Author: Camper English
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Between the Heart and the Tails, the ‘Seconds’
In pot-still distillation we always talk about the cuts: the heads and tails that are discarded (or recycled), and the hearts cut that become the spirit that ends up in the bottle. But some distillers make a cut between the heart and the tails called the “seconds.”
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Use an Aquarium Pump to Freeze Objects Inside Ice Blocks
You can make a clear block of ice using an insulated cooler with the Directional Freezing method. You can also use this method to freeze objects inside of ice blocks including freezing a full-sized bottle inside an ice block. If you are able to add an aquarium pump to the mix, you can make clear ice from…
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(Almost) All the Cocktails & Spirits Books Published in 2015, For Reading or Gifting
My annual list of most all of the cocktails and spirits books that have been released. This year we see tons of whiskey books again, and a whole segment of bar-specific cocktail books and a new category of narrative cocktail history.
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The Science of Barrel Aging on PopSci.com
I wrote a story for Popular Science on the science of barrel aging. The story was inspired by a trip to The Glenlivet where I tasted a 50-year-old whisky without any smoky qualities – but 50 years ago this and most whisky would have been at least lightly peated. So I went into the article specifically looking…
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How to Freeze a Bottle in a Super Clear Ice block
This technique to freeze a bottle inside an ice block uses directional freezing (freezing inside an insulated cooler with the top off so that it only freezes from the top-down), with the bottle raised high so that it’s in the clear part of the ice block.
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Science on How Spirits Change or Age in the Bottle, Rather than the Barrel
Do spirits change in the bottle? Yes they do, and so much depends on the type/size of the bottle and where it’s kept. Here is the science on the subject as learned in a seminar at Tales of the Cocktail.
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Carbonation Fun Facts Explained with a New Carbonation Device, Plus Bonus Math!
I was sent a sample of a new carbonation device called the Bonne O, and in trying it out I had a lot of questions about how it worked. That lead to a conversation with its founder and a Saturday morning spent doing math.