Author: Camper English

  • How Column Distillation Works: Bourbon Edition

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    Camper English
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    At the Tales of the Cocktail convention this year, I moderated a panel with three distillers who run column stills; one 5-column rum still, one continuous bourbon still, and one pot-column hybrid.  Kevin Curtis is the Distillery Operations Manager for Michter's Whiskey. This company is building a new distillery with a continuous column still. He…

  • Does Water Matter in Spirits Production?

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    Camper English
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    Though I often write for DiffordsGuide.com, this time editor Ian Cameron wrote about me, or rather, my talk on water at Tales of the Cocktail.  Some of the information in the seminar you may have read here previously on Alcademics as part of the Water Project, and some information from the talk is definitely new. …

  • A Whisky and Water Tasting

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    Camper English
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    Today, Friday July 12, is the last day to purchase online tickets for Tales of the Cocktail seminars. There are still plenty of seats in my Water World: Water in Spirits and Drinks seminar, and I encourage you to attend. It's going to blow your mouth. In previous posts, we've seen that different mineral waters…

  • Frozen Juice Makes Nice Ice Balls

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    Camper English
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    In my previous experiments with making colored ice balls, I found that the color from food coloring in water didn't evenly distribute, even though it made pretty patterns.  But when I visited the new MKT Bar at the Four Seasons in San Francisco, I had a drink with an ice ball with well-distributed color. It…

  • Interview with a Water Sommelier

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    Camper English
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    In researching water in both both distilled spirits and at serving, I came across Martin Riese, a water sommelier. He is the General Manager at Ray's & Stark, a restaurant located at the LA County Museum of Art (LACMA). He is developing a water program for the restaurant, and has his own water brand, hilariously…

  • A Visit to the Fernet-Branca Distillery in Buenos Aires, Argentina

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    Back in April I visited the Fernet-Branca distillery outside of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Some of you may remember me tweeting about it. Well, it's about time I gave it the formal write-up. Fernet-Branca owns two distilleries: the main one in Milan, Italy, and this one in Buenos Aires. In past years there used to be…

  • How Different Waters Affect The Flavor of Whisky

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    Camper English
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    This is some seriously cool stuff! A few weeks ago I tasted waters sourced from Scotland's Highlands, Speyside, and Islay regions and noticed how they brought out different flavors in scotch whisky.  Bowmore's master blender Rachel Barrie recently performed a similar experiment, though she didn't name the source of the waters. But it turns out…

  • Pairing Mineral Water With Food

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    Camper English
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    This blog post contains more information from Michael Mascha's book Fine Waters and website FineWaters.com. Previously I looked at How to Classify Bottled Waters and How to Properly Serve Bottle Water. Today we'll look at pairing water with food. You can read the full description of it on the FineWaters website. Basically, Mascha says you…

  • How to Properly Serve Bottled Water

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    Camper English
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    The book Fine Waters and the accompanying website have been real eye-openers for me. In another post I wrote about how the author Michael Mascha categorizes bottled waters. In this post I'll talk about how he recommends serving bottled waters. And in another post I'll share his advice on pairing water with food and wine. …

  • Water Research Resources

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    Camper English
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    Below are some of the sources I've been using in the Water Project here on Alcademics. I'll update this page as I use more resources and read more books.  Fix the Pumps. This book by Darcy O'Neil about vintage soda fountains also has information about mineral waters, which were once made-to-order. It includes practical information…