Posts Tagged ‘ginger beer’

Yes, another Mandatory Monthly cocktail blog post. This time, made even mandatorier as it’s hosted by one of my favorite bearded behatted gents on the internets, Matt Robold of RumDood.com! Since I stole his subject earlier this year (all part of my grand scheme), he’s decided to go the spicy route and chose ginger!

Ginger Beer is a nice and spicy ingredient, of which there are about 3 choices in any regional market, for a total of about 50 billion or so.  I’m sure you’ll see a few recipes out there even just in this wrap up. I was almost half-tempted just to make this post a redirect to Jeff Morgenthaler’s How to Make your own Ginger Beer.  But, since I started using his recipe to make my own (others have… failed), I have come across a few changes I like to make in mine to make it my own.  I haven’t gone back to buying Ginger Beer yet.

Jeffrey Morgenthaler’s Blair’s Ginger Brew

• 1 part Ginger Juice
• 2 parts Lemon Juice
• 2 parts Simple Syrup
• 1 tsp Allspice
• 1 tsp Cinnamon
• 1 tsp yeast (brewing or champagne preferred, but anything will work) per liter

Juice your Ginger fresh in any convenient juicer.  It takes awhile, and thanks to the fiber, your juicer will likely get jammed a few times.  The effort is rough, but worth it.  Stir all ingredients together in a large foodsafe plastic container, such as used in kitchen prep.  Top with a lid and sit in a room temp, slightly dark area, such as on a shelf or under a counter, for 72 hours.  Once your time is up, uncap, filter, and put in cold storage to inhibit the yeast growth.  After a few hours in the fridge, you should hear a nice burp.  EZ-cap bottles are definitely the bottle of choice.  This creates a super spicy, super sharp ginger brew.

So,  at this point you’ve either made that (recommended), or picked up some store bought.  Well, if you don’t think 3 hours of effort, 3 days of waiting, and the cost of fresh ingredients is worth it, so be it.  I’d recommend Ginger People, Cock and Bull, or Bundaberg.  Now you’re hip for nay Dark and Stormies, Moscow Mules, Mamie Taylors and so on.  But if you’re here and into Tiki, I think you know what may be coming next… you BASTARD.

One of my favorite Tiki Drinks, if only for the name (the flavors, if mixed wrong can be… off-putting) is the Suffering Bastard.  We featured these drinks during last years Tiki Tuesday events, and the reception was warm for this slightly bitter strongly cooling drink.  Thinking that was the end of its story, I then chanced upon Robert Simonson’s post on the Beachbum’s Visit to NYC.  Here, he described the Dead Bastard, another drink by master mixologist Joe Scialom.  This is the third of its cousins (the suffering and dying being the other), and I think it’s just… tops.  As Robert Describes it, it’s a bit of a Tiki Long Island, featuring four types of booze, a few other knick-nacks, and finished off with a generous dallop of ginger beer.

Dead Bastard

• 1/2 oz Gin
• 1/2 oz Brandy
• 1/2 oz Bourbon
• 1/2 oz Rum
• 1/2 oz Rose’s lime juice
• 2 dashes Angostura bitters
• 4 ounces of chilled ginger beer

Shake Gently with 1 cup Crushed Ice, pour into Goblet or other large vessel.  Garnish with whatever the hell, it’s dead and doesn’t care.  I used a whole lime.  It’s a big drink.

Combined with the Ginger Beer above, this makes for a killer diller of a drink, like a feather that knocks you flat on your feet.  If you’re questioning the Rose’s Lime, see Robert Simonson’s post above. Just about everything has its place, and in respect to the original recipe, I used Rose’s Lime Juice. If it makes you feel any better, I garnished with an entire freaking lime, so at least some fruit was destroyed for the sake of the drink. For some reason, I couldn’t find the Brandy today, so I reached for Brandy of the apple variety (Laird’s) instead, and oh what a wonderful difference, adding a bit more fruit to the drink.

Well, here’s to hoping you go through the heck of a process to make Ginger Beer (or Brew, whatever), to see what the fuss is all about.  Worth it in my opinion, but, even better if you can get someone else to make it for you.  Cheers!

Can I get a cocktail post in here?  Yes, and soon… soon as I recover from last night’s TDN.

