So I’m starting to get old enough that my friends and I are past the Arbor Mist and Budweiser stage, and I was thinking of starting to slowly build a small bar for mixed drinks and sipping liquors. What do you think is essential (and what would you do with it?) What needs to be “Top Shelf” (and what brands are those), and what can be cheap? We’re not talking frat parties, but young adults (30somethings) having a mellow evening on the patio.
For bourbon, you may want to get some Wild Turkey or Maker’s Mark. Both are pretty good, and an upgrade from Jack Daniel’s…but you need to keep some Jack around, too, of course.
For scotch, I’m partial to Johnny Walker, but there’s better stuff out there.
Bourbon: I like Jim Beam Black. Wild Turkey and Makers Mark are a must.
Gin: Bombay Saphire and Hendricks
Vodka: Stolichnaya
Whiskey: I’m fond of Macallan 10 or 12 year old for a malt. I don’t really drink blended whiskey but Famous Grouse is a reasonable cheap blend as is Johnny Walker Black.
What makes Wild Turkey better than Jack Daniels? I am not tryin to start an arguement, it is just that I don’t know anything about bourbon and Jack Daniels is the only one I know. I am pretty much usless when it comes to hard liquor 
WhyNot
I could never drink the hard stuff straight so I suppose mixers like cokes and orange juice are good to have.
Maybe have a small fridge for beer and smirnoff ice, just in case some people don’t want mixed drinks.
Wild Turkey is 101 proof, vs 90 proof for Jack Black…or at least it used to be that way when I was more of a drinker. Also, I think Jack is technically not a bourbon…not sure exactly why.
Thanks for the suggestions. Bourbon, gin, vodka, whiskey, scotch…is that the basic set up?
My husband’s an uninformed Single Malt Scotch snob. We have a bottle of Macallan Cask Strength (I don’t know how old) that he distributes by the thimbleful to other uninformed Single Malt snob wannabees. I have to take his word for it that it’s good - smells and tastes like floor stripper to me! In fact the “better” the scotch or whiskey, the less I like it. :smack:
Coke and OJ are good suggestions, too. What about thinks like sour mix, triple sec, those bottles that look like they might glow in the dark…needed or frills?
I’d also add a good tequila to thae list. I don’t have any specific suggestions, though. But if you or your friends like Margaritas, you’d also need to stock some Triple Sec liqueur.
This seems to indicate to me that you don’t really drink hard liqour. So don’t go out and buy a whole bunch of liquor just for the sake of having a bar (unless you’re throwing a party in the near future).
If you’re buying alcohol for just you and a few friends, then buy what you like. If you don’t know what you like, then buy a small bottle of some of the suggestions given above and taste it. If you like it, then buy more. Over time your bar will grow, and you won’t waste much money. Nothing worse than buying a liter of Bombay gin only to find out no one likes gin (trust me: i’ve had liters of tanqueray hanging around for years).
Yeah, I do throw a lot of parties, and Girly Wine is starting to give us headaches.
We’re probably not (with the exception of some of the guys) going to do a lot of “on the rocks” or “straight”, we’re more likely to do Margaritas, Daquaris (sp?) whiskey sours, long island iced teas, rum ‘n’ coke, those sorts of things.
One of my friends is a Sample Lady for wines and malt beverages, so she always brings something like that. I just want to start building a Grown Up (but not geriatric) Bar. Some of my friends have been bartenders, so they can actually mix the stuff, but I want to have it here for them to work with, as well as learn how to make a few drinks myself.
Hmmm…either I disremembered, or they changed it. The bottle of Jack I have now is only 80 proof…
Cuervo.
And some limes.
And salt.
There’s a party.
I can’t recommend The Playboy Bartender’s Guide enough. It’s a great resource for setting up your own bar, as well as for parties and special occasions. It’s broken up into chapters based on alcohol and drink styles, it has suggestions on how to lay out parties like lua… Loua… Luahau - those hawaiian parties and most importantly the entire beginning of the book is dedicated to the basics you’ll need for setting up the home bar. And there’s a bucketload and a half of recipes, so if you’re wanting to be experimental you just open to a random page and start mixing. You’re bound to come up with something great.
I <heart> my playboy book. It’s got a permanent residence in our loo so I can read it and imagine the day I have enough time, money and friends to bother setting up a real, honest bar.
your basic bar rail is gin, rum, rye, vodka.
mixes are o.j, cran, bar lime, coke, gingerale, 7up, tonic & soda water. (to upgrade, add pineapple, grapefruit & clamato / tomato juices. oh, and milk.)
back rail should have at least bourbon, scotch, tequila, triple sec, vermouth and liquers like creme de menthe, creme de cacao, creme de banane & blue curacao. if you wanna get fancy, some schnapps (peppermint, peach, butter ripple) grand marnier, kahlua, baileys, southern comfort, amaretto, and some top shelf versions of your rail, bourbon & scotch. to go all out, don’t forget the cognac, flavoured vodkas, or shooters like jagermeister, goldschlager, sambuca & sour apple / sour raz. but really, if you go this far, you might as well install a pop gun, and apply for a liquor licence.
First time I’ve ever done his…
Sake; Cold and Hot; Filtered and not; Infused and not.
My dad drinks 100 proof Old Fitzgerald bourbon. Swears by it.
