Drink Matron

Month: December 2010

  • The Mr. Beer mishap

    My dad is a good Christmas gifter. He listens to what people want, and does the best he can to get exactly what they’re looking for. So, I told him that if he was going to get Adrian anything this year, to get him brewing equipment, and in my email included a link to the exact kit from Midwest Brewing Supplies that he wanted. I thought it would be a no-brainer for him, but bless his heart, he didn’t think the kit looked very “fun” and bought my experienced beer brewing boyfriend a Mr. Beer kit.

    Despite my disappointment, Adrian greeted the present graciously (since he is a good gift getter), and for about an hour after getting the kit, sat and read the directions quietly. When I asked him if he was okay with it, he was like, yeah, this is great, and began listing all the things he could use the kit for in the future after he got the equipment he really desires. He also reminded me that the kit does in fact, MAKE BEER, and even though we can’t make the recipes he’s planning, we will still have some yummy and cheap (free) beer made in our own kitchen. I was also thinking that for me, the non-experienced brewer, this might be a good introduction to the art of beer creation.

    So, not being the types to procrastinate when it comes to any alcohol, we set out to make our first batch of Mr. Beer the day after Christmas.

    We got started in the usual way, making sure everything was sanitized using the Mr. Beer no-rinse sanitizer that was provided. As I sloshed around the liquid in the “barrel” I realized that the top was leaking a bit when I turned it over. Adrian looked it over and said it wouldn’t be a problem, so we put a towel down and waited about 10 minutes to let the sanitizer take effect.

    While we waited, Adrian began preparing the boiling pot and the ingredients. The directions called to boil four cups of water with the “booster” (a bag of powdered corn syrup) and to then add the Malt Extract. We decided on the Golden Ale because, well, we wanted to drink some golden ale.

    After the sanitation was complete, Adrian looked over the barrel to see what he could do to fix it, but while he was doing that, we discovered that the spigot was also leaking – as in, the towel was now completely soaked after 10 minutes. Still, he was convinced he could fix it, so he started poking and prodding and tightening and other manly things.

    Unfortunately, after about a half an hour of truly honorable manliness, he’d exhausted all options and the barrel was still hemorrhaging the waters.

    Now, you’re probably saying, okay, big deal, get another barrel or find another something or another to put the beer in. Wait ’til tomorrow. Well, yes, that’s what we would have done, except, well, we’d already began preparing the beer. So, we had to figure out what to do with our mixture.

    There was the option of asking Matt, but we didn’t think about it until we’d already mastered the task in our own way. And what was that, you ask? The bottles. Yup. We decided to ferment our beer in the liter bottles that Mr. Beer provided for us. Armed with a turkey baster and a measuring cup, we spent an extra half an hour slowly filling up the bottles, trying to get a good mix of beer and yeast into each one, with the hope that it would be good enough.

    The bottles now wait patiently in our dining room, for the moment when we can crack them open and enjoy a tasty ale.

    Let’s see how this goes…

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  • Warm winter cocktails

    It’s December, which not only means Christmas time, but also even colder temperatures, heavier jackets, first snows and first snow storms.

    While the first snow may leave you slipping and sliding all over the road until you’re used to winter driving again, the snow storm allows you to shut yourself in, away from the chances of ending up in the ditch sideways waiting for a tow truck. On these days, it’s nice to curl around the fire, TV, or up with a big book and enjoy a nice hot winter cocktail.

    Some hot winter cocktails are easy to make, and some take a little time, but all will warm your bones on a blistery winter day.

    Spiked Coffee or Hot Chocolate

    Hot chocolate and coffee alone are great for warming up, but get even better with a little Irish cream. Use as much or as little as you want, but once you’ve had any, don’t go out to use the snowblower.

    Irish Coffee

    Ingredients:

    • 1 1/2 oz. Irish whiskey
    • 1 tsp Brown sugar
    • 6-8 oz. Coffee
    • Heavy Cream

    Combine whiskey, sugar and coffee in a mug and stir until dissolved. Float cold cream gently on top. Do not mix.

    Hot Buttered Rum

    Ingredients:

    • 2 Tbsp Brown Sugar
    • 4 tsp Butter or margarine, softened
    • Dash Ground Cinnamon
    • Dash Ground Nutmeg
    • 1 1/2 cup Warm Water
    • 1/2 cup Rum
    • Lemon Slices (optional)

    In a two-cup measure, stir together the brown sugar, butter or margarine, cinnamon and nutmeg. Stir in the warm water. Serve immediately in mugs.

    Tom & Jerry

    Ingredients for batter:

    • 12 eggs, separated
    • 1 pound sugar (if you’d like it sweeter, add more)
    • 2 ounces aged rum
    • 1/2 tsp ground cloves
    • 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
    • 1/2 tsp ground allspice

    Ingredients for Serving:

    • Brandy
    • Aged rum
    • Hot milk
    • Boiling water

    Beat the egg yolks well, then gradually whisk in the sugar. Add the rum and spices. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff and fold into the yolk mixture until well mixed. Keep batter refrigerated until serving.

    For each drink, put 2 ounces of batter into a mug. Add 1 oz each of brandy and aged rum, and fill with equal parts hot milk and boiling water. Top with grated nutmeg. If using a small coffee cup or classic Tom & Jerry mug, you can cut the serving size in half. Serve with a spoon.

    Just a note: While this recipe is for making your own Tom & Jerry mix, in case you have no time or no urge to make it, frozen batter can be found in bakeries or the dairy coolers at grocery stores, in liquor stores or on the internet.

    Hot Toddy

    Ingredients

    • 1 oz brandy, whiskey or rum
    • 1 Tbsp honey
    • 1/4 lemon
    • 1 cup hot water
    • 1 tea bag

    Coat the bottom of a mug with honey.  Add your chosen liquor and the lemon juice. Separately, heat water in a tea kettle and add the tea bag to make hot tea. Pour the tea into the mug and stir.

    Bourbon Furnace

    Ingredients:

    • 6 oz. hot apple cider
    • 1 1/2 oz. bourbon
    • 3 whole cloves
    • 1 stick of cinnamon

    Combine cider and bourbon in a mug. Garnish with cloves and cinnamon.

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  • Working & Playing Hard at Dogfish Head

    Today is Crafting Day on my calendar, and since we don’t have an article from Matt, Brian or Adrian, I thought I’d talk a little bit about one of my favorite craft brewers, Sam Calagione.

    Now, many of you may know Sam because of his new show, “Brew Masters”, which follows the day to day happenings of Calagione’s brewery, Dogfish Head. It’s a fun show, and it’s endeared me to Sam even more than I already was. For the record, I was familiar with Calagione prior to the show, and have been a big fan of Dogfish Head not only because of their beer, but because of Calagione’s attitude toward his business and life in general.

    I am a big supporter of work hard, play hard, and the staff of Dogfish Head seems to have that down to a science. It’s impressive to see a group of people who clearly care about the product going out and clearly love going to work everyday. And from what I’ve seen, I believe it has everything to do with the excellent work environment offered at Dogfish Head. Calagione seems to have high expectations that the people that work for him care about what they’re doing, but he also allows a high amount of creativity, silliness, and fun throughout the day. Despite the fact that good beer is serious business, how serious can you be when you work for a brewery that’s catch phrase is “Off-Centered Ales for Off-Centered People”?  That kind of open atmosphere has got to make working for Dogfish Head one of the best jobs out there.

    I’ve heard a few reviews from people who dislike “Brew Masters” because they find Calagione a bit, well, off-centered. Well, to them I say, lighten up.  You’d be that excited about life too if you were living your dream – or even if you just had that freaking tree house!

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  • Artistic License vs. Profit Margin

    I started thinking about this when I noticed that bars started installing auto tap systems.  These systems are designed to pour an exact amount of liquor into a drink and bar owners install them to minimize profit loss.  The problem I have with this is that I always envisioned the classic bartender as being a master of mixing drinks.  Each bartender has their own way of mixing drinks and in different quantities, giving each drink a “signature”.

    I used to go to a bar when I was in college specifically for the Old Fashioneds that one of the bartenders made.  They were to die for and because they were so memorable, that bar got more of my business than any other bar in the area.  There are memorable signature drinks like that spotted throughout my adult life and, without hesitation, I will go back to these bars if I’m ever in the area whether I have that drink I remember or not.

    If most bars implement this system of hamstringing the bartenders to make a buck, most people will still go to the bars and they will still pay out the nose for these drinks.  Just look at the fast food market!  Fast food restaurants make their burgers and sauces in a facility far away from the counter you pick it up from.  They get sent to the store where the employees make it (ideally) using very constrained instructions and portions.  By all rights, that burger in front of you is a hamburger, but it isn’t a good hamburger.  If you wanted a good hamburger, you’d go to a pub, or a restaurant you know makes good burgers.

    The same thing applies for bars.  Most people will still go and drink, but the drinks won’t be memorable.  Bar owners will have to rely even more on the ambience of their bar.  If you know anything about the bar industry you know that this can already make or break a bar, and what works today may not work tomorrow.

    If you’re going to cut off the bartenders ability to add a little flair and tweak each drink specifically for the imbiber, you might as well just started making premixed drinks.  Just start a bottling company that premixes the rum with the coke or the gin with the vermouth and send those bottles of perfectly mixed, perfectly portioned beverages to each bar in the country and take the art completely out of it.  Heck, let’s just bring back the automat craze from the fifties, fire all the bartenders and just put bottled drinks behind a glass door and let the customer just drop money into a machine to get it!  Then we can just sit around in a sterile building getting ourselves drinks that were made in a facility in China… or we could all go home sit comfortably with our friends and a couple bottles of booze, mixing our own drinks.

    I really don’t think it will ever get that extreme.  Thankfully, there are still some people out there that have some sense and understand what a bartender is actually supposed to be doing.  I, for one, will continue to frequent establishments that make me drinks that have a little panache.

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