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Bits and Pieces from Winter Drinking Guide in 7×7 Magazine
My San Francisco winter drinking guide in 7×7 Magazine is coming online in bits and pieces.

Here are some:
December 14, 2010
Hot Buttered Fun

Hot Buttered Fun would be a good party band name, right?

My latest post on FineCooking.com is up. It's a recipe for the Hot Buttered Anejo, which is a hot buttered tequila that I had one night when the brand Avion was pouring drinks at Elixir.

Check it out here.

December 14, 2010
Four Roses Bourbon Distillery Visit

This week I was in Kentucky for a quick visit to the Four Roses distillery. For some history on this brand, see this post a I wrote a few years ago. In short, Four Roses was only a bourbon in Japan for many years, and has recently come back to the US market. They use two mashbills (grain makeup) and five strains of yeast to make ten recipes of bourbon.

The ten recipes blended together ensure a consistent bourbon from batch to batch. Another way they help do this is by having single-story rickhouses. While other brands have several floors in their rickhouses with quite extreme temperature variations in them, at Four Roses they're only one floor high, six barrels tall, with a much less variation in temperature from top to bottom.

We did two tastings at the distillery. One was tasting all ten recipes of the white dog. They have quite the wide range of flavor, from fruity to spicy. The second was tasting several barrels all with the same recipe from different barrels. This was fascinating as there was a surprisingly large difference: one tasted like oloroso sherry, one like apricot socks, one like creamed corn.

Largely because they've been selling mostly in Japan, they use all non-GMO corn. Distillery Jim Rutledge says they don't really advertise that because he doesn't expect they'll be able to get enough non-GMO corn to continue doing so: everything is being replaced by the modified stuff.

Well I have to run to another event- more on this interesting brand another time.

December 8, 2010
Sherry Bodega Visit: Bodegas Tradicion
In September 2010 I visited several sherry bodegas. Here are pictures and a few notes from Bodegas Tradicion.

(The small and beautiful bodega.)

(Drinking out of the barrel.)

(Criadera refers to the level of the barrel in the solera system. The 1/18 refers to the number of the barrel and the total of the set. )

(They also have an art gallery in the bodega. I call this painting "Laserdove".)
- Bodega only started in 1998
- Only produce old sherries – VOS, VORS.
- They buy them from other bodegas already aged and put them into their solera system.
- To my palate, older sherries are effervescent, literally. Very acidic. Lively jumps in your mouth.
December 7, 2010
Chartreuse + Chocolate = Delicious

The week before Paul Clarke wrote about the same topic to make it look like I ripped him off, I wrote my next blog entry for FineCooking.com, about the magical mystery combination of Chartreuse liqueur and chocolate.

While Paul was creative and found four drinks that combine the two ingredients, I went to Jamie Boudreau and asked if I could borrow a single recipe he blogged about in 2007. I'd like to think that this just makes me efficient.

(Verte Chaud by Jamie Bodreau. Photo also by Jamie Boudreau.)

Read the story on FineCooking.com here.

And remember, your comments at Fine Cooking make me love you more.

December 6, 2010
Tequila Distillery Visit: Casa Pedro Domecq
In November I visited seven tequila distilleries in Mexico. Here are some pictures and notes from my visit to Casa Pedro Domecq in the town of Arandas.

(Agave being loaded into ovens. They use the same agave for treatment with rollermill as with tahona.)

This distillery makes Tezon tequila, Olmeca Altos, and a mixto tequila for the Mexican market. I believe Tezon is all tahona tequila. This was distributed by Pernod Ricard in the US, but it appears they've abandoned it and are pursuing sales of Olmeca Altos, which is about half the price, instead. This tequila, also 100% agave, is made by blending agave that has been processed with a roller mill with tahona agave.

(In the rollermill process, after the agave is baked to break up the complex into simpler, fermentable sugars, the agave is shredded using a rollermill.)

