We try hard to bring you the very best of all the beer available to us here in Baxter County, Arkansas. Our Mix – A – Six aisle has had critical acclaim and we would love everyone to know about it. You can help spread the word by clicking this link to beeradvocate.com and giving Judicious Spirits a review. Help us by helping more people find us! Thanks all in advance. No one could have better customers than we have!

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Hop Head Red, West Coast IPA and Double Stout are on their way here! They got a great review from Arkansas Beer Blog. Check it out here!

Or click the Brew Belles tab that is now at the top of the home page.

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To be awoken on Valentine’s Day with a kiss is believed to be good luck.

In Victorian times, if you got a card on Valentine’s Day, it meant bad luck. (Don’t go there…it’s not Victorian times.)

It is believed that St. Valentine was put to death on February 14th. Before dying he sent a note to his love signed “From Your Valentine”.

According to a survey, 30% of all pet owners get Valentine’s Day gifts for their pets.

Around 15% of U.S. women are believed to send themselves flowers for Valentine’s Day. (Don’t do that. That’s pathetic.)

It is estimated that of all the people who buy cards for Valentine’s Day, 85% are women. (Guys! Seriously!)

Valentine’s Day Wine Ideas:

Banfi Regale

Cherry On Top Sweet Red

Flirt California Red

Hot to Trot Red Blend

Relax Cool Red

Sinful Sangria

Sin Zin

Sweet Bitch Merlot

Temptation Zinfandel

Vertikal Riesling

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Need to give a toast? Shaking in your boots and at a loss for words? Fear no more!! We’ve compiled toasts from all over to help you out. One of these may be perfect for YOUR next party!

• May you get all of your wishes but one, so you may always have something to strive for.
• May you live as long as you want and never want as long as you live.
• Here’s to us that are here, to you that are there and to the rest of us everywhere.
• The Lord gives us our relations. Thank God we can pick our friends!
• Here’s to the wine for making you all seem more tolerable.
• There are good and wood ships, the ships that sail the sea. But the best ships are friendships and may they always be.
• Let us resolve to do the best we can with what we’ve got.
• To friends, as long as we are able, let’s lift our glasses from the table.
• Here’s to you! You may not be as wise as an owl – but you’re always a hoot!
• Wise, kind, gentle, generous, sexy…but enough about me. Here’s to you!
• You shall and you shan’t, you will and you won’t. You’re condemned if you do and damned if you don’t. So let’s drink!
• May the sunshine of comfort shine through the doom of despair.
• May the happiest days of your past be the saddest days of your future.
• Here’s to the pressures we face – for it is pressure, afterall, that turns coal into diamonds.
• May you live to learn well and learn to live well.
• Here’s to the wisdom of all who come to us for advice.
• To the “good ole days”, which we are having right now.
• Drink today and drown all sorrow, you shall perhaps not do’t tomorrow. Best while you have it, use your breath; There is no drinking after death.
• To those who know me best and for some reason still love me.
• May we be loved by those we love.
• May Dame Fortune smile upon you. But never her daughter Miss Fortune.
• Here’s to blue skies and green lights.

Christmas Toasts

• Holly and ivy hanging up and something good  in every cup!
• I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. a piocket full of money and a fridge full of beer!
• If you can’t be merry at Christmas then you can drive the rest of us hope who can.
• Pour more wine and drink beer, Christmas comes but once a year!
• A Merry Christmas this December to alot of folks I don’t remember!

New Years

• As the New Year begins let us get down on our knees and thank God we’re still on our feet!
• Cheers to the New Year and another year to get it right!
• Stir the egg nog, lift the toddy. Happy New Year everybody!!

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We just had a visit from Michael Crosby who is the Director of Sales at Rock Town Distillery in Little Rock. What A FUN guy! We learned a little more about the Rock Town Distillery and their Arkansas Small Batch, Hand Crafted Whiskey and Arkansas Lightning. All were amazingly flavorful and great on their own without being mixed with anything.

The Arkansas lightning is pot distilled by hand from Arkansas corn and wheat as is the  Arkansas Young Bourbon Whiskey. For those of you who would like to try your hand at aging your own whiskey, we have the Rock Town Distillery American Whiskey Aging Kit. The kit comes with two 750ml bottles of Arkansas Lightning and a small oak barrel for aging. This’ll make a great gift and the season is almost upon us!

The Arkansas Hickory Smoked Whiskey is pot distilled from the finest Arkansas soft red winter wheat that is smoked before distilling. believe me, this stuff is really tasty and a little like a Scotch whisky, and grown proudly in Arkansas.

The Rock Town Arkansas Young Bourbon Whiskey is aged under four years in new charred oak barrels coopered in Hot Springs. This is true Arkansas Spirit!

All these wonderful spirits including the rather smooth and sippable gin come from the first “legal” distillery in Arkansas since prohibition. You can visit the Tasting Room at Rock Town Wednesday thru Sunday 1-5pm and take a tour of the facility Wednesday thru Friday at 4pm, Sat. at 1:30 and 3:00 pm and Sunday at 1:30 pm and 3:00 pm.  Tell ‘em the chicks at Judicious say Hey!

Don’t forget to keep an  eye on this distillery as they are growing their own Rye here in Arkansas for a Rye Whiskey – we are anxiously awaiting the release!