In the meantime, a discussion of the comings and goings in my life, booze related.

We’ve deployed the Spring Cocktail Menu over at Acadia Bistro, with a few New Orleans classics, and some originals I think you’ll like.  We’ve also been brewing our own ginger brew.  It’s labor intensive, no kidding, but the results are so worth it.  It ain’t the Colonel’s Shandy with no wussy Ginger Ale!

Colonel’s Shandy

• 2 oz Bourbon
• ½ Lemon
• 2 dashes Rhubarb Bitters
• tsp Simple Syrup

Build over rocks in a tall Chimney Glass, and top with 1/2 Pilsner and 1/2 Ginger Beer.  Give it a bit of a stir, and garnish with a Horse’s Neck.

Besides this dandy, you’ll find the classic New Orleans cocktails the P’lace de Armes, a New Orleans Style Jack Rose (with Peychauds Bitters), and Tchoupitoulas Street Guzzle.   The originals Bulle a Monté (the bubble rose), which combines housemade Rose/Hibiscus Liqueur with a lovely Gruet Methode Champenoise, the Fleur de Lis, a take on the Pink Lady with house made Orgeat in place of Grenadine, and featuring a PDT inspired Fleur de Lis stencil on top.  Of course the classic Sazerac and other popular Acadian libations are still there.  Drop on in sometime and say hi.

In other news, I’ve been accepted into the Tales of the Cocktail Cointreau Apprentice Program.  What does this mean for you?  Probably little.  What does this mean for me?  A lot of hard work in New Orleans this year, that’s for damned sure.  I’ll be joining my buddies Erik and David, and a great list of other bartenders in this program.  Like I didn’t sweat enough in New Orleans last year.

And in other other news, I’ve registered for the next B.A.R. 5-day program coming up this Fall in New York.  Again, what this means for you?  Bo diddly, I’m just sharing.  With any luck, I’ll have a nice write up of some places in NY I’ve been itching to go to for the past year or two.

So, it looks like my year is pretty much setup to keep me incredibly busy.  How you doing?

So, awhile back I was getting quite a bit of booze in the mail and tried to think of new drinks for each of them.  One of these bottles happened to be something I was very excited to see arrive, Domaine de Canton.  Domaine de Canton is a ginger liqueur with a cognac base, in a rather unusual and interesting bamboo shaped bottle.  It is based on a Chinese Ginger liqueur that has been out of production since 1997.

When coming up with new recipes, sloshing out drink after drink, suddenly I felt I kept doing more of the same, and had to do something radically different.  So, why not use a unique liqueur, such as Domaine de Canton, for something a bit unique itself?  So I present, the Storm Cloud Rising.

What makes this so unique?  Well, instead of putting the liqueur in the drink, or on top, or dried and powdered on the rim, I decided to use it in a flavoring in ice cream, for a riff on the traditional ice cream float.  What better to pair with Domaine de Canton ice cream than that most belovéd highball, the Dark ‘n Stormy.

First the ice cream, lovingly ripped off and modified from David Lebovitz’ Vanilla Ice Cream recipe.

Domaine de Canton Ice Cream

• 1 cup milk
• A pinch of salt
• 3/4 cups sugar
• 5 egg yolks
• 2 cup heavy cream
• A few drops of vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup Domaine de Canton

Heat the milk, salt, and sugar in a saucepan over a low heat.  In a separate bowl, stir together the egg yolks  As the milk warms, add some of the warmed milk to the yolks, stirring constantly as you pour. Pour the warmed yolks back into the saucepan.

Continue to cook over low heat, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom with a heat-resistant spatula until the custard thickens enough to coat the spatula. Strain the custard into the heavy cream and add the Domaine de Canton.  Chill thoroughly, then freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturers instructions.

This should yield about 1 quart of ice cream.  I use the Cuisinart 1-1/2-Quart Ice Cream Maker, and the results are damned good.  This recipe makes just about the best ice cream you can get, at the store or otherwise.

Now that you’ve got a friendly scoop of that, it’s time to take it to the drink!

