News for Thursday

Bourbon is booming. Beer and wine surpass vodka sales by volume in Russia now. Conversely, vodka now outsells scotch in the UK.

Items of Interest for Tuesday

For some reason my Google news alert doesn't pick up the New York Times or I would have noticed this awesome story a while back on blender drinks in the New York Times starring our own Martin Cate of Forbidden Island. Bic has drink-themed lighters. Bill Dowd has a photo essay on wood from trees to barrels. Sonya finds discovering the new menu at Death & Company like walking into class during a pop quiz. I largely suck at taking cocktail photos and bottle shots, but am trying to learn. Here's a video tutorial on shooting a bottle of whisky.

Items of Interest for Monday

- Anchor Distilling releases the annual barrel of Hotaling's Whiskey. - Beachbum Berry lists movies featuring tropical cocktails. - Jim Beam's new ad campaign focuses on individuals with "The Stuff Inside." I've been accused of being full of stuff on many occasions, so perhaps I should bring myself to their attention. - DC Drinks has an interview with the dude who makes Vya vermouth. - The Wild Drink blog has a Rum History Timeline. Great idea!

Items of Interest

- A vacuum tumbler to speed up the booze infusion process. - Spoon-straw (stroon?) from Little Branch. - You know how microbrews are all going EXTREME with bitter hops? Now Bruichladdich is aiming for the extreme peat with Octomore. - Angostura orange bitters are now available in the US! And is it sad that I'm excited about this? - Oregon's Lance Mayhew is smoking something crazy- cachaca. - How awesome are Double Cross vodka bottles that can fit on your bookshelves? -Esquire put up a lot of the content from their Best Bars in America issue, including people they'd like to drink with, six barchetypes, the safety drink, bad hotel bar names, and David Wondrich's list of top ten cocktails he's had in bars over the past year. -Cooking with Rock Stars blog. - A fake diary hip flask. -Cocktails in a tube. -Cornell is building a student winery. -Bunnyhugs nerds out on gin and jenever. - Forbes Traveler/MSNBC has a huge story on the microdistilling movement. - Bad press release title of the week: "Soft drinks industry embraces changing climate"

Internet booze news for Monday, May 5

Here are some stories from the around the web. - Art that you drink? That's my kind of exhibit. [via Dowd on Drinks] - Rick Lyke wrote a list of 125 places to have a beer before you die for All About Beer magazine. - Eric Asimov of the New York Times discusses mezcal. - Matt Rowley finds a video on making 60 proof alcohol using wine and a salad spinner.

The second best press release of the day

I'm having trouble figuring out if this event is a celebration or a protest.

SALT LAKE CITY (April 30, 2008) – Impending changes in Utah’s liquor laws in Senate Bill 211 (SB211) will allow restaurants and private clubs to begin serving 1.5 ounces of primary alcohol in martinis and other single-liquor drinks on May 5, 2008. Club Bambara is marking the date by pouring Utah’s first 1.5 ounce martini, appropriately named the “SB211.” SB211 eliminates sidecars, or separate shots of alcohol, in mixed drinks, but allows martinis and other single-liquor dinks to have a 1.5 ounce total alcohol content. Previous, if guests wanted more than an ounce in their martini, they had to order a sidecar and pour in the additional liquor themselves after their drink was concocted. “It makes such a huge difference in the integrity of a cocktail to be able to prepare it properly. All the ingredients should be created together for the best taste,” said Club Bambara’s master mixologist Austin Craig.

Wait...what!?! You used to be able to buy separate ingredients and mix your own drink in the glass, but now that's illegal and the compromise is that you can have a whole ounce and a half of one alcohol ingredient and no others? GEE THANKS, NOW IT SUCKS DIFFERENTLY. On the other hand, master mixologist Austin Craig's job just got even easier.

Beretta robbed!

Given the number of times I've been going there, it's surprising that I wasn't present for the drama. Then again, if I were, I probably wouldn't remember it clearly anyway.

Armed man robs SF restaurant in the Mission

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

(04-30) 19:02 PDT San Francisco -- An Italian restaurant in the Mission District was robbed early this morning while about 10 patrons were eating their dinners, said police Sgt. Neville Gittens.

Police got a call at 1:21 a.m. Wednesday that a man had walked into Beretta on Valencia Street between 22nd and 23rd Streets, waved a gun and shouted, "This is a robbery! Everybody get down!" He didn't fire his gun, and no one was hurt. A restaurant worker handed the man the cash, and he fled on foot eastbound on 23rd Street.

The suspect was described as an African-American male between 25 and 35 years old, 5'8" and 150 pounds and wearing a brown hooded jacket, black baggy jeans and black shoes.

The manager of Beretta was unavailable for comment Wednesday.

There is no indication the hold-up is related to the recent spate of Oakland area restaurant robberies, Gittens said.

"At this point, there's no indication it's related to anything," he said.

American absinthe part II: Sirene Absinthe Verte

North Shore Distillery in Chicago is launching an American absinthe verte (green) this week. I believe this will be the second American absinthe on the market. The initial distribution will be just Chicago, then spreading around Illinois in the near future. Hooray!

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.

