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Mixology 101

Son of Super Bowl Cocktails

Serious drinks from B & F’s Brandon Wise

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Wise

Brandon Wise shakes up another winner.

As promised, we’re back with more scintillating cocktail ideas that should make your Super Bowl Party the social event of the season. Beaker & Flask barman Brandon Wise responded to my request for recipes by sending me a nifty half-dozen. Six points! Please note: these drinks require some fairly fancy pants ingredients, so a trip to a high-end liquor store is likely in your immediate future. Hey, do you want the party to be a hit, or a bust?

Wounded Duck

“Smoky, savory, and all kinds of amazing. Sort of an old-fashioned meets a manhattan cocktail with a little culinary flair, this is what Don Draper would drink after a successful hunting trip,” opines Wise. “Trust me, there is no better pairing with beef jerky known to man.”

2 oz duck fat-washed rye whiskey
½ oz hickory infused punt e mes Italian vermouth
barspoon maple syrup
2 dashes angostura bitters
1 dash orange bitters

Build ingredients in mixing glass, add ice and stir short for about 5 seconds. Strain into bucket glass over large ice cube(s). Garnish with a cherry and/or orange zest if you’re feeling fancy.

Fat-washed rye: Start with ¾ of a bottle of Old Overholt rye and fill the rest of the bottle with rendered duck fat while still hot. Cap and place in freezer for 4-6 hours. Remove from freezer and strain at least twice through cheese cloth until all solid fat has been removed. Voila, savory rye whiskey!

Hickory Vermouth: drop a handful of applewood & hickory chips (I make sure to rinse them well with boiling water first) into a bottle of vermouth or put both in new sealed container. Cap and keep in refrigerator overnight (or until it takes on the desired hickory flavor/aroma). Strain twice through cheese cloth and place in fresh bottle.

Zanhorita

“Jack LaLanne must’ve been onto something when he preached the gospel of fresh juices on his info-mercials. He did live to be 170 after all,” Wise says. “This margarita variation takes freshly juiced carrot and tequila and finds a magical harmony that is as delicious as it is dynamic. You know you have one of his juicers in your kitchen cabinet, now you finally have a use for it!”

1.5 oz Reposado Tequila
¾ oz Cointreau
¾ oz lime juice
¾ oz cilantro simple syrup
1 fresh carrot (juiced)

Juice carrot Jack LaLanne style, and build all liquid ingredients in a mixing tin. Add ice, shake, and strain into a well iced, salt-rimmed bucket glass. Garnish with pinch of cumin over the top of the cocktail.

Bone Luge

“A distinctly Portland phenomenon that is catching fire all over the nation and, along with Laurelhurst Market, Beaker and Flask was amongst the first to entertain this ridiculous drinking trend,” Wise explains. “Bone marrow being a delicacy all its own, once the marrow has been devoured from the bone you can use it like a liquor luge. It’s easy: just pour a shot of whiskey down the channel of the bone straight into your face. Hooray for booze, and hooray for meat! Check out boneluge.com to see what it’s all about.”

B. Wise Red Beer

“Let’s face it: drinking cheap beer gets old fast,” Wise says. “Why not spice it up a little at halftime with this zesty Red Beer recipe? Sure, you can buy some pre-mixed bloody mary mix at the store OR you could try making your own with a bit more zing to it. Here’s a simple recipe.”

1 Can of Cheap beer (PBR or Miller High Life work great)
4 oz bloody mary mix (see recipe below)
Pour into Salt & pepper rimmed pint glass & enjoy

Bloody Mary Base

3 LARGE (46oz) Tomato juice cans
16 oz lemon juice
16 tbl horseradish (microplaned)
4 tsp salt
4 tsp ground pepper
4 tsp celery salt
4 oz sherry vinegar
8 oz worstershire
16 dashes cayenne pepper
8 tsp Tabasco

Grounded for Life

“What pairs better with nachos and 7-layer bean dip than a cocktail that’s a little spicy, a little savory, and a lot refreshing?” Wise gushes. “Not only delicious but also healthful, this cocktail takes the idea of bloody marys and day drinking to a whole new level of awesome.”

1.5 oz Mazima pepper vodka
¾ oz lime juice
¾ oz celery juice
½ oz triple sec
½ oz simple syrup
Dash of Fee’s celery bitters
Salt rim

Shake and strain into salted coupe or margarita glass.

