Alcademics.com

Drinking Trivia

Not the sort of thing I usually post, but why not? There's a new Ripley's Believe It or Not book out called Enter If You Dare!, and it has some goofy boozy trivia. 

• Beer Lake - pg. 188: A beer lake was formed in the German city of Kassel in December 2008 after a truck carrying 12 tons of freshly brewed beer lost its load while taking a sharp turn. Some 1,600 bottles smashed as they hit the road but their contents quickly froze in temperatures of around 25°F.  

• Tequila Diamonds - pg. 225: Mexican scientists have turned the country's national drink, tequila, into diamonds. They discovered that, when deposited on a stainless steel base, the heated vapor from tequila blanco can form tiny diamond crystals.

• Alcoholic Soap - pg. 232: A hand gel intended to combat swine flu was withdrawn from use at a British prison in 2009 after inmates realized it contained alcohol and started eating it. Instead of rubbing the liquid on their hands, inmates at Verne Prison, Dorset, England, put their mouths over the dispensers and started consuming significant quantities of the gel, with the result that a number became involved in a drunken brawl.

• Resting Place - pg. 235: Jack Woodwards's last wish was honored when his ashes were buried in the pub where he had spent many hours nearly every day of his life. The former landlord's remains lie beneath a flagstone in the bar at the Boat Inn in the village of Stoke Brunne, Northhampshire, England, with a plaque saying: "Stand here and have a drink on me."

• Many Beers - pg. 180: Over 5,000 different types of beer are brewed in Germany. There are about 1,300 breweries in the country, and the Weihenstephan Abbey Brewery in Bavaria has been making beer for nearly a thousand years - since 1040.

• Walk-in Cocktail - pg. 185: The Alcoholic Architecture bar in London, England, pumps out an intoxicating vapor of gin and tonic to leave visitors feeling slightly merry without even having a drink. Customers don protective suits to avoid smelling like a distillery, and to create the impression that they are actually inside the drink, the bar is decorated with giant limes and massive straws while a soundtrack carries the noise of liquid being poured over ice cubes.

• Rudeness Pays - pg. 190: A bar in the Spanish resort of Cullera offered free beer and tapas in 2009 to customers who insulted its bartenders. The owners of Caso Pocho said the gimmick was designed to relieve stress among its recession-weary clientele, but added that the free alcohol and snacks would go only to those who came up with truly original insults.

• Drinking Hole - pg. 240: A 46-year-old man woke up stuck from the waist down in a gully in Bochum, Germany, after a night of drinking in July 2009. With no knowledge of how he ended up jammed down the drain, the man was finally pulled out by baffled firefighters. Police are still confused as to how the drain cover was removed when he claims he did not touch it!

• Drunken Badger - pg. 53: German police were called to deal with a dead badger on the road near the town of Goslar - only to find that the animal was not dead at all, merely drunk! The badger had staggered into the middle of the road after eating overripe cherries that had fermented.

 

Book Review: Speakeasy by Jason Kosmas & Dushan Zaric

I received a review copy of Speakeasy: The Employees Only Guide to Classic Cocktails Reimagined by Jason Kosmas and Dushan Zaric, and I can't wait to try some of the recipes in it. 

I was just going to review the book here, but the folks at Fine Cooking asked me to review it for them in this week's blog post. Better yet, they got permission to include three recipes from the book:

• Fall Ginger Smash
• Hemmingway Daiquiri
•  West Side

Things that make a great cocktail book (for me):

• Not stuffed full of classics and basics that you can find everywhere.
• Not a million pages describing base spirits and techniques.
• Original recipes, but not so weird that you won't bother to try them.
• Recipes read like the authors have an understanding of cocktail format- not obviously unbalanced drinks that make you distrust the book.
• Enticing list of ingredients. Watermelon and Campari? Yes, I will try that. 
• Not a billion cocktails. Give us your best, not everything in the world. 
• Not so many homemade ingredients that you'll never make them.

Speakeasy meets most of these requirements and has plenty of pretty pictures to boot.