More Booze News

I wrote this up last weekend (that's my secret to continual posting when I should be off writing paying stories) so I apologize if my news is not-so-fresh. -The Harbor Beach Marriott in Fort Lauderdale will send a "cocktail concierge" (aka "bartender") to your room to muddle your drinks by your bed. -Hillary Clinton throws back a shot of whisky. The brand? Crown Royal. -It's not on the market yet, but someone designed a wine bottle that includes fold-out cups on the label. That'll make your picnic basket lighter. [Complex] -A discount for newly-poor Americans at Harry's Bar in Venice. [The Liquid Muse] -Hansen's Natural Soda now has natural sugar (anyone else feel duped?) -Robert Simonson has a round-up of three new cocktail bars that have opened in Brooklyn. Four years later, I may finally visit friends who've moved there. - Too lazy to make a real mint julep? The people of Havana Mojito-flavored soda say Just Add Bourbon. I say Just No. -Cocktail shaker, or deadly weapon? [Liquor Snob]

Glossy Booze

From the stack of magazines in my apartment: Details (April) has a story by Rob Willey on the Mint Julep, with possibly the ugliest looking mint julep photo ever printed. Playboy (April) reports that North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il spends $700,000 a year on Hennessey cognac. But he still probably doesn't make the best spokesmodel. Also, they have a story by Dan Dunn on Savanna Samson's wine picks, including wine to match your favorite porn. Esquire's David Wondrich (May) discusses the Whiskeyburger, a molecular mixology drink that tastes like a burger, complete with tomato syrup, ground chuck-infused whiskey, and mustard bitters. They say the recipe will be online, but it appears that's a lie, lie, lie. In 7X7 (a San Francisco magazine, April) Jordan MmmKay talks about Italian varietals by way of California, and homemade limoncello. Best Life (April) has a small article on boutique tonic water (by me!) Sunset Magazine (April) has a story on cult Cabernets. Men's Vogue writer Lawrence Osbourne discusses Pompeii's wine industry. Marcia of Tablehopper writes about barstool eating in San Francisco Magazine. (That is, eating at barstools, not eating barstools.) Also, a mention of Cantina's Caribbean Sangria. [Want your publication included in the glossy booze round-up? Email me.]

Organic Rain

Rain Vodka, which has been made from organic corn since it was launched, is now USDA certified organic. Finally.

Booze News Roundup

I'm still catching up on work after travel, but here are some items out of my inbox and into your eye socket:

• Domaine Carneros received their organic certification, making them California's first organic sparkling winery
• Pernod Ricard bought Absolut, and will likely get rid of Plymouth gin and Fris vodka it bought as part of the deal (clarification edit: sell to another spirits company, not dissolve the brands!)
• Gin is in! I guess it finally hit Los Angeles, anyway. There are some good tips on how to work with gin in cocktails in this article.
• Eric Ellestad's Savoy Project and Alembic's Savoy night get coverage in the Wall Street Journal (see also, my story from October)
• All you need to do to become a member of the Sourtoe Cocktail Club is do a shot... with a severed toe in it.
• In April, Scala's Bistro offers a three-martini prix fixe lunch. Yes, it's a lunch that includes three martinis along with food.

Many thanks to Blair who passes along tidbits.

CHOW booze round-up

CHOW.com is just cranking out the booze stories lately. Currently on the front page there are:

• A take-down of Vodka 360's greenwashing
• A terrific Japanese whisky primer by Aaron Gilbreath that even has taste comparison notes to scotch brands
• An analysis of why nose grease tames beer foam
• And why Champagne's AOC is expanding

Rumors of its demise have been greatly exaggerated

There's been a rumor that San Francisco's 209 Gin shut down its operations, but it's not true, says 209's distiller Arne Hillesland. He said he's not sure where the rumor originated, but thought it might be a misunderstanding about an employee who left. In fact, he says they're distilling this week and shipping 300 cases of the product to London. Since I last checked, they expanded their distribution from just west coast states to many in the midwest and on the east coast, including New York, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. Phew. In this case, no news is good news.

Good news about menu labeling in SF

Skip to the bold statement.

San Francisco's labeling law heads for enactment Source: NRN SAN FRANCISCO (Mar. 19, 2008)

As expected, the city's Board of Supervisors gave its final approval Tuesday to a requirement that some chain restaurants post nutritional information on their menus and menu boards. The measure now moves to the desk of Mayor Gavin Newsom, who is expected to sign it into law.

The measure will require local units of chains with at least 20 units in California to display the calorie, fat, carbohydrate and sodium content of every item on their menus. Places that use a menu board instead of a conventional menu must post the calorie count of each item, but they can make the other information available through other media, including brochures or posters.

Nutritional profiles of alcoholic beverages would not have to be disclosed.

The measure, patterned after a law scheduled to take effect in New York City at the end of the month, was unanimously approved by the 11-member board in a final vote. News reports have indicated that the mandate would take effect in about six months.

Hooray!

Buy a newspaper, save a bar

MarketWatch has a video on bars that serve newspaper reporters hurting or closing as newspapers lay off reporters. This effects me in two ways, writing about bars for the newspapers. So get off the internet and go buy a paper! Here, SFist analyzes the health of newspaper bars of San Francisco.

Planet Boozywood

Bill Dowd reports that a New York bar is serving a "Spitzer Spritzer" and another drink in the wake of the Eliot Spitzer scandal. A while back I emailed Natalie suggesting that she should open a theme bar in Los Angeles where the daily drink menu would rotate depending on the Hollywood scandal of the previous evening. (Lindsay's drinks would go from alcoholic to non-alcoholic depending on the day of the week.) In Washington, there could be an outpost where all the drinks are based on political scandals and news items. Event-driven cocktail theme bars? Yes, I know I'm a genius. Now I just need an investor.

Beyond the Branch

Big news in SF barland: Todd Smith has turned in his resignation at Bourbon & Branch. He's been with them since long before they opened but said, "It's time for me to move on and do another project." He told me he plans to take some time off and work on some consulting gigs he's firming up now, as well as potentially opening his own space with some other bartenders down the road. And though the details are still being hammered out, he plans to remain with the Beverage Academy teaching classes there. Speaking of the Beverage Academy, they added their first scotch whisky class on March 25th with Dominic Venegas as the instructor. The rum class will likely start in April with Thad Vogler at the helm. Best of luck both the Bourbon & Branch and Todd Smith!

