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For anyone who’s experienced a quality tequila shot with a crisp, ice-cold lager, it’s clear that hops and agave are delicious partners. So, it shouldn’t be surprising that beer aged in tequila barrels can create a sophisticated brew with nuanced flavors. The process is straightforward, but the results can be profound. Freshly brewed beer is placed in casks that once held tequila and as it matures, the beer takes on a variety of flavors from the wood and transforms into something new.

Tequila is the most popular agave spirit by far and the category has surpassed whiskey sales in the U.S. to become the nation’s second best-selling spirit behind only vodka. Tequila also powers America’s most popular cocktail: the margarita. But as much as I love tequila, and I am definitely a fan, of late I’ve been increasingly drawn to other Mexican spirits including Bacanora, another type of mezcal, and sotol, a separate but somewhat similar tasting category of Mexican spirit.

Researchers from several institutions, led by Ernst Pernicka, scientific director of the Curt-Engelhorn Center for Archaeometry (CEZA) at the Reiss-Engelhorn Museums in Mannheim and director of the University of Tübingen’s Troy project, applied a portable laser ablation system (pLA) to analyse samples of Bronze Age jewellery found in Troy and Poliochni...Poliochne, often cited under its modern name Poliochni, was an ancient settlement on the east coast of the island of Lemnos. It was settled in the Late Chalcolithic and earliest Aegean Bronze Age, and is believed to be one of the most ancient towns in Europe, preceding the construction of...

On Friday’s “PBS NewsHour,” New York Times columnist David Brooks stated that Democrats “were right to try to be FDR, try to do something big” with the Build Back Better reconciliation bill. Brooks said that if the new inflation numbers in January show an increase in inflation, that will make passing the bill far more difficult. “Because Joe Manchin’s really concerned about inflation and federal spending boosting that. I think — in retrospect, I think they were right to try to be FDR, try to do something big, there are a lot of problems in this country, and try to...

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday vacated two lower court decisions that blocked the government from excluding illegal aliens during the process of allotting congressional seats While the Supreme Court's Dec. 18 decision will allow the Trump administration to pursue the policy of excluding illegal aliens from the apportionment base, the ruling stated: "Consistent with our determination that standing has not been shown and that the case is not ripe, we express no view on the merits of the constitutional and related statutory claims presented. We hold only that they are not suitable for adjudication at this time."

Joe Biden came out of his basement on Friday for a short press conference on the economy. During his statement read from a Teleprompter Biden reads “end of quote” after making debunked Social Security claim.

It's a long-agonized-over machine recount total delivered two minutes too late. But there's nothing ironic about it -- this is, after all, Florida's Broward County, which has been plagued with issues in its vote-counting efforts for years. Given that history, it was unsurprising -- but still galling to volunteers -- when the director of elections here revealed that the county had submitted its machine recount data two minutes after the state-mandated 3 p.m. Thursday deadline. The secretary of state's office did not accept the new numbers and so, after days of painstaking work, Broward's count Thursday remained the same as...

The House sent “right to try” legislation on experimental drugs to President Trump’s desk Tuesday — a measure Trump, Vice President Pence and groups backed by mega-donors Charles and David Koch have repeatedly urged Congress to pass. The House passed the bill largely along party lines by a 250-169 [actually 267-149] vote.

Cat Who Was Not Expected to Walk Again, Won't Stop Trying. Two months ago, a 1-year-old cat was found lying on the road in northern New Jersey. A Good Samaritan took him to a local speciality hospital to get help. The Kitty Krusade"They thought he had been hit by a car. It wasn't until nurses and emergency vets cleaned away the blood and did X-rays, did they realize that he had been shot," Kelley Peters told Love Meow. They contacted Kelley at The Kitty Krusade, a local rescue group in Montclair, New Jersey and asked if they could take...

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Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz said Thursday that “In any future warfare there will be an effort to bring about a swift result and to cut down the time that the fighting lasts, because we know that our ability to decide the battle depends on the Home Front’s resilience.” Photo Gantz spoke at a ceremony at the Chief of Staff’s bureau in Tel Aviv, in which Brigadier General Eyal Eizenberg was promoted to the rank of major general. Eizenberg will replace Maj. Gen Yair Golan as Home Front Commander in the coming days. Golan will become Head of Northern...

