Castle & Cairn

While the sad truth is that beer just simply isn't health food, it doesn't have to be dessert level calories. At the same time, keeping those frosty carbs down doesn't mean that you have to put flavor out to sea. It is worth mentioning that the key mechanism driving the calories in a beer is alcohol by volume. Each gram of ethanol contains around 7 calories per gram, almost double that  of other carbohydrates and protein. Other residual sugars do still contribute to the beer as any sugars not converted to alcohol remain from the original malt bill. Big beautiful beers often have both high ABV and residual sugar levels, but some "smaller" beers still manage to have good flavor.  I've pulled together my list of brews that pack decent flavor without blowing up your diet.  Low Calorie Beers with Alcohol Guinness - Crushing the myth that dark beers are higher in calories, Guinness has an iconic creamy feel due to the nitrogenating widget in each can. With 125 cal...

Even if you're more predisposed to wine or spirits, the beer component of your wedding bar lineup is an important and sometimes complex decision. Think of the last time you went to a bar with your friends, what did they order? There is a good change no two people ordered the same thing. How can we best serve so many differing tastes without breaking the bank or going crazy? This post will walk through an outline for picking your ideal beer lineup for a wedding or party. Pick a Number Planning your lineup starts by choosing a target number of brews. Starting with a firm number makes it much easier to balance selection considerations later and your venue or provider may give you this information up front. My general rule of thumb for most menus is 3-5 options. Science tells us that humans cognitive load and working memory maxes out around 4+1 "chunks" and this provides ample satisfaction/freedom without adding too much logistical complexity (see  Hick's Law , Paradox of...

What makes a great Summer beer? At Castle & Cairn, we evaluate the perfect summer beer on three main qualities: Bright Flavors - Sunshine is summer, and we're looking for tastes like citrus, fruit, or maybe some mild tartness. Crushability  - Whether it is at the beach, by the grill, or in the pool, a great summer beer shouldn't leave you feeling terrible after a full day of refreshment. Crushability is the combination of light body, moderate ABV, and a clean finish - served cold.  Availability - The best Summer beer isn't the best summer beer if it's not in your fridge or cooler. From the rip, you can already see that these qualities will point us towards styles like Mexican Lagers, Shandies, Radlers, Session Sours, Wheat Beers, or Juicy IPAs. Will your pick be in our list below? Our Top 10 Beers of Summer List 10. Dos Equis Amber Holding up the list, Dos Equis Ambar  Especial was created to celebrate the turn of the 20th century. It is a classic Vienna-style lage...

While chicken thighs weren't a staple at my house growing up, I've found them to be one of the best meats for delicious consistency when smoked. Compared to other options, they have a lot going for them: Higher Fat Content - The dark meat of the chicken thigh renders well over the course of a smoke session, lubricating and basting the meat within to keep it nice and juice rich. This moisture also works well as a smoke attractant, harvesting that woody goodness from the egg. Collagen & Connective Tissue - Along with the higher fat content, the connective tissue and collagen within the thigh require a higher temperature than plain white meat to break down. While a chicken breast easily dries out around 160 degrees, chicken thighs really need to get up to 175-185°F (79-85°C) in order to properly break down all of that tissue into tasty jelly.  Not too Big - While briskets and pork shoulders get a lot of fanfare, they take a looooong time to smoke. Chicken thighs are very sm...

Founded in 2018 by Mike Paladini and Danny Polise, Penelope Bourbon was created to honor the birth of Mike's first child of the same name. Since then, Penelope has sourced NDP components from MGP, Bardstown Bourbon Company, and Speyside Cooperate, though it is operated by MGP since it's acquisition of the brand in 2023 under it's Luxco subsidiary. The brand focuses on new and unique whiskies, often playing with atypical mash bills, blends, or barrel finishing processes and this bottle is no different.  Penelope Architect  is a relatively young bourbon with a high rye mash bill that is aged for four weeks after the addition of French oak staves produced by Tonnellerie Radoux , a storied cooper with more than 70 years of history - now part of François Frères Cooperage Group. Radoux has a proprietary technology called Oakscan® which is used as part of their quality control process to use near-infrared spectrometry to measure the concentration of various chemicals within each ...

Not to be confused with the sub-$20 and now discontinued 6-year old iteration of Heaven Hill Bottled-in-Bond, the current 7-year-old bottling , introduced in 2019, is a mid-market offering known to many as a reliably good pour. In 1939, four years after its opening, Heaven Hill put out their first namesake Bottled-in-Bond which at the time quickly became the best selling bourbon in the state of Kentucky. The distillery has one of the largest portfolios of Bottled-in-Bond whiskeys in the world, joined by brands like Mellow Corn, Rittenhouse, Henry Mckenna, and Evan Williams in offering a bonded version. Heaven Hill Bottled-in-Bond is well awarded, having won Double Gold (ISC 2024), Double Platinum (ASCOT 2024), and World Whisky of the year (Bartender Spirits Awards), and is routinely offered up by some whiskey influencers as a recurring favorite. 🛒 Sourced:  $45.99 - 750ml - Costco Perimeter, GA - I sometimes see it for a few dollars cheaper. The 6-year version was perhaps too...

