Eldritch Muses on Self Medication with Alcohol

It’s a freaking miracle! I’m finally posting on our site. Sorry for the delay. I promise I’ll try to do this more often. There…apologies accepted? Good.

I know people say drinking alone is bad. Hell, we’ve said it ourselves, but I think it’s a bit too much of a generalization. There are exceptions to every “rule” as it were. I have had some singularly stressful days at work that have had me ranting and raging about people and their stupid shit…(sigh) It’s too easy to get worked up sometimes. Needless to say, days like those are bad for my mental health and general well being which is why coming home to a couple shots of strong liquor goes a long way to improving my mood. Something that gives a quick, high quality buzz while also being delicious is just the medicine I need sometimes. This is not necessarily true of everyone. Plenty of people should absolutely NOT drink while angry. Others, like myself, should not drink while upset – THAT is the wrong type of drinking alone because it just exacerbates the situation.

I guess what I’m trying to say is know what kind of drinker you are before you get started. If you know it’ll send you down a bad path, don’t do it. Find another outlet. Remember, we like to keep drinking fun and/or relaxing. However, if it’s going to make your situation better, go nuts!

…responsibly I mean. Otherwise you earn derp stars.

-Eldritch

Drunken Alchemy lives agaaaaaiiinnn!

Huzzah! Drunken Alchemy has been resurrected!

We had a bad year in 2015, but we’re back in action. /cheers

Also…

PODCAST! Yup. We finally started up the podcast. We only have a few episodes up so far, but please check them out and let us know what you think!

Now, we know the production quality isn’t that great. Honestly, we recorded this in my (Rabid’s) basement. We are hoping to improve the sound, and focus, over the course of recording each episode. We just kind of jumped into it. So far, we’re having fun and we hope that you do too.

Good Bird Doggy

Recently Eldritch received a bottle of Bird Dog‘s Blackberry Whiskey. Now, we haven’t tried a whole lot of whiskeys. There have been a couple here and there. I know I’ve had some sort of maple one before that was really good, but I can’t remember the name of it.

Anyway, Bird Dog is a good doggy. Definitely a nice one. The blackberry flavor comes through well. Also, Eldritch now believes that Blackberry Pepsi should be a thing. It does go well together.

So yeah, go try it. I’m definitely intrigued by the other flavors that they have, especially the chocolate.

Local Goodness – A Minhas Experience

Last week, Eldritch and I went to the Minhas Distillery. Fun times. We got kinda trashed…

Now, I’ve gone on their brewery tour before. Did that last year. It was fun. You get a tour of the facility and an educational history of the company and beer making. Not only that, but you get a complimentary glass and get to sample some of their beers. I’m not talking little shot glass testers either. They will fill up your damn glass. Sampling happens before and after the tour. Also, you get to take home some more beer! They give you a variety of four beers, plus a soda, and leave a space for your glass in a convenient six pack carrier. (At least that’s what I got when I went. I’m sure it varies with whatever they have in stock at the time.)

Now, all of this is $10. The tour, the samples, the extra beer to take home. Everything. $10. Damn good value if you really like beer. Personally, I’m kinda meh about beer. It’s ok once in a while, but I still prefer hard liquor.

That’s why we went to the Distillery last week. During that Brewery tour, I found out that they had opened a distillery too. It was still relatively new, and had I known about it prior to going there, I would have voted Distillery first. Oh well. C’est la booze.

Ok, so, Distillery tour. Right, it’s not much of a “tour” as a “sit at the bar and try some drinks” kind of thing. Same price though. For $10 you get to sample four mixed drinks and have two extra shots of your choice. (We got three extra. The lady was nice and let us try a tiny bit of gin. Yeah, we still don’t like gin… Tasted like a Christmas tree.) While the glass is much smaller than the one I got for the beer, it’s still a decent size. Good couple of ounces. It would make for a giant shot.

Also, if you just want to stop in and check out some of their booze without the education part, you can try the sample run for $6. You get to try 5 or 6 shots of your choice.

Now, the only problem with this non-tour was that we hadn’t eaten anything beforehand. (I know, I know, Alchemy laws weren’t followed. Oopsy.) Yeah, we were kinda buzzing after two drinks. Kinda sad, but also, woo!

Out of all the drinks (which included various boozy things like moonshine, spiced rum, and tequila.) I enjoyed the simple rum and cola mix. It was always a big hit for me back in college, and spiced rums are always good.

I did also really enjoy the Irish Cream that they had. It’s got a chocolate caramel taste to it. Super yummy.

