Happy Independence Day!

On this day it is an American tradition to cook meat at high heat over an open fire, gather with friends, drink and end the night with many loud explosions. (Also known as a cookout and fireworks.) But since this isn’t a cooking (without spirits), gathering or fireworks blog, let’s address our topic and help you decide what you should be imbibing on what, at least here in Minnesota, is looking to be a mighty fine day.

Bud Light is the best selling beer in the American market. But is it really all that patriotic to drink a beer owned by a Belgian/Brazilian company? Of course it isn’t. So what are proud, patriotic Americans to do when their favorite beverage is under foreign ownership? Well, in typical fashion, I have two answers for you. I’m all about choice after all. 

One, you could turn to one of your local craft brewers. Hard working people making tasty beers just for you. Here in Minnesota, I’ll probably have a Summit or a Schell’s or a Surly (Minnesota's beers all start with S? Oops there's Fulton, never mind). You probably know your locals better than I do. Though if you don’t, go down to your local beer emporium and search them out. You’ll be happy you did.

The other option I have for you is my favorite drink and namesake of this site: bourbon whiskey. Widely called America’s Native Spirit (erroneously thought to be because of an Act of Congress), it has a history as old as the United States itself. It, along with it's sibling rye, were developed right here in the USA, or at least what would become the USA. Beer is a worldwide phenomena. Vodka is European, Tequila is Mexican, Sake is Japanese. Scotch, Irish and Canadian whisk(e)y are, well, Scottish, Irish and Canadian.

But back to bourbon and rye. Or as I like to call them, Liquid Patriotism. To even be called bourbon it has to be produced in the US (amongst other rules). And though you've all heard of Jim Beam, Makers Mark, and Wild Turkey, might I suggest that we support the small businesses in this category too? Kings County Distillery in Brooklyn makes a bourbon. So does Kentucky’s MB Roland. I've had, and like, the Iowa Bourbon from Cedar Ridge. FEW Spirits in Evanston, IL makes both a bourbon and a rye. And I even hear rumors of a bourbon being produced in my home state of Wisconsin by Milwaukee’s Great Lakes Distillery. Though I find no evidence of that on their website.

So there you go:  a plethora of choices. And whether your choice is big, small, foriegn or domestic—please enjoy it, and your celebrations, in moderation and safety. I’d hate for you to lose a hand with those firecrackers. I mean, what would you drink with?

Photos of Wood, Printed on Wood

When I'm here, I'm a guy who shares his love of bourbon, american whiskey and other spirits in their many forms. Whether that is drinking, cooking, tasting, visiting, touring or just thinking about them doesn't really matter much. But when I'm not here, I do other things.

I'm a designer during the day. I make the things that most sane people actively try to ignore (advertising, in it's many forms) hence the drinking. I kid...mostly.

I'm a builder of pretty furniture-type things when my wife insists. 

I'm a photographer when the spirit moves me. I even have another site (yellowswanphoto.com) where I keep the photo blog I've been keeping for...wow...almost five years now. 

And it's my love of photography (and the many power tools I own) that made me want to try doing something a little different with their presentation. I found this blog post while trolling through the interwebs (How to Transfer Prints to Wood) and was immediately struck with the desire to try it myself. Unlike what the author of the post said, I prefer doing my black and white prints on a color laser printer as it has a bit more fine detail and the reddish color that results is a pretty good match for the wood tones with no need for staining the wood after. 

After searching for a suitable test photo, I landed on a couple of my favorites from my Bourbon Trail vacation in 2011. I mean they are photos of wood, printed on wood. It just made too much sense.

 

This is a photo taken in the Wild Turkey Distillery's bottle filling facility. 

You'd never guess it, but this was taken while visiting the Woodford Reserve distillery last year. Or maybe you would guess it.

These photos were each transferred to a 1"x6" pine board picked up at my local Home Depot that I then cut down to 4.5" tall. Be aware if you try this yourself, if you aren't careful with putting on a smooth layer of glue, you get places where the photo just won't transfer which is much more awesomely random than trying to distress it after the fact. I had others that were perfect...and boring.