Liquid Diet

William Dowd reports that NYC's new food calories program will also apply to beverages. Restaurants with more than 15 outlets will be required to list the calories of food and beverages on the menu. The bad news is: I don't actually want to know how many calories are in my drinks. The good news is: I don't spend a lot of time drinking in chain restaurants. I'm curious to know whether hotel lobby bars and restaurants, which are often different with different menus in each venue, are subject to this rule. It would be a bummer to see menus at nice lobby bars sullied with caloric intake information.

Liquid Gold

The Bank of Ireland is to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the iconic Bushmills whiskey brand by printing an image of the company's distillery on its new bank notes.

Wow- that wouldn't happen in the States. I'm still surprised they were able to get the distillery at Mount Vernon reopened.

It was just a matter of time...

Diet liquor will soon be hitting store shelves.

Smirnoff Ice Light - Smirnoff Ice Light is the latest addition to the Smirnoff Ice line of flavored malt beverages, bringing together the top selling PAB brand with the fast-growing luxury light segment. One bottle contains only 110 calories and offers consumers a crisp tasting alternative to light beer. Available in six-packs and variety packs at the suggested retail price of $7.49; twelve-packs will also be available.

Time story on small-batch spirits

If you haven't been paying attention, micro-distilleries are hot. Here's the Time story.

Molecular Mixology

Via Cocktails.About.com: Photomicrographic images of cocktails. The one on the left is a Sloe Gin Fizz. They have a whole page of them here, and you can order them in poster size. They'll make a lovely addition to your dorm room wall.

News of the Eww

Hospital patients 'drinking' alcohol-based hand gels

THE introduction of alcohol-based hand gels to tackle hospital superbugs has had an unwanted side-effect - patients consuming them.

Researchers writing in the British Medical Journal have revealed that inquiries about the consumption of alcohol gels to a London poisons unit increased sharply after they were widely introduced in hospitals across the UK in 2005. They found that people were either consuming them by mistake or because they were in a confused state.

But often they were being used by alcoholics to ease their cravings.

And speaking of good news

Jackie Patterson, who has been working as a server at Le Colonial but tearing up the cocktail competition circuit, will be the bar manager at the upcoming Orson, a restaurant from the owners of Citizen Cake that will have a 40-seat circular bar. This means I'm officially excited about a restaurant opening. Who am I?

On the importance of drink menus

This study of beverage trends from the On the House blog of people who consume alcohol at chain restaurants states loudly and clearly what I try to tell owners of new restaurants. Drink menus are essential, influential, and should not be ignored.

The large majority of consumers (75%) said that they take the time to read drink menus and 25% of people identified drink menus as what most influences their purchasing decisions. Over 70% of consumers said that the drink descriptions are most influential, 47% were swayed by pictures of the drinks, while 41% were influenced by drinks listing brand names. These findings suggest that bar menus are a must, and that spirit branding, colorful pictures and well-written drink descriptions positive sales drivers.

I often call up new restaurants to ask them who did their drink menu (as I'm not really interested in food). Too often they say, "Oh, it was a collaboration." Right- between you and Mr. Boston.

Industry wide beverage sales average around 25% of revenue, while at the same time account for over 50% of average gross profits.

Luckily, many people do understand this (at least in San Francisco), which is why bartenders from Range and Bourbon & Branch are launching the cocktail programs all over the city. I am always happy to hear a name I recognize from another bar as the person who developed the cocktail menu for a new one. Right now one of the biggest trends in all of bars, clubs, restaurants, and even retail space is to make use of their down-time. The club Temple serves dinner on the dancefloor before the club opens at night. Roe has launched and aggressive dinner programs. Art galleries like 111 Minna serve beer and wine and host club nights. Bars like Harlot are serving food or giving out free snacks to keep people from leaving to go to dinner. Restaurants are hiring DJs and staying open later to catch more customers. And a sure fire way to get them in before dinner time and after meal time is to create a kick-ass cocktail menu served at happy hour. Anyway, I just want every food and booze venue to have a great cocktail menu. It's better for everybody.

Ambitious Cocktails

Greg Lindgren from Rye was cited in the Wall Street Journal this weekend, but unfortunately his cocktail recipe didn't get printed along with the others.

Perhaps the most ambitious entry came from Greg Lindgren, an owner of the San Francisco bar Rye. He proposed poaching quince in honey, water and mulling spices, and then using the warm fruity broth to flavor a glass of brandy. Very nice indeed -- if you succeed in finding fresh quince.

I asked Greg if he actually made the drink or just 'proposed' it. He said he did make it, in fact, and even sent Eric Felten a picture. I guess for Greg getting quince was not the problem- but I think ambitious is an appropriate term. Greg told me that it took almost three hours to poach the quince.

Master Blaster

Since two people sent me a link to the New York Times story about how technically you can't use your hands to insert lime into a Corona due to health codes, I thought I'd do the New York Times a favor and let them know that there already exists a device for this exact purpose and their whole story was moot. Here's the times story, and here's the solution to the problem. Yours in journalism, -Camper

One less single-barrel program

Via the Scotch Blog via Malt Advocate, we learn that Highland Park will be discontinuing their single-barrel whisky program that I just wrote about as of April 2008. Get one while you still can!

The value of overcharging

Here's a fun article on why Balvenie can charge $30,000 for a bottle of 50-year-old scotch. The best part:

Few consumer product purveyors dare to trumpet the exorbitance of their prices as an actual virtue. But this is the spirits world, where flavour nuances are as subtle as they are subjective, and where bragging rights can be more of a draw than the fleeting liquid in the bottle.