Oh, and yes, we got a bottle to take home. It was a mojito mix. Bright green. Kinda looked like they bottled up Slimer. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’ll let you all know how it goes. Also, Eldritch grabbed their ten times distilled vodka. I’ll poke her to do a review of that. (I’ll also poke her to bring that over so I can try it too.)

Should you happen to be in southern Wisconsin, go check them out: Minhas Brewery and Minhas Distillery.

Also, should you happen to get kinda trashed like we did, there are plenty of pubs and restaurants within walking distance. We ended up at a place called Pancho and Lefty’s. Now, first off, how could you not love a place called Pancho and Lefty’s. It’s a tiny bar.

Second… Chili cheese fry burrito. Yes. They have it. It’s huge. It’s full of booze soaking goodness. Delicious. Definitely helped to sober us up for the ride back home. (Now that’s one rule we will not break. Don’t drink and drive. Ever.)

I’m sure this review could have been a bit more official like. It might have if I had written it the day or two after we went and remembered more details. As it is, it’s full of rambly bits. Oh well. It happens. A lot.

– Rabid aka the master of rambles

Party stuff!

First off, I would like to thank the Sutherland crew. They have always been welcoming, and highly encouraging of our boozy things. It’s fun to bring stuff and share new things with people. (Especially when we get to see reactions to things like the Skittles shots. People don’t understand that we don’t fuck around with those. It’s all vodka.)

This is the idea of Drunken Alchemy. Not really to get wasted, but to have fun.

Overall, it went decently well. We put in a lot more effort this year. We made a sign and had a menu. Things were baked, mixed, poured, and tested. We brought several more items this time around too.

So, to everyone who tried our shots and such… Thank you. We hope you enjoyed them. Special thanks to VB and her friends. Smiling faces and enthusiasm like that was highly appreciated and made our night. It was a pleasure to meet you.

Now for the boozy bits…

We brought one of our favorites, Hi Ho Cherry, as well as Peachy Keen in test tube shots. Those went over amazingly well. We were down to one Cherry tube within probably fifteen minutes. Kinda crazy. We already feel like next year we will fill way more of those as they were definitely a hit. (Btw, if you were wondering, Peachy Keen is 50/50 UV Peach and Peach Schnapps. Great as a shot or a martini.)

As with every year, the Skittles vodka jello shots were almost cleared out. Red seems to be a popular color, as that one “sold out” first too. Lemon/Yellow is always the last to go. (I don’t blame ya. Those are harsh…) We are still saddened by Skittles replacing the lime flavor with apple, but meh. Still works. People seemed to like them.

Also, this year we finally got to demonstrate the Sundae Body Shots. (Yay!) If you were at the party a couple of years ago, you might remember the Fried Ice Cream shots that I whipped up. I brought a huge bottle, and it was empty by the time we left. Sundaes consist of Vanilla Schnapps, and Cream Liqueur. (We prefer the Cask & Cream brand.) Fried Ice Cream just adds Rumchata to the mix. Both are tasty, but Sundaes are more fun. Not only do you have the shot, but there is chocolate sauce, whipped cream, a cherry, and sprinkles involved. It makes for a super messy but fun body shot.

We were slightly disappointed with the lack of interest in the body shots though. We had to demonstrate twice, but only because a few more people trickled over to our “bar”. That was kinda lame. However, thank you to both pairs who decided to participate in the fun. You four rule!

Now, I guess we were expecting too much from it. We had actually planned on doing a body shot relay race, but we got there a bit late. Plus, due to the lack of interest in a lot of our things, we just decided to save it for some other time. (There were prizes people. You could have won stuff.)

Actually, we had a sort of raffle-ish thing too. It was stated on our menu board, which no one seemed to read, that if you took a business card and it had a star on the back that you could win a prize. Not many people took cards. No one claimed a prize. All prizes were barware related, so… Ya’ll missed out. Sucks for you.

Eldritch also baked Strawberry Daiquiri Cupcakes and Almond Joy Pies for the party. Now, let me just say this… She is very disappointed by the lack of interest in them. She put in a LOT of work to make those, and barely anyone tried them. THEY HAD BOOZE IN THEM! Seriously people. What the fuck is wrong with you? Why would you not want a boozy cupcake? Even the frosting had booze in it. /sigh

We will definitely be slimming down the “menu” for next year. Eldritch felt like she wasted a lot of time on those baked goods. Good job people. You made her sad.

<Time for mini rant mode…>

So far a lot of people haven’t posted pictures from the party. That’s fine. Eventually people will get around to it. We didn’t even get to take any pictures of our own as we were “bartending”. What has bugged me though, is the fact that pictures I’ve seen relating to us only really focus on Eldritch…

This is a team. There are two of us. We had a sign promoting our website. People seemed to miss what we are trying to do. Leaving out credit to us both really sucks. Kinda makes me feel like the Ryan Lewis of this ship. I run the website. I post things here. Ignoring that part of Drunken Alchemy is like not trying out the cupcakes. I feel snubbed, and like my efforts were wasted. That sucks. Good job people. You made Rabid mad.

