Hard Liquor

[kempiejon]

It was present time in my house recently and several bottles of spirts were delivered, I noticed they're all higher strength than the generics on the supermarket shelves in fact I'm not sure I noticed when gins, vodkas etc slipped below 40% . Bulleit Bourbon 45%, Jim Beam Double Oaked 43%, Ableforth bathtub gin 57% ! Mountgay XO run 43%. I'm not sure if this says something about the residents or perhaps that nice present drinks are over strength and average fayre, to keep prices low, are trimming down to 37.5% to halt price rises.

When I were a lad everything was 40% or 70 proof as it was; over-proof was reserved for navy rums, some duty free or that mad brew in unmarked bottles that was bought out when you were travelling and drinking in local bars. Have I just not be paying attention and was always the case or a new trend?

[DiamondEcho]

It was present time in my house recently and several bottles of spirts were delivered, I noticed they're all higher strength than the generics on the supermarket shelves in fact I'm not sure I noticed when gins, vodkas etc slipped below 40% . Bulleit Bourbon 45%, Jim Beam Double Oaked 43%, Ableforth bathtub gin 57% ! Mountgay XO run 43%. I'm not sure if this says something about the residents or perhaps that nice present drinks are over strength and average fayre, to keep prices low, are trimming down to 37.5% to halt price rises.

When I were a lad everything was 40% or 70 proof as it was; over-proof was reserved for navy rums, some duty free or that mad brew in unmarked bottles that was bought out when you were travelling and drinking in local bars. Have I just not be paying attention and was always the case or a new trend?

Oh it was maybe 15-20 years ago now that UK retailed spirits cut down the ABV% to get under taxation thresholds levied at higher ABV%s. So the likes of Gordons that had a trademark of 'At the heart of a good cocktail' became something of a joke, as it cranked down it's ABV% well under it's original say 35%+ to a point that it was no longer even tecnically a cocktail strength spiriit, never mind a candidate to be 'the heart of one'. That's when my family switched to Beefeater, who AFAIR didn't follow that path. The glaring divergence was that if you bought it and similar abroad it was still the original ABV%.

Nowadays there is also a major premium to be had in high-end sub-brands, 40%+ spririts, always with some deep sub-story it seems and always at a premium. Lovely gifts to receive I'm sure but treat them with the respect such ABVs need or they can be very brutal IME

[UncleEbenezer]

Nowadays there is also a major premium to be had in high-end sub-brands, 40%+ spririts, always with some deep sub-story it seems and always at a premium. Lovely gifts to receive I'm sure but treat them with the respect such ABVs need or they can be very brutal IME

Are you sure that's not just the ageing process? As in, your body can't take as much abuse now as it could 15-20 years ago?

[swill453]

Oh it was maybe 15-20 years ago now that UK retailed spirits cut down the ABV% to get under taxation thresholds levied at higher ABV%s. So the likes of Gordons that had a trademark of 'At the heart of a good cocktail' became something of a joke, as it cranked down it's ABV% well under it's original say 35%+ to a point that it was no longer even tecnically a cocktail strength spiriit, never mind a candidate to be 'the heart of one'. That's when my family switched to Beefeater, who AFAIR didn't follow that path. The glaring divergence was that if you bought it and similar abroad it was still the original ABV%.

Gordons is 37.5%, I don't recall it being any lower.

Scott.

[ReformedCharacter]

Lovely gifts to receive I'm sure but treat them with the respect such ABVs need or they can be very brutal IME

Well, I don't touch the stuff anymore but when I was young and irresponsible I used to enjoy building stills. They're interesting things and the design of them can have some quite subtle effects on the finished product. According to this article about the new Macallan distillery they made precise measurements of their existing stills in order to ensure that the new ones would produce a similar product.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-44196555

We used to reckon that it was 'coming over' well when you could take a sample, dilute it 50/50 with water, tip some on the table and it would burn easily when lit with a match.

