f13.net

I don't know how I missed this (http://www.ohmygoditburns.com/wordpress/index.php?p=4) last month, but I thought you all might be interested seeing as how most of you are raging drunks.

Holy shit, that is a great idea! Might have to give that a try...but I bet buying a better brand of vodka is cheaper than buying a bunch of Brita filters.

As a bourbon drinker I also doubt that this would do much to turn Old Crow into Maker's Mark.  With vodka you can remove impurities and still have vodka.  With bourbon you remove those impurities you're also probably removing a lot of taste from the charred barrels.

Agreed. The only reason I would do this is if I was going to use a vodka for mixing, like Bloody Marys, or something. Only a Philistine would filter bourbon!

What's probably happening here is that you're adding that BritaTM flavour to your vodka, as well as filtering out, yes, a bit of crap.

However, this is not distillation, and this does not turn low quality alcohol into high quality alcohol. It's crap into slightly less offensive crap.

You shouldn't be drinking crap in the first place. I'm not sure why people find it utterly offensive to spend an extra $10 on a bottle of liquor.

Bottom line, you're tricking yourself into thinking you're not quite as cheap as you are. That's fine I guess.

Because that $10 adds up quickly.  It's the reason I usually drink Jim Beam over better stuff like Maker's; it's at the right price point and it's good enough.

Bah, Knob Creek all the way, but make the bottle last by only drinking it for the first one or two drinks. Then you have that bottle of Jimmy sitting around for the afterglow.

Actually, truth be told, Wild Turkey is my favorite bourbon, but I won't drink it because it's a deceptive motherfucker.  I drink it like it's Beam and then pay the price with the resulting gigantic hangover.

Someone did the test with Sauza Gold tequila (http://mywebpage.netscape.com/yukichigai/OMGitburns1.html) as well.

Jesus, I've had some hellacious hangovers from Wild Turkey. A bar we used to frequent would run outrageous specials on Wild Turkey on Thanksgiving night. My friends and I (about 6 of us) blew through 3 + bottles on Thanksgiving- there were only a few other people in the bar, and they weren't drinking Turkey. Fun, but I think I shaved a few years off my life (or added a few years onto my liver).

As for favorite bourbon, I love Booker Noe's and IW Harper (the latter of which is no longer available in my area for some weird reason). Maker's Mark and Knob Creek are also up there. I have a mini bottle of Basil Hayden's that I still haven't tried. Don't like Beam, and anything below that is undrinkable without mixing it- which is a capital offense, AFAIAC. Bourbon should be consumed neat or on the rocks.

Heh you gotta read the article its fairly humourous.

Drinking copious amounts of bourbon whether it be Beam or the 'horrible crap under the sink cause we ran outa Beam' type has never given me hangovers...well ok thats a lie..never given me hangovers that I couldnt cope with.

Red wine though, crap, lets talk jackhammers on my head.

First time I ever got drunk at around 14 or so I had an older buddy of mine buy some booze for me.

Him:  "So what do you want?"

Me:  "Well, I don't like beer (remember, I was young).  How about the cheapest wine at the party store?"

Him:  "Boone's Farm it is!"

To this day I will not drink wine.  Even good wine.  Hate the stuff.  I think the nasty hangovers have to come from the sugar in wine.  You just don't get it as much from liquor, and it's always seemed to me that the higher quality the liquor the less the hangover.

Boone's is especially sugary, but the BF Sangria is decent with some slices of peach and plum in it.

If I'm going to drink Bourbon, my preference is for 10- or 12-year Old Charter. Mix it with Coke and a bit of ice, and you have luv in a glass.

Why are you mixing good quality liquor?  You might as well piss in it while you're at it.  There's a reason bars have well liquor; it's because that's the cheap shit that you toss into a glass of Coke.

That's like I've seen people mix Glenlivet.  I'm not even a scotch drinker, and that's still fucking heresy to me.

There is a very big difference between a mixed drink made with good liquor and a mixed drink made with bad liquor.  You might not be able to savor the flavor quite as thoroughly as you could drinking it straight, but it's not a complete waste, either.

Of course, YMMV based on the drink.  I wouldn't put good vodka into a Cosmo, but I wouldn't put cheap gin into a martini, either.

You are officially under suspicion.

I understand what Samwise is getting at, but like with anything, there is a line you don't cross.

