thebartrainer
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Does anyone else keep mixing glasses in the freezer?
In the experiments I have done, (all in the name of consistency and ecellence of taste) I have tried to reduce the variables involved in the process of mixing a martini but have found a curious thing.
If you stir up your perfect concoction and then measure, temperature, dilution etc and try to emulate this by adding a specific quantity of chilled water to your gin and taking it to the required temperature, somehow the result is not the same as mixing room temp Gin, Vermouth and ice (cubed/cracked/whatever) to the reqired consistency.
Anyone know why?
Cheers
Ian
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I work for Morrison Bowmore Distillers who own Bowmore, Auchentoshan and Glen Garioch.
If you want to come to a talk by the blender and are around on the 21st August then let me know and I'll fix you up!!
As well as visiting the distilleries you should meak time for the best malt bars in the world. A few notable ones in Glasgow are:
The Lismore
The Pot Still
The Ben Nevis
The Bon Accord
Rhodric Dhu
Oran Mor
I have forgotten some I'm sure but that's a good list for starters.
email... ian.mclaren@fiorbrands.co.uk for more details if you want...
Cheers
Ian
PS. Good to see you here Adam... I don't know where you find the time!!
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Hi there
I am doing some research into a new menu and have been unable to find any information on Copa Salami, well other than its Itailian. Can any one fill me on with more information, on taste, orgins, uses?
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Thank goodness I shelved that idea... How embarrassing would that have been!!
When I went back to the forum index having posted my ideas I saw the Jello Shots thread and had a bit of a crisis of confidence in the #2 idea aswell.
Never mind...
Where can one buy liquid nitrogen? I'm in Scotland so specific retailers are not going to be an option but types of suppliers would be a help if anyone knows.
Cheers
Ian
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I've been asked to represent the future era of cocktails in a '200th aniversery of the cocktail' event in the UK. There are several teams representing notable eras in cocktail history (Tiki, Prohibition... etc...) and I have had to come up with two futuristic drinks.
The challenge was really to come up with a couple of interesting ideas that could be cranked out at good speed as we are being asked to make 300 drinks in 30 minutes (3 of us!).
Being a lover of all things Molecular I have decided to be as off the wall as possible. Given that the general public has not really heard of Molecular Gastronomy, I figured using two of the best known cocktails, and messing with them a bit, was the best approach.
I have decided on:
#1 A Bloody mary consisting of a semi frozen layer (churned in an ice cream maker until liquid sorbet consistency) and a hot foam layer, garnished with worcester and tabasco merangue shards. This was going to be a shot glass with frozen vodka at the bottom, room temperature clear tomato juice in the middle and hot foam on the top but the clear tomato juice has proven hard to source.
#2 A trio of cosmos... A martini glass of warm water with a garnish of three gel cubes of Citron Vodka Cosmo, Kurrant Vodka Cosmo and Apeach Vodka Cosmo (three guesses who the sponsors are!!) on a cocktail stick. We are going to have to issue instructions El Bulli style as the idea is to pop a cube in the mouth followed by a sip of warm water to melt the jelly.
I have no idea how these will turn out and whether or not they will be accepted by the guests as valid, quaffable drinks but what the hell.
The event is on the 17th so any advice/comments would be welcome. It is meant to be a competition of sorts so any bright ideas may win me a trip to France!!
Cheers
Ian
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Huh, I had no idea!
No wonder they're making vodka and gin first. Though, I wonder where the Aquavit is!
From the wikipedia shetland islands page, "Originally populated by Picts, the Shetland Islands were invaded and became a Norwegian colony for approximately 500 years, but ownership defaulted to the crown of Scotland on 20 February 1472 following non-payment of the marriage dowry of Margaret of Denmark, queen of James III of Scotland."
In any case, it does sound like interesting Gin, as long as it isn't too expensive. I wonder if they are distilling their own base spirit.
edit - added comment to try to get back on topic.
As far as I know they are shipping Shetland water to be distilled on the mainland into spirit.
The blackwoods people are hoping to market a whisky soon and I think that they see this as their major business.
They will steal the 'most northerly distillery in the UK' crown from Highland Park when they do. (not sure how coveted this is to be honest but H.P. always mention it.)
The concept that botanicals are different every year so that generates a vintage product is new to gin is interesting. They tell me that it is their use of home grown botanicals, such as sea pinks, that allows them to make this statement.
Personally I like the 60 but have not tasted the recent vintage so cannot comment.
Cheers
Ian
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Anyone wanting to try single malt scotch whisky should look no further than the Scotch Malt Whisky Society.
Founded in the early 80s by a group of friends who bought casks from distilleries and bottled it themselves, it is now an organisation with over 24000 members worldwide.
They still do the same thing, buying casks and bottling them under their own label, but there is now an enormous range to choose from. All of the bottlings are cask strength, not chill filtered and one of a kind.
The result is a collection of whiskies from well known distilleries (and some obscure ones) that will taste nothing like the commercial brands you see in stores.
As they are in competition with the distillers own brands they are not allowed to name the distilleries but can only refer to them by number. No list is available to decode the numbers but the descriptions in the tasting notes usually give some fairly heavy hints.
Check it out... you won't be disappointed!!
Cheers
Ian
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Rosemary & Melon Martini
2 measures Gin
1 inch slice of Honeydew melon
1/2 measure of Rosemary syrup
Muddle the melon, add other ingerdients, shake & double strain
Cheers
Ian
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Let's first clarify that I'm talking about Scotch throughout this post and not whiskey of any other origin.
Malt whisky is a product produced at a single distillery. It is always, unless stated otherwise on the bottle, a blend from any number of casks from the distillery. The age statement on the bottle is the age of the youngest liquid in the bottle. It is Malted Barley, milled, washed and the resulting liquid fermented. This is then distilled, usually twice in pot stills and put in used oak barrels, usually from either the bourbon or sherry industries. It must stay in the barrel for a minimum of 3 yr to be called scotch whisky.
The casks are blended to maintain a house style hence the fact that every bottle of Glenmorangie 10yr tastes the same. The recipe is never the same and this is the value and skill of a master distiller. Think of it as a map where you are trying to get from A to B with an unlimited number of routes in between.
Grain whisky is any cereal used in the same way but distilled in a column still. It must also be aged in oak barrels for a minimum 3yr. Having said that it is legally any cereal (Mr Regan is correct!) 95% of grain whisky used in the production of scotch for consumption in well developed markets is made using malted barley (not usually maize). There are only about 4 grain distilleries in Scotland with Girvan being one of the biggest.
Blended scotch: (Johnny walker(all colours), J&B rare, Dewars White Label, etc....)
Is a blend of grain and malt whisky. The ratio of malt to grain will go up as the price rises with the ultra cheap own label bottles being 10% malt 90% and the better quality blends being somewhere nearer 40% Malt. A number of different Malts will be used to create the brand's style.
If there is an age statement on your bottle of blended scotch (eg. Johnny Walker Gold 18yr or Chivas Regal 12yr) then that is again the age of youngest whisky in the bottle. Those which do not carry an age statement can be as young as 3yr.
A very small niche in the Scotch market is the Vatted Malt bottlings. These are blends of malt whisky with no grain whisky added. Examples of this are Johnny walker Green label and Monkey Shoulder.
I hope this has cleared up any confusion.
Cheers
Ian
PS. None of the above catagories are 'better' than the other, try everything (even the cheap stuff) and make up your own mind!!
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The things that gives whiskey it's "whiskey" flavor (whether that is a bourbon whiskey flavor or an islay scotch flavor) are the distillation proof, barelling proof, and bottling proof of the whiskey.
I think this is a touch simplistic when talking about scotch malt whisky. The raw ingredients do play an enormous part in the end flavour, especially on Islay!
When we talk about scotch it is important to remember that we are not talking about a continuous distillation process. The nature of the fact that it is batch distilled means that it is a spectrum of proof that is taken off (the middle cut or heart). This makes it a more complex product due to the comparatively high levels of congeners in the lower end of the cut.
generally most whiskeys made today continue improving until at the minimum 10 years. Most agree on that.The people at Ardbeg are currently doing exciting things with young single malt and different levels of char in their barrels so whilst I'd probably agree with the broad statement every whisky is different.
The bottling proof is how strong it is when they put it in the bottle. It should be as close to the barrelling proof as possible.Any alcoholic spirit will have trigger points in its alcoholic strength at which different flavours will be released. So it really depends what you want to get out of your glass as to how strong you want it to be.
I'd avoid blended whiskey for now. There are some arguments for it, but many whiskey makers simply use it as an excuse to stretch their supply of good whiskey with vodka. You can do that at home, if you want to.
Let's remember that unless your dram stipulates that it is single barrel or single cask on the label it is always blended. The main job of a distiller is to maintain the house style and that can only be achieved through blending. Blended whisky is not single malt cut with vodka, it is a blend of a variety of single malts with grain whisky, which is produced under the same laws as the malt. Granted it is produced in a column still but it must still be produced from malted barley and spend 3 years in an oak barrel. If you taste grain whisky, which is not likely unless you visit a distillery or find a rare bottling of Cameron Brig, it has a much lighter flavour but is still most definitely whisky. Sure there are good blends and not so good, but none of them are malt cut with vodka.
Drink blends, there is nothing wrong with them!...
Particularly try Monkey Shoulder which is a vatted malt from 3 distilleries... v.interesting
Cheers
Ian
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I think it would be unkind to say that it is just for show (especially as I don't know a great deal about the case in point) as the malt you see being turned etc will definitely be used!!
You could class it as keeping old traditions alive or as passing on old methods rather than just hamming it up for the tourists (and the travel channel)
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I run an annual cocktail competition in our group of bars and this year yielded, one Butternut squash drink, one red onion/balsamic vinegar reduction drink and the winners recipe contained Capsicums or red peppers as I know them.
There are lots of possibilities.
I tried a cheese based martini once with Applewood smoked.... not nice!
Cheers
Ian
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Does this mean that many of the brands of single malt that are so vastly different are purchasing their raw materials from the same source?
Yes they are...
Is there a commercial maltster in each region that supplies all the Highlands distilleries, or all the Speyside distilleries or whatever, or do the maltsters ship product to other parts of Scotland? If they do, how do they ship it? In tankers like gasoline???Afraid there isn't a cetain malster that supplies any one of the regions. I'll ask a couple of the whiskey reps I know which company they get their stuff from but I doubt they'll know off the top of their heads.
Check out this maltsters page for a glimpse of what is involved
Yes malt is shipped around Scotland in tankers. Most distillaries I have been to have large driveways for the trucks to pull in and drop the malt into building.
All thoroughly unromantic and as a Scot I feel like I'm blowing the lid on some sort of scandal.
How does this enterprise work? I'm fascinated and full of questions now that the blinders have been pulled off.The thought that some of these distillers are going completely against the "ancient formulae" and using no peat whatsoever seems akin to the shortcuts bad winemakers use (pumping over oak chips, suspending staves in old worn out barrels, etc.) to avoid spending money on newer oak barrels.
I can understand their desire for consistency within their product, but to completely ignore the standard means of production seems counterintuitive to me.The demise of the maltings is not a new thing. Most of the iconic pagodas that you see on bottles and logos of Malt bottlings have been visitor centres for a while now. Indeed I ate lunch in what used to be the maltings at Cardu (home of Johnny Walker!!) not so long ago.
The use of peat is another matter however. Not only is peat a non renewable resource but also it is not naturally occuring around the areas that many distillaries are found. So to say that they are going against centurys of tradition is a bit of a red herring. I don't want to consider what malt whisky tasted like at its inception or even 100 years ago!! Some advances in technology are good and as far as I can see and there would be no Malt whisky industry if it weren't for the use of commercial maltsters. There is no way that the comparatively tiny groups of buildings that comprise the majority of distillaries could churn out enough raw materials to produce even 5% of what is currently sold worldwide.
So it is produced from barley that is not malted on the premises, so it is bottled in Glasgow or Kilmarnock, that is commercial detail that shouldn't detract from the fantastic liquids that get produced.
Cheers
Ian
PS. Hope your dram doesn't taste any different as a result of this thread
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To me, as a home cocktail maker, it's OK to mess a little with the proportions of a cocktail recipe, as long as you stay relatively close to the spirit of the recipe. Once you start to change the actual ingredients, it's time to think of a new name.
Mr. Craddock would have had a lot more trouble filling the pages of the Savoy cocktail book had he stuck to this rule!!
See:
Hoffman House Cocktail
Martini (dry)
Montpelier
Marguerite
All have the same ingredients but in different proportions
This is only one of many examples
Cheers
Ian
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No... I would say that, everything else being equal, bubbles detract from perceived and actual viscosity (the two being related, but not exactly the same thing).
I disagree with the ale example...
Hal McGee, "On food & Cooking" p.638 (revised edition)
Like emulsions, foams are a dispersion of one fluid in another. In the case of foams the fluid is not a liquid but a gas, and the dispersed particles are not droplets, but bubbles. Still the bubbles do the same thing that droplets do in a sauce: they get in the way of water molecules in the sauce and prevent them from flowing easily, and thus give the sauce as a whole a thicker body.
Or am I making an elementary error in mistaking viscosity with thickness?
Cheers
Ian
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This may have been true in the nineteenth century, but nowadays all but a tiny handful of distilleries buy their barley malt from one of the big maltings, where the amount of peat-smoke added, which varies from none at all (in a surprising number of cases) to quite a lot can be carefully controlled and adjusted to each customer's precise needs. Most of the highly smoky Scotches are that way because they used to be that way in the past, not because the conditions they're made under mean they have to be. The modern world, God bless it.
Springbank still does things completely the old-fashioned way, BTW.
I'm pretty sure that even Springbank only malts a very small percentage of their barley.
Almost all malt used in the production of Scotch comes from commercial maltsters and has its peat content specified by the master distiller. It makes for a much more consistant product when you specify in parts per million how much peat smoke you want. It certainly takes a bit of the romance out but I suppose it also takes out some of the commercial risk when you consider the majority of it will not see the light of day again for 10 years.
I'm going to visit one of the four or so working maltings at Balvenie when it starts back again in March. Not much peat involved there though.
Cheers
Ian
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The reason a stirred drink is silky and viscous compared to a shaken drink (assuming it is the same drink) is that the act of shaking incorporates air into the liquid, which decreases the sensation of viscosity and contributes a certain "lively" impression. But, as we all like to say about shaken drinks, you have to drink them quickly while they're still laughing at you (thanks to Harry Craddock for that bon mot).
Doesn't the presence of the bubbles contribute to a sensation of viscosity, due to the interuption of the flow of the liquid, rather than detract from it?
When one shakes a drink, especially one containing fruit juice, the texture is noticably more mouth coating than the same drink built or stirred. Indeed we have recently listed a creamless pina colada on the very principle that a creamy texture can be achieved by shaking both chunks of fresh pinepple and commercially produced pineapple juice.
On another point... Could the impression of relative smoothness of a martini vs a manhattan also be attributed to the human perception of the flavours in the spirit. The vanilla of the whisky being inherantly linked with a perception of dairy smoothness and the floral and herbal qualities of Gin being more readily associated with freshness.
Just a thought,
Cheers
Ian
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Lecithin experiment went well initially. Cold water plus lecithin granules whizzed with an imersion blender (hand held stick thing) does produce foam like the stuff you would have in the bath. It is very stable and is still there as I am typing!
However when tried with whisky the foam vanished very quickly.
Dissappointed, I persevered and made a simple whisky/lemon juice/gomme mix and added lecithin. The foam forms but gradually dissappears. If you taste it the impact of the flavour is bigger than when drinking the same mix.
Maybe this is why the luminaries that have been name checked so far have gone for partial foams rather than the whole thing.
Cheers
Ian
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Thanks for this.
The point is not really to produce a quaffable drink to quench the thirst but more to try some different stuff with both texture and presentation.
In an ideal world I see the result as more of a palate cleanser during a meal rather than something I would drink sat at a bar.
Jose Andres... is that the guy from the Minibar at Cafe Atlantico? If so then I had thought of using another idea of his as a garnish. I'm trying to blow sugar bubbles and fill them with liquid so that the garnish is a kind of a cocktail filled losenge.
The end result will hopefully be a foam cocktail with a liquid centred sugar ball as a garnish.
sco-v: try a campari sour with a dash of egg white!!
Cheers
Ian
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I recently read (and participated) in the fantastic Q&As with both Ferran Adria and Harold McGee and it got me to thinking about the possibility of creating cocktails made from foam.
Experimentation has, so far, taken in such avenues as egg white, agar agar, gelatin and pectin as stablising agents but with no truly successful results.
I found a thread on eG that suggested Lecithin and, after a quick trip to the health food shop, that is tonights science project.
The question is.... does anyone have any experience of either drinking (if that's the word) or creating alcoholic cocktails made from foam or "air"
Cheers
Ian
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If using Tanqueray 10 a twist of Grapefruit zest would enhance that present in the botanicals of the gin
Cheers
Ian
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Grand Marnier has a Cognac base which (on paper at least) would link in nicely with the brandy of choice.
We also sugar rim our glasses which gives an extra texture and tingle to the end product
Cheers
Ian
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I am trying to do some research into the science of mixing cocktails and have a few questions that cross over into food science.
Any light you could shed on these ponts would be gratefully received
Are there any substances that have a natural affinity with alcohol and when mixed produce more flavour than others?
Are there any techniques or production methods that are used in the kitchen that you think could make the transition onto the bar?
Cheers
Ian McLaren
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How about a Sloe Negroni... Traditional recipe with 1/2 a measure of Sloe gin stirred into the mix.
Some flavours to add to the Bellini collection:
Fig & Vanilla
Strawberry & Basil
Back to the Sloe gin, how about a Sloe gin French 75 garnished with one of those delicious sounding brandied cherries
Cheers
Ian
Cocktail science
in Spirits & Cocktails
Posted
Are you confusing aroma and flavour as two distinct things. Aroma is flavour whether it is experienced through the nose or the mouth.
I would disagree that the optimal strength for a dry martini is different to that of a wet one. I can see an arguement for the same ABV at the point of serving and as such the method for each having to vary to achieve this but that ABV will be significantly below 40%.
I'm not sure of the science but in my experience alcohol carries flavour better than water... ie higher strength spirits seem to have a more intense flavouor so I think that there will probably be an optmum ABV that will carry the maximum flavour but be just soft enough so as to be burn free on the palate.
This doesn't even take into account temperature.
Cheers
Ian