Jeffrey Morgenthaler: The Bar Book, Elements of Cocktail Technique

I’ve been reading Jeffrey Morgenthaler’s blog for a long time. It was there that I learned that my home state of Wisconsin has it’s own kind of Old Fashioned made using brandy and fruit and…Sprite? (Asking around at family gatherings has confirmed the existence and popularity of the Brandy Old Fashioned, made Wisconsin Style.) So it was with great sadness that I noticed his blogging output had basically dried up to nothing.

But it was with great joy that I read the news that the reason for the dry spell was that he was writing a book instead. I immediately pre-ordered it and eagerly awaited it’s arrival in my mail box.

I wasn’t disappointed. There is a short introduction, but then it dives right into the ingredients and techiniques you’ll use as you build cocktails. It runs full speed through citrus, syrups, mixers, stirring, shaking, measuring, infusions, dairy and eggs, safe food handling, and garnishes. The book only pauses now and then for the occational recipe.

The Bar Book, Elements of Cocktail Technique by Jeffrey Morgenthaler is not a recipe book. This is a how-to book. It doesn’t just list out ingredients, it tells you why to use them. It doesn’t just say measure, it tells you how to measure. And it does so with warnings as to what might happen if things go wrong. 

like.gif

I cannot recommend this book enough. It is entertaining, informative, and beautifully presented. If you like making cocktails or just think that you would like to like making cocktails go buy it now.

Stranahan's Colorado Whiskey: Don't Bother

How do you celebrate the three month anniversary of finishing chemotherapy? If you are my wife, you hike up a mountain in Colorado. And how do you celebrate making it all the way up? Well, you visit a nearby distillery, take a tour and buy a bottle of whiskey that you can’t get at home.

There are a lot of reasons I love my wife, but those two things might make it near the top of my list.

There haven’t been many times in my life that I’ve been standing on the ground at over 10,000 feet above sea level. That might have been the first time I walked there.

The tin cup top is a nice looking touch.

The distillery we visited afterward was Stranahan’s in Denver. The tale on the website is that it was founded by George Stranahan, the founder of Flying Dog Brewery and a firefighter as they bonded over Stranahan’s barn fire. It’s an unusual tale, and it may even be true, who knows. Now they are owned by Proximo Spirits out of New Jersey. Better known as the distributor of Jose Cuervo and brand owner of Three Olives Vodka and Kraken Rum.

I’d heard good things about the whiskey and the tour and tasting was fun enough that I didn’t feel too bad about buying a bottle. It comes in a very tall narrow bottle with a bright yellow label that wraps around it at a severe angle. It’s pretty distinctive. And once you have one on your shelf, you’ll notice it whenever it appears. In odd places like the Showtime show House of Lies where it seems to be Don Cheadle’s drink of choice.

But the proof, as they say, is in the whiskey.

Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey

Purchase info: ~$60 for a 750 mL at the distillery

Details: Batch #95, 47% ABV, 2 years old

Nose: very grain forward with just hints of oak, cinnamon and citrus pith

Mouth: Starts with a rough alcohol burn. Cooked cereal, brown sugar. It’s sweeter than I expected and tastes very new-makey.

Finish: the finish is nice and long, but fades to bitter really quickly

dislike.gif

Thoughts: Water helps this, but even with that, I don’t like this one. There’s nothing wrong with it that age wouldn’t fix. But for just about $60, I don’t want a fixer-upper. Add in the fact that this is malt whiskey in virgin oak barrels and you can guess that further age might kill it. Maybe they should switch to used barrels, more time and a lower proof? I don’t know. I’d avoid this one unless you love young whiskey and have too much money on your hands. Otherwise? Don't bother.

Old Ezra: 7 years + 101 proof + $16=Great value

It was back near the beginning of the year that I conceived of the idea to honor the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament by having a bracket-style taste-off of cheap bourbons with the twin goals of a) finding a diamond in the rough and b) getting a series of blog posts with minimal output of dollars. 

I like dollars and prefer to keep them for myself, which was sort of the basis of both goals.

During that time, I realized that while I found no real diamonds, I did find a really small sapphire and more than one really nice cubic zirconia that smelled and tasted almost…like…the real thing…

I think I lost track of my metaphor there somewhere. Any way, I found a couple of really good values that I would be happy to have on the shelf at any time. One of which was Ezra Brooks. A decent bourbon, not top shelf, but a good mixer and an ok sipper in a pinch. 

