Silflay Hraka

Like most things, what was once old is new again.

Finicky fans of top-shelf bourbon are being lured by another American whiskey that hasn’t been widely consumed since Humphrey Bogart was in his prime.

Premium versions of the spicy, robust whiskey might entice sippers who are increasingly looking for more rare and expensive whiskeys, said Paul Pacult, an author and expert on wine and spirits

Like the new George Washington Rye Whiskey, for instance.

His Royal Highness, Prince Andrew, the Duke of York today joined public officials and leaders of the Scottish and American spirits industry at Historic Mount Vernon to celebrate the official dedication of the restored George Washington’s Distillery.

The Duke, who cut the ribbon at the event, was celebrating the close Scottish-U.S. ties and paying tribute to Scotland’s connection to George Washington’s distillery. He noted that it was George Washington’s Scottish farm manager, James Anderson, who convinced Washington in 1797 that distilling whiskey would be a lucrative business venture and a good use of the excess grain from the nearby gristmill. He joined other public officials including Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell in raising a toast to George Washington and splashing whiskey against the distillery’s exterior stone wall.

Nice to see Prince Andrew’s keeping busy. I’d hate to think he was bored.

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Woo-ee-oo, I sue just like Buddy Holly. Weezer v. Miller

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Cobia from a pier.

It was approximately 4 p.m. Tuesday when Ron Simon of Columbiana was fishing with a bottom rig at the end of the 696-foot pier that was built in 1958.

“While the bait rested near the bottom, the big brown fish came by and snatched it, not even thinking he was going to be in a broiler in a few hours.
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Another reason to despise Myrtle Beach.

When the seas in the Atlantic Ocean are tranquil, vessels from john boats to cabin cruisers can be found anchored on or drifting over the inshore rocky, hard-bottom areas and holes ready to load up on the afore-mentioned species – especially weakfish and whiting. Some of these bottom spots are little more than a stone’s throw from the beach itself.

When the spots are running, anglers are packed on Grand Strand piers and area estuaries, or inlets are clogged with boats. Unfortunately, each of the those species are governed by absolutely no recreational size or bag limits in South Carolina, although most are regulated by limits in other Southeastern states.

Got a taste for the bar scene and a modest amount of extra cash? Start up your own liquor line.

Besides exotic travel and an entree to clubs, Fashion Week after-parties and charity galas — which all seem to have a liquor brand as a sponsor these days — another allure of the boutique spirits business is its low start-up cost. All you have to do is find a distillery, design a bottle and start marketing, said Brian Sudano, the managing director of BMC Strategic Associates, an industry consultant. “It wouldn’t cost you more than a quarter million,” he said. “And you probably could get it up and running for less than 100 grand.”

But that doesn’t mean that creating a sustainable business is easy. In the last 20 years, Mr. Sudano said, Skyy Vodka is the only hard alcohol introduced by small-time entrepreneurs that was successful over time.

A defence of Budweiser.

Perhaps because my love of Budweiser is so genuine, I am often forced to defend it along ideological lines. I admit I do enjoy going to ludicrous establishments like the Peculiar Pub in New York or the Brickskeller in Washington and asking for a Bud. “A Budweiser?” they will ask, as if I had requested a soiled diaper. These places make a killing by selling you some ten-ounce bottle of Bolivian donkey urine for $17, and they are shocked I want a beer I can choke down.

But the disdain for Budweiser is so great throughout the culture that everyone just assumes I am rebelling against some trend or fad (and there are many in the world of beer) by staying loyal to the King. Waiters think I won’t notice a burnt steak if I order a Bud, and my more mature confreres assume I have not outgrown the frat-house aesthetic. When my own significant other learned I was writing an appreciation of America’s most popular beer, she said ruefully, “I don’t agree with what you’re doing” — as if I were defending the porn industry or writing speeches for Al Gore. Still, by far the most common reaction from non-Bud loyalists is, “What are you trying to prove?”

Pretty words, but Bud is still swill. And the whole “This is the famous Budweiser beer. We know of no brand produced by any other brewer which costs so much to brew and age. . . .” strikes me as a false advertising lawsuit waiting to happen.

In any case, I’ll never have to choke one down again, thanks to the great craft beer revolution.

While you were sleeping one off, a national crisis in drinking was averted. In 1980, good American beer was on the brink of extinction. Our most popular brands—Bud, Miller, Coors—were the laughingstocks of the world. Our brewing heritage had been all but stamped out, with hundreds of formerly thriving regional breweries gone. There were a few pockets of resistance, such as Anchor Brewing in San Francisco, but the days of decent American beer seemed to be over.

Then a backlash began. Over the past 25 years the microbrewery revolution has created a beer culture that is the envy of the world. More styles of suds are now brewed in America than in any other place. Along with the light-tasting lagers that still dominate the market, the new offerings include porters, stouts, barley wines, bocks, hefeweizens, pale ales, bitters, and Belgian-style farmhouse ales. American beers consistently win the highest proportion of awards in international competitions. Local and regional beer has re-emerged: There are more than 1,400 breweries in the United States, up from only a few dozen at the start of the 1980s. By any measure, this is an amazing achievement.
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This trend is beginning to have an effect on the big breweries. Their sales, though still prodigious, have recently declined somewhat, while craft beer continues to show healthy growth. So the big players are test-marketing dozens of new products —energy drinks, “malternatives” such as BE and Tilt, organic beers such as Wild Hop Lager, craft-like beers (often called “stealth micros”), even spirits—in order to protect their market share. Meanwhile, in its third decade, the craft beer industry is showing signs of maturing into a viable, stable segment of the business.