Again, I know that not many people have posted pictures from the party yet. This mini rant is based on those I’ve seen as of now. If you do happen to have pictures that include us, please add a link to the site if you post it. If you don’t credit us, then you suck and you’re just a creeper.

</end rant>

Annoyances and disappointments aside… We did have plenty of fun at the party. We hope to be able to keep doing this for future parties and get togethers. Your support and donations are appreciated. Thank you.

We have plans for various projects, and hope to get those in the works soon.

As another reminder, please look us up on Twitter.

@drunkenalchemy – Official

@Rabidbushbaby – Rabid

@EldritchAlchemy – Eldritch

 

 

La la la Bloggy Stuff

I would normally post something like this on my personal blog, but since it’s been over a month here, I thought I’d show DA some love.

I had some time off from work, which was awesome. Very nice to be away from the standard daily bullshit. However, today was the first day back. Bleh.

Last night, I started to feel the dread. The kind that starts to sap your soul, and drag you down into a horrible mood of doom and gloom. It sucks to have a job that you have to convince yourself to go to. It pays the bills. DA does not.

That is the biggest reason why we don’t post here as often as we should. Work schedules hinder time to do experiments, take pictures, and write up randomness for here.

It makes us sad alchemists. :(

In less depressing news, and what saved my day today… New music!

Last night, in an effort to counter the blah mood, I bought a bunch of new stuff. Well, new to my collection. There were some older albums in the mix, but all of it was still good. Music keeps me going at work. (And anywhere else.) Granted, I only get about 2 hours and a break worth of it at work, but hey, it’s needed. Having my own music playing means that I’m less likely to punch stupid people. (No jail time for me today!)

Fun things that I got, and that you should get too:

How is this ramble even related to DA? Well, do you like going to quiet parties and clubs? No. You don’t. If you do, seriously, leave now. You’re boring. Fuck off.

Music is a key thing at bars and clubs. You have to get the right atmosphere happening. Whether it’s low ‘just chillin’ here’ key or high ‘in your fucking face’ energy, it keeps the mood going. People tend to have more fun if there is a good song on.

On that note, I usually request Baby Got Back when I’m out at bars or clubs. I once got the entire bar at Milwaukee’s 42 Lounge to sing along to the entire song. It was awesome. (Did I mention that it was a Mad Scientist party too? Woo!!)

And now for something boozy… (Since I just remembered that I have some booze news to talk about.)

A couple of weeks ago, a minion brought over some tribute. He brought us a big (I mean BIG) bottle of Cherry Doctor, as well as something we had never tried before. It’s called Sweet Revenge.

This stuff is pretty damn tasty. It looks innocent enough in the little bottle. All pretty and pink. However, this stuff gets a sneaky bastard stamp. It ranks up there with regular vodka for strength. So be careful… Sweet, a little tart, and comes with a punch to the face.

If I try out any of the recipes on the Sweet Revenge website, I’ll try to let you know how they turned out. (Sweet Affair looks rather yummy…)

Oh, and I should mention… Eldritch has a Twitter account now!

Follow us @drunkenalchemy, @rabidbushbaby, and the new and shiny @eldritchalchem!

– Rabid

 

Guilds and Oranges

Evening folks. Er… Folk. Dude?

Hi.

Ok, so one of the biggest things we like to focus on here at Drunken Alchemy is the social side of drinking. And what’s more social?

Drinking and gaming!

As a reminder warning, there will be more gaming talk around here. Wildstar awesomeness is pending. (Open Beta is still up until Sunday if you haven’t tried it out…) Once that hits officially, I’ll be setting up a guild. Server has yet to be determined, but I’ll definitely post about it once things are up and running.

Now, DA was founded by gaming. Not sure how many times I’ll mention that, but hey, it’s important so get used to hearing me say it…. This is why I’m trying to get more gaming oriented posts here.

Gaming does good things. It brings people together. Granted, a lot of games are online nowadays, so you don’t officially get together in a physical sense, but there is still chat/voice chat involved. If you can get the right group of people together, you can still have a blast online while you sit at home alone. Plus, playing online means clothing is optional! Er… Hmm. Was that too revealing?

Ahem.

Right. Drinks. Games… Stuff that’s not embarrassing…

Ok. I’ll try to get a better list of games that we enjoy somewhere on the site. For one, content. We’re lacking it. For two, we’d like to expand the Drunken Alchemy community. Course, to meet some kind of social standard/requirement… We’re going to need more than just myself and Eldritch.

