post. Right now I’m drinking a classic cocktail with a seasonal twist.

Image result for cranberry cinnamon moscow mule

THE MASSHOLE MULE

As I’ve said in the past, I’m no mixologist, so this drink may very well be called something else. I came up with the name because I’m using ingredient made in Massachusetts, specifically Triple Eight Cranberry Vodka from Nantucket and a Mass-made hard cider, in this Moscow Mule spinoff. As many people know, a typical Moscow Mule is 3 parts ginger beer to one part vodka with a splash of lime juice and a lime wedge served in a copper mug. My recipe tinkers with that due to the addition of hard cider, but it’s not all that different in the end.

THE RECIPE

2oz dry cider
2oz ginger beer
1 1/2oz cranberry vodka
2 dashes of cinnamon
lime wedge

Pour vodka over ice into a copper mug. Add ginger beer and dry cider, then stir in cinnamon. Serve with a stirring rod and garnish with a lime wedge.

THE INGREDIENTS

Image result for triple eight cranberry vodka
Triple Eight is the distillery side of the Cisco Brewing operation, and they make great fruit-flavored vodkas.

As I mentioned before, I’m using Triple Eight Cranberry Vodka. For those not familiar with Triple Eight, they are the distillery side of the Cisco Brewing operation located on Nantucket. They make really delicious flavored vodkas that typically come in under $30 a bottle. I would absolutely recommend this over any name brand flavored product.

Image result for lookout farm original
Lookout Farm is located in Natick, MA and has recently started brewing beer.
Image result for bantam wunderkind
Bantam is located in Somerville, MA and uses a sparkling wine yeast for a beautifully dry, bubbly cider.

For cider, you can go with any dry cider, but a few I recommend from Massachusetts are Lookout Farm Farmhouse Original and Bantam Wunderkind. Downeast Original would work too, but it will be a little sweeter.

Old Favorite Ginger Beers
A good ginger beer can be the difference between a good cocktail and a great cocktail.

The last ingredient, the ginger beer, is the least important in my opinion. That being said, a high quality ginger beer can be the difference between a good drink and a great drink. I prefer Barritt’s to Gosling’s, and a spicier option, such as Maine Root or Fever Tree, to either of those.

That’s it for this edition of WDDN, I hope you enjoy the drink! Check back in next time to see which Oktoberfest beers top my list!

The 300s 2019 NFL Bracket Challenge

By on • ( Leave a comment )

Back before the MLB season started, I introduced a new way of gambling on professional sports: the bracket challenge. Modeled after March Madness, each entry requires that you pick each playoff team and their seed, as well as the winners of each playoff game every step of the way. I asked The 300s team to submit their picks before Week 1 started. Let’s check out how the guys think this season will shake down:

Mattes:

(AFC): Yeah, I know; I look like a real homer by picking the Pats as the No. 1 seed (and eventual Super Bowl-winner). But that defense looks LOADED, and we still got that Tom Brady guy. And yes, the Chiefs seem like an easy pick for the No. 2 seed after last year’s epic run. I’d like to have chosen someone else, but again, let’s call a spade a spade. The Jags coming in as the three seed might surprise some, but I think the vast majority of the NFL world is sleeping hard on them this year. Their defense is still elite (and only got better this offseason), and they finally have a good quarterback for the first time since Nam. The AFC North is going to be a battle all season long, and honestly the toughest decision I made was keeping Baltimore out! Though the Texans may look like they loaded up in recent weeks, I think Houston fans are in for quite the disappointment this year.

(NFC): This year will be Aaron Rodgers’s redemption. After a string of injury-plagued seasons and questions surrounding his psyche and character, the 35-year-old future H.O.F. will be determined to shut all the doubters up. He’s got some great weapons on offense, and the Packers should also feature the best defense they’ve had in years. I will be shocked if the Packers are not, at the very least, a top-two seed in the conference this year. The Saints will continue to roll as the No. 2 seed, although they’ll feel a lot of pressure from a solid Carolina squad, which comes in as my first wild-card team. The Eagles will give New Orleans a run for their money for a bye behind an MVP season from Carson Wentz.