Fast forward to about a month ago. As I left my latest dentist appointment, I decided that it would be a mighty fine idea to stop into the liquor store that is just down the street. I wasn’t looking for anything in particular, I was just trying to wait for the traffic (and the numbness in my face) to subside. As I was wandering around, I noticed a bottle that I hadn’t seen before. Old Ezra 7 year, 101 proof. I’d heard of it while I was doing my research for the Ezra Brooks bracket. A lot of people seemed to like it. And as I hadn’t seen it in Minnesota previously, I picked it up.

Old Ezra, Aged 7 Years, 101 proof

Purchase info: $15.99 for a 750mL @ The Cellars Wine & Spirits, Eagan, MN

Details: 7 years old, 50.5% ABV

Nose: Soapy citrus, clove and cinnamon. Transitions to pear and an earthy buckwheat honey

Mouth: Classic Bourbon notes (caramel, vanilla, honey, spice) along with pear and, strangely, bubblegum

Finish: Bubblegum (specifically the slightly cardboard tasting stuff that came in baseball card packs when I was a kid) along with lingering allspice and honey.

Thoughts: This is not a $30 bourbon, but for $16 this is a fantastic value and will have a place on my shelf for as long as the price is right. Good for cocktails, infusing and even more than it’s black label (and lower proof) sibling, it’ll work neat for those situations where you don’t feel like analyzing your whiskey.

My personal search for the next great Four Roses Small Batch recipe

I did something rather drastic last night. I started the night with ten different single barrel bottles of Four Roses Bourbon on the shelf and I ended the night with four different small batch editions of Four Roses bourbon. 

As I reached the halfway point of the bottles I reviewed last spring and started to get a hankering for something a little different, I realized that I was going to these bottles less and less. It’s not that there was anything wrong with them, but 7.5 liters of anything is going to get just a little old after a while. 

But then, I got a great idea. Inspired by a guy I know from twitter, I decided to start mixing them together to see if I could find the world’s next great small batch recipe. I was lucky on this one, every bottle was great on it’s own so I wasn’t trying to hide anything. Instead I was trying to tease out something that was more than the sum of its parts.

Not knowing where to start, I started with like yeast codes in equal amounts. I tried OESF and OBSF first and that was pretty good. Then I tried OESQ and OBSQ…that was terrible. I added an equal amount of OESF though and it was amazing. Something about that OESF caused all sorts of magic to happen.

Blend One: OESQ + OBSQ + OESF

Details: 57.5% ABV

Nose: Starts with pear and citrus. Moves to strong oak. then settles into a buttery caramel.

Mouth: Buttery caramel and vanilla anlong with an herbal spiciness. Almost basil.

Finish: Herbal with a hint of sweetness and a lot of spice. Nice and long.

Thoughts: Considering this was a desperate attempt to salvage a bad tasting mixture, it rocks my world that it ended up so good. I love that it takes three that many people react poorly to and turned them into something wonderful.

After that second experiment I decided that I needed to approach this from a different angle. I tried pairing like with like. Four Roses says that Q yeast is floral and so I tried pairing those with a fruity OBSV. It was ok, not great. I tried pairing OBSF and OBSQ. All my notes say for this one is: No. I tried opposites. OBSV and OBSK, fruity with spicy. That was pretty good, not awesome. 

I tried a few more ways without hitting anything great. As I was getting close to giving up, I remembered that I have a bunch of empty Limited Edition Small Batch bottles right there. And they have the recipe on them. First I tried recreating the 2009 that I loved so much. Two-thirds OBSK with one-third OESO. My notes for that say “Super Yum.” I tried the 2013 recipe, equal parts OBSV, OESK and OBSK. Same thing. 

Blend Two: OBSV + OESK + OBSK (Replica 2013 LE SB)

Details: 58.0% ABV

Nose: Very clean smelling, like a after a fresh rain. Ripe cherries, cinnamon candies and oak.

Mouth: Chewy caramel, citrus and a big load of spices: ginger, cinnamon, clove, etc.

Finish: oak, lingering bitterness and a long warmth

Thoughts: While I can’t say for certain that this is as good as the 2013 LE SB (literally, I refuse to crack my reference samples right now) it is amazingly good in it’s own right.

Inspired, I jumped back into it. OBSO + OESK + OESQ. Spicy, creamy, super yum! OBSO + OESF + OESK + OBSF? Amazing! Finally I decided to try the big one. All ten. It’d take a lot of measuing small amounts. Especially if I wasn’t going to end up with a pitcher full. Well, guess what? Now I want a cask strength Yellow Label released. It’s simply amazing what all those flavors do with one another. 

Blend Three: All Ten (Cask Strength Yellow Label?)

