# Excessively strong gin



## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

Maybe this explains why Bombay Sapphire gin seems to hit me really hard. Some bottles had 77% alcohol content instead of the 40% listed on the bottle!

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/bombay-sapphire-gin-recall-1.4097353

But not to worry: "the bottles were only sold in Quebec, Ontario, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan"


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## gibor365 (Apr 1, 2011)

james4beach said:


> Maybe this explains why Bombay Sapphire gin seems to hit me really hard. Some bottles had 77% alcohol content instead of the 40% listed on the bottle!
> 
> http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/bombay-sapphire-gin-recall-1.4097353
> 
> But not to worry: "the bottles were only sold in Quebec, Ontario, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan"


why?! What a shame! Just change label! I drink Gin with Soda anyway and 77% would be just right!

Also, James, you live in OR, do you fly to AB to buy Bombay?!


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## kcowan (Jul 1, 2010)

They should just change the label to something like SaFIRE! I have the low test stuff here in BC. I think I will lodge a discrimination complaint.


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## james4beach (Nov 15, 2012)

gibor365 said:


> Also, James, you live in OR, do you fly to AB to buy Bombay?!


I actually spend a lot of time in western Canada (I have a home there). I just flew out of AB a couple weeks ago with two bottles of Crown Royal rye in my suitcase. But now I'm disappointed I didn't pick up a Sapphire Gin!


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## gibor365 (Apr 1, 2011)

james4beach said:


> I actually spend a lot of time in western Canada (I have a home there). I just flew out of AB a couple weeks ago with two bottles of Crown Royal rye in my suitcase. But now I'm disappointed I didn't pick up a Sapphire Gin!


Thus my guess was correct! Too bad it was recall, otherwise I'd go to local LCBO to buy it  ... btw, I tried Crown Royal, but prefer Canadian Club and Wiser's more... . Canadian Rye is one of the very few Canadian products that I like


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## My Own Advisor (Sep 24, 2012)

Yikes!

Bombay is crap.

Best gin ever IMO.
https://www.edenmill.com/


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## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

77% alcohol from LCBO is a bonus, usually the bottles of hard liquor they sell is around 40%, so you pay premium prices for less than half a bottle of distilled alcohol and some flavouring..the rest is water.

They had the same "problem" with a brand of Vodka a while ago..recalling it and asking customers to bring it back for a refund or substitute the brands that they carry with less alcohol content.

I'm sure that customers were flocking to LCBO to return these "bad" bottles.:biggrin-new:


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## jargey3000 (Jan 25, 2011)

_*"....keep 'em coming, pleasshhe!.....Hic!!!!*_


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## jargey3000 (Jan 25, 2011)

ps ( I KNEW those empty Bombay bottles would come in handy ....fill'em up with water...then back to the liquor store for a "refund"! who's gonna check??? ....hic!)


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## stantistic (Sep 19, 2015)

*Percentage alcohol*

I notice that the % alcohol is used frequently in this thread. I used to work in a chemistry lab in the 50's and know that there is a difference in how alcohol is reported between Canada and the US. I wonder how many readers are aware of that? 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_proof


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## none (Jan 15, 2013)

My Own Advisor said:


> Yikes!
> 
> Bombay is crap.
> 
> ...


Oh come on - bombay is not 'crap' It ain't beefeater that's for sure

I look at bombay as a decent workhorse gin. For a gin and tonic with basic schweps tonic it's totally appropriate. People dumping high shelf gin on cheap tonic is a bit of a shame.

if we're talking martini's thoughl...........


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## Mukhang pera (Feb 26, 2016)

stantistic said:


> I notice that the % alcohol is used frequently in this thread. I used to work in a chemistry lab in the 50's and know that there is a difference in how alcohol is reported between Canada and the US. I wonder how many readers are aware of that?
> 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_proof


As a teenager (when most of us had our first encounters with alcohol) growing up in Ontario, I seem to recall bottles sold by the LCBO being marked with "proof" and not alcohol by volume. It was also generally understood that in Canada, 175 proof was 100% alcohol, while in the US, 200 proof was 100%. The US system made it easy...just divide by 2 to get alcohol content. I also seem to recall that most of what was sold used the US system. 80 proof was the norm. 

When I lived there, and when I first moved to BC, the government was very patronizing and would not sell anything much over 80 proof. Not sure about Ontario, but BC has for some time sold Bacardi 151 rum and Lamb's 151. I was told recently at a BC store that Bacardi 151 has gone out of production and no longer available. Not sure I believe that. Perhaps just the start of a return to the patronizing old days.

And speaking of old days, anyone recall in Ontario when there was no self-serve and all the bottles were kept out of sight? Buying a bottle meant going into an LCBO outlet where there were a number of counters with product lists posted. You had to peruse the lists then fill out a form describing the product you wanted to buy. You would take that to a cashier who would take your cash (no credit cards then) and receive a slip of paper for each bottle ordered. You would then proceed to a counter with LCBO staff behind and hand over your forms to one of them. He (they were always men) would take your forms and wander back into the warehouse and begin to carry out your bottles and place them on the counter before you. He would leave a copy of each form in a tray beside each product brought out - an inventory control measure, I suppose. When all of your order had been brought out, they would be wrapped and you would be sent on your way. 

The first LCBO self-serve store was at Bayview & Sheppard, if I recall correctly.


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## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

Mukhang pera said:


> And speaking of old days, anyone recall in Ontario when there was no self-serve and all the bottles were kept out of sight? Buying a bottle meant going into an LCBO outlet where there were a number of counters with product lists posted. You had to peruse the lists then fill out a form describing the product you wanted to buy. You would take that to a cashier who would take your cash (no credit cards then) and receive a slip of paper for each bottle ordered. You would then proceed to a counter with LCBO staff behind and hand over your forms to one of them. He (they were always men) would take your forms and wander back into the warehouse and begin to carry out your bottles and place them on the counter before you. He would leave a copy of each form in a tray beside each product brought out - an inventory control measure, I suppose. When all of your order had been brought out, they would be wrapped and you would be sent on your way.


I remember that kind of LCBO in the 60s. The good old days.


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## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

Mukhang pera said:


> As a teenager (when most of us had our first encounters with alcohol) growing up in Ontario, I seem to recall bottles sold by the LCBO being marked with "proof" and not alcohol by volume. It was also generally understood that in Canada, 175 proof was 100% alcohol, while in the US, 200 proof was 100% ...


News to me as I was always told to divide by 2, where it was Canada or the US ... not that I had it measured or am a big drinker.


Cheers


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## Mukhang pera (Feb 26, 2016)

Eclectic12 said:


> News to me as I was always told to divide by 2, where it was Canada or the US ... not that I had it measured or am a big drinker.
> 
> Cheers


I think it would be news to almost everyone here. The Wikipedia article cited by stantistic refers to the "old" British system, in part, thus:

"From the 18th century until 1 January 1980, the UK measured alcohol content by proof spirit, defined as spirit with a gravity of  12⁄13 that of water, or 923 kg/m3, and equivalent to 57.15% ABV.[3]

The value 57.15% is very close to the fraction  4⁄7 = 0.5714. Thus, the definition amounts to declaring that 100° proof spirit has an ABV of  4⁄7. From this, it follows that to convert the ABV (expressed as a percentage standard rather than as a fraction) to degrees proof, it is only necessary to multiply the ABV by  7⁄4 . Thus pure, 100% alcohol will have 100×( 7⁄4) = 175° proof, and a spirit containing 40% ABV will have 40×( 7⁄4) = 70° proof."

Later in the article, about Canada, it says: "The old UK proof standard was still in use as late as 1972." Few here would recall those days. They would never have heard of the notion that 175 proof would = !00% alcohol. 

As a young lad I had the privilege of being schooled in the niceties of these things by a neighbour who had served as a Royal Navy captain during WWII. I learned about the tot of rum given daily, whence supplies came and what ranks got what and how on rare occasions the commander would give the order to "splice the main brace" which meant to issue an additional tot of rum to the crew. My lessons were reinforced through invitations to the Military Institute in Toronto, a hangout for armed forces officers that gave me some insight into a different world. My captain friend is long gone, but certainly not forgotten. Apart from his teachings about "the demon rum", he taught me such things as how to tell time from the bells sounded on the ship's clock in his den and when it was the "first dog watch" and the "last dog watch". To this day, in his honour, I follow the practice of halting the ringing of a wine glass or other glass before its reverberation ends of its own accord. To fail to put a finger on it to stop the ringing means that another sailor has died. If we had drinks in his home, he would offer another drink by saying "would you care for the other half?" It did not matter that you had already had more than one drink. It was always "the other half".


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## stantistic (Sep 19, 2015)

My apologies for hi-jacking your thread, j4b.

Another bit of trivia about alcohol is that for ethyl alcohol, it is impossible to get !00% pure alcohol by distillation alone. The last 5% of water has to be removed chemically. If you want to glaze your eyes by other than gin see:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_(data_page)#Boiling_points_of_aqueous_solutions


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

out of curiosity i just checked the label on the high-alcohol content of the current bottle in the house. I was thinking it would read "proof," maybe something like "180 proof."

but the label says "94% alcool." It's in french. On est chez nous icit.

why do i keep this stuff around? it's not that i'm a lush, nor am i secretly enabling a drunk. The high alcohol content is to macerate berries, flowers, buds, occasionally leaves, even sometimes a root or two, to make delicious things like syrups, cordials, sorbets, ice cream or yogurt toppers, spritzers or icings for cakes, cookies, brioche & other pastries ... an excellent base for iced summer drinks, too. 

.


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

stantistic said:


> Another bit of trivia about alcohol is that for ethyl alcohol, it is impossible to get !00% pure alcohol by distillation alone. The last 5% of water has to be removed chemically. If you want to glaze your eyes by other than gin see:
> 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_(data_page)#Boiling_points_of_aqueous_solutions




stantistic the first bottle of 180 proof/90% alcohol i ever bought from the Societe des Alcools bowled me over with the fumes when i opened it. It smelled like another alcohol (methyl?) (the poisonous stuff?) 

i took it back to the SAQ to ask if the bottler had made a mistake. Was this liquid really drinkable? or had they bottled a toxic alcool in error?

the neighbourhood SAQ has a truly knowledgeable wine expert on staff. His fame has spread far & wide, through him many local inhabitants order cases of wine directly from vineyards they know in france (the SAQ charges shipping, handling & import taxes but still i'm told it's cheaper & better than buying random bottles in the SAQ store itself)

this gentleman duly appeared & told me not to worry, the high-alcohol fumes off-gassing out of the bottle are perfectlly normal, he said.

makes the best wild blackberry ice cream ever.


.


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## kcowan (Jul 1, 2010)

none said:


> I look at bombay as a decent workhorse gin. For a gin and tonic with basic schweps tonic it's totally appropriate. People dumping high shelf gin on cheap tonic is a bit of a shame.
> 
> if we're talking martini's thoughl...........


I always stock two types of common liquors like vodka and gin, one for the mixed drinks and one for the higher end uses. Ironically I have to keep Johnny Red because my buddy prefers it to single malt.


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## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

Mukhang pera said:


> I think it would be news to almost everyone here.
> 
> The Wikipedia article cited by stantistic refers to the "old" British system ... "The old UK proof standard was still in use as late as 1972."
> Few here would recall those days ... As a young lad I had the privilege of being schooled in the niceties of these things by a neighbour who had served as a Royal Navy captain during WWII ...


True ... though I can recall those days but without the help of a neigbour, my education is lacking. :wink:


Cheers


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## kcowan (Jul 1, 2010)

humble_pie said:


> The high alcohol content is to macerate berries, flowers, buds, occasionally leaves, even sometimes a root or two, to make delicious things like syrups, cordials, sorbets, ice cream or yogurt toppers, spritzers or icings for cakes, cookies, brioche & other pastries ... an excellent base for iced summer drinks, too.


The party is at HPs! Not so humble pie...:smile-new:


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## stantistic (Sep 19, 2015)

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/04/...ll.html&eventName=Watching-article-click&_r=0


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## olivaw (Nov 21, 2010)

Looks like the folks on this forum are a bunch of mukkety-mucks compared to us. 

Almost all of our friends drink beer or wine ..... and not expensive wine ..... the cheap plonk that goes on sale at the local Co-Op. 

Our pathetic liquor shelf holds one Bombay, a Bacardi, a Smirnoff, one Crown Royal, some schnapps and a bottle of high end rum. No fancy martini mixes or high alcohol syrup fixins.


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

olivaw said:


> Our pathetic liquor shelf ... no fancy martini mixes or high alcohol syrup fixins.



c'est du l'alcool haut-de-gamme

prenons une charlotte russe. Buttery ladyfingers or pound cake layers drenched in wild blackberry 94% alcohol liqueur. Thick whipped cream the same. Topped with fresh raspberries. A few toasted almond or dark chocolate shavings. There's more alcohol content in one dessert serving than a stiff drink.

c'est qui la personne qui s'occupe de la cuisine chez toi? faut expliquer le ci-haut tout de suite, c'est divin

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