MySpeedRail

Doug Paquin, our beer savant, has an interesting selection of beers for our opening list. I thought I'd share all of these with you.

Draft

Racer 5, Bear Republic Healdsburg, CA

Oatis Stout, Ninkasi Brewing Eugene, OR

Prima Pils, Victory Brewing Downington, PA

Stone Pale, Stone Brewing San Diego, CA

#7, Upright Brewing Portland, OR

Schwarzbier, Heater Allen McMinville, OR

Bottle

Coors Banquet 16 oz. can Golden, CO

Coniston Bluebird Xtra Bitter Cumbria, England

St. Peter’s IPA Suffolk, England

Fuller’s London Porter  London, England

Bad King John Black Ale

Weihenstephan Dark Hefe  Freising, Germany

Aktien Jubileum Pilsner Kaufbeuren, Germany

Pinkus Brewing Munster Alt Munster Germany

Aecht Helles Lager

Allagash WitBier Portland, ME

Ommegang Hennepin Farmhouse 25 oz.  NY

North Coast PranQster Golden Ft. Bragg, CA

Van Steenberge Gulgen Draak Ertvelde, Belgium

Orval Trappist Ale Villers-devant-Orval, Belgium

Brasserie Dupont Saison Tourpes-Leuze, Belgium 

Well, its time to forget all the hype and get to work at Beaker & Flask. We're opening Thursday come hell or high water. Here is a sneak peak at our opening cocktail list.

Cocktails

El Morocco (from Charles Baker): Cognac, Port, Pineapple Syrup, Pomegranate, Orange, Lime

Zanahorita: Reposado Tequila, Cointreau, lime, Carrot juice, Cilantro simple, cumin

The Chimney Sweep: Blended Scotch, Ramazzotti, Punt E Mes, Oregon Ouzo

Joe McCarthy’s Ghost: Krogstad Aquavit, Carpano, Apricot Brandy

Philo Biane: Matusalem Classico Gold Rum, Rancho de Philo Sherry, Benedictine, Orange Bitters

Coltrane! Coltrane! Coltrane!: Gin, Amer Picon, Peach, Lemon Bitters

Daddy Issues: Vodka, Concord Grape, Campari, lemon, lemon/orange bitters

The Trained Canary: Brandy, Madeira, Creole Shrub, Peach Bitters

The Boston Massacre: Bourbon, Dark Rum, Benedectine, Punt E Mes, Mole bitters

Sal Paradise: Rum, Tiki Style with crushed ice

Tilly Jane: Pear Brandy, Bianco Vermouth, Cynar, Ginger, Orange bitters

Happy Hour Cocktail List: $5 — $7

6 Lengths Ahead: Bourbon, Ginger Beer, blueberry grenadine, lime, soda

Night and Fog Cocktail: Cynar, Oloroso Sherry, Ginger Beer, bitters

Crush on Laura: Crush, Averna, bitters

Ti’ Punch riff: Blended Scotch, Amaro/Vermouth, lemon bitters

Dean’s Madness: Tequila, Blueberry (seasonal), Tonic, Lime or, substitute spirit: Gin. White Rum,                     Rye Whiskey, Aquavit 

 I'm not a vodka guy. Not that there is anything wrong with vodka, it has a long history despite not having been in the United States that long (post WW2). That said, vodka is the spirit of the times here in America and, at least in my bar, probably outsells all other spirits combined by a 3 to 1 ratio even though I carry very few vodkas.

One vodka that I don't carry is Effen vodka. I don't have anything against it, but shelf space in my bar is scarce and it runs at a similar price point to the better known Grey Goose, Chopin and Belvedere vodkas that I do carry. Very rarely I'll get asked for Effen Black Cherry vodka, but since I carry no flavored spirits, thats a no go as well.

