FrogPrincesse

Ok, I am emailing you my home address right now so you can send me one. While waiting for it to arrive, this will give me a great excuse to go back to Pizzeria Mozza - they have a great amari selection including that one. Who knows, I might get crazy and go for the amari flight.

Something bitter this way comes (Chuck Taggart) with Bulleit rye, Picon, Dolin sweet vermouth, Fernet-Branca, mole bitters, salt. This is really fun, especially the first taste. It starts quite sweet, seductively aromatic and orange-forward. But of course, between the name and the ingredients, you know something else is coming and you brace yourself for what will inevitably happen next. So the long and bitter finish is not really a surprise, but it still grabs your attention, putting you back in your place in case you were starting to feel a little too comfortable. After a few sips, when the surprise effect starts to fade, it's still a pleasant taste and the bitterness subsides. For something more tame, I also made a Brooklyn (another rye + Picon combo), this one with no surprises.

I received mine in the mail yesterday. I flagged the dozen or so recipes I had already made in the past.

As a side note, I started using Untappd to collect my beer notes and photos in one spot. It's very handy.

A couple of local BABF winners last night. Societe's The Pupil (Bronze - International Style Pale Ale) Full flavor, quite bitter with a lot of stone fruit and citrus. Good balance. Ballast Point's Grunion (Gold - American-Style Pale Ale) Mosaic and Calypso hops. Tropical fruit aroma. Good amount of malt, nice bitterness, dry finish.

Was that the Providential? If so, I like it too.

I like Rittenhouse better than Sazerac 6, but it's highly subjective and they are both excellent. In your list, Willet 4 is my favorite and a great value compared to the rest. So I would stock up before it disappears. It's become very scarce here, so I reserve it for sipping. High West double rye is great too. Compared to Rittenhouse, it feels less sweet and has more heat. It's fun for mixing as it has a lot of character. Bourye is good, but is much more bourbon than rye. Lastly, I would not bother with Templeton "small batch" given the (current) price. I am sure that the label (and price) will change after this lawsuit.

I had more or less the same issue with the inspiration cocktail, the Purgatory (which does not benefit from the addition of Fernet). Oh and I am not sure what to say about Dan's post, other than I feel deeply perturbed and am starting to have horror visions. Need a drink quick, but not this kind obviously.

Draft Magazine has an interesting article on Stone's 18th Anniversary IPA (Will Stone’s new IPA kill IPAs as we know them?). Definitely a departure from their usual hop-bombs.

The official book trailer.

San Diego County breweries won a total of 14 medals in the Great American Beer Festival this weekend, including all 3 medals in the Session category. Here is the list. 14 - Session Beer (94 entries) - Benchmark Brewing Company, Oatmeal Stout (Gold), Pizza Port Ocean Beach, Guillaume (Silver), Karl Strauss Brewing Company, Mosaic Session Ale (Bronze)21 - American-Belgo-Style Ale (69 entries) - Green Flash Brewing Company, Le Freak (Bronze)51 - International Style Pale Ale (88 entries) - Societe Brewing Company, The Pupil (Bronze)52 - American-Style Pale Ale (145 entries) - Ballast Point Brewing & Spirits, Grunion (Gold)55 - Imperial India Pale Ale (135 entries) - Port Brewing Company, Hop 15 (Silver)57 - Imperial Red Ale (62 entries) - Port Brewing Company, Shark Attack (Bronze)62 - Irish-Style Red Ale (60 entries) - Ballast Point Brewing & Spirits, Piper Down (Silver)71 - Belgian-Style Witbier (65 entries) - Saint Archer Brewery, White Ale (Gold)76 - Belgian-Style Tripel (58 entries) - Pizza Port Ocean Beach, La Flama Dorada (Bronze)78 - Other Belgian-Style Ale (26 entries) - Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens - Liberty Station, Witty Moron (Gold)81 - Classic Irish-Style Dry Stout (26 entries) - Bagby Beer Co., Asphalt Jungle (Bronze)89 - Barley Wine-Style Ale (51 entries) - AleSmith Brewing Company, Old Numbskull (Gold)

Must be the Midori.

Minimal settling, if any. I usually keep everything in glass bottles with flip tops (beer growlers are great for large amounts), and give them a quick shake before dispensing into the shaker (or punch bowl).

How far in advance are you thinking? I've pre-batched cocktails with citrus in the morning and served them in the evening (I kept them in the fridge until I was ready to serve them). Fish House Punch can be pre-batched and kept pretty much forever (refrigerated). But for regular cocktails, if I had to go longer than 24 hours, I would pre-batch the whole thing without citrus, and add the citrus at the last minute, so it does not degrade in the drink.

That's fantastic. Congrats to Chris!

I will ask lesliec to pick me up on his way with the Lear... In case this does not pan out, I hope you will give us a full report.

I don't know if you've seen it, Rafa, but there is a cocktail that incorporates Green Flash IPA (and typos) at the end of the Harper's Bazaar article - the Strange Brew.

Yes it is. I skipped the introduction - the book is coming out in a few days. It's highly anticipated. Apparently they managed to get a $250,000 advance for it, with part of it redistributed to the employees. Press: Harper's Bazaar, Town & Country. There is a launch party on the 7th.

Sweet and Vicious (Alex Day) with Bulleit rye (Old Overholt was specified), Dolin dry vermouth, amaro Nonino, maple syrup, muddled apple. A bit on the sweet side indeed (even though I had reduced the maple syrup), but with the Granny Smith that I used there was a nice acidity to balance things out. It reminded me of some Calvados-based cocktails that I like. As a side note, the muddled apple seemed to soak up the drink a bit, so it was a bit smaller than expected.

The beer selection at the Trader Joe's in Point Loma - mostly local stuff including Port Brewing, Green Flash, Stone, Ballast Point, Saint Archer, AleSmith, Modern Times. I came home with two favorites, Saison Rue (The Bruery) and Firestone Union Jack IPA.

You should move to SD! I got passion fruit in my CSA three times this summer. I also have friends who have them growing semi-wild in their backyard.

Too much citrus, so a tiki drink was in order last night. The Sidewinder's Fang also calls for passion fruit syrup (like Don the Beachcomber's Cobra's Fang). I was about to reach for my bottle of B.G. Reynolds passion fruit syrup, but then I remembered that I had a bunch of passion fruits from my CSA that were in the process of shriveling up in the fridge. So I ended up making my own passion fruit syrup. It took a while and the yield was very low, but these drinks were pretty fabulous. The flavor of fresh passion fruit takes me back immediately to Polynesia. Also the syrup had a nice thick texture. I altered the ratios a bit and used Smith & Cross and El Dorado 5 for the rum mix. For 2 cocktails: 1.5 oz S&C 2 oz El Dorado 5 2.5 oz lime juice 2.5 oz Valencia orange juice 2.25 oz passion fruit syrup (pulp of ~ 6 small purple passion fruits, 2 large tablespoons demerara sugar, briefly heated) 0.5 oz rich demerara syrup (I did not use any soda water)

Scratch that, I found my notes. I am sure I have a photo somewhere too, but I can't find it right now. It was bitter, dry, a bit austere. Some citrus, with a burnt coffee flavor/molasses.

Exactly. The Polynesian-style rum is 66%. My usual rum mix is 41.5%, so that's about 60% more alcohol.

The tasting size at Stone is 4 oz I believe, so you "win" by a very wide margin...