Drunken Alchemy

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.

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

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