In the end, we finally get the dream Super Bowl matchup that we as NFL fans have been deprived of for FAR too long: Tom Brady vs. Aaron Rodgers. And ultimately, Brady and the boys will win No. 7 after the best cherry on top the NFL has ever given us. 

Big Z:

The Patriots will make the playoffs and get a first-round bye again because they always do, but their unprecedented run of success has to take a year off at some point (not come to an end). I’ve got the Patriots bowing out in the Divisional Round. I’m not buying the Browns, so I’ve got the Steelers and the Chiefs in the AFC CG with Mahomes getting to the Big Game in his second year as a starter. In the NFC I’m going with the Boys. With Zeke on board they should be locked and loaded. In the Super Bowl, I’ve got Mahomes and Reid hoisting the Lombardi Trophy.

Joey Ballgame:

(NFC): My first impression as I filled this out is that The NFC is muchhhh tougher, at least internally. The South in particular where you have the Saints, Falcons and Panthers and the North where all four teams will compete. That’s just a motherfucker. At the same time, those teams will have a tougher time building solid records when the teams they play twice a year are that much better than the teams in other divisions, so they’ll kind of cannibalize themselves in terms of the playoffs. 

(AFC): As for the AFC, I see the Pats, Browns, and Chiefs sleepwalking their way to the Division crown. The Jags might get some fight out of the Texans, and honestly who even knows what Nick Foles is so they could shit the bed entirely. After that I kind of rolled the dice. I like the Bengals offense and the Texans, despite Bill O’Brien’s best efforts, still have a good team. Add that to the fact that the Titans and Capt Luck’s former team are looking rough and I wouldn’t be shocked to see the South have two playoff teams. 

I had all division champs in the divisional round save the Vikings, who I think could cause some trouble. After that though I think Baker runs out of magic against the Pats and Drew Brees and Co. are a little too much for the Birds. We know what happens next.

Dom:

(AFC): I’m in agreement with the rest of the boys in that I think the Pats should roll through the conference this year. This is as excited as I’ve been for a Pats team in a long time, and that’s saying something. The Chiefs took a step backward this year, the Jaguars are marginally better and their competition in the South got worse, and I will never be afraid of Philip Rivers. I think this is the year the Browns finally make the playoffs, but that run can only last so long.

(NFC): This conference is a total crap shoot. I don’t think there is a clear winner in any division save the West, which the Rams should win easily. Beyond that, I don’t believe Cam Newton has what it takes to win the South, which allows Brees another division title, Wentz and Co. should handle the Cowboys to take the East, and both Aaron Rodgers and the Vikings bounce back this year to come out of the North.

I see the Championship round games being basically the same as last year. I do think Goff will disappoint and Gurley will wear down again, allowing the Vikings to ride a balanced team performance into the NFC final. Brees and co. will get their revenge for last years PI call while Brady tops Mahomes again. In the end I see Brady prevailing over Brees in a QB matchup for the ages.

Red:

(AFC): I think the Patriots are still the cream of the crop in the AFC. Is that blind fanaticism for my favorite team? ….no. They’re just still the best team in the conference. The Chiefs are still electric, but are without their dynamite running back (unless everyone’s sleeper Damien Williams takes off). I think the Texans take a step forward this year after beefing up their OL with Laremy Tunsil and Deshaun Watson another year removed from his knee injury, althrough trading Jadaveon Clowney won’t necessarily help. The Steelers are going to be good again, but are now without their two best players from the last few years. The Chargers and the Ravens do just well enough to make the playoffs, but don’t make it very far. Despite what Skynet/ESPN tells you, the Patriots will not lose to the Texans, especially not because of Brady’s age. In fact they will topple ole Billy O’Brien once again and make the Super Bowl. Again.

(NFC): The Saints have some unfinished business and arguably the most electric player in the league in Alvin Kamara for Drew Brees to feed so I’m picking them to also advance to the SB as a No. 1 seed. The Rams don’t get the benefit of shitty refs this time and I honestly think that team takes a step back with the suddenly breaking down Todd Gurley. This is why you don’t give running backs record setting contracts. The Vikings rebound from a down year, the Cowboys clinch a Wild Card spot as do the Seahawks who pull an upset in the opening round, as the Eagles make it to the NFC Championship with a finally healthy Carson Wentz but can’t get over the hump. 

Super Bowl LIV: Pats 21 – Saints 17

Super Bowls are never as high scoring as people think they will be. You don’t even have to look back all that far (February) for a prime example of this. So I’m taking the Pats to grind out their 7th Super Bowl. 

This may be a Boston blog, but you gotta be crazy to bet against the Patriots this year. Pats are the odds on favorite to win it all here at The 300s, and most of us agree it’ll be the Saints out of the NFC. Big Z is the only one with a mind of his own…good for him. Go Pats, hello Antonio.

IT 2 is in Theaters Now. Go See It. (DON’T WORRY, NO SPOILERS)

By on • ( Leave a comment )

Thursday night I went to a clowns only pre-screening of IT 2 at Alamo Drafthouse. People in New England may not be familiar with Alamo Drafthouse, but it’s basically what AMC modeled their Dine In theaters after. They held clowns only showings of the new IT movie all across the country, and what a hilarious idea. I’m not going to lie, my first thought was it would be a great event for a mass shooting because it would take a much longer time to identify the shooter. I guess that’s just the time we live in. Anyway, my wife was able to convince to go for the people watching, and it did not disappoint. We sat in a room full of 50 or so clowns watching Pennywise wreak havoc on Derry while eating a Royale with cheese and drinking a milkshake like god damn Vincent Vega.

Now I’ve never claimed to be the biggest horror movie buff, but I’ve been coming around the last few years. I thought this movie was awesome. It had a bunch of funny banter courtesy of Bill Hader and James Ransone, but also a ton of jump scares and an incredibly creepy soundtrack. Even the scene with the old lady from the preview below had me nearly jump out of my seat. And I knew it was coming! The special effects were really well done too, making the mind-fuckery of Pennywise as realistic as I could have hoped for. Lastly, Easter eggs are everywhere, so I can’t wait to see it again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqUopiAYdRg&t=54s

One thing I will say is that you need to see this movie either in theaters. The sound design was incredible; there are scenes where you really feel like a part of the action. If you watch on your own tv and have the volume down or are distracted by other stuff around the house, the best parts of the movie just won’t have the same effect.

Otherwise I have very few negative things to say about the movie. For those who read the book, they may want a little more out of the ending, but will find it enjoyable all the same. I didn’t read it, so I thought the ending was fine. I found IT 2 infinitely more satisfying than Midsommar, which to me was a garbage can in a prom dress. That is to say, although it looked beautiful and was well made, everything else about it sucked. Literally the first thing I said when it finished was, “What the fuck did I just watch?” I left the theater after IT 2 with a smile on my face. I was dressed as a clown though, so take that however you like.

What’s Dom Drinking Now?

By on • ( 1 Comment )

There’s been one brewery on my mind ever since I checked out their new taproom two weeks ago: Aslin Beer Company. Many people in the Boston area may not be familiar with these guys; I certainly wasn’t when I first moved to the DC area. Once I did move, I kept hearing the name Aslin again and again when trying to find the best brewery around.

Image result for aslin brewing logo
Aslin Beer Co. houses their original location in Herndon, VA. Recently they opened up a second, much larger facility in Alexandria, VA that will house the bulk of production one it’s fully functioning.

Lucky for me, they just opened up a new taproom 15 minutes away from my apartment not even a month ago, and I was quite impressed. They make NEIPA’s as good as anyone actually in New England, mouth-puckering sours that leave you making faces well into the fourth and fifth sips (a sign of a great sour in my opinion) and some downright killer stouts. When it comes to what grabs your attention in the beer world these days, those three boxes are all you really need to check to stand out.

Image result for aslin beers
Although the new location doesn’t have a ton of can stock, I do like their labels.

The top rated beers from Aslin are almost exclusively IPA’s and stouts, no surprise there. If you can get your hands on them, Single, Double and Triple Orange Starfish, Master of Oranges, Master of Karate and Mind the Hop are some of their highest rated beers on Untappd, but it seems like every IPA they make has above a 4 rating on the app. For stouts, they have a bunch of amazing styles featuring all sorts of flavor additives, while their line of sours beers does the same.

Image result for aslin beers

So what do I actually recommend? Here’s a quick run down:

–Glamping Imperial Stout– Probably the best stout I’ve ever had. Made to mimic a s’more, this beer features marshmallows, graham crackers, chocolate, and the added bonus of…peanut butter! This is the first beer with peanut butter I had where I could really smell and taste the PB. Incredible. Oh yeah, it’s 15% alcohol and drinks like it’s less than half that, so watch out.
–Pisghetti Western Stout– Another 15% imperial stout that doesn’t taste like it, this is conditioned on chocolate, hazelnuts, coffee, vanilla and cinnamon. I thought this had a touch too much cinnamon, which accentuated the heat from the alcohol just a bit more than I preferred. However, all the other flavors are delicious, and it’s still a great beer.
–Master of Oranges DIPA– It’s pretty hard for me to be impressed by IPA’s these days. NEIPA’s can easily disguise off-flavors or a weak malt base by adding more dry-hops, more citrusy hops, more more more. On top of that, most people use the same four or five hops, so the difference from beer to beer is minute. That being said, this beer was fantastic, easily the best IPA I’ve had in DC. This beer is a combo of Double Orange Starfish and Master of Karate, and it blew me away.
–El Frutero Sour Ale- A light, easy going sour at first taste, every sip seems to pack more flavor. Brewed with watermelon, lime, habanero peppers and salt, this beer is a perfect pairing for fish tacos. As a matter of fact, I would actually prefer this beer with food because the habaneros really punch you in the tongue.

Image result for aslin elder scrolls
I don’t play the games, but anyone who is a fan of Elder Scrolls will be excited to see Aslin came out with an entire line of beers to celebrate 25 years of Elder Scrolls games.

I really only have one beef with Aslin to this point, and it has nothing to do with the beer. The new spot is tinkering with the food menu, and we found out the hard way that it is overpriced. Much to our chagrin, the $8 deviled eggs we ordered was actually one egg, cut in half, with a sliver of jalapeno and a fried oyster on top. Considering all over Boston you can find $1 oysters and I can go to the grocery store and buy an 18-pack of Nellie’s Free Range Eggs for $5.69, that price is a rip off. I was assured they would be changing that, so I now have nothing more to complain about.

Although they don’t make it up to Boston, I highly recommend anyone traveling down to DC or Virginia stop by their locations and drink up. You won’t be disappointed.

RIP 2019 Boston Red Sox

By on • ( Leave a comment )

Well, that was the worst stretch of baseball since the ol’ Bobby Valentine days. After 8 straight losses to the Yankees and Rays, the Sox season is effectively over. We’re now 14.5 games back of the Yankees and 6.5 games back of the Rays. Our only hope of making the playoffs would be to catch the Rays, but considering they just swept us for only the second time in their history and in doing so became the first team to win 8 games at Fenway in a single season since before the Apollo moon landing, that’s it. We’re finished.

A lot of people were surprised when the Sox didn’t make any moves at the deadline, and will hence blame Dave Dombrowski for this missed opportunity. For anyone with even the slightest interest in this team, it’s clear this pitching staff needs help. While everyone around us improved, Dombrowski stood pat. Although he is far from the genius he seems to fancy himself, I honestly don’t have much of a problem with it, and I’ll tell you why.

If your employees do something really well, you pay them for it. If, after you start paying them well, they suddenly stop doing the job well, do you just bail them out and bring in someone else? Do you continue to drive up your personal costs just because the people you know to be good at what they do suddenly stop being effective? No. You either fire them or make them clean up their own damn mess. And since I don’t expect anyone to be fired during the season, there’s only one option. This dumpster fire of a week only solidifies that mindset for me.

I like to imagine I’m Porcello and the Sox pitching staff is the TVs.


Before getting all riled up about how bad our pitching is, let’s first talk about something positive. I’ve seen many people, including some here at The 300s, talking about how this season has been awful. It really hasn’t been ALL bad. Our offense is fantastic. We currently rank first in all of baseball in Runs, Hits, Doubles, Batting Average and RBI’s, second in Total Bases and On-Base Percentage, fourth in Slugging and OPS, and eighth in Home Runs. That’s pretty damn impressive. Just ask Rick Porcello, who’s been getting record run support over the last month or so.

Image result for chris sale swearing at ump
Chris Sale wasn’t happy with the umps against the Yankees yesterday, but he has bigger problems to worry about.

Now for the bad….I don’t buy the notion submitted by Boston sports radio that our bullpen is the biggest problem. The bullpen sucks, don’t get me wrong. But our current rotation of Sale (4.68 ERA), Price (4.36), Porcello (5.74), Rodriguez (4.19) and Cashner (6.94 with Boston) is making $80 million this year, Eovaldi (6.66) is making $17 million, and…oh yeah, Sale signed a $145 million contract extension to start the season. The salaries of those six pitchers is more than the entire payroll of the Athletics, Orioles, Pirates, White Sox, Marlins, and Rays. Two of those teams are ahead of us in the Wild Card race right now.

For further proof that our starters are the issue, look no further than this week. Starting with the Rays series, the starters allowed 4, 6, 7, 4, 8, 3 and 7 runs. They didn’t make it out of the fifth during five of those starts, and the dude who gave up that lowly 3 number only pitched 3 innings. That means during this 8-game stretch, our starters have a combined ERA of over 10!!! That’s beyond atrocious. It’s hard to win games when you’re constantly coming from behind, and it’s even harder when the people getting paid to be the best are the ones digging you those holes. No offense in the history of the league could keep up with that level of terrible.

Sounding optimistic, Dombrowski still believes…or so he says.

So when it all comes down to it, I’m with Dombrowski, if not necessarily with the reasoning he gave in his post-deadline press conferences. Either pitch better or miss the playoffs, but we’re not sacrificing future talent for only a minor piece to the puzzle. After all, Andrew Cashner was pitching quite well before coming here and look what he’s done. We don’t need to win every year, and since I know this team is capable of playing championship ball they can figure it out themselves. If that doesn’t happen, I’d expect Dana LeVangie to be looking for a job come winter time and a major shakeup of the pitching staff. If we do miss the playoffs, fine. It’ll be Patriots season by then anyway…..ugh. I need a drink.

What’s Dom Drinking Now? Wine, for a Change!

By on • ( 1 Comment )

Time to mix it up! I’ve come at you with beer from the place that pays my bills and three different cocktails. Now it’s time to break into a category that many my age don’t know much about, but often enjoy when presented with quality bottles: WINE. When I first started in the alcohol industry 8 years ago, I knew very little about wine. Basically just these four things:

  1. There are two types: red and white
  2. Bad wine is what my parents drink
  3. I’m not bougie enough to drink good wine
  4. SLAP THE BAG!
Image result for south parkwine meme

Working in a small wine shop that only had 5 customers a shift and next to no stocking or other tasks to do, I started reading about it. I was enthralled; learning about wine enables you to learn all about different cultures, eating traditions and flavors, climate, geography, and so much more. As I took all this in I realized that when it comes to wine, the more you know, the less you know.

This can be exciting, but it can also be overwhelming and intimidating, especially when you’re not getting paid to know about the stuff. This is the mindset a lot of drinkers have when it comes to wine. They like some things they’ve had, hated others, and are not adventurous or wealthy enough to just take random stabs at bottles on the shelf and hope they work out. I wrote about this previously in one of my etiquette blogs, but this is why finding a retailer you can trust is a wonderful thing.

Here‘s an easy-to-understand wine tasting notepad to help you better describe what you’re tasting.

For starters, the above notepad offers some easy-to-use, common flavors to help you describe what you may or may not be tasting. The better you get at picking out flavors, the easier it will be to describe what you like. In addition to these, it’s also important to understand that dry and sweet have very specific meanings relating to the amount of fermentable sugar (referred to as residual sugar, or RS) still left in a bottle once fermentation is over. These terms are used incorrectly more than any other terms in the business, so it’s important to understand what they mean.

RS is completely up to the winemaker, which is why many grapes, such as Riesling, have both dry and sweet examples. To drive this point home, look no further than Sauvignon Blanc, a grape known for some of the greatest examples of white wine across the globe. On the dry side, you have Sancerre, as well as many other bottles from the Loire Valley in France. For sweeter offerings, you can find dessert wines made from Sauv Blanc the world over, most notably from Sauternes. Your perception can also be altered by things like acidity and tannin, which vary drastically across different grapes.

Below are two scales that will help you identify where certain wines fall on the dry-sweet spectrum, although you’ll probably have to zoom in to read the names of the grapes.

Red wine sweetness chart by Wine Folly
Wine Folly is an excellent resource when it comes to wine, offering everything from beginner guides like this to more advanced stuff like determining residual sugar.
White wine sweetness chart by Wine Folly

Now that we’ve covered some of the basics, I can tell you what I’m drinking: red wine from Italy! Specifically, I’m drinking Scala Ciro, which is made from the grape Gaglioppo. Never heard of it? Don’t feel bad, there are hundreds of indigenous grapes in Italy, and there’s no reason for the average person to know the vast majority of them. However, a lot of them are hidden gems, like this one.

I picked this bottle because I’m having ziti with meatballs for dinner. When picking out a bottle of wine to go with dinner, a good place to start is matching a regional wine with the cuisine of said region. In this case, I’m drinking Italian wine with an Italian meal. Next up, you’ll want to pick flavors that contrast and compliment the dishes being served. I chose this wine because the drying factor of the tannins contrasts the sweetness of the tomato sauce, while the spiciness of the wine compliments the herbal flavors in the sauce. It’s for this reason that chocolate and red wine don’t go together. Both have bitter tannins in them, so when consumed together they just taste overly bitter, even sour.

When pairing with pasta, it also helps to think simply: red wine with red sauce, white wine with white sauce. From there, you can get a little more nuanced with help from your local wine shop employees. This is a good place for aspiring winos to start. If you’d like more wine-related content, feel free to comment!

What’s Dom Drinking Now?

By on • ( Leave a comment )

Another drink, please! Summer is in full swing, and so is my sunburnt beer belly. Not to worry though, I’ve still been finding plenty of alcohol to stimulate my tastebuds. In between rounds of 3 Stars beers and assorted local sours, I’ve been hooked on one particular drink lately:

Image result for blood orange daiquiri
Mine don’t really look like this…

BLOOD ORANGE DAIQUIRI

First things first. Hyper-masculinity says that real men shouldn’t drink daiquiris because they’re a “gay” drink or something. If you’ve read my blogs on liquor store etiquette, you know I don’t believe in stereotyping drinks. Men can drink fruity cocktails, women can drink whiskey neat, and there is no such thing as a “gay” drink. Daiquiris are delicious, and you’re a damn liar if you say otherwise.

That having been said, this is not what I’m talking about:

Image result for strawberry daiquiri
Frozen strawberry daiquiris are not what I’m talking about here.

Let’s backtrack a bit. In order to balance a good cocktail, you need to understand flavors and how they interact with each other. You’re four main flavors in basic cocktail recipes are alcohol, sweet, bitter and sour. Of course there are others, but for the sake of simplicity we’ll stick with those for now. Some cocktails, like a Paper Plane, combine all four of these, while others, like a Manhattan, stick to just three (liquor, sweet, bitter). This balancing act is the key to mixology, not that I claim to be a master or anything.

A traditional daiquiri is a pretty basic drink for any bartender. Proportions are 3-2-1 white rum-lime juice-simple syrup. The idea is to combine rum with one sweet ingredient and one sour ingredient. These three easy ingredients get mixed together and poured over ice.

Image result for daiquiri time out meme
Daiquiris!

THE RECIPE

Knowing what we know about the flavor components, we can now add and subtract ingredients to make a drink that really hits home. For me, that results in a blood orange daiquiri. I’ve been using Mad River First Run Rum, blood orange soda, unsweetened lime juice, and cinnamon. I skip the simple syrup because the soda has enough sugar for me, but I do use more soda in my recipe.

Combine 1 part rum, 1 part soda and 1/2 part lime juice in a shaker. Add two dashes of cinnamon. Shake. Serve over ice. Garnish with a blood orange wedge.

Image result for mad river first run rum
Mad River Distilling, out of Vermont, makes some really great stuff.

