drinkmemag_issue20

lifestyle through the glass

issue \ 20 . . . june + july 2012

technology– Scan This Book –

f e at u r e s

12 distillation distilledRichard English

24 drinking in printDrink Me’s guide to wine, spirits, and beer magazinesVictoria Gutierrez

32 tap thatWines on tapAllegra Ben-Amotz

48 majoring in wineThe Robert Mondavi Institute at UC DavisCorey Hill

56 gypsy beerBrewers without a home baseEmily Hutto

j u n e + j u l y 2 0 1 2

tech nology

ingredientsblast off | issue \ 20

24

d e pa r t m e n t s

2 from the editor

6 new booze

7 e-drinking

8 seasons changeSummer drinksCourtney Harrell

10 designDecantersDava Guthmiller

30 book review Brewed AwakeningVictoria Gutierrez

38 eat your boozeMicrowave rum cakeDenise Sakaki

40 48 hours in...Tucson, Arizona Paul Ross

46 profileYael Amyra

60 menu

61 featured recipe

61 libation laureateAle Gasso

14

10

from the editor

Your editor:he’s just a

glug machine(artist’s rendition)

When the printing press Was a neW invention, Drink Me magazine would have

inspired wonder and amazement. Today, we’re still made out of trees and you still have to flip

the pages to navigate. Though we do have a rich social media and a long digital reach at Drink Me, we like to use classic technology to bring you something that you can actually hold (and use as a coaster).

We are also pressing the “on” button for new departments in the magazine—including

carrying on the tradition of travel, checking out mobile-friendly drinking apps, and even

beaming up Drink Me’s own menu… since our bar is a virtual one. We’re being inventive and talking strictly about how technology is a wonderful thing for what you drink. Join us in following new trends, like wine on tap, and the research that’s happening at the Mondavi Institute at the University of California, Davis. We’re stepping into our time machine to look at the technology of stills. We’re even being a little self-reflective and checking out other alcohol-related print publications that persist in this digital age. How old fashioned of them!

000100100010001001001000100001001110010010001001001100100010001001001,

Danieldaniel yaffe, e d i t o r — i n — c h i e f

Over the years, Tales of the Cocktail® has aged quite well. From a small gathering of cocktail lovers to the annual meeting place for all those mesmerized by the art of mixology. Now, as we celebrate our 10th Anniversary, we’re ready for the biggest Tales of the Cocktail® yet. Join us in New Orleans for five days of culture, cuisine, conversation and the best cocktails ever made at a festival that just coming of age. To learn more about this historic event and to get your tickets and book your hotel rooms, visit TalesoftheCocktail.com.

Like most spirits, Tales of the Cocktail®

keeps getting better with age.

New OrLeaNs, LaJuly 25th-29th, 2012

subscribe to drink me

j u n e– j u ly 2 0 1 24

editor in chief: Daniel YaffeASSociAte editor: Victoria GutierreztrAVeL editor: Paul RosscreAtiVe director: Tracy Sunrize JohnsonWeB deVeLoPer: Aman Ahuja

AdViSorY BoArd: Jeremy Cowan, H. Ehrmann, Cornelius Geary, Hondo Lewis, Davide Nepove, Debbie Rizzo, Genevieve Robertson, Carrie Steinberg, Gus Vahlkamp, Dominic Venegas

contriButorS: Yael Amyra, Allegra Ben-Amotz, Cover by Juan Calle, David Driscoll, Richard English, Ale Gasso, Dava Guthmiller, Victoria Gutierrez, Courtney Harrell, Corey Hill, Emily Hutto, Tracy Sunrize Johnson, Brian Means, Paul Ross, Denise Sakaki, Daniel Yaffe, Sierra Zimei

thAnk You: Sangita Devaskar, St. George Spirits

PuBLiSher: Open Content www.opencontent.tv Eriq Wities & Daniel Yaffe

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i Was sitting With my spirits buying partner David Othenin-

Girard in the Bowmore guesthouse on Islay. We were in Scotland, tasting Scotch casks from independent bottlers, think-ing to ourselves, “Why don’t we start our own independent spirits label?” After sleeping on the idea, we came up with the name ‘Faultline,’ seeing as all three K&L stores are located along the San Andreas ridge.

We began by wetting our feet with a single barrel Cognac and an old bour-bon cask of Littlemill whisky, but soon We turned our attention to gin. I was hanging out with St. George distiller Dave Smith one day during the midst of their multifaceted gin launch. Their Terroir, Botanivore, and Dry Rye gins were about to hit the market, and Dave had been playing around with some other concoctions that hadn’t quite made the cut. One of these batches was like a blank white canvas: it had the standard juniper notes, but it could easily be manipulated into something quite expressive. We toyed around with adding citrus, adding spice, adding floral aromas, and adding more juniper, but Dave’s idea about adding a savory, salty component really stuck with me. Before I knew it, Dave was digging through his

laboratory, pulling out jugs of celery salt extract macerated with neutral spirits.

The result is a very special batch of gin created by St. George and specified by K&L — a partnership between two establishments that take drinking very seriously. The new Faultline Gin has plenty of herbaceous character, but that celery salt lends itself to drinks like a Bloody Mary or Greyhound as for me, i like drinking it straight out of the bottle. The first batch ran about nine hundred bottles so supplies are fairly limited, but we plan on introduc-ing a new batch soon. We’re hoping that the Faultline label comes to signify excel-lence, and as long as we keep working with our friends at St. George, I plan on achieving that goal.

faultline gin

text by david driscoll, k&l Wine merchants

new booze

j u n e– j u ly 2 0 1 26

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e-drinking

untappdB E E R S G O M O B I L E

What happens When your phone, your beer, and foursquare have a baby? Well, aside from some strange feats of biology, you get untappd. It’s a web and mobile appli-cation for ‘checking in’ your beers — broadcasting the beers you drink, where you drink them, and whether or not you like them. You can collect badges, see what your friends are drinking (no judging!), and even comment on their choices.

The data available at your fingertips is fascinating. Say you’re trying to track down a certain beer: by searching for it in Untappd, you can see ratings, revieWs, the top drinkers of the beer, and the top venues Where people have enjoyed it. You can even create wishlists of beers that you want to try. Hoping to connect with your favorite brewery? Untappd provides instant feedback in the form of real-time check ins and ratings for breweries, so they’ve taken notice and have started partnering with Untappd on promotions and contests for users of the app. It’s available in the app stores for iOS and Android, and if you have a different smart phone (or none at all) just head on over to untappd.com.

j u n e– j u ly 2 0 1 28

It’s time to soak up the sunshine and brag about your tan lines. Don’t waste another minute. Get outside, and pack a cooler full of beverages to share with your friends. Whether you choose beer, wine, or a cocktail, savor the flavors of seasonal bliss with the freshest of berries, peaches, and grapes. Embrace the weather fully and allow your taste buds to change with the seasons.

seasons change… so should your drinks

text by courtney harrell

summer

d r i n k m e m a g .c o m 9

beer While the sun is beating down on you and the sweat is dripping from your brow, grab an ice-cold beer. Lagers, wheat ales, and ciders are thirst quench-ing for the hottest of days as summer beers are light bodied and smooth. Grasp an Avery Brewing Karma Belgian Pale Ale (5.2% ABV) while flipping the burgers on the grill. It’s light, fruit-filled, and refreshing. Or you can grab Hell or High Watermelon (4.9% ABV) from 21st Amendment Brewery. It is a straw colored wheat beer with a kiss of water-melon sure to taste like “summer in a can.” And if you feel left out because you are gluten-free, grab an Ace Pear Cider (5% ABV).

