Please Update Your Browsers

I've created a new website for my booze writing separate from the personal stuff on cramper.com- but you're welcome to read both. This blog is moving (and will be dead here) so you'll need to follow the link. This will be the last post here.

Please redirect your browsers to my new site:

alcademics.com

I'm full of it

"It" meaning "ideas" instead of "liquor" for a change.

I'm trying to scrounge up some story assignments, as I need a lot more work to pay the bills here at Camper HQ. (If you happen to be an editor paying a decent per-word rate, call me, k?)

I've had a rash of story ideas based on recent travels and press releases and upcoming events and breaking news. As a writer I'm always trying to identify a theme or trend or extract useful information from my experiences, then pitch them to magazines and newspapers. In the past two days I've sent out 13 story pitches to editors and heard back on 3 of them. (They answer the no's fairly quickly). It should be noted that simultaneous pitches are not allowed, so these are 13 distinct story ideas in addition to the probably ten other pitches I'm still waiting to hear back on from the past several months. That's not an excessive amount of pitches to have out, since nobody is paying me very well, but it is a lot to keep track of.

In any case, the point it this: I've been doing a lot of really good thinking over the past week about booze but I can't share any of it until I hear back that my pitches were not accepted and I know I can't get paid for it. What you're getting here on this blog is the writing that I can't sell, along with a lot of information I post as I learn it. Perhaps one day I'll be the world's first independent online cocktail journalist (if you're a high-paying sponsor, call me, k?), but for now I have to hold out a little bit. It's hard, because I like to talk a lot.

Imbibe Me

The new issue of Imbibe is out, and it's wonderful as always. There are stories on lemonade, a rare amaro, rose wines, a channel knife test, tea cocktails, seltzer water, vintage cocktail ingredients, Peru and pisco, wine-collecting obsessives, beer for BBQ, coffee roasting, how to throw a spirit tasting party (written by me!), sangria, and mead. Mead!

Go. Subscribe. Now.

Bitter Summer in San Francisco

I wrote a piece for the July issue of San Francisco Magazine about the city's summer love for Italian bitter aperitifs and digestifs that you can find here, though in the print edition it's in groovy chart format and they didn't omit the Aperol row.

I also wrote about our two San Francisco-distilled gins in the Best of the Bay section. Check me out!

New Infusions

In today's Chronicle, I have a short trendicle about the new infusions. It's no longer about infusing one ingredient in vodka. Now to impress bar patrons you either need to infuse the modifying ingredient like the vermouth, infuse an unusual spirit like cachaca, or add a whole salad's worth of ingredients to your infusion jar.

Infusions 2.0

Remember when a jar full of vodka with lemons floating in it was enough to make you ooh and aah? These days, bartenders have reclaimed their counter space for commercially flavored vodkas, but that doesn't mean that infused liquor has gone away. Homemade infusions, though often kept out of sight, are now more complex and subtle than the old ones.

-- At Etiquette, bartenders infuse bourbon with vanilla and spices in the Manhattan, cachaca with pineapple in the Brazilian Tease, and sun-dried tomatoes, three kinds of peppercorns and celery in the Garden Vodka, which is then poured into a dirty Garden of Etiquette Martini with a salt and pepper rim. 1108 Market St., San Francisco, (415) 869-8779.

-- The signature Americano cocktail at Americano restaurant calls for chai-infused sweet vermouth along with Campari, soda water and an orange slice. 8 Mission St., San Francisco. (415) 278-3777; www.americanorestaurant.com.

-- The Mission's Elixir uses rose hip-infused vodka, along with elderflower liqueur, Cointreau and lime juice in the delightfully dry Eldersour. 3200 16th St., San Francisco, (415) 552-1633; www.elixirsf.com.

-- Vegetarian temple Millennium recently infused bourbon with peach for use in an old-fashioned. They'll also be using cherries in that drink, as well as infusing them into a cherry brandy. And there's also a a chocolate mint-infused vodka that is mixed with a vegan version of Bailey's. 580 Geary St., San Francisco, (415) 345-3900; www.millenniumrestaurant.com.

-- Camper English

Expired Link

Here's something small I wrote for Friday's SF Chronicle, so most of it has already happened.

Tips for tipplers on surviving Pride weekend

1. He who stays out too late on Pink Saturday won't wake up in time to do her makeup on Pride Sunday.

2. The Civic Center celebration is a perfect venue for food and drink pairing if you remember this simple advice: Beer in a plastic cup always goes with food on a stick.

3. Like parades but don't feel like marching? Grab an outdoor seat at Ti Couz or another restaurant on 16th Street and enjoy a cocktail as the Dyke March goes by sometime after 7 p.m. Saturday.

4. Appletini, way out. Pomegranate, in. Try a splash of pomegranate juice or liqueur in Champagne at your pre-Pride party brunch.

5. The Trans March is on Friday. Celebrate with beer before liquor or liquor before beer. It's all good.

6. Money spent on beer at Pride booths goes back into the community. So drink responsibly but tip wildly.

7. Especially if they're hot.

-- Camper English