The past few years have seen a parade of "rare," bottles proudly promoted at stratospheric prices. In 2005, a bottle of The Macallan 1926 single malt was ceremoniously sold for $75,000 (U.S.) at a liquor store in Seoul, while a bottle of The Dalmore 62 Years recently changed hands for $51,000. And various spirit companies routinely stage similar publicity events with precious bottles from supposedly long-lost casks that are miraculously uncovered in a corner of the distillery by accident.

Curiously, most Scotches, if left in cask for 50 years, wouldn't be worth blending into a Rusty Nail. By that age, the wood tends to impart too much of a lumber flavour, turning the spirit into a syrupy goop with an aroma of stale church pew.

Best product placement ever

Eve Celebrates SCRAM Removal with Vodka?

Rapper Eve reportedly celebrated completing a court-ordered 45 days sober with a case of vodka.

The hip-hop star had an alcohol-monitoring ankle bracelet removed on Saturday, leaving her free to enjoy the drink on offer at the VMA party suites at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

A spy tells Page Six, "When a cocktail waitress walked over to her with a bottle of Svedka, her eyes lit up.

"She got kind of nervous when they wanted her to take a photo, and wouldn't pose with the bottle -- but then her assistant asked a promoter to send a case to her house."

Eve was ordered to wear the Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitoring bracelet last month after striking a plea agreement following her DUI arrest in April.

That was awesome! Their "spy" (read: shameless Svedka vodka PR person) just placed the "I'm going to Disneyland!" equivalent of finishing the terms of your DUI conviction. Bravo.

No-No-Jito

Mojito cocktail garnish is recalled

WASHINGTON, Sept. 4 (UPI) -- The Food and Drug Administration announced the recall of approximately 5,000 cases of Rimmer Mojito Cocktail Garnish due to possible contamination.

Stirrings LLC of Fall River, Mass., initiated the voluntary nationwide recall of the 3.5-ounce packages because they might be contaminated with salmonella bacteria.

When I read the headline, I thought, WHY DON'T THEY JUST CALL IT 'MINT'? (I always talk to myself in capslock.) But it turns out that Stirrings' version of mojito garnish is lime flavored sugar. Is it wrong that I thought IF YOU GARNISH YOUR MOJITO WITH LIME SUGAR YOU DESERVE TO BE POISONED?

1.7 Million for a liquor license in NJ

$1.7 mil for a liquor license

By Michael Klein Inquirer Columnist

The partners of Swanky Bubbles paid $1.6 million for their liquor license as they took over the former Olive on Evesham Road in Cherry Hill. This may be an all-time U.S. record, if lawyers who watch such issues are correct.

Also significant is that Swanky Bubbles is not some deep-pocketed chain. Besides the Cherry Hill operation, the partnership has a Swanky Bubbles in Old City and Macs in Somers Point, N.J.

The license held by Brio Tuscan Grille, an Ohio-based Italian chain that opened this week at the old Garden State Park site, cost $1.5 million.

Licenses in Pennsylvania and New Jersey are sold on the open market, subject to supply and demand.

Top prices in Philadelphia are about $70,000, while the most anyone can recall paying for one in the Pennsylvania counties is $350,000.

Damn! Remind me not to open a bar in New Jersey.

By the bottle

The Morning News has a fun article on favorite beverages that come in bottles- beer, soda, wine, water- some of which you may not have heard of before.

RIPMJ

Booze hero Michael Jackson died Thursday. This obituary by the AP only recognizes him as a beer critic, which is odd considering he is at least as well known as a whisky expert. He wrote both the Complete Guide to Single Malt Scotch and the World Guide to Beer. He went public only recently with the information that he'd been suffering from Parkinson's Disease for 20 years, though he died of a heart attack this week. Whatever you're drinking this weekend, raise a glass of it to Michael Jackson in recognition of the passing of a legend.

Booze, light up my life

Gizmodo reports on a new LED-enhanced cork for lighting up your bottle collection. It makes me feel sorry for Ty Ku sake liqueur, who spent all that money for a customized light-up bottle.

Naked hula dancing not distracting enough

Creative beer shoplifting attempt: One masked, but otherwise naked, man hula danced in a convenience store to create a distraction so that his buddy could steal a case of beer during the confusion. Unfortunately it didn't work. Perhaps they should have thought smaller. If I were a convenience store worker and someone offered to do a masked naked hula dance in exchange for a beer, I would have said yes. It would probably be the only thing interesting that happened all day.

Single-Malt Gasoline

A while ago I mentioned how in Germany and in Mexico they're forgoing crops of beer barley and tequila agave (respectively) to grow biofuel-friendly corn for the supposed new market for the product. Well, finally someone put on their thinking cap and decided to attempt to make biofuel that doesn't require the inhuman sacrifice of our favorite adult beverages. At Abertay University in Scotland, a researcher was given a year grant to find ways to turn residue from beer and whisky (known in the industry, I believe, as distillers dry grain or DDG) into biofuel. Currently it's recycled into animal feed, but it may soon feed your imaginary biofuel car instead.

Bears Eat Beer-Filled Boozer

BEARS EAT DRUNK AT BEER FESTIVAL

Beer festival reveller dies after taking a short cut

By Mark Ellis

A DRUNK staggering home from a beer festival took a short cut through a zoo's bear cage - and was found half-eaten next day.

Amazingly, Branko Jovanovic, 22, was still alive when zoo staff discovered him - despite having a leg torn off and half his face chewed away.

But he died later on his way to hospital in Belgrade, Serbia, after keepers battled to prise him from the jaws of the Tibetan black bears.

Zoo director Vuk Bojovic said: "I will never forget what I saw. The bears had taken him to a corner to eat him, and torn off his leg and most of his face, but he was still alive.

"The bears were really aggressive - they obviously regarded him as food and fought to hang on to their meal. It took ages to get them away from him."