So why am I writing about a spirit brand that I have little to no interest in? Its simple really. Today, Jim Beam announced that they were purchasing Effen from the Sazerac Company. It makes for Effen's third home in the last four months making me wonder just whats going on. In March, Constellation Brands sold Effen to Sazerac, who, this month have turned it around to Beam. The acquisition makes sense for Beam, having lost their right to distribute Absolut earlier this year, but Effen's case volume and brand recognition are nowhere near the levels of Absolut. Still, its an opportunity for Beam to build a super premium vodka brand, but I wonder why Sazerac would dump an acquisition so quickly.

We live in interesting times right now, even in the liquor industry. Everyone is feeling the pinch of these challenging economic times and perhaps that forced the sale of Effen again. What trends do you see happening with liquor companies right now? Will we see more consolidation of brands, less new brands coming to market or perhaps the death of one of the most recognizable brands in the world? Only time will tell. 

Last week, Bacardi flew their Brand Master, Willie Ramos, up from Puerto Rico to spend some time with the bartenders in Oregon. They had arranged a lovely four course dinner at Oba, a Nuevo Latino restaurant in the heart of the Pearl district.

The opening reception featured cocktails containing Bacardi's newest offering, Bacardi Dragonberry. A mix of strawberry and dragonfruit flavors, Bacardi Dragonberry is fast becoming the hottest rum in Portland nightclubs right now. As I rarely partake of flavored alcohol of any sort, so I stuck to a simple combination of Bacardi Dragonberry, club soda and a lime, which made for a nice aperitif before the meal. The crowd was a Who's Who of both the Portland craft and nightclub bartending scenes and it was nice to make some new contacts in a part of the bartending world that I rarely see.

Once we were seated, the classic Bacardi cocktail came out, accompanied by Tuna Tartare with yucca chips and avocado. The pairing of the cocktail and the tuna was a classic, and everyone started to relax and enjoy themselves.

The second course featured Bacardi's Superior Mojito paired with a Tropical Fruit Salad with Kataifi Wrapped Prawns. This was perhaps my favorite pairing of the meal. I love mojitos on a warm Portland evening and the fruit was a perfect complement to the cocktail.

By this time, my table mates were beginning to get to know each other. I was sitting with people from Candy, Hubers, Urban Farmer, Davis Street Tavern and Carlyle and we were all becoming fast friends, trading bartending stories, listening to tales about Huber's famous Spanish coffees and deciding where to go for post dinner libations.

Next, Coca Cola Braised Baby Back Ribs arrived on the table and everyone's mouth began to water. This was paired with a Bacardi Gold Cuba Libre made with Mexican Coke, which contains real sugar, not high fructose corn syrup. Simply three ingredients, rum, coke, and lime, this was perhaps the simplest but also one of the tastiest cocktails of the evening.

Finally, after so much food, the servers arrived bearing Pineapple Upside-Down Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream. Bacardi 8 Presidente Cocktails were offered up, but I chose a small amount of Bacardi 8 rum neat, as its rich, caramel notes were the perfect foil for the sweetness of the pineapple.

At this time, Willie Ramos began to work the room, regaling people with tales of the history of Bacardi, insight into the rum and its production and recommendations as to which style of Bacardi was, in his opinion, right for which cocktail. After talking to Willie for some time, my new bartender friends and I headed off to Vault Martini Bar for a quick nightcap before saying goodbye.

Next Tuesday, Peter Gugni, Bombay Sapphire Gin's West Coast Ambassador, will be flying into Portland to judge a competition involving a number of Portland bartenders and their Bombay Sapphire creations. First prize is a photo and info about you in GQ magazine, which is a pretty cool opportunity to raise your profile nationally as well as to publicize your bar or restaurant. The rules stated that we had to put our cocktail on our drink menu, meaning that something featuring pretty esoteric ingredients isn't likely to do well. I kept my entry pretty simple. opting for Bombay Sapphire gin, Aperol, fresh squeezed grapefruit juice and tonic water. The result is the 50 Plates Cooler.

