The Next Infusion

I brought my pumpkin pie infused vodka to a couple of Halloween parties this weekend and it was a big hit. I'd like to think of more holiday infusions, but I'm kind of stuck.

For Thanksgiving, cranberry might be a good flavor to infuse, but Stoli has already done it. I don't think yam-infused vodka would go over all that well, and I'm not particularly interested in a turkey tasting beverage either. If you have any good ideas, drop me a note to camper [at] cramper [dot] com.

I'll also need to start thinking about Christmas infusions. Fruitcake?

Chicks Dig It

A new website has launched for women who love wine, not surprisingly called WomenWine.com. They offer tips on travel (a.k.a. "Bonding Girlfriend Trips") to wine regions and list which wines to pair with your book club.

Ahh, niche marketing. Gotta love it.

Good Links

The Scotch Blog has a good short list of whiskey websites and resources here.

I particularly like Liquor Snob- it's a fun site of booze news and fun products.

Whiskey Wonderland

The Scotch Malt Whiskey Society is sponsoring a big tasting event in San Francisco on November 8th at The Fairmont. For $100, you get to sample around sixty varieties of single malt and blended whiskeys.

The other dates are:

• Washington, D.C. Wednesday November 2 - J.W. Marriott Hotel
• Philadelphia Friday November 4 - The Union League of Philadelphia
• San Francisco Tuesday November 8 - The Fairmont Hotel
• Los Angeles Thursday November 10 - The Fairmont Miramar
• Miami Thursday November 17 - The Biltmore
• All events are 7:00 to 9:00 pm

Sounds faboo, but not in my budget.

(props to Scotch Blog)

Beer 101

Hey- This event thrown by the Commonwealth Club's Inforum looks fun. Anybody want to go?

GET BEER SMART! | THURSDAY NOVEMBER 10 ALL TICKET SALES ARE FINAL A BAY AREA CRAFT AND HOME BREWERS TASTING

Attend an eclectic tasting of some of the Bay Area's most talented brewers and celebrate the release of SmartsCo's BeerSmarts, the question and answer game that makes learning about beer easy and fun. Delicious craft brews from 21st Amendment, Magnolia Pub and Drake's Brewing Company and hors d'oeuvres by Herbs & Spices will be served. We'll also explore home brewing with a demonstration, and you can cast a vote for your favorite creation. BeerSmarts players will get a chance to win fabulous prizes including beer, a home brewing starter kit, free memberships to ZipCar - providing sexy cars that you can use by the hour or the day - SmartsCo games and more, and the creators of SmartsCo and BeerSmarts Julie Tucker and Jen Elias will be on hand. Also, pick up gifts for your beer-loving friends and receive discounts on all SmartsCo products.

6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m., Program | Varnish Fine Art Gallery, 77 Natoma St., San Francisco | $20 for Members, $30 for Non-members | To map directions to this program, visit Google Maps. Sponsors: SmartsCo, Beer, Beer & More Beer, ZipCar, 21st Amendment, Drake's Brewing Company and Magnolia Pub.

Gin Night

Last night I decided to experiment with gin drinks at home. I only had a few ingredients, so my options were limited.

First I tried a Bronx Medium, which is gin with equal parts sweet and dry vermouth, and orange juice. (A standard Bronx or a Bronx Dry is made with only dry vermouth.) It was good, but nothing special. It tastes a bit like a screwdriver but with dryer gin instead the sweet sting of the vodka/orange juice combo.

Next up was the Cooperstown, which is an ounce of gin with half an ounce each of sweet vermouth and dry vermouth. Not surprisingly, it tastes like a Manhattan made with gin rather than whiskey. I think the vermouth dominates the gin a little too much in this combination. I remixed it and went heavier on the gin and lighter on the sweet (Rosso) vermouth to much improvement. The drink would be best made with a gin of strong flavor and character. The Tanqueray I used was fine. Junipero might be better. This is a drink I'd order out if anybody knew what it was.