Ghoulish visitors have made the two bears - Masha and Misha - an overnight hit with double the usual number of people coming to see them.

Officials now plan to make it harder to get into the bear enclosure - even though the wall Jovanovic climbed was 18ft high.

And they also hit out at the beer festival organisers.

Bojovic said: "We had warned the organisers to stage it further away.

"We have had all sorts of problems from revellers although we did not think anyone would be stupid enough to enter the cage.

"The area where the beer festival takes place is up on a hill while the zoo is downhill, and the bears' cage has no roof so the drinkers were always throwing things in there.

"Keepers have found beer cans, mobile phones and even used condoms in the cage.

"We warned the organisers that they needed to control their guests better.

"We want it moved to a new location far from the zoo next year."

If it ain't broke...

...why rebrand it? Glenmorangie is rebranding much of its line of whiskies, changing the bottle style, and renaming the wood-finished lines.

The company is also replacing its Wood Finish expressions with the Glenmorangie Extra Matured range of three single malts with Gaelic-inspired names -- Lasanta, Quinta Ruban and Nectar d'Or -- aged for 10 years in Bourbon casks and then additionally matured in either Sherry, Port or French Sauternes barrels. The Glenmorangie 18-year-old and 25-year-old whiskies will also be re-launched with their own bespoke identities, the company said.

Apparently Quinta Ruban is easier to remember than "port" (or whichever one it is). For continuing updates on this, check in with The Scotch Blog, which always has the news as it happens. I was just speaking with a bartender yesterday about how obfusicating product information really turns off bartenders and consumers. In particular he was annoyed with US bourbon and French vodka companies who try to hide where, when, and from what the products were distilled. He said he's now trying to avoid a certain corporation's products because he thinks their being ultra-tight-lipped is akin to dishonesty. There is an increasing trend toward consumer education in the booze industry, with brand tasting parties, bar education programs, and advanced coursework and training for bartenders. People are really curious about what they're drinking and always want to know more. I know I am (note the domain name) and I've made a career out of finding out stuff about booze and sharing it. On the other hand, look at vodka. Sales continue to rise despite increasing negative attitudes from media, bartenders, and amazingly even brand people. Three times over the past month I've heard well-known bartenders, consultants, and even a vodka marketing bigwig say "There's no real difference in vodkas." The media barely reports on it, bartenders in better cocktail lounges have dropped it from the menu or limited their selection to just a few brands, and at industry events vodka is openly mocked as a product for suckers. And we've all been chanting "gin will be big" for years and it just hasn't happened. So who knows, perhaps the Glenmorangie marketing people are making a smart decision, and those of us who care about what's in the bottle are too dumb to see it.

If you have a $35,000 bottle of whisky, make sure to keep it safe from angry teenagers

Fate of $40,000 bottle of whisky hard to swallow Les Kennedy August 10, 2007

IT WAS an act of drunken spite against his former stepfather that led Daniel Alex D'Souza to break open a bottle of rare Scotch whisky purported to have dated back to the time of the First Fleet.

By his own account to police in a recorded interview, the 19-year-old from Cootamundra, in southern NSW, said he did not stop to savour the drop, but "poured it into the ground".

Police allege the whisky would have been worth $40,000 (Australian = $34,368 US) if sold at auction to a collector.

Its owner, Dr Frank Perera, said he believes his former stepson drank it with his mates.

Taking the Times to Task

On Brookstone Beer Bulletin, Jay Brooks has a nice rant against the New York Times' recent piece, "For Beer Tastes, on Beer Budgets"called "Penny Wise and Pint Foolish," about how an article on where to find cheap, crappy beer is insulting to beer in a way the Times would never do for wine or cocktails.

The two-buck Chuck phenomenon aside, can you imagine stories in the New York Times about finding the cheapest wine or whisky when you’re out on the town? I can’t, and it seems to me this is just another of the countless insults beer endures. Why is beer the Rodney Dangerfield of alcoholic beverages? Why is it so acceptable for the media to take cheap shots (yes, pun intended) at beer without even realizing how insulting they’re being? I don’t think Seth Kugel, or indeed most of the rest of the beer-ignorant press, sets out maliciously to insult beer. They simply don’t know any better. And that may be the saddest fact of all. It might be downright funny if it weren’t for the fact that people read the Times as America’s “paper of record” and believe what is written in its pages. So while I believe the entire media has a duty to try to be accurate, the Times has an even higher standard to uphold.

I think he has a good point, but he also gets off his point in this second quoted paragraph. I don't believe there's anything untruthful or misleading or inherently wrong about the story the Times wrote- but it shouldn't have been printed in the Times. This isn't to say there isn't a place for round-up stories on where to get cheap wine, cocktails, or beer. These are domain of the alternative weeklies such as the Village Voice and websites like CitySearch. Once I wrote a story on how to get your daily nutritional requirements from eating nothing but hors d'oeuvres and garnish for the alt-weekly SF Bay Guardian. I'm not entirely sure I understand the hierarchy there- the free publications are welcome to write about high-end venues but not vice-versa- but it's definitely entrenched.

Beating me to the Punch

I was telling someone at a bar how I wanted to publish the San Francisco bartender family tree, showing how you can connect most bars in the city through bartenders who work at multiple venues. The person I was talking to said, "Have you seen the latest issue of 7x7?" Naturally, Jordan Mackay had just published an article on bartenders working in multiple venues. Though not exactly the same thing I was going to write, I've decided that this happens far too often for it to be coincidence. Obviously Jordan cannot come up with these brilliant topics months before I do, so he clearly has invented a time machine that allows him to go into the future, and another machine that allows him to plagiarize my thoughts while there. He's very crafty. If only he would use his powers for good.

