LIFESTYLE BEYOND THE GLASS
LIFESTYLE BEYOND THE GLASS
LIFESTYLE BEYOND THE GLASS [Law & LIbation] #16 oct/nov 2011 DrinkMeMag.com DrinkMeMag.com
LIFESTYLE BEYOND THE GLASS
FCi
IFCii
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Because it is legal.
DrinkMeMag.com 1
Ingredients
ISSUE 16
from the Editor 8 Design: Bottle it up 10 Seasons Change‌ So Should Your Drinks DrinkMeMag.com
4 Note
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by Courtney Harrell
Eat Your Booze
Wine glazed beef cheeks by Percy Whatley
17 New Booze: Averell Damson Gin
By Amy Murray
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Hammurabi
The original king of beers by Richard English
23 The
Imperial Strikes Back
In the face of puritanical beer laws, strong beer rules by Brian Yaeger
26 License
To Still
A new distilling license helps put NY back on the spirit-making map by Allegra Ben-Amotz
30 The (So Called) Noble Experiment
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34 Three-Tier
52 Book
Prohibition's seedy underbelly by Samir Osman
by Paul Ross
42 Given
Law
The Green Light
Absinthe's legal past by Samir Osman
Absinthe, Rum, and COLAs How the TTB protects and frustrates beverage producers and consumers by Ken Walczak
Review
On Booze by F. Scott Fitzgerald
56 Websites
to Drink to 59 Libation Laureate By Ale Gasso
60 Featured
Recipes
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39 Religious
System 101
by Victoria Gutierrez
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Note from the Editor
 P 
lease make sure you sign the NDA on page 350 before continuing to read this issue.
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Getting a drink sometimes seems like a labyrinth of legal mumbo jumbo that can give one a hangover just looking at lines of legal codes. It's built into our country's heritage and has shaped the liquid culinary scene throughout the years. There has always been law stirred with alcohol. As we dive into in the issue, you'll see that some of the very first legal documents ever written included restrictions on drinking. This issue we're sifting through the courts and having lady justice serve you up everything you need to know (and somethings that you don't) about alcohol. Excuse us as we get a bit technical through this issue - we've broken down the facts and stories to make them as palatable as possible. We're showing you why legalities have worked their way into everything you swill - from the good to the bad, and the absolutely confusing. After you deliberate over this issue, you'll never look at a bottle label the same way or think twice about how that bottle of gin made its way from a small London distillery into your mouth. We're courting absinthe (which was legal, then it wasn't, then it is again, although people still seem to think it's not) and strong beers and making the case for the abolition of prohibition. We're spelling out details of the TTB and government regulation (not all a bad thing) and counseling you on new distilling trends in New York. We know beyond a reasonable doubt that you'll be entertained.
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Sanitas bona, Daniel Yaffe
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DrinkMeMag.com Jim Beam® Devil’s Cut™ Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, 45% Alc./Vol. ©2011 James B. Beam Distilling Co., Clermont, KY
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LIFESTYLE BEYOND THE GLASS
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Editor In Chief: Daniel Yaffe Associate Editor: Victoria Gutierrez TRAVEL Editor: Paul Ross Art DIrector: Lance Jackson Web Developer: Aman Ahuja Online EditorIAL: Samir Osman Account Executive: Emily Brunts
Advisory Board: Jeremy Cowan, H. Ehrmann, Cornelius Geary, Hondo Lewis, David Nepove, Debbie Rizzo, Genevieve Robertson, Carrie Steinberg, Gus Vahlkamp, Dominic Venegas contributOrs: Frank Bulter, Downtown Warren History (flickr.com/photos/ downtownwarrenhistory), Joseph Daniel Fiedler (scaryjoey.com) Ale Gasso, Library of Congress, Victoria Gutierrez, Courtney Harrell, Ryan Hyde (flickr.com/photos/breatheindigital), Lance Jackson, Amy Murray, Samir Osman, Carsten Tolkmit (flickr.com/photos/ laenulfean), Paul Ross, Brian Yaeger, Sierra Zimei Thank you: Sangita Devaskar, Stephanie Henry, Sitar Mody, Skylar Werde Publisher: Open Content www.opencontent.tv Eriq Wities & Daniel Yaffe
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Please drink responsibly
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9/19/11
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In the 1920s, a tiny French winery 30 miles northwest of Bordeaux called Château Mouton Rothschild became a figurehead for label decoration as we know it. In 1924, Baron Philippe de Rothschild made his winery one of the first to bottle and label the harvest onsite before it left the property. Ever-savvy, the Baron commissioned famous artists to brand his wine. Since then, work by everyone from Georges Braque and Salvador Dali to Andy Warhol and Keith Haring has graced the bottle. Recently-deceased painter Lucian Freud created this playful scene of a red-striped zebra and potted palm tree for the 2006 vintage. The imagery recalls one of his earliest works, "The Painter’s Room" from 1944 and is a far more appetizing than the grey, oozey portraits that brought him notoriety. Want a sip of wine history? The 2006 vintage with Freud's label art will set you back $799.
KLJ Cellars Fortunately, beautiful wine labels are no longer anomalies. Many of the world's top artists are dipping their toes into vino design. One example is Texan Krispen Spencer. Krispen's creative process mimicsthe movements of master sommeliers. She pours warm-hued acrylic paint layer by layer onto grand slabs of canvas. Her vibrant work graces a KLJ Cellars label and was commissioned personally by longtime California winemaker Jim Porter. by Bailey Richardson of Ugallery.com
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Seasons Change so should your By Courtney Harrell
September 23rd was the official beginning of Fall, the season traditionally known as harvest time. During this time crops are rotated and fall fruits, vegetables and herbs become available to us. You can head out to a Farmers' Market or your favorite local grocery store to pick up acorn squash, sweet potatoes, persimmons and pears. But these fall fruits and vegetables don’t have to just become a part of your Thanksgiving dinner; they can infuse your beer, permeate your wine, and spruce up your cocktails.
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ith this change in season you can either sit indoors and sulk or pull out your sweaters to keep toasty as you walk down to meet friends at your favorite bar. Why not choose to embrace the change in season and be inspired by it when ordering a seasonal drink?
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BEER
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There’s nothing like a lingering cold breeze to make you realize your long summer days at the beach with your ice-cold lagers and minimal clothing have passed. Roll with this change and reach for a heavier, heartier beer. A Brown Ale, with its malty backbone and a light smoky flavor, can warm your body right up. Or if you want to get in the mood for Halloween, the light spicy finish of a Pumpkin Ale can bring on a festive feeling. Check out these beers, all brewed with real pumpkin: Blue Moon Harvest Pumpkin Ale, Dogfish Head’s Punkin Ale, Sam Adams' Harvest Pumpkin Ale, Brooklyn Brewery’s Post Road, or Jolly Pumpkin’s La Parcela.
ge... ur drinks
COCKTAILS
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Don’t forget the cocktails! Some bars are expressing their creativity by reformatting their menus and concocting sublime creations with seasonal fruits and herbs. Keep an eye out for original twists on the classic Old Fashioned to send a rush of warmth through your body. Order mescal, whiskey or gin drinks that have been craftily combined with seasonal ingredients such as cranberries, pomegranates, persimmons or yes, even bell pepper. And these drinks wouldn’t be the same without their sprinkling of herbs and dash of spices that you find around Thanksgiving time. Try playing with some cardamom, cinnamon, maple, black pepper, vanilla, or anise.
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WINE
When looking for a seasonal wine, know peaches and apricots have moved on and apples, blackberries and pears have moved in. Zinfandel is a true comfort wine, like a blanket around your body, with big flavors and a warm finish. Or if you are looking for a white wine, lean toward a Riesling, as its ripe apple and lively citrus flavors compliment the crisp fall weather. The grandaddy of ‘seasonal’ wines for fall is Beaujolais Nouveau, a cheap, bright pink, bubblegum-and-banana-flavored wine released on the third Thursday of November. It’s meant to be a celebratory wine to drink with your fall feasts, but don’t be fooled by the marketing ploy: this wine is rarely drinkable, and often offensive. That doesn’t mean you can’t be festive, though. Ask your wine merchant for a ‘Cru Beaujolais;’ these wines are of higher quality, have been aged longer than their nouveau brethren, and are one of the best wine values out there. Appellations to look for include Morgon, Chiroubles, and Moulin-a-Vent.
