Isthmus Drinks 2016

Guide Inside O C T. 11 -1 6

drinks 2016

Adjunct me!

Show off these regional beers Modifiers make the cocktail Sip, swirl and soak up knowledge

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Mod modifiers

ISTHMUS DRINKS 2016

Helper liquors that fancy up the cocktail repertoire

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BY ERIN CLUNE

ART BY DEREK YANIGER

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t some point in elementary school, everyone learns how to write a sentence. You choose a subject, you find a verb, and voilà — a sentence! Soon enough, though, you learn that writing a complete sentence is not the same thing as writing a complex one. To craft one of those, you needed modifiers — parts of speech like adverbs, adjectives and prepositional phrases — to add deeper layers of meaning to your prose and help you tell more vivid and elegant stories.

Crafting a sentence isn’t that different from crafting a cocktail. I know this because I do a lot of both. A basic cocktail, like a basic sentence, has a few simple ingredients. It’s a base spirit (whiskey, bourbon, rum, gin, tequila) combined with sugar, water and bitters. That’s the template for a Sazerac (minus the rinse) and for an Old Fashioned (plus muddling).

Many other cocktails are built with only slight variations on that basic formula. Add a lime or lemon and you’re in the land of sours and daiquiris. Add some frothy egg white and you’re serving a fizz.

There’s nothing wrong with a basic cocktail. Some of the most popular cocktails are based on the fewest ingredients. Two words (well, three): gin and tonic.

Occasionally, however, we all want something more. I adore daiquiris, for example, and they’re easy to make at home. I’m always happy to have a mini-margarita made from a nice mescal, simple syrup and lime juice. But there are nights when I fantasize about my tequila drink tasting more like pears or sour cherries or ginger candy. This summer, I spent a lot of time figuring out how to make rum punches that were more aromatic and floral.

For moments like these, the best thing to dig out of your liquor cabinet isn’t necessarily another base spirit (although that can influence flavor too), but a different kind of alcoholic ingredient altogether. (Here comes the grammar pivot.)

Turns out, when you mix a vermouth, a liqueur, an amaro or some other fortified wine into your cocktail along with your base spirit, those ingredients are also called modifiers.

The exquisitely pedantic cocktail reference guide Death & Co. defines modifiers as any alcoholic ingredient that isn’t the base of a cocktail.

Knowing about modifiers is helpful when, for example, you get a nice bottle of sherry as a hostess gift and you don’t normally drink that, so you’re not sure how to use it.

Knowing about modifiers is especially helpful for people who have entire cabinets full of half-used bottles of liqueurs. Not everyone realizes how versatile they can be. How long has that bottle of Campari been sitting on the shelf? What about that orange liqueur? Well, Campari and triple sec are both fun, functional and flavorful ways to transform a basic cocktail into a more complex one.

What else qualifies as a modifier? The list is long. For starters, here are 10 things currently in my liquor cabinet (in alphabetical order) that count: amaro, Campari, crème de cassis, yellow Chartreuse, Cointreau, Cynar, Luxardo Maraschino, Pernod, St-Germain and vermouth. There are other things in my liquor cabinet, but these are the ones I actually use.

Knowing about modifiers is especially helpful for people who have entire cabinets full of half-used bottles of liqueurs.

It’s important to note that while some of these are liquor types, others are brands. That’s not the only difference among them. Other than the fact that all of them contain alcohol, and you usually find them in the same general area of the liquor store, modifiers don’t really have a set of common characteristics.

In Europe, some are traditionally known as aperitifs while others are called digestifs. Served on the rocks, or with a splash of soda, drinks like Campari and Aperol are routinely enjoyed before dinner to stimulate the appetite. Bittersweet liqueurs like amaro and fortified wines like vermouth are often enjoyed afterwards, theoretically to help with digestion. But we aren’t talking about drinking these beverages for digestive purposes.

I find it helpful to think of modifiers simply in terms of what they’re not. They’re not base spirits. They’re not meant to carry a drink on their own. Rather, including them in a drink will make a basic cocktail recipe stronger and more flavorful, both appealing traits.

At the same time, their alcohol strength varies widely. Many modifier-class liquors have lower percentages of alcohol by volume than base spirits, which makes them ideal for starting or ending a long night of imbibery.

While a typical whiskey or gin clocks in at 40 percent ABV (or 80 proof), sweet liqueurs like St-Germain and crème de cassis, fortified wines like sweet and dry vermouth, and bitter vegetal drinks like Cynar, all come closer to 20 percent. Yet many of the amari, Chartreuse (yellow and green) and Pernod all have significantly higher alcohol ratios.

If that doesn’t blow your mind, try this: There is now a higher-octane version of Cynar called Cynar 70, which bartender Alex Kjell at Heritage Tavern recently introduced me to. It has twice the ABV of the original, all of the bittersweet artichoke flavor, and no problem carrying the cocktail on its own.

That’s confusing, maybe, but innovation is the name of the game in the cocktail world. If they invent it, people will come. And really, the fact that crafty bartenders now base entire cocktails on high-proof artichoke liqueurs shouldn’t tarnish their reputation as modifiers.

Mixologists are still mostly relying on these bottles to make classic cocktails like the Martini, the Manhattan, the Aviation and the Last Word. What makes this class of drinks so congenial is that with wildly different tastes, textures and noses, modifiers can exponentially increase the variations on a cocktail menu.

If you need more convincing, consider some of the drinks recently on cocktail menus around town. At Estrellón, for instance, you might find a house cocktail called the G&T #4. It’s a basic gin and tonic with modifiers, made with a botanical gin, Jack Rudy Small Batch Tonic and lime, with two additional ingredients. One is the strong and deeply herbal green Chartreuse and the other is Yzaguirre Blanco, an almost spicy vermouth from Spain.

