swimmerbabe11 said:

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This happens a lot in the first few years of opening a distillery. they make gin and vodka, and then they "finish" whiskeys so that they can have some level of income before the grain to glass stuff gets ready.

Tbh, I think sometimes the marketing for those finished whiskeys is disingenuous, but everyone does it.

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Oh my! A woman that knows her booze!

aTm2004 said:

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How do you guys drink vodka, whiskey, etc on the rocks? I've tried. Multiple times. I just can't. Even tried watering it down a bit. Nope. I have to mix whiskey with coke. Now, I'll admit it's more of a splash after a few, so maybe that's the secret. Even with mixing, there's a difference to me between brands, and Woodford is my go-to. My dad is the same way and has never been an on the rocks guy. Always mixes. His go-to is TX Whiskey.

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Lot of practice. I don't like drinking the peaty scotches like Laphroaig(sp?)

IIRC Some cheap TX whiskeys aren't really whiskeys but blended vodka w/ whiskey flavors. Some might not care but I'll take Elijah Craig for cocktails or a real bourbon for sipping.

cajunaggie08 said:

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Milwaukees Best Light said:

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I am pretty sure the 1836 whiskey is a specs line. I like that much better than the TX stuff. Overall, I stay away from Texas whisky and wine. The Texas whiskeys haven't had time to age and get the flavor of the guys that have been doing it for 100 years. Maybe I will give it another shot in 5-10 years, but I don't want to pay what they are asking for green whiskey. And Texas wines are just not great. An odd varietal or very small batch might be good, but the climate and soil for producing most popular wine styles just doesn't seem to be a match. I will apply my funds to the west coast wines.

Now, Texas vodka and Texas beer are on point.

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About 5 years ago I went to some whiskey tasting even put on by one of the rodeo committees and they had a few newer distilleries there showing of their product. One of them was telling me to try their 8 year aged bourbon despite be seeing on all their promo material that they were only open for about 2 years. So this caused me to ask, "well if you're only 2 years old, how do you have an 8-year-old product." I was told they buy it from one of the large gigantic distilleries from around kentucky and then cut it some local water. So in essence, much of the Texas whiskey you buy is either not aged long at all or is not a product they have made. Now that more time has gone by since the craft distilling business took off, more of them may have properly aged whiskeys now.

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Like the NPR podcast was saying, there are a lot of folks who never plan to do anything but buy from the few industry-known distillers then market the hell out of it.

*pretend there is a joke here that wont get me banned regarding being a lady who occasionallydrinks liquor straight*

(but not vodka straight...ew)

cajunaggie08 said:

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Milwaukees Best Light said:

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I am pretty sure the 1836 whiskey is a specs line. I like that much better than the TX stuff. Overall, I stay away from Texas whisky and wine. The Texas whiskeys haven't had time to age and get the flavor of the guys that have been doing it for 100 years. Maybe I will give it another shot in 5-10 years, but I don't want to pay what they are asking for green whiskey. And Texas wines are just not great. An odd varietal or very small batch might be good, but the climate and soil for producing most popular wine styles just doesn't seem to be a match. I will apply my funds to the west coast wines.

Now, Texas vodka and Texas beer are on point.

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About 5 years ago I went to some whiskey tasting even put on by one of the rodeo committees and they had a few newer distilleries there showing of their product. One of them was telling me to try their 8 year aged bourbon despite be seeing on all their promo material that they were only open for about 2 years. So this caused me to ask, "well if you're only 2 years old, how do you have an 8-year-old product." I was told they buy it from one of the large gigantic distilleries from around kentucky and then cut it some local water. So in essence, much of the Texas whiskey you buy is either not aged long at all or is not a product they have made. Now that more time has gone by since the craft distilling business took off, more of them may have properly aged whiskeys now.

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Texas monthly a few months ago had a magazine dedicated to Texas whisky and what's going on.

Most of the new stuff is bought elsewhere and packaged here.

But there are people starting to distill and barrel here. Most agree it is a bit wild due to the weather, but you can tell by reading the labels. Good article about the movement.

~egon

Get your **** together, Huntsville.




Edit to add Source

I do recall seeing many articles predicting that the rural counties could be as much as a month behind the urban centers as far as an outbreak hitting them.

Fitch said:

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Get your **** together, Huntsville.

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Good visuals. Source for reference?

Cases over Time by County: https://dshs.texas.gov/coronavirus/additionaldata/

Charts are self-made

Thanks. I have seen the data but was excited that maybe a visual was available somewhere. Nice work though; its easier to process.

Prisons and prison employees?

My first thought as well, but I haven't kept up with the news outside of Harris / Dallas counties too much.

Keegan, are you in Houston now?