So… If you are a gamer, please comment with whatever current games you are playing. If we can join you in a drunken dungeon run or discuss the perils that drunken dice rolling have on your characters… Well, we’d love to! Hell, even if there isn’t drinking involved, gaming stories can be entertaining!

If there is enough of a draw, maybe I’ll add some forums to the site. Until then… /cheers

Aurins drink fancy like! /pinky

P.S. I’ve had oranges soaking in UV Peach for… 3? 4 weeks? They must be had this weekend! And I’ll try to post a note about how kickass they are. /halfpromise /mostlypromise

-Rabid

Wildstar

Ok folks, remember how I said that I wanted to get more gaming related stuff on here?

Wildstar Open Beta started today! Woo!!! It runs from today until May 18th. This game is damn fun. If you want to try it out without buying anything… Now is the time.

I’ve created a Drunken Alchemy guild over on the Mikros server, Exile side. If you feel like joining, send Akaeva a whisper. (That’s me! Er… My esper.)

Pods, Punch, and Playtime

Hey all. Rabid here. Got a bit of news. Wait, what? News? Actual new type things being written about? Holy shit, right?

Right. So… We’ve decided that the whole video thing will have to wait. We’ve talked about doing skits, interviews, and drunken rambling before. However, we just don’t have the time to invest in doing silly little videos for your viewing pleasure. Eventually that would be great. It’s something that we want to do, but just can’t at the moment. That makes us sad.

Instead, we invested in a mic. We are going to try out the whole podcasting thing first. We’ll see how that goes. There could be similar stuff involved, but with some minor changes.

Now, I’m not saying that we’ll have something available right away. The mic arrived last weekend, and I haven’t even hooked it up to test it out yet. It’s cute though. Eldritch said it looked like a thermal detonator. So, ya know, we’re off to a good start with that.

Ok, so I’m hoping that maybe we can start messing around with that soon. (I know, I always say that shit… But I really really mean it.)

Moving on… We had some drinks a few weeks back that we never mentioned. It had been a rather shitty week, and I grabbed a few things to make the weekend a bit more relaxing. I bought a new big bottle of UV Peach, which is fantastic by the way, and a Cran-Tangerine juice drink. It was a (very) half-assed version of Sex on the Beach. (Which happens to be one of my favorite drinks.) This was more like Sex by the Pond or something…

The combo was pretty tasty. Now, in true Alchemy fashion… We happened to look over at the booze stash, and ideas started pouring in. Literally. Eldritch decided to try it with some strawberry schnapps and cherry pucker. It turned into fruit punch soda.

No really. It seriously tasted like soda. We will have to do that mix again and actually figure out the amounts for a proper recipe type post. Definitely a sneaky bastard though. Tastes so good, and you’ll chug it in no time. Then, suddenly… BAM! /drunk

Lastly, and somewhat randomly, I’d like to talk about games. I’m sure we’ll end up with plenty of drinking games over time. (These things will be posted as we remember them…) For now though, I’m trying to get more gaming related things here. Drunken Alchemy was spawned from gaming. Most of the drinks are because of tabletop rpg silliness.

So I had a thought…

Let’s try to get a Drunken Alchemy gaming community set up.

El and I are both gamers (obviously), and we play a lot of games. I thought it would be nice to connect with others and possibly have a guild/clan/community in various games. The thing is, we need to know what you’re playing.

So please, comment here and let us know what your favorite games are. If we have them, we’ll stop by and say hi. 😀

 

Lab stuff

Obviously it’s been a while since we’ve posted… My husband getting diagnosed with cancer kind of put this on the back burner. Hell, it tossed it right off the stove… He is doing better now. (FUCK YES!!!!)

We can now resume the shittly scheduledish program.

So, what does that mean? It means that I now have time to work on stuff. You know, I should work on stuff. I need to limit the gaming a bit. A lot.

This isn’t to say that I need to just sit around drinking all day. Honestly, that’s not the point of Drunken Alchemy. The point is the social part. The experimentation. Sure, I’ll be trying drinks out. However, the point is to try new things and still be able to share them coherently with the masses. I.e. you. The one person who might be reading this.

The first project I have in mind is to take pictures of some “lab equipment”. I have a cocktail set and some new shot glasses that are amazingly cute. (You can get them at ThinkGeek)

Not only will that get me working on Alchemy related things, but the more I post here, the more I get to practice my writing. Which, obviously, needs a lot of work too…

So, once again, thank you for visiting. If you even remotely saw this post, or keep up to date with DA, then you are awesome. Really. We love you.

-Rabid