Casual Dram #15

 First tasting of the year, another Casual Dram - lots of people at this one. Sort of theme of varieties of peat, from islands to mainland, with the recognition a lot of peat comes from the same sources :)

Adelphi Ardmore 2016 7y #1051 61.1%

• N: light, coastal, floral (ish), citrus, pears
• P: high alc, pears, prickly, salt. 
• F: long, hot

7.5/10 it improved with a touch of water, but I wasn't getting a lot of subtlety in there. 

Benromach cask strength #3 2014 Vintage 60.6% - bourbon and sherry

• N: tobacco, smooth, sherry, peat
• P: warm, sherry, peat in finish, woody
• F: med, interesting

7/10 a nice quaffing dram? good stuff without being amazing.

Kilkerran 8yo cask strength sherry cask 57.4% oloroso

• N: cucumber, sherry, yeasty, gherkin
• P: aniseed, hot, peaty/salt
• F: long

6/10 yeah didn't really rock my world this one, it did split the group as a number found it their favourite.

Springbank local barley 10yo 55.5% oloroso

• N: medicinal, complex, old?, apple
• P: smooth, light, complex, nothing really distinctive?
• F: medium

7/10 continuing the slightly over rated nature of the local barley releases.

Mystery: Infrequent Flyers Bunnahabain, 

• N: vanilla, sherry, oyster sauce
• P: complex, salty, bacon, coastal
• F: long, interesting

8.5/10 the stand out for me. interesting and complex, would be happy to have this in my collection

beers of 2024 : the competition with Alec

 As any of you who have gone for a beer with me knows, there's BeerAdmin to do. Every pint. It keeps my OCD in check, I guess.

As I'm a cheap bastard, I'm using the free version of untappd, so I don't get any real year data, or your year in beer to put forward. Instead I just compare with Alec's info, and book in for a liver transplant.

Continuing good news, I'm still ahead of Alec in total number of beers, but he's pulling ahead in unique beers, even worse he's got more badges than me. 

But our favourite beers are still similar 

unsurprisingly, mine's the one with Craftwork in there. Mmm Craftwork.

Until the next update, slainte!

Last.fm listening 2024

 The now predictable end of year summary from last.fm on what I've listened to.

I haven't done a best of 2024 yet, but I might...

2024 had me listening to more music than I have since 2014, almost breaking the 20,000 tracks (last time I did that was 2013).

I don't think there's much point commenting on this. Quite predictable, although I did listen to more Hawkwind this year, the result of Record Collector having a special edition on them.

Most tracks from an album is a little silly, when the top album (Leatherbritches) is a 100 track compilation of old americana stuff. Actually most of those albums are compilations, with a number of tracks ... 

For a similar reason I haven't included the decades analysis, as my albums don't always have the release year in them (if it's a reissue, or I don't care...).

 The most listening happens on a Thursday? Well golly, I should mention that to Thurs night music night !

I appeared more dedicated to listening to stuff this year. Especially in Dec when I realised I had the chance to break 20,000. But I failed. 

If I decide to become more focussed in 2025, that would be 55 tracks a day. As of the 8th Jan, I'm slightly ahead of that at 59.3. Everything is looking good! I have yet to fail !

Coming up soon, an untappd what I have I drunk summary with comparisons to Alec, and maybe a top10 albums. Or at least 10 albums I liked in 2024. There is a whisky tasting near the end of the month, which is a maybe...

Toodles!