Booze Clues: Infusions

The next Booze Clues is tonight over at House DSG. Hopefully you caught our prep post about 2 weeks ago, so your infusions are ready to go! If not, there is still time to prep the Chamomile Rye Whiskey and Jalapeño Tequila.

Taste-testing will include:

• Pecan Bourbon (Buffalo Trace)
• Chamomile Rye Whiskey (Overholt)
• Jalapeño Tequila (Milagro silver)
• Vanilla Pineapple Tequila (Milagro silver)

We will be using 3 of our infusions for cocktails. The Vanilla Pineapple Tequila is pretty sweet and great on it's own for sipping, so we have not chosen a specific cocktail but feel free to experiment.

Blown Rose
3 apple slices
2 oz chamomile rye
1/2 oz pineapple juice
1/2 oz lime juice
1/2 oz cinnamon bark syrup

Buffalo Soldier
2 oz pecan bourbon
1/4 oz demerara (turbinado) syrup

Short Rib
2 oz jalapeño tequila
3/4 oz lime juice
1 oz simple syrup
3/4 Tbsp (~1/8 oz) pomegranate molasses


So, we didn't do the tests necessary to live-stream the first and educational half of Booze Clues this month. However, we are still starting at 7 pm CDT and you can join us on twitter for some conversation!



CREDITS: 
All of tonight's cocktails and their corresponding infusions (except the vanilla pineapple tequila) came from the Death & Co. cocktail book.

Booze Clues: Infusions (Prep)

We are back on schedule in May, with our next meeting being on the 3rd (first Tuesday). However, May is going to be a bit different as we will be sampling infused liquors, and that requires some prep. So we are making an early pre-post for all of you playing along a home. Below are the 4 infusions we will be sampling. As some of these take 1 week, we are posting about 1.5 weeks in advance (to give you time to acquire the ingredients and materials needed while allowing ample time to let the infusions come together). We chose to prep these all together, pouring the strained 1 day infusions back into their bottles and leaving them be.

Pecan Bourbon (1 week)
750ml Buffalo Trace bourbon
2 cups pecan halves
salt
pepper
cayenne

Soak pecans in cold water for 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 300°F. Drain the pecans well, then spread them on a rimmed baking sheet. Season with salt, pepper, and cayenne. Bake for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally and being careful not to burn the pecans. Let cool to room temperature. In a container, combine the pecans with bourbon and stir well. Let stand at room temperature for 1 week, stirring daily. Strain through a cheesecloth-lined sieve.

Chamomile Rye Whiskey (2 hours)
750 ml Overholt rye whiskey
¼ cup of loose chamomile tea (or 8 tea bags)

Combine chamomile tea and rye whiskey in a container; stir well. Let stand at room temperature for 1 hour and 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Strain through a cheesecloth-lined sieve.

Jalapeño Tequila (30 minutes)
750 ml Milagro blanco tequila
4 jalapeño chiles

In a container, combine the ribs and seeds from 4 jalapeño chiles and the chopped flesh of ½ jalapeño with blanco tequila and stir well. Let stand at room temperature for 20 minutes, tasting frequently so you can stop the infusion when the heat level is to your liking. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve.

Vanilla Pineapple Tequila (1 week)
750 ml Milagro blanco tequila
1 pineapple, large
1 vanilla bean
1⁄4 cup brown sugar

Cut pineapple into large chunks and split the vanilla bean down the center. Combine pineapple, vanilla, brown sugar, and blaco tequila in a container and mix well. Let stand at room temperature for 1 week, stirring daily. Strain through a cheesecloth-lined sieve.



Join us again on Tuesday, May 3rd for the official Booze Clues post, where you will get the cocktail recipes we will be trying from these infused liquors. Play along at home, or just come by to browse and do things on your own time.

We are debating including Booze Clues as a live-stream show, letting you all watch our in-house lecturer Wakowski as he helps us compare and contrast the liquors, provides some history and background info on the liquors and cocktails, and teaches us how to make each cocktail. We will keep you posted on when that will begin! In the meantime we love to see your comments and tweets about each month's adventure,

Booze Clues: Bourbon

Due to all the cool people going to Mexico in April, the next Booze Clues will be Thursday, March 31. Taking a look at whiskey again, specifically focusing on Bourbon.