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“Fining” is the addition to the wine of a tiny amount of some substance – usually a protein such as that found in gelatin, egg whites or milk – that binds with something in the wine that the winemaker finds objectionable and then falls to the bottom of the tank or barrel, allowing the clear wine to be racked off the fining lees. (Lees refers to deposits of dead yeast or residual yeast that falls to the bottom of the vat of wine.)

“Filration” . The most common animal ingredients used in wine making are isinglass (a very pure form of gelatin from sturgeon fish bladder), gelatine (extract from boiled cow’s or pig’s hooves and sinews), egg whites (or albumin) and caseins (a protein from milk).

Vegan wine is wine that is made using no animal-derived ingredients.  We have several.

Justin Isosceles (red blend)

Spotted Owl Mountain Cuvee (red blend)

Left Coast Pinot Noir

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Starting October 1st, our in-house specials will be posted here and on our facebook page. Stay informed and check in often.

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“Mmmmmmmmm, beer”. You just can’t help hearing Homer Simpson’s voice when you read that…

I have been thinking alot about beer. I’ve been into the pick-a-six and have found more beers that I really like. And it’s getting hot out and there is just something about hot weather, grillin’ out and an ice-cold beer. Oh, and did you know that the use of beer while grilling can reduce the production of those carcinogenic bad-things that grilling meat produces? Here’s the link to learn more at  Beeradvocate.com.  

I tend to frequent Beer Advocate .com, you know, cuz of the beer. They have tasting notes, food pairing, Beer 101, you name it. And, they also have some interesting beer terminology. Here’s some lesser-known beer terminology from the Beer Advocate website.

Session beer (noun) – Any beer that contains no higher than 5% ABV, featuring a balance between malt and hop characters (ingredients) and, typically, a clean finish- a combination of which creates a beer with higher drinkability. The purpose of a “session beer” is to allow a beer drinker to have multiple beers, within a reasonable time period or session, without overwhelming the senses or reaching inappropriate levels of intoxication.

Here are some examples of “session beer” that we have on the shelves (according to our customers):

Corona

Amstel Light

Anchor Steam

Boddington’s Pub Ale

Newcastle Brown Ale

George Killian’s Irish Red

Smithwick’s

Sam Adam’s Boston Lager

Sam Adam’s Boston Ale

Guinness Draught

Michelob Ultra

Okay, more terminology…

Bung- The stopper in a cask by which the cask is filled and emptied. The hole itself can aslo be called the bung or the bunghole.

Hang – lingering bitterness or harshness in the beer.

IBU – International Bitterness Units. A system of indicating the hop bitterness.

Light-struck – skunklike smell; from exposure to light. (Ann, this one’s for you)

Liquor – the brewer’s word for water used in the brewing process, as included in the mash, or used to sparge the grains into mash. (Not what you thought, was it?)

Publican – the owner or manager of a pub.

Winy -  Sherrylike flavor; can be caused by warm fermentation.

We’ll be learning more about beer in later blogs but in the meantime check out BeerAdvocate.com. And here’s an interesting article on BeerAdvocate.com. Is Beer Food?

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Mark your calendar for The Art Odyssey 2012. Visit with artists inside their studios as they open their doors and showcase their work. Visit the website The Art Odyssey . com

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E.V.E. here, a.k.a. the Enlightened Vino Enthusiast. I am about to partake in Pine Ridge Napa Cabernet 2008- one of only three wines we chose out of eighty possiblilities at the Glazer Distributing wine tasting. This Pine Ridge is a “treat” bottle because of the price point and would complement any special occassion. Or you could buy the Pine Ridge and create a special occassion because you bought a great bottle of wine.

Okay, enough about the wine and on to the learning portion of the show…

Have you ever been to a wine tasting? I mean a wine tasting where you are expected to buy at least some of what you taste, not the kind at your neighbor’s house? We got a chance to do that. What we learned is DO NOT attend a wine tasting unless you know what you are doing. And don’t get there late.

We got there late. We didn’t leave the store ’til late and had to drive all the way to Little Rock. By the time we got there we had missed dinner. Not a good idea since we really hadn’t eaten and it looked like we had eighty or so wines to sample. Well, we did manage to grab some hors d’ovres before diving into the wine…

So we ate some and then walked into the tasting room. This is a room of tables set up like a craft fair with the goods laid out, in this case wine, with labels and tasting notes next to each. And standing behind each is a salesperson touting their wares. I have to say, some of them were quite persistent…but it’s not like we didn’t want to taste the wine. We did. As much as we could in the barely 30 minutes we had left. We tasted and we spit. Then we tasted and swallowed and then we tasted and spit again. The “dump bucket” was a little gross. And we still haven’t figured out what these people are doing to the wine they’ve got in their mouths to make it come out all frothy. That dump bucket is something you’ll have to get used to if you plan on attending wine tastings.

Anyway, we made it through the first room and had tried some really nice wines and champagnes. We also tried some not so nice ones, too. We didn’t buy those, though.

The second room was the auction room. Each wine had a form for you to write your name or number and the amount per bottle that you were willing to spend. It was a good thing we are an outgoing sort because after speaking with a few patrons we removed our name from the one and only form it was written on.  Apparently when you won that auction you were winning and promising to purchase every single bottle of that wine that they had in the warehouse…like 80 cases worth. That is not something we wanted to commit to so soon after opening Judicious Spirits.

The trip was fun. The experience was one we’ll talk about for quite awhile. I like to think we have learned alot since then. Hopefully, you now have learned a little, too.

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