Jimmy Scaffa

“Scaffa (I believe) translates roughly to ‘Cabinet’ in English, referring to reaching into your cupboards and using whatever ingredients you have laying around the house,” Wise notes. “The brilliance of a scaffa is that it’s a style of drink that is typically built in a glass without being shaken, strained, or adulterated. Here’s a quick fix that appeals to wine drinkers and cocktail fans alike and will go great with that shrimp cocktail you’ve carefully set out for your guests.”

4 parts Banks 5 Island Rum
4 parts Barolo Chinato (I like G.D. Vajra)
2 parts Battavia Arrack
1 part Maraschino liqueur
Dash orange bitters

Build ingredients in wine glass or whatever you have at the house, no mixing/shaking/stirring required. Most good liquor stores (like Pearl Specialty in NW PDX) have all of these ingredients and they’re a lot of fun to mix with at home.

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Tags: Bartenders, Beaker & Flask, Super Bowl party, Super Bowl cocktails, Brandon Wise

Mixology 101

Super Bowl Cocktails

A great game calls for great drinks.

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Shenault

Bartender David Shenaut in action!

Just in case you’ve been living on Newt’s moon colony for the past six months, the Super Bowl is this Sunday. So it’s definitely time to get your shopping list together for that big party you’re throwing. Beer, nuts, chips—these are things your grateful friends will pick up at Plaid Pantry on the way over as their meager “contribution” to the pigskin party. As the host, it’s up to you make the cocktail decisions. Yes, you could try to make it through the endless coverage of this sacred broadcast with beer only, but it’s not worth it. Not if you want a positive Twitter reaction, and I know that you do.

I queried some of the city’s top bartenders for can’t-miss cocktail recipes for Super Bowl Sunday. In fact, I got enough to parse them throughout the week. Lucky you! Needless to say, if you have a cocktail that’s a real wowser, please send it along. Don’t leave all the fun to the professionals!

The first recipe comes from the incomparable David Shenaut, who’s worked behind the stick at Zeus Cafe, Beaker and Flask, Teardrop Lounge, and Rum Club, just to name a few stops. He’s also a past president of the Oregon Bartenders Guild, so this man knows his way around a jigger.

The Souracher

3/4 Rye (100 proof)
3/4 Campari
3/4 Cocchi di Torino
3/4 fresh Lime juice
shake
spicy ginger beer top it off
Lime wheel

“The Souracher is an equal parts drink so you could batch this up ahead of time,” Shenault says. “Put the rye, vermouth, lime, and campari all in one bottle and let your guests shake 2 oz of the mix then top it with ginger beer. This drink is super refreshing and acts as a nice clean dry and bitter balance to those spicy wings and meatballs served on game day. Pink enough for the ladies and whisky enough for the men. Great cocktail to have between beers.”

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Tags: Bartenders, David Shenaut, Super Bowl party, Super Bowl cocktails

Stocking Stuffers

Last Minute Gifts!

Suitable presents for the tippler on your list

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I am a notoriously lousy gifter. When wandering the stores at Christmastime I become hypnotized with possibilities and all thoughts of the actual recipient vanish. My eyes glaze over, and like a crow, I am drawn to the shiniest bauble on the shelf. Perhaps it’s my narcissism or shocking lack of empathy, but I frequently bestow presents on friends and family that would be better suited to… someone like me.

With that in mind, I’m undoubtedly the perfect guy to cobble together a list of gift possibilities for that hale and hearty soul in everyone’s life; the individual who simply looks naked (shudder!) without a mug or a highball glass in their hand. Of course, you can always ignore these notions and simply buy them a spendy bottle of hooch, but I already grazed that pasture last year. I realize this post is arriving rather late in the season. It’s yet another symptom of the careless gifter—sloth. Thanks to Lisa Morrison (aka The Beer Goddess) for not getting riled that I’m freely pilfering a couple entries from her own gift guide. It’s all about the circulation of ideas, folks!

1. Old Lompoc Snuggies. The perfect present for that special someone who can’t always be bothered with pants. You’ll be the nattiest dresser at your house in this handsome and comfy mu-mu embroidered with the logo of Portland’s own Old Lompoc Brewing. Slip it on and commence swilling a C-Note IPA! $25. Available at 5th Quadrant.

2. What to Drink iPhone App. How many times has this happened to you? You’re sitting down to an elegant meal at a posh dining establishment and you’re stymied by wine choices to go with your Lobster Thermidor? Based on the popular book What to Drink With What You Eat by Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page, this handy application will magically transform you from slob to sophisticate in no time!

3. Oregon Beer Odyssey. Speaking of sophistication, it’s high time you educated your palate to the myriad beer styles available in your local cooler. From amber to zymurgy, Oregon Beer Odyssey’s classes will get you up to speed in all things ale-related.