So yes, even though this is only tangentially related to bourbon or whiskey, I felt it might be of interest to those who had an interest in bourbon. And heck it's my blog anyway.

Bourbon Banana Bread

I'm a real jerk sometimes. I look at my dwindling stocks of something and decide that I just can't share with everyone. Sometimes, I go ahead and do it anyway, like this weekend when I saw thatI only had maybe enough of my chamomile infusion to make maybe one more cocktail and almost refused to make one for a guest. 

My wife got to me before I could do that though. 

Or the time when I decided that I could only share my bourbon banana bread with just a few of the people at work instead of the entire team. And sadly that didn't even include my really good friend (who I couldn't figure out a way to call over without alerting everyone else as well). 

So since she is leaving this week for a job that promises both more stress and more fun I feel it is only right that I make up for that earlier slight by bringing in two whole loaves of the tasty treat. And since I'm trying to be a nice guy for a change, I figure that I should also share with you, my fellow bourbon lovers. My guess is that you already have the most important ingredient on hand.

Bourbon Banana Bread

Dry ingredients

2.25 cups flour
1.67 cups turbinado sugar
1 tsp salt
2.5 tsp baking powder
1.25 tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp + 1 tsp SaCo cultured buttermilk blend

Wet ingredients 

3 bananas (2 mashed, 1 diced)
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp high-proof bourbon (I used Knob Creek single barrel because 120 proof means more flavor and less water)
1.5 tsp vegetable oil
.5 cup (4 oz) plain non-fat yogurt
.67 cup skim milk

1. Preheat oven to 350°F, spray 2 loaf pans with non-stick cooking spray 
2. Melt butter in a frying pan and add diced banana. Cook over medium heat, turning frequently, until the bananas start to caramelize. Sprinkle a little turbinado sugar over them and pull off of heat. 
3. fold together mashed and caramelized bananas
4. Mix together dry ingredients
5. Mix together wet ingredients. 
6. When the oven is preheated mix together wet and dry ingredients
7. immediately pour into 2 loaf pans
8. bake 45 minutes to 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted into the top comes out clean

Once you mix the wet and dry ingredients together, speed is essential as there will be a chemical reaction going on between the baking powder, baking soda, the buttermilk powder and the wetness that will cause the mixture to be very light and foam-like. This is what provides lift to the bread and if you wait too long, you will have flat loaves. Still yummy, but harder to show off. 

Chamomile Cocktail

I originally found this basic recipe on the site Mix n Sip while researching how to serve the Chamomile/Coriander infused vodka I developed. (Oh yeah, I created a blend of chamomile infused vodka, coriander infused vodka and lemon infused vodka that is out of this world good.) I promised a friend of mine, who is leaving for another job, a unique cocktail at the party I'm throwing Friday night. So here is my recipe.

Chamomile Cocktail

1.5 oz Chamomile infusion (my recipe)
.75 oz lemon juice
.5 oz rich simple syrup
Mint sprig

Muddle mint in shaker, fill half full of ice, add ingredients, shake 10 seconds to incorporate mint oils, strain, garnish with another mint sprig. 

I'd serve it in an up glass, but that's just me.

New Stash Addition and Review: Bulleit Rye

Can I tell you a little something about this week? This week, I moved my daughter into her first place that wasn't a dorm room. She's decided not to go back to college and wants to start her own life. Which, I can respect. I did something similar after my first year of college. Took me three years, but I finally went back. And I ended up on path I would have never even thought of if I had stayed in school and not taken the break. 

So, I'm moving her out of our house. She's about half packed. (Hopefully she'll be back for the other half soon.) I'm carrying her boxes along with her boyfriend who is just the tiniest bit closer to my age than hers. Just past the halfway point, in fact. And, of course, fatherly disapproval is in full effect. So we're moving things, I'm trying to be nice (and mostly succeeding) when he asks me if I'd seen the last MadMen. I love that show, so the question gets me talking. We have a little chat, nothing worth hugging it out over, but things are going good. When we get home, I tell my wife to let our kid know that the ban on her boyfriend coming over has been lifted. Not because I'm all of a sudden going to be friends with this "old man" (28) dating my daughter (20), but because I felt I needed to revisit my feelings regarding him. To keep the kid happy. And maybe to keep her visiting more often.