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TRENDS
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This fall season, listen to what your body and taste buds desire, whether you’re at home mixing drinks or out and about at a local bar. Be on the lookout for some fun trends: herbaceous drinks with rosemary or thyme are in. Barrel-aged drinks are on the rise as their spirituous mixes aged in rye barrels for 4 to 6 weeks mellow the alcohol like a wine. Add another dimension to your own cocktails at home by stirring in a spoonful of jam to thicken your drinks or shake in an egg white for a little frothy topper. Or try this Autumnal Anecdote brought to you by Gina and Brent Butler at your fall house party (Thanks to our friends at Blackbird in San Francisco for sharing their punch recipe creation).
“NORTHERN STAR” Serves 12 People 18 oz. Bols Genever 6 oz. Aquavit 4 oz. Apricot Liqueur 6 oz. Honey Syrup Bottle of Sparkling Wine, Prosecco or Champagne Technique: Pour all ingredients, except Sparkling Wine into a punch bowl. Garnish: Punch Bowl with a handful of star anise, blood orange slices and Bosc pear
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Eat Your Booze
W
Wine Glazed Beef Cheeks
By Percy Whatley, Executive Chef of The Ahwahnee, Yosemite
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hen I think of fall, the first two things that come to mind are a nice glass of red wine and slow-roasted meats. The comforting aroma of roasting beef wafting through the cool night air, to me, signifies the changing of the seasons as much as the actual calendar does. Switching from the fire of summertime BBQs to the indoor warmth of an oven allows for some creativity and the development of more complex flavors.
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One of my favorite seasonal dishes is Wine Glazed Beef Cheek, which I make with a big red wine such as a Zinfandel, Syrah or Cabernet Sauvignon to help cut the fat on the palate. I first served this dish at The Ahwahnee during a gala dinner two years ago at the annual Vintners’ Holidays event, a series of wine tastings and seminars with some of the best vintners in California. This year’s event is on November 6 through December 8 and
offers a fantastic opportunity to taste your way through our best winegrowing regions while enjoying the natural beauty of Yosemite National Park. With Vintners’ Holidays, I actually reverse-pair each dish to match the presenting wine being poured and created this one to be accompanied by Sbragia Family Vineyards’ Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel. The tangy, rich glaze on the beef cheek increases the meat’s tenderness, and the cheek practically falls apart with one touch of the fork. As root vegetables are abundant this time of year, I serve it with a potatoturnip purée, simple sautéed spinach, and tomato jam for a touch of acidity.
Wine Glazed Beef Cheek with Yukon Potato-Turnip Purée, Bloomsdale Spinach, and Dried Tomato Jam
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Serves 4 Ingredients: 4 ea Beef Cheeks, trimmed (Brandt Beef recommended) 2 qt Veal Stock 2 cup Mirepoix, medium dice 1 qt Red Wine 1 Tbsp Canola Oil, as needed 1/2 lb Yukon Potatoes, peeled, large dice 1/2 lb Turnips or Rutabaga, peeled, large dice 2 Tbsp Butter 1/4 cup Heavy Cream 4 cups Spinach, curly leaf, stems removed, washed 1/2 cup Sundried Tomatoes 1 Tbsp Shallots, small dice 1 tsp Parsley, minced 1 tsp Basil, fresh, minced 1 Tbsp Red Wine Vinegar 1 Tbsp Brown Sugar 1/2 ea Cinnamon Stick 1 ea Star Anise 1 ea Bay Leaf 1 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil 1 cup Water Salt to taste as needed Pepper to taste as needed
Preheat oven to 300F. Season meat with salt and pepper. Sear over medium high heat in a sauté pan with the canola oil. Remove when complete. Deglaze pan with red wine and reduce by half. Add veal stock and mirepoix and bring to a simmer. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add liquid and cheeks to a braising pan. Cover and place in oven for 4 hours or until fork tender. Remove from oven. Remove cheeks from sauce and reserve. Strain sauce. Add to a sauce pot and place on medium heat to reduce by half. Check taste for salt and adjust the level of reduction as needed. If the sauce is too thin, thicken with a little cornstarch slurry. Reserve warm for serving. For the tomato jam, add dried tomatoes, shallots, parsley, basil, vinegar, sugar, cinnamon, star anise, bay leaf, olive oil and water to a small saucepan. Place on medium heat and simmer until it becomes “jammy” in consistency. Season with salt and pepper and reserve. For the purée, boil potatoes and turnips in salted water for 25-30 minutes or until tender with a fork. Strain and add potatoes and turnips to a food mill. While milling, heat the cream and butter together. Place purée in a mixing bowl and combine with the butter/cream mixture. Season with salt and pepper. When ready to serve, place the beef cheeks on a baking sheet and brush with the meat glaze generously. Place in oven for 6 or 7 minutes, basting with more glaze every 3 minutes. Remove when the glaze is tacky. To serve, place cheek on a bed of sautéed spinach nestled in the center of a pool of the potato-turnip purée. Add some additional sauce around the plate. Garnish with a quenelle of the tomato jam.
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New Booze: Gin
Averell Damson Gin By Amy Murray of Cask, SF
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aus Alpenz Importers have recently brought to us one of the first marketed Damson Gins in the United States. Typically a popular drink amongst the English, most Americans aren't familiar with this style of liqueur, though it is most similar to a Sloe Gin. Damson plums are a rare, very small and tart style of plum that were brought to the Americas by the first settlers centuries ago. Today Damsons are seldom grown as they aren't as enjoyable to eat as larger, sweeter plums. Averell Damson Gin sources its plums from upstate New York and marries their juices with a base of locally produced gin. Compared to the rather sweet Damson Gins drunk by the English (mostly in the winter), it is surprisingly bright, tart, and spicy, making it perfect for mixing. English recipes tend to use a lot more sugar, while the producers for Averell have let the plum speak for itself. It's great with ginger beer or as a Fizz. Une Prune pas Ordinaire: 1.5oz Damson Gin .5oz Bols Genever .5oz Clear Creek Slivovitz 1 Barspoon Varnelli Amaro dell' Erborista Stir and pour over ice in a small rocks glass and top with Fever Tree Ginger Beer. DrinkMeMag.com 17
Hammurabi: By Richard English
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Our little planet is absolutely rife with liquor laws: the good (don’t drive drunk), the arbitrary (our legal drinking age), and the just plain daffy (in Alaska it is illegal to feed whiskey to a moose). Such laws, however, are nothing new. Governments of all types have been seeking to control booze ever since the human race ceased its hunter-gatherer ways and settled down for some serious civilization building. The earliest examples we have of these sorts of statutes are found in the ancient Code of King Hammurabi, which dates back to approximately 1750 B.C.
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ow known as the Hammurabic Code, the 282 laws (originally inscribed in Old Akkadian) deal with almost every facet of life and commerce in the Babylon of Hammurabi’s reign, and the Code probably represents the first time a nation’s legal writs were codified in written language. Ol’ Hamm was a really — really — harsh
The Original King of Beers species of monarch. The “judicial” concept of “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” is from the Hammurabic Code, and not from the Bible as is often thought. There is also the troubling fact that far too much of the Code deals with the various rules set down by his Highness to govern the purchase and treatment of women. Not surprisingly, the good king’s hard line ideology was no less blood-soaked when it came to the production and sale of hooch.
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The Code contains dozens of edicts concerning the growing, harvesting, and sale of grain. Thus it pertains to beer, since grain had been domesticated and farmed for only two reasons:beer and bread. But the laws which deal specifically with those happy suds are numbers 108 through 111.
