Alcademics.com

Original Gins

Check out my story in today's San Francisco Chronicle about new-to-market old-style gins, including genever, old tom, and aged gin. The story is here.

This month's sponsors

Alcademics thanks this month's sponsors- please give them a click!

Oval Vodka- Nominate your drink for the Oval Office

Hiram Walker Liqueurs- Now in Pumpkin Spice and Gingerbread flavors.

Absinthe Mata Hari- She's sure to steal your heart. 

Hotel Wine MacGuyver

Say you find yourself in a hotel room on a cold London night, caught in a bout of sleep-free jetlag, but prepared to take the edge off with a bottle of wine. Unfortunately, you forget to bring a corkscrew. You don't have any cash to tip room service for bringing one up. What do you do? WHAT DO YOU DO?

I can tell you what I did tonight. First, I paid the 20 dollar wi-fi fee (note to Cumberland Hotel- screw you!) and looked up a solution. The suggestions included banging it on a tree and using a hammer/screw. Having neither a tree nor a screw loose, I  gathered materials from around the room.

I tried the banging method in several ways- held in my knees with a shoe, against the wall with a pillow, against the floor, an unturned chair, using the hotel bible. None of them worked. Then I moved on to stabbing at it. The cork was synthetic, and seemed designed specifically to thwart me. I did get a paper clip through the cork, but that didn't accomplish much. Various methods of bending it and trying to create a hook were failures as well. Then I tried to make a two-pronged wine key out of... two keys, but I couldn't get them into the sides of the cork at all. Neither could I get the handle of the coffee spoon into the side of the cork.

I looked around the room for another time (this was an hour long process) and found something that I'd overlooked- the coat hangers! Without a moment to spare (I was really thirsty) I grabbed a hanger and bent it at the neck, so that the spiral part separated- a natural corkscrew! I plunged it into the cork, but was having  a difficult time getting it all through. But in doing so, I must have loosed it up, because the cork began to slip into the bottle. I removed the hanger, grabbed the spoon, and banged in the cork using the hotel bible. The cork plunged into the wine, spraying only enough of it out of the bottle to make it dramatic.

The victory was delicious! If I only I could say that for the wine.

So all you need to open wine without a corkscrew is a hanger, a spoon, and a bible. If this information helps just one person get his or her drink on in equally dire circumstances, it will all have been worth it.

Clearly a Failure

There are various methods people use to make the clearer ice. To remove the air bubbles that make ice cloudy, people suggest boiling or refreezing the water. I decided to give a few options a try to see what worked best. But as we'll see, my results are less than conclusive.

Using individual sized apple sauce cups (these are great large cubes for drinking whisky, as you don't want the ice to melt too rapidly and water it down) I froze the following into ice:

• Control ice- regular ice poured from the Britta filter, probably two days old
• Re-frozen- above style ice cubes, melted and refrozen
• Boiled in pot for about 10 minutes
• Microwaved for about three minutes of boiling

Then I lined up all the ice in order of most clear to least. I had two of each style of ice, and my results were: Control, Control, Boiled, Microwaved, Refrozen, Microwaved, Refrozen, Boiled. None of the ice was totally clear. And the control should have been the least clear, not the most.

So... that didn't work at all. I will need to repeat this experiment. Any ideas on what I did wrong? the cups in the picture are upside down, so the most air/cloudiness was on the bottom of the container. Perhaps I need to pour it slowly into the tray to avoid adding air at that point? Drip it through a filter? Use a colder temperature? Suggestions gladly welcomed.

The Pisco/Vodka Border

Vodka can be made from most anything- corn, wheat, potatoes, grapes, maple syrup, honey, molasses, sugar beets, etc. But it is distilled to high proof to remove most flavor, and most of these base materials don't come in a lower distillation proof, unaged form. (Barring corn likker, of course.)

But trying some recent products made me realize there is a closer boundary between pisco and vodka. Pisco 100 is a brand I've written about before that's a very light, sweet, floral pisco. At the SF World Spirits Competition Double Gold Winner tasting event in San Francisco a while back, I sampled Primo Vodka. It is an Argentinian grape-based vodka that comes in Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Chardonnay varieties. The one I tried is very grapey and flavorful for a vodka.