wine To stay cool on these hot, crowded festival days, order a white wine such as a chardonnay. With the charac-teristics of melon and vanilla, this wine is velvety, sweet, and refreshing. Try to find the 2010 Gilbert Cellars Unoaked Chardonnay—with no oak aging, this one is crisp and made for days in the sun. Craving a red? Order a rosé. This pink-hued wine tastes of strawberry and

raspberry, and can have a delicious mineral-packed flavor (pink doesn’t

have to mean White Zinfandel). And if you want a soft, some-

what sweet, sparkling wine, pick up a prosecco. This perfect summer wine surges with the flavors of lemon, almonds, and honey.

cocktails Wherever you are on vacation, step out of your comfort zone and try a local seasonal cocktail. With so many fresh fruits, vegetables, and herbs to choose from, creative cocktail recipes are unlimited. Since clear liquors are lighter and less filling you could try infusing your own vodka with seasonal fruit such as nectarines, figs, apples, or blackberries. Combine your creation with tonic or club soda for a fizzy patio sipper. For an herbal mixture, try chili peppers, lavender, or basil. And if you want to impress at your backyard affair, try my own invention of Snow Cone Cocktails. All you need is a snow cone machine, ice, liquor, and mixers. It’s an easy recipe that’s tested and approved (by me) for staying hydrated at your own party.

After a recent trip to Louisville, i have a neW-found love for bourbon (though I’m still a Scotch girl). As such, I have been exploring ways to show off all that honey toned goodness with a great spirits decanter. Decanters have been used for everything from wine to vodka, but I love the color of the sunset as seen through a glass vessel filled with golden liquid.

decanter delight

text by dava guthmiller of noise 13 branding and design

Photo courtesy of Ethanollie.etsy.com

design


above: Photo courtesy of Design Within Reachcenter: Photo by Darbie Nowatkabelow: Mercury glass decanters

finding the right decanter is all about personal taste. You can go vintage, choosing cut crystal or even antiqued silver. There are versions in white glass with teak stoppers, which look great, but you miss the color of the liquor. My personal favorite decanters have clean lines and heavy bottoms.

Decanters vary in size, but they’re usu-ally intended to hold one bottle. While they’re mainly a throwback to the days where the store had a cask of booze and you brought your own container, decanters can also lend your spirits a little bit of oxygen, which can improve their taste. That being said, your decanter’s stopper must create an airtight seal, otherwise you might lose your precious liquid to evaporation.

Decanters might not be as important to whiskey as they are to aerating your wine, but they definitely look fantastic on your sideboard, and pouring whiskey from a crystal decanter is a great way to channel your inner Don Draper. So be sure to glorify your home bar, big or small, with at least one fine decanter.

text by richard english

lovers of drink and prose

love to toss around this quote.

While it is possible that mr.

faulkner might be overreaching,

it remains undeniable that

many of the finer things We

enjoy today—including scotch,

bourbon, vodka, gin, and

brandy—are made possible by

distillation, and that our lives

Would be different in hundreds

of Ways Were it not for this

most excellent and ancient

process.

j u n e– j u ly 2 0 1 214

The word distillation comes from the Latin word destillare, meaning ‘drip or trickle,’ but the process is signifi-cantly older even than ancient Rome. Archeological evidence suggests that those crafty Mesopotamians (in the Tepe Gawra region, in what is now northern Iraq) were using very basic distilling equipment as far back as 3500 BC, and that the Chinese were distilling alcoholic beverages from rice as early as 1000 BC. Several Greek texts from the 400s BC offer descriptions of a rudimentary form of the process. But the methods and gear that most of us Would recognize as the paraphernalia of modern distillation Were jump-started by arab alchemists beginning in around 600 ad.

These alchemists were, by today’s stan-dards, a goofy lot. When they first got busy messing around with the process,

they used distillation to make pretty much everything but booze. They crafted healing elixirs, anti-aging tonics, perfumes, and other scented additives for foods and wines, not to mention the ever-popular alchemical windmill-tilt aimed at turning base metals into gold. One alchemist in particular, Jabir ibn Hayyan, is often pointed to as the first person to use the process solely to create boozy tipples. Jazzy Jabir accomplished this lovely feat by using high-potency wine, and distilling it into an early relative of brandy. While we’re on the subject of alchemists, it was the German-Swiss alchemist and occultist, Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim (thankfully he shortened his name to Paracelsus — how’d you like having to sign that name?), who gave alcohol its modern name, borrowing the word from the Arab tongue, in which it loosely means “finely divided.”


In the late Middle Ages, trade between the Arab world and Europe (specifically Italy) fostered a distillation emigration across the continent, where people of all classes took to it, and its liquid products known then as aqua ardens or “burning waters,” with the same commendable gusto they took to wimples and woolen pantyhose. the explosion of dis-tilled spirits in europe ignited a major commercial revolu-tion, as countries began to export their favorite local drinks and import those from other nations — British whiskey, Russian vodka, French cognacs and armagnacs, and Dutch genevers (gin).

Over the next several hundred years, distillation moved onto every conti-nent and touched the lives of nearly every human culture on the planet. It also really improved week nights. And Sundays. And Arbor Day.

A portly still at Buffalo Trace Distillery

j u n e– j u ly 2 0 1 216

all things being equal, distilla-tion is a fairly simple process. All you really need is a heat source, a container in which to boil stuff, some sort of tubing, and a second container to receive the discharge. There are a plethora of different types of stills, so the following is a very basic explanation of the very common pot still. Before distill-ing can be undertaken, however, three important things have to happen first: milling, mashing, and fermentation.

During the milling process, as the par-ticular grains (wheat, barley, rye, corn, rice, and combinations thereof, depend-ing upon the desired spirit) are ground into a meal, the hulls are removed and natural starches are released. The meal is then steeped in water, which allows

the release of enzymes that break down starch into fermentable and non-fermentable sugars. When the steeping is complete, the resultant concoction is known as the mash. Once a suitable mash has been created, yeast is added, and fermentation begins. Yeast feeds on sugar molecules, converting them into alcohol and carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide bubbles away, leaving behind a mixture of alcohol and congeners. Sometimes called fusil oils, congeners are made up of numerous chemicals that are responsible for a majority of the flavors in a freshly distilled spirit, before any flavoring has been added or aging in barrels occurs . congeners also have a dastardly side. they are, lamentably, the primary cause of hangovers.

above: Laphroaig stills below: Cragganmore stills


The fermented mash is placed in a con-tainer called a pot. Originally, the pot was made of clay or some very sturdy wood such as oak. Later distillers turned to copper, but then to stainless steel since it is easy to clean, widely available, and more affordable than copper. Water is added, and the mixture is heated, or washed. In the old days washing was done over wood or peat or dung, and today it’s usually via electrical heating units of varying sizes and strengths, though some smaller-scale distillers (and moonshiners) continue to sWear by natural fire.

The pot is topped with a column called the neck. Also usually made of copper, the column is where the vapors (primar-ily ethyl alcohol and water) from the wash are temporarily collected. As with so many other aspects of life, both the length and the diameter of the neck are of vital importance. Larger diameters move more vapor through the system, but can lessen the overall quality, while longer columns increase the purity of the spirit, especially in a copper column, because copper leeches impurities, such as sulfur, from the vapor. Necks with rounded tops capture more flavors (great for whiskeys) and necks with flat tops seem to provide more neutral tastes for vodka and gin.

St. George distillery floor; image courtesy of St. George Spirits

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An imposing view of the Angostura rum still


Connected to the neck is, arguably, the single most significant piece of equipment in the distilling process: the condenser. The device does exactly as its name indi-cates; it condenses, or knocks down, the vapor from the column, returning it to liquid form by means of a hollow coil filled with cool water. Without condensa-tion, liquor cannot be produced, and it must happen speedily, or too much vapor will escape into the air. Copper is, again, the most popular material from which to fashion condensers. need, hoWever, can lead to innovation. When cer-tain Eskimo tribes were taught distillation in the 1800s by Russian fur trappers and had no copper tubing, they used the stalks from bull kelp to knock down their hooch.

As condensation continues, alcohol drips from the condenser and must be cap-tured. This is done with what is called, simply enough, a containment vessel. These vessels are usually on the smallish side and traditionally have long, narrow necks. Sizes are kept small to allow easy access to the liquid for testing pur-poses, and the long, narrow neck greatly reduces exposure to the air and all of its unwanted contaminants. Entire batches can be ruined by airborne pollutants, and

drinking adulterated liquor can cause blindness and even death. Another reason to keep the containment vessels small is because the neWborn alcohol is high octane and can easily catch fire or explode.

All distilled spirits begin life clear, and come from the still packing a serious alco-holic wallop. Whiskeys, rums, bourbons, brandies, and any other non-colorless spirits get their color from the barrels in which they are aged, although some lower-echelon producers add artificial colorings. Similar to the grains used to make the mash, aging barrels also contribute to a spirit’s distinctive flavor and scent.

What has been described above is distillation at its most basic. Modern, high-volume distilleries have added quite a lot to the process, including vacuum chambers, gas inlets, and more. It is important, when discussing distillation among experts, to know which type they are using, whether it’s vacuum distillation, air-sensitive distillation, zone distillation, or something else. If you’re interested in these other distillation methods, a quick internet search will bring you what you’re looking for.

So, then. Distillation. Some call it a science, and others, an art. How about we accept both, and simply call it good?

Stanza Coffee & Wine Bar19 reviews $$

1673 Haight St, San Francisco, CA 94117

KC S says, “A great place for drinking wine with friends! They feature smaller, local wines and the atmosphere is very cozy. I had both the white and red wine flights; the selections were all enjoyable. I couldn’t pass up the tempting looking pastries and ended up with the ginger blueberry muffin, which definitely helped with soaking up the alcohol! In addition, our server was super friendly and knowledgeable of all the wines he was pouring.”

Close your eyes and imagine yourself poised in the Upper Haight – glass of boutique wine in one hand, a mug of single origin coffee in the other. No, you’re not dreaming; you’ve just found yourself seated at the wine counter at Stanza, San Francisco’s newest iteration of a coffee shop with a twist. Serving Kyoto coffee from Augie’s (found nowhere else in the city!) alongside pastries from Mission Beach Cafe, cookies from Anthony’s, and small production wines pressed by MJ Lords and the gents at Markris, you’ll never need to leave your seat again. Call it a coffee bar or a wine lounge; we call it your new respite from the Haight Street mêlée.

Alexandra R says, ”The wine gurus Kris and Mark are known from Saison and Vinyl. Their own labeled wines are finally available in full range here! The forever-changing grape scene makes the wines more versatile. While you can trace all the consistent varietals, you will also find a couple additional elements that make the wines unique.”

For more reviews of Stanza Coffee & Wine Bar, as well as hundreds of other bars, restaurants, and any other business you’re looking to connect to,

shimmy on over to www.yelp.com, or download the Yelp mobile app today!

Hours: M-F 8am – 10pm, Sa-Su 9am – 10pm

Alcohol: Wine

www.sanfranciscobrewcraft.com

Fulfill your Brewing and Winemaking Needs. Free Brewing Classes Available.

1555 Clement St. San Francisco 94118 415.751.9338

Drinking in PrintDrink Me Magazine’s Guide to Wine, Spirits,

and Beer Magazinestext by victoria gutierrez

drinkmemag.com 25

Your verY first lessons on what to Drink anD how to Drink it ProbablY came from Your Parents. The dining table from my childhood still bears the marks of my parents’ very particular way of throwing back tequila shots, and to this day I still respect the importance of keeping a chilled bottle of champagne hidden away for an unexpected special occasion. When I headed to college, there were the usual “what goes in jungle juice?” lessons as well as a long and arduous experiment in which I tried to find palatable supermarket wines priced under $10.

times and palates change, and We need a dependable source for liquorious learning. Where to turn? Magazines, of course. This isn’t a plug for Drink Me magazine, although I sincerely hope you learn something new and worthwhile with every issue. The alcohol industry, often in close partnership with the food industry, has a community of truly exceptional print magazines whose popularity is rather stagger-ing given the rise of digital media. Just a quick search of wine or beer blogs will show you that the beverage media community is actually among the fiercest propo-nents of digital media, but tradition is not something taken lightly in the world of wine, beer, and spirits. Perhaps it’s even the physicality of drinking that lends itself so well to the tactile printed-on-paper word.

Drinking in Print

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wine enthusiast

A publication ubiquitous with both wine journalism and wine gadgets alike (and enthusiasm!), Wine Enthusiast was started as a wine products catalog by Chairman Adam J. Strum with his wife, in 1979, in their home basement. It wasn’t until 1988 that the Strums launched the magazine. They pride themselves on adhering to one mis-sion, according to Strum: “Our goal is to share the positive experience that enjoying wine brings to people every day.” No small task, Wine Enthusiast tries to demystify wine by publishing over twenty thousand reviews every year with the help of tasters stationed in five coun-tries worldwide.

Mr. Strum is also incredibly proud of the Wine Enthusiast staff. Numbering over two hundred, he says that every single one of them is passionate about both the product and lifestyle of wine. I’ve long been a reader of their West Coast Editor Steve Heimoff and his eponymous blog, a prime example of the unique passion and encyclopedic knowledge possessed by many of the Wine Enthusiast writers.

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whiskY aDvocate

This dependable whiskey tome got its start twenty-one years ago as — get this — a beer club newsletter. Whiskey technically starts as beer, so I guess the progression makes sense? In all serious-ness, the publication started humbly as eight stapled pages, grew, and then evolved to cover whiskey as advertising in the craft beer space started to dry up.

Now a full color magazine with a staff of six, Whisky Advocate’s Managing Editor Lew Bryson says that mission has always been to “find interesting stories about whisky — all whiskies, all over the world — and the people who make it, the people who serve it, the people who drink it. Tell those stories in a way that makes them appealing and accessible to a broad audience without geeking out or dumbing down.” Whisky

Advocate also throws WhiskyFest in New York, San Francisco, and Chicago each year to give consumers and producers a venue in which to interact. While the magazine was acquired by M. Shanken Communications two years ago, Bryson asserts that they’ve kept their same editorial staff of six, and with the acqui-sition they’re able to spend more time focused on great editorial content (and less time tracking down those pesky advertising dollars).

beer west

Beer West launched under the name Beer Northwest in 2007 as a means of keep-ing a pulse on the craft beer lifestyle flourishing in and around Portland at the time. Founder Megan Flynn couldn’t find a regional beer publication to really identify with, so she started her own.

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ORGANIC VS. SUSTAINABLE BEER

BEERS + GEARS IN FORT COLLINS

CRUELTY-FREE CRAFT SUDS

j u n e– j u ly 2 0 1 228

Recognizing that the Oregon craft beer craze had officially gone viral and that her neighboring state to the south was also a hotbed for small brews, in 2011 the magazine was renamed to Beer West and started to also incorporate coverage of the beer scene in California.

The goal of the magazine is to inform readers about regional craft beer in a way that stays fun while also being edu-cational. Quite by accident, the staff for this magazine with a seventy percent male readership is entirely female. To this point, Megan adds, “We stretch ourselves in understanding and con-ceptualizing articles and information that appeal to males, but ultimately, we would love a readership that includes as many women as men.” Consider this an ink-based fist bump to all my craft beer drinking ladies out there.

mutineer

Founder and Editor−In−Chief Alan Kropf stands behind Mutineer’s mission statement: “It is the mission of Mutineer to share the modern fine beverage experience with the millennial genera-tion while supporting and celebrating fine beverage culture in an artistically inspired way.” As a sommelier, cicerone, and all around scholar of fine beverages, Alan started the magazine as a means to create a wine commentary that comes from a more inspired and culturally rel-evant place.

Mutineer delves into basically any drink-able liquids, and it has found its home in the hands of millennial readers looking for something a little less traditional. Parts of the Mutineer programming include annual parties, a comedy festi-val, and water relief work in Nepal. And in their effort to stay welcoming to all interested in beverage culture, Alan says that Mutineer is currently working to launch a second edition meant for the beverage trade.

wine & sPirits

“We are geeks — fun−loving, hungry, thirsty geeks — and proud of it.” That’s how Wine & Spirits’ Publisher and Editor, Joshua Green, describes the staff behind this monthly magazine. Started in 1982 by an Aussie named Peter Simic, Green took over and subsequently purchased the magazine in 1989. The magazine aims to give readers the tools

mm1

mar/apr 2012 | Issue 22 | mutIneermagazIne.com

EnvolvE WinEry

The Bachelors of

Drink Tourism | FruiT Beers | The sTory oF The AviATion CoCkTAil


to find wines they like, and to cultivate a community of people who see wine as an essential part of the dining experi-ence. The focus on food and pairing is something that’s evident in the maga-zine, and it’s often a topic of the annual single-theme Fall Issue (the graphic cover of their ‘Wine and Pork’ Fall issue is featured in the movie The Devil Wears Prada).

Green is also quick to point out that the strength of their wine recommendations lies in the fact that Wine and Spirits has a team of sommeliers and wine store owners who taste in upwards of one thousand wines per month — all blind (they don’t know what they’re tasting). He says this unbiased tasting approach is how they can spot up-and-coming winemaking talent. How does he get the tasting panel to agree to being assaulted by one thousand wines per month start-ing at ten in the morning? “They might point to the music — Led Zeppelin to Nina Simone to Devendra Banhardt and way, way beyond — the enthusias-tic staff, and the Korean fried chicken,” Green says. That sounds like a group of geeks I could get along with.

W H E R E T O f I N D T H E M

With the exception of Beer West, all of these magazines are national magazines

and available at major bookstores. If you want to subscribe, head on over to

their websites for more information:

wine enthusiast winemag.com

whisky advocate whiskyadvocate.com

beer west beerwestmag.com

mutineer mutineermagazine.com

wine & spirits wineandspiritsmagazine.com

JUNE 2012wineandspiritsmagazine.com$4.99 • CANADA $5.99DISPLAY UNTIL JUNE 25TH, 2012

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Wine S& pirits

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book review

The best way to describe Joshua Bernstein’s Brewed Awakening is this: the book is a spot-on time cap-sule of the style, taste, and mindset of the craft breWing culture right noW. It doesn’t take a beer expert to understand that the craft brewing scene is currently in an incred-ibly energetic and variable place. Just head over to the nearest beer bar and remark at the number of beers available that didn’t exist one year, one month, or even one week ago. With that in mind, any book that attempts to take a snap-shot of the craft brewing world with anecdotes and suggested beers is going to become less useful as time passes — so if you like your beers full of hops and punny names, grab this book right now.

Appropriately, this of-the-moment beer tome starts chapter one with the darling ingredient that gets groWler geeks talking and pal-ates crying mercy: hops. From an in-depth description of the different strains, and the plights of brewers trying to make the most of yearly harvests,

Brewed Awakening then marches through all of the ingredients that make a beer a beer. What follows this first chapter is an eye opening and truly fun account of the many facets of craft brew-ing told via very personal brewer stories, tips, and profiles.

With its entertaining anecdotal style, Bernstein’s book reads quite well cover to cover, but i’d recommend taking it in small doses. The layout makes it highly actionable; nearly every page includes relevant beers to try (that is, if you can find them where you live). And speaking of layout, the artwork in this book is quite busy. There’s no room for notes, ironically, because most of the book is made to look like a notebook, so have a pen and paper handy for jotting down rye beers to find or the questions to ask a bar serving cask brews.

With the timeliness of the book, I have to wonder whether Bernstein is planning to revisit the concept and release a new edition in a few years. With the evolu-tion the beer industry is seeing right now, we’re going to need it.

breWed aWakening: behind the beers and breWers leading the World’s craft breWing revolutionAU T H O R --- Joshua M. Bernstein

S U B J E C T --- trendy, crafty beer

text by victoria gutierrez

In 1842, we created the world’s first golden beer, the standard by which all other pilsners are measured. We strive to protect its perfection by express

shipping in temperature-controlled containers direct from Pilsen to the U.S. – ensuring a taste as fresh as in the Czech Republic.

©2012 Imported by Pilsner Urquell USA, Washington D.C. * Beer

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Tap ThaTWines On Tap

barreled and poured like a beer in a frat house basement, part of the appeal of wine on tap is its ability to contribute a communal atmosphere and sense of fun to a beverage that struggles with elite associations. In some ways, it’s a nostalgic return to the pre-pro-hibition days, when wineries delivered their goods to restaurants in wooden casks instead of bottles. Europe caught

on long ago, albeit in a less high end, streamlined manner: many European grocery stores have installed systems in which customers can refill their own containers with red or white to drink at home. the trend is hardly neW, but Wine on tap is becoming more ubiquitous as bars and restau-rants on both coasts begin to reap the rewards.

text by allegra ben-amotz

Next time you ask your bartender what's on tap, the answer may include

a pinot noir or chardonnay.

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F ree floW Wines, a San Francisco-based company that kegs wines for nearly fifty wineries across the

country, helped to pioneer the trend in the US by effectively bringing wine from the winery barrel to the barrel under the bar. Once founders Jordan Kivelstadt and Dan Donahoe saw the benefit of their service realized in bars and restaurants serving wine by the glass, they created a sister company, Silvertap Winery, one of the first brands to exclusively produce wines for keg distri-bution. Silvertap Winery’s five varietals quickly gained recognition in the West Coast, where restaurants like Delfina, Frances, Out the Door, and Salt House got on board.

Aside from the novelty of serving wine in this somewhat unusual form, why are so many bars and restaurants on both coasts joining the keg party? the advantages of offering these ready-to-pour keg Wines are pretty compelling. For one, stream-lining the process from vineyard to tap is an approach that’s greener than serving wine from a bottle. With kegged wines, there’s no waste — kegs are reusable, and packaging is virtually eliminated. No bottles, labels, or corks means no garbage or energy spent on refrigera-tion or recycling (which, in the case of states like Nevada, is an additional cost


in itself). Without the cost of packag-ing, wine is cheaper for the restaurateur or bar owner. “The economics for the restaurant or bar are compelling,” says Jeff Hass of Pumphouse Wines, a winery in Long Island’s North Fork that is just starting to offer two Bordeaux-style blends in kegs. Hass estimates that pack-aging makes up as much as twenty-five percent of the cost of manufacturing in lower priced wines.

W ines on tap are more profitable and efficient for businesses as well.