Taste-testing will include:

• Four Rose Single Barrel (Binny's select)
• McCallan 10 yr
• Blade and Bow
• Wild Turkey
• Buffalo Trace

For cocktails we will be looking at an old classic, a twist on a mimosa, and a modern cocktail.

Old Fashioned
2 oz bourbon
1 tsp sugar
4 dashes Angostura bitters
splash club soda
garnish with maraschino cheery and orange wheel

French 95
3/4 oz bourbon
3/4 oz simple syrup
1/2 oz lemon juice
1 oz orange juice
top off with champagne

Whirling Tiger
2 oz bourbon
1 oz fiji apple juice
3/4 oz lemon juice
1/2 oz ginger syrup
garnish with apple slice

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Ok, so a little belated. Most of us have those boring old 9-5 jobs so, minus a small gathering the night of, our big celebration will be tonight. In the spirit, the host has put together a menu of green and "Irish" drinks. We will be sampling these tonight, and may or may not stick with them (some of these seem a bit questionable...). If you would like to join in, or add some fun green drinks that are a bit more than dyed beer to your menu, keep on reading!

Honeydew Martini
3 oz vodka
1/2 oz Midori
1/2 oz Triple Sec

Emerald Rain
2 oz Hypnotique
1 oz vodka
1 oz pineapple juice

Irish Flag
1/3 oz creme de menthe
1/3 oz whiskey
1/3 oz Bailey's

Grass Hopper
3/4 oz creme de menthe
3/4 oz crem de cacao
3/4 oz milk

Misty Mint
1 1/2 oz creme de menthe
1 oz white rum

Irish Coffee
1 1/1 oz Irish whiskey
6 oz coffee
3/4 oz Irish cream

Evergreen
1 oz equila
1 oz creme de menthe
1/2 oz Midori
3 oz pineapple juice

Jade
2 oz white rum
1/4 oz creme de menthe
1/2 oz Cointreau
1/2 oz lime juice

Irish Cola
1 oz Irish whiskey
1 oz Irish cream
4 oz cola

Irish Car Bomb
3/4 pint Guinness
1/2 shot Irish cream
1/2 shot Irish whiskey

And of course, lots of Irish whiskey. Ours of choice (at least for the night) is Egan's. You may or may not recall from an earlier post that our friends (the hosts for tonight, actually) are Irish and their family can trace their ancestry back to make a connection with the family who makes Egan's Irish Whiskey. Highly recommended, if you feel like importing it.


UPDATE: The questionable ones were not as bad as anticipated. Evergreen surprisingly works--tastes a bit strange, but works. The Honeydew Martini is incredibly strong, I would recommend making a smaller one. Emerald Rain needs more pineapple juice, but isn't bad. My personal favorite was the grasshopper, which tastes as the name implies it should.

Booze Clues: Gin

Hey boys & girls. Are you ready to figure out Booze Clues?

What is Booze Clues? It's like a book club, but less books.

Once a month, typically the first Tuesday, House DSG hosts an event where we get together with some friends and learn about booze. The general gist is we pick a theme (generally an alcohol or alcohol category), try some different alcohols, learn a few drink recipes using said alcohols, and then try those drinks (ideally all of them as we hover around 3, but some people pick the one that sounds most appealing or share drinks if they just want a sip).

If you would like to play along at home, I will begin posting (and back posting) our agendas. This month we are revisiting Gin.

Taste-testing will include:

• Bombay Sapphire
• Hendricks
• Beefeater
• Tanqueray 10
• Geneva's Preservation

For cocktails we will be looking at a classic martini vs. modern, the Negroni, and Tom Collins. Since recipes vary depending on your source, below are the actual ones we will be using.