I think in the near future, we're going to have to address vodkas that not only taste like something, they taste like something with which we're already familiar.

Glossy Booze: Late October Edition

Glossy Booze is a round-up of booze stories in magazines.

In the industry magazine Tasting Panel, I have a short write-up on the Ocho Tequila launch event in San Francisco, and a long piece on the evolving cocktail scene in Sacramento. (Oh, and I just noticed my report from last month about Tales of the Cocktail is online.)

Conde Nast Traveler (November) has two booze stories: One on in which bars and restaurants republican and democrat candidates eat, and a long travel piece on Kentucky Bourbon and the KY Bourbon Trail. The story also includes ratings and cocktails from the likes of Joel Baker of Bourbon & Branch, Brian Miller from Death & Co., and Adam Seger from Nacional 27. Oh look, the main body of the text is online already.

Playboy's November all-James-Bond-issue has a few bits and bits on booze: a mention of Drank Anti-Energy Drink, a blurb about Cabo Uno, and The Playboy Advisor takes on the difference between seltzer and soda water.

Men's Vogue, also with a Bond theme for November (I guess there must be a new movie coming out) has Lawrence Osbourne writing a full feature on Karlsson's potato vodka- probably the longest story on a single brand of vodka I've read in years. The story isn't online yet, but will probably show up in the archives next month.

Esquire packs a bunch of stories in different sections: Tom Chiarella reviews  The Wettest County in the World (a book I have at home but haven't started),Charles P. Pierce endorses Clontarf Irish Whiskey, and Ryan D'Agostino suggests drinking red wine with breakfast. Are they letting everyone write about booze now? Where's Wondrich? Oh here he is, discussing rinsing as a cocktail technique. 

Online at Esquire.com, they list 24 alcohol gifts including Wonrdich's book, Karlsson's vodka and a bunch of other spirits products, a few tools (meh), and only one thing that's sort of awesome- a USB beverage chiller! (It's the last item in the slideshow, so click backwards.)

A day with Charbay

The other week I sat down on the patio behind Swirl on Castro with Marko Karakasevic and Jenni soon-to-be Karakasevic of Charbay and tasted through their line of products.

Charbay is a family-run winery and distillery in Napa Valley. And boy do these people like to play with the still- in addition to wine, they make flavored vodka, rum, whiskey, walnut liqueur, grappa, pastis, port, and now some aperitifs. It's hard to keep up with them.

The aperitifs are neither eau de vie nor typical liqueurs, but flavored fortified wines. Currently they produce a pomegranate and a green tea flavor, which they like to think of as cocktails-in-a-glass. Importantly for retailers, these can be served at beer and wine-only venues.

We then tasted through the vodka line. When they make vodka at Charbay, really they're making extractions that are added to plain vodka to flavor it. (Most flavored vodkas are vodka plus flavors purchased from flavor companies.) Not only is this unique, they make their extractions using whole fruit- not just the peel or juice. They throw the entire fruit (okay, not the pomegranate, but the citrus) into a leaf shredder and into the tanks, then distill the mixture to extract the flavor components they're looking for. Marko told me he was able to get the Meyer lemon flavor less bitter than before (emphasizing the pith less and peel more). The grapefruit flavor is as bitter as it should be.

The Tahitian vanilla rum is triple pot distilled and made from concentrated sugar cane juice (not molasses) from Hawaii. All rums are made from sugar cane products. Rhum agricole and cachaca are made from sugar cane juice. Most rums are made from molasses (the leftovers after sugar is extracted from sugar cane juice). Ron Zacapa is made from a form of concentrated sugar cane juice without the sugar taken out. The sugar cane juice used by Charbay is flash dehydrated under a vaccuum to remove the water and concentrate the liquid. I want to research how this is different from what Zacapa uses. Project!

I think they should just call their whiskey "weed-lovers-whiskey", because it really tastes like marijuana. This is the second release of the product that was pot distilled from pilsner beer with three kinds of hops (this is probably where the weed aromas come in) and aged six years in new barrels. The first release was after three years in barrels.