Which brings me to the new addition to my stash. Bulleit Rye is another thing I felt like I needed to revisit to see where my feelings currently were at. Unlike the kid's boyfriend, my initial feelings for this whiskey were very positive. But not unlike the kid's boyfriend, my first impressions were made at a time when I didn't know a lot about what I was judging. I'd just started my whiskey journey when I first tried Bulleit Bourbon. The Rye came out very shortly after that and I tried it as soon as I could get my hands on a bottle. I fell in love. It was the first rye, I'd had and I loved it. The flavors were so different from all the bourbons I'd been drinking. It was exciting and strange. I tasted more than just vanilla or carmel. There was something else. Something that overpowered all of that. And it excited me.

Fast forward a bit. I've tried other ryes now. I like them all, but most seem like they could almost be bourbons. My guess is a few percentage points the right way on either corn or rye on the mashbill and a lot of them would be bourbons. They are sweet and just not as exciting as that first rye was. So a revisit was in order. And let me tell you, my memory wasn't fooling me. I still love this rye. 

Nose: Clean, almost antiseptic. Cherry and pipe tobacco.

Taste: Initially just more cherry and tobacco, but after citrus, mint and some cinnamon candies come out to play after a bit.

Finish: This sticks with you a while. The flavor is there for long after the warmth fades.

Rating: For the price of this whiskey, there is no reason for it to not always be on your shelf. It works great in cocktails and I love to drink it neat. Inexpensive, tasty and versatile.  Love this one.

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Hello from the Future! I just wanted to let you know that I have revisited this review. Come see how I liked Bulleit Rye in 2018!

Bourbon (Baked) Donuts

A couple months ago or so I happened upon a tweet by @BourbonBanter about really wishing he could put his morning donut in some bourbon. That got me to thinking, bourbon should be, no would be, really good in a donut. All that vanilla and carmel flavor melding with the sugar, a little cinnamon and nutmeg...I got to drooling just thinking about it (as an editorial aside, I still am. Saturday morning, these may be breakfast again...).

So I went looking for a pan to bake donuts in. I like fried donuts, but there is too much clean up. That and you have to get the oil just the right temperature or they soak up so much of it that your mouth is coated in an oil slick that is almost impossible to remove. No, baked sounded like the way to go. At my local Bed, Bath and Beyond (way beyond...) I found what I was looking for. The Wilton Donut Pan. It works pretty good and I was happy enough with it that I went back and bought another (since the recipe makes 12).

It took a couple tries to get right. The first time I didn't add enough bourbon. While you don't want too much, I really felt that since I was using good bourbon it was only right to taste it a bit. And since I told @BourbonBanter that I would share the recipe, here it is. It is a variation of the recipe on the packaging of the pan. I added bourbon and cinnamon and adapted it to what I had on hand. 

Bourbon (Baked) Donuts

(Makes 12 donuts)

Dry Ingredients

2 cups cake flour

3 Tbsp SaCo cultured buttermilk blend

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp salt

Wet Ingredients

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup bourbon (I used Knob Creek Single Barrel because 120 proof means more flavor and less water)

1/2 cup Egg Beaters (too many cholesterol problems to eat real eggs)

2 tbsp butter, melted. (shut up. I get the irony)

1. Preheat oven to 425°F. Spray doughnut pan with nonstick cooking spray. 
2. In a large mixing bowl, sift together cake flour, buttermilk powder, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. 
3. Mix together bourbon, water, egg beaters and butter. Add to dry mixture. 
4. Beat until just combined. Fill each doughnut cup approx. 2/3 full. 
5. Bake 7-9 minutes or until the top of the donuts spring back when touched. Let cool in pan for 4-5 minutes before removing. 
6. Finish donut by dredging through cinnamon sugar or confectioners’ sugar. Donuts are best served fresh. 