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aw 108 reads as follows: “if a tavern-keeper (female) does not accept corn according to gross weight in payment of drink, but takes money, and the price of the drink is less than that of the corn, she shall be convicted and thrown into the water.” There are a couple of important things to clarify here. First, it is of interest that the regulation goes out of its way to specify that the hypothetical tavern-keeper is female. In ancient Babylon, almost all tavern-keepers (not to mention brewers, generally) were women. Men hunted and made war; women grew food and made beer. And second, “shall be… thrown into the water” does not mean that the offending tavern-keeper was merely tossed in the nearest river and left to sputter. It meant that the guilty party was thrown into the nearest river and held there until she stopped sputtering. Additions to Babylonian law made after Hammurabi’s death did away with the drowning of offending barkeeps and replaced it with mutilation of the woman’s breasts. Sheesh…
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Like most despotic rulers, Hammurabi was seriously paranoid that his subjects were plotting against his authority. One of the central meeting places for average citizens in Babylon was the beer hall. These were, or were thought to be, hotbeds of sedition, which inevitably led to the creation of Law 109: “if conspirators meet in the house of a tavern-keeper, and these conspirators are not captured and delivered to the court,
the tavern-keeper shall be put to death.” The method of execution favored here was to drown the wrongdoer in a barrel of her own beer. Given the amount of political sniping that goes on in our bars today, we can be thankful (I think) that Law 109 has gone the way of the dodo bird. And then there were the nuns. Called “sisters of god,” they were holy women dedicated to one of the numerous gods that populated Babylonian mythology. The nuns were expected to behave according to a quite rigid set of moral protocols, and the punishments for failing to do so were, to say the least, horrifying. As an example we need look no further than Law 110: “if a sister of a god open a tavern, or enter a tavern to drink, then shall this woman be burned to death.” Given that the Law specifically prohibits the sisters from not only drinking in a beer house, but going into business as a beer entrepreneur, we can only imagine that these actions were routinely undertaken by Babylon’s holy ladies. And the menfolk must have really hated them for breaking with the norm. Burning a woman alive for having a drink? Wow. The final Law governing alcohol is 111, and it reads thusly: “if an inn-keeper furnish sixty ka [a unit of measure similar to a bushel] of drink to the city, she shall receive fifty ka of corn at the harvest.” It is a rather dull little edict; Babylonian capitalism in action. But at least no one gets drowned or burned. One final rather fascinating aspect of the Hammurabic Code is that it makes no mention of drunkenness. Not so much as a staggering participle. In ancient Babylon, it seems, there was no penalty for getting squiffy. But then, if you lived under a guy like Hammurabi, getting good and truly loaded probably made life look a little rosier.
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The Imperial
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Strikes Back In the face of Puritanical beer laws, strong beer rules By Brian Yaeger
“It may seem a little quaint in light of all that has come since,” says Dave McLean, owner of the San Francisco brewpub Magnolia, home to Old Thunderpussy, an 11% alcohol barley wine. He continues, “But our observation back in 2001 or 2002 was that these big beers were generally special occasion beers, commemorating events, marking time, celebrating holidays, or maybe just intended as wintertime sipping beers to take the chill off in cold-weather brewing nations.” He’s talking about Strong Beer Month, Magnolia and nearby 21st Amendment Brewing’s February celebration of big, bold, boozy beers that typically hover around the 10% mark when the law, in some states, mandates beer be brewed to a mere 4% ABV.
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destined for St. Petersburg. And exactly how Catherine the Great would’ve felt about a bitter Hopslam Imperial IPA from Bell’s in Michigan or a spice-laden Imperial Belgian Pumpkin Ale from Delaware’s Iron Hill is anybody’s guess.
Name a style today and there’s an “imperial” version of it, wherein the brewer will approximately double the malt bill to extract even more fermentable sugars thereby augmenting the alcohol content. The term comes from the stouts brewed in England in the 18th century for shipment to the Russian Imperial Court. To survive the trip, the stouts were brewed stronger, since alcohol is a natural preservative. Russian Imperial Stouts are quite common among global craft brewers, even if none of them are
Beer was promoted as a temperance beverage before Prohibition, given its comparatively low alcohol in the face of spirits. Beer, in addition to being mighty, mighty tasty, has always served various roles. Even glossing over its early roles in religious rituals, it was often considered safer to drink than water, thanks to having the water boiled before usage. And lest ye think abstaining from beer is puritanical, then why did the Puritans drink beer during (and eventually after) their sea voyage to the New World?
o most religious zealots and even many craft beer connoisseurs, the strength of certain beers has gotten out of hand in an arms race to see who can reach the highest number. Scotland-based BrewDog brews a beer called The End of History, a Belgian Strong Ale that weighs in at 55% ABV, meaning it’s stronger than almost every whiskey on the market. There are dozens of other beers that boast upwards of 20% alcohol.
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adly, many drinking laws remain unchanged since the repeal of prohibition, and blue laws— church-oriented laws restricting un-Godly acts and vices—are slow to enjoy legislative evolution (or extinction). Several states ban beer sales on Sundays, Christmas, and Easter. Sometimes crazy beer laws become urban legend (like the one about bar owners in Nebraska not being able to serve beer unless they’re simultaneously making soup), but is it any less crazy that no beer in Mississippi can top 5% ABV? Perhaps it’s not surprising considering Mississippi was the first to enact statewide prohibition in 1907 and didn’t reinstate liquor sales until 1966! No wonder there’s only one production brewery and a tiny brewpub in the entire Magnolia state (it’s also one of the only two states left in the nation where homebrewing is still illegal.) Neighboring Tennessee is still home to many dry counties. Inexplicably, these include Moore County, which includes Lynchburg, where every drop of Jack Daniel's is made. I’ll never forget the time I toured the distillery and discovered I could buy souvenirs but not the actual whiskey. Having said that, while standing outside the souvenir shop, I overheard a young girl say, “Daddy only drinks alcohol,” to which her little brother corrected, “That’s not true! He drinks beer, too!”
Nascimento also mentions that “Ohio’s current governor, John Kasich, is an Evangelical who does not drink. His viewpoints and lack of experience with alcohol may also play a factor [in the
“Our Strong Beer Month is not a reaction to anything, really,” explains McLean. “It predates any recent fuss over high-ABV beers and the ‘arms race’ as you put it… [it’s] nothing more than an exploration of tastes, styles, and techniques.” The site Ratebeer.com keeps a list of the Top 50 beers from around the world as decided by the average ratings they have received. Among that list, only five are not considered a “strong” or “imperial” beer or don’t clock in at over 10% ABV. Beer lovers the world over love high gravity beers. Anyway, why not? McLean thinks it’s fun to expand the criteria and take a look at all manner of big beers. Whereas throughout the year, Magnolia is renowned for offering low-alcohol beers that permit drinkers to keep their composure, the contrasting offering in February “more or less perfectly illustrates (his) own viewpoint: that big beers have their time and place and that they lend themselves really well to being special occasion beers…like a musical performance in which good use of dynamic range enhances the overall experience.” The next time you want to buy a cold beer in Oklahoma (you had better like Bud Light because anything stronger than 3.2% ABV needs to be sold at room temp) or, say, a craft lager in the state of Texas (Brooklyn Brewery calls theirs “Brooklyn Lager, In Texas Malt Liquor” to make fun of the state where it can only be “beer” if it’s under 5%), hopefully you’re just passing through on your way to a home state that allows you the freedom to enjoy strong beer. Full strength and full flavor beer is not a crime, except, when it is.
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Nine states ban beer in the 12-15% ABV window, including Ohio. There, Chris Nascimento, president of homebrew club the Cincinnati Malt Infusers explains that “Religious, right-wing radicals who are against any kind of alcohol sales or consumption also opposed a bill [raising the limit to 18%], back-channeling through churches and groups such as Citizens For Community Values.”
bill’s demise].” Their Attorney General, oxymoronically named Mike DeWine, is outspoken about the sale of high alcohol beers, even those under the legal limit, because, “Drinking one can of a high alcohol malt beverage is the same as drinking a six-pack.” DeWine is well-known for being a religious conservative who for opposes any alcohol consumption.
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icense LStill:
A new distilling license helps put New York back on the spirit-making map
By Allegra Ben-Amotz
to
Two years ago, Brad Estabrooke lost his job as a Wall Street bond trader. A year later, with the help of a severance check and a decade of deregulation in New York’s distilling industry, he followed his distillation dreams and started Breuckelen Distillery. He sold the first bottle of gin last summer and just added a wheat whiskey to Breuckelen’s repertoire.
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A
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cross New York, a state known during the twenties for its gin-soaked speakeasies and gangster bootleggers, a new boutique distilling license is making it cheaper and easier for the latest generation of tipplers to make and sell their own liquor. Distillers such as Finger Lakes, Kings County, Tuthilltown Spirits, and Breuckelen are reengaging in the state’s historical tradition by producing artisanal whiskeys, gins and vodkas that are as bold and flavorful as they are potent. The result is so good you’d think they’d been distilling the stuff for years. These little-guy operations out of New York’s Hudson Valley, Ithaca, and even Brooklyn are starting to give Kentucky’s Bourbon Trail a run for its money. New
York was once home to over a thousand distillers, but they were all forced out of business during prohibition. When alcohol returned to the up-and-up with the passage of the 21st Amendment, only the larger distilleries with expensive, industrial-class licenses could afford to resume operation. Until about ten years ago it cost $50,000 for a license to distill spirits in New York, whether you were a large industrial operation or a dinky hooch house. A boom in craft distilling began on the West Coast about twenty years ago, spurring operations such as Leopold Bros. in Denver (makers of Silver Tree Vodka and Leopold’s Gin) and Clear Creek Distillery in Portland (McCarthy’s Oregon Single Malt Whiskey and Williams Pear Brandy), but more restrictive regulations
Breuckelen's distillery
prevented the trend from spreading to the East Coast. In most states, a distilled spirits license is still at least double the cost of a winery or brewery license. In 2002, New York State answered the call of the sustainable sipper by introducing the new class A-1 distiller’s license for small producers, enabling distillers to produce up to 35,000 gallons a year of any inebriant for just $1,450 in regulatory fees, unleashing a rising swell of liquor production in the state.
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“Before this license, people who had a real love for making spirits couldn’t do it,” said Erenzo, who lobbied New York State Senators John Bonacic and Bill Larkin to
More moves were made in 2007, when Eliot Spitzer signed the Farm Distillery Law, which allowed New York’s microdistillers (primarily using New York farm products) to act much like small wineries, producing spirits, conducting tastings and selling their own products
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or Ralph Erenzo of Tuthilltown Spirits, New York’s first legal craft distiller since prohibition, the A-1 license made distillation of his bourbons, single malt whiskeys, and apple vodkas feasible.
pass two amendments to this new class of license shortly after obtaining his own. The bills, passed in 2003 and 2004, allowed small distilleries to share premises and equipment with larger distilleries in order to ease the financial burden of starting a small business. These bills also allowed small producers to bypass distributors and sell their own products onsite. The 2003 amendment has helped Brooklyn Brewery co-founder Tom Potter move on to the hard stuff, piggybacking on Warwick Valley Winery & Distillery’s upstate premises to develop his first gins until his own New York Distilling Company facility in Williamsburg is ready for business.
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on-site. Small farms like Bill Martin’s Montezuma Winery and Hidden Marsh Distillery (formerly Martin’s Honey Farm and Meadery, which produces a triple-distilled vodka from its New York State honey) got the benefit of a new way to profit from their goods by being allowed to control their own destinies, and the state got a new revenue stream out of the deal in the form of taxes on an industry that had been dormant for over ninety years. State organizations such as the Hudson Valley Agri-Business Development Corporation expressed their support of the legislation, which promoted a mutually beneficial relationship between agriculture and spirits production in New York.
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his piece of legislation helps save family farms like the one run by third-generation apple farmer Derek Grout, who in 2007 founded Harvest Spirits, the first microdistillery in the state to sell direct from the distillery he built on his Hudson Valley farm. Harvest’s thrice-distilled Core vodka is made from the surplus of Fuji apples from Grout’s orchards, which gives Harvest cachet among farm-to-table food advocates (though it is available for purchase nationwide). Locavores can come to Grout’s Golden Harvest Farm, tour the apple orchards and the distillery, then taste and purchase products such as the aromatic brandy he makes by fermenting crushed whole Barlett pears… all in one visit.
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Since passage of these pieces of legislation (which made start-up and fixed overhead costs more manageable), the number of micro-distillers in New York State producing vodka from farm-fresh fruit and bourbon from local corn has exploded in response to the cocktail craze sweeping the nation. According to the American Distillers Institute, New York now has the highest number of craft distilleries — 32
and counting — of any state on the East Coast, as compared to California’s 160. But the nascent craft distilling movement hasn’t been without hurdles. Farmers like Grout joined distillers like Erenzo to form the New York Craft Distillers Guild in 2009, in order to cross-market, share information, and develop a unified voice when it came to legislative affairs. Both Grout and Estabrooke have complained of the length of time it takes to obtain licenses, due to the state’s byzantine regulatory system. In order to start a distillery, you need to be an optimist, says Estabrooke, who has a hand in every step of the process, from grinding and milling the wheat he sources from an organic farm upstate, to fermenting, distilling, and bottling his product for market. Starting Breuckelen has taken twice as much effort and money as he'd originally expected. But that doesn’t mean progress isn’t in the works: Erenzo helped draft a bill currently being considered in Congress known as the Small Spirits Makers’ Equal Tax Act, or H.R.777. If passed, this bill will provide federal tax cuts to small distilleries, making it easier for them to compete in the market, buy local materials, and grow their businesses. Decades ago, a similar bill provided breaks to craft brewers and helped spur the microbrewery revolution. Erenzo is hopeful, saying that with the right work, he expects the act to be signed into law within the next year. It’s worth making the trip to the Hudson Valley to cheer Erenzo’s movement around Christmastime, when you can snag a bottle of the limited run dark rum he’s aging in used bourbon barrels, with sugar cane imported from Mexico. The more the law is updated to match the modern market, the more high-quality booze customers will have access to. We vote Aye!
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©2011 BLUE MOON BREWING COMPANY, GOLDEN, CO BELGIAN WHITE BELGIAN-STYLE WHEAT ALE
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The Volstead Act, called the “Noble Experiment� by those in favor of intoxicating booze from 1920 to 1933. It was brought about by the Tem Christians who believed that drinking alcohol was ruining the fabric of
The (So Called) Photo courtesy of The Library of Congress
Experim
it, was an absolute ban on the manufacture, distribution, and sale of perance Movement: a collection of angry housewives and condemning the American family. Noble as their intentions may have been, what ultimately led to the repeal of prohibition was the fact that while it did slow down alcohol consumption in America, it also turned the remaining industry into a blood-splattering underworld empire.
Noble
ment
By Samir Osman
C
onvictions rose 500%, federal spending on prisons rose over 1000%, and that immense spike in criminal activity eventually led to prohibition's demise. Some of the most famous criminals of all time would have been little more than distributors and saloon owners if not for the law. Distillers became criminals overnight. Corn growers, barrel makers, and bottlers all were put out of work, and if not for moonshining their families would have starved. Not only was enforcement practically impossible (there would have had to have been more cops and federal agents than drinkers), but it got to the point that those agents of the law didn’t bother at all. A federal Prohibition Agent was paid $1800 per year, but there was so much money in moonshining that they could get $500 per day from the men running the backwoods stills. There were plenty of agents who had summer homes and drove Cadillacs. If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em, right?
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When the infamous St. Valentine’s Day Massacre went down, legislators and citizens alike came face to face with the monster they had created. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Cullen-Harrison act, which allowed the manufacture and sale of 3.4% beer and light wines. When he signed the act into law, he said “This would be a good time for a beer.” The law took effect on April 7, 1933 and the next day Anheuser-Busch
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Photo courtesy of Downtown Warren History
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dispatched a team of Clydesdale horses to the White House, bearing a case of Budweiser.
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hose who continued to push the juice during those years weren’t all criminals. In the twenties, alcohol was still considered an effective means of medicating illnesses such as high blood pressure, heart disease, pneumonia, and typhoid, and was used as a digestion and energy stimulant. Physicians formed an alliance to fight the government’s evertightening stranglehold on their ability to treat their patients the way they saw fit, which included prescribing spirits to patients of all ages. Obviously this practice has fallen out of favor, but it was an easy way to get an otherwise unobtainable drink. Not unlike the medicinal marijuana movement that is growing in America today, medicinal alcohol was undoubtedly abused by many who were afraid to buck the law outright. T here was also a way around the law for wineries. Since the driving force behind the ban of intoxicating spirits was religious in nature, religions that used wine as part of their worship were allowed to continue to do so. Because of this holy loophole, some wineries continued to operate legally throughout Prohibition, though wine production dropped 94% by 1925. That didn’t seem to slow down the vineyards, as
most continued to produce grapes which were then sold to individuals to make homemade wine (no one would admit it). Some producers made what were called grape bricks: compressed blocks of grapes sold “to make juice and preserves.” These were packaged with a warning (suggestion?) that if mixed with water and allowed to sit in a cupboard for a few weeks they would turn to wine, and therefore should (shouldn’t?) be consumed right away. T he most exciting things to come out of prohibition were speakeasies and blind pigs. The term speakeasy is said to have come from the patrons’ need to “speak easy” when ordering from the bartender so as not to draw attention. Most large cities continued to imbibe in the shadows, and a mere five years into the ban there were an estimated 100,000 speakeasies in New York City alone. One of the more famous places, McSorley’s Old Ale House, opened in 1854 as “The Old House at Home,” continued to operate during prohibition, and survives to this day. One knock on the wall meant light ale, two knocks meant dark ale, and a painting was slid to reveal a pass-through to a crawl space where the beer was brought in from an unknown part of the building. Although they didn’t allow women inside until 1970 and only then by court order, they have managed to stay in continuous business for almost 150 years. The floors are buckled, the place smells
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he most famous speakeasy of the time was 21 Club. They devised an almost foolproof design to escape the prohibition agents, by way of alarms, secret liquor-dumping levers, trap doors, and secret basement rooms. There were also false walls in closets and store rooms which acted as escape routes for patrons. In the thirteen years of prohibition, not a single drop of liquor was ever found in the 21 Club. This wasn’t out of the norm by any means. Speakeasies tended to be more upscale, and would sometimes require a suit and tie for men and an evening dress for women. Blind Pigs were a completely different animal altogether. They tended to be more divey, low class places where the proprietor would charge a cover to see a prize pig or some other sideshow, and offer a free alcoholic beverage with admission to attempt to circumvent the law.
Those rum boats weren’t the only fast ones. Moonshine runners built faster cars to outrun the law. These couriers became extremely skilled mechanics and eventually so much bragging and haggling led to the development of races set up to settle the score once and for all. The National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing was born. That’s right. NASCAR. The most attended spectator sport in America today was created by moonshine-running outlaws. The Noble Experiment turned out to be a nightmare for government officials, police, and prisons, and drinkers of the time would contend that it was hardest on them. It’s hard to imagine what it would have been like to live in such a tumultuous time, but it’s easy to see how ill-fated it was in hindsight, and the amazing people and times that were born of this law are some of the most provocative, famous, and infamous in our history. Here’s to keeping those memories fresh, and the cocktails fresher.
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Rum-running was also a huge aspect of the war against prohibition. Former fishermen would dock their boats in international waters and meet up with boats from Canada and the Caribbean to stock up on liquor and bring it into the states. There was one famous meeting point called Rum Row that became a floating wholesale
liquor market and the site of bloody battles between the rumrunners and the Coast Guard. Both sides were having boats made by the same shipyard, with each paying more and more to have the fastest boat. As usual, the criminals had far more money than the government and always had the fastest boats, so the Coast Guard resorted to outfitting their boats with machine guns.
Photo courtesy of The Library of Congress
like the 1800s, and the speakeasy feel still hangs in the air.
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Three-Tier Producers
(breweries/distilleries)
Distributors Retailers
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(bars, liquor stores and grocers)
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You
System 101 Take a look at the bottle of wine/beer/spirits in your hand. How did it get there? Well, after it was produced, the producer sold it to a distributor at less than 50% of its retail price, who then sold it to a store at a large profit, who then sold it to you at a markup 18-25% higher than its intended retail price. There may have been a broker in there as well. Why so many middle men, and why so complicated? By Victoria Gutierrez
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rior to prohibition, the alcohol industry was very loosely regulated, and dominated by a few very large producers. Anti-competition practices abounded: if a brewery or distillery didn’t have its own bar, it ‘invested’ in bars by giving loans or furniture and, in exchange, demanded that no other brands be sold on the premises. These big, bad breweries also required increasing sales, so the bars forced drinks upon the innocent public. Thus the 18th Amendment was passed, and prohibition saved the righteous American families from the evil alcohol producers.
Not so fast. With fifty different bodies erecting their own alcohol laws, there were bound to be some exceptions. Enter Alcoholic Beverage Control States, which take on the roll of distributor (and even store, in some cases). Called ‘Monopoly States’ by detractors, these eighteen states completely control the distribution of alcohol within their borders; that means they also control the
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Without getting into the nitty gritty, prohibition didn’t work and along came the 21st Amendment. But the 21st Amendment made a decisive change in the way that alcohol laws were handled with Section 2: “The transportation or importation into any State, Territory, or possession of the United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited.”
Basically, the power to erect alcohol laws now lived on the state level. Remembering the gross exercise of power by producers prior to prohibition, most of the states erected the three-tier system. All accounts (retail, restaurant, bar, etc) had to buy from a distributor, and all distributors bought from a producer. In most states, producers could only name one distributor to avoid unnecessary competition, and they had to find a different distributor in each state. This provided transparency for taxation’s sake, the power of the producers was limited, and the distributors were advocates for social responsibility. Everyone lived happily ever after!
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products that are available, and all pricing. These states come in many flavors, from Utah who says their control is a means “not to promote the sale of liquor,” to Pennsylvania whose running of both distribution and stores is a nightmare for producers and consumers alike, to Vermont who allows private liquor stores to sell but collects a commission (which one can only imagine is somehow passed along to the consumer).
F
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or some producers, this works very well. As the number of distributors has dwindled due to a rash of mergers and acquisitions, the number of channels through which a producer can move their product has also decreased. A distributor is going to ‘push’ what is easy to sell: big brands that can cut discounts, give large volumes, and have huge advertising budgets. On the flip side, it is very easy for small brands to get lost. Put yourself in the shoes of a sales rep for a distributor: you need to make your quota for the month. Do you try to sell something like Kendall-Jackson Chardonnay, or a tiny artisan gem no one has heard of?
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“But I bought this biodynamic Sauvignon Blanc straight from the winery!” you say. And there, you hit upon the most interesting issue that has sprung up since the 21st Amendment. Prior to prohibition, the wine industry was very small, and hardly artisan. It wasn’t until the sixties and seventies that the movement really took hold in places such as California and New York, and the states took notice of these new potential tax revenues. They could collect the sales tax, and the producers would be able to get their full retail margins. State laws were changed to allow in-state wineries (and breweries in some places) to sell directly to consumers, but in an effort to
protect the in-state producers, out-ofstate producers still had to go through the three-tier system. In 2005, it was ruled in Granholm vs. Heald that such laws ran afoul of the the Commerce Clause, and states could no longer discriminate against out-of-state producers. As one can imagine, this opened the floodgates, as far as legislation is concerned, for Direct To Consumer (DTC) shipping. An offshoot of three-tier laws, state DTC laws are even more varied and confusing, and are in a constant state of flux. Each state has different requirements that can include any or all of the following: licenses for the producer, licenses for each label, a fee for each producer and label, special shipping stickers, monthly sales reports, monthly tax payments, age verification, and bonds. It’s a lot of work, but again, totally manageable for the big brand who can hire a team of compliance specialists. For your favorite tiny winery with a team of six? This becomes quite a burden. As with any large collection of legislation in the United States, the three-tier system is a largely partisan one (though the red states tend to want more alcohol regulation than the blue states, for what it’s worth). Wholesalers staunchly proclaim that they are keeping alcohol sales transparent, championing the producers, and protecting society. Producers proclaim they are being squashed by big brands and pinched by shrinking margins. Consumers just want to drink what they want to drink, when and where they want to drink it. For more information on both sides of the coin, I’d urge you to take a look at NBWA.org and FreeTheGrapes.com
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Religious
Law Article and Photographs by Paul Ross
There are the laws of man and those “of God.” The latter is dependent upon where you stand, literally. In the state of Utah, for instance, legal restrictions and permissions have pingponged back and forth since before it was a state. Early Mormon pioneers took alcohol along as part of their personal provisions during their treks westward and they used wine as sacrament in meetings and at temple dedication ceremonies. Yet as recently as 2009, Latter Day Saints-influenced restrictions dictated that you had to be a member of a “private club” in order to get a drink at a bar. Fortunately for those wanting to do so, “joining” cost about $5 and, in some cases, was included free upon registering at a hotel.
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ut Utah is not the only one of the United States to be impacted by religion. In fact, much of America is caught in a duality between “blue laws,” which limit the purchase of alcoholic beverages on Sunday, and income derived from sales taxes and state-owned dispensaries. In a moralistic equivalent, it’s like gambling: illegal, unless it’s the state lottery.
Photo: Consecrated wine for sale, Ecuador.
As for the other part of our collective and imposed Judeo-Christian legal heritage, “Jews are permitted to drink,” flatly states Rabbi Mendy Chitrik, who is both a joyful wine connoisseur and one of the consulting authorities on the Orthodox website “Ask Moses.” He goes even further by citing the Talmud ( Judaism’s main reference about law, ethics, custom and history), which recommends that on the holiday of Purim, celebrants should drink enough to not
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In other states, the influence of religion is less, or at least less noticeable. For instance, Wisconsin allows minors to consume with parental supervision (again, presumably for religious purposes). Many communities
in southwestern states ban alcohol in and near Native American reservations. And almost all states draw imaginary anti-liquor barriers around churches.