Finally, they're going to release a pomegranate dessert wine (they really like the pomegranate over there) that smells like it's going to be ultra-syrupy, but is just pleasantly sweet. A nice way to end a meal, or a tasting session.

To sample the products in person, check out the early happy hour at Tra Vigna in Napa Valley, during the weekly Charbay tasting. Hopefully Jenni and Marko will be there, because they're really fun people with whom to share a drink. Or ten.

New Booze: Tru 2 Organic Gin

Why it's interesting: While nearly all gins are vodka that is infused with herbs and redistilled, Tru 2 Gin stops at the infusion- and proudly advertises that. (It's a light gold color because of this.) Also, I believe it is only the second organic gin on the market.

The product is made by Modern Spirits, a company that produces a range of flavored vodkas, as well as the Tru Organic Vodka line. Like most gin (and many vodka) companies, they purchase their spirit elsewhere and blend and dilute it in-house. Here they use their creative infusion talents to turn this vodka into gin.

The mouthfeel on this gin is oilier than your average London dry, and I'd go so far as to say it has a softer "nosefeel." (Can I copyright that?) According to the website, the ingredients in the gin are juniper berries,  fresh lavender, fresh lemon zest, angelica root, orris root,  coriander seeds,  cardamom, vanilla beans, cloves, fennel, cinnamon, allspice, chamomile and star anise. To my palate (which is dumb, keep in mind), it's floral soft vanilla juniper on the nose and lingering cinnamon/allspice in the mouth.

Availability: It is supposed to be in "major markets" this fall. (This map should help you determine if it's in your state.) Retail price is $34.99.

Alternative Tales Talks

Tales of the Cocktail is an annual convention in New Orleans for bartenders and drink nerds. There are seminars and panels on various drink topics (all with drinks served) that are proposed and given by industry notables.

A month or two ago I was talking about panel ideas with a small group of jive turkeys who would be submitting proposals for next year's Tales, including David Wondrich, the most popular drink nerd of all. People like him and Dale DeGroff and Tony Abou-Ganim are such superstars in the industry that I proposed they should get paid just to show up and party, rather than having to prepare lectures and make PowerPoint slides like normal people.

They could get sponsors to reserve a seat for them in the bar and just hang out. And when someone asked what they were drinking, they would say, "A Manhattan made with fine Sazerac rye whiskey!" (or whatever) and then everyone would be happy. I think it's a brilliant idea, but then again I think all my ideas are great.

Bad times, good whisky

In what is likely the first of hundreds of stories on discount drinking during the depression, Eric Felten writes a review of bargain blended scotch whiskies.

His top pics: Teacher's Highland Cream and Ballantine's Finest.

Say it ain't so!

Zima is going to be retired.

This is a sad, sad day for America. The most wonderful of malternative beverages, the wine cooler of the nineties, Zima, will be no more.

I had a particularly messy and public love for Zima in the early 1990's right after college. In fact, Zima was there for me when I received my physics GRE scores in the mail and realized I wasn't going to get into grad school anywhere I had already applied. What a night that was! I think several people have an image of me crawling across the dancefloor of the Axis nightclub permanently seared into their retinas. Poor fools.

While it may have it may have taken 15 years for Zima- and it's upscale sister, Zima Gold- to leave the market, for me, this delicious malt beverage will always be associated with FAIL.

SF Event: Beattie Book Launch

If you live in SF and are planning on buying Scott Beattie's book, the time and place to do it is November 3 at Cantina. Hopefully the drinks served will be ones from the book, as Beattie cranks out some seriously delicious cocktails.

Artisanal Cocktails: Drinks Inspired by the Seasons from the Bar at Cyrus
by Scott Beattie
$40 admission, includes cocktails and an autographed copy of the book
Monday, November 3rd, 6 - 10pm
Cantina
580 Sutter Street

for more information, please visit:

http://scottbeattiecocktails.com/

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/03/WI6S1385C0.DTL

More Cachaca Recipes

I think the cachaca category is too tied to the Caipirinha, but I probably think that because the Caipirinha is a lousy drink. There I said it.

