Blog

Alcademics Alert: Website Extreme Maintenance

I have recently moved Alcademics.com and my other sites to a new web hosting service, so you should expect to see more broken links/images than usual!

Feel free to contact me and drop me a note about any- particularly after mid-October 2025 after I’ve cleaned up most of the site.

CocktailSafe.org is hosted at a new temporary domain and should be working, but will likely move again soon.

CocktailGreen.org is down and may or may not come back!

Thanks for understanding and pardon my mess going forward!

Camper English

August 28, 2025
San Francisco Cocktail History Tour Dates for August and September

I’ve added more dates to the calendar for my SF Bar and Cocktail History Tours. I’m doing the tour every Saturday.

Can’t make a Saturday afternoon? I can do private tours most anytime- reach out.

On the tour, which begins in San Francisco’s Financial District and end in North Beach, you’ll learn:

Learn about shanghaiing, sailors, bars inside boats, Emperor Norton and Barbary Coast saloons, the Bank Exchange and the Pisco Punch, earthquake whiskey and drag royalty, the influence of vermouth and grand hotel bars, Cocktail Bill Boothby and the House of Shields, The So Different and “pretty waiter girls,” slummers’ tours and tropical drinks. The tour ends at a 1907 saloon that upholds the traditions and décor of an earlier era of cocktails in San Francisco – and we’ll share a drink together there!

Information and tickets are here.

August 24, 2025
September 2025 Drink Book Releases
Here are new cocktails and spirits books being released in September 2025.

To see all the New Drink Books of 2025, visit this link.
- Savory and Sweet Shrubs: Tart Mixers for Delicious Cocktails and Mocktails
- American Whiskey Master Class: The Ultimate Guide to Understanding Bourbon, Rye, and Other American Whiskeys
- The Whiskey Bible: A Complete Guide to the World's Greatest Spirit
- Get Lit: Cocktails That Bring Your Favorite Books to Life
- Soju Party: How to Drink (and Eat!) Like a Korean
- Classic Cocktail Revival
- Tequila, Mezcal & More: Discover, Sip & Mix the Best Agave Spirits
- The Mixology Way: Classic cocktail recipes to master the art of mixology
- The Japanese Way of Whisky: Japan's Whiskies and how to Enjoy them
- Both Sides of the Glass: Paired Cocktails and Mocktails to Toast Any Taste
- The Comic Book History of the Cocktail: Five Centuries of Mixing Drinks and Carrying On
- The Whisky World Tour: A curated guide to unforgettable distilleries and their whiskies
- Booze & Vinyl Country: 100+ Spirited Music-and-Drink Pairings
August 17, 2025
Glow in the Dark Ants in Ice Cubes

I was trolling the dollar store for things to freeze into ice cubes, as I do, and found these large fluorescent ants.

I froze them into ice cubes using my Clearly Frozen tray. Then I shined a blacklight on them. They look awesome, even better in a glass with a drink.

There is a video of that here on my YouTube channel.

For more fun tips, check out The Ice Book.

June 24, 2025
Bartender’s Ketchup is Back on the Menu in SF

I wrote a story for the SFStandard about elderflower liqueur making a huge comeback. It was so popular when the brand St. Germain first launched in 2007 that it was given the nickname “bartender’s ketchup.”

It’s so back, but now bartenders are using a wide range of products. Read the story here.

June 19, 2025
Put a Ring In It: Ring Inside a Clear Ice Cube

I was browsing in the dollar store for stuff to freeze into ice cubes, as I do, and found a bag of party favor rings. They’re made for kids and so can only fit about halfway up my pinky finger, but it’s proof of concept.

To freeze the rings into ice, I used my IceOlogy clear cube tray, which has an open top. I simply put a piece of bamboo skewer across the top of the opening, hanging the ring in the top part of the water.

They came out great. One of the rings was a little deeper into the ice than the other (making it really hard to wear), but that can easily be controlled.

Here are some pics.

For more information about clear ice and my book The Ice Book, check out this page.

June 16, 2025
When Fizzy Water Was Medicine

My fellow drink writer Liza Weisstuch wrote a story about seltzer and the specific affinity that the jewish people of NYC have for it.

The story includes some quotes from me, as I covered the medicinal history of spas and the soda fountain in my book Doctors and Distillers.

The story is very fun and super interesting – read the whole thing here.

June 13, 2025
50 Year Time Capsule from the Transamerica Pyramid

There’s a new exhibit at the Transamerica Pyramid from a time capsule buried 50 years ago. I checked it out.

The building was completed in 1972- the time capsule is from 1974. Before that, from 1853-1959, it was the Montgomery Block that hosted the Bank Exchange Saloon. The Bank Exchange was the home of the Pisco Punch, the most famous cocktail in SF from roughly 1870-1920. Duncan Nicol, mentioned in the pictures, was the proprietor of the Bank Exchange in its later decades, and the person who popularized the Pisco Punch. He took his secret recipe to his grave.

I’ve left these images purposefully crappy to encourage you to go see it yourself!

June 3, 2025
Bottled Water Went Viral 125 Years Ago

My latest piece for Food & Wine is "How a Bottled Water Goes Social Media Viral and the Real Differences Between Them"

Read it here.

May 27, 2025
Super Juice Explainer

My latest story for Food & Wine is an explainer about “super juice.” Read it here.

May 23, 2025