RC

[sg31]

My father was a tinker, he'd get an idea in his head and try to make it work. Many years ago he decided to make a still. It was around the time when home wine making was very popular and dad decided to go one better. Nobody else in the family was in on the project but he did have a friend who was involved.

The idea was to salvage an old pressure cooker and use that the boil the liquid, force off the alcohol, replace the vent with a 8mm copper pipe used in central heating, The copper pipe was coiled in a round tub full of cold water with ice cubes in it. The alcohol was supposed to condense in the tube and merrily drip into a receptacle. Writing now it doesn't seem a bad system but this was dad.

I understand it worked well for a while, dad was a shift worker and mum worked 9-5 so there was plenty of opportunity for dad to carry out his illegal activity before I got home from school and mum got home from work.

One day something went wrong. The pressure cooker was on the gas and working as expected but dad got distracted (tipsy maybe) and didn't notice that alcohol was no longer issuing from the condensation circuit. There was a blockage.

The first dad knew of this was when the pressure cooker exploded. I'm not sure exactly what happened but the contents of the still shot out and covered everything in the kitchen. The ceiling was dripping the walls were covered, the floor, everything.

Panic ensued, but dad wasn't beat, he hid the still in the garage, wiped the ceiling down wiped the walls, cleaned the floor, he went round the kitchen like a dose of salts (or an exploding still). He managed to do a respectable job but the walls and ceiling were still obviously wet.

Dad had an idea, he left the step ladder set up, got some sugar soap and mixed it in preparation and then went upstairs to the front bedroom and waited until he saw mum walking down the road, he shot downstairs grabbed the bucket and a cloth, climbed the step ladder and proceeded to look busy.

Mum entered and looked around the said "What's going on?"

Dad replied " I thought the kitchen was looking a bit grubby so I'm going to repaint it. I'm just wiping down first".

Mum wasn't daft but she fell for it. Dad even got brownie points for doing the decorating without being nagged.

All's well that ends well. I only found out about it a few years later when I was searching in the garage for something or other and found the still. I asked him what it was but I done 'O' Level physics so I had a good idea. It was the coiled copper tube that was the giveaway. I didn't get the story out of him there and then but it did come out over a pint or several a few weeks later.

I've no idea if the whole story is 100% true but it was something on those line because I'd seen the evidence with my own eyes.

If we have any member of Customs and Excise, or whoever is responsible for policing these things, reading these board please don't send the heavy boys round. Dad is no longer with us.

[DiamondEcho]

Gordons is 37.5%, I don't recall it being any lower.

Nor higher apparently; wiki > 'Until 1992, the ABV in the UK was 40%, but it was reduced to 37.5% to bring Gordon's gin into line with other white spirits such as white rum and vodka, and also reduce production costs (the other leading brands of gin in the UK, Beefeater gin and Bombay Sapphire, are both 40% ABV in the UK).'

[Dod101]

My father was a tinker.

I cannot help being amused at that opening comment because a tinker where I come from is usually the name for a traveller, and maybe a slightly disreputable one at that. It does not sound as though that is what the OP meant. Maybe the word is 'tinkerer', a bit like those who occasionally buy or sell in their HYP?

Dod

[DiamondEcho]

Quite Dod, the mind boggles at the thought of bands of roving HYP tinkers

[sg31]

My father was a tinker.

I cannot help being amused at that opening comment because a tinker where I come from is usually the name for a traveller, and maybe a slightly disreputable one at that. It does not sound as though that is what the OP meant. Maybe the word is 'tinkerer', a bit like those who occasionally buy or sell in their HYP?

Dod

I hold my hands up to that, of course I meant tinkerer.

My only excuse is codeine and red wine.

[UncleEbenezer]

I hold my hands up to that, of course I meant tinkerer.

My only excuse is codeine and red wine.

I, for one, presumed as much. Read past it (with a quiet chuckle) and enjoyed the anecdote.

Which is, after all, kind-of what booze does best.

[stewamax]

My only excuse is codeine and red wine.

Do you put the codeine in first then add red wine, or pour the wine and then add codeine to taste?