And finally I had a Derby, which in many bartending guides is listed as gin with peach brandy or peach bitters, though in my guide they suggest gin with a dash of Peychaud bitters, stirred with ice and strained into a sherry glass. Usually I don't like the taste of bitters- they're just so...bitter. But when experimenting with gin I've learned they can actually improve the taste. Who knew? Anyway, this drink is rather severe- a gin martini with a bitter bite to it. It might be good after a full meal, but it's not the kind of drink for which you're going to go back for seconds and thirds.

Then I was drunk so I watched Spongebob Squarepants and fell asleep.

Still more pumpkins

Here are three more recipes for pumpkin cocktails.

A new high

A London club plans to up the price on the world's most expensive cocktail at 333 British pounds (about $592), made with Richard Hennessy aged cognac, a measure of Dom Perignon vintage champagne and a dash of Crème de Mure along with fresh lemongrass, lychees, and yohimbe bark extract.

But still, they're cheating. The drink comes in a "crystal glass and with a cocktail pin of 24-carat white gold, created by top jewellery designer Tom Binns." When the accessories of the drink add to the cost, I say it no longer counts. The most expensive cocktail should be determined based on the ingredients, not the container.

I'm a stickler about these things.

Daily Reading: American Whiskey

A business-heavy report on the state of the American Whiskey market.

I've found in reading a lot of booze business articles I've read that in almost every category- vodka, rum, tequila, whiskey- sales have increased but sales of premium brands and vintages have sold exceptionally well. That makes sense with what I see people drinking in bars, but it's always nice to have numbers to back it up. I'm not crazy after all!

Mondays

Yesterday I went to check out Martini Mondays at the Four Seasons. It's their weekly happy hour that runs from 5:30-7:30. For $13, you get a specialty cocktail and a "taste sampler" of three little snacks. Though usually there is something meaty in one of the samples, I lucked out and they were all vegetarian last night. There was an apple salad, a pomegranate salad, and little potato skins- all delicious. The drinks are normally $13 apiece so this is a bargain and besides, it's always a pleasure to drink at the Four Seasons.

I decided to go seasonal and started with the spiced pumpkin martini. It was made with Skye vodka, Captain Morgan's spiced rum, and muddled pumpkin, served in a martini glass with a sugared rim. It was quite tasty, and served with a side of pumpkin seeds. The muddled pumpkin gives the drink a creamy character which is good, though by the end of the drink I was ready to move on.

So I did. I next sampled the Buddha Drop, which is a refreshing and not-too-sweet cucumber/melon martini served with a shot of sake that you can either drink on its own (as I did) or add to the martini. This is the drink I'll have next time I return.

Finally, I had a drink called something like (I really need to write these things down) the Ice Melt martini. It's vodka with ice wine (( īs ' wīn ' ) n. A sweet wine made from grapes that have been left to freeze on the vines) and a few other flavors. Also delicious, as you taste the sweet flavor from the wine after that of the vodka. The ice wine mostly sits at the bottom of the glass, so the drink becomes sweeter as you finish it. All the specialty drinks at the Four Seasons are served with a little side of something. This one came with frozen grapes to snack on.

You people who work downtown should check out this weekly happy hour. It's something to look forward to on Mondays, and makes the start of the work week seem not so bad.

October Infusions

Home infusions are a fun project for several reasons:

1. It's a project that combines a little bit of science, a little bit of cooking, and a bunch of drinking.
   
2. When you have several infusions brewing in your freezer, you always have a reason to throw a tasting party.
3. Holiday and season-themed infusions make great party gifts, and when you repackage them into smaller decorative bottles they're also much less expensive than showing up at a party with a full bottle of liquor.
   

I tried some vodka infusions earlier this month for fall and Halloween themes, with mixed success.