New Stash Addition: Redbreast 12 Year

I know, this isn't bourbon. It isn't even American. But fear not, I don't turn my back on my patriotic duty to drink as much bourbon as possible. I just turned the other way when I walked into Blue Max tonight. Turn left you find Bourbon, Rye and Canadian Whisk(e)y. Turn right and it it Scotch and Irish. I decided on a whim to turn right. And honestly, I didn't recognize anything on the shelf for the Scotch. I'll need guidance there. But I went just a little further and I noticed the Redbreast 12. It wasn't terribly expensive at $38 and some change. So after going and looking at the American whiskies, I talked to the wife and we decided to broaden our horizens a bit. After hearing all the advertising they do on WhiskyCast, I decided to go with the Redbreast. I've heard decent reviews so, we'll see.

 I've yet to crack it open. But as a designer, I love the quality of the packaging. Both embossed and debossed. Both on the same sheet. That's some spendy fininshing on that box. Hopefully what's inside lives up to the money they spent on it.

Initial reaction: very tasty, more to come.

Blue Max Liquors: Burnsville, MN

So, in the time I've lived in Minnesota, I probably passed Blue Max Liquors in Burnsville, MN about 50-60 times without really noticing it was there. I mean I occasionally noticed that there was a building that had blue awnings, had Blue-something written on it and was a liquor store, but I never really gave it any real attention. When I got the first issue of my Whiskey Advocate subscription, I noticed it in the back under the Specially Retailer section. 

"Where the hell is that? I've been everywhere in Burnsville," I muttered. Or something very near to that. Probably with happy curse words attached. Once I went to their website (http://www.bluemaxliquors.com for the curious) I knew exactly where it was. I'd driven past it numerous times. The listing said they were know for their scotch and bourbon selections. 

Yes, I was in the car before the book closed, why?

When I pulled into the parking lot, I was a little leery. This close to the south end of the metro, you don't normally see stores with bars in the windows. But I persevered, visions of bourbons dancing in my head. And was I ever rewarded. I can't speak to the other types of whisky, as I have much less knowledge about them, but the bourbon selection was indeed the best I'd seen in Minnesota. And the prices were lower than the chain just down the road. It wasn't the shiniest place I'd been in. There weren't wide aisles or bright lighting. But it was comfortable. And more importantly, it was stocked to bursting with wine, craft beer (they claim 1300 varieties), whisky (450 varieties) and, I assume, other liquors as well. To be honest, I've never really ventured beyond the beer and bourbon sections. I've walked past wine bottles, but didn't really pay them much mind. And the people. They were so nice. Helpful, cheerful, ready to chat with you. Just what I would hope for in a place of such wonderment.

There is just one knock on them. And it is something that I really do not understand because their prices are good, their selection is excellent, and the staff is so nice. They are about a 20 minute drive from my house. So one time I called ahead to see if they carried a certain whisky. The guy said they did and then even put down the phone to make sure it was in stock. When he got back on the phone he confirmed that it was indeed in stock. I told him I'd be right in and then asked how much it was.

His cheerfulness faded. "We don't give prices over the phone," he snapped. I was shocked. I had just told him that I would be right in. I keep aside a bit of cash each month to help stock the stash I didn't want to bring all of it if I didn't need to. 

Having worked in retail, this confuses me. I understand not wanting to tip off your competition, but to turn away customers as well seems like throwing the baby out with the bathwater and counter-productive at best. Needless to say I didn't go in that day. In fact, I might not have gone back at all, but...there was one bourbon in particular that I wanted and I knew they had it and I couldn't find it anywhere else. The guy behind the counter was so nice that I was won over all over again. 

Selection: I found two Pappys sitting on the shelf:   love

Price: About a couple bucks lower than the closest chain:   like

Customer Service: Confusing mix of awesome and terrible:   meh

Overall: I really like this store. I've just tried to memorize which of their products are cheaper (most) so I don't need to call again.

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