We’re a little less than a week away from the next Mixology Monday (I know, it seems like it came up really fast — we’re moving a little earlier in the month with this one, no reason to panic). This round takes place Monday, March 9, is hosted by the ladies of LUPEC-Boston, and the topic is The First Time.* Need more information? I’ll let hostess Pink Lady explain:

This event was inspired by a chance encounter I had with an almost-famous Christian rock musician who, at age 32, had never had a cocktail. “I’d like to try one sometime,” he said, “What do you think I should have?”

It’s an excellent question, and one I though best vetted by wide audience of experts: What drink do you suggest for the delicate palate of the cocktail neophyte? Something boozy and balanced, sure – but one wrong suggestion could relegate the newbie to a beer-drinker’s life. To which go-to cocktails do you turn to when faced with the challenge?

C’mon, folks, we’ve all been there — you’re all into cool cocktails and you find someone who isn’t, but is curious. Now what? How do you show them what you’re all excited about without overreaching with the Campari or the Fernet Branca and freakin’ them out all the way back to Fresca? Here’s your chance to ease a newbie into the game–

Head over to Pink Lady’s announcement post for details on how to participate, and get your drink up by midnight (or thereabouts) on March 9.

* Maybe it’s my ’80s upbringing, but I can’t write that phrase without getting that damn Foreigner song stuck in my head.

Tags: General by Paul
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The latest issue of Imbibe is out, and this one features an article I wrote on a topic that has held my interest for a while: home distilling, aka “modern moonshine”.

I’ve sampled a number of what are delicately referred to as artisan-crafted spirits in recent years, but it wasn’t until last summer at Tales of the Cocktail that I had a chance to see the level of interest that had developed around home distilling. In one of the large conference rooms at the Hotel Monteleone — rendered especially fragrant by the funky heads and tails of a still run that had been brought in earlier for demonstration purposes — Matt Rowley, Mike McCaw and Ian Smiley covered the topic of homemade spirits (or as much as they could of the topic in the 90-minute slot) in front of a fairly packed crowd. (Mike Dietsch provided a very extensive preview of the session over at Tales Blog; his posts are here, here and here.)

I left the room hoping to write an article on the topic and now, finally, it’s in print. I had the great pleasure of interviewing Rowley and McCaw for the story, along with several home distillers whose identities are probably best kept secret for now. I also look at the arena of so-called “legal moonshine”, since several brands describing themselves as such, or deriving from the moonshine tradition, appear in liquor stores across the country. I found little that was noteworthy about most of these brands, although several white-dog whiskies that are arguably in the moonshine tradition are pretty exceptional: my favorites were the Old Gristmill Authentic American Corn Whiskey from Tuthilltown Spirits, and an unaged wheat whiskey being produced by Death’s Door Spirits.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t room in the article to cover some of the useful resources that are out there for aspiring home distillers; I’m pasting below the sidebar that was to be included in the story (updated for use online), but didn’t make it into print.

Be sure to check out the March/April issue of Imbibe, or better yet — subscribe.

There are a number of valuable resources to help today’s hobbyist distillers get started. Keep in mind that in the United States and Canada, distilling without the proper permits is illegal and the penalties can be severe; furthermore, failure to take adequate safety precautions can result in fire or explosion, and poorly produced spirits can be toxic. Hobbyist distillers are highly encouraged to do their homework on the legal and technical aspects before getting started.

Matthew Rowley’s book, Moonshine!, provides not only valuable history on home distilling, but also contains useful instructions and recipes. The Compleat Distiller, by the Amphora Society’s Mike Nixon and Mike McCaw, covers the essential details regarding distilling of all types, and is an invaluable resource for distillers of all levels of experience; copies may be purchased at amphora-society.com.

Experienced distillers have a valuable online resource in the Yahoo Distillers Group, and beginners have the similarly useful Yahoo New Distillers Group. A New Zealand-based hobbyist runs the extensive online resource Homedistiller.org, which features information on techniques and equipment along with a home distiller wiki and online forum. Books, technical papers, articles and other resources on home distilling are available at The Alcohol Library: distillers.tastylime.net/library/.

Tags: General by Paul
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Absinthe was one of the most intriguing spirits to grace a cocktail for a good part of the 19th century, and even well into the 20th century you’d see cocktail recipes popping up that called for the spirit’s distinctive flavor. Now that absinthe is again legally available in the U.S., it’s high time to rediscover what absinthe can bring to a cocktail.

Last summer at Tales of the Cocktail, I spoke about the history of absinthe as a cocktail ingredient as part of a panel that also included Gwydion Stone, founder of the Wormwood Society and creator of Absinthe Marteau, and Jim Meehan, bartender extraordinaire from PDT in New York. The discussion apparently went over well with some in the crowd, so much so that Gwydion and I have been asked to reprise our presentations this Sunday, January 25, from 2-5 pm at an event sponsored by the Washington State Bartender’s Guild (Jim, however, has the misfortune of living 3,000 miles away, so he sadly won’t be joining us for this round). In addition to having the opportunity to hear Gwydion and I blather away about absinthe for a good long time while sipping a Monkey Gland or other absinthe cocktail, attendees can sample and learn about absinthes including Marteau, Pacifique, Lucid, Pernod, Leopold Brothers, St. George, Taboo and Trillium.