This drink is delightfully powerful, though traditionalists should take heed: It’s the most fragrant gin and tonic you will ever have. Welcome to floral cocktails.

While we’re on the topic of Chartreuse, another fun local example is the Secret Garden ISTHMUS DRINKS 2016

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Slushy, lately on the menu at Forequarter.

It mixes yellow Chartreuse — the slightly weaker and sweeter of the Chartreuses — with pear eau de vie, tequila, lavender bitters and lemon. The Secret Garden Slushy is not nearly as slushy as its name makes it sound, but it is a wonderful drink.

If you want to stick with tequila, stroll to the Robin Room for a canonical tequila drink, the El Diablo. The Robin Room version mixes a spicy, golden Espolon Reposado tequila with ginger beer, lime and cassis — a syrupy black currant liqueur that changes the drink into something fruitier and, to use a technical word, yummier.

There are plenty of cocktails being served around town that feature more than one modifier in a single drink. Lucille was making a Red Hook, for example, that mixed Templeton Rye with sweet vermouth and maraschino liqueur. Likewise, Field Table has served a modified Negroni

made with an iris-infused gin, sweet vermouth, bitters and an orangey Italian liqueur called Strega.

While a lot of modifiers are liqueurs, meaning they’re sweetened and flavored, others are bittersweet or tart. Some people enjoy sweet drinks while others (say, me) prefer intensely bitter ones.

And even then, bitterness is subjective.

Campari is one of my favorite drinks, for example, while Maraschino tastes like tree bark to me, and not in a good way.

I find St-Germain cloying, except when I mix it with dry champagne, then it’s my favorite thing in the world. Your own palate is the ultimate decider.

Cocktails are about complexity and innovation, but they’re also about personal preference. In drinking, as in writing, you are the author of the final product. How it comes out will depend on how sweet, bitter, sour, fruity, flowery, spicy, syrupy and strong you want your story to be.

Classic cocktails that use modifiers • The Diplomat

AUTHENTIC FLAVORS OF THE

French vermouth, Italian vermouth, bitters, Maraschino

• Negroni

Gin, Campari, sweet vermouth, orange twist

• The Aviation

Gin, maraschino, crème de violette, lemon juice

• Manhattan

Whiskey, sweet vermouth, bitters, orange peel

• Margarita TM

Tequila or mezcal, Cointreau, agave, lime juice

ISTHMUS DRINKS 2016

• Last Word

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Gin, green Chartreuse, maraschino, lime juice

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ISTHMUS DRINKS 2016

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Squid ink in beer?

When brewers start stirring the pot, good things happen

ISTHMUS DRINKS 2016

BY ROBIN SHEPARD

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ART BY JAMES O’BOYLE

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t its most basic, beer is composed of just four ingredients: barley, hops, water and yeast. The world’s oldest food purity law, the 500-year-old German law known as Reinheitsgebot, defines beer as having no more than these components.

Anyone who’s been caught up in the craft beer craze knows that many brewers, even quite a few German ones, make beer with more than just those ingredients. Anything used beyond those four is known as an adjunct. A wide range of adjuncts are used as alternatives to fermentable sugars and as flavor additives.

Other flavors may also be infused into beers after they’re finished, using a hop rocket (sometimes called a randall), a device that’s much like a water filter, only it works in reverse. The filter can be loaded with various ingredients to enhance flavor, on the spot, immediately. While they are most often used with hops to add more bitterness or flavor, brewers can also load them with just about anything you can imagine to flavor the beer immediately before it is served. Think peaches, blueberries, strawberries, fresh coconut flakes, even ground coffee. You might come across infusion beers regularly at Octopi in Waunakee and World of Beer in Middleton.

If you’re not a total conformist to the strictest traditions of German brewing, this is exciting. What might you find in beer that you’re not expecting?

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Flowers

Fairy Tail Ale from One Barrel Brewing is a saison with both wheat and honey in addition to malted barley. Brewer Matt Gerdts adds rose hips and cherries for additional flavor. The rose hips lend a light color but also a nice tartness. Golden oats in the grist add smooth body. Fairy Tail hit the One Barrel taps in late August, but if you missed it, watch for a return.

Vintage Brewing also makes a Hibiscus saison that’s just ending its seasonal run at the west-side brewpub. There are enough hibiscus petals in this beer to give a reddish hue and a subtle sweetness.

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A Celebration of American Distilling

Grapes

Watch for Belgian Prairie from the Great Dane, due to come back later this fall. It’s a tripel, fermented with Wollersheim Winery’s Prairie Fumé. There’s lots of grape sweetness and warmth from its 10 percent ABV. Another very limited release in August was a version of grapes with beer and a sour twist from New Glarus Brewing. Its Champ du Blanc features Chardonnay grapes and a blend of 2015 and 2016 lambic-style sour blond ales.

MobCraft Beer is well known for creating unusual concoctions based on suggestions received via social media. One of the stranger brews it’s offered in recent months was Don Durio’s Filthy Mustachio, which features durian, a fruit from southeast Asia with a distinctive odor that some find sweet and others describe as smelling like rotting sewage. The beer was initially produced in 2014, but received somewhat of a mixed reception — bottles continue to turn up at the back of shelves at a few liquor stores.

Soursop

Another fruit you don’t hear about every day in connection with beermaking is soursop, which appears in 3rd Sign’s Pollux Belgian wit. Soursop, also called guanábana, is a South American fruit that lends citrus hints of pineapple, strawberry and banana to this light wheat beer.

Pumpkin

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from New Glarus, Painted Ladies from Tyranena, Pumpkin Ale from the Great Dane and my favorite, Pumpkin Lager, and its big brother (a brandy barrel-aged version of the same beer) from Lakefront Brewery. In the same vein, Milwaukee Brewing Company’s fall seasonal is Sasquash, a sweet potato porter.

