It can. I used to drink copious amounts of caffeine-laden cola every day and when I switched to caffeine-free on doctor’s orders I had a headache every day for two months. Took a steroid injection to finally conquer it.
As for what I’m drinking, I recently became reacquainted with a bottle of Macallan 12 single malt scotch that had been hiding for its life in the back row of my liquor stash. I’ve been hitting it a little every night since and it looks like tonight is going to be the night when I polish off the last of it. Mmmm…good stuff!
Only now I find myself thinking what if your headaches are coincidental and caused by something else and my post keeps you from checking into it and finding out. If they started right on the heels of your giving up caffeine that is likely the cause, but it wouldn’t hurt to get them checked out anyway.
I think I may be the only person on the planet who drinks Irish Mist. I’ve never met anyone else who has even tried it, and fewer stores are carrying it every year.
Last night in the pub it was Fuller’s “London Pride” and a very lovely pint it was too. Tonight I might indulge in a glass of red wine as I’m out with friends after work, but my preferred drink is vodka. There’s a bottle of Russian Standard at home, apparently with my name on it.
Last night I got to enjoy some Magic Hat #9 for the first time in a dog’s age…they’ve just recently started selling it in Wisco.
Tonight will be the first tasting of a lovely cider I put up last fall. Hand-pressed organic Stanton and Braeburn Apples, Wyeast American Ale Yeast and a hint of nutmeg, cinnamon and raw honey to round it out. Some bottled for carbonation, the rest haning out in a 3 gal. Carboy for mulling.
Mmmm.
Speaking of brewing…I’ve got a fresh cider in Primary right now that I was thinking of taking very young (this fall) and stopping fermentation with sorbate to preserve a super sweet apple taste and minimize tartness. Anyone ever done this? Silenus? Ferret Herder?
Will that fully stop the fermentation process? I made some natrually carbonated Sarsaparilla in college that turned into little bottled bombs when the yeast continued to raise the pressure.
Yes, it should. Or at least has in the past when I wanted to stop fermentation at a specific gravity for beers. I don’t see why it wouldn’t work for cider. The only difference is that the primary fermentable sugar is fructose not maltose, and I am using an ale yeast.
Sorry, I’ve never brewed cider. I did do a carbonated mead that I was trying to leave some residual sweetness in, and didn’t pick the proper yeast to die at a certain level of alcohol, and didn’t use anything to kill the yeast because I was bottle-carbonating. I stored the bottles in my cool basement, but one summer got so hot that we had a couple bottle bombs go off. The rest of the bottles were carefully (with thick towels as shielding) “burped” and then hustled into the fridge. In retrospect I would choose the yeast more carefully, and/or do a still mead rather than carbonated.
One excellent homebrewer is Jamil Zainasheff; he’s got a Brewing Network radio show/podcast called The Jamil Show, as well as one with noted homebrewer John Palmer called Brew Strong (very technical). In one of his older shows on various brew styles, he did a special episode on cider. I don’t know if this will cover what you want, but it should be a good starting point! (Warning, may be NSFW - they get a little vulgar at times but are such a superb resource.)
I like whiskey that bites back. My usual when I could get it was Sam Thompson Rye but now its Old Crow or Wild Turkey. And if I get a little tipsy the wife just says “Picking your teeth with the beak again?”
Ah, yes! I’m a bourbon fan myself. I’m not lined with titanium anymore, so I no longer have WT101 and bacon for breakfast, but Beam Black or Elijah Craig are fine by me.
Evan Williams is my bourbon-of-choice. Cheap, and it gets the job done.
I’m thinking of trying my hand at brewing beer and making wine. We just visited some friends, and he used to make wine “back in the day” and he shared with us the last bottle he ever made. Dandelion. Fourteen years old. All I can say is, “Wow!”
My friend lives near Pittsburgh, and we took some good Kansas City suds to him. I have to say, if you can get your hands on the Boulevard Smokestack series of craft beer, they are awesome. The Long Strange Tripel is exceptionally nice. The beer is about 10% alcohol by volume, and comes in champagne bottles with a cork and wire cage. Very, very nice.
I have just discovered the simple pleasure of the gin & tonic. I went down to the hotel bar yesterday and didn’t feel like beer or wine, nor whisky (or even whiskey). Couldn’t think of a vodka drink that sounded good, so I ordered a gin & tonic. Hey, I’m in India, it seemed fitting in an old-school height-of-the-British-Empire way.
I enjoyed it so much, I had another. The last time I tried gin was in college, and I couldn’t stand the stuff. So I avoided it for the last 20 years or so. I think I simply needed time for my palate to gain an appreciation of bitter flavors. I didn’t drink coffee back then, and I didn’t like overly hoppy beers either. Now I dig both of those beverages, and apparently gin as well.
Now I need to explore more. The hotel bar only had Beefeater’s and Gordon’s. I went with the Beefeater’s, and I’ll probably try the Gordon’s for comparison. Then I want to seek out some Bombay Sapphire.
Don’t do this. That way lies disaster. For the best cider, let it ferment out fully. Then, rack and let clear. Just before bottling, add one can of apple juice concentrate to your cider. Bottle. You will get the best tasting, lightly carbonated cider you ever tasted.