But I love cacacha and am always thrilled to see something other than the Caipirinha made with it on drink menus. Coming to my rescue is Naren Young, a New York-based writer/bartender. He wrote this little ditty on the Top Five Cachaca Cocktails.

Included in the list is the Caipirinha de Uva, a drink I've had and loved several times in different places. There is also the Pearl Button by John Deragon, which sounds easy and delightful, and a version of the Bloody Mary called the Bloody Carioca. I had a different version of a cachaca based Bloody Mary, which sounds disgusting- and I loved it.

I just wanted to draw your attention to these other options because I'm so very glad to have them myself.

Icefusions

Gourmet.com has a story about a bartender making ice infused with herbs and spices like dried cherry, cardamom, and clove, which open up in cocktails and add new flavors to the drink as they melt.

I've had ice made from coconut water and bitters-infused ice before, but this is a new idea to me. Think of the possibilities!

No seriously, bartenders- go think of the possibilities and I'll be happy to sample your experiments.

Alcademics, now with actual links!

I finally created a links page. The permanent links page is here, but I wanted to finally recognize people whose blogs I read. See note below if you don't see your site here.

Bartenders Who Blog:

• Listen to the Ice
• H Ehrmann
• Neyah White
• Jeffrey Morgenthaler
• Jimmy Patrick
• Jonny Raglin
• LUPEC Boston
• Jamie Boudreau
• Bourbon & Branch
• Beaker & Flask
• Lance Mayhew
• United States Bartenders Guild

Drink Nerds:

• A Dash of Bitters
• Bunnyhugs
• Cocktail Nerd
• DC Drinks
• Dr. Bamboo
• Drink Boston
• Drink Boy
• Drinks Are On Me
• Infusions of Grandeur
• Intoxicated Zodiac
• Kaiser Penguin
• Gumbo Pages
• Moving at the Speed of Life
• Off the Presses
• Oh Gosh!
• Scottes' Rum Pages
• Sloshed
• The Art of Drink
• The Wild Drink Blog
• Trader Tiki
• Underhill Lounge
• A Mountain of Crushed Ice
• An Exercise in Hospitality
• Blotto
• Cocktail Virgin/Slut
• Drink Hacker
• Drink Planner
• Le Mixeur
• Looka!
• Rowley's Whiskey Forge
• RumDood
• Save the Drinkers
• Scofflaw's Den
• Standards and Pours
• The Mixoloseum
• Thinking of Drinking
• Tiki Drinks and Indigo Firmaments
• Soused
• Whisky Bros.
• Cocktail Buzz

Cocktail General Interest or Multi-Author:

• About.com Cocktails
• Days That End in Y
• Drink of the Week
• Gizmodo: Drinking
• Liquor Snob
• Martini Groove
• The Liquid Muse
• Museum of the American Cocktail
• The Spirit World
• YumSugar
• Drinks After Dark
• Glam Dish
• Good Spirit News
• Liquirius
• Loungerati
• Lush Life
• Spirits Beat

Authors and Superstars

• Beachbum Berry
• Wayne Curtis

Food (and Drink) Freaks

• Becks and Posh
• Eater SF
• Hedonia
• Married with Dinner
• Matt Bites
• Cooking with Amy

Beerish/Wineish/Champagneish/Non-alcoholic

• Bottle Watch
• Fermentarium
• Get Bubbly
• Hip Tastes
• Kegworks
• Lyke to Drink
• Cork Dork
• Knowledge for Thirst
• Vinography
• Spume

Magazines and Newspapers

• Complex
• Imbibe
• Food & Wine
• The Pour (NYT)
• Esquire
• Luxury Insider
• Men's Vogue
• NY Mag Nightlife
• The Cellarist (SF Chronicle)
• Buzzed (7X7 Mag)

Industry Stuff

• Just Drinks
• Drinks Business Review
• Drinks Media Wire
• iSante
• On the House
• Wine and Spirits Daily
• BevLaw Blog
• Nightclub Blog

Journalists

• Dowd's Spirit Notebook
• Paul Clarke
• Dowd on Drinks
• The Imbiber
• Rebecca Chapa
• Lew Bryson

Brands

• Talk Drinks (Partida)
• Drink Unique (VeeV)
• Pacific Distillery
• The Unusual Times (Hendrick's)

Single-Subject Blogs

• What Does John Know?
• Whisky Grotto
• Bourbon Blog
• Cachacagora
• Rum Pundit

So far, these are just the blogs. I may link to static websites in the future, but this is a lot of work!

