Brouwerij De Molen, located in a charming Dutch windmill, in a charming Dutch town about an hour train ride from Amsterdam makes wonderful beer. More new-American style than Belgian, but not without its influence. Nice little cafe with delicious mustard soup. They also make a beer liqueur, which if I recall, was made…

21st Amendment may be in the process of re-branding Bitter American as "Down to Earth" Session IPA:

They send like 4000 cases to NJ, it sits in massive case stacks everywhere by me at least until the week before Christmas if not all the way through December. Where are you in Jersey?

Did you get to see one of the Yocco's billboards on 78? Anyway, I can't find a picture but it's basically the same as the sign on top of the "restaurant". That cannibalistic hot dog king haunted my childhood trips to central PA. Never actually ate there though...

Flying Fish Exit 16 Wild Rice Double IPA is a pretty damn fine beer that uses rice in the grain bill. Light and clean body with a good hop character. You need to find it fresh though, which can be hard. No New England distribution though...

I would like to interject that it is also available in 6 packs of standard 12oz. bottles for around $9 in NJ at least. A little more palatable price-wise.

That's some hot fire Albert. Good job.

I would say it's genetic.

The standard Krug non-vintage is spectacular. Should be in the same price range as Dom. That said, it is not as showy and will not carry the name recognition that will make people recognize that this is a fancy champagne, for fancy people, for a fancy occasion. Depends on how important that is. Dom is also easier to…

If you want to go sub-$20, the Gruet he recommended is tough to top. I prefer the Blanc de Noirs to the Brut, but both are good. Other recommendations that weren't covered are Scharffenberger Brut, which should be $15ish, and Ferrari Brut from Italy, which is high teens, maybe $20 depending on where you are. But…

In NJ, the Domaine Carneros is closer to $30 and the Gloria Ferrer is closer to $20. The Gloria Ferrer Royal Cuvee is $25-28ish and quite nice. I prefer the Domaine Carneros, so I don't know what the fuck point I am making, I guess that depending on where you are there can be a decent difference in price.

Sous Vide is important for certain restaurant set ups, especially for things that would tend to braise for hours, like short ribs. If you are cooking at home for a reasonable number of people, I say scrap it.

It's definitely Cristal, they don't use the gold cellophane on the non-vintage, it is a clear cellophane if any. You can also make out "Cristal" on the neck of the bottle in the picture.