–Christian

We recently purchased the Woodinville Age Your Own Whiskey Kit. Shockingly well priced at $40 at Costco ($150 online), we would have been crazy not to purchase this product.

Woodinville Whiskey Company is a small-batch distillery out of Washington state producing bourbon (with a rye on the way), white dog, and surprisingly enough, vodka. They also offer what I believe is the first all-in-one home barreling kit. Included are a 2L chard oak barrel; two fifths of 110 proof, barreling strength bourbon mash white whiskey; a funnel and two tasting glasses. It also came with a handy little booklet that explains the whole process. Read more »

—Christian

Last week we talked about the bar itself. In Part Two of the home bar series we look at the various tools of the trade. While you can definitely get by with a basic shaker, strainer and bar spoon, there are few more fun toys that will make your life easier and increase your potential repertoire. Take a look and outfit the bar to fit your needs.

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Jiggers

Jigger

Slanted jigger

While I’ve seen people rant on blogs and message boards about how it’s a sign of weakness to see a bartender use a jigger, the flat truth is that when making a cocktail more complex than gin and tonic (do those mix?), you want to be pretty accurate with your measurements or else you’re going to end up with an imbalanced drink. Having nothing to do with Jay Z, the classic jigger is metal with a cup on either side (they come in various combinations of volume ranging from .5oz to 2oz). You can also get the slanted jigger with volume lines which is a little more versatile. (And just to note, a standard shot glass is just over 1.5oz when topped off.) Read more »

—Christian

Every September San Francisco is host to a wondrous occasion know as Cocktail Week. Classes, lectures and bar-hosted events are held all around the city. This past cocktail week your humble Enthusiasts attended a seminar on a topic that has always been of great interest to me: the home bar.

Our gracious hosts were none other than Jon Santer­—founder of Bourbon and Branch (among many other prolific San Francisco bars) and David Nepove, aka Mister Mojito—currently a bar advisor by trade, but a long-time San Francisco cocktail guru. Between the two of them, it’s needless to say we were in good hands.

In this multi-part series I will take you through everything we learned. From how to build a bar; to the tools you’ll need to outfit it with; to the various ingredients you’ll want to keep behind it. In Part One we cover the bar itself. And depending on budget, the sky really is the limit.
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Our first happy hour event was a great success. After setting up at HANGR 16, I mixed drinks like crazy for almost three hours.
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—Josey

Anyone who drinks has a drunk personality type. In Part I of this post, we described 6 of the most common drunk personality types. For Part II, we’ll look at 5 of the slightly-less-common types.

Your drunk personality may be a louder, more naked, and less funny version of sober-you. Or maybe you’ve got some intense Jekyll and Hyde shit going on. Either way: your drunk personality emerges when you’re maximally inebriated and it’s the heart and soul of your drunken self.

The Philosopher. (Thanks to our friend Alice for this one.) He’s a variation of The Oversharer (see Part I), but he’s not looking for any feedback—in furrowed brow form, in hugs, in speech, or otherwise. The guy sitting at the bar by himself seemed harmless enough. So when he smiled, made a totally normal comment about the sports team playing on the bar TV, and motioned for you to sit, you thought—why not? With an open mind, you belly up. And no sooner does language start flooding from your new friend’s mouth do you realize you’ve made a terrible, tragic mistake. First of all, he doesn’t want to talk about the sports game at all—the ball they’re playing with is apparently a well-made helium balloon, and the players merely engaged in an elaborate ballet. Also, they’re cyborgs. Wait, you didn’t take that literally—did you? The only truth is that there is none. It’s all a socially-constructed, collective lie we’ve agreed to reinforce for each other—like my fucking ex-wife! That bitch lied a lot. She said she’d never get fat. She told me she’d never suck my brother’s dick. There’s no “knowing.” But you’re probably too enamored of the mirage to really understand.
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—Josey

Some people say that the way you act when you’re drunk is a reflection of your true personality. Partially repressed parts of your soul bubbling to the surface of your booze-addled brain. In vino veritas, and all that. Whether that’s totally accurate, or 90% accurate and really hard to admit, one thing’s for sure: Anyone who drinks has a drunk personality type. Your drunk personality may just be a louder, more naked, and less funny version of sober-you. Or maybe you’ve got some intense Jekyll and Hyde shit going on. Either way: your drunk personality emerges when you’re maximally inebriated, oft-blacked out, and it’s the heart and soul of your drunken self.

Here are some of the most common drunk personality types (and when you’re done reading this, check out Part II):

The Big Spender. He’s not just getting rounds for the table—he’s buying shots of Patron for the whole bar. And then he’s buying everybody lap dances at the Gold Club. In the VIP room. With bottle service. Sure, his internship in the mail room of the insurance company doesn’t exactly pay well, and he’s only on a three-month contract—but he’s got tomorrow’s due rent in cold, hard cash, some almost-maxed out plastic for “emergencies only,” and he knows how to use it. What could be more important than treating his new, best friends to a night on the town they’ll never forget? Suite at the W? Where else would we have the afterparty? Limos home for everyone? So much better than cabs or walking! Plane tickets to Jamaica for all the mailroom interns? I’ve always wanted to go there! The Big Spender can be easily spotted: He’s the guy screaming, “what have I done? What have I done??” in the lobby of the W any given Saturday morning.
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—Josey

Are you drunk right now? You might think so, but you might not be. That’s why we’ve created this helpful quiz: Just answer “yes” or “no” to the following questions and put suspicions about your sobriety to bed once and for all.

1. Are you seeing double? Are you seeing double?
….1a) How many fingers am I holding up?

2. Does buying a round of Patrón for the bar sound like a great way to liquidate your checking account?
….2a) Does buying a second round on your Visa sound like a great way to build credit?
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—Christian

For the record, I’ve been enjoying Cognac ever since listening a certain Master P song about Hennessey a few too many times in college. It has all the wonderful characteristics of whiskey: strong, rich, delightfully long lasting flavor; a warm, buttery feel in the mouth and belly; lots of badass pop culture references. But Cognac takes it to a different level. The smell of cognac is overpowering and each brand is different. Because it is fermented from wine, there is none of the dryness that grain alcohol tends to take on. And the broadness of flavor is unparalleled by all but the finest of other distillates.

In our ruthless (trembling) pursuit of knowledge, your humble Enthusiasts recently attended the The Barbary Coast Conservancy of the American Cocktail’s Cognac tasting class—in large part because we were sure our $20 admission fee was going to be a great value from a purely liquid standpoint. But little did we know how much more there is to Cognac than we had originally assumed. Here is what the remarkable fellows from Beverage Alcohol Resource (Steve Olson, Andy Seymour and Leo DeGroff) taught us that magical night we spent in the Boothby Center for the Beverage Arts.

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—Josey

When we saw the name of the class—“Mixology for the Alcohol Enthusiast”—we knew Jeebus herself wanted us to sign up. But admittedly, when we left the unseasonably sunny February afternoon behind and wandered into club Mist, a little worse for wear from Friday happy 12-hours, we were shocked to find other students that were not just us crowded around the bar. Then we realized where we’d mis-assumed—of course!—these drunks had named their blogs the Alcohol Enthusiast, too. Duh. Duh. We’re so dumb.

Once the initial surprise wore off, and we sent enough knowing and not-at-all-creepy winks around the bar at our classmates, it was time to start mixologying, 101-style.

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