4. Absinthe Kits. Delve into the mysterious world of the drink known as “The Green Fairy,” referred to as such for its rumored psychoactive properties! Only recently legalized in this country after being banned for nearly 100 years, absinthe preparation is as much ritual as it is routine.

Absinthe

5. 33 Beers Pocket Journal. No more blurry notes on napkins! Now beer snobs have a useful drinking companion who can remember what you did last night. This pocket-sized journal helps you take meticulous notes on the various properties (IBU, ABV, OG, etc) of every ale you’ve ever tasted. Also available at local beer emporiums all over town.

6. Portland Happy Hour Guide. Even yours truly is in awe of Cindy Anderson, Portland’s heroine of Happy Hour. Never again will you have to choke down stale chips or vulcanized chicken wings while unwinding after a miserable work day. 2011 edition now available.

7. Heavy Duty Juicer. If you’re serious about being the best home bartender on the block, then let me introduce you to my little friend. Fresh fruit juice is a requirement for cocktails that will be the life of the party.

8. Ultimate Home Bar Set-up Hello basement tiki bar! Between this and the juicer, you’re ready for anything—including all the new friends you’ll have.

9. Old Man Drinks: Recipes, Advice and Barstool Wisdom Enough with the fancy-pants cocktails! This indispensable primer from author Robert Schnakenberg will have you cranking out sidecars, rusty nails, and monte carlos just like the legendary Jimmie Charters.

10. iPhone Case Bottle Opener. Even if you’re not getting a signal, you can still crack open a cold one—as long as you’re not behind the wheel!

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Tags: Cocktails, Holiday Events, Craft Beers, Bartenders, Gift Giving, New Old Lompoc Brewing

Festival Notes

Distill My Heart

A crowd gathers at the Distillers Festival

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Distillers1

Absinthe? Don’t mind if I do!

It wasn’t quite a lost weekend, but I spent Saturday at the sixth annual Great American Distillers Festival taking place at the Tiffany Center on SW Morrison. A packed house of some 400 spirit enthusiasts glided to and fro, tasting tiny tipples of everything from absinthe to Zante grape liqueur. More than 50 vendors had set up shop which made it difficult to navigate the room without over-sampling. It was like Costco except the more I samples I tried, the happier I felt. Happiness, as everyone knows, is not an emotion normally associated with an afternoon at Costco. Just sayin’.

Ransom Spirits, the local purveyors of a very respectable Old Tom Gin, introduced the world to its new Whipper Snapper whiskey, a modestly aged and barely civilized blend that’s a bit unruly, but settles down nicely with the help of an ice cube or two. Pacific Distillery from Woondinville, Washington, proffered a sinfully smooth absinthe that will be right at home in my next sazerac. And I could well imagine myself getting into all kinds of mischief courtesy of Firefly Distillery’s (Charleston, SC) dangerously yummy sweet tea bourbon.

Of course, some of these daring drinks should be filed under “failed experiment.” New Holland’s (Holland, MI) “Hopquila” comes to mind. It was, as my mom used to say, “interesting.” Nuff said.

I also rubbed elbows with local distillers like Christian Krogstad from House Spirits as well as his former business partner Lee Medoff, who’s branching out with his own Bull Run Distillery brand. Reps from New Deal, Rogue, and McMenamins also were present and busy pouring their little hearts out. Perhaps the biggest surprise was the abundance of tequila merchants. Tequila fans had more than two-dozen varieties to savor. Sadly, there wasn’t a piñata in sight.

While the rest of us mingled and mused, the PDX Cocktail Invitational was taking place on stage, with 19 mixologists from up and down the West Coast squaring off in friendly competition, shaking up intriguing cocktails for a panel of judges and members of the public. The few entries I got to taste were superb. I was pulling for Park Kitchen’s Adam Robinson, who came up with a jaw-droppingly tangy mixture of Corrida tequila and blackberry root, but in the end, Ali Tahsini from San Francisco’s Bourbon & Branch took top honors for his Bell-Pepper sour, which he threw together in a Chopped-inspired showdown where the four finalists were asked to construct a cocktail from boxes of mystery ingredients. For the locals, Tommy Klus and Art Tierce from Bluehour placed third and fourth respectively. Way to represent, lads! As for you out-of-town hotshots? Just wait till next year.

Now where the hell did we park?

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Tags: Cocktails, Festivals, Bartenders, Bartender Competition, House Spirits, Park Kitchen, Medoyeff Vodka

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