Kilbeggan Finest: Whisk(e)y Wednesday presented by The Cove

Kilbeggan Finest Irish Whiskey

Another trip to Ireland finds us with a more traditional Irish Whiskey.  Kilbeggan Finest fared pretty well, all things considered.  While it certainly didn't blow any of the Raise a Glass hosts away, it still represented Ireland reasonably well.  James called the Kilbeggan "Irish Whiskey's bratty cousin."  It had a classic Irish nose with hints of honey and smoke in an inoffensive and fresh scent.  Fairly clean on the taste but not extremely refined, Eric described it as "a little rough around the edges on the tongue."  The Kilbeggan finished quickly with moderate spice and honeysuckle.  An easy drinker.

Kilbeggan Finest
68.75
Average Score


Whisk(e)y Wednesday is a blog post series on Bite and Booze presented by The Cove.  Check out The Cove in Baton Rouge, LA to browse their selection of over 200 whiskeys (including bourbons) and 325+ Scotch whiskys.  Whisk(e)y Wednesday is created and rated by the hosts of Raise a Glass.  Scores are marked for Nose, Taste, Finish, and Balance and Complexity using our own propriatary scoring system.  Marks are then added and averaged, leaving us with a final score out of a 100 point scale.  Our scale should be looked at on the full range of 0-100 rather than an academic range where 70 is passing and anything less is failing.  A 50 should be considered a very mediocre whisk(e)y while anything below 10 is absolute horse piss and anything above 90 is rather extraordinary.

Wasatch and Squatters Beer Dinner at Beausoleil

Mark Clevelend from the Utah Brewers Cooperative, myself, and Chef Nathan Gresham

I thoroughly enjoy when Baton Rouge restaurants do something exciting and adventurous.  This can happen in many ways.  Restaurants can expand their horizons through local ingredients, modern techniques, or attention to the most finite of details.  It can also be done, in my eyes at least, with alcohol.  I recently helped prepare a pop-up restaurant beer dinner at the Tin Roof Brewery, so this time I was excited to just show up and enjoy the fruits of somebody else's labor.  In this case, that somebody else happened to be Chef Nathan Gresham.  He combined efforts with his partner at Beausoleil, Jeffrey Conaway, to pair a five course meal with craft beer out of Utah.  The Utah Brewers Cooperative, consisting of beer from Squatters and Wasatch, provided some excellent liquid accompaniments to the cuisine of the evening.  Here's a quick recap of the evening's indulgence:    

Hors d' oeuvres: Beausoleil's house-made pork rinds and a duck pate puff pastry

The meal began with some hors d' oeuvres and a Little Slammer from Wasatch.  The Little Slammer is their golden ale that comes in a fancy little 7 oz bottle.  It certainly provided a nice palate starter and paired well with a few snacks.  We had a puff pastry filled with duck pate and some of Beausoleil's signature pork rinds, then patiently awaited our next dish.  The rest of the courses were themed to coincide with times of the day.

"Dawn" came with a blue crab corn fritter set atop an oven roasted tomato slice and peach remoulade sauce. The sweet crab and corn inside the golden brown fritter worked extremely well together.  With just the right amount of crunch and smoothness, the fritter pleased the crowds.  The dish elevated itself to the next level with the bright acidity of the tomato and the fantastic peach remoulade sauce.  The Wasatch Belgian Style White Ale paired amazingly with the crab and the hints of peach.  I'd suggest the Wasatch White Ale to anybody who enjoys that style of beer.  It is a great one.  Blue Moon can jump off a cliff and shatter on jagged rocks.

"Dawn" - Blue crab corn fritter with oven-roasted tomato, and peach remoulade

"High Noon" - Sauteed grouper, crispy sweetbreads over sunflower shoots with a coriander citrus butter

"High Noon" brought on a nice portion of grouper and some crispy sweetbreads.  The grouper was sauteed and then placed over some cooked down sunflower shoots and a coriander citrus butter.  The grouper flaked apart well and the sweetbreads had that excellent can't-quite-place-it organ taste... I love 'em!  The dish came with the Squatters IPA.  The bitter hops from the India Pale Ale worked very well with the lightness of the fish as well as the coriander citrus butter. "Dusk" arrived an opportune time.  The sun set with the most creative dish of the evening.  Chef Gresham braised a bunch of lamb shanks, pulled the meat off the bones, formed patties, breaded them in panko, and gave them a quick fry.  The lamb shank "Milanese" came with some roasted root vegetables and an Outer Darkness stout reduction.  The dish proved to be inventive and downright delicious.  Each bite supplied a myriad of textures and tastes.  I'd order this dish again and again.  It came paired with the Squatters Outer Darkness Stout that the reduction was made from.  