Brews News

Just some links to beer news today: Where to get cheap beer in New York. Rogue Ales is being exported to China. Scientist uses diffusing acoustic wave spectroscopy to study beer bubbles.

“A lot of effort has gone into figuring out how to get just the right concentration and size of bubbles, and how to produce the perfect head on a glass of beer,” he says. “There are people who work in that industry who know much, much more about that than I do. Could diffusing acoustic wave spectroscopy be useful to them? Maybe. But for me, beer is just a good example of the kind of thing you can do using this technique.”

Speaking of small-batch spirits

The Associated Press has a good story on the trend, focusing on Tuthilltown Spirits in New York. Here are some key facts.

• They saw their chance in 2002, when New York introduced a new class of distilling license for small producers that carries a fee of $1,450, as opposed to $50,800 for the old license. (Woo! Let's move to New York!)
• "It took us about 2 1/2 years from a dead stop knowing nothing about it until 'We can turn this thing on and make alcohol,'" Erenzo said. (On the other hand, I don't have that kind of patience.)
• Small-scale distilleries like this were common in America before Prohibition wiped the slate clean. New York, for instance, now has only 16 licensed distillers, including some larger operations in New York City and wineries that specialize in fruit-based spirits like brandy and grappa.
• They are among some 90 craft distillers active nationwide, according to Bill Owens of the American Distilling Institute.
• Tuthilltown also rides the wave of the "buy local" movement. Their vodkas are made from local apples.

Terrible News!

Imagine my horror when I picked the Sunday newspaper off my neighbor's front steps today and read the headline:

"A LIFE WITHOUT BARS"

After I stopped screaming I looked closer and found it was an article about a once-battered woman who killed her abusive husband and how she's now been freed from prison. Oh, okay then. I don't think it's right to scare a person like that.

Quitter

According to lab rat research, the smoking-cessation drug varenicline may also reduce cravings for alcohol. That's good news for people who can't choose between smoking or drinking for which vice they want to quit. But what would you do with your hands when you went to a bar? Maybe they should invent a pill that you can ingest by smoking or drinking it instead.

Serendipity

Most of yesterday's BevMo purchases were relatively uncommon aperitif wines, bitter digestifs, and other ingredients that I'll probably never drink straight except to try initially. One thing I picked up was Torani Amer, which I've been seeing used in some cocktail recipes lately and it was also in this month's great Imbibe Magazine story on vintage cocktail ingredients. Then today I found that coincidentally, the incredible Eric Felton wrote about the product in the weekend's Wall Street Journal, complete with a Basque cocktail recipe. What a lucky coincidence!

PICON PUNCH

2½ oz Torani Amer (or Amer Picon) ½ oz grenadine ¾ oz brandy

Pour grenadine and Amer over ice in a stemmed goblet and stir. Top with a float of brandy. Rub a twist of lemon around the rim of the glass, and then toss it in.

Old Rum

Time has a good article on the increased popularity of aged rum, along with quotes from Ed Hamilton and some of his recommendations.

More Bitter

Rob Willey did a story for the New York Times on the bitters craze. It focuses mainly on people trying to recreate Abbott's Bitters or making other complicated bitters that require aging, but is a good round up of the brands on the market and who's doing what in terms of making their own.

Booze News

I checked the booze news for the past week while I was traveling. It was a good week. Tennessee is set to become the first state in the nation to require carding of anyone, without exception, who buys beer for off-premises consumption. Now underage drinkers will have to resort to asking older people outside the store to buy them booze, just like they always have. A study shows that gastric bypass surgery turns formerly hefty people into alcoholic lightweights. The EU voted that legally-termed vodka can be made from things other than cereals and potatoes (such as grapes and maple sap) as long as its labeled accordingly on the bottle. But as far as I know, every vodka that isn't made from corn proudly labels the bottle as such anyway. A manufacturer invents a "cocktail condom" that you use to cover your drink while you leave it so that you can be sure nobody drops date-rape drugs in it while you're not looking. So it's kind of like the don't-drink-my-drink coaster, but with glue. Someone created a pizza-flavored beer. Great idea, combining things that are commonly consumed at the same time into one tasty treat. I always pour a half gallon of milk into my cereal box and keep it in the refrigerator for the month. It turns out that most organic certified beer isn't totally organic- most hops aren't, but you only need 95% of organic ingredients to be USDA certified. In the wake of the bad press, one hopes more hops will go orgo. Heineken launches a new skinny, taller can for its light beer- sort of like the Virginia Slims model of package design. But wait Heineken light? Does it taste like water, with extra-extra water flavor?

Who's that girl?

I was perusing my ever-increasing list of booze blogs and saw Rick Dobbs' mention of Google's trend tracker and how you can use it to track wine trends. I went to try it out for liquor, my one and only love. I randomly put in "bitters" and it appears that my story in the SF Chronicle on homemade bitters was the sixth highest ranked bitters news story (and one of them was a sports story so that makes mine fifth) on Google over the past few years. This is: 1) Scary. 2) Freaking awesome!! I wasn't even surfing for validation today and I found it. Of course, I just got lucky that the bitters event was happening and I reported on it. But still, with all the new blog readers and upcoming trips and high Google ranking I'm starting to feel pretty darn good about what I'm doing here with the booze reporting. It's great that this stuff isn't just interesting to me. Now I just need to monetize my popularity so I can afford to live the life of excess befitting a person of my stature. The penthouses and fast cars and weekends in exotic drinking locales will surely follow, and I hope to be the first person to have his liver insured for 20 million dollars. But for now I'm focused on slightly less lofty goals: a few more writing gigs and the luxury of health insurance.

The Joy of Drinking

A third news item by me in today's SF Chronicle. This book rocks- there is so much good quotable material it makes for a lifetime of bar trivia and anecdotes. Buy a copy and start annoying your favorite bartender today!