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Jasper’s Corner Tap & Kitchen $$
401 Taylor Street, SF Plenty of San Francisco’s trailblazers have been honored for their achievements by way of neon-emblazoned façades and dedicated offerings at restaurants and bars. Harvey’s, the Sir Francis Drake, and the shuttered 12 Galaxies immediately come to mind (Frank Chu, FTW!). The latest to raise a glass to the esteemed ranks of immortality is Jasper’s Corner Tap & Kitchen, named after surveying pioneer Jasper O’Farrell. Featuring a gaggle of craft beers, piquant mixed libations, and more barrel-aged Negronis on tap than you can shake a coachwhip at, consider Jasper’s your new destination for inebriated inspiration in the Tenderloin. Scope the early word from yelpers just like you: Sip: Ninkasi Tricerahops: 9% IPA The Shibuya Shake: Beefeater 24 gin, St. Germain elderflower liqueur, lemon, grapefruit, house orange bitters, egg white, shiso, Squirt grapefruit soda. Vibe: Lois J says, “The space is open, uncrowded, and unhurried - a refreshing change from the typical feel of downtown SF.”
Harlot’s Progress: Bols Genever gin, honey, kumquat, absinthe. Cloudkicker: Beefeater gin, Cynar, Green Chartreuse, Campari.
Kim N says, “From ex-Burritt Room and Bourbon & Branch vets, I’m so excited about another great beverage program in town!“
David G says, “Fun crowd, sophisticated, and hip with an edge.” Hours: 11:30am-12am M-W, S; 11:30am-1am Th-Su Alcohol: Full bar Ambiance: Trendy
For more reviews of Jasper’s, 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!
know the difference between good and evil. This practice may have developed as a consequence of history since “One of the only occupations Jews were permitted to hold in the Pale of Settlement (a sort of regional super-ghetto in Imperial Russia) was wine and spirit selling.” However the pattern started, even today, at a farbrengen (joyous gathering) it’s a Russian custom to toast and drink to be more relaxed. But there is debate about the practice.
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n the other hand, Christians are on all sides of the issue, as some prohibit, some condone, and some leave it up to the individual practitioner. One can find a dozen biblical endorsements: at the Last Supper, Jesus said of the wine, “do this in remembrance of me” (Matthew, Mark, Luke and Corinthians); Jesus’ first miracle was turning water into wine ( John 2:1-11); Paul recommended wine to Timothy (1 Tim. 5:23); Nehemiah commanded the faithful to celebrate holy days with sweet wine (Neh. 8:10); and the citation from Ecclesiastes (9:7) is practically a toast, “drink your wine with a merry heart, for God approves what you do.” But for other denominations (examples include Methodists, Seventh Day Adventists, many Baptists and the Iglesia ni Cristo), alcohol is strictly forbidden. It’s been academically postulated that this difference is geographic and stems from the drinking cultures of the Mediterranean versus those of Northern Europe. With the
latter, a pattern of “feast or famine” led to binge behavior. Correspondingly, Protestants tended to be predominantly in the north and reacted to the alcohol consumption problems around them, while the more relaxed and culturally tolerant Mediterranean was impacted by Catholicism and Rome. Various monastic orders here made beer, wine and liqueurs. Alcohol-making was one of the first activities imported to the Americas by Europeans. The Brits brought booze to the Asian sub-continent, but modern India is mostly dry. Hindus are anti-drink, as are Buddhists, Baha’i and even Rastafarians. Perhaps the most vehement religious prohibitionists are Muslim. Some believers regard alcohol as Haraam (forbidden, illegal, and also sacred). Islam is in line with other religions that ban alcohol, interpreting an altered state of mind as interference with the divine connection, and therefore a tool used by evil to tempt, corrupt, and trap the careless faithful. Nonetheless, there are still a number of Muslim nations that produce not only fine wine but liqueurs, aperitifs and other spirits. Like I said, it all depends on where you stand. And, maybe, your definition of spiritual.
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Surprisingly, the word alcohol comes from the Arabic word al-kuhul. The original English transmogrification referred to “the pure spirit of anything” but, as we now know the definition, it first appeared in 1753 as “alcohol of wine” and did not take on its chemical classification until much later. The Brits, though enthusiastic about the substance and its related compounds, were late on the scene. Muslim chemists first distilled alcohol back in the eighth century.
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Given the
Green Light
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By Samir Osman
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No spirit has been more misunderstood, vilified, or coveted than Absinthe. It reportedly caused Van Gogh to cut off his ear. That rapping, rapping at Edgar Allan Poe’s door? That was no raven: that was the green fairy. Toulouse-Lautrec, Oscar Wilde, and Alastair Crowley were known absinthe fans. Marilyn Manson produces his own absinthe. It has always had a mysterious and often dark air about it, driving sane men mad, and mad men to their graves.
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r. Valentin Magnan conducted a study on the mysterious spirit in the 19th century and found it to cause seizures and hallucinations. The alleged hallucinations were just his way of trying to make the imbibers seem unstable, to prove that alcohol was “degenerating” the French. It was said by one temperance movement critic that “Absinthe makes you crazy and criminal, provokes epilepsy and tuberculosis, and has killed thousands of French people. It makes a ferocious beast of man, a martyr of woman, and a degenerate of the infant, it disorganizes and ruins the family and menaces the future of the country.”
Modern studies
failed to link thujone with the cannabinoid receptors in the brain, which would biochemically liken it to marijuana. One thing is for sure, though, and it's that absinthe is its own genre: it has always appealed greatly to creative types, and it definitely packs a unique punch. With all that hype, it’s no wonder so many have longed to get their hands on the stuff and fuel its enigmatic reputation.
Wormwood has been used for medicinal purposes since ancient Egypt, but the modern day green anise-flavored spirit sometime in the 1800s. Although the Swiss are the first known producers, the French made it the enigmatic juggernaut that it was to become. French troops were given absinthe as a malaria treatment in the mid 1800s, and they developed quite a taste for it. By the 1860s it was so popular that 5:00pm was known as l’heure verte, or the green hour. By 1910 the French were drinking about 36 million liters a year, and their love for it certainly hadn’t gone unnoticed by the rest of the world. Cult status was born. Not surprisingly, considering its' French history and culture, the epicenter of American consumption was New Orleans. The Old Absinthe House on Bourbon Street was opened in 1847 as the Absinthe Room, and was popular with many famous people, including Wilde and Crowley, Mark Twain, and even Franklin D. Roosevelt. Café Slavia in Prague has long been known as another historically famous
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Absinthe is typically an eau de vie, or white grape spirit, infused with the infamous wormwood, green anise, Florence fennel, and various other herbs. The trademark green color of absinthe verte is caused by active chlorophyll from the herbs used, similar to tannins in wine. Some absinthes
are clear until mixed with water, which turns them a milky white, but the verte turns a bright, cloudy chartreuse green. This process is called louching, and is absolutely magical to watch. The difference between the two styles of absinthe is more or less personal preference, but the green is perhaps a more authentic experience – it is called the green fairy after all.
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since the ban was lifted and St. George Spirits of Alameda, California was the first to produce it in America (their Absinthe Verte is not to be missed).
A place to imbibe absinthe, especially in the European artistic community. When absinthe was banned, it only served to heighten intrigue, desire, and demand. It was the choice of drink for many, and for many years, until its detractors gained favor and the ban spread.
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Absinthe was banned here in the U.S. in 1912 because of its tarnished (albeit unfounded) reputation as a highly addictive psychoactive drug. Unfortunately, the hallucinogenic myth has lingered. Many European countries followed suit, and until the nineties absinthe went the way of moonshine during prohibition, with only Spain and Portugal continuing production unimpeded.
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The official lifting of the absinthe ban in the U.S. was in 1993, but few took notice. In 2000 La Fee was the first absinthe produced in France since their own ban in 1915, and is now one of more than fifty being produced there. Kubler is a modern distillation from the Swiss region of Val-de-Travers, where the first known absinthe was born. In 2007, Lucid was the first modern wormwood infused absinthe to be imported into America
mericans are still getting used to the idea of absinthe, outside of its use as a rinse for Sazeracs. Most don’t know about the lifting of the ban, and those who are aware are skeptical of the authenticity of the spirit. The problem with this is that true absinthe, which is widely available here in the States, doesn’t achieve the results everyone has heard so much about. You won’t see little green fairies floating around the room, and because of that many drinkers are left disappointed. Speaking of preparation: Absinthe has a very specific and time honored preparation that not only calms the wild nature of the spirit, but also makes drinking it more of an experience than any other straight liquor. First, put the desired amount of absinthe in a glass. Then, rest a slotted absinthe spoon over the glass. Any slotted spoon will do, but the specific ones made just for absinthe are works of art. Rest a sugar cube atop the spoon, and drizzle cold water (from an absinthe fountain if you REALLY want to do it right) onto the sugar cube. This dissolves the sugar and dilutes the absinthe at the same time, and as this is happening the juice in the glass will slowly turn from crystal clear to a cloudy, otherworldly opaque color. It’s an experience like no other. It sucks you in, making you a part of the process, the chemistry, and the allure. It also makes it much easier to drink. Maybe too easy, so be careful. We don’t need anymore one-eared raving maniacs roaming around, getting this beautiful beast banned again.
