Reading material

- The LA Times story reporting on the closing of some of SF's old-time watering holes was reprinted in the Baltimore Sun. I'm so glad word on the street is we don't have any good old bars left. That's not entirely true, of course. Katy St. Clair, who was quoted in the LA Times story, writes about them in the SF Weekly all the time. - Eric Felten in the Wall Street Journal taste tests mass-market bourbons and finds Evan Williams his favorite. As usual, he has some great cultural anecdotes in the story as well. - The NYTimes has a story on a $10,000 home still that efficiently converts sugar into ethanol. Unfortunately, it's for car fuel. - Jeff Mortgenthaler (Morty) gives a simple recipe for ginger beer. Marleigh at Sloshed! reviews some commercial brands without high-fructose corn syrup. - Jamie Boudreau describes his individual component method for making any type of bitters. And I thought I was crafty for using my Chia herb garden to make tinctures. - Alder at Vinography has the complete list of wine blogs- in several languages! - Esquire's molecular Whiskyburger's recipe is now online.

Bourbon, Bourbon, Bourbon

Great NYTimes article on bourbon, with ratings of their top pics. I tend to agree with the reviews (though I haven't tried all the brands), though I might switch the Knob Creek and Woodford Reserve (two of the most available at bars) ratings. Woodford Reserve has become my airline liquor of choice- usually available, great on the rocks (it tastes like straw to me), and the little mini bottle is so damn cute.

Popular Singles

Roll out the single-barrel Bay Area watering holes snap up bottlings of exclusive whiskeys Camper English, Special to The Chronicle Friday, September 7, 2007 The Cigar Bar & Grill in Jackson Square in San Francisco serves a Manhattan you can't get anywhere else, as it's made with the restaurant's exclusive 10-year-old bourbon. Harris' Restaurant and Nopa have exclusive bourbon, too, as does T-Rex Barbecue in Berkeley. None of these watering holes have stills in their backyards to produce their own spirits, but they each serve a different barrel of whiskey.

Most whiskeys are blends of dozens of different barrels, sometimes fewer if they're "small batch" whiskeys. The distillery's master blender mixes barrels together to achieve the desired flavor profile consistent with previous batches.

In the past few years, the master blender has had slightly less work to do, as single-barrel bottlings have become popular. In these bottlings, a barrel of exceptionally high quality (or an exceptionally old one) is put into bottles and labeled on its own. The resultant bottles are usually sold to multiple liquor stores, bars and restaurants, but increasingly, distilleries have begun promoting single-barrel bottlings to individual customers.

Read the rest of my story in today's Chronicle here.

Wine Month vs. Bourbon Month

By me, in today's SF Chronicle:

It's going to be a wet September this year. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared it California Wine Month, while the U.S. Senate calls it National Bourbon Heritage Month. The Senate may have been too busy with other matters to notice that specifying bourbon instead of American whiskey fails to recognize Jack Daniel's or even the rye whiskey made by George Washington at Mount Vernon. On the other hand, that's less liquor you'd be obligated to drink out of Californian/American pride. As a compromise between the competing beverage agendas, you may wish to use September to partake in some local wine events (californiawinemonth.com) while making plans for a trip on the American Whiskey Trail (americanwhiskeytrail.com) for a vacation - perhaps around President's Day.

Wine-Finished Bourbon

Another piece by me in today's Chronicle:

Bourbon with a Chardonnay chaser

Over in Scotland, wood-finished whiskies are all the rage. Most Scotch ages for years in barrels that previously held bourbon or sherry, and recently several distillers have been transferring the whisky in its final years to barrels that held Port, Madeira or Burgundy, where it picks up additional flavors. Now American whiskey producers are giving it a try.

Jim Beam released Port and Cognac-finished whiskies several years ago as part of their Distillers' Masterpiece collection. This month, Woodford Reserve bourbon is rolling out a limited-edition Master's Collection Sonoma-Cutrer finished whiskey that first aged for five years in new charred American oak barrels, then four more months in used Sonoma-Cutrer French oak Chardonnay wine barrels from which it picks up more fruit and citrus notes. It's available in California stores for $89.99.

-- Camper English

Storing Whiskey

Here is something I learned yesterday from Woodford Reserve Master Distiller Chris Morris: whiskey can go bad once the bottle is opened. Before the bottle is opened, it will last indefinitely. Keep it stored upright, but tip it over once a year so the cork gets a touch of wetness. If you're planning on storing it for many years, you should seal the top better by dipping it in wax. (This is specific to Woodford, which is capped with a cork and wood, which are breathable. Some whiskies already have a wax seal.) After the bottle is opened, it will still last indefinitely until the bottle is roughly a third emptied. Until that point enough spirit evaporates into the empty air that the environment is right. But once you've had more than a third or so of the bottle, the air/whiskey balance can throw off the spirit and you may see it turn cloudy and the flavor will go off. Here's the good news- this won't happen for about two years, so you've got plenty of time to finish that bottle.