Chicory

It’s a given that gluten-free beers all feature at least one adjunct to replace the barley. At Alt Brew, brewer Trevor Easton has a long list of substitute ingredients that he draws on in making gluten-free beers.

His list has included rice, teff, honey, candi sugar, orange peel and coriander. One of his most recent brews is a version of his Copperhead Copper Ale made with chicory, a woody plant in the dandelion family that lends the beer coffee-like flavors along with a nutty earthiness. A limited release of that beer is expected to be offered this fall.

Coconut

Bent Kettle Brewing of Fort Atkinson recently released K’Paui, a coconut porter. It’s a full-bodied American porter made with enough coconut extract that you’ll swear you’re drinking a candy bar.

Nuts

Sheboygan-based 3 Sheeps Brewing Company will again release Paid Time Off this fall. It’s an imperial black wheat ale made with walnuts, cocoa nibs and coconut. The brewery toasts the nuts before adding them to the fermenter. Sweet coconut and earthy walnut flavors result, with big alcoholic warmth from its 10 percent ABV. MobCraft also has a new beer for fall made with toasted hazelnuts. Aunt Hazel is an imperial stout that also features cocoa nibs and lactose, which combine for rich flavor and body.

Spices and tea

Godzilla, a monster of a wit beer, was first released in 2011 by Milwaukee Brewing Company. Now with the name O-Gii, it has big body and strength at 9 percent ABV, well beyond expectations for a Belgian wit or anything falling neatly within Reinheitsgebot. Made with a variety of spices, coriander, orange peel, fresh cut ginger and Rishi green tea, it’s assertive, with spicy warmth and the sweetness of tea and chamomile. It’s part of the brewery’s Herb-In Legend series that also includes a jasmine tea-infused IIPA called Hop Freak.

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Squid ink

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“It’s definitely our oddest beer,” says 3 Sheeps owner Grant Pauly of the brewery’s black IPA called Squiddy. I first discovered it at 2013’s Great Taste of the Midwest. It’s made with squid ink imported from Italy. Squid ink is sometimes used in other foods like pasta; in beer it adds color and a hint of briny saltiness. The beer is not currently on the brewery’s production schedule; however, Pauly says, you never know when it may come back.

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Molly Moran of Atwood Avenue’s Table Wine leads a group wine tasting: “I don’t want it to seem too daunting.”

Uncorking knowledge

Local wine shops hold tastings, classes to educate customers

BY ALLISON GEYER

ISTHMUS DRINKS 2016

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ven before Molly Moran opened Table Wine, a boutique wine and beer store on Atwood Avenue, she knew events would be the cornerstone of her business.

“Madisonians love to do things,” says Moran, who owns the business with her husband, Conor, director of the Wisconsin Book Festival. “I think a great wine event introduces people to something new, lets them stretch their understanding a little. And for me, I get to engage with my customers.”

PHOTOS BY SHARON VANORNY

With all its depth and history, the world of wine can be intimidating. But events like wine tastings and classes can offer instructive, entertaining — and delicious — opportunities to learn, whether you’re still stumped by the question “White or red?” or you’re looking to broaden your knowledge about the nuances of terroir.

Table Wine offers two types of events at the shop: traditional tastings, where guests sample a variety of wines based on a theme, and something Moran calls “wine school,” which takes a more intensive, deep-dive

exploration into a certain topic. The tastings are typically larger, more informal and social events, drawing about 25 to 50 people, while the wine school sessions are more focused and intimate, limited to about 10 people. Cost for the tastings is about $12, and wine school classes are typically around $15.

“My goal is for people to feel comfortable asking questions,” says Moran, who learned about wine while working in the service industry and by attending wine tastings herself. “I don’t want it to seem too daunting.”

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Your Favorite Neighborhood Hangout

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Andrea Hillsey of Square Wine Co. focuses on hard-to-find wines from niche producers.

Events, which are announced on Table Wine’s website, Facebook page and email newsletter, cover a wide range of topics. Some are straightforward, like a session delving into the complexities of pinot noirs from around the world, while others are more conceptual, an exploration into the vernacular used to describe wines (with samples to match). Events are typically held two or three times a month, but things slow down a bit in the summer, Moran says. Even so, the response has been “phenomenal” since the store opened December 2015.

“It continues to be great to see new faces and event regulars,” she says. “We take great pride in mixing it up.”

At Square Wine Co., which opened on North Pinckney Street in 2012, owner Andrea Hillsey holds tastings regu-

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larly on Fridays and Saturdays. They feel like a combination of an open house social and a professor’s office hours: Guests can drop in and taste a few varieties while snacking on appetizers and mingling with other patrons, and Hillsey is on hand to share her considerable knowledge.

The Friday night tasting runs from 6 to 8 p.m., costs $15 in advance or $20 at the door and features seven wines (and you get to keep your wine glass). On Sundays, the tastings run from noon to 3 p.m. and cost $10, but the fee is waived with a purchase.

“I want to be an everyday sommelier,” says Hillsey, who likes to focus on hard-to-find wines from niche producers. “I think it’s the responsibility of a small, indie wine shop to keep people up-to-date and educated.”

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Find it here:

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W

hen you have friends or family stay with you, the pro move is to fill the guest room with simple amenities that they might have forgotten: good magazines, a bottle of water, an iPhone charger.

Score even more hosting points by giving your guests a taste of something they can’t get anywhere else. The Midwest is home to some superlative craft beers that don’t make it out of our region, and you might want to show them off. Small batches mean small businesses and limited distribution.

It’s your responsibility as host, then, to know what’s unique to the area, what best represents this place we live in, and its place in the big beer picture. It’s nice to have a head start on the answer to the question, “Hey, I’ll be in town in a couple weeks, what are we drinking?”

