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.