I mentioned before on this blog that the candy corn infusion and the whole pumpkin infusions were big losers. And now for the winners:

• Cinnamon-infused vodka. I dropped a cinnamon stick in a glass of vodka and let it sit, covered, in my freezer for six days, and it came out perfect! The flavor is all in the aftertaste, and you can tell if you let it sit and infuse for too long, it would be too sharp a taste on the tongue. It also mixes well. I tried it with ginger ale, orange juice, and in a martini, and found them all to be interesting combinations. I didn't enjoy it when mixed with tonic water though.
  
• Pumpkin Pie Filling-infused vodka. Of course, this sounds disgusting, but it came out fantastic. I took a scoop of pumpkin pie filling from the can and dropped it into a glass of vodka. Six days later it was great. As the filling is liquidy, the vodka takes on a pumpkin hue. I poured the vodka off the top to separate it form the solids, but to get all the filling particles out of the final product you can strain it through cheesecloth. The taste was not just pumpkin, but also all the spices (including cinnamon) that go into it, and somehow it also had a baked pie crust flavor to it as well. This infusion did not mix well with ginger ale, orange juice, tonic, or in a regular martini. It was okay in a martini made with sweet vermouth, but really this tasty vodka is perfect straight. I'm going to make more of it so I'll have some to share at Halloween parties next weekend. Try this one- you won't be disappointed.
  

Free the Beer

For $20 in advance or $25 at the door, you can drink all the Speakeasy Brewery beer you want- seven kinds in all- from 2-7PM on November 5th. There are also free hors d'oeuvres, entertainment, and a silent auction. The money is for the Free the Need non-profit. But let's not pretend we care about the needy. Let's go for the beer!
(props to DiveBar)

Do-It-Yourself

USA Today has another booze feature today- one on shops where you can blend your own wine. You choose a selection of wines in the front, then add the water and yeast in a tub in the back, then you return in six weeks and bottle it yourself. Crushpad is a blend-your-own place San Francisco. There is also a Canadian company called Brew Kettle where you can do a similar thing with beer. It's all the fun of making your own booze, but without all the danger of accidental death through explosion or poisoning!

A Trip to Not Remember

USAToday has an article about touring the Orkney Islands in Scotland, and only mentions visiting one distillery (Highland Park). But they make up for it by having an interactive map of Islay where there are seven distilleries. Well then, Islay it is!

Crocktales

Morning News

If you're drunk in Australia, you're more likely to be eaten by a crocodile.

Beer + Anything = Camper

I'm quite a sucker. If you advertise an event I wouldn't normally attend but you add beer or cocktails to the description, I'm first in line to buy a ticket. Such is the case with Brew at the Zoo, taking place at the Oakland Zoo this Saturday, October 22. They have music, beer, and food in the (normally) children's section of the zoo. It's $30 to get in, with the money benefiting some touchy-feely whatever. Sounds fun!

Where's the Wine?

That's right, more reading material from the world wide web.

The new website wineorigins.com launched to help you learn more about the specific regions from which wine comes. I know zilch about wine so I could probably learn a lot. They also have introductory articles on Port and Champagne.

Reading Material

Here are a few links:

An industry-heavy article on the rise of American whiskies.

Tequila explained, with recommendations from Forbes.com.

Rum explained, with recommendations from Forbes.com.

Forbes talks about the changing vodka industry and lists "the best" vodka cocktails that are probably too much effort to make at home. Also, a Green Apple Cosmopolitan? No.

Recommendations for blended Scotches, with a history of the industry.

And finally, an article about the michelada (Mexican beer/lime/spicy cocktail) and its growing popularity. I thought this drink was going to be big this summer in San Francisco, but we didn't really have a summer until just now.

Vacation

I just flew in from Fort Lauderdale, and boy is my liver tired. I was hoping to discover some Florida-specific cocktails (the screwdriver, perhaps?) but didn't end up in any bars that had drink menus. I stuck with my default drink- Citron on the rocks. They pour them different than they do in San Francisco, that's for sure. Rather than a rocks glass, they gave me a mixed drink glass filled with vodka. After a couple of those, things became hazy.