Most of the recipes in the book are, as the title says, variations on classic cocktails, but with really interesting variations. They list recipes for a blackberry-elderflower version of the Cosmopolitan, a French 75 with strawberry cordial, a Gin On Gin Julep, a Calvados Sidecar, and many other oh-that-sounds-good variations that you can picture in your mind's tongue. 

Unique Features

One unique feature of Speakeasy is that instead of infusing base spirits (though they have a couple), they infuse vermouth. There is one infused with herbes de Provence, on with chai, and a third with rooibos tea. The infusions are generally simple, and infusing a bottle of vermouth is a lot less financially risky than infusing a bottle of bourbon or tequila. 

They also list recipes for their lime cordial and grenadine, which they now sell as bottled products. 

So yeah, can't wait to get cracking on making these drinks. Yums. 

The book is available on Amazon.com.

Kindly leave any comments over at FineCooking.com. I've closed them here to encourage you to do so :) 

Boozehound by Jason Wilson

I read Washinton Post cocktail columnist Jason Wilson's new book Boozehound. Here are my thoughts.

If you're a regular reader of Wilson's Post column (and you should be) you'll already know a lot of his feelings on false marketing claims and made-up brand stories. In this book he gives a lot of the backstory on his experiences with magical marketing and that's where he's at his funniest- going off about St. Germain, Chartreuse, and Jagermeister. 

Because I know Wilson's writing and the man in person I'm used to all his ranting and raving, so what stuck with me about the book was not the humor in it (don't get me wrong, it's a funny book), but what I'll call "special moments with booze."

One Time at Booze Camp

A point that Wilson makes again and again in the book is that long lists of flavor descriptors of a spirit (or wine) don't do much for the reader, in large part because taste is so personal and subjective. What makes a spirit special is how it is special to you, and this is the core of the book. 

Wilson describes his visits to distilleries around the world, along the way sharing what he learned. (I picked up great new information about aquavit, amaros, pisco, and calvados.) But these descriptions are not dry lists of rules and regulations, tasting notes, and distillation parameters, but really about what made each visit memorable, or how he came to understanding of the spirit, or what sealed the deal, in essence. 

It makes you both jealous and really thirsty. 

You might think that this would get annoying- Wilson bragging about his wonderful adventures like a J. Peterman catalogue- but instead I found myself absorbing those memories into my understanding of the spirits as well. (Just what I need, to be even more like Jason Wilson.)

My Favorite Part

In one part, he talks of tasting genever at Tales of the Cocktail and how it triggered a memory: He was in Amsterdam with a friend and throughout the day they drank at Wynand Fockink and De Dres Fleschjes, took in a live sex show, and had "a heated debate about the nature of friendship and love and memory." 

He continues,

"Yes, this is what genever tasted like to me. Not just "earthy and funky." Not something I could encapsulate into a few tasting notes capped by a three-star versus four-star rating. It was something untranslatable. Genever tasted exactly like that day in Amsterdam, and everything surrounding that day. Genever tasted like seediness and nostalgia itself."

 

The book is available on Amazon.com.

A New Book on Pisco History

You know how you read a historic cocktail book like Wondrich's Imbibe and Jared and Anistatia's Spirituous Journey and you wish you could see the source material they used to write it?

History of Pisco in San Francisco: A Scrapbook of First Hand Accounts is basically that. Historian and pisco obsessive Guillermo Toro-Lira put together this book that contains ship's logs, diaries, newspaper clippings, and other reference material that he used to write his other book Wings of Cherubs. Much of it is new and printed for the first time. 

Also, I wrote the introduction!

Talking Bars with the Tablehopper

Marcia Gagliardi is known as the Tablehopper, a woman who eats her way through San Francisco restaurants and reports on the happenings in her weekly newsletter. I know her as a girl who loves her bourbon. 

She wrote a book called The Tablehopper's Guide to Dining and Drinking in San Francisco: Find the Right Spot for Every Occasion. I decided to interview her about the book and skip all the blah blah blah about food. 

 

Camper English: I love the book. I was skeptical about any book of restaurant information because it all changes so fast, but I realized when reading it that flipping through restaurant reviews on the internet is no fun. I found lots of venues I'd not heard of that are now on my to-do list. That said, mostly I eat garnish so let's keep this interview to bars, okay?

Fishermen's Grotto #9 sounds tacky and amazing. How did you find this place- are you secretly hanging out at Fisherman's Wharf with the tourists? 

Tablehopper: Truth be told, I actually was checking out a few restaurants to see if the tourists knew something I didn’t. And guess what? They did! Scoma’s rocks. As for the Grotto, I have a friend who knows how much I love vintage bars (alas, a disappearing genre), and she told me the Fisherman’s Grotto #9 was the most incredible time capsule. Boy, was she right. I’ve actually brought three friends there for drinks, and everyone agrees I need to throw a Rat Pack party there. Abalone and martinis?
http://www.fishermensgrotto.com/

I haven't been to the neighborhood in years but it's good to know there is a bar waiting for me the next time I get off the Alcatraz tour boat. Let's play "Name the secret bastion of alcoholic goodness in an otherwise craptastic neighborhood." 

Round One: The Richmond
Tommy’s! The high church of hangovers. My buddy Jamie runs the 540 Club on Clement—and they even host literary/boozy events with neighboring Green Apple Books. But it’s such a smoker patio bar that this ex-smoker can’t bear it any more. Stinky patrons! I do think Would You Believe? wins for my favorite sign. And props to McKenzie’s Bar on Geary for absorbing my birthday posse after we feasted on a banquet dinner at Hong Kong Lounge next door. The sassy bartenders totally styled us with good shots. 
http://www.tommystequila.com/
http://www.540-club.com
McKenzie’s, 5320 Geary Blvd. at 17th Ave.

Round Two: North Beach
Oh, the choices are quite fabulous (as long as it isn’t Friday or Saturday night, when I don’t even come near this neighborhood), from Tony Nik’s to 15 Romolo to the new Comstock Saloon. And then there’s always Vesuvio or Gino & Carlo’s if it’s early in the morning and you happen to have the shakes.
http://www.tonyniks.com
http://15romolo.com/
http://comstocksaloon.com/
http://www.vesuvio.com/
Gino & Carlo’s, 548 Green St. at Grant Ave.

Round Three: Pacific Heights
My days of underage drinking at the Lion Pub are long gone (I was the queen of whiskey sours, ouch). It’s pretty slim pickings, but the cocktail list at Dosa is always full of surprises. And again, if I was still a smoker, I think Dimples (another winning name and sign, btw) would be a filthy Japantown den I’d occasionally be lurking in, but those days are done. 
Lion Pub, 2062 Divisadero St. at California St.
http://dosasf.com/
1700 Post St. at Buchanan St.

The book is divided into bar (and restaurant) categories for activities like where to dump someone, where to 'eat and cheat', and places for 'ladies who lunch like dudes.' Hilarious, but incomplete if you don't name places:

Where there is a large selection of beer on tap and also you can bring your cat whose name is Roger:
Zeitgeist. But I’d sedate Roger and put him in a punk rock cat carrier fashioned out of a fixie.
http://www.zeitgeistsf.com 
 
And if Roger is actually a spy cat? 
Ahhh, oui. La Trappe—you and Rog can hide downstairs in the beer dungeon, as I call it. 
http://latrappecafe.com/

From New Jersey?
Toronado. There’s enough dude ‘tude behind the bar, plenty of beers, and a few darker corners so Roger can still feel stealth.
http://www.toronado.com

Where you can dress up as a British naval admiral and nobody will question your legitimacy? 
Oh, Vesuvio all the way. Emperor Norton is still a well-known name in those parts. And the last guy I had a conversation with there with like an extra out of Terry Gilliam’s Brazil.
http://www.vesuvio.com/

Where you can eat garnish as a meal? 
The Bloody Mary bar at Elixir on Sundays could help sustain you. And Koko Cocktails has a bacon happy hour on first Fridays!
http://www.elixirsf.com
http://www.kokococktails.com/

Thanks Marcia, and best of luck with the book!

Photo Credit: Mathew Sumner 

A Book Review and Excerpt: How To Booze- Exquisite Cocktails and Unsound Advice

How to Booze: Exquisite Cocktails and Unsound Advice by Jordan Kaye and Marshall Altier was released a couple of weeks ago. The book purports to be a pairing of cocktails with the appropriate life situations, but after reading it I think of it as often hilarious, well-written text and very good recipes; many of them new to me.

 

I don't necessarily agree that the Negroni is the perfect drink to have during a threesome (perhaps something more hydrating), but I like the thought that went into it and how they make the text all about the motives on the TV show Three's Company.  

The pairings are fun and include the appropriate drinks for self-pleasure (Adonis), playing Dungeons & Dragons (Bobby Burns), experimenting with your sexuality  (Fancy Free), reading the bible (Angel Face), Surviving (your kids') Sleepovers (Old McIntyre), and the apocalypse (Spiced Colada).  

I find the text charming even when the theme is "Sexual encounters in generic bars and hotels across the land" as it is for one chapter. The tone is almost that of an older man reflecting back on life, like you'd get in a movie voiceover: "Sometimes this stuff happens, and you may as well have a drink." After reading a bunch of the book I began wishing the voice was a character in a novel who could go on these drinking asides in the midst of a plot about something else. Which I guess is saying I really liked it.

But anyway, the best way to learn about the book is to read a chapter, so they've allowed me to publish an excerpt, which you'll find below the jump. 

(An excerpt from How to Booze by Jordan Kaye and Marshall Altier)

The Proposal: “I Do Not Want to Be Doing This”

Well, then, toughen up and just don’t. Marriage can be great for the right people in the right circumstances, but if you’re disposed to view marriage with fear, we can assure you that it’s everything you’re afraid of and more. Marriage is not for a lot of people, many of whom are already married. Your distinct advantage is that you can be unmarried—and you don’t even need to hire a divorce lawyer to get there. Don’t even think of trying to extend the relationship past tonight, though; it will just go from bad to worse.

It is true that the expectation to propose/accept a proposal is an acute problem in your life. But if you think that getting engaged is a viable solution then you are suffering from an even more acute failure of the imagination. So we will spell it out for you: the next six to nine months of wedding planning will be more psychically excruciating than anything you have ever experienced. And only then, once that’s over and you’ve settled into a reluctant marriage, will you first learn what “psychic pain” even means.

Saying “no” isn’t that simple, you say—but it’s always that simple. You may be complicated, your significant other may be complicated, and your relationship may be complicated. But the solution is simple. If you dread the question that you know is coming at the end of the night—or the question you are expected to pose, as the case may be—here’s a mouthpuckering, complicated drink: just what the doctor ordered for powering you up to make the difficult but inevitable choice.

Boulevardier

1½ oz bourbon or rye (4.5 cl)
1 oz sweet vermouth (3 cl)
1 oz Campari (3 cl)

Stir and strain into a cocktail glass.
Garnish with lemon peel.

If a Manhattan and a Negroni shagged up, this would be the spawn. Not quite like either of its parents, though, is it? Like a Manhattan, the Boulevardier takes its sweetness from Italian vermouth and its spicy depth of flavor from rye. But the Boulevardier’s Campari bitterness is much crisper and more pronounced than what you will get from the rich, almost musty Angostura found in a Manhattan. Meanwhile, the Boulevardier differs from the Negroni in two ways: first, most obviously, it uses rye rather than gin. But equally important, the Negroni is equal parts each gin, vermouth, and Campari, whereas the Boulevardier is heavier on the spirit. This makes the Boulevardier less bitter and also a bit heavier and boozier.