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Absinth and C
How the TTB protects an
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producers and
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When does a monkey stop being a monkey, and become an invitation to riot in the streets? When it’s pictured on the label of a bottle of absinthe, using a femur to beat a skull like a drum. Or so said the federal government in 2007, when it rejected the label design for St. George Spirits’ Absinthe Verte. And as St. George Master Distiller Lance Winters wryly observes, “the government’s job is to prevent riots in the streets.”
Government rejected monkey
he, Rum, COLAs
nd frustrates beverage consumers By Ken Walczak
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aving produced the first authentic absinthe for sale in this country since 1912, Lance and his crew expected close scrutiny of their formula by the government, and apprehension by less adventurous consumers. They did not expect what they got: a fight over the absinthe’s label.
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Government approved monkey
The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), the division of the U.S. Treasury Department charged with regulating the production, sale and
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marketing of beer, wine, and distilled spirits, rejected thirty separate labels before finally issuing St. George a Certificate of Label Approval, or COLA. An exasperated Lance took the suggestion of a TTB employee, who proposed that St. George simply replace the skull with a different musical instrument for the monkey to play. Lance chose a cowbell, “just to get a pop culture reference in there.”
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t. George’s ordeal may have been unusually intense, but the need to wrangle with the TTB over label approval is nothing new. Because while brewers, winemakers, and distillers are mainly concerned with marketing their products, the TTB must apply a hodgepodge of regulations that run the gamut from hopelessly vague to hyperspecific, and from antiquated to… well, mostly just antiquated. St. George’s experience points to an ongoing controversy over the proper function of the TTB. Lance believes that label approval should be left to the free market: “I should be able to put scenes of bestiality on the label if I want to, and people can vote with their wallets. I’m not into that, of course, but I should be able to.” When it comes to beer, the TTB appears to agree with him. Recent beer labels that have passed muster with the Bureau include Tyranena “Hop Whore,” Middle Ages “Double Wench” (featuring a busty beer maid in apparent ecstasy), and several controversial products of Clown Shoes Brewing (“Tramp Stamp,” “Brown Angel,” and “Lubrication”).
This apparent lower standard for beer manufacturers must add to the consternation of well-meaning spirits distillers like St. George. Furthermore, since 1995, the TTB has had the power to revoke previously-issued COLAs. By all accounts, this change was motivated by public hand-wringing over Black Death Vodka, a brand that managed to get a COLA and defend it in court, despite the fact that its name and label art seem to suggest that the product in the bottle may be poison. Lance reports that the Bureau recently used this authority to revoke its approval of St. George’s Agua Libre rum label. For reasons that remain opaque, the TTB objected to calling the rum (which St. George makes from sugar cane squeezed at their distillery) “freshsqueezed.” Fortunately, the TTB is also empowered to act for good. Many of the Bureau’s mandatory labeling requirements, and its “type” and “category” classifications, help ensure that you know just what you’re getting when you crack open a bottle.
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hough your fraternity party experiences might suggest otherwise, it is illegal to add carbonation and yellow coloring to water and call it “beer.” The TTB mandates that any malt beverage containing between 0.5% and 2.5% alcohol by volume (ABV ) be labeled “low alcohol” or “reduced alcohol” beer. It would be even worse if that bottle of “nonalcoholic beer” you just handed your designated driver kicked like a mule. Beverages labeled “non-
Tramp Stamp label by Clown Shoes Brewing
IPA, or an American Black IPA, the Bureau is unlikely to take issue with your decision. For that kind of hair-splitting, you’ll need to consult the Brewers Association, which issues style guides for things like brewing competitions.
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s with beer, a statement of alcohol content is common on wine labels, but not mandatory. . . which is not to say that you can hide your wine’s ABV from the TTB. Beyond a certain proof, wine is more properly described as fortified wine or even a brandy, and therefore regulated differently by state and federal governments.
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alcoholic” must contain less than 0.5% ABV, and “alcohol free” means legitimately 0.0% ABV. The TTB designates nine classes of malt beverage: ale, beer, cereal beverage, lager/lager beer, malt beverage specialty, malt liquor, near beer, porter, and stout; thirty-three “types” exist within these classes, from Amber Ale to Wurtzburger. Each category, whether a class or a type, is pretty loosely defined. The TTB generally defers to “generally attributed characteristics” and the “trade understanding” of a style. So whether you decide to call that “Hop Behemoth” you just brewed an IPA, an American
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In wine, terroir is everything. A wine aficionado wants to know which grapes went into the bottle she’s drinking, and where those grapes were grown. The TTB calls the answers to these questions “varietal designations” and “appellations of origin,” respectively. Neither piece of information is mandatory, but both are valuable for the winemaker courting discerning customers. To include a varietal designation (e.g. “chardonnay”), the TTB mandates that at least 75% of the grapes used to make the wine are of that variety. To include appellation of origin, 75% of the grapes must have been grown within the confines of that appellation. An appellation of origin may be a country, a state, a county, or a geographic region known as a viticultural area. Federal regulations designate about 200 viticultural areas in the United States alone, ranging from wellknown hotbeds of wine production like California’s Napa and Sonoma Valleys to more obscure locales like North Carolina’s Haw River Valley, or Washington’s Lake Chelan.
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Building associations between a viticultural area and quality products is big business — just ask the French, whose dedication to terroir goes well beyond coining the term. In France, gourmet beverages and foodstuffs from Champagne to cheese to chickens are linked to the area that produces them by the highly regulated, highly coveted “Appellation d’Origine Controllée.” With liquor, you don’t have to use the word “proof,” but a statement of ABV
is required. The TTB categorizes spirits by class and type, using rigid and seemingly ancient designations. Contrary to the marketing pleas of most major brands, vodka is still defined as “neutral spirits … so distilled, or so treated after distillation, as to be without distinctive character, aroma, taste or color.” Gin and vodka brands must show the commodity (e.g., wheat, potatoes) from which the neutral spirits were distilled.
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istilled spirits are the area in which the TTB’s failure to adapt to change really detracts from the goal of informing consumers. Despite major differences in flavor and character between the two sugarcane spirits, the TTB still designates cachaça as rum. Leblon Cachaça aims to change this with their cheeky “legalize cachaça” campaign, but for now you have to mention “rum” somewhere on the bottle if your spirit is distilled from any form of sugar cane. Even more maddening, four years after issuing the first absinthe COLA, the TTB still lacks any class or type for absinthe. Hence St. George’s label, in addition to “Absinthe Verte,” reads: “brandy with herbs.” When it comes to distilled spirits, the TTB doesn’t much believe in terroir. While many (including this writer) believe that a whiskey should be distilled in Kentucky to merit the name “bourbon,” the TTB will allow any producer to call their whiskey bourbon, as long as it was produced at 160 proof or less, from a fermented mash of at least
fifty-one percent corn, and stored in charred new oak containers. I am the proud owner of a bottle of Sikkim Old Gold, a brown spirit in a daggershaped bottle, which a pair of honeymooning friends brought back from Nepal. This was an amazingly generous gift. It was also a horrible taste experience, and a fine illustration of the value of the TTB’s spirit categories. Although labeled “single malt whisky,” it tastes primarily like a rough-hewn grape brandy, mixed with industrial-grade neutral spirit. Sikkim’s own advertising copy will only go so far as to assure you their “whisky” is fit for human consumption. In other words, it may be wretched, but you will not die.
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f Sikkim decided to bring the Old Gold to America, TTB labeling requirements would prevent them from labeling this swill “single malt whisky.” Take it from me and my traumatized palate: we consumers are all a little better off because of that. If only the COLA reviewers would lay off the monkey business, distillers might agree.
Nothing in this article is intended to be construed as legal advice. The T TB did not return several calls asking for comment about the label approval process.
Swallow Your Words: Book Review By Allegra Ben-Amotz
On Booze Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald Subject: A collection of Fitzgerald’s tipsiest tales Synopsis & Review: Rather than culling from
the massive vault of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s writings about alcohol, New Directions has put together a collection that provides insight into the “Great Gatsby” author, a man who was on booze (at least most of the time), and whose prose feels soaked in the stuff, full of the highs of first nips and the lows of coming down from champagne.
