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Penthouse magazine, that is. I have a story in the April issue about my trip to Warsaw and the ancient forest with ZU vodka, the bison grass vodka known throughout the world as Zubrowka.
But I'm also in Penthouse as a model, again!
Of course you'll recognize my hand, sexily caressing that piece of bison grass. Damn I look good.
Always.
But if you don't have a subscription to the magazine you can read my write up here on Alcademics.
The Fifth Floor restaurant has another new bar manager, this time Brian Means, who was most recently at Zero Zero. There's also a new cocktail list that just launched with a focus on gin and whisky drinks.
The full cocktail list has a few ongoing sections showing Kimpton Hotel Group mixologist Jacques Bezuidenhout's influence, the Martini Over Time menu and a page of Negroni variations.
There are two additional pages of drinks that I had a chance to try. Some notes are below the ingredients.
Spanish Maiden
House infused Buddha Hand Tequila, Vida Mezcal, St. Germain, Rose Geranium, Habanero
Pink Elephant
Beefeater Gin, Rosato Vermouth, Pineapple gum, Orange bitters, smoked Absinthe
The Commodore
Clement Martinique Rhum, Blackstrap Gastrique, Lime, Ginger AleThis drink was one of my favorites on the menu (vinegar!) and comes with a cocktail sphere. I believe the sphere flavor changes daily. This one had dehydrated Aperol on top of the sphere for a nice crunch.
Jewish Mother
Bulleit Rye, Navarro Pinot Noir, Amaro Ciociaro, House Black Walnut BittersA nice Manhattan variation with gold dust on top.
Nail in the Coffin
Yamazaki Whiskey, Dry Madeira, Liqor 43, Fernet
Sun Also Rises
House Spirits White Whiskey, Black Tea infused Vermouth, Peach bitters, Grapefruit
Sparrows in the City
Oro Pisco, Applejack, Pomegranate, LemonA delicious, juicy drink, and they "put a bird on it"
New Vieux
Cragganmore Scotch, Marie Daffau Armagnac, Ellestad’s Hercules, Velvet Falernum, Angostura bitters
Boston Tea Party
Greylock Gin, Meyer Lemon Cordial, Rooibos & Chai Tea
Aquamiel
Espolon Reposado Tequila, Lustau Sherry, Daron Calvados, Orange BittersSherry and tequila, one of my favorite combinations.
Red Dawn
Square One Vodka, Limoncello, Lemon, Pomegranate
And for dessert, I tried the Fernet Three Ways - fernet ice cream, Jelinek fernet served neat, and a cocktail called the Fernet For All.
In my story last week in the San Francisco Chronicle, I didn't get the chance to be as nerdy as I wanted to with the specifics of the three (and a half) distilleries in Ireland and which whiskies they make. So here are more details from an earlier draft of the story.
Jameson, which accounts for seventy percent of Irish whiskey sales in the US, is made at the Midleton distillery in Cork, in the south of Ireland, from a blend of column-distilled grain whiskey and triple distilled “pure pot still” whiskey.
“Pure pot still” in this case refers to distilling a blend of malted and unmalted barely. This came into practice in Ireland as a way to avoid taxes- malted barley was taxed but unmalted was not. Distillers often describe spirit from unmalted barley as “oilier” and “more citrus-spicy” than the spirit from malted barley that has more apples-and-pears fruity notes.
The Midleton distillery also produces brands John Powers, Midleton, Paddy, and Redbreast, the latter of which is a pure pot still whiskey rather than a blend. Pernod-Ricard, owner of Midleton, clearly sees a future in pure pot still Irish whiskies, as they have just released a cask-strength Red Breast twelve-year-old, and plan to release pure pot still versions of Midleton and Powers later this year.
On the opposite end of the island in Northern Ireland is the Bushmills distillery, where the number-two selling brand in the US, Bushmills, is made. The company produces two blended whiskies, Bushmills Original and Black Bush, plus single-malt whiskies Bushmills 10, 16, and 21 year-olds.
