Alcademics.com

We Have Ice, And We Have Backup Ice

It turns out that Wayne Curtis has a lot of connections in the iceberg business. Wayne and I are co-leading a talk about Exotic Ice at the Manhattan Cocktail Classic on Monday, May 14th and we thought it would be cool to get some iceberg ice for it. Because the rate of precipitation in the Arctic is actually pretty low, it's not that hard to get some ice that is 10,000 or so years old. The air trapped between the thin layers of snow compresses as layers add on top of it, so when you pour a drink over iceberg... Read more →

Come Hear Me Speak at the Manhattan Cocktail Classic May 14th!

I am giving three talks at the Manhattan Cocktail Classic in New York on May 14th. I hope if you're in town you'll come hear them. First sign up for the Industry Invitational (all bar industry and media are welcome). These seminars require an rsvp and you can do that on the schedule page. It's all free. Filtration In Spirits Monday May 14, 2012 11:30am - 12:30pm @ Beverage Media Room: Studio 3 - Second Floor (485 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10018 USA) We don’t often speak about filtration in spirits, yet it is the defining factor in Tennessee... Read more →

Easter Cocktail Ideas

Today I'll link to two previous posts I did for Easter. The first is this colored ice that looks like Easter eggs, made with water balloons and food coloring. Go here to find out how I did it. If you're looking for a cocktail to use with this colored ice, may I suggest the Double Rainbow? And the second post was a use for bunny Peeps, because those things aren't really all that good to eat. The original post is here. Read more →

A Clear Ice Ball Maker You Can Buy

One difficulty with the Igloo Cooler method of making clear ice is that you get a great big block of ice at the end and have to cut it up into usable cubes yourself. I developed an ice cube tray using plastic boxes that gets the ice into long rectangles, and that's a bit closer to ideal. But if the desired result is round clear ice balls, we need to either produce a mold that fits inside the cooler, or else carve out ice balls afterwards. Well, it turns out that someone produced such a mold to make clear ice... Read more →

Modern Day Pond and Lake Ice Harvests in America

I got it into my head that I want to see a pond or lake ice harvest, despite my contempt for winter. Commercial ice harvests changed the cocktail landscape in America in the early-mid 1800s, allowing for the creation of juleps and cobblers and the popularization of the drinking straw and the cocktail shaker. Today there is still ice harvesting on many American lakes and ponds. As far as I can tell it's more historic reenactment more than practical, with most of the places that have an ice harvest limited to a single day of the year. Most places bring... Read more →

How Machine Ice Is Made

These are a few ways that ice was and is made, which I learned from the awesome book Ice: The Nature, the History, and the Uses of an Astonishing Substance by Mariana Gosnell. Slushie Method The first way is just like making ice cream the old-fashioned way: snow or cold water mixed with salt can become colder than freezing. So if you put a cup full of water (or ice cream ingredients) and stir the supercooled salt/water mixture around it, the water in the cup can turn to ice. Expansion of Gases As vapor and expands into a large space... Read more →

How Water Freezes

This post is about how a lake freezes, but it should be more or less the same for how an insulated container freezes in a freezer. The information is from the excellent book, Ice: The Nature, the History, and the Uses of an Astonishing Substance by Mariana Gosnell. Turnover As temperatures lower, the water in a lake "turns over." The top layer of water is heated by the sun during the day and is therefore warmer and lighter than the layers below it. At night without the sun, the cool air above the lake cools the top layer of water,... Read more →

Camper's Cocktails in Every Day with Rachael Ray

I have a two-page spread in the November 2011 issue of Every Day with Rachael Ray magazine. It has a few trends - stuff like fresh ginger and sherry/port in place of vermouth along with some ice cube tricks (recognize that rainbow ice?). Also it has four recipes I developed- a spirit-interchangeble mint buck, a Grapefruit Vesper, a Sparkling Cinnamon Punch, and a port/espresso dessert drink. Nothing ground-breaking but they're all pretty tasty. Run screaming to your local newsstand and pick it up! Read more →