[TheForge] The hard cider is good... OT:

[Andrew Vida]

Saint Phlip wrote:
> I won't disown him. I'll just never let him near my beloved Laphroaig...

Laphoaig is the only Islay malt I like.  It's weird because the highland 
malts are very light and airy, so to speak, whereas the Islays are very 
earthy - peaty, tasting, which I don't much care for.  Oddly, Laphroaig 
is perhaps the earthiest, peatiest of them all and I like it.  Go figger.

Don't much care for malts like Ochentachen( SP??) or Lagavulin.

The 30 year Knockandu is superb, and even the Black Bowmore - though I 
like neither brand's younger varieties.

What goes on in those barrels is pretty odd, it seems.  12 year MacAllan 
is very nice.  The 18 year tastes like vomit.  Leave it in 7 more years 
and it becomes divine.  Balvenie and Oban are both really good for the 
money.  Bush Black is very nice for an Irish whiskey.

Anyhow, it's all a matter of taste.  I'm sure some of the things I love 
taste like goat pee to others.  Not that I know what goat pee tastes 
like.  I do, however, know what it smells like.  Ed will pee on me if 
I'm not careful.  Got me real good once.  I was instant shower fodder. 
And boy is he mean now.... tis' girlie season and he no longer puts up 
with any guff from me.  Two hundred pounds of mean with really nasty 
horns and a very quick neck.  Damned near deboweled me one day in 
August.  I popped him in the head with one of my 20# hand-forged digging 
bars (smithing content) hard enough to kill any human being on the 
planet, to be sure.  He didn't much like that, but it just made him want 
to kill me.  He started pawing at the earth like a bull.  That's when I 
got some religion and sailed over the fence.  Our relationship has 
been... erm.... "different" ever since.  I think he now tolerates me 
more than anything.  He sure doesn't fear me any longer.