Be the host with the most 16

BY KYLE NABILCY

PHOTO BY TODD HUBLER

If your guests aren’t from Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky or Ohio, they’re going to want to drink some Gumballhead, a hoppy wheat beer, and some Arctic Panzer Wolf, a double IPA, and the legendary Zombie Dust, the whaliest of Midwest IPA whales. Both are made by 3 Floyds, those bad boys out of Munster, Indiana, and are available in only five states.

And then your guests are going to realize that Wisconsin gets Toppling Goliath, because Decorah, Iowa, is just a hop, skip and a jump from the Wisconsin border. Wisconsin is one of only three states to which Toppling Goliath distributes (along with Iowa and Minnesota).

Be sure to sample some PseudoSue, which is every bit the pale ale that Zombie Dust is.

And then grab some bottles of whatever other hoppy Toppling Goliath gem you can find, whether it’s an entry in the XHOPS series or the stupendously crushable Pompeii.

Surly Brewing out of Minneapolis has slightly broader distribution than Toppling Goliath, but it’s still a decidedly Midwestern beer.

When your sour-loving friends find out how relatively easy it is to find Pentagram on shelves and even occasionally on tap in Madison, they’ll flip. Local draft lines are full of Furious, Surly’s flagship IPA, and the smooth Coffee Bender too.

Even Bell’s, which produces more than 300,000 barrels of beer per year, barely distributes west of Minnesota. So crack open a rich, chocolatey Expedition Stout with your buddy from Colorado, or order a pint of Two Hearted IPA for your cousin from Oregon, and feel the warmth of making someone’s beer day.

ISTHMUS DRINKS 2016

ISTHMUS DRINKS 2016

Midwest beers to introduce to your out-of-state guests

Let’s start with Madison-area brewers. When I have friends in town, there are two breweries we hit first, Karben4 and Ale Asylum. If you yourself are new to Madison, get on their level.

Karben4 is probably my favorite area brewery, for its ability to create balanced beers with just a touch of kookiness. Fantasy Factory is a straightforward citrusy Midwestern IPA, neither too bitter nor absurdly cloudy, with a great label. Lady Luck is a superb, slightly hopped Irish red, and Deep Winter is a seasonal coffee stout with no hops at all. While Karben4 is worth checking out for the novelty alone, the quality there runs deeper than that.

Karben4’s happy-go-lucky ’tude is the perfect flipside to Ale Asylum’s seriousness of purpose. If these brewers don’t abide by the beer purity law all the time, they come pretty close. But with the diversity of hops at its disposal, the brewery can turn out some wildly varying flavor profiles. Bedlam! is my favorite Belgian IPA, hands down, and the recent Hu$h Money handled the idiosyncratic Hallertau Blanc hops variety with impressive deftness.

Expand your geographical boundaries a bit, and you’ll find New Glarus. New Glarus Brewing Company is THE ONE, the brewery everyone who knows anything about beer will aim to drink at when visiting Wisconsin. Encourage a little exploration beyond Spotted Cow — itself a perfectly fine beer. Check out Staghorn, an Oktoberfest-style beer, or the classically perfect Zwickel, if you can make it down to the brewery. Lots of folks know Belgian Red; pick up a bottle of Serendipity for a tart, fruity beer that has even more complexity.

Central Waters’ barrel-aged beers are a nationally recognized treat, whether in the 12-ounce bottles (the Brewers Reserve series) or 22-ouncers like Rye Barrel Chocolate Porter or Headless Heron, the Amherst brewery’s annual barrel-aged pumpkin release.

Impress friends by telling them O’so Brewing won a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival in Colorado for The Big O, a wheat beer we can drink all the dang time up here in Wisconsin.

Or if you’re fortunate enough to have one in your cellar, bust out a bottle of O’so’s collaboration beers with Funk Factory here in Madison for a friend who really digs sour beers.

I encourage friends who are only in town on their way elsewhere, but who want to stop and grab a few bottles to take home, to find Black Husky, originally from Pembine way up in Marinette County, now open with a new Riverwest taproom in Milwaukee. Its beers aren’t found on tap as easily as they are in bottles, but if you come across the Sproose double IPA with spruce tips, order it.

Other beers unique to Wisconsin that I’m likely to encourage visiting friends to sample include Lake Louie Brewing’s Kiss the Lips IPA, Potosi’s Czech-style Pilsener, Door County Brewing Company’s Polka King Porter and Capital Brewery’s Winter Skal. They’re all solid, everyday-drinkin’ beers that stand to impress any guest.

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A Little Bit of Belgium in the Heart of Monroe Street

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Coming November, 2016

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Alicia’s

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Folly

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Jigglypuff

More than an afterthought Four top spots for nonalcoholic cocktails

BY ERICA KRUG

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Or the drinks might even be inspired by current events. The summer menu had five drinks named for Pokémon characters.

Bar manager Ricky Pajewski says Oliver’s caters to families and hospital workers (UW Hospital and Clinics is close by), so it’s important to offer “something fun” to people who aren’t drinking alcohol. Oliver’s doesn’t skimp on presentation — Pajewski even brought a copper mug, usually reserved for Moscow Mules, full of water for the baby in our group.

The Jigglypuff is a floral mixture of rose-rhubarb shrub, lemon juice, rose water and sparkling water.

The peach-colored drink comes in a champagne flute

with a cherry on top. It was bubbly and tart, and I didn’t miss the champagne.

My companion went for the Pikachu, a glammedup Squirt-like concoction (in a good way) of mango shrub, lemon juice, orange juice and sparkling water.

One of the best things about this drink, served in a highball glass, was the lemon peel lightning bolt floating on top. Both drinks cost $5, and alongside house-made pretzels and a jar of pimento cheese, this made for a decadent pre-happy hour happy hour.

Another spot known for its extensive bar menu is Forequarter, 708 E. Johnson St. It too does right by its nonalcoholic drinks. In addition to house-made

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ISTHMUS DRINKS 2016

few restaurants around Madison known for their craft cocktails are also starting to carve out a spot for creative nonalcoholic drinks that go beyond iced tea and lemonade. The local ingredients that distinguish full-strength craft cocktails also go into these booze-free creations. Whether you’re a designated driver, pregnant or a nondrinker altogether, here are four top spots where there’s just as much care lavished upon virgin cocktails as those with spirits.

Oliver’s Public House, 2540 University Ave., features a menu section entitled “No ID Required,” where patrons will find seasonally inspired, alcoholfree drinks.

ART BY TODD HUBLER

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At World of Beer, we’ve got 50 craft beers on tap, over 500 in the cooler and a menu of tasty tavern fare that’s crafted to go perfectly with beer.

So c’mon. Let’s go. Because there’s no better place to go around the world, one sip at a time.

START YOUR JOURNEY

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ISTHMUS DRINKS 2016

• Grappa

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Unique Liqueurs, Wine & Vinegars Free Tastings Daily!

VOM FASS State Street

• Absinthe

127 State Street 608-819-6738 VomFassStateStreet.com

Look • Taste • Enjoy

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ginger beer and cola, Forequarter features hibiscus gingerade, made with ginger beer, lemon, sugar and a float of hibiscus tea. The drink is a looker, with a layer of pink floating on top of summery yellow, but make sure to mix it up before you take a sip to get the full effect of the spicy, warm ginger throughout.

Forequarter also offers seasonal, house-made flavored tonics that change throughout the year as kegs run out. The late summer flavor was strawberry, followed by raspberry.

In winter, the flavors will likely be lavender or lemongrass.

Sitting at Forequarter’s gorgeous bar with either of these refreshers and a cheese board makes for a lovely late afternoon treat.

Graze, 1 S. Pinckney St., makes sure to have several nonalcoholic mixed drinks on the menu. The stellar Alicia’s Folly is vanilla syrup, half and half and soda water. The vanilla syrup is made in-house by the pastry team. This drink tastes like a really creamy vanilla soda, or perhaps a white Russian without the Kahlua.

Another option is the tart cherry spritz, made with local Quince and Apple tart cherry grenadine, orange juice and soda water.

And don’t forget the Weary Traveler Freehouse, 1201 Williamson St., where “The Catfish� is a menu staple.

Named for blues musician Catfish Stephenson, who has a long-running gig at the Weary (and who no longer drinks alcohol), the namesake drink is seltzer and your choice of fresh or Rose’s lime juice (fresh, please!) served with lots of ice in a pint glass.

While my go-to order at the Weary is likely to remain a whiskey old fashioned with olives, the Catfish is a refreshing alternative for those times when I don’t want to join the drinking crowd.

2136 Regent St. 608.233.4329 8am-9pm daily

MEATS, PRODUCE & SPIRITS!

Great Selection of BEER, WINE & LIQUOR

Coming November, 2016

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ISTHMUS DRINKS 2016

23 N. Pinckney St. Madison, WI

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123 E. Main St. Madison, WI 608-256-4141

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1 S. Pinckney St. #107 Madison, WI 608-251-0500 letoile-restaurant.com

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23 N. Pinckney St. Madison, WI 608-310-4545 theoldfashioned.com

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917 E. Mifflin St. Madison, WI 608-622-1414 breesestevensfield.com

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101 King St. Madison, WI 608-283-0000 lucillemadison.com

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931 E. Main St. #8 Madison, WI 608-260-0812 oldsugardistillery.com

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ISTHMUS DRINKS 2016

The Studio Yoga. Fitness. Disciussion.

625 Williamson St. Madison, WI 608-441-5310 thestudiomadison.com

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1380 Williamson St. Madison, WI gibs.bar

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119 King St. Madison, WI 608-229-0900 madisonsdowntown.com

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2540 University Ave. Madison, WI 608-819-8555 oliverspublichouse.com

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10 N. Livingston St. Madison, WI 608-630-9400 sujeomadison.com

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10 W. Mifflin Madison, WI 608-630-9222 thefieldtable.com

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117 E. Main St. Madison, WI 608-294-9371 madurocigarbar.com

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128 E. Wilson St. Madison, WI 608-255-8376 osteriapapavero.com

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601 North St. Madison, WI 608-241-5515 thetiptoptavern.com

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18 N. Carroll St. Madison, WI 608-229-8800 graftmadison.com

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115 King St. Madison, WI 608-255-0901 majesticmadison.com

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1344 E. Washington Ave. Madison, WI 608-819-8002 pasqualscantina.com/east

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617 Williamson St. Madison, WI 608-441-1600 sardinemadison.com

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131 E. Mifflin St. Madison, WI 608-283-9500 heritagetavern.com 829 E. Washington Ave. Madison, WI 608-237-1904 julepmadison.com

121 S. Pinckney St. Madison, WI 608-259-9799 merchantmadison.com

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Natt Spil

211 King St. Madison, WI nattspil.com

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821 E. Johnson St. Madison, WI 608-284-7638 robinroombar.com 1301 Regent St. Madison, WI 608- 256-0600 rockysmadison.com

Tornado Club

STEAK HOUSE

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116 S. Hamilton St. Madison, WI 608-256-3570 tornadosteakhouse.com 7876 WI-188 Prairie du Sac, WI 608-643-6515 wollersheim.com

W

e launched Madison Cocktail Week two years ago to celebrate our city’s breadth of quality beverage offerings. We wanted to showcase our city’s uniquely playful and inventive approach to Midwestern hospitality: the best of the ivory tower and pub. As our ambitions grew and we considered ways to bring neighbors together and draw in colleagues from across the country, we decided to shift our efforts from winter to fall. The conventional wisdom would have been to pick the most miserable week of the year – when hotel rooms are cheap – not the week of the Ohio State game. Still, it had to be fall. Football season has its social traditions, but it’s also when Madison’s social imagination seems to peak: With winter looming, we’re simply more active and adventurous.

As we planned this event series, we were most excited to conceive and celebrate ways cocktails can bring people together outside of the restaurant and bar. Ultimately, whether it’s a tailgate, a Wiffle Ball tournament, a synchronized dance competition or a multi-course dinner in the shadow of a vineyard, what makes this all worthwhile has less to do with what ends up in the glass, and everything to do with the people who join us in the toast.

Cheers, Hastings Cameron, Tom Dufek, Mariah Renz and Chad Vogel UNLESS OTHERWISE INDICATED, EVENTS ARE A LA CARTE. ALL EVENTS ARE 21+.

Tue Oct 11 4 -6 pm

Casa Noble Cantina Pasqual’s

(East Washington Avenue)

Cocktail Week kicks off with an homage to that classic trio: tacos, Tuesdays and tequila. Pasqual’s will be featuring Casa Noble’s organic Lowland agave spirits, and serving a street-food-inspired taco menu to enjoy with flights of the blanco, reposado and añejo expressions. Cap it all off with a cocktail special that leavens the añejo’s cocoa-praline notes with lime. Call it dessert, or the perfect prelude to the next event.

6-8 :30 pm

Don Q Daiquiri Dash & Scavenger Hunt Gibs, Robin Room, Sujeo, Lucille

William Grant & Sons presents Dancing with the Startenders competition

Majestic The Olympics might be over, but we’re all for keeping the competitive juices flowing. You might be mildly curious how your favorite bartenders would fare on stage, battling to conceive the best Reyka, Monkey Shoulder, Flor de Caña, Hudson, Ancho Reyes or Milagro Tequila cocktails, but what happens when they do so with a costume budget, the A/V support of an iconic music venue, and mixology takes a backseat to “chemistry” on the score cards? Bet on the theater kids. Join us for a night of rhythmic magic as teams of Madison bartenders battle it out for $500, one synchronized pour at a time. Madison Cocktail Week’s kickoff party promises to be a winner-takes-all blend of synchronized swimming, gymnastics and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. After the cocktail conga line wraps up, DJ Bruce Blaq will get the rest of us dancing.

ISTHMUS DRINKS 2016

Remember how much you used to love scavenger hunts? The adult version offers more self-indulgent fun: Make your way from the near-east side to the Capitol in search of cane spirits and candid shots. Sample inventive daiquiris and photo-bomb guest bartender Ed Hong at Gib’s, find the booty in the Robin Room’s phone booth, savor snacks by Sujeo’s Jamie Hoang or plunge below-ground to pose with Lucille’s epic squiggly line mural. Each $4 snaquiri will showcase the range of Don Q Cristal, Añejo, Gran Añejo, Caliche & Barrow’s Intense Ginger Liqueur. Document one at each stop, and treasure awaits you at the Majestic.

9 pm

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Wed Oct 12 1- 2 : 3 0 pm

Cultivating Inclusion seminar

L’Etoile Join local industry professionals for a panel discussion on the ways we encounter and overcome gender inequality in the bartending world and how this relates to a bar or restaurant’s ability to foster a truly welcoming, safe and inspiring environment for staff. That environment goes hand-in-hand with an emphasis on impeccable service, which ultimately shapes the quality of a guest’s experience more than technique or provenance of ingredients. Conversation with panel attendees will follow the discussion, giving everyone a chance to bring their own experience to the table. Presented in conjunction with Spirited Women of Madison, whose members will helm the panel, and serve attendees a round or two of conversation-stimulating cocktails. Tickets: $10. Tickets available at IsthmusTickets.com

6:30 pm

Fillin’ Glasses, Takin’ Names — J. Henry Bourbon Cocktail Dinner Heritage Tavern

Heritage assistant bar manager Alex Kjell has run with Heritage’s farm-forward sensibilities, and none too soon: the world didn’t even know it needed a snap pea cocktail. She’s also been known to jump out from behind the bar, bound across the dining room floor and strain a daiquiri tableside, regardless of the season. Kjell’s a steadily rising star of Madison’s beverage culture, and her J. Henry Bourbon cocktail pairings for this four-course dinner will show why. J. Henry proprietor Liz Henry, another of the boldest women we know, will be on hand to drop whiskey knowledge and dispense life advice. Tickets: $65. Tickets available at IsthmusTickets.com

3 - 6 pm

Aperitivo Hour

Osteria Papavero Continue the conversation at this casual pre-dinner social hour. Enjoy palate-priming cocktails conceived by bar manager Jenny Griep with Francesco Mangano’s small-plate shareable Italian fare. Griep’s cocktails will draw upon importer Fasel Shenstone’s portfolio, unique in its laser-focus upon the kind of aromatized wines that practically beg to be enjoyed in convivial afternoon cocktails. Drop in anytime after 3 pm: $20 covers your first cocktail and all you can eat with your hands. Tickets: $20 (also available at door). Tickets available at IsthmusTickets.com

3 - 4 pm

Scotch & Cigars 4 -6 pm

Whisk(e)y Happy Hour ISTHMUS DRINKS 2016

Maduro

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Combining the pungency of scotch and cigars is among the most rewarding of luxuries, precisely because the two take time to properly enjoy together. That reflective time, coupled with the warm, inviting environment cultivated by bar manager Vanessa Shipley, has brought together countless patrons from disparate backgrounds over the bar’s 16 years. Here, Maduro cigar purveyor Joe Fuller works with Beam Suntory Scotch & Cigar specialists John Drew and Bradford Lawrence to bring you a scotch and cigar seminar pairing legendary Islay — Laphroaig, Bowmore — and Lowland — Auchentoshan – Scotches with the full-bodied, lightly spiced dried fruit of the HVC San Isidro Geniales. Enjoy the Scotch and cigar seminar between and then stick around for a happy hour to follow, as Maduro opens its doors and features the Scotches alongside cocktails made with Beam’s Small Batch Whiskey portfolio. Tickets: $10. Tickets available at IsthmusTickets.com

