Howdy!
For those that love a game commonly referred to as Power Hour (although some douche has trademarked that name) we at WDS have our own home-grown Windows app designed just for you! Point the app to your music library and viola! instant minute-by-minute playlist. Pause your game for those with weak bladders or extend your playtime to the ultimate 100 minute game to join the elite Century Club.
Works on Windows XP/Vista/7, 32 and 64-bit.
Categories: Drinking Games, Games, Software Tags: Drinking Games, Minute Drinking Game, Power Hour
For most Americans, the first beverage that they enjoy each year is a bottle of cheap sparkling wine, commonly “incorrectly” referred to as Champagne. So what is sparkling wine and how do you make sure your first sip of bubbly starts your new year of drinking off right? We explore these conundrums below.
Sparkling wine is a wine that has a second fermentation process started after it has been bottled. For those of your home beer brewers out there, this process will sound familar to you. That is because many home brewing kits require you to naturally carbonate your beer. That is, rather than force CO2 to mix with the liquid you allow fermentation to take place in the bottle, pressurizing it to a point that the gas is forced to mix with the liquid itself. This is why sparkling wine has wire and a cork bearing little resemblance to that of standard wine. To permit the secondary fermentation process, the wine must be sweeter when it is bottled, as sugar is the food of the micro-organisms. This is why sparkling wines are typically sweeter than your standard wine.
So what is Champagne? Champagne is technically only sparkling wines that are from the Champagne region of France. France is very protective of their trademark and use of the term “Champagne” is even restricted by the Treaty of Versailles (end of World War I). The discovery of Champagne was the result of standard wine making. Champagne is in north France, and the cold temperatures caused the grapes to halt their ripening and the fermentation in barrels to halt before the yeast was killed by the rising alcohol level. Unknowing wine makers would simply bottle the product and let it sit through the winter. Come spring the fermentation would begin in the bottles and CO2 would build up, weaker bottles would explode while stronger bottles would result with a bubbly concoction. Many wine makers in the region, including Dom Perignon, spent much time trying to remove those bubbles.
Despite attempts to “correct” the beverage, it became popular in its bubbly “faulted” form. The Champagne market was born. Current use of the term “Champagne” to describe a sparkling wine varies from each jurisdiction. In the United States all new Wineries (after 2006) cannot use the term “Champagne” on their sparkling wines. Some wineries that obtained permission prior to 2006 can still use the term “Champagne” so long as the location (usually California) is also displayed.
So why is champagne a drink to toast with? Coronations taking place in the Champagne region were typically accompanied by local wine, i.e. Champagne. However, its use at sporting events, weddings and new years eve parties have made it a staple of any celebration.
So what to buy? It really all depends on your personal taste. If you want a authentic Champagne, you will need to look for the Champagne name, and confirm the location of the winery. If it says California, then it’s not from France, although it may actually be better than what you can get from that region for the same price. I typically go for a bottle around 10 to 20 dollars. Last year I picked up a $12 bottle of Martini & Rossi and it tasted fine to me, sweet and bubbly. I would tell you to steer clear of some of th bottle shelf bottles but frankly, I don’t drink much Champagne, and usually its not my first drink so I don’t worry much about the taste. I have had Adre before and enjoyed it but when I am purchasing the bottle I usually try to find corked bottles, rather than those with a screw top, as they make a much nicer pop sound when opened, and are a sign of better quality. While usually covered in foil, most screw tops lack the metal wire that corked bottles require.
Chill your bottle to anywhere from 40-50 degrees. The traditional method is a bucket of ice, an those made specifically for Champagne will be nice and big to accommodate the whole bottle with plenty of ice.
To open your bottle the best method is to turn the bottle about 45 degrees. You want the liquid to have a high surface area, but not pour out of the bottle when you pop the cork. This allows a lot of the bubbles to leave quickly, without creating foam and wasting your drink. Remove the wire while keeping your thumb on the cork. Once removed you can remove your thumb and gently push out the cork. You will hear a pop, and should have minimal foam. Pour into a champagne flute, or other stemware with a tall narrow bowl. Make sure to angle the glass, much like you would pouring a beer but with a greater angle. This will reduce the head created during the pour. Typically glasses are filled around 75% but depending on the mental state of you and your guests, you may want to under-fill unless you like having a sticky floor.
Cheers and a Happy New Year from the WDS!
One of my favorite components of the holiday feast are the drinks. While I grew up with wassail in recent years my preferred drink is egg nog.
Like many of you may be, I was initially hesitant to try eggnog, picturing some sort of snotty raw egg concoction mixed with rum. However, upon making some for myself, since homemade eggnog is much better than store bought, I found out it is simply delightful. If you make a cooked eggnog it is much like drinking melted frozen custard and in fact it can make a pretty mean ice cream itself. My favorite recipe is by Alton Brown, linked below. Happy nogging!
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/eggnog-recipe2/index.html
Here is the episode from Alton’s show Good Eats. It gives a great history of the drink, definitely worth watching if it is your first time making eggnog. Also an interesting look at how Bourbon is made.
Part II:
The WDS Newsletter should be starting up in early 2010 and you want to make sure you are on the list. We plan to have exclusive content not available on the site, in addition to some early releases. Click the link below to sign up.
Categories: General Tags: newsletter
I have updated the Super Power Hour app a bit. Here are the major changes and another link to download.
Super Power Hour v 1.0.3
Still on my mind: picture slideshow, m4a (AAC) support.
Download Super Power Hour v 1.0.3 here:
http://www.weekenddrinkingsociety.com/pub/SuperPowerHour.exe
MD5: 9dcd04e5e46f788191b37f1d69736496
Categories: Drinking Games, Software, Uncategorized Tags:
For anyone familiar with the popular drinking game “Power Hour” here is a little tool I whipped up that makes playing the game much easier. I have used other programs, and they seemed to fall short, so here is my first release.
Features:
Things I plan to integrate later:
Its not fully tested, but initial testing has been done in Windows 7. Hopefully I get to a Windows XP computer to test it soon.
Download:
Categories: Drinking Games, Software Tags:
