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Alcademics Giveaway: The Joy of Sake in San Francisco

I've attended San Francisco's Joy of Sake event for the past several years and have always been impressed. If you've gone in the past you'll remember it was hundred of sakes in a ballroom with food around the outside. This year they've changed it up quite a bit.

It will be held at Yoshi's on Fillmore in San Francisco, there will be 100 sakes instead of 200+, and the event is less expensive at $50 in advance.

If I'm reading the press release correctly, this year the sakes are just the award winners from the US Sake Appraisal. In the past it has been award winners and losers together, so I guess we'll be getting only the cream of the crop. Nearly half the sakes offered are unavailable in the US outside of this tasting. The ticket price also includes appetizers by Yoshi's chef Shotaro “Sho” Kamio. In the past there has been a ton of food so let's hope they keep it coming- though I say it's always a good idea to come to any tasting event with a full stomach.

The Joy of Sake

7:30 - 10:30, with food from 8-10

Yoshi's Fillmore, 1330 Fillmore Street, San Francisco

$50 advance, $60 at the door

Buy tickets here. 

Oh, and about that giveaway: I'll be giving out a pair of tickets to The Joy of Sake in San Francisco. The only thing you have to do is be on the Alcademics A-Plus email list and respond when I send out the announcement. Good luck!

Alcademics Giveaway: The Bubbly Bar

I'll be giving away five copies of Maria Hunt's book The Bubbly Bar: Champagne and Sparkling Wine Cocktails for Every Occasion. To be eligible to win, just sign up for the Alcademics A-Plus email list here. I'll pick a random winner from the list later this week.

Author Maria Hunt is responsible for the website TheBubblyGirl.com. She's also a CIA-certified wine professional and freelance writer. I first met her when we judged a champagne cocktail competition together.

The Bubbly Bar, which comes out August 25th, is a recipe book for cocktails made with champagne, other sparkling wines, and sparkling sake. Each recipe specifies the type of sparkler used, which is handy to those of us who don't know our prosecco from our cava. The drinks are pretty accessible, made with liqueurs like St. Germain, triple sec, and the occasional frambois and Campari. The liquor too is mostly everyday stuff- there is lots of gin- but also one each of certain rums, calvados, and pisco. Most of the less common ingredients are fruits and juices, floral syrups, and teas, and Hunt provides a resource guide in the back of the book on where to find them. 

The drinks do not seem super challenging- the average is floral and/or juicy as opposed to  bitter and strong, but there are a lot of delicious-sounding originals. There are a few zingers in there too- drinks with a rinse of Pernod, a splash of black peppercorn syrup, or a touch of jalapeno. The final chapter has dessert drinks and desserts.

Another nice aspect of the book is that Hunt lists recommended brands of bubbly by price- a shopping list to take to the store.

Jason Wilson recently wrote about the book for the Washington Post and included a recipe that was inspired by Joel Baker of Bourbon & Branch: the Aperol Flip. 

To be eligible to win, just sign up for the Alcademics A-Plus email list here.

Two-Book Thursday: Alcademics Giveaway: The Regulars by Sarah Stolfa

I'm giving away five copies of two different books from the Alcademics A-Plus email list. Sign up now if you haven't already!

The Regulars by Sarah Stolfa

Unlike most booze books reviewed on this website, this one has no recipes and barely any words. This makes sense as it's a photo book by bartender-turned-photographer Stolfa. These portraits were taken at the bar McGlinchey's in Philadelphia as she transitioned careers.

Stolfa's says of the regulars she photographed, "There is a visible conflict within an individual alone at a bar- they appear confident and assured yet vulnerable and naked, trying to look engaged yet open at the same time... I wanted to reveal the isolation of the individual even when surrounded by the chaos of the bar."

Photo used with permission by Sarah Stolfa and Artisan Books

When I look at the photos I don't see the vulnerability at all- though I certainly know what she's talking about. The portrait lighting shows each individual as fully formed; not tentative, like most of them wanted to be photographed in just that way (though dirty ashtrays and outfit choices tell a different story). To me, this is a little eerie, as if in the bartender's eye (or lens) each person sitting at the bar is not a social animal but a loner. They're not beautiful and not ugly, but highlighted for no reason other than they were sitting at the bar. They feel like an interruption of personal moment rather than the social ones they really are.

Anyway, pretty pictures. There is a whole gallery of the pictures from the book at this website.

And sign up to Alcademics A-Plus for your chance to win one of five copies.

Fine print: Giveaway offer only good for Alcademics A-Plus subscribers of legal drinking age residing in the US.

Two-Book Thursday: Alcademics Giveaway: Libation by Deirdre Heekin

I'm giving away five copies of two different books from the Alcademics A-Plus email list. Sign up now if you haven't already!

