Water of Life

Melbourne Hot Sauce x Starward and Kavka Vodka

Not exactly the most guarded secret is that I love hot sauces and whisk(e)y and have yet to find an occasion where I would find either not suitable to enjoy. 

However, this does not necessarily mean that they work well together. 

There are quite a few experimental concoctions out there, where e.g. whiskey was finished in Tabasco barrels and while the pronounced spicy vinegar characteristics of the pepper sauce added an interesting facet, it did not amount to something I would consider to enjoy for more than the novelty of it.

What about the other way around though, i.e. hot sauce aged in ex whiskey barrels?

Enter Melbourne Hot Sauces collaboration with Starward distillery. 

With Melbourne Hot Sauces having firmly established itself on the forefront of quality, flavoursome multipurpose hot condiment producers and with a well-respected line-up of well-calibrated and balanced hot sauces based on all-Australian ingredients without any added nasties, Starward could not have teamed up with a better partner than owner and founder Richard Nelson.

This 2021 Ltd edition release is a tour de force in harnessing the vibrancy that makes the carefully curated melange of Habanero, Red Jalapeno peppers, cherries, limes, bananas and Shiraz vinegar, before the melange is set to mature in Starward Nova single malt ex red wine Whisky barrels – which is one of the more refined expressions of Starward’s portfolio we have featured before.

Is your mouth watering yet?

If you are remotely into handcrafted and all natural hot sauces it should be, as this collaboration is an example par excellence for something the whole it culminated in is much more than the mere sum of its individual components would have you think.

What tickles the nostrils upon approach is a not unexpected culmination of peppery and spicy vinegar aromas, which dance with a slightly camphoraceous note.

Heat-wise, we are looking at a medium level, which is perfectly suited to shed the limelight on nuanced appearances of sweet, slightly tarty cherry flavours.

The elongated finished is where this sauce shines as it beautifully reverberates with the DNA of Starward’s Nova expression, i.e. fruity, nutty tannin rich Port wine vibes with a hint of toffee leaving one lusting for another splash.

Excellence is hot sauce form.

While I my preferred kind of liquor is definitely whisky, I can appreciate the flavour, aroma, and soft mouth feel of a good vodka. 
While in public perception vodka might be reduced to being little more than the spirit that mixes well with almost everything behind a bar, there is much more to it, especially when it comes to variants that lend themselves to be enjoyed neat.

When it comes to crisp and clean vodkas, wheat, grain and H2O are usually the main ingredients determining one’s vodka experience, with wheat having largely replaced potatoes as a source ingredient as it requires less distilling. 

As far as water is concerned, it plays a multitude of roles, be it in the mashing process or during dilution to calibrate the ABV, with the purity or purification of water having become a determinator of quality.

Every now and then you come across a vodka that pushes the boundaries a bit while honouring the DNA of the spirit.

Enter Kavka Vodka.

Made in western Poland and marrying the best of the aforementioned traditional liquor crafting techniques, Kavka is the result of the marriage of rye and wheat spirits alongside small amounts of aged apple and plum spirits, which culminates in a strong flavour profile with a delicate nuanced fruitfulness.

Distilled and bottled by Prince Jan Felix Michal Korybut Woroniecki, whose mission was to create an idiosyncratic drop in line with Eastern European spirit traditions in a bid to reinvigorate vodka, Kavka convinces with depth, complexity and a distinct smoothness that is rarely found in other contemporary vodka variants.

Clocking in at 40% ABV and with its syrupy texture, subtle floral hints dance on the top of the mouth set against a backdrop of a dominant citrussy and orange- marmaladed backbone, with the finish reverberating in a crescendo of  plum, apple and juniper notes.
A deliciously clean vodka that lends itself to be the base spirit for a Martini as well as sipping neat.

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images from company websites

Thrice have been trekking across the United States for the past month in support of their new album, Horizons/East, and brought L.A.'s, Touche Amore, along for the ride. The tour's end is on the horizon and Scene Point Blank was there as the tour inched closer and closer to home. While not Orange County, the band took the stage some-80 miles south to a warm homecoming crowd in San Diego.

Amid the ongoing pandemic, there are still some hesitations and concerns from bands, as well as fans of live music, about the type of environment performing can create. Despite the safety protocols the bands have been trying to follow while on the road, Self Defence Family had to drop out at the eleventh hour of the tour after a member contracted COVID. Touche Amore were willing to fill in the void by playing longer set.