The 50 Plates Cooler
1 oz Bombay Sapphire Gin
1 oz Aperol
3 oz fresh squeezed grapefruit juice
top with tonic water
lime wedge for garnish

Add first 3 ingredients to a chimney glass, add ice, stir briefly to incorporate, top with tonic, and garnish

Well, Beaker & Flask has been a long time coming. Yesterday, Kevin Ludwig, the owner, and in my opinion the best bartender in Portland, decided that we open the doors on the 25th. I'm excited to be a part of the team there, its a literal all star team of Portland talent, from the chef, Ben Bettinger to the bar staff, which includes Tim Davey, Doug Paquin and Elizabeth Markham. I'm just lucky to be a part of it. Right now, I've got to get working on the opening cocktail menu. I've had a lot of ideas, but nothing concrete yet and now its time to get going. We're pricing well drinks at $5 during happy hour (the well being brands that we drink and enjoy, no crap stuff. El Jimador tequila, Rittenhouse rye, Old Grandad bourbon, Flor De Cana rum, etc). Well, its time to get going on the list, I've got to run.

On Monday, I have my third tv taping. This time, I'm appearing on a local cooking show to demonstrate the ease of preparing mojitos. I've been asked to do this segment by a liquor company, and I appreciate the opportunity to work in television again. My first two appearances went well (both for local newsmagazine type shows), and I'm eager to gain more experience on television. The downside is that I have a torn rotator cuff in my shoulder, so after a busy weekend of muddling, oftentimes I can hardly lift my arm by Monday and, of course, the taping is Monday. My other concern is that I'm able to perfect making mojitos the way that this liquor brand specifies, rather than using my own techniques. Its important for me to be able to do this perfectly so that their product gets used properly by the people watching. To be honest, I'm slightly nervous, as the ice, glassware, muddlers, etc are all being provided by the liquor company and I'll have no chance to practice prior to the taping. Lets hope all goes well and I don't drop a garnish or knock a glass over with my nerves. For those of you who have done television tapings, what advice can you give me? What do you think is the biggest challenge? What is easiest? Is it just me or does it seem like ice melts incredibly quickly under studio lights? 

 Recently, I had the opportunity to dine with an award winning industrial designer who creates bottles for the liquor industry. In fact, he has created what in my opinion are two of the more iconic bottles on most back bars, St. Germain Elderflower liqueur and Bulleit Bourbon. St. Germain's bottle almost looks like a tall, slender, medieval cudgel and is easily the bottle curious customers point to first and ask "What is that?". Bulleit on the other hand, was designed to evoke a sense of place. The designer and the distillers agreed that they wanted to see the bourbon inside, but other considerations were taken into account to make it as authentic as possible. The bottle was created to resemble a flask, something that could have been put into a saddlebag for a long journey, and the wraparound label created to go off center on the back, giving the appearance of hand labelling. This got me thinking about a number of the different bottles behind my bar. I particularly like the design of the Domaine De Canton bottle, it another eyecatcher. Makers Mark is a bit of a pain to deal with because it was designed not to fit well in a rail and instead go on the back bar. Johnny Walker's bottle shape is reputed to be designed so that the maximum number of bottles could be packed on each railcar. Do you as a bartender give much thought to bottle design? If so, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

 Last week, I was lucky enough to attend a wonderful dinner at Ten01 one of the best restaurants (and cocktail bars) in the city. The reason for the dinner was to sample Bulleit Bourbon and hear about the brand from both Tom Bulleit and Hollis Bulleit. Even better, my friend Kelley Swenson who runs Ten01's bar and Tim Davey, who will be joining me behind the bar at Beaker & Flask created cocktails to match with the 4 course menu. 