"Dusk" - Lamb shank Milanese, roasted root vegetables with an Outer Darkness Stout Reduction

I figured we'd get something dark for the "midnight" course.  The bacon and chocolate terrine with cocoa espresso beans and pistachio creme anglaise certainly fit the bill.  The chocolate had an incredibly smooth and velvety texture until you hit the crunchy bacon scattered throughout.  The pistachios and espresso beans added some more layers as well.  While the dish kind of laid flat on the plate, it still packed some excellent sweetness that rounded out the night along with the Wasatch Devastator Double Bock.  While I think the stout and the double bock may have paired better had they been switched around, they are still both certainly excellent beers!  I especially like the Outer Darkness.  I need to have a few more of those.

"Midnight" - Bacon and chocolate terrine with cocoa espresso beans and a pistachio creme anglaise

I'd like to congratulate Nathan and Jeff and everyone at Beausoleil for an outstanding beer dinner.  Thanks to Natalie from International Wine and Spirits and Mark Cleveland from the Utah Brewers Cooperative for doing their part on the beer side as well.  The event brought in a great crowd and everybody left extremely pleased.  I'll be looking for Beausoleil to put on more dinners like this in the future... perhaps even some whiskey dinners or some other breweries that don't get much attention around here.  That'd be great!

Third Row Crawfish Boil 2012

I'm not sure how many consecutive years we've been doing the Third Row Crawfish Boil, but it has to be somewhere around a dozen.  This past year brought us 450 pounds of Louisiana crawfish, a couple kegs including one of Tin Roof Blonde Ale, and plenty of people to enjoy it all.  Third Row is our old tailgating krewe from LSU and we definitely still know how to throw a party.  Even though the festivities on campus are a few years behind us, I'm very glad that we've kept up with the annual crawfish boil.  It truly is an event I look forward to every year.  Travis and Eusebio continue to impress with their crawfish boiling skills as they come up with some magnificently spicy and flavorful mudbugs.  Thanks to everyone who attending this year.  I hope to see you all again sometime around April/May next year!

450 pounds of Louisiana crawfish awaiting consumption

Tin Roof Bandit Blonde Ale... a great beer for a crawfish boil! 

Redbreast 12: Whisk(e)y Wednesday presented by The Cove

Redbreast 12 Irish Whiskey

Taking our first Whisk(e)y Wednesday visit to the Republic of Ireland, the Raise a Glass crew sampled the Rebreast Pure Pot Still 12 Year Irish Whiskey.  The nose had hints of dried fruit with a honey sweetness and a slight burn.  Upon first taste were notes of toasted starches, possibly even like a baked potato from an open fire.  The whiskey remained slightly sweet and toasted throughout.  It finished with a mild spice and fairly clean.  Coming purely from a pot still, the Redbreast 12 presented itself as a fine whiskey, though not a quintessential Irish whiskey flavor.

Redbreast 12 Year
77.25
Average Score

Whisk(e)y Wednesday is a blog post series on Bite and Booze presented by The Cove.  Check out The Cove in Baton Rouge, LA to browse their selection of over 200 whiskeys (including bourbons) and 325+ Scotch whiskys.  Whisk(e)y Wednesday is created and rated by the hosts of Raise a Glass.  Scores are marked for Nose, Taste, Finish, and Balance and Complexity using our own propriatary scoring system.  Marks are then added and averaged, leaving us with a final score out of a 100 point scale.  Our scale should be looked at on the full range of 0-100 rather than an academic range where 70 is passing and anything less is failing.  A 50 should be considered a very mediocre whisk(e)y while anything below 10 is absolute horse piss and anything above 90 is rather extraordinary.

Raise a Glass with the Beer Olympics!

Our Selection of Brews in the "Stouts" Competition at the Beer Olympics

Raise a Glass, the weekly radio program and podcast that I host along with Eric Ducote from BR Beer Scene as well as Jeremy Spikes and James Lawson from Whisky Bomb, has begun Season 4 of our show.  Fortunately for us, this season is all about BEER!  Specifically, we're exploring beer from all over the world in a series called the "Beer Olympics."  All summer long, leading up to the Summer Olympic Games in London, our crew will be in person at The Cove recording episodes of Raise a Glass that match up beers from around the world.  Each competition is categorized either by the style of beer or some other random fact, then tasted against each other on the air until we reveal our Bronze, Silver, and Gold medalists for that category.  At the end of the summer we'll have tasted nearly 200 beers from probably around 25 different countries and we'll have a medal ceremony complete the the final medal count. We might even take all of our gold medalists back for one more test drive to determine the double gold winner!

Beers from the "Saison/Farmhouse Ale" Olympic Event

Make sure to stay up to date with the medal count on the Raise a Glass page.


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You can listen to the show every Friday at 6 PM and replays every Sunday at 4 PM on WHYR 96.9 FM LP Baton Rouge Community Radio.  It is also available streaming through the Raise a Glass page or on iTunes.

And since we're recording the episodes at The Cove, you can come meet us there and sample beers with us almost every Wednesday this summer at 6 PM (We're not there the first Wednesday of June or July 4th, but otherwise it should be every week)!  We can always use some company and help drinking beer!