A bit of a homecoming for them as well, the band came out and were as energetic as ever with a fair amount of their own fans in the crowd. They've been supporting their own new album, Lament, that came out this time last year while everything was shut down. The band showcased new songs like title track, "Lament," and "Reminders," as well as blistering through older tracks like "Just Exist" from ...Is Survived By and "~" from the band's second album, Parting the Sea Between Brightness and Me, and the appropriately titled for the holiday, "New Halloween" from Stage Four. Their performance never slowed down and was the perfect warm-up to Thrice.

Thrice took the stage just a little after 9 and kicked things off with the new album opener, "The Color of the Sky" and the first single off Horizons/East, "Scavengers." Both added an extra punch to the already powerful studio recordings... and they wouldn't be the only ones. "Dandelion Wine," "Summer Set Fire to the Rain," and especially "Buried in the Sun" all translated magnificently to the live setting. "Robot Soft Exorcism" had an accompanying light show that made the whole performance particularly engrossing like you're the one in the "machine."

The band made sure to entice the older fans with title track, "The Artist in the Ambulance" from their major-label debut or "Of Dust and Nations" and "The Earth Will Shake" from the critically acclaimed, Vheissu. An album of which the band did an anniversary tour early last year just before everything came to a halt.

Throughout the night, Thrice continued to jump around their extensive discography, giving almost every album a spotlight, but I had a personal awakening towards the end of the set. The band went into "The Long Defeat" from their 2016 album, To Be Everywhere is to Be Nowhere, and as the track was hitting its closing lines, all was quiet except for the fans repeatedly singing in unison, "together we'll fight the long defeat." It was beautiful and carried extra weight given the state of the world we're in, and was a moment that's still resonating strongly with me the morning after.

The band walked off after Alchemy Index's, "Firebreather," and encored with the intimate, "Beyond the Pines" before closing the night with the all-encompassing "Anthology" from Major/Minor. It was a wonderful show with lots of positives vibes, which is something we could all use more of. Thrice only has a few dates left on their Horizons/East tour, but I encourage the vaccinated to make it out to their Phoenix show or their Hollywood date (their final show in Anaheim is already sold out) if you feel comfortable. If you have to wait it out until the next tour, then use the time to encourage others to get vaccinated because live music is special, and it's the only way to "fight the long defeat."

Audio = Ground Zero

Bose QuietComfort 

In 2012 I started traveling internationally every month for work and given the amount of time I was spending on the road, I started to consider making some investments regarding gear that would not only make the journey more pleasant but also aid in terms of comfort and saving time, with one concern pertaining to the fact that due to tight deadlines, more often than not, it was essential to get some shuteye while in transit.

Apart from the acquisition of a sturdy yet light suitcase and carry-on luggage to accommodate essentials, one of the more worthwhile acquisitions was a set of noise cancelling headphones.

After conducting quite a bit of research, I weighed up my options and eventually settled for a pair that I was first exposed to when I was upgraded to a business class seat on a long-haul flight with American Airlines: Bose’s battery powered QuietComfort 15 over-ear headphones were not exactly on the cheaper end of the spectrum, yet they seemed  to tick all the boxes in terms of sound quality, noise cancelling abilities and overall comfort.

As it turns out nine years later, it proved to be a great choice as I still have them and while the road took its toll on their exterior in terms of wear and tear, they continue to work like a charm. 

Given my previous experience with Bose, I was intrigued when I learned about the release of the QuietComfort Earbuds, especially since I have used and discarded other underwhelming earbud brands over the years. which severely lacked in both the sound and noise cancelling departments.

With a minimalist, subtly curvy design and a size a tad bulkier than the competition, the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds come in an LEDs lined charging case, which on the exterior indicates its remaining battery levels and on the inside houses each bud separated by a button which enables pairing mode. 

Once paired with the custom made Bose Music app, you are in charge of switching between devices, an EQ actively balancing high and lows of what you are listening to and determining your favourite set-ups to calibrate the levels of their active noise cancelling capabilities.     

Supporting both SBC and AAC Bluetooth codecs, the QuietComfort Earbuds let you easily connect to your mobile device, no matter if you are an Apple aficionado or an Android user and the fact that they are compatible with Bluetooth 5.1, your phone can easily and readily detect them within a nine metre radius.

The fact that you can tap and swipe the earbuds themselves to control volume, summon virtual assistance and finetune other settings, makes it seamless, highly tactile and intuitive experience.

Needless to say, with earbuds a good fit is essential, especially when it comes to noise cancelling ones, which is an area where most one-size-fit-most models fail for me as I like wearing them while running. 