The single-malt whiskey is pot-distilled from only malted barley (as is done in Scotland), as opposed to the malted/unmalted mixture found at Midleton. The column-distilled grain spirit used in Bushmills’ blends is actually purchased from Midleton.
The third best-selling Irish whiskey in the US is Tullamore Dew, which is a blend of column-distilled grain whiskey and pure pot still whiskey from Midleton with single-malt whiskey from Bushmills. In addition to this blend, Tullamore Dew sells 10 and 12 year-old blended whiskies, plus a ten-year-old single-malt that is made at Ireland’s third distillery, Cooley.
Cooley, located north of Dublin, has boasted of being Ireland’s only independent distillery, but it was recently purchased by the Jim Beam company. Cooley operates both column and pot stills, plus the small nearby distillery Kilbeggan. Kilbeggan is also a whiskey brand that is largely produced at Cooley, though they also have a single-malt Kilbeggan Distillery Reserve produced entirely on-site.
At Cooley, pot still whiskey is distilled twice rather than the three times distillation of Bushmills and Jameson. Whiskies from Cooley include the peated (smoky) single-malt Connemara, Tyrconnell single-malt that is aged in a variety of casks, and Greenore, Ireland’s only single-grain whiskey, which is column-distilled from corn and aged in ex-bourbon casks.
Cooley has distilled both single-malt and pure pot still whisky, though there are no pure pot still products on the market from Cooley yet.
Cooley also produces Concannon Irish Whiskey, launched this January, in partnership with Livermore Valley’s Concannon Vineyard. It is a blend of column distilled grain whiskey, pot-distilled single-malt whiskey aged for four years in ex-bourbon barrels, and some of that same malt aged for an additional four months in Concannon’s Petit Syrah casks.
Michael Collins whiskey offers both blended and single-malt bottlings, also made at Cooley.
Here's a handy diagram I just scribbled. Click to enlarge.
Now, this doesn't take into account how specifically these spirits are distilled, where they are aged, in what, and how they might be blended and finished, so the final flavor profile of Irish whiskey isn't as simple as all this. But I do think it's interesting to see how much Irish whiskey is born in so few places.
Hooray! I have a story in the San Francisco Chronicle about Irish whiskey. It discusses the popularity of Irish whiskey, some reasons for that popularity, its lack of use in cocktails, a cocktail recipe from Phil Mauro of Rye, and Ireland's three-and-a-half distilleries and their brands.
I was able to get through it without even mentioning St. Patrick's Day. Success!
Irish Whiskey Spiking in Popularity
By Camper English
When Swig opened near Union Square in 2003, its Irish owners carried every brand of Irish whiskey available in the United States. All five of them.
Nine years later, not only do they carry 32 Irish whiskeys, but their customers are also drinking a lot more of them.
"We've seen a very dramatic increase in the consumption of Irish whiskey," says owner Brian Sheehy. "A lot of the crossover has come from blended scotches, and instead of people asking for well whiskey on the rocks, they're calling their brand."
The phenomenon is by no means limited to Swig. Irish whiskey is the fastest-growing spirit category in the United States, with a 23.6 percent increase in volume sales in 2011 alone, according to the Distilled Spirits Council. It now outsells single-malt scotch.
, which is no longer in print but still available. It was originally published in 1980 and most recently reprinted in 1998. A lot has happened since then, but this book has some good historical information.
Here are some facts and assertions from the book.
As in Scotland, oppressive laws and taxation drove many people into illicit distilling. "In 1806, out of 11,400,000 gallons of spirits made in Ireland, 3,800,000 of these were produced by illicit manufacturers. In the years 1811 to 1813 almost 20,000 ilegal stills were destroyed by the revenue authorities and the military."