Classic Martini
1 ½ oz gin
1 ½ oz sweet vermouth
orange bitters

opt: simple syrup (classic cocktails used Old Tom  gin, which was sweeter)

Modern Martini
2-3 oz gin
½-1 oz dry vermouth
*the larger the gin:vermouth ratio, the more modern

Negroni
1 oz gin
1 oz Campari
1 oz sweet vermouth
Orange twist for garnish

Tom Collins
1 oz lemon juice
½ oz simple syrup
1 1/2 oz gin
~2 oz club soda
Lemon wheel and cherry for garnish

Another new game?! A Brief Look at Scoville

Clearly, we have some catching up to do. But I am super excited about this game. I've been wanting to get a copy of Scoville for a long time, but it is on the pricier end of things (for good reason, these are quality pieces!). So when I finally buckled down and went to go purchase it, the game was sold out everywhere. Luckily, Tasty Minstrel Games soon launched a Kickstarter for an expansion and preorders for a second printing. Now, savvy shoppers were able to get the second printing and expansion for quite the deal via Kickstarter, and even though I haven't played yet, everything I've seen online has been stellar and really solidified my desire to own this game. I figured the expansion must be great too, and if not I am not out any extra money. So I jumped on board, and TMG is so awesome they shipped all the second printings in advance of the expansion. Now we will (hopefully!) get some plays in before the expansion shows up.

So what is Scoville? For starters, it's a board game for 2-6 players. Gotta love games climbing past that 4/5 player barrier. Also, it's a multi-phased game involving auctions and set collecting. Players bid for turn order each round, move their farmer through the field, collect/plant peppers, compete to be the first to have the hottest peppers, and participate in the chili cook off.

This second edition is top quality. To start off, all the peppers are actual meeples. Depending on their rank, the pepper meeples differ in height as well as color. The most coveted pepper is is a tall, glitter/pearl, clear plastic meeple. Also, the farmer meeples are super cool looking! Beyond that, the board has pepper cutouts that the meeples fit into, which I find very nice as it keeps the pieces in place and makes it less likely they will get knocked around. The board also fits together puzzle-like, another nice way to make sure the board doesn't get messed up during play. Players also have their own cardboard stands to hide their peppers and recipes behind. The printing is great, and all the pieces are sturdy.

So, what about this expansion? In the base game all players use the same farm field to plant and harvest their peppers. Labs gives each player a 3x3 field (or lab) in which they can plant and cross breed on their own. The base game also provides players with 3 special action tokens (which, if unused are worth points at the end of the game): Move 1 extra space, Double back once, Plant 1 extra pepper. With all that extra planting to do in their labs, players get a second "Plant 1 extra pepper" token. On top of that added fun, there are more pepper meeples and recipes, as well as multiplier tokens (which the second printing also includes, but for all you first printing game owners this is good news).

I can't wait to break this game out and get a few plays under our belt before the expansion shows up in a few months. Wakowski loves things spicy, so I think this is right up his alley ;)

Links to check out:
Scoville
Scoville: Labs
Tasty Minstrel Games

Brewin' USA & Adam's Apple Games

We got another new game over at House DSG. Once again, this little beauty was backed on Kickstarter. A few delays, but at only 2.5 months late that's not bad for a first time publisher. Some backers were worried by the lack of communication, but the creator updated us when he had news and kept quiet when he didn't so I didn't mind too much. He also promoted the hell out of his game during production and will be hosting a #brewmaster contest soon for players (we will be partaking!).

If you haven't realized by now, one of us, and I'm not saying who >.>  <.<, but one of us may have a small Kickstarter addiction. That same one of us might be slightly obsessed with board game youtube channels and particularly board game youtube series. So naturally, that person had to watch season 2 of Tabletop Deathmatch (which, if you haven't been following along, is a contest Cards Against Humanity hosts to find a new game they will publish). The second season seemed to be a bit tougher for competitors, as this time only 8 games were presented and all got professional quality prototypes. Brewin' USA did not win, but as top 8 out of 300 games you know it's got potential. This makes our 3rd purchase from games featured by CAH.

In Brewin' USA, players are startup breweries competing to be the first to launch 5 beers at the inception of the craft brew revolution.This is done by vying for area control. Each area also has specific beer preferences, so players will develop strategies to determine which beer to launch in which city. But be careful! You may not be the only one launching your beer in a city, and you will have to compete with all other brewers in a brew fest to determine who wins the market region.