As a guy who drinks a lot of whiskey, I don't mix Crown Royal, and I won't mix Jameson (other than irish car bombs).

However, a lot of whiskey mixes overpower the flavor of the booze. OTOH, in Martinis, it's about enhancing the flavor of the liquor instead of covering it up.

Bring the noise.
Cheers............

I dig Old Charter and Coke. The good stuff just makes it better.

But if I'm going cheap, Kentucky Tavern gets the job done and takes the paint off the walls.

Wild Turkey was called the Kickin' Chicken where I went to college (Roll Tide!).

I will mix Beam.  I don't like Jack all that much, and beyond that, I prefer rocks or neat for my whiskey/bourbon/scotch.

A buddy of mine tried to mix some of my Johnny Walker Blue Label with a diet coke.

I almost gutted him with my ice tongs.

Because sometimes the cheap stuff is so goddamn awful it's undrinkable--case in point, cheap gin tastes like drinking a pine tree, no matter what you dump in it.  You're pretty much forced into decent stuff, even if you're making a mixed drink.

Maybe it tastes better, but I gotta wonder what the alchohol does to the filter and how much of the filtered drink you end up with vrs dissolved filter content.

Eh, but it's my nature to be worried over nothing.

When that happens (which is a lot), Just don't say anything. K?

Edit: omg. WoW suxx0...errr....spelling.

That'd cut down on the ol' post count, but then that's prolly for the best.

What the hell is wrong with these people ...

The whole idea to "improve" cheap wodka to make it drinkable must have come from a college student (talk about cliche's, Ha!).

There is a reason it tastes like shit, it is bad for you. I have seen people drink stuff that is used to "take the paint off the walls", just for the kick of it. Never saw them again after the ambulance arrived though.

I wonder what will happen when this guys apply their theory to terpentine or stuff like that. Yummy.

Personaly, if I have to drink booze, I try to stay with the good stuff, simply because I can't afford to get totaly wasted with it.

I've heard about this before, but never really bothered to give it a shot. I have a Brita filter just sitting there, filtering water like a champ.

It looks like it's tequila and vodka filtering time. Separate filters, I imagine.

That's no fun. Sometimes you just get a hankerin' for some vodquila.

Given my irish background and love of the drink, I'll give this a shot when I get back from the holiday festivities and report back my results with a lower class vodka.

Since this is the most recent alcohol related thread I figured I'd share this here.

Use this form to sign up for Johnny Walker mailings:

http://www.appreciatethejourney.com/docs/refer/

I got an invite to a nice presentation on Johnny Walker Black about 2 months ago. You are invited into a conference room starting with appetizers and an open bar for about an hour. Then you listen to a presentation on the history and blending of Johnny Walker Black. Then you they walk you through a tasting. Starting with an initial taste of Johnny Black followed by sampling some of the single malts that go into it and ending with again tasting the Black. For a novice it was interesting to notice the change once you can actually identify some of the single malts in a blend.

And all that for the bargain price of free can't be beat...

Man, WTF is wrong with you people?  The best liquor on earth still tastes like rubbing alcohol mixed with cigar ashes.  Drink beer.

Pfft. Lightweight.

Real men drink to the point of chemical dependence.

Bring the noise.
Cheers.............

Because urine is a superior flavor to rubbing alcohol?

Ethyl alcohol is a foul substance.  Only use substances containing it for cooking, where the alcohol promptly boils off.

Alkiera

Am I a wuss for admitting I still like wine coolers?

Bruce

Quiet, fursuiter.

Listen, liquor is something people probably thought was poison until they noticed the guy they were trying to kill was having more fun than they were.  Beer, on the other hand, is an actual beverage.  It can be enjoyed with a meal, and you don't have to mix it with fruit juice and Red Bull to make it tolerable.

Plus everytime I go near hard liquor, I end up drinking it like water, and puking all over the place the next day.  I mean I'll be sitting there chugging beer merrily and rambling on in a horrible Scottish accent, when someone sadistic will claim that I must therefore drink scotch.  A couple (admittedly smallish) drinking glasses of straight scotch later, I don't know what planet I'm on.  Bastards.

Someone with that uneducated view on liquor shouldn't go about calling a furry, who likes coolers, any names.
Pot.kettle.black. And all that.
Rejoin this thread when your balls drop and your voice changes.