8 pm

Spirited Women Take Over Gib’s, Merchant

Gib’s and Merchant turn their bars over to some of the state’s finest bartenders. Jacki Walczak (Lucille), Meghan McCormick (Heritage Tavern), Amanda McGinley (Sardine), Mariah Renz (Julep), and Jenny Griep (Osteria Papavero) will sling Bol’s Genever cocktails at Merchant; Thor Messer wipes and fetches bottles. Lauren Franchi, the mind behind inclusive dance party Miss Connections, holds down the music as alter ego DJ Lolo. For a change of pace, let the MCW shuttle bus whisk you from Merchant to Gib’s, the first bar in Madison to plant a paw paw tree in its backyard. At Gib’s, bartender Kym Reindl is transforming the second floor bar with the help of Katie Rose (Milwaukee’s Goodkind), the Nonino sisters’ sublime grappa, some sporty-spicy 90s pop, a projector, and DJ Glynis Fisher.

Thu Oct 13

3 -8 pm

Death’s Door Spirits presents the

Midwest Wiffle Invitational Breese Stevens Field

Paul Guse provides the color commentary. DJ Nick Nice keeps the party going across the field. No hiding in the dugout: Come one, come all to the 2016 Midwest Wiffle Invitational! Cheer for your favorite Madison, Milwaukee, Chicago and Minneapolis drink-slingers as they compete for the title of Wiffle Champion and the honor of passing around a shiny replica trophy when they get back home. (A hometown play-in game will allow Madison bartenders to compete for their place on the city’s roster. The Barmadillo will be on hand to whip-up Death’s Door’s Gin, Vodka, and Wondermint cocktails to slake your thirst, along with a slew of food carts. Your admission ticket covers the first cocktail. Tickets: $7; $10 at the gate. Tickets available at IsthmusTickets.com

8 pm

Beam Small Batch Whiskey Cocktail Dinner Graft

Graft beverage director Scott Anderson pairs uncannily balanced Basil Hayden’s, Booker’s, Baker’s and Knob Creek bourbon cocktails with chef Travis Vaughn’s self-assuredly elegant Midwest-inspired fare. Tickets: $60. Tickets available at IsthmusTickets.com

9 pm

Madison Midwest Swap Pop Up

Tornado Club, Lucille, Madison’s ISTHMUS DRINKS 2016

If a key party breaks out in a church basement, and Garrison Keillor isn’t around to narrate, did it happen at all? This late-night collaboration series forgoes the lutefisk and packs all the Midwest charm, mischief and cutting-edge cocktail talent we could into the coziest subterranean venues. Guests from Chicago, Milwaukee and Minneapolis take over the Tornado’s Corral Room, Lucille’s boom-boom vault and Madison’s downstairs lounge. They’ll showcase Jameson Caskmates, Absolut, Altos, Powers, Aberlour, and Plymouth Gin with menus that allow you to choose between escapism and a witty embrace of place. Nordic Tiki. Need we say more?

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Fri Oct 14 3 -10 pm

Invitation to a Fish Fry Tip Top Tavern

Vladimir Nabokov delighted in the peculiarities of all manner of Americana, but the Russian writer never held forth on the traditional Midwestern fish fry. To our knowledge, at least. Tip Top bar manager Justin Meyers and his crew seek to rectify that with this Tito’s happy hour featuring the “Pale Fire,” “Vivian Darkbloom” and “Speak, Memory.” Tuck into the Tip Top’s cozy salon, and don’t forget, it’s pronounced “nuh-BO-kof.”

4 -6 pm

Distillery Tour

and brandy discussion

Old Sugar Distillery

Join owner Nathan Greenawalt for an in-depth tour and discussion of brandy production. You’ll enjoy a cocktail and sip some memorable brandy as you kick off your Friday the best way. This event culminates in an open-to-the-public happy hour done in Old Sugar Distillery style, with plenty of handcrafted spirits to join the brandy on the menu. Tickets: $10. Tickets available at IsthmusTickets.com

5 : 1 5 pm

Road Trip — Wollersheim Distillery cocktail dinner

Wollersheim Distillery (Departs from Merchant) Perhaps you knew that Wisconsin winemakers are actually allowed to distill brandy? After the success of its first few Coquard brandy releases, Wollersheim didn’t rest on its laurels. Here, the MCW bus will pick you up downtown at Merchant and whisk you to Wollersheim’s brand-new distillery, where you’ll enjoy a delicious dinner crafted by chefs Evan Dannells and Dan Fox of Merchant and Heritage Tavern. Bar managers Thor Messer and Clint Sterwald will pair cocktails featuring the new distillery’s absinthe, gin and just-released 2016 bottling of Coquard, the brandy that started it all. Tickets: $80. Tickets available at IsthmusTickets.com

6 : 3 0 pm

Great Northern Exposure ISTHMUS DRINKS 2016

The Old Fashioned, Julep

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We’re doubling-down on fish fry with Great Northern. Madison classic The Old Fashioned and Southern upstart Julep will feature spirits produced by Plover, Wisconsin’s, burgeoning distillery. Plan ahead and grab a ticket for the Old Fashioned’s family-style fish fry with all the fixin’s and special cocktail pairings, or head to Julep, where their Friday catfish fry will be well under way, and three Great Northern Cocktails will be featured. Both locations will be mixing a variety of new and classic cocktails using Great Northern liquors. Old Fashioned Tickets: $30; Julep: à la carte. Tickets available at IsthmusTickets.com

9 pm

Staycation Collaboration — Late Night Bar Team Swaps Merchant, Field Table, Lucille

This late-night collaboration series formed the foundation of the first Madison Cocktail Week.