Think I forgot you or want a link? Drop me a line and introduce yourself. I only link on this page to blogs I read in the beer/wine/cocktails arena.

An analysis of beverage preference in females

According to this video, different types of women prefer different alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. The proper host prepares for all types of guests. 

(Language is likely NSFW. Link via WOWReport)

Tiki Crawl 8

Last week, the day after WhiskyFest when I didn't really need to be drinking any more, I boarded a bus for an 11-hour tiki tour as part of Tiki Crawl 8.

Actually, it was only one of the four days of Tiki Crawl- the East Bay day. There was also a South Bay, San Francisco, and a cool-down potluck. Believe you me, one day was enough.

We started our journey at the Phoenix Hotel, the sponsor hotel for the crawl, at 3PM. We loaded up the bus and first headed to Forbidden Island in Alameda. The bus was loaded with people from San Francisco, Orange County, Portland, and I think someone came cross-country for the tour.

At Forbidden Island, there was a line out front waiting to get in. This was partly because of Tiki Crawl, and partly because there were two limited-edition mugs for sale. The tiki people love their mugs. One was a mug commemorating the tiki crawl, and I don't know what the other was commemorating or if it was just a special edition.

Inside the bar, I had a couple drinks, including the famous Sidewinder's Fang. Delicious.

Photo: MattPowersPhotography.com

After a couple of hours, we loaded up the bus again and headed into Oakland. Our first stop was the rather tiny Conga Lounge. We had more people than could really fit into the room, but it was fun anyway. They also had a mug, and it came with a tasty drink in it at a discount for our group. I couldn't resist and bought one.

Next up was the Kona Club, also in Oakland. The place is a large former sports bar (where fantasy football was invented, apparently) turned into a tiki bar. The same interior designer who built the interior of Forbidden Island did this place- and obviously had a much larger budget to work with. It was gorgeous. But the focus of the Kona Club is the decor, not the drinks. It's still a sports bar and hangout place, not a tiki-obsessive's best shot for top cocktails. Worth a visit? Absolutely.

I also picked up a mug here (five bucks, how could I resist?) with a drink inside. My mug collection just doubled!

Photo: MattPowersPhotography.com

Our final stop and grand finale was Trader Vic's in Emeryville. It's a big spot on the water, and would have a beautiful view during the day. They have the original stove from Hinky Dinks (the restaurant that became Trader Vic's after he was inspired by Don the Beachcomber), as well a historical rum display and other artifacts.

The regular Vic's crowd is an early crowd, and we were nearly the only people in the restaurant. They treated us incredibly well with a discount buffet, a fun band, and all drinks for five bucks for the night. I had many. Not only that, on the way out they gave each of us a mug (more of a coffee mug, but still).

The bars were fun, the bus was super fun, the people are awesome and friendly. The tiki scene is so interesting because it's actually the intersection of a lot of different scenes- part drink nerdiness, part history obsession, part arts and crafts, part home repair (everybody has a home tiki bar), part fashion, part music. Mush it all together and you get a wad of wonderfulness.

My photos from the day are here.

Whisky Wonderland

Finally I'm getting around to a wrap-up of WhiskyFest in San Francisco.

The event itself was well-run, not too crowded, and with plenty of food out to keep people relatively sane (or it seemed like it anyway, I smartly ate a huge burrito just before coming so that I wouldn't need to stop drinking to eat). As I did last year, this year I stayed on the floor the whole time, missing all of the talks, and instead talking to people I know and distillers and brand reps at the booths.

In the last half hour though, people got a little wild. I've heard from multiple people that the New York event is like this, a little less professional, with some yahoos screaming for the oldest expression on the table instead of doing a proper tasting through the line. It wasn't so bad here, just a bit intensely silly at the last minute. Overall, a wonderful event.