Typical daiquiris use white rum, but I’ve elected to use an aged rum for two reasons: one, I think the light vanilla and barrel flavors work well with blood orange, and two, I didn’t have any white rum. When it comes to choosing a rum for this drink, it’s important to remember ABBC, Anything But Bacardi and Captain. These products belong in the garbage. You are a classy, sophisticated drinker and deserve better. For inexpensive white rums from New England, I like examples from Short Path Distilling and Privateer. For aged versions, I like Mad River (clearly), Berkshire Mountain Distilling, or Plantation (not from NE, but cheap and delicious). The great thing about rum is great bottles rarely go above $50, and you can often find amazing values in the $25-$30 range.

Let’s see what you think! Enjoy!

What’s Dom Drinking Now?

By on • ( 2 Comments )

My first two editions of WDDN were both cocktails. As it happens, this is a change a pace for me as I typically prefer to drink craft beer. I am always on the lookout for something new and exciting, and try as many different brews as I can get my hands on. Luckily for me, I was able to get a job doing a variety of things for 3 Stars Brewing. So, it should come as no surprise that I’ve been drinking a lot 3 Stars beer!

3 STARS BREWING

Since 2012, 3 Stars has been making super-drinkable and excitingly unique beers in the northern part of DC. Unfortunately, the brewery is still relatively small and distribution limited, with only DC, Virginia and Maryland receiving regular shipments. Boston and Delaware also receive monthly shipments, while New York City has seen a few offerings as well.

What should you be looking to try? Honestly, I like all the beers we make. I’m not just saying that, either. Before I started working for 3 Stars, I thought the few beers I had tried from them were solid. Nothing special, but still well-made. Now that I’ve had the chance to try them at their freshest as well as had a wider variety of the lineup, I’ve really started to dig them.

Related image
I’m hoping one of my ideas for a pilot batch makes it into the taproom this summer. I’ve been pitching a sour beer modeled after the Palomas I’m so in love with, so we’ll see how that turns out.

We’re not talking about over-the-top IPA’s like Trillium or Treehouse. This isn’t that kind of brewery. They can definitely make high quality juice bombs that seem to be all the rage these days, but those beers are relatively boring to make. Come up with a decent malt bill, then add as many hops as you possibly can. From there, just change the hops. This provides the illusion of innovation when really you’re only changing one ingredient. At 3 Stars, the brewers like to experiment with more than that.

As for the beers, here are the ones you can find in Mass:

  1. Peppercorn Saison:

    This easy-drinking Belgian style ale is brewed with 3 different types of peppercorns for a light spice on the finish. It doesn’t have the bubblegum yeasty thing that some Belgian styles can have, so for me it’s a porch pounder despite being 6.5%. PS is the beer that first put 3 Stars on the map, as it was originally a home-brew recipe before the owners were pushed to bottle it and sell it by their friends.
  2. Diamonds are Forever:

    Although the 16oz option is only available at Nationals Park, you can find the 12oz beers more readily. For the NEIPA fans, this is the beer for you. A sessionable IPA with a ton of juicy citrus flavors and a touch of bitter resin, this is as good if not better than any session IPA I had while running a beer department up north. This is the newest addition to the core lineup, and in my opinion the biggest crowd-pleaser.

  3. Southern Belle:

    This is another one of the beers they made when first launching almost 7 years ago. Southern Belle is an imperial brown ale brewed with roasted pecans. Soft, smooth and nutty, this is my preferred beer pairing for a burger. I have noticed a slight variation of flavor from batch to batch, but this is a killer beer for cooler temperatures and fans of darker styles.

  4. Ghost IPA:

    This is my least favorite of the core lineup, but that’s not to say I don’t like it. Like almost all of our beers, this one is brewed with a large percentage of white wheat malt, which is why it was originally labeled as a White IPA. However, the only citrus you pick up is a modest dose that comes from hops, unlike what you’d expect out of a traditional white ale. The bitter/resiny quality is a little much for me, but I’ve found most people around the brewery will go to Ghost for their “on-the-clock” beer.
Related image
This new event space is huge. It should be finished by the end of the summer, so I’ll at least be able to take advantage of that.