Details: 56.2% ABV

Nose: Ripe cherries, pear, allspice and black pepper.

Mouth: very supple mouthfeel. Sweet. Juicyfruit gum, oak and a tasty floral note.

Finish: Lingering floral flavors and a nice long heat.

Thoughts: I liked this one so much I took a little of each bottle and made my own 750 mL bottle of it.

And that’s what gave me the idea to start consolidating into various blends. I looked up the label for the 2014 Limited Small Batch and made one of those, came to about half a bottle. I made about 3/4 of a bottle of the Spicy, creamy, super yum I mentioned above. And then I was left with four heels. Having decided I wanted the shelf space I just mixed them together. While they didn’t turn out to be a super yum, the combination of one part OBSF, one part OESV, three parts OBSQ and two parts OESO was tasty enough. Especially since the recipe was a completely random event. 

Did I find the next great Small Batch recipe? Maybe I did. Maybe I've just had a lot of fun. Since I started playing with blending the Four Roses, I’ve tried blending other things. I’ve been desperately trying to mix something with the Rebel Yell that will make it something I can swallow without dumping the rest of the glass out. No go. I’ve mixed bourbon with Brenne. That was pretty damn tasty. I’ve done a few other things too that I now can’t remember. It opened my eyes up to another fun part of having so many open whiskies. If I look at them as the components of recipes, I have an almost infinte number of combinations to explore.

Bison Ridge Special Reserve 8 year old Canadian Whisky plus a similar looking bourbon

Buffalo Trace Bourbon. Produced by Crosby Lake Spirits out of Princeton, Minnesota. This fine imported Canadian Whisky has been aged for 8 years…

Wait a minute! Bison? Minnesota? 8 Years? This isn’t Buffalo Trace! This label says 8 years on it and we all know Sazerac is working very hard to remove age statements from their products!

But I kid. (Mostly.) I make the joke because earlier this year, Buffalo Trace sued the importers of Bison Ridge for creating a product that looked and sounded too much like their flagship bourbon. There are similarities to the name and the label, but I’m not a lawyer so I won’t really get any further into it than that.

One of the things that I actually like best about living in Minnesota is that we have a lot of Canadian Whisky that crosses the border and doesn’t go much further. So when I hear a recommendation on canadianwhisky.org for a new one, I tend to wander into my local liquor emporium to see if it’s made it here.

I originally noticed this brand as a mini in the “99 cent” bin on the store counter. I picked it up and thought it was ok. So I looked it up to see what Davin had to say about it. He didn’t mention the one I purchased, but did have a review of an 8 year version. Since both were imported by a company in Minnesota, I made a note to pick it up the next time I stopped in.

Bison Ridge Special Reserve, 8 year old

Purchase Info: $15.99 for a 750mL at Haskell’s Burnsville

Details: 8 years old, 40% ABV  

Nose: Grassy, soapy, delicate hints of cinnamon red hot candies

Mouth: Fairly thick and chewy. Very sweet. Demerara sugar, hints of anise, cinnamon candy and Dawn dish soap

Finish: gentle heat, slight white wine aftertaste to go along with the ever-present soap

meh.gif

Thoughts: I love good Canadian Whisky. This, however, is not that. It’s not terrible, but I’m not partial to the dish soap flavor I got throughout. For me, this is just meh.

Partway through my tasting I found the actual bottle of Buffalo Trace up in the overflow closet and thought it might be fun to taste these together. See how disappointed someone would be if they bought Bison Ridge thinking it was Buffalo Trace as their lawsuit contends is possible.

Buffalo Trace Bourbon

Purchase Info: $15.99 for a 750 mL at Haskell’s Burnsville (on sale)

Details: 45% ABV

Nose: Citrus peel transitioning to an earthy garden soil. Damp earth and green plants. Under that is a sweetness tinged with faint baking spices.

Mouth: Maple candy and cinnamon red hots pair nicely with an acidic liveliness.

Finish: Nice and warm. Lingering caramel and baking spices that fade to reveal a stoney mineral flavor underneath.

like.gif

Thoughts: Even at full price I like this one. I may not agree with the decisions of Sazerac’s marketing department, but I have to say they make a damn fine bourbon.

If someone told me to buy Buffalo Trace and told me there was a drawing of a Buffalo on it and I bought Bison Ridge by mistake, I would wonder what the fuss was all about. Bison Ridge isn’t terrible, but Buffalo Trace is a really good whiskey for the price. Whether it was an intentional ploy to trick people or not is for the lawyers and/or the courts to decide, but I can see why Buffalo Trace sued. I gotta give Bison Ridge a little credit though. They at least got the name of the animal correct.