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Storm Cloud Rising

• 1 scoop Domaine de Canton Ice Cream
• 1 1/2 oz. Mount Gay Rum Extra Old
• Bundaberg Ginger Beer
• Lime Wheel

Pour Mount Gay Extra Old and Chilled Bundaberg Ginger Beer into chilled float glass.  Add scoop of Domain de Canton Ice Cream on top, and garnish with Lime Wheel.

It’s frothy, delicious, and then some.  The perfect mix of sweet, smokey and spicy as the Domaine de Canton Ginger Ice Cream melts into the Ginger Beer and Rum combo.  Beware not to float the Ginger Beer up too high though… as you can see, floats don’t hold well to photography.

So get your Ice Cream maker ready, drinks ahoy!

“I’m tired of Gin, I’m tired of Sin, and after last night, oh boy, am I tired.“

- Unknown

Yes, ladies and/or gentlemen, another month has passed, and the next Mixology Monday is already nigh past! This month’s, hosted by Jay at Oh Gosh!, leads us through the very exciting world of Gin.

My personal favorite, other than the only 1/4 oz sampled Bluecoat, has to be the locally made Aviation Gin. This is just fantastic stuff, very aromatic and delicately balanced, but still man enough to put some hair on your chest, or wherever you might find yourself in need of warmth. Changed my Gin Fizzes for life, I can tell you that much.

Now, being that this is could be considered a primarily Tiki drink site, Gin, well, didn’t find itself a primary liquor in too many, or, pretty much any drinks. It’s in the Fog Cutter, Colonel’s Big Opu, Suffering Bastard… oh, wait a moment. It is the primary in a Trade Winds cocktail (Grog Log, p. 84). Well, seeing as the drinking’s done for the night, I may have to do a second post on that one later. For this MxMo, I decided to roll with a Trader Vic original, the Gilded Lily.

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Gilded Lily

• 1/2 oz. Modern Dry Gin (Aviation Gin recommended)
• 1/2 oz. Puerto Rican Rum (sub. Cruzan White)
• 1/2 oz. Peach Brandy
• 1/2 oz. Orange Juice

Shake and strain into cocktail glass.

It’s a nice light cocktail, and I love the fact that it’s a good two ouncer, not so much of the tipple as not to be able to put together sentences, but just enough to think the ones you do put together are quite charming indeed. If you can make any sense out of that last sentence, you may need another drink. Yes, the umbrella with the orange twist may be a bit much, but for this drink I think there’s no harm in gilding the lily.

One issue with the above drink though, the Gin shares an equal part with the Rum! Vic, ever the Rum fetishist, has failed me in trying to make a nice, entirely gin-centric write-up. Oh well, guess I may have to roll my own on this one. I must admit, inspiration had struck from the blogosphere today… and if I ever type that word again, slap me upside the head with a Gin and Tonic. Craig had a recent post on Ceylon Cinnamon, and Scottes somehow forced me out of the bar to pick up some Ginger Beer. Well, why not have the two shake hands over a nice bit of Gin? So I whipped up this little concoction, the Gin and Cin.

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Gin and Cin

• 2 oz. Aviation Gin
• 1 oz. Ceylon Cinnamon Syrup
• 1/2 oz. Lemon Juice
• 2 dashes fee bitters
• 1/4 tsp Fresh grated Ginger
• Ginger Beer (Ginger People STRONGLY advised)

Shake all ingredients except Ginger Beer in a shaker, strain into ice-filled chimney glass. Top with Ginger People Ginger Beer. Garnish with ginger slices and powdered cinnamon.

This is a great digestive, and damned tasty drink, with the spicy ginger giving a sharp spike of flavor, while the Ceylon cinnamon keeps the taste buds active. The lemon provides a touch of a sour note, and the gin and bitters wrap all the notes together. Oh, and you might want to get some Ceylon syrup together, here’s the deal:

Ceylon Cinnamon Syrup

• 1 part water (16 oz. by volume)
• 1 part organic cane sugar (16 oz. by volume)
• bag (4 sticks) Ceylon Cinnamon

Put all ingredients in a pot on the stove. Let simmer covered for 15 minutes or so, cool, strain and bottle.

That stuff will go fantastic in any Nui Nui, Jet Pilot, so on an so forth. Hell, pour it on some waffles, it’s just damned good.