Synonymous to "dogs bollocks"...
speaking of which, i must declare that i find Stolichnaya's to be quite the preeminent and quintessential choice amongst all vodkas.
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I was curious, first hit on google:
What's the meaning of the phrase 'Dog's bollocks'?
Excellent - the absolute apex.
In other contexts the word bollocks (meaning testicles) has a negative connotation; for example:
- 'that's bollocks' -> 'that's rubbish'
- 'give him a bollocking' -> 'chastise him'
- 'He dropped a bollock' -> 'he made a mistake'
The reasons why the 'dog's bollocks' are considered to be the top of the tree aren't clear. It may be linked to an associated phrase - 'stand out like a dog's balls', that is, 'outstanding', although I can find no evidence to indicate that phrase as being earlier than the 'dog's bollocks'. Dogs do enjoy licking their genitals of course but again, there's no evidence that links the coining of this phrase to that. It is most likely that this is just a nonsense phrase, coined because it sounds good. In that, it would join a long list of earlier nonsense phrases, e.g. 'the cat's pyjamas', 'the bee's knees' etc.
It is a phrase that is similar in meaning to the above phrases although much less polite as you might expect from any phrase that refers to genitalia.
Its origins are from the printing trade, along with many other phrases such as out of sorts, mind your p's and q's, upper and lower case, hot off the press and stereotype, along with a few others.
"Ah, Sir Rodney, i must congratulate you, a perfectly splendid charity ball"
"Thank you"
"Now tell me, what is it all in aid of?"
"S-F-A"
"oh come, it must be in aid of something"
"S-F-A, Splendid French Aristocrats"
"Oh, of course, a very worthy cause, and you've done them proud tonight, but then you've always had magnificent balls, and i wouldn't miss one of them!"
http://www.snookerbacker.com/wp-cont.../Carry-On1.jpg
Tea is my constant alternative to everything else. Since discovering that Yorkshire Tea is available in 1400 bag sacks I have drunk little else.
Just made my first mead!!
0-13.8% in 7 days, and tastes pretty good too ;)
Vin chaud (hot wine)
a recipe here
Italian wines. Amarone and Brunello di Montalcino are my favorites but i enjoy a lot of them, including the not-so-famous ones.
Other than that, single malt Scotch. I’ve always liked the peaty ones, especially Lagavullin.
Yes, i understand the unanimous consensus is that meads really benefit from maturing; of the 30 ish litres i made of this first batch i still have c.20 litres, which i intend to bottle at least half of as gifts for friends and family.
The next batch is already fermenting ;)
Probably my primary alternative to tea is coffee in the morning and spring water the rest of the day. I particularly like the high pH waters from Iceland. I also drink tea with milk only, and stick to pedestrian stuff like Typhoo and PG Tips. Typhoo has gotten hard to find, though; I have to order it online usually. (I'm in the States.)
I also enjoy drinking alcohol, although I don't like to get drunk. Usually I prefer a brown English ale or Porter (currently favoring the Old Speckled Hen and offerings from Samuel Smith), but in hot weather a German lager goes down nicely. I also like some Mexican and some Belgian beers. There are almost no American beers that I can stand to drink. I don't know why the US has the worst beer in the world (with Canada close behind). I spit contemptuously on the big brands -- Budweiser, Coors, etc. -- and I can't stand 98% of the craft beers or "microbrews" as they like to be called; they are almost inevitably horribly over-hopped to the point that they taste more like grapefruit juice than beer. I used to like Rolling Rock when it was brewed in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, but they got bought out and moved to St. Louis, and now taste like cheap Budweiser. Shiner's Bock Ale, brewed in Texas by the descendants of German immigrants, is the only American beer I don't mind drinking now, except for Rogue Hazelnut Brown Nectar, a microwbrewed fairly malty dark ale flavored with hazelnut that's brewed in Oregon and really hard to find outside of Oregon.
https://i.imgur.com/Q7ryvLU.jpg
A number of the ales and beers I enjoy are no longer available in this country. Instead, what I've found more and more often is some awful swill with the same name, bottle, label and just about everything else as the original, except that somewhere in small print it says that the beer was brewed in St. Louis or Chicago. This has happened to Becks, and Bass and most recently to Newcastle Brown. It also happened to Red Stripe for a while, but that must not have worked out very well because they moved back to Jamaica and their beer is once again drinkable.
None of these US versions taste anything like the real stuff. The US version of Newcastle Brown doesn't even attempt to pretend it's the same brew -- they advertise it as teaching an old dog new tricks, and changed the art on the labels and packaging for the US market. Its dominant note is a hoppiness that completely overpowers the maltiness, which is insane. It tastes NOTHING like Newcastle Brown. Usually, though, the change is done surreptitiously. The sneakiest example I'm aware of is when Bass started outsourcing their brewing. I had just bought a case, and it had "Imported" emblazoned across it. But when I got it home and opened a bottle and took a sip, it tasted so foul that I thought it had gone off and I literally spat it into the sink. Then I noticed that the country it was imported from was Canada. And now I learn it had disappeared from the UK for a while, and then last year was reintroduced. I wonder if it still tastes the same, especially since the new UK Bass is being brewed a hundred miles north of Burton-upon-Trent. I mean, pale ale makers elsewhere "Burtonise" their water to try to match the mineral profile of the water at Burton-upon-Trent, but Bass is using other water because it's more profitable, they think? What folly!https://i.imgur.com/Ee1xBC1.jpg
I don't like most wines, although I do enjoy Zinfandels and Reislings. I like whiskey, my go-to being Jack Daniels Tennessee sippin' whiskey. I also like bourbon, rye, and some single-malt scotches, although the really peaty ones like Laphroaig are a bit much for me. Enjoy a wee drop o' Jamieson's now and then too, to be shore.
Excellent.
I've made a few batches that were pretty much good to go after fermentation and didn't get much better after the 3 month mark.
There is a group out of Austin, Texas that does a lower ABV carbonated mead. It's basically the abv of beer, but with honey. It can taste a little thin, but is actually quite refreshing. Might have to give something like that a go and see how it turns out.
I'm thinking of trying to make a 5% ish mead - but not sure which yeast i would use...
So...
a colleague of mine who did the unthinkable and actually kept a sample bottle of one of my first meads for over a year unopened, has recently reported back that finally after my repeated insistence he has relented and one evening opened up said bottle to sharing and apparently impressed company :)
I do like a Laphroaig, or a nice Gin & tonic with bombay sapphire on occasion.
Each to his own. I've been working my way through Laphroaig's production since 1968. Hebridean nectar!
OK SIR, how about a shot of Lagavulin. Or is it just that you don’t like Islays?
I started drinking Lagavulin when i was in Japan. One cold November night i was in a little o-den place (o-den is a kind of fish stew). The proprietor asked if i wanted something to drink with my bowl of o-den. I asked him what went well with it, and he suggested Lagavulin. I didn’t believe him, but he was right. Since then Lagavulin has been one of my fall/winter favorites.