So, on to my favorite selections of the night. These are not the best in the room, of course, but the ones I found interesting.

• Bruichladdich Infinity- the only Bruichladdich I tried (it's a crowded table most of the night), was just plain damn delicious.
• Glenmorangie Signet- chocolate whisky? Yes.
• Dewar's Signature- too expensive to be so drinkable. I have a bottle at home and I had a dram here to conserve it.
• Yamazaki 18- Same here, except I don't have a bottle at home. I know what it tastes like and I drank it because I could.
• Old Pulteney 17- I like this expression better than the 21. I could drink the heck out of this.
• A. D. Rattray (independent bottler)'s Glencadam 1990. Cask strength yet light and zesty.

In the last 10 minutes, I finally ran into Eden Algie, the Macallan brand ambassador who was working that table as well as the charity table. There, they were selling tastes of single-bottle (not single-malt or single-barrel, but single-bottle) creations by current and past Master Distillers from the brand. We did a too-fast tasting of the four in the final minutes, pouring the last dram just after the event ended. Tasting notes weren't important, as nobody else is going to get to taste or buy that whisky ever. But umm, there was some great stuff.

See you there next year.

Event: Four Roses Bourbon Tasting

I am catching up on blogging several events that took place last week. Here's one of them. I attended a Four Roses tasting event with Master Distiller Jim Rutledge at Bouron & Branch.

Four Roses has only recently become available in California, and is landing with a bang. Products hitting the market are the Straight Bourbon ("yellow label") at $19.99, the Small Batch at $35.99, and Single Barrel at $41.99. The prices are not bad, and this stuff is hugely drinkable.

Rutledge told us about the brand, and why we haven't had it in the US for so long. The brand started in the 1880s in Georgia, but the state imposed a prohibition (early), so they up and moved to Kentucky. They were one of six distilleries allowed to remain open during national Prohibition from 1920-1933, you know, to make "medicine."

After Repeal, it was the largest selling bourbon in the US. Then Seagram bought the company in 1943, and launched a blended American whisky of lower quality in the States. Somewhere in there, they decided to discontinue selling the straight bourbon in the US in favor of the blended American whisky, though the bourbon was still sold overseas. The Four Roses name was largely devalued by the cheap stuff, according to Rutledge.

Then Seagram was sold in 2002, and Kirin picked up the brand after the split with the intention of bringing the bourbon back to the States. They stopped production of the American whisky and relaunched the bourbon first in Kentucky, where it won awards right out of the gate. Now it's finally getting around to other states.

The process of making this stuff is insane. They have two mash bills (recipes with different proportions of rye, corn, and barley) and five kinds of yeast that they ferment each mash with. This results in ten different flavors (my word, not theirs) of bourbon aged in individual barrels.

For the Yellow Label, they use all ten flavors to achieve a consistent flavor profile. For the Small Batch bottling, they use five of the flavors, and for the Single Barrel, they use just one (duh).

They're also launching the "Marriage" bottling that will be different each year, featuring two flavors mixed together and bottled at cask strength. The two flavors wil be different each year to come up with a new expression. Though I didn't get a chance to try this at WhiskyFest later in the week, several people said it was wonderful.

I really enjoyed this stuff and recommend putting it on your radar. Unfortunately for the rest of the country, so far it is only available in Kentucky, New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Colorado, California and Tennessee.

The backyard bartender

Tablehopper gets the scoop on a new bar/restaurant coming from Thad Vogler: Bar Agricole. Slated to open in San Francisco in March 2009, it will feature all non-commercially distilled artisan spirits. (Plus food and wine, if you care.)

I haven't yet made it to Camino, where he's been since opening Beretta (he gets around), but he runs a similar cocktail program there. Vogler has been moving in an increasingly local/sustainable direction, without sacrificing drink quality but increasingly limiting drink options.

And now some of those options will be home grown. Tablehopper reports that he'll have patio garden for herbs and greens used in the food and drinks. I wonder if it will look like this: