Posted by Paul Clarke, July 30, 2008 at 3:15 PM
Inside Ballast Point Brewery, from the Los Angeles Times.
In today’s Los Angeles Times, Jenn Garbee contributed a story that’s sure to resonate with spirits geeks like me: “West Coast brewers pick up the distilling spirit.”
Small-scale distilleries are on the upswing nationwide, as consumers take greater interest in locally sourced products and states reassess the tax revenue such operations can generate. And while many distilleries are truly independent startups, many talented brewers who have learned the business from making quality beer are either adding distilleries to existing operations, or working in tandem with like-minded distillers.
Garbee spotlights Ballast Point Brewing in San Diego, which has been making beer since 1996. Now with a 600-square-foot distillery, the owners are planning to add whiskey and rum to the list of libations they produce. This is a similar tack taken by Oregon-based McMenamins, a brewery that expanded into distilling whiskey, brandy, and gin (as well as opening restaurants and hotels), and by Rogue, another brewery in Oregon that now produces rum and gin.
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Posted by Paul Clarke, December 5, 2007 at 5:00 PM
In a recent article in the Washington Post, Jason Wilson reminisces about the time a friend of the family took him to a nice hotel bar—where he was apparently a regular—and announced to the bartender that the time had come to switch to his winter drink (a Stinger, in case you were wondering).
Reading this story reminded me of a rule I read on an online message board back when I was first starting to explore mixology: As the seasons change, so should your drink.
Since reading that instruction, I’ve happily taken it to heart—besides, December is no time to be ordering a mojito. While I’m always exploring different recipes, I typically have one or two favorites that I keep returning to, but those favorites change as predictably as the calendar. Spring to me is typically gin, often with citrus such as in the moody, meditative Corpse Reviver #2, but just as often without, as in the crisp and slightly bitter Hoskins. Summer is the season of rum, with variations on the venerable daiquiri high on my list of preferred drinks, and autumn brings the return of brown spirits such as applejack and Calvados, with Fallen Leaves and Stone Fences seeming very attractive.
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Posted by Paul Clarke, October 3, 2007 at 5:15 PM
Baseball fans have opening day, but what do whiskey drinkers have to look forward to all year? If you’re talking bourbon and rye, it’s the annual release of the Antique Collection from Kentucky’s Buffalo Trace Distillery.
According to John Hansell, publisher and editor of Malt Advocate—think Wine Spectator for the whiskey crowd—this year’s antique collection has now been bottled, and will be going into distribution later this month. The collection consists of five whiskies—three bourbons and two ryes—and if this year’s demand is anything like that seen with previous releases, the bottles should be snapped up in a matter of weeks.
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Posted by The Paupered Chef, February 28, 2007 at 7:00 AM
Photographs by The Paupered Chef
The cocktail party is an estimable but endangered social institution. Its demise may be blamed on factors as various as the waning popularity of hard liquor, the regrettable decline of the sibling arts of conversation and flirtation, and the growing acceptance in this country of the European idea that dinner by itself is sufficient diversion for an evening. (The cocktail party, remember, is an American invention.) We steadfastly defend the cocktail party, however, both as an abstract notion and as an uncomplicated and extremely pleasant means of entertaining. —The Joy of Cooking
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