Distribution is simpler, storage space is barely needed, and servers don't have to uncork and pour the wine, which makes it an attractive feature for a busy bar. At the end of the night, restaurants wind up tossing too many half-full bot-tles that have spoiled due to oxidation, causing them to incur a loss — which is one reason wines by the glass get such a major markup. And of course, When quality Wines are available at a loWer cost to businesses, the consumer often sees the result reflected in the price of the glass.

Cost-conscious drinkers are embrac-ing the trend, but it's not just for the

post-college clientele; the options avail-able on tap in restaurants are often fresher, younger, and more local. Wine on tap works in virtually the same way as beer on tap: a non-reactive gas such as argon or nitrogen (rather than carbon dioxide) preserves the liquid as it pushes out of the keg in a thick tube at a low pressure, so the wine isn’t exposed to oxygen until it hits the glass. Both barrel and faucet are fashioned from stainless steel (as opposed to beer’s copper) to prevent erosion due to the acid content in wine. This system ensures that oxi-dation and spoilage, which cause the vinegar-like taste in wines that have been open for a while, simply don't occur.

When wine is served inconsistently, in places like concerts or stadiums, the bottle has to be opened, poured, re-corked, and stuck in the refrigerator for days in between shows or games. The pre-opened wine is no longer at its freshest for the second round of consumers, and bottles often have to be tossed due to oxidation. By contrast,

TA P W I N E S W I L L L I k E LY R E M A I N

R E L E G AT E D T O T H O S E M E A N T

T O B E C O N S U M E D E A R LY,

E S P E C I A L LY W H I T E S A N D R O S é S

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with the gravity-fed tap system, each glass is as fresh as the next, for however long it takes to use up a barrel.

young Wines that are ready to drink do best by the keg. “Ninety percent of the wines made today aren’t made to sit on a shelf,” says Free Flow’s Jordan Kivelstadt. “The wines most of us drink by the glass are meant to be poured right away.” The locavore move-ment has taken longer to catch on to the vine, however, as consumers continue to associate the good stuff with regions that are often across the country, or across the Atlantic Ocean. It’s not yet ecologically friendly to import kegs from Europe, or even from California to the East Coast. This will be a challenge for the newborn industry to solve as it takes hold in the marketplace.

Even high-end restaurants are getting in on the game. When Daniel Boulud opened DBGB, he chose to make it the first restaurant in Manhattan to serve wine on tap. Colicchio & Sons, Red Rooster, The Breslin, Eataly, and more quickly followed suit, as the quality of kegged wines grows by leaps and bounds. Restaurants’ wine directors are even commissioning custom blends to pair with their menus, like what San Francisco’s Out the Door has done with Scholium Project and Frances restau-rant has done in collaboration with Miraflores Winery. “because restau-rants can sWitch out kegs When they Want to, they can have a pretty flexible Wine by the glass program,” Kivelstadt says.

T H E O P T I O N S AVA I L A B L E O N TA P

I N R E S TAU R A N T S A R E O f T E N f R E S H E R ,

YO U N G E R , A N D M O R E L O C A L


For Rob Newton, chef/owner of Seersucker, serving wine on tap is an extension of the restaurant’s locavore mentality. When he opened the restau-rant in 2010, kegged wine was served along with beer. Seersucker serves two New York State wines on tap — currently a fruit-forward chenin blanc from Long Island, and a crisp, dry riesling from the Finger Lakes region. “It was part of our build-out cost,” he said. This cost is no more expensive than putting in a beer tap system. There is a cost associ-ated with retrofitting beer lines to wine, which is dependent on factors such as the age of the system and type of lines, but the cost of converting lines on a relatively new system is fairly minimal — around $200 per line.

t ap Wines Will likely remain relegated to those meant to be con-sumed early, especially

whites and rosés. These chilled wines are treated similarly to beer in keg form, which is why they’re more prevalent on tap than the room temperature reds which can prove slightly more difficult. although Wine on tap may not replace the classic bottle, it’s a pretty excellent alternative. “I do think that the trend will grow and you will see it in more restaurants moving forward,” says Newton. And who knows; in the future, frats actually could serve local chardonnay as an alter-native: Piccola Cellars in Woodinville, Washington packages their wines in refillable kegs sold directly to consum-ers, and Free Flow wines hopes to move towards that direction in the future. Sounds like a classy keg party!

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the futuristic concept of using a high-frequency electric field, or micro-wave radiation, to heat food in a rapid and even manner was developed after World War II. Fast forward a few decades and the microwave is a commonplace kitchen appliance, but its position as a culinary tool is relegated to defrost-ing frozen pizzas and burritos. Nobody puts technology in a corner — forget the frozen foods and let your micro-wave make you a rum cake in under five minutes.

Commonly known as coffee mug cakes, a single-serving microwaved cake sounds either too good to be true, or a fast way to make a sweet-tasting hockey puck. However, with the right ingredients, a delicious dessert can be achieved. The microwave essentially

steams the batter, giving the finished cake a spongy moist texture. Using cake flour — finely-milled, and lower in pro-tein than all-purpose flour — ensures a tender cake, avoiding the rubbery texture microwave cooking can often cause. Thoroughly mixing the batter in the mug will distribute the wet and dry ingredients and break up any hidden air pockets that could cause a cake-splosion while cooking. Using a large, microwave-safe mug will help avoid batter overflow; don’t be alarmed when you see the cake start to rise like a soufflé in the final sec-onds of the cook time.

You’ll be surprised how easily you can make this one-serving rum cake and enjoy the Warmth and flavor of a just-baked cake, straight out of the microWave.

an easy cake from the space ageM I C R O WAV E R U M C A k E

text and photograph by denise sakaki

eat your booze

1. Mix the sugars, salt, cinnamon, ginger, rum, and oil in a tall, sturdy coffee mug. A fork works best to fully whisk ingredients together.

2. Crack in the egg and beat it lightly into the mixture. Carefully add the flour, mixing with the fork until everything is thoroughly incorporated and there are no lumps. Make sure to mix all the way through to the bottom of the cup, as heavier ingredients tend to sink towards the bottom.

3. Gently mix in the crushed nuts, but don’t over-mix at this stage or they'll sink to the bottom. Remove the fork and gently tap the bottom of the mug against the counter to bring any air bubbles to the surface.

4. Place the mug into your microwave. A turntable microwave is best, as it will evenly cook the batter. If your microwave doesn't automatically rotate what it’s heating, turn the mug halfway during the cook time. Microwave on high for two minutes, depending on the strength of your microwave; add an additional fifteen to thirty seconds if two minutes isn't enough. As the cake finishes, it will rise up. Watch to make sure it doesn't overflow.

5. When the cake is fully baked, remove it from the microwave, garnish with powdered sugar, drizzle maple syrup, or enjoy it with ice cream.

m i c r o Wav e r u m c a k e

makes 1 single-serving cake

¼ cup cake flour 3 tablespoons brown sugar, lightly packed1 tablespoon sugar3 tablespoons vegetable oil1 tablespoon dark rum1 egg½ teaspoon cinnamon½ teaspoon ground ginger1 tablespoon crushed walnuts or pecanssmall pinch of salt

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for traditional fun and funk, head to 4th Avenue, a street in constant revision, not just from endless road construction but from piercing and tattoo parlors, vintage stores, and head shops. Amid all this controlled chaos are restaurants, bars, taverns, and few outright dives. As you wander from pub to club and talk to ultra-friendly locals, you’ll soon learn that 4th Avenue is a humun-gous live band celebration featuring mucho home-grown talent. The customer base is college-age but all are welcome and it’s one of the few urban locations that is still serviced by trolley cars.

how dry am i... in antiquity, sages and religious leaders retreated to the Wilderness

to seek enlightenment. in the sonoran desert of modern tucson, there may be enlightenment,

but there’s also good food, diverse drink, a variety of entertainment, and a lot of fun.

travel

48 Hours

in Tucsonarizona

text and photography by paul ross


how dry am i... in antiquity, sages and religious leaders retreated to the Wilderness

to seek enlightenment. in the sonoran desert of modern tucson, there may be enlightenment,

but there’s also good food, diverse drink, a variety of entertainment, and a lot of fun.

above: Sun sets behind a stately saguaro cactus in Saguaro National Parkbelow: Club Congress—at the downtown hotel of the same name—is a scene of convivial hipness in Tucson

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travel ctd.

When you see an apparition like this in the middle of the desert, it’s gotta be drinks and music...or miniature golf


I t’s impossible to miss The Hut. Literally. It’s dominated by a mas-

sive two-story replica moai (Polynesian ancestral figure found on Easter Island). the hut is a palace of live per-formance. The night I was there, for a twenty dollar cover, there were three bands and the headliner was legendary “King of the Surf Guitar” Dick Dale (whose hit arrangement of “Misirlou” was featured in the movie Pulp Fiction). There’s even more South Pacific retro elsewhere in Tucson at the Kon Tiki Lounge, but we’ll get to that later. I promise.

Advancing up the avenue, there’s Che’s Lounge and a lively patio scene — which includes a fire dancer — at the Sky Bar outside of Brooklyn Pizza.

A real adventure on the unreal 4th Avenue is the Surly Wench Pub. Back in 2006, they launched a First Friday attrac-tion: Black Cherry Burlesque. Ecdysiast divas have included Flame Cynders, Miss Indigo Blue, La Cholita, Satan’s Angel, Scotty the Blue Bunny, and Pyra Sutra. I was told these pulchritudinous extravaganzas sell out, so if you intend to attend, phone ahead for reservations.

While you’re downtown, it’s easy to access the smaller, but no less lively, Congress Street area. Landmark for the location is the ninety-year-old Congress Hotel. it looks like the setting for a sequel to The Shining, until you discover the three sections

for libations: the Tap Room, Congress Club, and the newly expanded park-ing lot which has been transformed into a garden patio. Like almost every other watering hole in “the Old Pueblo,” there’s music.

Directly across the street is the old rail-road depot, which has been converted into an award-winning restaurant. Maynards Market & Kitchen includes a French/Continental restaurant, full bar, and if you opt for it, the market really is one. stock up on tasty things and sit inside at the communal table for high end picnicking. Both the food and drink menu are seasonal, including master mixologist Eddie Pain’s original White Truffle Martini ($11), which consists of white truffle-infused Bombay Sapphire Gin, St. Germain, Meyer lemon simple syrup, and a dehy-drated lemon wheel soaked in the simple syrup for three weeks.

but the West Was made for pio-neering, so it’s worth setting out from downtown for a little exploration. The following is a random sampling of other Tucsonic treats.

K ingfisher is an American bar & grill that has garnered Wine Spectator’s

Award of Excellence every year since 1994 and, for the past eight years, won the Tucson Weekly reader’s polls for best seafood restaurant. The Kingfisher is renowned for its oysters (in the desert)

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travel ctd.

and will serve at least ten varieties at their annual Oysterfest in November.

Not American is the Union Public House, which serves Brit pub food distinctive enough to have attracted soccer celebrity David Beckham. Menu items include chicken wings in a cherry glaze ($9), house-brined veggies ($5), and even their burger is finessed with imported Red Dragon English Cheddar cheese ($11). As for “speciality” cocktails, you can queue up for a Cu Ball (Effen cucumber vodka, St. Germain, 7-Up, and lime; $8) or the Hairy Mary (Absolut, house-made Bloody Mary mix, and a slice of bacon; $7). A good time to go is after ten when ‘reverse social hour’ con-tinues until closing.

But for real Western flavor, head out of town to Fred’s Arena where, in addition to grilled steaks ‘n’ chops, Fred’s spread really does sell and trade horses as well as rent wagons, teams, and driv-ers for weddings, parades, and funerals.

I f you want something that’s safely strange, try the Shelter Cocktail

Lounge, housed in an authentic sixties-era bomb shelter (cozy). This dovetails nicely with the Polynesian paradise that I promised to tell you about: the Kon Tiki. According to the establishment’s website, it’s “one of the last remaining operational tiki temples from America’s mid-century past” with an interior that’s “almost completely original from opening day [in 1963] and has the larg-est collection of Milan Gunako tikis in the world.” You can also buy replicas of these classic ceramic mugs at the online gift shop.

A real surprise find was at a boutique hotel that is tucked away in the middle of the city: the Lodge on the Desert. Bartender Christy Watson commented, “We’re the best happy hour nobody knows about.” With half-off on made-to-order bar food and drinks, she may be right.

if you Want What tucson has to offer all to yourself, go in the summer When it’s 110 degrees. There’s no hurry; the season is seven months long.

above left: The refreshing horchata & whiskey cocktail from Lodge on the Desert

above right: The owner and builder of Lodge on the Desert (and his faithful dog) relaxing at Happy Hour

Douglas Williams has been working in the food and beverage industry for over twelve years, with significant experience in management, fine dining, consulting, and curating cocktail and wine programs

with his company Liquid Alchemy. He has worked with iconic San francisco bar programs such as Rye and Bourbon & Branch, as well as in Los Angeles with chef and food Network Host Scott

Conant and Master Sommelier Darius Allyn on the Ten Pound bar.

DM: Where are you from?

DW: I was born in Texas, traveled extensively, and ended up in Phoenix. I moved to Oakland to live on an antique power boat for three years, but now I’m in an apartment.

DM: Growing up, who did you want to be?

DW: From living in Northern Africa and the Middle East, I was very into archaeology and digging things up. Indiana Jones was the man.

DM: What exactly do you do as a consultant?

DW: It varies from project to project. For example, Ten Pound was an über high-end bar, with shots of Scotch costing up to $60,000, and six differ-ent chilling options. This included Scottish branch water that was double boiled, frozen in a blast chiller, and made into ice spheres. It was a very over the top, Beverly Hills kind of project.

DM: Was consulting with Liquid Alchemy something you actively worked toward, or did you fall into it?

douglas Williams M O L E C U L A R M I xO L O G Y and C L A S S I C C O C k TA I L S C O N S U LTA N T

text by yael amyra

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profile

DW: Well, the molecular side of what I do was something I started explor-ing after I felt I had a solid base in the classics and foundation for good drinks. You can add all the bells and whistles you like to food or cock-tails, but without balance, it’s just a bad drink with a lot of makeup . . . although, playing with liquid nitro-gen, smoke guns, and a host of other toys can be fun.

DM: What line of work were you in before Liquid Alchemy?

DW: A long long time ago, I worked in technology as a yield analyst. It was spreadsheets and forecasting, spend-ing a lot of hours crunching numbers in front of a computer. I worked for CNET and several other technology firms in the Bay Area.

DM: What are some of your favorite local haunts?

DW: You might find me in just about any setting around San Francisco and Oakland. I like Dogwood for a cock-tail, or Van Kleef for an eclectic crowd and live music. Radio is a great dive lounge in Oakland, and I’m at Rye in San Francisco a lot since it’s a home away from home. Jasper’s Corner Tap has become my office for meetings.

DM: What’s your go-to cocktail?

DW: A Negroni variation with Mezcal, Carpano Antica, Campari, and Aperol, garnished with a grapefruit twist. The bitter and grapefruit balance out the smoke and the sweet. It’s a great sipper.

DM: Name three core personal or pro-fessional values.

DW: One, never make a guest feel uncomfortable. Two, teach don't preach. Three, learn something new every day.


Majoring in Wine the robert mondavi institute at uc davis

text by corey hill

cheap kegs 101. advanced beer pong. theory of hunch punch. Sure, you learned about booze in college. You may have even done an informal tasting or two, perhaps heavily favoring moderately priced American ales and wine served in cardboard boxes. If you were really serious, maybe you took Intro To Wine Tasting as a pass/fail credit during senior year. But you probably didn’t learn proper grape vine trimming techniques in a working student vineyard, or develop grape pressing skills at an advanced research facility.

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In 2001, Robert Mondavi made a personal gift of twenty-five million dollars to the University of California, Davis. The gift, which was the largest private contribution in UC Davis history, funded the creation and development of the most advanced viticulture and brewing training facilities in the world: the Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science, within the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences.

For the aspIrIng vItIculturIst, the class requIrements are no joke

housed at the mondavi institute, the Department of Viticulture and Enology is unique in combining the sci-ences of viticulture (the cultivation or culture of grapes) and enology (the sci-ence of wine and winemaking) in a single research and teaching unit. Scientists across a wide variety of fields strengthen the department’s position as a world-class institution, with instructors hailing from the fields of chemistry, genetics, microbiology, chemical engineering, hor-ticulture, biochemistry, plant physiology, and sensory science.

“it is the largest assembly of people Who teach, research, and talk about grapes and Wine in the World, and it has the best facilities to do these things as Well,” said Roger Boulton, Professor of Enology at the Mondavi Institute.

For the aspiring viticulturist, the class requirements are no joke. Undergraduate selections for viticulture and enology include microbiology, statis-tics, applied biological systems technology, foreign language, economics, soil science, ento-mology, and more. Thinking of getting your graduate degree in Viticulture and Enology? You’ll probably be taking night classes in biology, chem-istry, microbiology, and more. . . just to meet the prerequisites. Students don’t have their heads in the books all the time, either. They get their hands in the dirt. A teaching vineyard spanning 12.5 acres, situated to the west of the Mondavi Institute, provides students the oppor-tunity to move beyond the theoretical to the practical. The vineyard is broken into distinct blocks, each focused on a particular aspect of viticulture.


above: The teaching vineyard page 48–49: The teaching and research winery’s modern façade

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in the ampelography block, stu-dents are trained and tested in grape vine identification, comparing grape cluster size and leaf shape to decipher merlot from zinfandel. The block fea-tures many of the most common grape varieties used in California. In the student rotation block, aspiring viticulturists receive training on planting vines, pruning them, and trellis selection (how to arrange the vines for best sun exposure and protection). The petite sirah block, naturally, affords an in depth look at all things Petite Sirah, and the heritage block teaches the devel-opment of vines organically and without irrigation.

Wine does come from grapes, yes, but what then? To teach the science behind turning grapes to wine, the Mondavi Institute houses the most advanced teaching center in the world.

The Teaching and Research Winery has 152 automated stainless steel “research-size” fermentors that send Wireless signals to alert budding winemakers to the brix (a measure of sugar in the grapes, which will tell them if the wine is done fermenting or not) and temperature, important factors to monitor constantly during fermenta-tion. These fermentors allow for optimal feedback in the experimental winemak-ing process. There are also six two-ton fermentors which students use in the winemaking course; this size is help-ful for teaching winemaking on a scale similar to that of a boutique winery. The facility is also home to the full range of commercial winemaking equipment: sorting tables, crushers, presses, a cross-flow filter, and an array of barrels.

below: Students of the Institute cleaning the fermentersabove right: Research tanks


As for what all these machines do: at the sorting table, students remove large materials other than grapes (affection-ately called MOG) like leaves and stems, as well as fruit that may be moldy, any raisins, and any particularly large insects. MOG and mold tend to impact wine’s flavor negatively. Presses and crushers turn round grapes to liquid through the application of pressure — huge hydrau-lic bladder machines that perform the function once meted out by vintners’ feet. The cross-flow filter is a continuous fil-tration system for keeping the wine free of invasive particles. As for the barrels, that’s where the wine goes.

there is no other teaching facil-ity in the country that boasts this kind of hardWare. Students are able to become intimately familiar with all the equipment used in a commercial winery, together, in one place.

The Teaching and Research Winery is also the first to be built to the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum standard from the U.S. Green Building Council, one of the high-est scoring “green buildings” in the US.

That means that from the construction materials to the building’s heating and air, insulation — everything was designed for minimum energy usage. And soon enough, the building Will be completely self-sustained, cap-turing and using Water and energy onsite.

The equipment used to prune grape vines hasn’t changed much since Caesar was in office, and fermentation still can’t happen without yeast, but the wireless stainless steel fermentor, on the other hand, was definitely not available thousands of years ago when mankind first discovered the glorious hidden potential of grapes. At the Mondavi Institute, students learn both ends of the technological spectrum, incorporating traditional techniques like selecting a trellis with high-tech explorations of the advanced chemistry and sensory aspects of grapes. Students might be grafting vines onto rootstock like their predeces-sors have for generations, but the vines are probably clones of grape strains that were created in the UC Davis lab.

I’m sure the electives aren’t bad, either.

WIne does come From grapes, yes, but What then?

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text by emily hutto

say What you Will about gypsies. the Word can mean vagabond and free spirit, dreamer and transient. it's a Word that comes With many meanings and many different connotations. gypsy breWers, though, are a neW breed of revolutionaries Who are Wandering as a Way to build inventive and successful beer brands.

Gypsy Beerbrewers without a home base

gypsy breWers hit the main-stream about tWo years ago. Pioneers like Mikkel Borg Bjergsø and his partner Kristian Klarup Keller, as well as Brian Strumke, received international media recognition for their respective beer brands, Mikkeller and Stillwater Artisan Ales. these breWers breW beer anyWhere and everyWhere. They don’t have production facilities themselves, and the term “gypsy” has been used to describe them.

Mikkel, who hails from Denmark, has brewed beer in more than forty countries with internationally acclaimed breweries such as Three Floyd’s Brewing in Chicago (which just made RateBeer’s list of best breweries in the world for 2012), de Stuise in Belgium, and Alesmith Brewing Company in San Diego.

What started as an experiment—Mikkel put French press coffee into an oatmeal stout—turned into a full scale beer


movement. His resulting stout, named Beer Geek Breakfast, received top marks at an international beer forum, and the next thing he knew he was entering beer competitions and meeting distribu-tors from all around the world. Today Mikkeller Beer is available in fourteen countries and Mikkel recently traveled to Melbourne, Australia, where his beer is making a big splash in the country’s burgeoning craft beer scene.

Another gypsy brewer who has received a lot of hype in the media is Baltimore native Brian Strumke of Stillwater Ales. Strumke has a chronic case of the travel bug: he traveled Europe as a DJ and music producer before he returned to the United States to travel and brew. He mostly collaborates with DOG Brewing Company in Westminster, Maryland.

Gypsy brewers have tapped into a pro-fessional niche that’s been heralded by many in the beer community as ingenious. they don’t have to buy equipment or pay real estate taxes. They get to learn from some of

the best brewers in the world. And they are highly adaptable—they work with different technology on different brew-ing setups and make different products almost every day.

A couple of years ago, the media con-veyed gypsy brewers as adaptable, simplistic, and inventive. All of these adjectives are still true, however, pub-lications today are telling stories of the new Mikkeller bar that just opened in Denmark that serves twenty beers on tap, handcrafted soda, and small plates of snacks. They’re also reporting that Strumke is opening Love & Regret, a new bar in Baltimore with more than twenty drafts. Its second floor will be a gourmet provisions shop modeled after one of the country’s best craft beer bottle shops, San Francisco’s City Beer Store.