Joy of reading about drinking

Carrie Nation was insane, the lack of a hangover cure can be blamed on the National Institutes of Health, and too much caffeine without booze likely contributes to terrorism, according to the new book "The Joy of Drinking" by Barbara Holland ($14.95; Bloomsbury).

The hilarious and opinionated history shows us all the good that alcohol has done for humanity since the dawn of time. Holland points out that "There are no good milk-drinking songs," but has a particular dislike for coffee culture compared with pub culture. "In the modern coffeehouse your fellow customers, edgy with caffeine, are hyperactive, suspicious by nature, busy with laptops. Avoiding eye contact."

The tiny book even includes a how-to on making your own booze, should you be so inspired after reading it, which you might not want to do down at Starbucks.

Biofuel Blows Your Drinking Budget

A short piece by me in today's SF Chronicle:

Biofuel blows drink budget

Cleaner-burning biofuels made from agricultural crops may be a more environmentally sound way to deliver energy than fossil fuels, but they may also drive up the price of your favorite adult beverage.

In news stories released last week, we learned of two examples where raw materials for drinkable alcohol are being replaced by crops to produce non-potable ethanol.

The Associated Press reports that in Germany, farmers are abandoning barley in favor of subsidized crops for biofuels. Thus barley prices have doubled in the past two years, and the increased cost of the raw materials is now being passed along to beer drinkers.

In Mexico, Reuters reports a similar phenomenon. A current glut in the agave market has inspired some growers to burn their fields and plant corn to meet U.S. demand for ethanol instead. While it doesn't appear that current Tequila prices have been raised, agave can take up to eight years to mature, so the next decade could see a shortage.

As if you needed another reason to stock up.

Beer causes crime!

Two stories today are making beer drinkers look bad:

Man Accused Of Breaking Into House To Steal Beer, Shirt

DENVER -- A man was charged Tuesday with breaking into a Denver home to drink beer from the refrigerator and to steal a clean shirt in the dryer, the district attorney's office said.

Poisoned beer 'just a mistake'

Husband stands by wife and her 'depression issues'

UNION TWP. - A man whose wife is charged with trying to poison his beer with cleaning fluid said Wednesday it's all just a misunderstanding and they will stay together.

Truesdell became ill after drinking a beer at his home in the 500 block of Lemaster Drive.

His wife admitted to police that she had slipped cleaning fluid into his drink, Gaviglia said.

But Jonathan Truesdell said his wife didn't mean to poison him.

"It's just something that happened," he said.

Journalism Saves Lives (okay not really)

Right after I blog posting how sloppy cocktail journalism throws mixologists into great fits of confusion, I get an email from Martin of Forbidden Island:

I had a health inspection last week, and the inspector tried to stop me from selling Scorpion Bowls, because he said the backwash was a health hazard! I told him that he should check out Trader Vic's, then, since they've been doing it for 70 years. He didn't believe me (!), so I showed him a copy of your "Love Potions for Two" column from the Chron to convince him that it was everywhere and that did the trick. So thanks for that.

It's good to know that all my hard work cocktail reporting has real-world impact. If I can help one person- just one person- enjoy a tasty Scorpion Bowl then it will have been worth it.

Wine Crime

There's a cool wine crime story in today's SF Chronicle:

Many in Sausalito still can't believe who is at the center of the tale -- a man so woven into the civic fabric that he called himself "Joe Sausalito" in his slice-of-Marin-life newspaper column. He was a gregarious city commissioner with influential friends, and an oenophile who belonged to the local wine society -- that is, until the society's 1959 Chateau Lafite-Rothschild vanished.

Police say Mark Anderson abused the trust he built, starting a wine storage firm for collectors and then selling 8,000 bottles out the back door to fund a lavish lifestyle. Facing embezzlement charges, police say, Anderson kept right on selling -- then really fouled things up when he tried to cover his tracks.

Federal prosecutors recently accused Anderson of setting an October 2005 fire at a warehouse in Vallejo where he rented space for the wine. The flames spread through the building, consuming 6 million bottles owned by 92 Napa Valley wineries and 43 collectors. Their value: $250 million.

Read the story here.

Line Tapping Scandal!

Wis. Bar Owner Gets Ticket for Tap

(05-24) 14:19 PDT Port Washington, Wis. (AP) --

A bar owner's attempt to avoid wasting leftover beer got him a sharp reprimand and a $172 ticket. Ray Wendt used a Miller Lite tap to serve Coors Light. He said he told customers they were drinking Colorado beer, not that from nearby Milwaukee.

"I didn't think nothing was tragic about it," Wendt said.

But police and state inspectors disagreed, fining him and sending him a letter that called the mislabeling "a major violation."

Wendt's American Legion bar normally serves Miller Lite.

But a wedding party asked for Coors Light for their reception earlier this month. Wendt ordered it, then found the tap handle he was given didn't fit his dispenser. He substituted a Miller Lite handle.

"It's not like I was pouring different liquor into a bottle," he said. "The Coors and Miller Lite cost the same."

The next morning, he served leftover Coors Light to his regulars.

"I said it was Coors Light, not Miller," he said. "I didn't lie to nobody."

He took a few days off and returned to work May 8, when two representatives from the state Department of Revenue and a Port Washington police officer conducted the annual inspection of his bar. They found the Miller Lite handle still connected to the Coors Light barrel.

State and city laws prohibit bar owners from dispensing beer from another brand's tap. The police officer ticketed Wendt, and the state sent him a warning.

Port Washington Police Chief Richard Thomas said Wendt has a well-run bar, but "the statute is pretty clear. You can't do this."

"It was an honest mistake," protested Wendt, who plans to fight the ticket.