Distilled by Barton 1792 on behalf of Spirits Direct, Total Wine's private label brand,  Wolcott Rickhouse Reserve is an elevated proof iteration of the standard Wolcott bourbon. Barton does a huge number of other private bottlings while at the same time many of the 1792 branded iterations have become somewhat difficult to find. The most comparable bottles are likely 1792 Full Proof and Kirkland Single Barrel, both quite elusive these days and packing a handful of extra proof points. It is worth noting that the Wolcott brand has changed producers over the years from Buffalo Trace to Barton 1792 in 2022. Both distilleries are owned by Sazerac, so it is unlikely that the mash bill has changed though the equipment itself can impact the flavor and aging conditions in the rickhouse will differ as well. The Barton editions have their lineage marked clearly on the front label if you have any question and this particular richouse reserve iteration was introduced after the distillery switc...

My personal sweet spot in the proof-flavor continuum is between 100-110 proof (albeit with some notable exceptions). For things that are barreled at 125, I find that this amount of dilution serves only to make the whiskey more drinkable and doesn't unduly harm flavor. Recently, I took a look at some Ezra Brooks Cask Strength , contract distilled by Heaven Hill, and was intrigued. The heaven hill stocks used shared the same mash bill as their hallmark Evan Williams line (heck, they may even have started life intended to be dumped into Evan bottles). This gave me a lovely 120 proof base to dilute down into my preferred ABV range. I toyed with the idea of using some Evan Williams Single Barrel as the complementary bottle, but ultimately decided that it would be too disproportionate (EWSib is only 86.6 proof). The stalwart Evan Williams Bottled-in-Bond will stand in as the Ezra Brook's dance partner for this exercise.  Vámonos! 🧪Preparation I blended the two spirits to arrive at ...

Yes it's a bit dark - that's the dark brown sugar! We always seem to somehow end up with overripe bananas, so I find myself constantly needing to find a use for them. Banana break is by far the easiest final destination, and I'm never mad to have a slightly sweet breakfast option around.  As a wise man once said, "Banana Bread at work? Hell yeah!" Banana Bread Recipe Prep Time: 15 minutes Bake Time: 60-70 minutes Total Time: ~1 hour 25 minutes Yield: 1 loaf (8-10 slices) Ingredients  3 ripe bananas (medium, about 1 ¼ cups mashed; very ripe with brown spots works best) 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour 2 large eggs (room temperature) ⅓ cup unsalted butter (melted - substitute with vegetable oil for a moister texture) 1 tsp baking soda  Spices/Seasoning: ½ tsp salt - can skip if you use salted butter 1 tsp ground cinnamon ¼ tsp ground nutmeg ¾ cup brown sugar 1 tsp vanilla extract - who measures this anyway?  Optional Ingredients: ¼ cup sour cream or plain yogurt - HI...

Joining a stalwart lineup of commendable Single Barrels, a wallet friendly Yellow Label, stunning limited editions, and the polarizing Small Batch Select , Four Roses Small Batch has been the brand's go-to everyday sipping whiskey since its introduction in 2006. From a product design standpoint, it is intended to be easy drinking with broad mass market appeal. It has earned numerous Gold Metals across an assortment of spirits competitions and has one of the most pleasing bottle shapes I have ever seen. Though "Small Batch" is not a regulated term, I have anecdotally seen it mentioned that Four Roses aims for around 250 barrels per batch.  🛒 Sourced:  $29.99 - 750ml - Costco Perimeter, GA - Most big box stores will have this pegged at $30 and I've never seen it above $35. 🧪 Proof:  90 proof, 45% ABV  🎨 Color:  R3  - a sunny runny egg yolk orange-brown 🥔 Mash Bill:  Four Roses Small batch is a blend of 4 of Four Roses' 10 mash bills in undisclosed ra...

I've had a bottle of Knob Creek Smoked Maple on my shelf for around two years. In my review, I found it to be very sweet with plenty of candy-like, artificial maple flavor but lacking any sort of smokiness or char. To put it plainly, I did not care for it. For this ill-advised Whiskey Frankenstein ( home whiskey blending ) experiment we will be combining Knob Creek Smoked Maple Bourbon and Costco's Kirkland Islay Single Malt Scotch  to try and make something that is actually smoke adjacent. Why the Kirkland? It's cheap, it's on my shelf, and I won't be sad to have used it when this turns out terrible.  Vámonos! 🧪Preparation I will make three 60ml samples for a total of just under two shots of each whiskey consumed. We will give the best of the three an appropriately zany name.  Samples & Ratios: A: 50/50 "Half and Half" B: 75/25 Majority Knob Smoked Maple C: 75/25 Majority Kirkland Islay Whiskies are measured using a 100ml lab-quality graduated cylin...