Dickel v. Dickel: 14 year and 9 year

George Dickel. The “other” Tennessee whisky. 

That’s how these articles always start out. Isn’t it? If it wasn’t for the fact that they are owned by Diageo, the world’s largest drinks company, you’d almost feel bad for them. Dickel can’t even get a mention without someone bringing up, normally the writer, the bland behemouth.

Somewhere around the middle of 2013, bottles of George Dickel “Hand Selected Barrel” began appearing in stores. It was initially available in both 14 and 9 year versions though the scuttlebutt is that there were very limited 14 year barrels available and, as can be expected, they sold out quite quickly.

My wife was visiting a friend down in New Orleans in March. I’d asked her to look around for a present for me since I was unable to go with her due to work. On a recommendation from Chris Mac on Twitter, I sent her to a grocery store in Metairie to have a look around. I got a call asking if I’d like a Private Selection Dickel Single Barrel. Oh, and did I want the 9 or 14 year?…

Really? I’d read that the 14 was limited and sold out and a grocery store in New Orleans had it?

…the 14 year, please.

I was visiting Ace Spirits here in the Twin Cities looking for some bitters that I was doing a blog post on when one of the guys working there offered me a taste of the 9 year Dickel private selection they had just done. Not being one to turn down a free sample, I gladly took the Glencairn that was offered and gave it a good nosing and a sip. Yep. I was buying that one.

Once I had both of these in the overflow closet, the only thing to do was to compare them. 

George Dickel Hand Selected Barrel, 9 year old

Purchase info: $44.98 for 750mL at Ace Spirits, Hopkins, MN

Details: 51.5% ABV, chosen by Ace Spirits. Bottle #087

Nose: Big hit of alcohol at first. After letting it sit: Brown sugar, vinegar and damp earth. With water: more sweetness and some clove

Mouth: Hot. Oak caramel and hint of vinegar. With water: still a lot of oak, but the heat is calmed and it becomes a bit sweeter.

Finish: Long and warm with lingering sweet caramel. Water didn’t affect the finish much.

Thoughts: This guy wants water. Don’t get me wrong, I bought it after tasting it neat in the store but water calms it a bit and allows more sweetness to appear. It’s quite good. I like this.

George Dickel Hand Selected Barrel, 14 year old

Purchase info: ~$90-$100 for a 750mL at Dorignac’s Food Center, Metairie, LA

Details: 53% ABV. chosen by Dorignac’s Food Center. Barrel# 98K24A36-3-9. Bottle 089

Nose: Lot’s of wood followed by cloves and a hint of sweetness

Mouth: Hot, but managable. Caramel, JuicyFruit gum, oak, ginger 

Finish: Nice and long. Good warmth. Lingering caramel and fruitiness.

Thoughts: I like this one alot. It is scary easy to drink at 106 proof. To be honest if handed this blind, I would have guessed it was a Four Roses, but given how much I like them, that’s a good thing.

like.gif

These are both quite good. For me, the 14 year wins hands down due to being less oaky, sweeter, fruitier and easier to drink. My wife on the other hand prefers whisky with more oak on it so she prefers the 9 year. Both are highly recomended.

A Competition of Canadian Clubs, Regular Release vs Sherry Cask

December 1, 2013 was an interesting day for me. I was driving from Indiananpolis to Minnesota. 

This is not the interesting part.

I had been scheduled to take part in an online Twitter tasting going by the name #DavinTT2 but obviously couldn’t take part due to that aforementioned driving. The group had two whiskies to sample and I had tasted mine the previous evening in order to have notes ready to tweet out during the event. I had really liked both of them and was excited to find out what they were, what other thought of them and most importantly if I could get them in the US.

Due to extremely intermittent internet connectivity (thank you AT&T for seemingly not building a tower along a large stretch of Interstate 94 between Madison and Eau Claire, Wisconsin) I found out what the second whisky was first. And that it was a Canada only release. Drat.

The first one, I didn’t like as much as the second, but I still liked it enough to search out if available in the US for a decent price. Imagine my delighted surprise when I found out that it was Canadian Club Sherry Cask. I’d seen that practically everywhere. 

I’d seen it everywhere but had dismissed it in large part due to the fact that it was Canadian Club. I had a vague recollection of not caring for Canadian Club back when I was young and very much not into whiskey.

It’s amazing how old prejudices stick with you even when you’ve forgotten why you have them. Isn’t it? But that’s the value of blind tasting. I knew these whiskies were from Canada but that was it. It got me to taste something I had literally passed over dozens of times. And I liked it. Now I just needed to find it so I could taste more than an ounce and see if I really liked it.