Our first order of business was to taste the Bulleit bourbon either neat or on the rocks. While most of the time I do like a cube in my bourbon if I'm sipping it, with Bulleit I like to drink it neat because I enjoy that nice spiciness inherent in the whiskey. Next up was a variant on the French 75 but featuring Bulleit. It made a perfect complement to my steak tartare although I may have finished my cocktail far too fast as I was left finishing half of my plate without a cocktail in hand (my fault, not the restaurants). We moved into a couple of variations on the Manhattan to pair with our main entrees, and finished up with a delightful combination of Navan and Bulleit to pair with our dessert, a flourless chocolate cake with sage ice cream and caramel sauce.

Throughout the meal, Tom Bulleit regaled us with stories about the history of Bulleit bourbon, explained the differences between Bulleit and other bourbons, and generally spoke about bourbon history in general. Overall, I learned a lot about one of my favorite bourbons and had a wonderful time meeting the people behind the brand.

Here's a modern day martini cocktail.

My June is about to start and I am looking forward to what is in store for me in the coming weeks.
 
To start with I am meeting up with Bridget Albert for a signing of her new book and general about town tour for three days around the 10th. This should be a blast due to the fact that I get to hang out with an awesome mixologist but also she is bringing me a few bottles of Del Maguey to imbibe on here visit.

At the tale end of this visit I am doing a photo shoot for a new cocktail pack that we have been developing using jams and compote and dried flowers.

A week and a bit later I am back in Vancouver to pick my boys up from the airport from the UK and Oz for my wedding. Which starts on the 17th with rehearsals, stags and family affairs until the big day on the 20th.

After that I go back to work for a few weeks and then head to New Orleans for a 4 day post bachelor party at Tales. Once I get back from Tales, I am off to my honeymoon for three weeks in Europe.

Should be a blast of a month/s!

This year has been one of the toughest years of my career to date. Not only am I very busy being a super dad to my daughter who at 17 month runs rings around me. But have had to deal with the horrendous economic circumstances that we are all finding our selves in.
So after some severe soul searching etc I have set up my own mobile bar company. i have done three events now all of which were a great success. Along the way I have had to learn about designing logo’s, websites, portable bars all of which has been a wicked eye opener. I have just bought my own 6mX3m marquee as well as a whole host of 100l coolboxes, equipment etc as I am doing a number of small festivals around sussex this summer as a little warm up before I go mental next year with my events company.
The great thing is that I am back behind the wood making drinks. It has made me realise how long in the tooth we are all getting. After on event after some serious shaking, mduddling etc I woke up the next day and could barely move. Bad back, shoulder, neck, thighs (omg from bending down all the time memo to self buy a back bar). This has made me realise that I have been resting on my laurels for far too long and need to do some serious bartending.
So this summer I am back to being a freelance bartender with a couple of exciting projects thrown in for good measure.

 

The Brighton Bartenders Association or BNBA held its first speed comp last month which was a massive success. As with all major events there was a slight case of “pre-rave” tension, worrying whether or not any one would actually turn up etc. As with all things bartender related it started a little late (8pm start but didn’t get going till 845) but once we were up and running that was it.
We had imagined that we could get 20 bartenders to turn up, thankfully they didn’t (chaos) but we did  get a very respectable 10 bartenders which meant that first prize was £100. The rules were simple the fastest bartender to make ten drinks (all specs were given out before to give peeps the chance to practice). We had one judge for each tender in charge of the stop clock and one judge in charge of ensuring we weren’t drinking rubbish with time added on for mistakes and awful drinks.
We had some hilarious tenders turning up in all states but the true god of the evening was Kyle from Blanch house in Brighton who truly rocked the evening with some great two handed work!!
We are rolling this out for every month with a couple of special months where we will be having one brand in to do a rum evening where all the cocktails will be rum based drinks ranging from the ridiculous but fab Pina Colada to the awesome daiquiri etc.

May is full of events both big and small with one of the largest being the Wine show in London. I have been every year for around 5 years now and am always amazed at the variety that is present there. You can try everything from a Bulgarian Shiraz to an English Sparkling wine!