You mean when it changes into a burned-out throaty rasp?  By the way, that wasn't your balls dropping, that was your liver trying to escape.

I bet you're very pretty in pigtails.

Sorry, but a Vodka Tonic is much tastier than any beer except maybe guinness.

Maybe you've never had a good mixed drink or a good martini made with quality liquor?

When Big Gulp finally discovered that the wood elf he'd been cybering for the last six weeks was actually mangina, his biggest surprise of the day was the fact that he did not care.

Keep your withered whiskey-dick in your drawers, m'kay?

I have to drink beer for hours to do what 5 minutes of taking rum or vodka shots can accomplish.  Sure, it tastes like rubbing alchohol, but chase it down with something good and the misery only lasts a few seconds.

How much do you have to drink to get to that point?  None of my friends drink anything besides beer, so my journey has been one of self-discovery.  The most Vodka I've ever drank in one sitting was 22 shots,  and the only bad thing I got out of it was a headache.  What do you guys do?  Drink the whole bottle?

What's considered a normal amount to drink?

Not 22 shots.

But seriously, if you are drinking more than 5 drinks in a sitting of two to three hours, you do not need good vodka. You are a binge drinker and Mr. Bostons will suit you just fine. Also, if you are out of college and doing this routinely, you are an alcoholic. A normal social drinker drinks up to 3 drinks in an evening, two to three times a week. A regular drinker drinks more days a week, but does not exceed 4-5 as the high, and doesn't drink more than two drinks alone. Alcoholics drink everyday, drink more than 5 drinks in a sitting regularly, and drinks to excess alone.

You can use that as a guide folks.

Heh, I think anything more than 6 drinks in one night/sitting is considered "bad" by most people.  Not that they're right, but that's kind of one of the "alcohol problem" indicators, IIRC.

What if you drink less than once a month, but get ungodly hammered when you do?  :-p

That's been my recipe for success for the last 6 years.

Barring possible jail time and/or ugly chick impregnations I think the effects on your health would be minimal.

So, has anyone actually tried this little experiment?

I'll try it tonight, expect a semi-sober report in the morning with a postgame review of Auburn v. VA Tech as well.

The 22 shots was just a little experiment that seemed like a fantastic idea at the time, no doubt because of the alchohol already in my system.

Does 4-5 drinks equate to 4 to 5 shots?

I usually keep it at 8 shots, once a week.  I usually have company, but if not then I drink anyway.  I don't see why drinking alone is considered to be bad.  Sure, it's not as fun, but what's the problem?

Good questions. 4-5 shots of straight liquor does = 4-5 mixed drinks, however, 4-5 shooters (ie. mixed shots like Kamkazees) have slightly less booze involved so the percentages are different.

8 shots once a week would be defined as a binge drinker, but then again, most people that drink to get drunk are. The question is do you do this on the same day at the same time, and could you stop if you wanted to? If not then it's become a habit, and alcohol habits are not good for your emotional and pyschological health. If you found yourself having to have only one beer a day, that's no better than having to have eight shots one day a week. The motivating factors are important.

Drinking alone is bad only if you are drinking to get drunk alone. That's a bad road to start stumbling down because tolerances will play a factor eventually. It's a slippery slope you don't need.

Thanks for the advice.  I was heading down that road, but was able to put on the breaks before it became a habit.  There was only one instance in which I drank to try to escape pain:  a woman I was very close to dating suddenly eloped with her ex, and I took it very hard.  I drank a 6 pack of Newcastle and who knows how much rum, with the goal of passing out.  Turned out to be a pretty fucking stupid thing to do, as not only did I not pass out, but I couldn't sleep and felt like shit the rest of the weekend.  I'm glad it turned out that way, though.  If it had been anything other than a miserable experience, I probably would have repeated it.

Shortly after that episode, I saw somebody with the tagline, "drink to remember, not to forget", and I take it to heart.

Other factors that slowed me down were 1) I don't want to destroy my liver 2) I savor Friday nights and don't want to stop them prematurally by passing out, 3) the mundane observation that I would enjoy 24 oz of vodka a lot more and longer if I drank it over a three week period instead of a three hour period. The times I got wasted were when I was learning my limits.  Hasn't happened lately.

When my friends are over, I tend to keep my drinking at a minimum because they do tend to get wasted, and somebody needs to keep an eye on things.  I've confiscated keys several times, too.  That's why I like having drinks at home by myself from time to time.  There's no trouble to get into, and nobody to get into trouble with.