Bose tackles the problem by providing a wide range of ear tips in a variety of sizes along with a flexible silicone wing for added “slide in and twist”-style stability, which aids in finding your perfect snug fit. The fact that they are water and thus sweat resistant adds to the appeal as they can be worn for strenuous exercising as well.

Now, how well does the noise cancelling work with the QuietComfort earbuds?
The answer is: Extremely well.

A sliding scale allows for meticulous adjustments in the cancelling of predictable noise versus ambient sounds. What I like about the QuietComfort is that at all levels of noise cancelling, they facilitate anorganic and transparent sound when shutting out the humdrum of your surroundings.

Another area where I found most earbuds to underperform is the microphone and speech intelligibility / recognition, which is not an issue in the slightest with the QuietComfort model as even hushed whispers are picked up clearly.

Summa summarum:

After nine ears of using the battery powered QuietComfort 15 I feel confident about having invested in a quality upgrade, i.e. a pair of terrific sounding, versatile earbuds, which tick all boxes in terms of comfort, near flawless connection stability and performance (up to six hours of excellent listening time once fully charged), no matter if I am exercising, conducting Zoom meeting or travel and trying to get some shuteye on noisy flights.

Sure, Bose QuietComfort is certainly not the cheapest option out there, but the durability and longevity of their products make it worth the investment for audiophiles looking for a set of earbuds that will not run danger of needing an upgrade for the next decade. 

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image from company website

The Formative Years

The Exploited 

The Exploited is one of the bands that had an immense influence on me transitioning from metal into punk as a prepubescent. I vividly remember seeing their Pushead designed skull with mohawk logo patch on an older punk’s battle vest and thought it to be one of the coolest, most radical and quintessential punk designs I had ever seen, so I made a concerted effort to find an independent record store to spend my allowance on the compilation album Totally Exploited, which must have not left my CD player for the following month.

I loved their no-frills approach to playing speedy and aggressive punk, which paired with Wattie’s wild eyed demeanour and snotty vocal delivery lyrically attacking the system from all angles in the most blunt manner possible was what I was missing from the metal and other bands I was listening to at the time. 

It encapsulated the DNA of a style that with the input of bands like GBH and Discharge formed what became known and loved as the “UK 82” movement. The fact that the band seemed to be getting into all kinds of trouble with their anti-social antics, fighting with other bands like Conflict only added to their allure.

Following The Exploited’s evolution and a deliberate change of their sound, I also moved into faster, more metallic crossover territory. Their Death Before Dishonour LP from 1987 remains a favourite with its onslaught of blazingly searing riffs serving as the foundation for Wattie serenading us with his trademark barks. 

It heralded on new era of underground music that merged hardcore punk with thrash metal, creating a lane that later on helped to give birth to metalcore.

Thus Let Us Drink Beer – New England Brewing, Akasha’s Eagle and Kaiju’s IPA

“I don't want to change the world, I am not looking for a new England…”

Ah, good ole Billy Bragg is suitable enough as a relevant reference to kick off this instalment of our beer-centric series with a focus on a brewery located in a region on terra australis that was not exactly brimming with an overload of breweries and known for craft beer until New England Brewing established its operations and put the area firmly on the radar of beer aficionados.

Inspired by Teutonic Brauereikunst and a trip to the old world shortly after the dawn of the new millennium, the seed was planted to replicate a brewery with its focus firmly set on provenance and a sense of pride for its locale, which eventually came to fruition more than a decade later.

With a line-up ranging from traditional lagers via hop bombs to experimental brews, New England Brewing has made itself known for its dedication to the craft and creating complex beers based on the use of open top fermenters and a secondary fermentation in the keg / can, which adds what has become the brewery’s idiosyncratic twist and is particularly conducive to creating Belgian style beers

My first exposure to New England Brewing Co. was via their core IPA, which is an example par excellence for the accomplishment of the West Coast style of IPA, i.e. unleashing avalanches of tropical fruit flavours combined with citrussy, zesty highlights that dance in front of a backdrop of delicate piney and resinous notes. The foundation is comprised of a hoppy quartet, i.e. Palisade, Bitter Gold, Amarilla and Centennial, which are calibrated in a manner so the characteristics of the individual hops complement each other.

Taking things to the next level is the New England’s Minutemen NEIPA – and yes, I am aware that once the acronym is spelled out, the former sentence is quite tautological in nature. 

With an orangey hue and hazy in appearance, what materializes on the top of the mouth is informed by what the colour promises, backed by a zesty kick. The mouth-watering fruitiness informed by pineapples is counterpointed by a dense malty bitterness. 

