Xtreme Tasting League: Scotch

Kelvin returns and we drink scotch. (Seriously, I will be putting more effort into the episodes again soon–work’s finally calming down)

Comedian and actor Kelvin Hatle joins us for our first tasting of October. We discuss his involvement with the Minnesota Fringe Festival and my cats, interestingly enough. It seems they want to be internet famous, too! Sorry this is a day late, folks. Believe me when I say I wish my schedule allowed for it to be on time.

Adam Dunn returns! (I will elaborate further upon this later, but I’m already a day late posting and 30 minutes past the end of my lunch break.)

Adam Dunn of the Horror Show Hot Dog Podcast joins us for the Tobermory 10yr and Glenfiddich Malt Masters. We had a great time recording this one and we talked to Adam about his work, both with HSHD and his cinematic forays, which include Transformers 3 and Man of Steel, as well as a number of music videos for local hip-hop artists. This is also the first time we’ve had a guest that neither Dave nor I had met previously, though I was familiar with him from the podcast enough that you can’t really tell.

This episode was a special treat for me to record (yes, we are again without Dave), as it was done on my summer vacation to Las Vegas back in June and has several of my World of Warcraft guild mates as the guests. That’s right, several–there are WAY more voices on this show than the norm. It’s a bit short of the length we’ve been hitting, but that’s only because we only tasted one bottle, the Glenmorangie 10yr. Enjoy!

Long-time friends Diana McCleery and Dan Stiglich join me for a Dave-free episode, in which we savor both The Macallan and Caol Ila 12yrs and talk bus driving, snow days, and submarines.

Ian and Jeremy return to taste the Dalwhinnie 95 Distillers Edition and the Bowmore 18yr while talking about The Wonder Years, cradle robbing, accidental fermentation and Halloween costumes. Yep, it’s about as silly as it sounds and we had a lot of fun.

We’re back with another exciting episode, this time with local event hosts/commentators Ian Rans and Jeremy Stomberg. We talk about all kinds of random things while we taste the Edradour 10yr and Glenfiddich 18yr–so many things in fact that we’ve set a new record for episode length. Was it entertaining? We thought so, and expect you will to!

Bob and Dawn make their hilarious return and we taste the Tomatin 12yr and Laphroaig 18yr.

Fearless Comedy Productions co-founder Bob Alberti and Big Fun Radio Funtime voice actress Dawn Krosnowski join us for a very entertaining hour. We bust Bob’s scotch cherry, learn a bit about the second-ever published RPG (after D&D), and are given some spontaneous intro and bumper themes. The scotches this episode were the Glenkinchie 12 year and The Balvenie 21 year Portwood. Bob was a somewhat recent guest on the Apropos of Nothing podcast and talked about Tékumel there as well. They are more adept at the show notes thing and actually have pictures: check it out!

In our second recording at OmegaSpring, Perrin returns and donates two Amruts to the cause, pilot attendee Jesse Aubart graces us with his presence, and we share our pain concerning sci-fi series that died too soon.

Perrin Klump and Doug Yoder join us for the first of two recordings at the first ever OmegaSpring convention. Doug was kind enough to bring the Tomintoul 27yr that he purchased for the con and Dave brought his Glenrothes ’94. Good times were had, packaging mocked, and we discuss our first and favorite concerts.

Episode 6 heralds the triumphant return of the hosts of Apropos of Nothing. On the business end, we taste The Speyside 12yr and Ardbeg 10yr, talk about the Deadly Sins as they apply to us, and Salsa takes us out with a toast.

It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for–the first of two crossover episodes with Apropos of Nothing! We had a lot of fun recording this, as I’m sure you’ll gather. Not only do we discuss the Dalmore Gran Reserva and The Balvenie 15yr Single Barrel, but also fruitcake, coopering, the dangers of single barrel expressions, and the AON podcast origin story. We also launch our first official segment and decide to make a tradition of the closing toast. Enjoy!

Just in time for St. Patrick’s Day, we at Xtreme Tasting League: Scotch bring you an episode filled with Irish single malts and musicians! That’s right, our guests this episode are John Sjogren and Neil Jonhston from the band The Tim Malloys and we taste the Knappogue Castle and Connemara 12yrs. Sláinte!

Ishmael Williams, President of the Convergence Board of Directors, welcomes us at Convergence HQ to taste the Glenlivet and Glenfiddich 12yrs.

Guest Peter Buckholtz returns while we taste the Yamazaki 18yr and Cragganmore 12yr.

Guest Peter Buckholtz joins us on our first official recording, where we taste the Cardhu 12yr and the Bruichladdich Rocks.

So, here’s the pilot recording Dave and I did with the other friends with whom we were doing an informal Scotch club.  What you’ll hear is a completely unedited recording, and it’s pretty obvious we had no clue what we were doing at first, but found our feet relatively quickly.  Having Matt from AONPodcast present was a blessing, as he helped us minimize the dead air and provided an excellent interview such that we hope you get a good idea of where we are coming from and what we hope this podcast will be. Enjoy. Note: this was recorded in October 2012, so the November 30 steak and Scotch dinner Dave speaks of has come and gone–sorry. It’s likely the sponsoring group will do something similar again next year, and we’ll try to keep you posted. Clarification: Which Glenmorangie is which? We couldn’t remember, so here’s the list of what is finished in the varied casks. La Santa – Sherry Quinta Ruban – Port Nectar d’Or – Sauternes