Anyone Drink Sake??

[Grave]

I think chest-thumping about anything one drinks is kind of silly to begin with, but beer doesn't top out at the 5 or 6% typical of most easy-drinking, popular, macro-brewed beers. Not that there's anything wrong with lower ABV drinks, but a lot of better beers seem to have higher alcohol content. What I have on hand right now ranges from as low as 9% to as high as 20% in the case of Raison D'Extra.

Seriousy, though, real men drink pure ethanol. It's true. Nothing else will suffice.

[Century]

Heh there's a lot of, not elitism, but friendly banter between drinkers of different drinks, here. Beer drinkers joke about lager drinkers, lager drinkers joke about alco-pop drinkers. One of my friends thinks that women shouldn't drink beer or lager, and thus won't associate with those that do :s

How closely associated with beer lager is isn't of any concern - there's a pretty firm distinction, at least in the minds of most drinkers if nothing else. And I'd wager that most drinkers wouldn't know the difference in the fermentation methods 8)

I don't like other types of beer, but I like lager. There's a palatable difference, and that's all that's important to me.

As for what "real men" drink... I saw a news report on alcoholoics in Russia a couple of weeks ago... Some people have been making illegal alcohol, selling it and it's been killing people. That aside, these alcoholics were saying what they usually drink... And it includes the likes of window cleaning solution. I didn't think that was even possible... :s

[Grave]

century said:

How closely associated with beer lager is isn't of any concern - there's a pretty firm distinction, at least in the minds of most drinkers if nothing else.

I have to ask, are you from the UK? Simply because I've never heard anyone who wasn't refer to "beer" and "lager" as two specific things that can be seperated from one another. It has to be a regional thing, though I wouldn't really be surprised if I encountered it happening somewhere in North America, considering the amount of "pop" vs "soda" variations, etc you see in the US and Canada.

Of course, that's an entirely different argument based on preferences. This is... well, wrong. Lagers are beers. There's no way around that. Saying you like lager but not beer is like saying you like Pepsi but you hate cola. You can see how ridiculous that sounds to someone who's never had that distinction made around them, right?

And that's not even taking into account the fact that not all lagers or all ales share anything in common at all! Seriously... compare a piss-yellow watery Coors to a decent bock or an Oktoberfest beer. They'd both be lagers, but that's about all they'd have in common. Unless, of course, you understand lager to mean boring, yellow, mildly alcoholic water. Not true, but I guess I could see why someone would think so.

Sorry. This terminology is frustrating the hell out of me. Seriously, folks, read up on beer. You might be interested, and you'll definitely learn something. Then go forth and consume, regardless of style you enjoy!

Anyway, enough with the wordplay... I'm curious now, what kind of lagers do you like?

And yeah, I have to imagine that in a country where you can purchase vodka in cans, the alcoholics have to be pretty hardcore. I mean, how else could you tell them from the normal drinkers?

And Deuce, yes, I grew up on the rural edges of a small town in PA... believe it or not, there's moonshine there, along with the hee-haw huntin' and fishin' experience that one might suspect comes along with it. Not a huge fan, but yes, it gets the job done in a hurry.

[Falcom Director of Fanservice]

Real men drink Everclear, as do the very poor men who need the most bang for their buck. A good-sized bottle will take care of you for a month.

[Century]

grave said:

century said:

How closely associated with beer lager is isn't of any concern - there's a pretty firm distinction, at least in the minds of most drinkers if nothing else.

I have to ask, are you from the UK? Simply because I've never heard anyone who wasn't refer to "beer" and "lager" as two specific things that can be seperated from one another. It has to be a regional thing, though I wouldn't really be surprised if I encountered it happening somewhere in North America, considering the amount of "pop" vs "soda" variations, etc you see in the US and Canada.

Yup. I don't know why it happens... I don't think I've met many people who really has an eclectic taste in alcohol. If they drink bitters, they don't usually drink lagers, and if they drink spirits, they don't usually touch beers at all (and by that, I mean everything "beer" means 8) ). As such, they usually know the difference.

[Majuunun]

I used to hate sake but I had it served to me incorrectly.

One must watch what temperature they serve sake at; it can drastically change the flavor for better or worse!

Finest cup I've had?
Wakatake's "Onigoroshi" Junmai Ginjo sake in a cup carved out of ice. Wow that was smooth, refreshing and left a very pleasant feeling in your mouth afterward.

[RathNatakaru]

I have never tried it.. I'm not old enough yet. I keep seeing my cousin get horriable hangovers from too much Sake.

[Ascended Mermaid]

[Fieg: I've used elixir.]

Mmmm... Sake... damn right I drink it! I personally stick with Gekkeikan Sake. However, I HATE plum wine -- it's nastier than prune juice, and that's pretty freakin' bad!

[AllenSmithee]

I like prune juice... I don't drink alcohol.

Wait, maybe it wasn't prune juice I like... Was it...? I dunno.

But yo, massive ass bump.

[Ashurei]

I once tried half a shot of rum.

And lost my dinner within 30 seconds.

I won't be trying any straight alcohol ever again, sake or otherwise. Probably won't be touching alcohol at all, really. "You can't taste the alcohol" is a lie, and everything alcoholic burns. I've yet to get drunk because I'm not willing to deal with shit taste + burn for the sake of getting all giddy. I can deprive myself of sleep and act like someone with a mental handicap just as well.

[Mutagene]

To be honest, I'm crazy enough when I'm sober. But that's not stopping me from getting smashed, because that's totally metal.

The results may be... disheartening, however. If so, I will quit drinking beer ASAP and go back to being crazy while sober. :E

[Justin]

I'm a scotch man by trade, but a nice slam of Sake is nice when eating in a Japanese restaurant.

[Ascended Mermaid]

In addition to Sake, I love Buttershots, Guinness, Budweiser on tap -- it sucks otherwise, Whiskey (and Coke), Vodka, Smirnoff, Boone's Farm, and... Pina Coladas.

One of these days, I'll have to satisfy my curiousity with Sex on the Beach, lol.

[Adol.Christin]

since I last posted here, I've had two Sake tasting events. with a lot of explanation about how sake is brewd. we tasted the inexpencive stuff you usually get at cheaper sushi places untill the bottles that cost in excess of 250 dollars per bottle.

the quality is measured in the amount of polishing the rice grain gets. that is usually the single percentage you see on a sake bottle. most of the times you probebly buy 20-30% polished. so that means 20% to 30% of the rice grain is polished away before the brewing process. the most expencive bottles (150+ dollars) is 80-85% of the rice grain polished away.

sake also isn't pasturised and so has a limited amount of time until it goes bad. usually a few months. so that means the best sake are imported by plane in cooled containers and not by ship that take months to come form Japan to Europe or the States. it is said that you can get the better sakes on the west and east coast of the USA.

Sake or Nihonshu (as they call it in Japan), you usually drink at room temperature in glasses similar to red whine glasses. not hot and not cold. warm sake is only for the cheap ones

I usually have a cheap bottle of pasturised sake in the cupboard for cooking. When I make a special Japanese dish I go out and buy an average bottle of sake.

[Lunar]

I need to start drinking more sake now that I'm 21 and I can actually choose what alcohol I get to drink at any given time

I'm more of a beer and lager fan myself but I'm always looking to expand my horizons

[Adol.Christin]

I've outgrown beer aqtually, I still like it nice and cold on a hot summer evening, but usually I prefer wines or the strong stuff, Single Malts or shochu and not the cheap stuff like Jack Daniels, Jameson or Walker.

[AllenSmithee]

I brush my teeth with a bottle of Jack.

[Lunar]

It goes great with most foods though(besides like a fancy dinner, where wine is the better option). I'll try and find shochu next time I'm out though.

[Tigershard]

If you live in the United States the quantity and quality of alcohol you have access to will differ. In Washington state, we have a lot of fantastic beer because of all the micro brewerys in the area. I never really like beer until I moved out here. Most of the stuff you see on TV and ads is crap (Budweiser, Coors, Heinaken, etc). Most of the sake you will find in common grocery stores is also fairly bad. Even in Washington, the big grocery stores haven't started carrying decent sake until recently (by decent I mean Momokawa).

We have a fantastic Japanese grocery chain here called Uwajimaya. They have cheap bottles of sake all the way to $200+ stuff. The sake ordering dude in the Bellevue store is a sake maniac. I will never try a new bottle of sake without consulting him first. I've only tried one thing that he suggested that I didn't like, and it was some strange sake/white win mix. My current favorite sake is $40 for a 1.5 litter bottle. It is the drinking sake of the female toji for that brand. I may end up meeting her next time she is in Seattle.

My problem with sake is I have trouble remembering what I have and haven't tried and how I liked it because I can't read the damn bottles.

[Adol.Christin]

I have another sake tasting event comming up in may 2011, there we'll get to taste a red and a rose sake, made from red rice. that will be something else I think.