(The tahona method. After baking the agave, the chunks of agave are placed in this pit. The large volcanic stone wheel rotates around in it, crushing the agave to expose the sugars before distillation. In olden times, the tahona would have been pulled by a mule.)

(This is the post-tahona agave. Gross. The fibers actually reabsorb the liquids here. All of it is thrown into the fermentation tanks.)

(Fermenting agave juice.)

(These stills are for the tahona agave- the big opening is so they can put in the fibers.)

(In the warehouse, they cover the lids of some barrels with plastic to reduce evaporation.)
- Agave for Olmeca Altos is 7-8 years old before harvest.
- They cut out the cogollo (the interior of the plant where it would sprout to reproduce if it could) in the field.
- They heat the agave in ovens, though they own an autoclave that is sometimes used for the mixto.
- They use larger pot stills for the mixto.
- They ferment and distill the tahona agave with the agave fibers, not the rollermill agave.
- The reposado tequila is aged in ex-bourbon barrels for 6-8 months.
- They replace the barrels after 9-10 years. They tried recharring the barrels but didn't like the results.
- The last agave shortage was in 2000 and 2001. Some people predict another shortage in a year or two.
- Lowland soils are sandier, darker, and more volcanic
- 60-70% of agave for tequila is grown in the highlands
December 3, 2010
Winter Drinking Guide in 7×7 Magazine
Oh hello, giant sexy four-page spread in the December issue of 7×7 Magazine written by Camper English!

Run screaming to your local newsstand to pick up the latest issue with a guide to winter drinking. In it you'll learn:
- Where to get your fancy on in a hotel bar
- The best hot drinks in SF
- Bars with rooms for rent
- The bar with 1200 Santa Claus dolls on display
- How I worked the phrase "plaid-slathered" into a bar review
- Gift ideas from local liquor stores
- The best bar for hungover bartender spotting
December 1, 2010
Sherry Bodega Visit: Harvey’s
In September 2010 I visited several sherry bodegas. Here are pictures and a few notes from Bodegas Harvey's.

(At the vineyard.)

(The white, chalky soil of Jerez not only seals in water to get the vines through the dry season, it reflects sunlight up to the bottom of the vines as well.)

(At the bodega, the famous Harvey's Bristol Cream.)

(Barrels of sherry at the Harvey's bodega.)

(Sherry, read for drinking!)

(The grounds at Harvey's are filled with animals like albino peacocks and…)

(a pair of alligators.)
- 75% of their grapes are machine harvested
- PX and Palomino grapes look similar but taste very different
- Vines last 30-35 years before being replaced
- Harveys sells 51% of all sherry in US. That’s most (all?) Harvey’s Bristol Cream
- Harvey’s VOS, VORS not yet sold in US.
- The cream category of sherry was named for Harvey’s Bristol Cream
- Harvey’s has albino peacocks
- Alligators- Harvey and Kevin. Kevin didn’t get along with his former mate Sandra and killed her. Gay alligators?
November 28, 2010
The Clear Ice Maker That Already Exists

So you know how I've been working for months on a way to make clear ice, and figured out that the best way (so far) to do it is with an Igloo cooler?

It turns out that someone else thought of that at least a couple of years ago. The Polar Ice Tray is basically a high-design cooler that separates the cloudy part of the ice from the clear part.

They accomplish this with an interior perforated bucket of sorts. The last part to freeze, the bottom, will have all the cloudy parts in it, and that is below the bucket.

According to the instructions, you break off the cloudy part outside the bucket after it is frozen.

Pretty cool. More information is here.

It looks like it works as well as my Igloo cooler method, and is just a bit smaller holding about 2.5 cups worth of ice. I've got more experiments to do though…

An index of all of the ice experiments on Alcademics can be found here.

November 24, 2010
Turkey Cocktail

In my latest post on FineCooking.com, I tell the tale of a recent Thanksgiving tradition: drinking Wild Turkey.

I also link to my experiments with Wild Tofurkey and share a new-fangled Old Fashioned recipe from the brand.

Check it out here.

November 22, 2010