Then get some decent wines, and not the Vin de Table from the cheap end of the supermarket shelves. Chuck the Hock and Liebfraumilch.
In terms of standards of French wines, get a minimum of Appellation Controllé, if not Premier Cru.
Heh. You must have been spying on my vacation to Puerto Vallarta with my two girlfriends. God, that was fun. And humiliating. 
Sweet. I will pick that up. And probably cover it with brown paper so my Crunchy Granola Feminist friends don’t give me grief over the publisher.
bob_loblaw: Exactly the sort of information I was looking for. Thanks so much.
Euthanasiast: Awesome, now I have some names to put with bob_loblaw’s list! Perfect. Thanks.
cerberus: sake’s a little beyond my realm of experience, but I’m willing to try it. Isn’t it best fresh, though? So it shouldn’t be something that I pick up and keep on the shelf for months before I drink it, right?
[wistful]Oh, that was my grandpa’s drink. The smell of that and pipe tobacco makes me feel like a 6 year old again…
Good suggestion, and I’m starting to learn about wines. I don’t think the two (wines and liquor) are mutually exclusive in terms of having on hand. The thing about the liquor is that I can keep it around more or less indefinitely, which means I can buy one bottle a week or month and not bust our very meager budget. (Not to mention that there’s more buzz per buck in moderately priced liquor vs. good wine.) Not having a wine cellar or the money to buy a wine chest means I won’t waste the money on a good bottle of wine that sits in our unairconditioned apartment for more than a day or two.
You can get a pretty decent bottle of wine for $10 or so–nothing that’ll blow away the wine snobs, but something that you can drink. Check out Kendall-Jackson, Yellow Tail and Jacob’s Creek for starters.
Sake is something you’ll probably either love or hate, so don’t spend too much on your first bottle. I’ve found what claims to be very good sake for about $10/bottle, but I really don’t know how it stacks up against others.
Now for the hard stuff. I’m not familiar with very many liqueurs, but the various Creme de Somethingorothers make good mixers and tend to be cheap, so you can experiment. The six basic types of liquor in the US are vodka, rum, gin, tequila, whisk(e)y and brandy. There are also the various anise-flavored liquors from elsewhere–aguardiente, ouzo, arak, pastis, etc.–and you may or may not want to have one of those. I don’t.
If you’re mixing your vodka, don’t buy the really expensive stuff, but don’t buy the really cheap stuff either. Stolichnaya is a good middle of the road vodka, and their flavored varieties are pretty decent. Smirnoff and Absolut are two others to consider.
Bacardi is the standard white rum, but Mount Gay and Cruzan are also excellent. Be sure to try gold and dark rums too–Gosling’s Black Seal makes an excellent rum and coke.
Bombay Sapphire is the standard nice gin, and worth the price. I’m fond of Hendrick’s, but unless you know your gins pretty well, you probably won’t appreciate why it’s so much more expensive. Tanqueray’s another one worth checking out. Don’t buy cheap gin.
Cuervo Gold is the standard mixing tequila, and is fine for margaritas and other mixed drinks. 1800 (not Cuervo 1800) is better and won’t break the bank, and if you’ve really got some money to burn, try Patron or Herradura.
There are about four different big divisions of whiskey. I don’t like bourbon, so I can’t recommend anything (although I’m told that Van Winkle’s Special Reserve is excellent). See if you can find a bottle of Old Overholt–it’s an excellent rye whiskey and should be available for really cheap. Irish whiskey is a gentler introduction to good whiskey than single malt scotch–try a 12 year-old Jameson’s sometime. Johnnie Walker Black is probably the best scotch for mixing (Red is fine if you’re looking for something cheaper). Glenlivet and Glenfiddich are the two big single malts, but if your husband is happy with the Macallan, there’s no need to switch.
Brandy is another big category. Basically any distilled liquor made from fruit rather than grain is a brandy. Unless you’re feeling particularly adventurous, I recommend you stick with cognac, and I recommend Ansac V.S.O.P to start–as far as I can tell, the only difference between it and Courvoisier is that the latter is twice as expensive. If you ever see a bottle of grappa, leave it alone.
Do not, do not, do not stock a variety of good single-malts in your bar! If you do, your husband will kill you when you serve the last of the Bowmore 17 to somebody else!
You need to figure out what your group (including yourselves) like to drink and stock accordingly. There is no need for rum if all of you are vodka drinkers, for example.
Looking in our liquor cabinet, for example, I see:
Vodka - Ketel One, Three Olives, Stoli Honey
Gin - Gordon’s
Rum - Mount Gay Eclipse
Rye - Jim Beam Rye
A bottle each of armagnac, Chambord, sweet and dry vermouth, Marsala, Mediera, various mixers
Bourbon - 1.75 of Maker’s Mark, fifths of Eagle Rare, Russell’s Reserve, Old Grand-dad (Bonded), Old Weller Antique, Weller 12, Evan Williams Single-Barrel, Old Fitzgerald Birthday, Kentucky Spirit
Scotch - 17 diffenent single-malts in varying stages of consumption, one bottle of Dewar’s 12 for guests
About 30 miniatures of varying types. We not only collect them, but we keep them on hand in case someone wants something we don’t stock. At least they’ll get one drink of it.