WASHINGTON – Struggling to build a firewall against a Republican takeover, congressional Democrats are pouring money into roughly two dozen tight races around the country in the campaign's closing weeks while pulling it back from others where their chances seem slimmer. With polls showing Republicans increasingly well-positioned to seize control of the House, the Democrats are planning TV ad blitzes to shore up their best-positioned incumbents and a handful of challengers in races they believe they can still win.

SEOUL, South Korea – A woman in South Korea who tried to pass the written exam for a driver's license with near-daily attempts since April 2005 has finally succeeded on her 950th time. The aspiring driver spent more than 5 million won ($4,200) in application fees, but until now had failed to score the minimum 60 out of a possible 100 points needed to get behind the wheel for a driving test. Cha Sa-soon, 68, finally passed the written exam with a score of 60 on Wednesday, said Choi Young-chul, a police official at the drivers' license agency in Jeonju,...

Taliban or tractor? British try to win over peasants By Patrick Bishop in Mandisar (Filed: 16/09/2006) In the arid villages of southern Afghanistan, British soldiers are asking peasants to make a big life choice — a tractor or the Taliban? British forces for 34 Sqn RAF Regiment meet locals in Mandisar near Kandahar If they inform on insurgent activity in their areas, they will be rewarded with a shiny new machine to plough their dusty fields. If they fail to co-operate they will be deprived of the thin stream of assistance trickling into the countryside via the campaign to turn...

AS Parisians crowd to the beaches in August, tourists are descending on the City of Light in droves, undeterred by a recent survey highlighting complaints that visitors get the cold shoulder from locals. The most visited country in the world, France received 76 million tourists last year, with Asians making up a growing proportion of those who came from non-European countries and 50,000 visitors jetting over every month from China alone. All this despite stereotyped images of rude waiters, bored shop assistants and impatient Parisians all too ready to give nervous tourists the brush off in rapid French. "French hospitality...

Heat Waves Follow Hottest Six Months on Record With record-breaking heat around the country, fish--and the people that love to catch them--are suffering. Not only is the fun of sitting out in the summer sun on a boat, on the shore or standing in a river beginning to lose some of its appeal, but these high temperatures are also stressing out fish, prompting midday fishing bans (in Montana), bass that won't bite (in Florida), and potentially later and smaller salmon runs (in Oregon and Washington). This summer's heat is coming on the heels of an announcement in July from the...

MARINE CORPS RECRUIT DEPOT SAN DIEGO (March 31, 2006) -- When Hurricane Katrina hit his home town of New Orleans, Pfc. Eric J. Brown, Platoon 2061, Company E, thought he lost his chance, once again, to become a Marine. Brown was originally sent to boot camp at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, S.C., the training facility designated for most male recruits from east of the Mississippi River and all female recruits. During a medical re-evaluation at Parris Island, it was discovered that after several duck hunting trips without hearing protection, Brown damaged his hearing to a point that was...

Attorneys for concealed gun opponents who challenged the law filed a motion Wednesday seeking reimbursement from the state for their unspecified costs and fees. That comes one week after the resolution of a request from gun store owners who intervened in the lawsuit to be reimbursed by the plaintiffs for their costs and lost business. Details of an apparent out-of-court agreement are being kept secret. Missouri's law allowing most adults age 23 and older to receive concealed weapons permits was enacted when the Legislature overrode a gubernatorial veto two years ago. In February 2004, the state Supreme Court upheld the...

Website quacks try to cash in on bird flu By David Sapsted (Filed: 21/10/2005) An array of odd and invariably useless products are being marketed by people exploiting fears over bird flu. Aside from an assortment of masks, air filtration systems, rubber gloves and sterilising hand washes, websites are offering everything from herbal teas to a DIY house for bats as answers to the predicted pandemic. The idea behind the bat house, advertised on an internet auction site, is that it will "attract mosquito-eating bats to eat the parasites that may be carrying the disease". Or may not be: avian...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Some lawmakers are taking another shot at fixing a funding flaw in Missouri's concealed carry law. Although not a top tier issue, Republican lawmakers pledge the bill will get considerably more attention than last year, when a similar measure never received debate in either chamber. "It's something we're going to deal with," Senate President Pro Tem Michael Gibbons, R-Kirkwood, said Wednesday. Republican Gov. Matt Blunt also supports the bill, a spokesman said. The legislation got a hearing Tuesday before a Senate committee, which could vote as soon as next week to send it to the...