Libation: A Bitter Alchemy by Deirdre Heekin

I had hoped to meet author Deirdre Heekin at Tales of the Cocktail, where she was signing copies of the book, but if you've been to the convention you know that plans there don't always go according to plan. Unfortunately I haven't had time to read the book yet, but the description is enticing:

In Libation, a Bitter Alchemy,, a series of linked personal essays, Heekin explores the curious development of her nose and palate, her intuitive education and relationship with wine and spirits, and her arduous attempts to make liqueurs and wine from the fruits of her own land in northern New England. The essays follow her as she unearths ruby-toned wines given up by the ghosts of long-gone wine makers from the red soil of Italy, her adoptive land; as she embarks on a complicated pilgrimage to the home of one of the world’s oldest cocktails, Sazerac, in Katrina-soaked New Orleans; as she attempts a midsummer crafting of a brandy made from inherited roses, the results of an old Sicilian recipe she found in a dusty bookstore in Naples.

Musing on spirits from Campari to alkermes, Heekin’s writing is as intoxicating, rich, and carefully crafted as the wines, liquors, and locales she loves.

It's rare to meet people who write on both wine and spirits, especially in the same book, so I'm excited to see her outlook on things. With (I assume) spirits chapters called Ode to Campari, The Green Hour, Sazerac, and Fiery Particles, there looks to be a fair amount of the hard stuff in the book as a chaser to the wine.

Heekin is a co-owner of a Vermont restaurant for which she produces homemade liqueurs and micro-vintage wines. In this Saveur interview, she tells of her love for Amaro. And here a writer develops a recipe for rose liqueur after reading the book.

If you've read the book, let me know what you think in the comments. And sign up for the Alcademics A-Plus email list for a chance to win a copy.

Alcademics Giveaway: The King of Vodka

I'm giving away five copies of the new book The King of Vodka: The Story of Pyotr Smirnov and the Upheaval of an Empire, by Linda Himelstein.

To win a copy sign up for Alcademics A-Plus (remember, this email list is only for giveaways and never any junk) and await instructions.

I haven't had a chance to read the book yet, but luckily Steve Weinberg of USA Today did. Here's what he has to say:

As a writer for BusinessWeek magazine during the 1990s, Linda Himelstein covered the story of a family with Russian roots, the Smirnovs.

Their ancestor, Pyotr Smirnov, dead since 1898, had accumulated wealth in 19th-centuryRussia against gigantic odds by rising from rural slavery (serfdom), finding his way to Moscow as a teenager, learning the commercial realm despite near illiteracy, producing vodka, then marketing the alcoholic beverage ingeniously.

After the death of the patriarch, his heirs fought relentlessly. Their inability to get along, combined with the Bolshevik Revolution in their native land and other upheavals around the globe, led to the demise of the family business.

The name Smirnov became attached to high-quality vodka again only after World War II, and only because a visionary marketer outside the family devised a plan.

When those in the Smirnov bloodline tried to wrest back their commercial heritage through the courts — the story that attracted Himelstein at BusinessWeek— they failed. Himelstein could not let the saga go, however.

There's much more to the review- you can read the full thing from USA Today here.

Alcademics Giveaway: Books for your Brain and your Butt

I've got seven books to give away to people on the Alcademics A-Plus email list. All you need to do to enter is sign up for the list.

First up, I've got five copies of the new paperback edition of Wall Street Journal writer Eric Felten's book How's Your Drink?: Cocktails, Culture, and the Art of Drinking Well.

I reviewed the hardcover in the San Francisco Chronicle a while back:

Eric Felten's "How's Your Drink? Cocktails, Culture, and the Art of Drinking Well" (Agate Surrey, $20; release date Nov. 28) is written in the breezy tone that defines his James Beard Award-winning column of the same name in the Wall Street Journal. The book consists of short essays on classic and modern cocktails with recipes at the end of each, grouped into chapters on ice drinks, holiday drinks, war drinks and the like. Though Felten also traces cocktail origins, he references fewer cocktail books and more literary sources like Broadway plays, novels and newspaper stories. It is a cultural study rather than a technical one, packed with great trivia and hilarious observations like calling gargantuan martinis "hazing, not hospitality." The best description of the book, and the study of cocktail history in general, comes from the conclusion. "If there is anything to be serious about in the way of drinks it is this only: that one's drink be delicious. If it can add to our pleasure by having a good story to tell, then all the better."

To celebrate the paperback release, they've allowed me to give away five copies of the book.

Also, I've got two copies of Does My Butt Look Big In This Beer? Nutritional Values Of 2,000 Worldwide Beers by Bob Skilnik. I haven't seen the paper copy of the book, but something tells me it has the nutritional values of 2000 worldwide beers.

Sign up for the email list to be eligible to win. I'll do the giveaway May 11th, 2009, so make sure to sign up before then.

Alcademics Giveaway: Good Drinks for Bad Days

I'm giving away five copies of the book Good Drinks for Bad Days. Sign up for the Alcademics A-Plus email list and you could win one next week.