This one I brought from Norway’s Vinmonopolet. It’s very reminiscent of Garun from Iceland. Scandinavian Imperial Stouts have lower ABV, lighter body and less sugar. Still hit like a truck, since it’s 500ml, not 330. But I definitely prefer something more complex.
I’d be honest, I mostly bought this whisky because it was limited stock, and it was limited stock because it’s Cambletown. Still, here we are.
It smells like Irish whisky, what others call “toast”, and what I call “corn”. Tastes nothing like Irish, though.
There’s a surprising amount of sweetness for a whisky that’s only 30% sherried, and spiciness of the chilli level. Speaking of chilli, it has a lot of warmth on the finish.
Since I already had it in the taster set, I decided to refresh my memory. It’s oily, and has almost corn-like quality. I guess that’s the unmalted barley popping. Suprised me how I finished a bottle of this years ago without noticing.
Not the rarest of beers, but since I haven’t had it in years, worth mentioning. It is sweet, molasses or demerara sugar, which is amazing for the first few sips. The problem is that it’s not very complex, unlike Imperial Stouts. The last sip is very much like the first. But it does give lightness I haven’t felt in ages.
It’s almost July, and Japanese Whisky Advent Calendar is selling for 175GBP, which is below 250GBP, but above 160GBP I paid for it.
I wrote recently about independent bottlings and also about Olorosum bottling from Master of Malt. They released a Father’s Day bottling, and a decently priced tasting set that included it, so I decided to give it a try.
And it’s a good one. Berry&Rudd Speyside 12 level. Malty sweet, with that tart oaky finish, and some nice warmth. Definitely worth 60GBP they’re asking for, although I’m not sure if I want a full bottle in my collection.
15th bottle is Starward Ginger Beer Cask, from Australia. The ginger comes through very strongly. I might not be a fan, but I can understand the appeal. Not for ~100GBP, though, no way.
16th is Tullamore DEW 14 years, and Irish one, bottled at a weird 41.6%. It has nice warmth, but even compared to Redbreast 12, not much flavour. At 56GBP for a bottle, it’s not too expensive, but considering you can get a bottle of Arran at that price, or even aforementioned Redbreast 12, I can’t imagine why anyone would buy this one.
I tried another Imperial stout from Northern Monk a few years back. Northern Monk Oath is a bit light for Imperial Stout. Not as sweet or syrupy. But its 8.5% hits like all 10% ABV. For a beer that’s sold in the supermarkets, it’s a bargain.
And Harrogate Best Bitter (not the best name for a beer) we brought from actual Harrogate. And it has a very distinct rye taste, quite flavourful for 4.5% ABV.
I’ve been using IKEA knife magnets for years. Don’t remember if I brought the one I had from the old apartment or just bought a second one. But with my knife collection growing, I got a bit tired of scratches from metal on metal. So I decided to buy a wooden knife magnet instead.
It’s a slight disappointment, I must say. For four times the price (IKEA magnet is around 15GBP) the magnets are weaker, and the knives leave marks on the magnet.
I tried varnishing the magnet, but my varnish wasn’t fresh, so the rack ended up being sticky. So I had to scratch everything, buy a new varnish, and do it properly.
Macallan is a strange whisky. It’s considered to be good, but not good for its price, and it doesn’t have characteristics that are considered to be good, such as 46% ABV. By this point, there’s an entire category of YouTube reviews of “MacCallan alternatives”.
There is a catch, though, which is independent bottlers. I have a bottle from Berry&Rudd which I like, as well as more recent Olorosum and the Dark Fruit Feedback Loop 17 (Balmenach?) from Scotch Whisky Society.
It is rumoured that Signatory independent bottlers buy distillate from Macallan, but do not dilute it like Macallan does. And that’s what Speyside M is. With the emphasis on M: there are just two distilleries in Speyside that start with M, and experts say this ain’t Mortlach. I believe them, since Signatory actually have a bottling from Mortlach, and they say so on the bottle. So it’s either Macallan, or Signatory playing the entire whisky community really well.
I was delaying this bottle, until I discovered it almost entirety disappeared. There are plenty of 14 years around, but not 16. So I did get one of the last ones available.
On the nose, it’s Christmas pudding: molases, dates, figs, raisins, all the sweet and sticky and dark stuff. And tastes as you’d expect: sweet, a bit sour, and with a very long warm finish. The closest I have at the moment is probably the aforementioned Dark Fruit Feedback Loop 17, although Lochlea Cask Strength Batch 2 comes close too. Definitely intesnse at 57% ABV.
Considering that I paid 83GBP for that bottle, and Scotch Whisky Society at that age is around 100GBP, it’s a steal.
This is the only model I wanted to paint when I started painting Warhammer a year and a half ago. And finally I got to it.
I must apologise to Citadel Plastic Glue, it actually works well with Warhammer.
It is larger than I expected, 60mm base, and has around 50 parts.
The really nice bit is that the arms are on those ball bearings, which means you have a lot of flexibility for the pose.
The not so nice bit is that it’s very hard to drybrush. I wish I had drybrushed it separately and combined later, but here we are.
There is a certain irony I write about random whiskey tasters, but sometimes ignore bottles I buy. I’ve had Aberlour 18 for over a year now, although didn’t touch it much, and I recently opened Bunnahabhain 18. Both are great whiskies for their price, although both are slightly subdued from what I had expected.