Season 2 featured play testing as part of the contest. The original design for Brewin' USA got a lot good reviews. It was viewed as a good entry level euro, and a few judges thought it was similar to Ticket to Ride. Everyone seemed to find it easy to learn and play, and really enjoyed the amount of player interaction. The bottle caps were also generally liked and really played to the theme. Speaking of which, the theme is very strong, but most felt it was an accessible themes vs niche (although this was a debated issue), and very marketable. Most criticisms existed due to the lack of play testing at the time. Judges felt the additives seemed a little random (all incentive, no consequence...the reality that some of those additives would create gross beers). There was also the potential to get stuck on your turn because everyone needs basically the same cards, versus different cards (like in Ticket to Ride). Other than that, there were just some nit picks about balancing the card values, working with the hand size and board size, and cleaning up some mechanics (at that point it was more tactical than strategic).

Having done more play testing and tweaking, Brewin' USA moved to Kickstarter. They dropped the hidden objectives, made the map out of interchangeable tiles, and all around polished everything up. It got almost double it's goal, and the designer was able to get a to of craft breweries to join up-you will see their beers featured on the cards. And now that it is in my hands, I will say the box is stunning! Admittedly, not at all what I was expecting in terms of shape. It looks like a wine (or large beer) bottle box, and the bottom slides out sideways (there's a little hole to poke it out with). The components are also great. The cards are a nice linen texture,and the cardboard tiles are nice and sturdy. The colors look great without being blinding. And finally, it comes with real bottle caps for you to play with (currency if you will, with 5 sets of colored caps for each player). Now I'm not sure if future runs will include these or not, as the game was a hefty $45 and the publisher may want to drop price for future runs and include cardboard, wood, or plastic tokens instead. This is just my speculation though, so we shall see.

So, have we played this one yet? No. It just arrived in the mail yesterday, and it was all I could do to behave and not rip everything open at work. Hopefully soon--maybe this weekend. All the bottle caps (100+) came in individual bags, so it's going to take me a bit to get everything unwrapped ;)


Links to check out:
CAH Tabletop Deathmatch (season 2)
Ticket to Ride on BGG
Brewin' USA on BGG
Brewin' USA webpage
Adam's Apple Games

One Step Closer...

Well we're geting there--almost ready for streaming and posting videos. Tonight was our intro session to an online 5e campaign. Not even sure if the sessions from this group will be recorded and edited for youtube, or eventually streamed live, but we took the opportunity to test a few things out.

So the good news, we've got a pretty good omni-/multi-directional mic that should easily pick up all the players at our table for a board game.

The bad news, I'm not sure camstudio is going to be the best recording program. First off, I still can't get it to record mic & speakers together. I got my mic input to play through my speakers, but it would still only pick up the mic. Played w/ some settings (also disconnected my headset, working on a laptop btw w/ built in cam/mic as well), and eventually got it to record speakers only. So I moved over to the table, muted my mic, and 3 of us used the good mic mentioned above. My sound settings are still all sorts of screwed up though. Also, the camstudio window at some point disappeared, although the flashing corners indicating my screen cap field were still active. Eventually, I pulled the window up through my notification area of the taskbar. It looked like it had already stopped recording, but recording data was still showing and I was able to stop. It took quite a while to save, but eventually I got the option. An error popped up stating the audio had been saved seperately. Now, my main file won't play and appears to be corrupt. I seem to still have my temp files but they also won't play (actually maybe the audio does). I think if we can merge them it will work though...

May need to find a new program if we want to do D&D. Definitely need something that will do screen cap, but also need to set an independant field as I'm not sure if this will be a single or multi-window view yet. It would be preferable to support simultaneous audio recording from my mic and speakers though, as I/whoever is recording may not always be able to share another mic. We're not exactly looking to invest in programs right now either, which makes things tricky. Also, I'm not sure what our tableop set up will actually be. I may not need a screen cap program where I can set a specific field to record, especially if we can get our mic and my sony handycam (hey, it was free!) to sync up and provide all the audio and video we need...the question will be how many cam feeds do we need/want for a board game? Currently the debate is between just one showing the whole table (unsure of angle, either top down to show playing space only or angled to get a good view of play space plus players/player areas), multiple (probably 2) cams to show a good view of the play space and probably player areas, or one cam for the board and one on each player (face/hand/tableau depending on game).