The openings of Mikkeller bar and Love & Regret don’t necessarily signal the end of these brewers’ nomadic ways. Expect Mikkel and Strumke to main-tain their vagabond status. They both

left: Mikkel Borg Bjergsø pours a hearty swig at the one-year anniversary

of Mikkeller Bar in Copenhagenright: Brian Strumke takes a load off

and enjoys a pint or three

j u n e– j u ly 2 0 1 258

intend to continue traveling the world to brew craft beer, but they are also get-ting just a bit more comfortable in their hometowns.

gypsy breWing isn’t exactly sus-tainable, says Mikkel. “We travel a lot and probably ship beer more than normal breweries,” he admits to me in an email. He’s referring to breweries that have their own brewing equipment. To brew beer, though, you really only need a pot for boiling, a device to measure that boil’s temperature, and a water source. A lot of small-batch brewers are capital-izing on the fact that it doesn’t get much more complicated than that. many operations even convert their garages, basements, and closets into commercial breWing spaces.

For instance, New Belgium Brewing started as a basement project. Proprietor Jeff Lebesch transformed old dairy equip-ment into a brewing setup, and impressed the neighbors with his Belgian-style ales so much that he decided to commercial-ize the brewery in 1991.

What started as a craft nanobrewery became the third largest craft brewery in the United States with the capacity to brew 900,000 barrels annually. Needless to say, their equipment has significantly changed over the years. They’ve adapted too, to meet their environmental goals as they expand their business. Since 2008, the brewery has consistently reduced their total greenhouse gas emissions and use of their water source each year.

New Belgium Brewery’s 200,000 square feet includes a slide on the premises. It’s a much anticipated element of the notorious brewery tour, and it drops you right into the bar.

Post spiral slide, I overheard one of my tour mates chatting with our jovial guide, who was now serving us beer at the bar. He said one of his childhood friends is going to love the sour beer from New Belgium, and he must bring some back to Denmark with him.

I had to chime in, “I’ve been emailing with a Denmark-based brewer this week! He’s a gypsy. He travels the world to brew.” I can guarantee that statement was delivered with much less cohesion than I’ve paraphrased here. There were a lot of sour beer samples along the tour route.

“That’s Mikkel!” the man exclaimed.

I’d somehow managed to meet Mikkel Borg Bjergsø’s childhood friend who happened to be visiting Fort Collins, Colorado from Denmark for St. Patty’s Day weekend.

Mikkel sure does get around, but so do his myriad beers, which are available in beer shops around the globe. So say what you will about gypsy brewers. at least We don’t call them pirate breWers.

expanding cocktail menus have led to an incredible variety of new bar gadgets. There are individual egg white whisks, automatic juicers, and ice ball machines for all of your high-end mixology needs, but here are two classic bartenders to weigh in on the improve-ments made to two classic gadgets.

The simplest of bar gadgets is the only thing the King of Cocktails Dale Degroff claims he needs to make drinks: the bar spoon. Although you would think there's only one way to build a spoon, apparently super spoon maker Cocktail Kingdom has found another. “It’s super light as far as high end cocktail barspoons go! It feels like you're stirring a cloud,” Frank Cisneros, New York bartender extraordinaire raves about the new Hoffman spoon. “It’s elegant… and

it’s not very expensive as far as high end professional tools go.”

One piece of equipment most bartend-ers shy away from doesn’t scare multiple award-winning bartender Gina Chersevani.

“I’m kind of obsessed with my new Vita-Prep blender ,” says Gina of the pricey commercial mixer. “It makes all my events easier and has the ounces measurements on the side. You can use it to make pisco sours, frozen drinks, or crushed [cock-tails]. It’s awesome.”

Whether you’re making an old-fashioned or a new classic cocktail, you can find a device to assist in the preparation and delivery. if your new tool doesn’t make the creation easier, it will at least make it look fancier!

Hi-TecH Hi-Ball

antigua #2

Frank Cisneros, Dram

1.5 oz. El Dorado 6 Year rum.75 oz. Amontillado sherry.5 tsp. Demerara syrup2 dashes Angostura bitters1 dash Bittermens Mole bitters

Stir briefly, pour over large ice cube in a rocks glass, and garnish with a flamed orange twist.

frozen cosmopolitan

Gina Chersevani

12 oz. Absolut vodka.75 oz. Cointreau .5 oz. Fresh lime juice1.5 oz. Cranberry juice

The trick to making this frozen treat is to pour the measurements into the blender and then add ice until the volume is three times the amount of liquid. Blend until smooth, pour into an old fashioned glass, and top with an angostura bitters float. Garnish with lime wheel.

by s ierra z imei

. . . s p e c i a l s e c t i o n . . .

The Drink Me Menujune + july

cocktails

mother’s ruinBeefeater gin, lemon juice, tamarind syrup, muddled strawberries, rhubarb bitters

frisco muleGosling’s Rum, Green Chartreuse, Velvet Falernum, lime, ginger beer

green bansheeKilbeggan Irish Whiskey, Cocchi Americano, Mandarin Orange Cordial, Pernod, lemon

american roseSKYY Vodka, elderflower liqueur, lemon, raspberries

cenobio sourPartida Reposado Tequila, vanilla-infused agave nectar, lemon, egg white

beer

franziskaner hefe-Weisse Hefeweizen, Spaten-Franziskaner-Bräu, Germany (5% ABV)

Leffe Blonde Belgian Pale Ale, Abbaye de Leffe S.A., Belgium (6.6% ABV)

Summer honey Wheat Wheat Ale, Blue Moon, Colorado (5.2% ABV)

dogfish head red & White Aged Belgian Style Witbier, Delaware (10% ABV)

Sublimely Self-righteous Ale American Black Ale, Stone Brewing Co., California (8.7% ABV)

rodenbach Grand cru Flanders Sour Ale, Brouwerij Rodenbach, Belgium

(6% ABV)

Wine

natural Process Alliance Sauvignon Blanc Russian River Valley, California 2010 (12% ABV)

Weingut Gunderloch “Jean Baptiste” riesling kabinett Rheinhessen, Germany 2010 (11% ABV)

robert Sinskey Vin Gris of Pinot noir Carneros, California 2011 (13.9% ABV)

Planeta cerasuolo di Vittoria Sicily, Italy 2009 (13.3% ABV)

Banshee Wines “Mordecai” red Wine California, 2010 (14.5% ABV)

why does a magazine have a menu?

We taste a lot of really delicious things in the course of creating Drink Me magazine— too many, in fact, to even begin to post reviews for them all. We also wish we had a bar.

The Drink Me Menu is a rotating list of our favorite recipes, beers, and wines of the moment. Head over to our website for exact recipes, and where to find these tasty beverages.

cocktails by Brian Means

featured recipe poem

t h e p u r p l e u n i ko r n

Spencer Warren, Embury, Pittsburgh

3 slices ginger20 blueberries.5 oz pink peppercorn syrup1 oz Apfelkorn apple liquer1.5 oz death’s door White Whiskey.5 oz grapefruit juice1 egg white

Muddle ginger, blueberries, and peppercorn syrup. Add egg white, Apfelkorn, whiskey, and grapefruit juice. Dry shake, then add ice. Shake hard and pour up. Garnish with 6 drops Dutch’s Colonial Cocktail Bitters and crushed peppercorn seeds.

closing time text by ale gasso

After hours spent

answering

pounding

fists

with whiskey

and forced smiles

he enjoys a little

quiet time

with a mop

and a fully

settled

beer.

drinkmemag_issue20

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