This grab-bag of essays, letters, and extracts (all non-fiction) from Fitzgerald’s drunkest days to his great downfall, sways similarly from the riotous to the tragic. Clips from his notebooks provide a window into just how alcohol-saturated his perspective was: his first thought in buying ties is whether “gin will make them run”; a recipe for a Thanksgiving “Turkey Cocktail” involves adding a gallon of vermouth and a demijohn of bitters to the bird, shaking to combine; a takedown of his friend John Peale Bishop’s latest novel ends with a postscripted apology for the “Christ-like tone” of his letter (“Began tippling at page 2 and am now positively holy”). But the hangover quickly sets in, as we are given a window into the darker side of his psyche and his descent into alcoholism. This is the period he termed his “crack-up,” in a group of essays originally published in Esquire. A notorious alcoholic since the 1920s, his health began to decline rapidly in the 30s, until he died of a heart attack in 1940 at age 44. These frank revelations create what feels like a complete account of the pleasures and perils of the writer’s inseparable relationship to liquor, even if many of his booziest stories are missing.
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Why We Recommend It: Reading “On Booze” is like traveling back in time.
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Fitzgerald paints a glittering portrait of the Jazz Age’s dandies and drunks, from the first effervescent sip to the last bitter bite. From descriptions of his travels with Zelda and their life in New York (a place of “lush and liquid garden parties,” speakeasies, and cocktails before lunchtime) to his most disillusioned hours, this collection is the potent first sip of a mythic life lived with fervor and gravity.
About the Author: No one’s debaucherous diatribes are more memorable than
the man who was known to introduce himself as “one of the most notorious drinkers of the younger generation.”
YOU’VE NEVER HAD EFFEN N LIKE THIS BEFORE.
Drink responsibly. EFFEN® Cucumber Flavored Vodka, 100% neutral spirits distilled from wheat grain, 37.5% alc./vol. (75 proof). ©2011 EFFEN Import Company. Deerfield, IL.
Event recap
island PARADISE party In the end of the summer, Drink Me Readers swayed the night away at the Drink Me Island Paradise Party. The 140 lucky attendees were dressed in their island finest, and boarded a boat to get to Forbes Island - a man-made floating island by the famed Pier 39 in the San Francisco Bay. As everyone boarded the island, each was lei’d (yes, it was that kind of party) and given a freshly made Cruzan Zombie welcome punch.
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VIP’s were treated to an exclusive tequila and margarita class with Cuervo Platino as the sun set behind the Golden Gate Bridge. Down in the helm of the shipthemed restaurant, we sipped Pisco Porton cocktails and tasted Solerno Blood Orange Liqueur (which made
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a killer pairing with fresh caponata). Wente Vineyards was on hand for a local wine tasting and Pilsner Urquell kept us going throughout the night. The tasting rooms were rumtastic, to say the least. Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum Punch was a crowd pleaser, as were the dark flavors of Zaya’s Gran Reserva. Cruzan’s extensive lineup was a great look at different rum styles. Big thanks again to everyone involved who made it all a success! If you missed the event, we hope to see you at one of our future soirées… make sure you are on our email list (sign up on our website). This event was held in partnership with and a benefit for Spark, an organization that seeks to build a community of global citizens who are invested in changing patterns of inequality that impact women throughout the world. To learn more, check out SparkSF.org
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Websites to Drink to
TastingRoom.com
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nline wine shopping brings out the indecisiveness in all of us. That’s why we like to use TastingRoom.com, a new website that brings the try-before-you-buy model to wine tasting. For around $30, you’ll get six 50mL tastes of wines delivered to your door, complete with information about each winery to help you make your decision. We’re big fans of TastingRoom.com because the samplers are grouped in fun and educational themes, such as ‘Italian Gems’ or ‘A Tour of California.’ Added bonus: these guys know their way around alcohol laws, as they currently ship to 34 states.
walks into a bar... A man walked into a bar holding an alligator. He asked the bartender, “Do you serve lawyers here?” The bartender said, “Yes, we do!” “Good,” replied the man. “Give me a beer, and I’ll have a lawyer for my alligator.”
Strange
Liquor Laws By Sierra Zimei
Until July 1988
each state had control over the legal drinking age but, as we all know, the federal government intervened and made it 21 years old across the board. Although the imbibing age was changed, each state can still govern over liquor sales. Here are a few of the more odd state laws: Alaska – Alcohol served from 8am to 5am everyday of the year except election day. Liquor stores aren't allowed to open until after the polls close. Arizona – Drive-through liquor stores are allowed, Everclear Grain Alcohol (190 Proof ) is legal, and if you get a DUI you are required to have an Interlock (device that you must breathe into that checks your BAC) installed in your car. Florida – The consumption of any spirit greater than 153 proof is illegal, and beer must be sold in quantities of 32 ounces or less, or more than 1 gallon, making 40 oz. and 64 oz. beers illegal. Liquor stores in Miami-Dade County may operate 24 hours a day.
Mississippi – Local authorities can fix the hours of alcohol sales, except no sales are allowed are on Christmas Day. Beer under 5% ABV may be consumed by 18-20 year olds with parental supervision. Free alcohol is allowed 24 hours in coastal casinos. Mississippi is the ONLY state to allow drivers to consume alcohol while driving, as long as their BAC is below .08%. Missouri – No public intoxication law, no open container law, no dry jurisdictions, parents may give liquor to their children, and Missourians over 21 years old may manufacture up to 100 gallons of any liquor per year for personal use, after obtaining a permit from the TTB. Pennsylvania – All liquor sold through state stores. In June 2010 was one of the first states to test a vending machine that sells wine, through the use of a remote ID check and a breathalyzer test.
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Indiana – No off-premise sales on Sundays, minors (including babies) may not enter a liquor store, and there are no sales of cold beer allowed in grocery stores or gas stations.
Kentucky – Of the 120 counties, over 50 are dry, prohibiting all sales and possession of alcohol. Recently Bourbon County became a wet county but some distilleries are located in dry counties and cannot allow tastings.
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Uncovering Spirits
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By Samir Osman
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Maurin Quina
You may have seen this green devil before, but now you've got to try his spirit. At first sip Maurin Quina is slightly reminiscent of Cherry Heering, then it’s full personality comes roaring through. This may have some floral notes but it is certainly no wilting flower. Packed with cherry and quinine flavors, and layered with the perfect amount of spice it somehow remains slightly dry. Quina is technically an aperitif (it doesn’t contain enough sugar to qualify as a liqueur) but could also be utilized in a cocktail to give it that certain je ne sais quoi. Did we mention it’s French?
Libation Laureate
This is Night by Ale Gasso
Sunset
Mother Bird
The Lurker
Outside a quiet group celebrates the sun’s setting with a circled cheers.
The open-mouthed crowd cries to its mother on stage:
So tranquil in the corner you sway.
High Tide Crowds slowly flood the streets; groups in search of sideways nights one eyed replies. Night’s Partner The darkness lives in bathrooms crawling under stalls with crooked hands and borrowed time.
feed us your lyrics leave us your dreams.
Your quiet pursuit well under way. The Thieves
The Feeding
Some of them wait in the bushes.
Drunks spread around the bar like hungry pups—
Some of them walk with a smile
their soft, blind fight for a drink. The Octopus He serves us drinks in twos and threes on tentacles developed for drunks.
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Featured Recipes
People's Choice Winner: Sweet Cherry Lane by Tomas Delos Reyes
1.5oz Milagro A単ejo Tequila 1oz Cherry Juice .25oz Pomegranate molasses .75oz Lime .5oz Chipotle-infused agave (1 tsp of ground chipotle per 24 oz)
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Technique: Combine ingredients in shaker and shake. Strain into cocktail glass.
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Garnish: Cherry
The Black '46 by Will Marks
2.5 oz Maker's Mark 46 1 oz Averna Amaro 2 Dashes Fee Brothers whiskey barrel -or- old fashion bitters 1 Dash Fee Brothers orange bitters Technique: Stir vigorously with ice in a mixing glass; do not shake. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish: With orange peel; squeeze to release orange oil over glass and then drop in. Optional: One cocktail cherry placed at bottom of glass.
INTRODUCING KNOB CREEK SINGLE BARREL RESERVE. ®
WE POUR OVER EACH AND EVERY BARREL TO HAND SELECT THE VERY BEST BOURBON. AS EXHAUSTING AS THAT SOUNDS, WE’RE DEDICATED TO PERFECTION. YOU WOULDN’T WANT IT ANY OTHER WAY – NEITHER WOULD WE.
WORTH THE EFFORT Knob Creek® Single Barrel Reserve Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, 60% Alc./Vol. ©2011 Knob Creek Distillery, Clermont, KY.
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H A ND-SE L E C T E D | 120 PROOF | ROBUS T F L AVOR
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