I ran to the store once I got home and…they were out. Odd. I looked at the other stores I frequent. They were out or didn’t carry it. What the hell? I looked every time I stopped at a liquor store. Nothing. It got so bad that I finally ended up grabbing a bottle at Binny’s on my next vacation. Of course, when I got home, it was everywhere. And cheaper. 

Knowing that this was a tasty drink got me to wondering what the regular release tasted like. Was it something that I might want to keep on hand? I mean, it’s cheap enough. I bought a bottle to sip on during the Mad Men season premier this year. It was tasty enough. So now I had two Canadian Club whiskies. One that went for almost $30 and one that went for about $15. Was one twice as good as the other?

Canadian Club

Purchase info: $14.99 for 750mL at Ace Spirits, Hopkins, MN

Details: 40% ABV

Nose: Delicate nose with notes of ripe cherries, wet stone and dusty old wood

Mouth: silky texture with a malt-like sweetness. It has strong floral notes. There is a bit of mineral flavor along the sides of the tongue.

Finish: Sweet and gentle, but with just enough heat to subtly remind you you are drinking whisky.

meh.gif

Thoughts: There is absolutely nothing wrong with this whisky. And, if you love delicate flavors, I can see this being a nice inexpensive bottle to keep on hand. I prefer my whisky to be a bit more in-your-face and not so eager to please so, although I wouldn’t turn down a glass if offered, I doubt I’ll be buying this one again.

Canadian Club Small Batch: Sherry Cask

Purchase info: $29.99 for a 750mL at Binny’s, Bloomington, IL

Details: 41.3% ABV. Batch: C12-232

Nose: Floral soapiness, wet stone, dusty wood, sweet caramel and raisins.

Mouth: Thick and sweet. Fruity caramel paired with dark chocolate. 

Finish: Sweet and of a decent length. Lingering fruitiness that fades to bitter. Dries the mouth nicely.

like.gif

Thoughts: This is a good conversation whisky. Buy it to have with your friends for those times you’d rather think about your friends than your whisky. It’s not a complicated whisky, but I like it. Just not for every pour.

In the end, the Sherry Cask is better than the regular release. Is it twice as good? No. But then whisky math is seldom that straightforward. If I pick this up again it will be as a change of pace whisky. It doesn’t perfectly line up with my palate, but it’s not far enough off that I wouldn’t want a glass now and then.

Read This: Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails by Ted Haigh

Tonight is a night for a cocktail. It’s a warm, but not too warm, summer evening and I’m in the mood for something a little off of the beaten path. Something cold and refreshing, but strong enough to cut through the last bit of the cold I’ve been fighting this week.

I have a lot of cocktail books on the shelf. It’s easy to get excited by them while I’m out shopping. Excited to the point that I forget that my prefered method of imbibing usually consists of only a whiskey and a glass. So yes, there are a lot there. And I’ll admit, most never end up getting read. Just as a cookbook doesn’t make a very interesting read, neither does a cocktail recipe book. Unless it brings something to the table beyond the recipe. 

To me a cocktail book worth reading has a few things between it’s covers. Obviously it needs tasty sounding drinks. That’s a given. To me it should also have a bit about each drink. It’s history, where it comes from or even why it works. I like to learn. It should also be entertaining. There is seriously no reason why you shouldn’t have fun reading about things that will help you have fun.

Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails by Ted Haigh is all of these things. It is entertaining. The preface hooked me. I loved the history section. And the anecdotes about the cocktails included often brought a smile to my face. I learned a lot. Both about the history of the cocktail and about why certain drink work as well as they do. And it has tasty sounding drinks. Though very few where I won’t need to go shopping before I start mixing. In fact, there was only one drink in the entire book that I could make for myself tonight. The Pegu Club. (Yes. I happened to be out of vermouth. So no, there were no boulevardiers. Which is ok as that is the only drink in the book I’d had before.)

like.gif

I enjoyed the heck out of it. Both the drink and the book. One thing I liked especially liked about the book was it's binding. It has a large spiral binding covered by a hard backing. This is a book designed to lay flat. This is a book meant to be used. I highly recommend it to anyone who has an interest in old cocktails, fans of historical bottles or advertisements or anyone who might want to make an extra special shopping trip to pick up the out of the ordinary ingredients that are included in almost every recipe. I look forward to a few of those trips myself.

Purchase info: $19.99 at The Afternoon, Mall of America, Bloomington, MN