Delicious.

While I find stouts to be a bit of a hit or miss, you got to give it to New England Brewing Co for coming up with interesting variants: Based on a collaboration with their neighbours Artisti Coffee Roasters, the Coconut Milk Coffee Stout’s name says it all as it is all about the malty backbone, which – as the name would suggest – is infused with dark chocolatey, nutty coffee notes and rounded out with milky coconut aromas. A borderline ideal treat in liquid form for the colder months of the year.

If I had to define a hybrid between a Saison and an IPA, New England’s Single Hop India Saison expression would be an ideal candidate. 

Clocking in at an ABV of punchy 7.2% and a bitterness of 70 IBU, this hazy little number reigns supreme on the dry end of the spectrum where it excites the palate not only with a melange resulting from Citra hop derived juiciness dancing with the yeast, but a crescendo culminating in a black peppery spicy kick.

The limited release known as the Rum Barrel Aged Imperial Stout is exactly the oaky, dark fruity, sweet heavy hitter one would expect from having been aged for half a year in Beenleigh Rum barrels, which results in roasted malty flavours being interweaved with a dark syrupy sweetness that is oh so dangerously moreish.

Given the quality of what I have taste from New England Brewing so far, I can only hope that they will channel their alchemy in the creation of a Double IPA soon.

As weed-loving Ricky Fitts put it ever so eloquently in the plastic bag scene of American Beauty: “Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world I feel like I can't take it, like my heart's going to cave in.” 

Now with Akasha projects having released their quadruple IPA hop monster The Eagle, the aforementioned quote can be applied to flavour and my palate.

It is not exactly the best kept secret that I am quite a fan of Akasha Brewing’s emissions, with their Wooden Leg IIIPA having so far been my favourite. However, this with Akasha’s The Eagle gripping me with its powerful talons with an ABV of 12%, sinking its large hooked beak into my palate with what can only be described as an cataclysmic explosion of hop resin, delicate malty sweetness and citrussy mango flavours, sets new standards in terms of how far the envelope can be pushed with an IPA without ever running danger of becoming a novelty release.

What on paper should not work as everything is seemingly turned to a Spinal Tap-esque 11 without regard to nuances and appears to be painted with a broad brush, Akasha Brewing has done it again and accomplished to brew a bold and rich juggernaut of an IPA on steroids with an enormously powerful and complex flavour profile that proves to be dangerously sessionable.
 
If you like your West Coast-style IPAs big, you will have not lived until you have tried Akasha’s The Eagle – a beer for special occasions and once that will make others pale in comparison.

Yum.

If you are following this series it should not come as a surprise that when it comes to hops, it cannot be dank and resinous enough for me and while I appreciate experimentations with hops and the creations of the Australian craft beer landscape, there are few breweries that seem to just effortlessly hit the spot with their creations.

Kaiju Brewery is one of the aforementioned and every time I see one of their emissions on tap, I make a beeline for it as in terms of hoppiness, they hardly ever leave anything left to be desired. 

Combine this core strength with a thinly veiled love for playful, eye-catching yet subtly nuanced artworks (with quite a few easter eggs to be found embedded in them for those willing to dig deeper), Japanese culture at large, Kabuki and the good old hero vs monster dynamic and you got the winning whole that constitutes Kaiju Brewery, which is so much more than the mere sum of the individual ingredients.

Needless to say, their hop bombs are accolade decorated and their special releases sell out quickly on a regular basis, which is why I am glad that two of my favourite Kaiju expressions have become integral to their core line-up.

Kaiju’s Metamorphosis IPA is, well how can I put…if you look up “IPA” in the dictionary, you would probably find a photo of a can of it. Based on a foundation of all-American hops, waves of deliciously piney highlights tickle the top of the mouth, rounded out by a delicate bitterness. Despite clocking in at a respectable 6.7% ABV, it dangerously more-ish and session-able.

So far, so good.

However, when it comes to special occasions, like e.g. the recent launch of the Octomore 12 line-up, a special beer is called for, i.e. a brew not unlike Kaiju’s Double IPA Aftermath.

As the punchy ABV of 9.1% suggests, we got a hoppy powerhouse in our hands – one that paints with a broader strokes in terms of booziness, a dominant malty backbone and wonderful citrussy highlights, which shine against a backdrop burnt toffee notes.

Given the quality and excellence of Kaiju’s brews, one cannot help but look forward to their future special releases, which will hopefully not stray from Kaiju’s deliberately over-the-top hoppy path.

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images from company websites