Many people live by the rule “always refrigerate white wines, never refrigerate reds.”  However, for true wine lovers that rule is overly simplistic.

Most people keep their refrigerators around 40 degrees F.  That is too cold to serve whites; at that temperature they lose some of their flavor.  This Ventura County Star article addresses proper wine temperatures.  Lighter whites, the article says, such as pinot grigios, are best at 45 to 50 degrees F.  Fuller-bodied whites, like chardonnays, require temps closer to 55F for optimal taste.

Serving reds at room temperature is not optimal either.  Reds generally are best at temps of upper 50s to about 68F, depending on the type of wine.  That’s cooler than most people keep their houses.

How can you adjust for this?  Well, you can take whites out of the fridge a little while before serving and let them warm up, and you can put reds in the fridge for a few minutes to lower their temperature.  However, this is an inexact science at best.

For the best possible taste, consider investing in a wine refrigerator to store your whites and reds at the proper temp.  Mid-South Alcoholic Supply has plenty to choose from, at a wide range of storage capacities and price points.

Are you a beer drinker on a diet?  Are you counting carbs, or calories, but don’t know how to do that when beer is involved?  We have a book that can help.  Does My Butt Look Big in this Beer? by Bob Skilnik contains nutritional information for more than 2,000 beers worldwide.  Good book to help you enjoy the suds in moderation.

Funny how a reviewer gave it 1 star out of 5… not because the info in the book is bad or wrong, but because “as a beer drinker, I don’t want to know these things.”  Um, don’t buy the book, then?  It’s not like you have to read it if you’d prefer to hide your head in the sand.  Good for calorie-conscious beer lovers though.

Have you ever encountered a bartender who couldn’t pour a decent pint of beer if their life depended on it?  There’s one down the street from the Mid-South Alcoholic Supply World HQ who can’t.  She slams back the tap as quickly as possible, leaving an inch and a half of head in the pint glass.  The she angrily slams the glass on the bar, spilling even more of the remaining beer.

I was complaining about this to one of my friends who brews beer, and he brought me a “Piaget” beer gauge.  This is a gauge you hang off the edge of your pint glass, and it measures how full your beer is.

You can get one of these at thebeergauge.com.  Handy little gadget to have in your wallet when you go out to the bar.

If you’re a fan of sake, the Japanese rice wine, check out this Baltimore Examiner article for lots of fun facts.  Here are a few things I learned:

- It’s considered improper to pour your own sake.  You are supposed to let your host or server do it for you.

- Sake is supposed to be served cold, which may come as a surprise because many Japanese restaurants and sushi bars in the U.S. serve it hot.  Sake served hot is often done to mask the taste of an inferior-quality sake, although in cold climates sake can be served hot to warm the drinker up.

- Sake is generally in the 14-19% alcohol range, slightly stronger than most traditional wines.

- There’s a “sparkling” version of sake, just as there is a sparkling version of wine.

Many more fun facts in the article.  Be sure to check out our sake store for books about sake and sake serving supplies.

I’ve run plenty of articles on this site before about wines to pair with beef, fish, pork, and even more exotic foods like hot wings and Mexican foods.  But what if you prefer to eat light?  If you plan on having a salad for dinner, what wine would complement it well?

This Madison, WI TV station has the answer. Not surprisingly, rich, bold wines can overwhelm a salad.  However, light, crisp, fresh whites work well with the greens.  Look for light wines under 12% alcohol.  “Crisp” is a wine-tasting term that describes a wine with high acidity.  Vinaigrette salad dressings are also high in acidity, so a crisp wine balances well.  A “fresh” wine lacks oak or buttery flavors that would overwhelm the salad.  Generally these are young wines.

Learn more about pairing wine with food in our bookstore.

WikiHow is a really useful site to find how-tos you never thought existed.  Last week they ran a how-to that will impress your friends at a bar:  How to Perform the Trapped Bill Trick.

The way it works is, you trap a dollar bill between two beer bottles:  One standing right side up on a table, bar or other level surface; then the dollar bill and the second bottle balanced on top of the first one.  You have to pull out the dollar bill while leaving the second bottle balanced on top of the first one.  It’s kind of like pulling the tablecloth off a table without disturbing the dishes, except for drunks.

Check out our bartender’s guides for many more bar tricks.

Perhaps you’ve seen both “whisky” and “whiskey” in liquor stores, and wondered if they were one and the same, or if they were different somehow.  Or perhaps you’ve wondered if all Bourbon is whiskey, or if all whiskey is Bourbon.  This Seattle Post-Intelligencer article can help.

To summarize:  Whisky and whiskey are the same thing.  Different dialects have led to different spellings of the word.  The Scotch never use the “e,” while the Irish always do.  Opinion on the “e” seems to vary in North America.

All Bourbon is indeed whiskey.  Bourbon is defined as a whiskey made in the United States, from pure ingredients including 51-79% corn, aged in a “charred new oak container.”  However, all whiskey is not Bourbon.  Scotch whisky is whiskey made in Scotland.  Irish whiskey and Canadian whiskey are other varieties.

Whatever your favorite whisky or whiskey, be sure to enjoy it in one of our fine highball glasses.

Spring is officially here, and it’s time for some warm-weather cocktails.  Here are a couple of recipes to get you started, both from SeattlePi.com:

• First of all, we have this recipe for lemongrass ginger vodka, made with Thai basil leaves, ginger, vodka, lemongrass, sugar, and water.
• Next up is a recipe for chile-infused vodka, which you then use in an ingredient in a key lime pear chile cocktail.

Find thousands of more cocktail recipes in our bartender guides.

Car companies are desperate to create vehicles that run on alternative fuels, and the Times of India reports that the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company is working on beer as a fuel.  Don’t worry, though; cars won’t be taking beer away from us.  Rather, Sierra Nevada is working with the E-Fuel company in Chico, California to convert unusable “bottom of the barrel” yeast into fuel.  This yeast contains 5 to 8 percent alcohol, and through processing can be increased to 15 percent.  One day this may lead to an environmentally friendly solution that will decrease our dependence on oil.

The more beer you drink, the more yeast will be available for processing.  So have a few pints in our beer glasses.

Here are some more booze-infused recipes I’ve found on the web in the past week.  Got a little somethin’ for everyone - beef, chicken, fish, and a side.

• Boston.com posted a recipe for Carbonnades a la Flamanade, or beef and onions braised in beer.  They recommend a dark Belgian-styled beer.
• Debbie Moose, author of Wings: 50 High-Flying Recipes for America’s Favorite Snack (available at a significant discount at Mid-South Alcoholic Supply), offers this recipe for roasted black pepper wings with maple bourbon glaze.
• If fish is your dish, the Indy Star offers this recipe for turbot with bananas, almonds, and rum.  It’s an adaptation of a dish found in The Black Dog Summer on the Vineyard Cookbook (available at a HUGE discount at Mid-South Alcoholic Supply).
• Of course, you’re going to need a side to go with your dinner.  Once again we go to the Indy Star, for sweet potato wedges with cranberry bourbon glaze.

Find more booze recipes in our bookstore.