In the earlier 1800s, scotch whisky was heavy in flavor profile and the English didn't prefer it. Irish whiskey, which used malted and unmalted barley, was both lighter and more consistent.
When column distillation was invented, Irish whiskey makers were very reluctant to use it to water down their whiskey. They argued against it and refused to use it, while the Scots took to it to dilute their strongly flavored spirit. The lighter flavor profile was more popular both in England and America.
The Irish whiskey industry was further harmed by world war rationing, independence from England, and American Prohibition.
The last remaining Irish whiskey distillers banded together in the 1960s to form Irish Distillers. They were the sole producers of Irish whiskey, which was made both at the Old Bushmills distillery and down at Cooley.
I'll have some of the more modern history and production of Irish whiskey in a forthcoming story in the San Francisco Chronicle.
While at Tales of the Cocktail Vancouver, I attended the seminar on dilution by Audrey Saunders and Harold McGee. Saunders is the owner of the Pegu Club in New York and McGee is the author of the seminal work On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen
Part of the discussion was about why we get more aroma in weaker drinks rather than stronger ones. People add water to whisky and other spirits when nosing them to release aromatics, yet this is counter-intuitive: shouldn't the whisky on its own have a more intense flavor that a whisky with just water in it?
The explanation is:
Saunders has been making a series of "inverted cocktails" in which she uses 2 parts of a weak ingredient like a fortified wine to 1 parts of the strong ingredient like whisky. These inverted cocktails are more aromatic than the stronger (1:2) versions of the same drink.
Other fun facts learned in the seminar:
I mentioned some of these in my write-up of twelve bars in Vancouver, but I wanted to expand on what's happening in Vancouver's bar scene.
Bars Are Restaurants
Apparently licensing in Vancouver is very strict, so many bars are disguised as restaurants. There are seats for everyone and they look like restaurants with tables, but they just offer some small shared plates as food. In most cities we think of seating-required bars as fancy cocktail bars, but in Vancouver it's just the way you have to drink.
Bartender's Choice
In at least half of the bars I was in, customers were ordering "bartender's choice" drinks, in which the customer just gives a few directives (choice of base spirit and a flavor profile like "spicy") and lets the bartender create a drink. Vancouver is very much a developing cocktail scence (creativity seems more valued than refinement for now) but consumers have great confidence in the local bartenders. This is great.
Barrel Aged Cocktails
At probably ten or more bars in this one small city.
Carbonated Cocktails
I saw the Perlini carbonator system in use at a couple bars. One bar was also serving bottled cocktails.
Tea
I thought London bartenders used a lot of tea in their cocktails, but they have nothing on Vancouverites. I'd estimate the average cocktail bar has at least two tea drinks on the menu, but some have four or more. Usually the tea is used in the form of a homemade flavored syrup.
Smoke and Tobacco
Smoke as we know is a huge flavor trend, but unlike other markets bartenders don't just throw mezcal into everything. (I get the impression that it's absurdly expensive up there.) Instead they more often use pu'er tea and tobacco tinctures.
Antique Glassware
It seems like a novelty in most cities for bars to serve drinks in antique glassware, but among the better cocktail bars of Vancouver this was almost the norm.
Short Menu Descriptions
I noticed that several bars would have a lot of creative touches in their cocktails but not mention them on the menu. Bars didn't mention that cocktails were barrel-aged, that they were carbonated or bottled, or that they smoked a glass with a burnt barrel stave before serving the drink. These all seem like selling points that would drive interest, so it was a bit odd.
Cynar, Campari, Fernet-Branca
I don't know if I've ever had a drink with a Fernet float on top of it, but in Vancouver I had three or four. They use the stuff in cocktails more than they do in San Francisco. Additionally Cynar and Campari are everywhere, usually on multiple drinks on menus. I'm not sure if these drinks are more 'by bartenders for bartenders' as some bars do, or if the Vancouver palate skews bitter.
All in all, Vancouver is a great cocktail town.
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