FrogPrincesse

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...

A Mai Tai with Lost Spirits Polynesian-inspired rum, homemade coconut orgeat, Clement creole shrubb. This was pretty wild, as anticipated. Not my favorite Mai Tai of all times, but a great way to enjoy this rum. Even before tasting it, it filled the room with incredible aromas. The taste at first was very tobacco-forward, tannic. The cocktail was very strong, so I took my time to enjoy it. At the end, the banana notes were a nice little surprise.

I went to Stone at Liberty Station (Point Loma) again last Friday to relax after a long week. They have a great selection of Stone (brewed in PL or Escondido) and non-Stone beers on tap, plus a huge selection of bottled beers. What's great too is that you can order any beer on tap in a tasting size. Very nice for people like me who don't like to commit (and cheap - the 3 small beers were $7). Here was the draft beer menu at the main bar inside... and the draft list at the garden bar. I started with Hibiscusicity, a beer from Stone's Stochasticity project. This one is a Belgian-style ale brewed with wheat, hibiscus and orange peel. Pretty color. It was quite dry, with citrus notes. The Lupulin Loop: Comet (Stone). This is a project where they make the same beer but change the type of hops as the only variable. This one had been brewed exclusively with comet hops, a rare US-grown hop according to wikipedia. Citrus and pine. Dry. Quite balanced. (right in the photo) I had tried Simcoe’s for Sartori (Simcoe single-hop) from the same series a while back. If my memory is correct, it was more aggressively piney. Then a black witbier, Witty Moron (I know a bunch of these, so I had to try it...). Moronic indeed. Pretty bland. Disappointing. (the black beer in the photo above) There and Back (Sierra Nevada Brewing + New Glarus). This beer is part of Sierra Nevada's Beer Camp Across America series, a series of 12 beers brewed in partnership with other breweries. That one was the "winner" of the night. I really loved it. It's a great ESB with fruit undertones. Really delicious. One more for the road, Liberty Station Great Bowman’s Beard (Stone), a Scotch ale / Wee Heavy. It was a bit sweet, alcohol-forward, flat.

Thank you! So glad you liked it.

Quand on aime, on ne compte pas.

I'd get a bottle of rye and drink it neat if you want something really manly, or mix it with sugar and aromatic bitters for the beginner version, the Old Fashioned. Then get some absinthe and Peychaud's and try a Sazerac.

I made couple of drinks with my coconut orgeat last night. First, an Army & Navy with Tanqueray Old Tom, lemon juice, coconut orgeat, Boker's bitters. Very very nice. I would not change a thing. Then, with the Bacardi Legacy comp yesterday in London, I remembered I wanted to try the creation of Ally Martin (who works at Peg + Patriot). I had postponed because I did not have the exact ingredients on hand, but I decided to give it a shot anyway. The Young Cuban: Bacardi Superior white rum (I have this but used Plantation 3 Stars), lemon juice, orgeat (coconut orgeat), fino sherry (Lustau), dill garnish (tarragon), small dash soda (skipped). Even with all these heretical substitutions, I loved it. Not surprisingly, Ally made it to the final 3 in the UK. I will be serving this drink to my friends this weekend for sure.

You are being picky. St. Bernardus is very nice! (Although I've never had the Westvleteren, so I don't know what I am missing.)

YuleSmith Summer from AleSmith, a double IPA that they release every summer. The beer was paired with a Thai green curry. It's super hoppy, but not in an aggressive way. These kind of beers always remind me of drinking some kind of herbal tea (chamomille?). A bit of sweetness. Spice. Tobacco in the finish. Very refreshing with spicy food. It's also 8.5% ABV, but you can't really tell.

More local stuff. Port Brewing Board Meeting double brown ale. Why do brewers so often feel compelled to add coffee or chocolate to their brown ales is a mystery to me. It's not bad, it's just that it makes the beer more difficult to pair with food. Thankfully the coffee/chocolate was not too pronounced, so it was fine with my grilled sausage. Good level of bitterness. Pretty boozy at 8.5%, if that's what I am supposed to drink before going surfing first thing in the morning, as the label suggests.

A Ti Punch, of course!

Just send me a couple of iSis (and the booze), and I will do the research for you.

Dan, I did an aquavit tasting last year and you are right, Linie is very different and super mellow compared to Krogstad (discussion here). I am sure that they result in very different cocktails! The recipe did not specify which aquavit was recommended, although I had a hinch that, given that the cocktail had been created by Neil Kopplin of Clyde Common in Portland, he would probably use the aquavit distilled locally.

It's going to be dependent on pressure & temperature in your iSi.