Aberlour has the slight disappointment of being 43% and chillfiltered on top. But I didn’t learn about it until recently, and honestly hadn’t I known, I would have considered it to be superb. In fact, all the whisky Youtubers are still considering it superb, despite the characteristics. It’s slightly sweet, spicy and complex.
Bunna 18 is more peated than I expected after loving Bunna 12, but still less peated than common Islay whiskies. It’s less sweet that Aberlour 18, although there’s still that, and also slightly savory. I call it “pancakes with bacon and maple”.
Mikkeller is as much underground as BrewDog there days, so it’s always good to see an Imperial Stout expression from mainstream producer.
It has zero head, full body, like Imperial Stout should. What surprised me were the whisky notes. Turns out, it’s literally whisky infused. Not sure what that means, I understand “barrel ages”, but not “infused”.
At around 9GBP, not cheap, but also not overly expensive. Worth buying.
I had a bottle of Redbreast 12 from 2020, and I might have pulled it in one of the advent calendars as well. But this time, I decided to get a taster set with Redbreast Lustau and Redbreast 15.
Lustau is smooth and sherries, smells of vanilla, with some oily texture common to Irish whiskies and long warm finish. The closest from Scotch is probably Tamdhu 15. Very pleasant, and for 65GBP, it’s a great value for money, even though it’s a no age statement.
The Redbreast 15 is smooth, as expected from Irish whisky, with vanilla nose, oily mouthfeel, surprising warmth for 46%, a bit of sweetness, and tart aftertaste from oak barrels. For around 92GBP, it’s reasonable, although at the higher end.
If I was to pick one, I would go with Lustau.
2nd bag, 5 hours. Now I’m more cautions with the angle parts. Noticed that some parts are at a weird angle, putting a lot of strain. I’m not sure for Lego that would be legal. Figured out that the angled parts need to use the flexible connectors from the extras bag. Lego would have put warnings, “use this part, not this part”, but not Cada. Block with seats assembled.
Some of the knive enthusiasts I watch were praising the Shan Zu chinese knives, so I decided to give them a try, after all it’s just 22GBP.
Because it’s a Chinese product, their lines change all the time, and they also sell widely different knives under the same Amazon listing.
I went with nakiri, because I don’t own one yet, and I have plenty of santoku and chef knives already.
First of all, this isn’t a damascus knife. Maybe some of the other lines are, layered steel isn’t so hard to make. But this has clear laser etched pattern.
Which doesn’t mean that the steel is bad. The knife is extremely sharp out of the box, but there’s no indication on what steel was used.
After a week of use, it dulled to the point of not cutting paper. So around 58 hardness, by my experience. Which isn’t bad for the price, something on the level of IKEA 365 knives.
I’ve been disappointed by IKEAs pans durability, despite buying their 365 line, which should be the best one. I have thrown away my second 365 pan, and I’ve only bought it in October 2025.
I didn’t want stainless steel pan, as it produces too much smoke. So I decided to try a ceramic pan from Ninja. Have their electric kettle, very happy with it.
First impressions: it works, maybe slightly less smooth than teflon, and need to adjust to temperature. The real question is of course, will it hold at least a year?
13th is Noble Rebel Smoke Symphony. I guessed 40GBP and Scotland, because who else smokes whiskey? It’s 37GBP and indeed from Scotland. Taste is not bad, not fantastic. But for 46% ABV has plenty of warmth in the throat.
14th is Milk&Honey Classic from Israel. I have their Milk&Honey Elements, which is the sherried whiskey, which I think is great value for money. And I might even reviewed the Classic once already, as it’s sold in Ben Gurion. This one is very sharp, both on the nose and palate. Still, if I was told it’s a 10 years old Speyside, I would believe it. It has plenty of sweetness to it, and a lot of warmth for 46%, but not something I would personally buy.
As I’m playing games, I sometimes also update their wikis.
I did so with Jagged Alliance wiki as well. The game from ’95 that 3 and a half people play.
I didn’t expect to get 2000 vibes from the Wiki admin:
“Do you know who I am?!”
First bag out of 7 took me 505 minutes in total.
Realistically a bit longer, because I forgot to resume the timer. But I also spent time coming up with a sorting system, because there are less bags, and a lot of different pieces come together in the same bag.
That was difficult, a lot of hanging parts, but especially because I didn’t know or notice that one piece has a screw that lets you adjust its length.
Since I have to manage my time, I started setting timer and adding extra time if I run out, instead like with Lego build, just finishing one bag in one sitting.
I discovered that Cada has two types of angled connectors, one at 45 and another at 60 degrees. They are both black, so it took me a long time to understand why two components do not fit.
Then not only I got the angles wrong, again, but also that I have one non-rotating piece more and one similar rotating piece less, which means that somewhere inside there’s a piece that might be a bit loose, but also that now I can’t get the part that needs to be rotating to rotate. Had to find a combination of pieces that would produce similar shape.
Then had to fix a few angles, again, and since I was left with a rather small amount of pieces, I decided to finish it in one sitting, instead of spreading it over two, which took me 1:30 hours.
It worked out, although I was left with more spares that I’d expect.