I could stop if I wanted to, but I would need a reason to want to.  I saw several reasons not to drink as much as I had been, so I cut it way down.  But it seems to work fine the way it is, now.  Anything else I should watch out for?  I'm intrigued by your last statement because I tend to only want to get drunk when I am alone, for reasons I described in the last paragraph.

Drinking to get drunk alone is usually called a "closet drinking problem". People sometimes can't tell who has one, but if you are embarrassed to discuss with people how much you drink alone and when you do it, that's a sign that you have an issue. Of course, that's not the only indicator. People that drink alone tend to have issues in other areas of life. Alcohol is a drug, don't forget that. It's going to take more to get that "high" if you drink frequently, which dents the wallet and your health.

I like how the christian is giving advice to a guy named Train Wreck. Can we rename you "On the Wagon" please?

Well I completed the Vodka Test using a Brita Water filter, a two quart funnel, and a handle of McCormick Vodka. All told the process cost slightly less than a handle of Grey Goose, which I used the small bit I had left over as a comparison Vodka. Here are the pictures.

The Test Vodka (http://www.imagedump.com/index.cgi?pick=get&tp=189372)
The Pitcher (http://www.imagedump.com/index.cgi?pick=get&tp=189376)
The High Class Comparison Vodka (http://www.imagedump.com/index.cgi?pick=get&tp=189377)
The Test Subject (Me) (http://www.imagedump.com/index.cgi?pick=get&tp=189373)

I set aside a glass of the unfiltered Vodka as a control. I then filtered the Vodka six times in the water filter. After this I tried the unfiltered, filtered, and Grey Goose vodkas straight. I rated them on odor, taste, aftertaste, and warming sensation. Here are the results.

Unfiltered: Odor was horrific, it almost knocks you over. The taste is sneaky, but the aftertaste is really bad. The warming sensation is a straight burn down your esophagus. Overall, I'd give it a 2 out 10

Grey Goose: Absolutely no odor. The taste is evident, but refined for a good vodka. However, if you hate vodka taste, it would still upset you. There is no aftertaste. There is a delaying warming sensation of about 10 seconds, and that's nice. Overall, a 9 out of 10, set back only because I don't like the original taste as much as other vodkas.

Filtered Vodka: The odor is diminished but is still evident. I'd say if the original odor was a 10, this odor would be a 3. It's down but not gone. The taste isn't as easy to find anymore, but it still sneaks up on you with a swish. I tried it chilled and it was much better. The aftertaste is almost gone altogether. The burning is also greatly decreased. Overall I'd rate this Vodka a 6 out of 10.

So after the tests, I believe that the filtering does increase the value of the Vodka by enchancing the better aspects of a mundane brand. I doubt the effect would be as great on a middle brand vodka however, since it would have less room to manuever. This filtering would not turn a Skyy into a Grey Goose. Still, it's worth the effort to save some money if you are on a drinking budget. Once past the original costs of the pitcher, replacement filters are only $27 for 6. Given that I'd compare the filtered version with a Skyy Vodka, you are saving about $8 everytime you do this on average.

EDIT: pics were wrong

Ah, I'm in the clear, then.  Just checking.

Why?  Need more people to join you?

Paelos, you are a gentleman and a scholar.  However, I will stick with the Chopin, which has been my favorite a while.  Then again, my last name ends in -ski.

What's considered good vodka?  I usually go with Petrov because it is the cheapest.  Hard to imagine vodka that doesn't taste like rubbing alchohol, so I've never been inclined to try the pricey stuff.  Is it really worth it?

Chasing it down with a mix of good lemonaid and Sierra Mist pretty much eliminates any semblance of a bad after-taste.  I used to mix the vodka in with it, but without a shot of melon liquor, it still tastes pretty bad.  I guess at 30 carbs a shot, Medori can make anything taste good.

I was at Red Square in Vegas this weekend and tried a Russian vodka called Jewel of Russia Classic.  Was most excellent. I didn't spring for the Jewel of Russia Ultra at 25$ a shot, but the Classic was quite good.

Here's one not-very-scientific ranking of reasonably priced vodkas (i.e. 20-39 a bottle, not a shot) that seems to roughly agree with my personal experience.  http://slate.msn.com/id/2106004/