Tickets are available, but are extremely limited, so best to get yours right away; they can be purchased from your friendly local bartenders at Liberty, Tini Bigs, Vessel, Barrio and Sun Liquor. Price for the event is $25 a head, or $99 for admission plus a one-year membership in the WSBG (that’s a $25 savings). Already a WSBG member? Then hot damn, you get in free. The event takes place in Seattle’s lovely SoDo neighborhood; further details are available once you shell out for a ticket. Check-in starts at 2:00, the event gets rolling at 2:30.

Hope to see you there–

Tags: General by Paul
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After keeping up this blog for 3 1/2 years and writing about booze for publications around the country, the first day of 2009 brought me a little hometown love with this piece in today’s Seattle Post-Intelligencer: “The old drinks are here with him in spirits”.

Written by Mike Lewis — who helped me damage a number of Keith‘s cocktails at Barrio last weekend — the article is part of Mike’s “Under the Needle” series, which in other cities would sound like a column devoted to people struggling against IV drug addiction, but in Seattle simply refers to the defining element in the city’s skyline. Mike does a nice job of touching on the city’s growing cocktail scene, while offering sometimes uncomfortable observations about me (“balding”? C’mon, man, I’m still in denial about that, y’ don’t have to put it in the paper!). While in the depth of our lightly boozy conversation a detail or two may have come out mangled, I’m appreciative of the piece, and only regret that I wasn’t able to make sure folks like Casey Robison at Barrio, Jim Romdall and Zane Harris at Vessel and Andrew Friedman at Liberty received their fair share of my respect and appreciation in the story (and thanks to Andrew for letting us disrupt his bar for the photo shoot) — though I should also point out how hilarious I find it that Seattle’s most notorious drink-slinging self-professed media whore manages to hog the spotlight in stories that aren’t even about him.

Anyway, it’s a good start to the new year. If you’re new to the blog and have come over from the P-I, then welcome and please take a look around; even better, visit a few of the establishments mentioned in the piece and witness what Seattle’s finest bartenders are up to yourself.

Happy new year, all–

Tags: General by Paul
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After spending a great Christmas at home, gorging on seafood and Tom & Jerry, and wondering if the snow was ever going to stop, I roused myself this morning to go online and do a little self promotion. While things have been pretty quiet here on the blog, I’ve been extremely busy this past month, and some of the projects I’ve been working on are now coming out.

First, the new: I’ve got a piece posted on the New York Times‘ opinion blog, Proof. The blog covers “Alcohol and American Life,” and my piece, “Drinking Outside the Temple,” is a brief and personal look at the country’s cocktail landscape (be sure to check out the comments to see the kind of visceral reaction engendered by any discussion of alcohol — especially a discussion that deals with enjoying the moderate and responsible consumption of alcohol; and please, leave a comment of your own). And as happy as I am to have contributed something to this conversation, I need to offer a mea culpa to many of the country’s bartenders: as with any other time when you try to describe an entire city or region’s cocktail scene in the course of one or two sentences, I made gross generalizations, and I’m sure that there are plenty of bartenders in San Francisco, Seattle, New York and other cities who’ll take issue with the way I’ve depicted their region’s approach to drinks (or failed to depict them — as much as I’d like, there’s no way I could mention every city’s bar scene). Apologies if my comments seem to overlook or ignore your work; my intent was to paint a broad picture of the country’s cocktail patterns for those outside the mixology loop, in hopes that they might start exploring and discovering the same things I’ve come to enjoy about so many of your establishments. The tool may have been blunt, but my intent was a good one; please get in touch and let me know if you have questions, comments or rants.

UPDATE: The comments section at Proof must be experienced, if only to see the vitriol that’s laid on by self-described recovering alcoholics (who apparently have plenty of time to troll alcohol-related sites on the Internet). My favorite comment so far, though, is from someone named Tim, who if I should ever have the pleasure to meet, I’d be happy to buy a drink; read Tim’s comment here.

Second, I wrote a story on hot (boozy) drinks, “A Warming Trend in Winter,” that appears in today’s San Francisco Chronicle. Thanks to Craig Lee, the paper’s photographer, for getting such a cool shot of a Bishop with a flaming clove-studded orange shell in the serving ladle.

Third, and I’m running a bit late on this, but last Friday a story I wrote on unconventional American whiskies came out in the Chronicle; read the story here: “Newfangled American Whiskies go beyond rye, bourbon.”

Fourth, and I’m placing this down the list because I haven’t even seen the magazine yet (the mail truck is probably stuck at the bottom of the hill — thanks, Seattle, for your near-total inability to clear the city’s streets), I have a short article on Cherry Heering in the January issue of Imbibe. Article, sans recipes, is here: “Cherry Crush“.

Apologies for the extended silence here at the blog, but as you can see, I’ve been really freakin’ busy. Hopefully things will even out in the New Year, but in the meantime, happy holidays to all–

Tags: General by Paul
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