Where to get drunk in Canada

The SF Chronicle ran a story in the Sunday Travel section about beer pubs in Montreal. Note that their annual beer festival runs May 31 to June 4, 2006. For a list of lots of beer festivals around the world, check out the calendar on ratebeer.com, then plan your vacation around it.

Trends in Boozing

Here are a few trends I've seen out at the bars lately. Try them now or risk being unhip.

• Maker's Mark. This bourbon in on the menu in more and more spots, in specialty cocktails such as the Slow Club's Presbyterian (with soda and ginger ale) or fantastic Honey Kiss (with honey-vanilla simple syrup, Cointreau, and lemon). People are also specifying a "Maker's Mark Manhattan." It seems more women are ordering this drink than before. One acquaintance told me it was the "next cosmopolitan."
• Dark and Stormy. You can find this drink on more menus these days, and trendy boozers are ordering it everywhere. The official drink is made only with Gosling's Black Seal Rum and ginger beer.
  
• Think global, drink local. At least in San Francisco, more bars are supporting our local distilleries. I keep seeing Hangar One vodkas, Potrero Brewing's Junipero Gin and Old Potrero whiskies, and Distillery's 209's 209 5X Gin in drinks where once other premium brands would be.
  
• Pimms. The Pimm's Cup and other Pimm's drinks are showing up everywhere. I attended a trendy wedding yesterday and they even had Pimm's punch set up next to the croquet set. I felt like I should have been wearing a white suit and drinking with an extended pinky.
  

Nihon

Friday night some friends and I checked out Nihon, the new whiskey bar and Japanese restaurant opened by the Dajani Group, who also own Bar 821, Tsunami Sushi and Sake Lounge, and Cafe Abir in the Western Addition. Their first full-liquor license venue specializes in two things: Izakaya-style Japanese food and whiskey. They have over 100 whiskeys on the menu, most of them Scotch single-malts. I have a feeling I'll be working my way through this menu of this small venue- I love a good drinking project.

I started with the mixed drinks. First I tried the Apple Mack, which is a whiskey-based cocktail with apple and cinnamon flavors in it, served up in a martini glass. It's fantastic- one of the best whiskey-based drinks I've tried. It's sweet without being oversweet (so you could drink a few of them without getting the cosmopolitan sugar headache) and tastes deceptively unlike an alcoholic drink at all.

I then tried the Macallan Royale, a take on the Manhattan and one of their advertised signature drinks. It's Macallan 12 year-old Scotch with sweet vermouth and Campari. I didn't like this one at all- I felt the Campari overwhelmed the Scotch and replaced the long, buttery tail of the Macallan with a pang of dry herbal/medicinal Campari. This drink could have benefited from a harsher whiskey or bourbon of a regular Manhattan, where the vermouth and Campari would add new flavors to the heavy whiskey rather than cut out the subtlety of this already-smooth Scotch.

Finally, I tried one of the two Japanese whiskeys on the menu. (We realized later that we hadn't seen Suntory on the menu, which is odd because they made it one of their selling features when I wrote a preview of this bar for San Francisco Magazine.) Both the Japanese selections were Yamazaki, in two different years. I had the younger one. It tasted like a regular Scotch (as it should. Japanese whiskeys are the most similar to Scotch whiskeys) with both smoky/peaty flavors and a fruity-toffee flavors. The only thing that differed from some of the similar Scotches is that you first taste the fruity flavors and the tail was filled with peat smoke, whereas they usually come in the other order.

Long story short- go to Nihon before it becomes too popular, and make sure to try the Apple Mack.

Comparing Notes

It's time to play My Tongue Versus Yours, where we compare what Camper said with what other people say about whiskey:

Black Bush
Camper Said: "It only has that Irish sweetness for a millisecond, then the flavor changes to how you'd imagine velvet to taste- like its drying out your tongue, followed by a powdered chocolate taste."
Experts Say: "Black Bush has a distinctive, full-bodied aroma with spicy, malty and nutty sweet sherry notes. It is complex and well flavored, slightly sweet with clear malt notes that are not masked by smoke."
Analysis: Were we drinking the same thing?

Glenlivet
Camper Said: "It doesn't seem to have much nose or tail (aftertaste). It's all on your pallet- a delicious, spicey-smoky taste..."
Experts Say: "Selective maturation in new Limousin oak casks, usually reserved for wine, has added delicate overtones of the spices highly prized in fine wines, while complementing the elegance of the single malt."
Analysis: We both said "spicy."

Dalmore 12
Camper Said: "The peatiness is present in this Highland Scotch, but not obtrusive as it can be in some others, and disappears before the other fruitier flavors do. It has an almost a zesty quality..." Experts Say: "Moderately full bodied; reminiscent of orange peel, dried flowers, dried fruit; Powerful sherry cask aromas; veering towards an after dinner style."
Analysis: orange peel = zesty, but otherwise we were talking about different aspects of the whiskey.

Overall, I'd say I did below average. But that's why it's called a learning curve, people!

The wonders of whiskey

Last night I was out with friends at The Page (formerly Chances, which always sounded like a gay bar name to me) for continuing experiments in whiskey tasting. They had a whiskey menu, which is great because I never wear my glasses so I can't read the labels of the bottles behind the bar. Two of our selections they didn't actually have though- it seems they bought all the whiskey, made up the menu, then realized there wasn't enough bar shelf space to put them all. Oops.

First I tried Black Bush, a terrific Irish whiskey. It only has that Irish sweetness for a millisecond, then the flavor changes to how you'd imagine velvet to taste- like its drying out your tongue, followed by a powdered chocolate taste. Great stuff. I love flavors that come in waves.

I also had a Glenlivet 15 (I think) year old. Glenlivet is a standard whiskey sold in most bars, but I don't find it to be as interesting as others in the same age and price range. It doesn't seem to have much nose or tail (aftertaste). It's all on your pallet- a delicious, spicey-smoky taste to be sure, but I think I like my whiskeys with more bells and whistles. (I'm easily distracted by shiny objects too.)

I then tried a Dalmore 12 year. The peatiness is present in this Highland Scotch, but not obtrusive as it can be in some others, and disappears before the other fruitier flavors do. It has an almost a zesty quality, with the flavor jumping from your mouth up to your nose before smoothing out in the tail end. Nice.

The fun part about drinking whiskey is building a vocabulary by looking up the tasting notes online afterwards and seeing how wrong you were. I'll save that for another entry...

Conflict of Interest

I just learned that October is not only the month in which we celebrate drinking beer, it's also the month we should be more aware of how it kills you:

NEW YORK, Oct. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- October is National Liver Awareness Month, a great opportunity for Americans to learn how to care for this underappreciated and vital organ and to make real progress in the fight against what is rapidly becoming one of the nation's most serious public health problems -- liver disease.

Beer versus liver: which to choose? I'm not sure which is more important. I had best sit down and do some serious thinking about this over a cocktail.

Experiments in Infusion

I tried infusing some vodka in my freezer, with mixed results. I was going for an autumn theme. Two of my flavors were successful- maybe I'll blog about those later. But two others failed miserably.

• Raw pumpkin wasn't such a terrible choice for the flavor (despite warnings from the masses), but after 10 days the vodka barely absorbed any of the pumpkin at all.
  
• Candy corn was a very bad choice. The orange part smooshed into a blob at the bottom of the jar, while the white part floated like some kind of dead jellyfish. (The taste was gross too- sugary vodka.) Not recommended.
  

Oktoberfest Education

The SF Chronicle today had some information about Oktoberfest beers that I was too lazy to look up myself. Here are some fun facts:

• Oktoberfest-style beers are usually made in a style called "Marzen," because they are brewed in the cool month of March (Marzen in German) for consumption in the months of September and October.
• Marzens typically have a copper/amber color, a full, creamy head, malty sweetness, low hops (bitter) character and a palate-cleansing finish. At between 5 percent and 6 percent alcohol by volume, they're the model of moderation in both flavor and power on the beer-style scale.
• Three official Munich Oktoberfest brews are available year-round in the United States - made by Spaten, Paulaner and Hacker-Pschorr.
• There are also a number of U.S.-made Marzen-style lagers available in the Bay Area. Try the Gordon Biersch Marzen, Sudwerk Hubsch Marzen and Samuel Adams OctoberFest.

Beer: a religious experience

USA Today ran an article yesterday on the monks who make the world's best-rated beer (according to ratebeer.com). The article was interesting on its own, but moreso because I learned that there is an illegal beer market of bottles smuggled into the country. Illegal beer? That just makes me want it more!

Plum Wine

I just went out for sushi and ordered a glass of plum wine. (I'm all about trying new things these days. My philosophy: Every day a different buzz.) It was good, in a check-that-off-the-list kinda way. It tastes like 100% juice (not from concentrate) that maybe sat out a little too long. Sweet and thick, with a kick!

I looked to the internet to tell me a bit more about plum wine, but mostly I found recipes on how to make it. Here is the first step from About.com's recipe:

1. Wash green ume plum and remove the calyxes with a bamboo stick.

Wash what and remove what with what? I'll leave that to the experts, and drink mine from the bottle.

Helen Back

Last year this month I was celebrating Oktoberfest in Helen, Georgia (otherwise known as Alpine Helen). The place is a wonderful tourist trap. They converted an entire town into a mock Swiss Alpine village. As in: every single building. Stores, hotels, gas stations, houses, everything. I went to an Irish bar there built in a structure that looked like the base of a giant windmill. The town is situated alongside a river in which you can go tubing or (as I did) just sit at one of the patio restaurants overlooking it and watch people tubing go by. There isn't a whole lot to do in Helen other than shop for cuckoo clocks, candy, and beer steins, (and drink, of course), but the place is spectacular. It's kind of like the Madonna Inn in California- you can't stop thinking, "Why all this, and why here?"

I strongly recommend a visit the next time you're anywhere near the place. It's worth a special trip.

Oktoberfest!!!

It's October folks, and that means it's the month to celebrate all things German and beer. I sometimes forget that I'm half German (the other half is English and Irish), but it does make sense that I come from several lines of drunken partiers. But enough about me.

Here are a few events and ways to celebrate the month:

-Oktoberfest at the Toronado this Wednesday, October 5th. Pack into this bar with nearly 50 beers on tap, pack a sausage from the sausage grill next door into your gullet (they have vegan options, btw), and enjoy all the oompa-loompa music you can tolerate. The party starts at 6PM, but if you want to get a seat at a table get there closer to four in the afternoon :)

-Visit the Tourist Club. Unfortunately, the Tourist Club celebrated their Oktoberfest in September, but you needed an excuse to go there anyway. If you haven't heard of the Tourist Club, listen up: It's one of those great San Francisco(-adjacent) secrets. It's a German beer hall located in Muir Woods that's only accessible by a short hike. Open from 2-6PM on weekends except for the 2nd Sunday of the month.

-Drink at Thirsty Bear this Thursday for "Octobearfest" starting at 5PM. Yes, it's a tapas restaurant, not a German one, but it's got a built-in brewery so let's not get all technical about this. 25% of the proceeds from the night go to hurricane relief. Once again, drinking does good for the world. DJs spinning German and New Orleans music. Somehow.

-Go to Oktoberfest By the Bay Oct 13-16. I've been to this event before, and I can't really justify the price. It's $15 to get in, but all that buys you is the music played live by large German bands. The food and beer is all extra and not discounted by any means. The beer selection is also limited to about four kinds (mostly Spaten), so you don't really get the thrill of adventure trying something new either.

-Eat German food at Suppenkuche or Walzwerk. I don't know if they're having Oktoberfest specials or not this month, but don't let that stop you from getting really drunk during your meal. That's what being German is all about!

Know of any other events I missed? Let me know.