Last year they decided to launch Distill, which should have been the spirits world equivalent but didn’t quite make it. So onto this year with high hopes but unfortunately was very disappointed. The show was populated by brands who were looking for distributers or by the massive companies (Diageo). It was cool to try a whole load of “unheard of” tequilas but to be honest you got the feeling that every one had paid so much money to get there/ be there that they had very little energy for anything else!

The one brand which I was very grateful to see was Chase Distilleries who own the UK’s first potato vodka. I am a massive fan of this vodka as it not only mixes really well in most “drinks made with vodka” but it is superb on its own with a little ice. But a little gossip for yuo guys as I tried their new range of liqueurs which are superb with top marks for their rhubarb liqueur and their bottle’s . rumour has it that they will be producing their own gin this year but in very limited quantities so will let you know if I manage to get hold of some.

Ok guys it has been a fairly hectic month, two bank holidays in one month leads to loads of work and very little time for play. Enough with excuses. Have been a very busy boy this month with a number of very cool projects happening or at least starting.

Firstly was fortunate enough to teach a Molecular Mixology course at Shaker-UK HQ in London. This was a wicked couple of days doing all the usual with the sphereification, foams, (nice celery adam) jellies etc.

One of the main high lights of the two day course was the chance to make our own bitters. The top brands like angostura/ bitter truth/ fee etc have had a monopoly for far too long. Bartenders from long ago used to prepare in house vermouths/ bitters their own cherries etc. Its about time we got back to that way of life, and I think the customers would appreciate the “extra” mile that we go to.

We adopted the “sous vide” method where you cook at a low temp and in a vacuum. Sounds complicated but all you need is a sandwich bag a digi thermometer.

The idea is that you put your botanicals in the bag, suck the air out then pop into a baine Marie at about 55C. We left it in for half an hour and the results were amazing!!! We had several groups and loads of different herbs and spices and they all produced a great tasting bitters each.

Watch out Angostura there is some competition about. Speaking of competiton there is a new brand of bitters knocking around London called Bob’s bitters if you are lucky enough to find them defiantly give them a go. He has a great grapefruit bitters and I highly recommend the lavender!

Well, last night was pretty much a bust at the restaurant. In Portland, when the weather is even remotely nice on Memorial Day Weekend, everyone heads out of town and goes to either the coast or to the mountain for a nice three day weekend. With that said, tonight will probably be even slower, so again I'll be off early and to bed on time.

Sunday and Monday though, I'll be throwing a couple of barbecues. On Sunday, I'll be mixing up one of my favorite bbq drinks, a Stone Fence. Simply good bourbon, good n/a apple cider and a couple of dashes of Angostura bitters served on the rocks, its simple yet surprisingly complex. It pairs perfectly with a warm spring afternoon and grilled meats. On Monday, I'm throwing some brats on the grill, and while most will probably be reaching for a cold beer, I'll make sure that there is a pitcher of sangria handy for those who might want some. If I'm feeling particularly adventurous, I might even make a few Mint Juleps for the crowd as well.

What drinks do you like to make for your summer and springtime parties? For me, spring and summer are the perfect time to enjoy bourbon. Sitting on my back porch, sipping a Mint Julep with my dog at my feet, listening to the birds in my trees is a pretty relaxing way to spend an evening. I hope you all have a great Memorial Day weekend.

 While I was in Seattle this week, I tasted some new bitters made by someone called "Scrappy". I was quite honestly very impressed with the four flavors that I tasted. His grapefruit and orange bitters were exactly what I've been looking for in fruit bitters (that said, I'm still going to be keeping my Angostura Orange bitters behind the bar, I love Angostura Orange more than any bitters on the market). Even more exciting though, were his chocolate and lavender bitters. The chocolate had a deep, rich cocoa flavor, and the lavender featured a strong perfume of lavender followed by a subtle but delicious lavender flavor. You can check Scrappy's Bitters out here. You'll be glad that you did.