If you know how to fix the camstudio issues, have other recording software recommendations (general, twitch/live specific, screen cap w/ simultaneous speaker &mic support, etc.), or have a specific request for the board game live streaming visual arrangements (any of the above or another), let us know in the comments! Your knowledge and opinions are always helpful.

What's Brewing?

Are any of you hobby brewers? Or professional brewers? What do you like to make? We've got some friends who brew beer, another is just starting to give a go at cider, and our very own Wakowski brews mead. Currently he has about 40 gallons sitting in the basement. So what's he got brewing?

• Traditional Honey
• Orange Blossom Honey
• Vanilla Cinnamon
• Cherry Blueberry
• Coffee Chocolate
• Earl Grey
• Grape
• Cyser (made with cider from a local farm)
• Mango (short mead)

Some old flavors he's done in the past (but may or may not do anymore in the future, despite complaints from our friends) include:

• Cherry
• Christmas Cookie (spiced & sweetened)
• Metheglin (spiced)

Kickstarter: Tiny Epic Western

With the launch of their fourth game in the series kicking off today, it seemed appropriate to talk about Gamelyn Games and their next Tiny Epic game, Tiny Epic Western.

I am a Kickstarter junkie, and have backed quite a few games, as have many of my friends. It is a dangerous move, but so far I have not been left gameless or sorely disappointed with my purchases. One way to ensure an enjoyable Kickstarter experience is to go with reliable companies. There is some debate here as to whether established publishers should be using Kickstarter, but there are many that are small companies run out of people's homes and they need to capital to produce a new game so in that regard I am not really upset with their use of the platform.

Now, Gamelyn Games is one of those small publishers. Founded by Michael Coe, who has previous publishing experience with Crash Games before amicably splitting to pursue different visions, Gamely Games hit the ground running with their Kickstarter for Tiny Epic Kingdoms. the first installment of what would become a series of small, portable, strategic games. They flew past their goal in 1 day, and ended with 19x more than they needed from 8,979 backers. From then on the series was a success, and I just can't resist backing each new installment!

For those not familiar, the Tiny Epic series is focusing on small, portable, euro-style games. Their tag line is "tiny box, epic gameplay" and that is exactly what they produce. Designer Scott Almes puts a lot of work into his games and it shows. Each game comes in a 4x6 box, about the size of a large pencil case and easily fit into a cargo pant pocket (or stocking!), but packs enough punch for even serious gamers. With an average play time of 30-60 minutes these are great games to bring out and about, or introduce new gamers to a genre. The components so far have always been of great quality, and at the speed with which they fund there are so many cool stretch goals to be had with the Kickstarter versions. These games also get produced fairly quickly n_~

Tiny Epic Western combines worker placement with poker, and very strongly encourages player interaction/conflict. Each player gets a unique character card, accumulates property, invests in stocks, and manages a posse. Every bit of this game really gets you into the theme, from a wagon wheel set-up to mini poker hands every round. There are even special bullet shaped dice! If you are mildly interested in this series, check out their Kickstarter. The game is a steal at $18.


Learn more about the publisher & series:
Gamely Games
Tiny Epic Kingdoms & Hero's Call (expansion)
Tiny Epic Defenders
Tiny Epic Galaxy
Tiny Epic Western (Kickstarter Jan 11-Feb 6, 2016)

Booze Clues: Twists on Classic Cocktails

Our first round of Booze Clues on our own! Two of our own have come up with the theme for this month and, as the drinks are all twists on classics, there will be no tastings this time.

French 75 (twist on a mimosa)
2 ounces gin -- London dry gin
1 teaspoon superfine sugar
1/2 ounce lemon juice
5 ounces Brut champagne

Bijou (twist on a whiskey sour)
1 ounce London dry gin
1 ounce sweet vermouth
1 ounce green Chartreuse
1 dash orange bitters

And since we didn't try whiskey sours back in lecture 3...

Whiskey Sour
2 ounces of bourbon
¾ ounce freshly squeezed lemon juice
¾ oz simple syrup
1 or 2 teaspoons of egg white (optional)
lemon wedge and maraschino cherry garnish

We're taking February off, due to the Super Bowl, but we'll be back hitting it hard in March.