Musing over these kinds of comparisons may seem, to someone reading over your shoulder, like pure mental masturbation. And that’s probably what it is. But making connections between drinks helps build an understanding of how mixology works on a more abstract level. This will help you remember recipes and give you the tools to invent your own. What all that gives you, we can’t exactly say. Except to observe that better mixing skills is something to celebrate. Now that you have gained your independence, there will be plenty more time for boozing.

Book Review: The Modern Mixologist by Tony Abou-Ganim

I finally finished going through The Modern Mixologist: Contemporary Classic Cocktails by Tony Abou-Ganim with Mary Elizabeth Faulkner. Tony Abou-Ganim is one of the top beverage program developers in the country, having run drink programs for the Bellagio in Vegas and Crystal Cruise Lines among other places.   

The book is both a technique and recipe book, with a couple of stand-out factors. In the technique section- the first 83 pages of the book- there is a great timeline of The Evolution of Mixology. I also like the four-page chart of seasonal ingredients that lists their season, preparation method you should use with them (puree, infuse, muddloe, juice, garnish), and the spirits with which they best pair. 

 

The cocktails I believe are all originals and spin-offs of classics. What I like is that most of them are pretty simple and tasty-sounding combinations you could actually make at home, such as the Easy Living (rhum agricole, Domaine de Canton, pineapple juice,  lime juice) and Luce del Sole (Finlandia grapefruit, Aperol, honey, lemon, orange juice). 

Abou-Ganim isn't afraid to use flavored spirits like the Finlandia Grapefruit and Bacardi Limon, and I find that refreshing- it saves an ingredient when mixing at home and you're not stocked with four kinds of juice for every drink. There are also a lot of dessert-style drinks with ingredients like banana and chocolate liqueur that indicate this is really a book targeted at the home consumer rather than other bartenders. 

The size of the book reinforces this- it is a 9.5" by 10.5" hardcover picture book with very large font size that won't fit behind the bar but will on the bookshelf. I'd recommend the book for home cocktailians who like dessert drinks and aren't too cool for flavored spirits.  

The Naked Pint Book Review

The Naked Pint: An Unadulterated Guide to Craft Beer by Christina Perozzi and Hallie Beaune is a new book on beer that I think is terrific. I started reading the book as pretty much a beer novice and finished it really thirsty and ready to make an organized attempt at trying many different beer styles. I accidentally gave myself a lot of homework.

The book begins, as it should, describing how beer is made, and more importantly how each element in beer influences the taste. From that point on in the book the authors talk not just about what a beer style usually tastes like, but also why. Then they tackle how to taste beer, describe what makes a particular beer great, and list several examples of beers from around the world they consider the most balanced, quintessential to a category, unique, iconic, and rare.

Most of the meat of the book is dedicated to explaining the differences between and giving recommendations for the many different craft beer categories. These are organized by least to most challenging flavored beers, starting with pilsners and finishing with hoppy beers and American strong ales. You could, as I did, go through the book and mark categories and particular beers you want to try. I may very likely carry this book with me when I go to my local craft beer bar to look up menu selections before ordering.

The descriptions in the book are usually quite clear as to how a beer style will taste, the alcohol content, color, and other descriptors. They're also entertainingly written, as is the whole book- I laughed out loud in many places. This topic could be so very dry if it were penned by other writers, and this was one of its strongest factors- it was a pleasure to read what is essentially an encyclopedia.

Each beer category is described in detail and also succinctly, such as:

Spirit of the Saison. This Beer's For You If You Like: Seasons, pepper. citrus. balance. smelling freshly cut grass. classy drinks. the French countryside.

The last section of the book has information on beer glassware, home storage, beer tasting parties, and other practical matters.

Then there are many recipes for cooking with beer, and a whole section on home brewing with home brew recipes. This last bit I think was a little unnecessary or off-topic, as there are plenty of other books on home brewing whereas this feels at its heart a craft beer style guide and practical tasting and drinking guide. But too much information in a book is better than too little, and The Naked Pint felt like it had the right amount about what I wanted to know. Overall I learned a ton from this book and can't wait to put it to good use.