Bar Burglar Binges on Burgers, Beer

(05-11) 13:37 PDT Upper Darby, Pa. (AP) --

A man broke into a bar, grilled some hamburgers and then had a few beers to go with them, police said.

Joseph Michael McDevit, 48, was arrested Tuesday trying to break back into Clarkie's Goal Post while investigators were inside searching for fingerprints from the previous night's break-in, Det. Daniel Oliveri said in an affidavit.

Police said McDevit, who is homeless, acknowledged entering the bar after hours, frying hamburgers, drinking beer and taking a nap. Police said they recovered a cell phone from him that belonged to the bar's owner.

McDevit was arraigned on charges of burglary, criminal trespass, theft and receiving stolen property. It was not immediately known if he had an attorney.

Cocktailing with Cameron Bogue, Part Two

So anyway, Cameron Bogue, Smirnoff Cocktail Consultant and I went out drinking in San Francisco. He had a map of all the places he wanted to visit but we didn't get all that far because we stayed too long at every place we did visit. Slanted Door- We were lucky enough to visit SD on a night when bar manager Erik Adkins was working, as he loves to talk shop and mix up a lot of drinks. (Both times when I spent more than 20 minutes talking with Erik I had more than six drinks in front of me, which seems normal to me but customers started making comments...) We tried a rhum agricole punch topped with grated nutmeg that was just great. I had a Casino, which is an Aviation with added orange bitters. These bitters were the homemade ones that I wrote about in the Chronicle, finally put to good use. They were also experimenting with homemade ginger beer, as Erik went off the menu and whipped us up so many more drinks. Eventually we had to flee as we had dinner reservations. Absinthe- Absinthe also has a Casino cocktail on their menu, so it turns out that I'm right about the Aviation being the new Negroni. We had a few other drinks with dinner there that were tasty, and I don't remember what they were but they were all terrific. Bourbon & Branch- It turns out that Cameron knows Todd Smith, and had considered working at B&B when it was going to open. That would have been stupendous. Anyway, we had several drinks and all were tasty. They've been brining their own olives for a while now, but recently made a brine with smoked salt and I think scotch. The smoky olives were fantastic, though I think they could find a better vehicle for them than a gin martini. In other news, Todd says that they're bringing back the Rouge No. 10 when strawberries are in season. Hooray! Rye- Normally Rye never dissapoints, but the execution of the cocktails we had there this time was off so we went back to B&B for a nightcap that I really didn't need but thought was a good idea at the time. The next day I was horribly, miserably, shamefully hungover. But I had a text message from Cameron before I'd crawled out of bed as they were headed to LA around 8AM. Yep, the guy is a pro.

Top-Shelf drinking in New York

The current Best of New York issue of New York Magazine lists some interesting, high-end facets of bars:

• At Pegu Club, they serve the martini in small glasses to keep it colder, but also include a mini-carafe chilled on ice with more of the booze so you can refill it. This way, you get a cold martini, but also enough booze to keep you satisfied with the quantity. Additionally, they chill their olives so they don't warm up the drink.
• At Milk & Honey they "spank" the mint in their hands to break the capillaries, rather than twist or muddle it in the mojito, so that you get lots of mint in the drink without the wilty taste that comes from crushing it too much.
• At Death & Co., they use house-churned butter in the hot buttered rum.

Purple Hooter Haze

An entrepreneur in Seattle released Hendrix Electric Vodka and Jimi's sister ain't happy about it and is suing. She controls his music rights, but her (non-dead) brother is involved with the vodka so they bill it as a "Jimi Hendrix family company." For some wacky reason, the sister doesn't want a liquor associated with her brother, who died of an overdose of booze and pills. Read more here.

Flying High

The Wall Street Journal had a good article in its weekend edition (only available to subscribers and people like me with the secret access code) about the history of cocktails on airplanes. Here's what's going on now:

Some airlines over the years have recognized the branding possibilities that cocktails provide. In the early '50s, Swissair offered what is known as a Swiss Cocktail -- half kirsch (a dry cherry brandy) and half Dubonnet. For decades, Lufthansa served a proprietary orange liqueur called the Lufthansa Cocktail. Introduced in 1955, a year after the modern Lufthansa itself got off the ground, the drink was made for the airline by Berentzen, a German distiller that specializes in fruit schnapps. It was served either straight or mixed with Champagne. When Lufthansa celebrated its semicentennial in 2004, the German carrier dusted off the old cocktail for first- and business-class customers. Lufthansa found that passengers associated the drink with the rather antiquated notion that flying was glamorous.

Airlines can use drinks to give tourists a taste of the destination ahead (or at least a taste of the destination as it is imaged in legend and lore). This summer United Airlines started serving a Trader Vic's menu, including Mai Tais, on its flights to Hawaii. Singapore Airlines anchors its cocktail menu with the Singapore Sling.

Or, an airline can use a good drink simply to signal that the flight will aspire to be something out of the ordinary. Champagne cocktails are a key part of the service on Eos, one of the new airlines eschewing coach to focus on the lucrative business-class trade. The airline rotates its menus, including the drinks list, changing them every six weeks so that frequent fliers don't get bored. Depending on the flight, you might be offered a Caribbean Cocktail of Champagne and mango juice, a Bellini (Champagne and peach puree), a Kir Royale (Champagne and creme de cassis), or a racy Maserati -- made by mixing two parts Champagne to one part Campari, with a splash of fresh lime juice for good measure.

He missed that Delta is also doing a signature cocktail program with Randy Gerber. From their press release:

New co-branded signature beverage line, set to launch in early 2007, will feature specialty cocktails created exclusively for Delta by Rande Gerber’s After Midnight Company

If I were really clever, I'd figure out a way to have these airlines give me free flights so I could do comparison tastings.