I really love how 3 Stars likes to push the envelope and come up with as many new and strange styles as they can think of. We recently bought out a huge space connected to our current brewery, so when all of the renovations are said and done we’ll have two to three times as much space. This includes a new 470-person event space, an enlarged Funkerdome for sours, triple the size for cold storage, and room for more brewing tanks. Unfortunately, I will be gone by the time it’s all done, but I’m excited to see where the company goes!

What’s Dom Drinking Now? Stanley Cup Game 7 Edition

By on • ( Leave a comment )

Game 7 is tonight, which means I’m drinking something that reminds me of home: Irish Car Bombs. It may not be the best drink to order in Ireland (you may or may not get thrown out of the pub), but I did one of these before each period in Game 6 and it worked like a charm, so I’m sticking with it. I feel like most people in Boston already know this one, but just in case, here’s the drink:

Image result for irish car bomb
Irish Car Bombs are like chugging a milkshake without the brain freeze.

IRISH CAR BOMB

A Boston favorite, the Irish car bomb combines Irelands three biggest exports with a chugging contest for a boozy milkshake from heaven. Although maybe not a great choice for summer, it goes great with all things Boston, so there’s nothing I’d rather drink for this game.

THE RECIPE

Pretty easy as far as cocktails go. Pour half a pint of Guinness into glass. Pour a half ounce of Jameson or Bushmill’s Irish Whiskey and a half ounce of Bailey’s Irish Cream into a shot glass. Drop the liquor into the Guinness and chug the whole glass. Boom. Bring the Cup home, boys. LFG!

What’s Dom Drinking Now?

By on • ( Leave a comment )

Fresh out of Memorial Day Weekend, you’re favorite booze hound is bringing you a new recurring segment about what’s in my cup. From beer to cocktails, straight liquor to the occasional wine, I drink it all. With summer officially underway, I can’t think of a better time to start this up.

So, what am I drinking? This guy:

Image result for paloma cocktail
An old standby in the cocktail world, I’ve found many people don’t know what this is.

THE PALOMA

A classic for many bartenders, I’ve found not many people I hang out with are familiar with this cocktail. It has all the refreshment and summery vibes of a margarita but with less sugar and the addition of grapefruit. I can crush a bunch of these things in the summer heat, and you will too once you try this out.

THE RECIPE

You’ll need blanco tequila, grapefruit soda and fresh or unsweetened lime juice at the minimum for this cocktail. Professionals sometimes use fresh grapefruit juice and club soda to provide the bubbles. Personally, I don’t like club soda and find that grapefruit San Pellegrino or other name brand soda’s work just as well. For an added level of complexity, sub in mezcal for tequila to provide some smokiness on the finish.

Stir together 2 parts tequila or mezcal, 2 parts grapefruit soda, and 1 part lime juice. If you prefer your drinks a little sweeter, stir in a teaspoon of sugar until it dissolves. Pour over ice. Serve in a highball glass, rimming the glass with salt if you so choose. Garnish with a lime or grapefruit wedge.

Image result for riazul blanco

Right now, I’m drinking my Paloma with Riazul Plata Tequila, Organics Italian Grapefruit Soda, and Realime juice. That’s it. Riazul is one of my favorite tequilas, but does tend to run in the $40-$45 range. You by no means need to spend that much on a tequila in order to make a tasty Paloma. I find Espolon works great in cocktails and is half the price.

Related image
Del Maguey products range from $35-40 (Vida and Crema) all the way up to $200 or more (Pechuga).
Image result for fidencio mezcal
Fidencio products range from $35 (Clasico) to $150 (Tobala).

For those not familiar with Mezcal, it’s like the Scotch of the agave world. Like tequila, it is distilled from any type of agave, not specifically blue agave like tequila has to be. The agave’s piña, or heart, is roasted to give it a distinct smokiness, which works great in many cocktails that also use tequila. For intro brands, I recommend the Del Maguey and Fidencio lines, which deliver high quality products without being overly expensive. In particular, I’d try Del Maguey Vida and Fidencio Clasico.

I hope you enjoy this cocktail as much as I do! Stay tuned to find out what I’ll be drinking next!