Now it’s tradition. Dave Biefer and the Mezze bar team step behind the bar at Merchant and bring their Mediterranean flair to bear on cocktails featuring the Terlato Artisan Spirits portfolio. Oliver’s bar manager Ricky Pajewski joins Mike McDonald at Field Table for Fernet Branca, Zaya Rum, Corralejo Tequila and Templeton Rye cocktails. Looking for the Robin Room’s Mike Lu? He’ll be hiding out downstairs at Lucille, rocking WhistlePig Rye.

Sat Oct 15 9 a m- 3 pm

Death’s Door Cocktail Brunch Oliver’s Public House

JEREMY BAZELY

Death’s Door master distiller Jason Veal’s longstanding friendship with Oliver’s chef Patrick McCormick was forged working alongside each other in Madison kitchens. They will both help bar manager Ricky Pajewski conceive a menu that pairs refreshing Death’s Door brunch cocktails with McCormick’s elegantly hearty New American staples.

5–10 pm 10 a m

Farmers’ Market Frogger field table

Supermarket Sweep returns in a bold new way as participating bartenders are sent charging through Madison’s nationally renowned Saturday Farmers’ Market with a fistful of dollars to be used on cocktail ingredients (and spicy cheese bread). Once they gather what they need, bartenders hurry back to Field Table to execute new spins on the classic Bee’s Knees, using The Botanist Gin, itself conceived with 22 foraged Islay botanicals, while brunchers look on. A panel of judges will, of course, award coveted prizes — $250, and appropriately enough, brunch the following day — to the winner.

1- 2 : 3 0 pm

Science of Aging seminar

L’Etoile

Rocky Rococo

Cocktail Week merges with Badger mania as Bucky takes on the Ohio State Buckeyes, and Rocky’s parking lot will reflect this convergence with a tailgate and viewing party unlike any other. “Captain Morgan” himself will join the Robin Room’s Chad Vogel and encourage a festive mood by providing attendees with plenty of the Captain’s Cold Coffee Cola, autumnal Crown Royal cocktails, Cold as Ice Smirnoff Collins and superior Bulleit Old Fashioned sours. DJ Nick Nice keeps the party moving, win or lose.

11 pm

Expressions of Texture competition

Argus Perhaps it’s been awhile since you last took a jello shot; perhaps you consider yourself something of a jello shot connoisseur. Either way you’re going to want to get yourself to the Argus basement, where bartenders will relive their partying days with a Patron Silver steeped jello shot competition, judged by the audience –– and a pastry chef. There will be madness; there will be hashtags; there will be so much jiggling. Consider yourself too old for all this? Argus bartenders will have Roca Patron cocktails on hand for the more discerning agave consumer.

ISTHMUS DRINKS 2016

Without wood, there is no whiskey. Much like human beings, a whiskey is not defined in personality by merely its grain components, its DNA. The distillate we barrel is innocent, pure, untouched by the harsh realities of Mother Nature. In order to live a long successful life, spirits must dedicate years, decades even, studying under the careful tutelage of oak.

Join us as WhistlePig Rye Whiskey’s Taylor Hansen illuminates the biochemical relationship between bark and booze. Tickets: $10. Tickets available at IsthmusTickets.com

Cocktail Week Cabana

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Sun Oct 16

11 a m

Disco Brunch Natt Spil

Head over to Natt Spil for what promises to be a certifiable blast into our disco past as we sip on Sauza Hornitos Black Barrel Tequila and Cruzan Single Barrel and Black Strap rums while sampling some of Natt Spill’s finest food choices. Food, booze and disco balls spun by DJs VPS and Zukas. It’s been a long week: Treat yourself.

12 : 1 5 pm

Stirring up Balance — A Yoga Class for Lifestyle Balance

ISTHMUS DRINKS 2016

The Studio

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A yoga class designed for people who love to indulge in food and drink? What could be better? Instructor Cass Hanson says it’s all about balance: “Sipping tasty cocktails and eating rich foods are enjoyable ways to experience life, but attention to our overall well-being is essential.” This class will focus on life in the service industry, and address such things as repetitive stress injuries. The session will begin with a short discussion on lifestyle balance both at work and play. Wear comfortable clothing, and bring a yoga mat.” Don’t have one?

MCW has you covered. After class, participants are welcomed down the hall to Sardine for their choice of N/A refreshment or a low-ABV cocktail featuring liqueurs and aromatized wines imported by Haus Alpenz. Tickets: $15. Tickets available at IsthmusTickets.com

2 pm

Packers Game Pig Roast and Viewing Party

Robinia Courtyard It will be an immovable feast as Robinia chef Nick Johnson, Pig in a Fur Coat chef Dan Bonanno, and Underground Food Collective chef Jonny Hunter gather together under Robinia’s roof for a hearty family-style dinner, and the requisite football snack fare, while you watch the Packers take on that obscure team from Dallas. Elijah Craig Bourbon, Rittenhouse, Canton and Pama all join in the game day festivities. Tickets: $35, includes first cocktail. Tickets available at IsthmusTickets.com

9 pm

Industry after-party Robin Room

Like Christmas, Cocktail Week must, sadly, come to an end. For this bittersweet occasion, Robin Room opens its doors to all for one final tip of the hat to cocktails and the women and men who create them.

Featuring exquisite bourbon, rye, vodka and gin from the 45th Parallel distillery as well as Alessandro Monachello’s “is good for you” pizza, this farewell bash will place a comfortably fitting cap on the week.

Thank You to all of our Sponsors

ISTHMUS DRINKS 2016

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ISTHMUS DRINKS 2016