Fitch said:

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Get your **** together, Huntsville.




Edit to add Source

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Huntsville's numbers are like that because of TDCJ, who has essentially shat all over their handling of this.

The mayor of Palestine was pissed that there were a lot of COVID + inmates in one of the facilities there, so the agency moved those inmates to the Wynne Farm in Huntsville and the Scott Unit in Angleton (without disclosing the status of the inmates).

Those inmates spread it to inmates at their new facilities, as well as the employees, who in turn, left and spread it around the community.

Wynne had several cases before the new inmates.

Brazoria County's numbers are definitely inflated by some idiot(s) deciding to move Covid-positive prisoners from Palestine and Texarkana to Brazoria County units without notifying anyone. TDCJ said it is routine to transfer prisoners without notifying the county the inheriting them but that doesn't fly in the middle of a pandemic.

Apparently the ONLY way Brazoria County found out was because a reporter who had been tipped off herself tipped off the Brazoria County Judge (and Aggie) Matt Sebesta about the transfer.

Link: http://thefacts.com/article_6feee541-d623-563a-95bf-dd579162719d.html (paywall)

Quote:

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Sebesta was informed of the transfers by Keri Blakinger, a reporter for The Marshall Project. Blakinger got the initial tip from a source who provided documents, she said.

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Sure hope this BS gets more play considering it is a very sh tty thing for a state agency to do.

Shife said:

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Brazoria County's numbers are definitely inflated by some idiot(s) deciding to move Covid-positive prisoners from Palestine and Texarkana to Brazoria County units without notifying anyone. TDCJ said it is routine to transfer prisoners without notifying the county the inheriting them but that doesn't fly in the middle of a pandemic.

Apparently the ONLY way Brazoria County found out was because a reporter who had been tipped off herself tipped off the Brazoria County Judge (and Aggie) Matt Sebesta about the transfer.

Link: http://thefacts.com/article_6feee541-d623-563a-95bf-dd579162719d.html (paywall)

Quote:

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Sebesta was informed of the transfers by Keri Blakinger, a reporter for The Marshall Project. Blakinger got the initial tip from a source who provided documents, she said.

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Sure hope this BS gets more play considering it is a very sh tty thing for a state agency to do.

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Jeremy Desel is the idiot you are looking for. He is the one who ordered the movement from Palestine, and then excused his actions away to Abbott, Bonnen, and Whitmire as "SOP".

Scott and Wynne house older populations. Sending COVID positive inmates there, especially without disclosing their status, is practically criminal.

My understanding is that if Bonnen and Whitmire get their way, jobs will be lost over this, as they should be.

Milwaukees Best Light said:

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Texaggie7nine said:

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What brands do they own?

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if a bottle is in a conspicuous place, like an end cap or other prominent place, and you can't buy that product at the competition, that is a dead giveaway. Specs has been pushing this High Ridge canadian lately. Pretty sure that is one of theirs. Pretty damn good too, if you like canadian.

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I don't think it's like this in Texas, but law up here in Minnesota requires Total Wine to sell their house brands to all other stores. Many independent stores by Spirits Direct and Winery Direct items, sell them cheaper than Total, make great margins on them.

A former TV reporter working as communications director was able to order a transfer?

*and I didn't even know he wasn't with KHOU anymore.

He is considered an administrator within the agency. To get the mayor of Palestine off his back, and to avoid bad press that guy may have drawn to how the agency was handling COVID inmates, he had the Institutional
Division transfer them.

His dumb luck the infected inmates spread the disease at the new facilities, and that someone knew about the initial transfers, and tipped off the Brazoria County Judge.

He also approved continued in-cell visits from a chaplain who was sick at one of the facilities. Turns out the chaplain had the coronavirus. Oops.

Caught up with a friend for the first time since this started. He had a bottle of Redbreast 27. Definitely the best whiskey I've had, and a great way to start getting things back to normal.

Hearing from some teacher friends that SBISD is ending the school year on May 18th.

My wife is in education and has been working very hard, especially with the added stress of two young kids causing chaos around here.

I asked her today what their plan was to wind things down and my common sense and logic didn't go over too well with her. It would be nice for other districts to go ahead and wind things down.

I was able to find testing data for the state. Though I would share a plot. Even though the state daily case data isn't decreasing since we hit our "peak" in early April, the percent positive cases has decreased to sub 7%. Our testing capacity broke through a plateau.

That's great data. I wish I knew what the uptick in deaths was.

I saw they are selling growlers of their beer (that has been sitting around for a couple months) for $30. Hard pass.

It is all going to depend on the language.

The way that tweet reads, if Abbott were to open up bars tomorrow, then it gets pulled from her order.