in the 2k10 i am learning to make cocktails. this is my mixology thread

old-ish sweet vermouth is not usually that bad. dry vermouth turns amazingly quickly though. usually when i buy a new bottle of either i do a quick taste compare to the old bottle just to remind me of the difference. i don't think either will murder a drink where there are a decent amount of other ingredients (and the vermouth is more of a supporting player), but if you're making martinis or manhattans and have any doubt it's best to buy a fresh bottle.

ok damn I found a bottle of st. germaine and grabbed it and the first thing I mixed was that there Paris Manhattan only I used the only vermouth I had to hand - again, Doulin's red - too sweet. but then I mixed a Jim Rose from that wordpress link. FUCKIN A THAT IS AN A+ DRINK, just beautiful. used Pama instead of the homemade grenadine recipe but man oh man...I will be revisiting this drink. It helps that we have a local applejack that's just a terrific mixer.

Imagining a version of the kids in the hall "girl drink drunk" sketch right now, but it's mixologist drinks and this fellow here is someday dodging offstage during a show and yelling questions about whether anyone has orange bitters or the right brand of vermouth from the green room after running off mid-set

it's my birthday so I ad-libbed another cocktail and I think it's my best riff yet. I based it on this, but the Amaro I have has been around a while, I'm sure it's ~ok~ but I wanted something really good and I'd made if I do say so myself a spectacular soup for dinner (seriously) so I just went for it

the 316
1.5 oz rye plus a tiny bit extra
1/4 oz luxardo
2 dashes celery bitters

generously rim chilled glass with lime; squeeze remainder into shaker with rye, luxardo and bitters. shake vigorously with ice and strain.

i haven't been following this thread as much i should be. i'm always on the lookout for quality cocktails.

let it be known that my mom cosigns on the jim rose

so inspired by the Jim Rose that I bought pomegranate molasses so I could make the crazy homemade grenadine recipe in the link.

i had to open a bottle of port to make stew tonight, so i set about looking for some port cocktails. this is called elk's own, from the beta cocktails book:

1.5 oz. bourbon
.5 oz. ruby port
.5 oz. lemon juice
.5 oz. simple syrup
.25 oz. cynar
egg white
nux alpina walnut liqueur rinse

shake and double-strain as appropriate for egg drinks into a rinsed rocks glass. this was really tasty.

If I wanted to spend, say $100, and get 3-4 bottles of spirits as a gift for a friend who wanted to start in the mixology game...what would you guys recc?? This person always has gin, rum, vodka, etc., on hand. Also, any particular book to recc on the subject?

so you don't need to get them gin, rum, vodka as they have those? I'd almost get them sweet/dry vermouth, a nice tonic water, some uncommon but very mixable juices (pineapple?) and maybe a bitters or two. and some whiskey and maybe a strainer.

^^^all good advice.

this site here: http://12bottlebar.com/ is pretty smart about building a small bar. in addition to what mh recommended, the next two most useful things would prob be an orange liqueur and maraschino.

re: books, david wondrich's imbibe! is the most useful book if you want to understand cocktails from the ground up. but it takes some patience since it's more like 40% recipes and 60% amusing history. ted haigh's vintage spirits and forgotten cocktails, gary regan's book, and dale degroff's books are also v. good.

only one mention of the boulevardier itt. for shame

just had a few of those last night. really good! I need more campari around the house.

Made a boulevardier a couple weeks ago, and the smokiness of it gave me the thought of making a negroni with genever replacing the gin. Worked real well; I used Aperol and Cocchi Americano like I usually do for the negroni family of drinks (Aperol+Cocchi+soda is a great summer drink, I think it's called an Americano). The equal parts ratio tends to be too sweet for my taste, so I generally do 3-2-2 in favor of the spirit.

what should I do w/this anejo especial

made an equal-parts boulevardier with nice ingredients tonight (stagg jr., carpano antica, and of course campari). i am pleased.

re: anejo especial, you should prob just do everything with it. i really wish we had havana club here.

Oh man I have made so many cocktails since I last posted itt.

do tell!

jaymc doesn't cock and tail.

I made a negroni tonight. I liked it! I drink about 4 cocktails a year.

not a bad choice for one of the four.

I'd make more, but I need simple simple recipes. Got not time for fussy cocktails. This was pretty easy.

RANDOM NIP COCKTAIL CHALLENGE #2

(random nip cocktail challenge #1 already happened but i forgot to post live about it. some time ago i received a bunch of random nips, and i am using them in heretofore untested ways).

random nip #2 was smirnoff 100-proof espresso vodka. i have stirred it with some dry vermouth, a dash of peychaud's bitters (actually bitter truth creole bitters but same thing), and some ferrand dry curacao. the undercurrent of mocha (the actual flavor of the nip) is pretty hard to escape. this is not vile but not a very good cocktail.

random nip #1, for the record, was fireball cinnamon whiskey, shaken with lemon juice, some grade b maple syrup, and a dash of angostura orange. that one was pretty good.

Oh man I have made so many cocktails since I last posted itt.

― jaymc, Thursday, June 26, 2014 11:07 PM (5 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

do tell!

― call all destroyer, Friday, June 27, 2014 8:35 AM (5 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

OK, I'll show:
http://instagram.com/jk_cocktails/

(Sorry for the dumb Instagram filters.)

very nice! it's an addictive hobby tbh.

I want to get this, though I'm pretty sure if I buy a liquid nitrogen dewar I'll wind up killing myself somehow.

http://www.amazon.com/Liquid-Intelligence-Science-Perfect-Cocktail-ebook/dp/B00J8R3KOE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1419436813&sr=8-1&keywords=Liquid+Intelligence

I just bought this: http://thirstyinla.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/death-and-co-book.jpg

I got into this a bit in 2014 - now I have a cupboard full of bottles but have also realised that 90% of the time what I want to make is an Americano.

Coffee?

It's a proto-Negroni: I use equal parts Campari, Carpano Antica and sparkling water, plus orange bitters and a big ice cube.

http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/cocktail-recipes/

I've also been getting into Negroni variations, I made this one tonight and it was tasty:

Nerina
1¼ ounces Plymouth gin
1¼ ounces Meletti amaro
1¼ ounces Punt e Mes sweet vermouth
1 orange twist, for garnish

That sounds good. I've been wanting Punt e Mes for a long time but am kind of into just having a bottle of Cocchi di Torino around, and the idea of getting a second bottle of sweet vermouth makes me feel a little bit like http://www.theonion.com/articles/man-on-internet-almost-falls-into-world-of-diy-mus,17013/

Negroni variations are great, though. Esp. if you keep it to the 1:1:1 proportions. Spirit:amaro:aromatized wine. You can do so much with that combo.

I'm starting to feel more comfortable with winging it. Started to make a Ward 8 tonight and realized I was out of lemons, so I just used half-lime/half-grapefruit instead. Also, the orange was a blood orange. Wasn't really a Ward 8, but it was a pretty good drink. Also, now I'm just randomly sipping on 2 parts Cynar, 1 part bourbon.

That sounds good. I've been wanting Punt e Mes for a long time but am kind of into just having a bottle of Cocchi di Torino around, and the idea of getting a second bottle of sweet vermouth makes me feel a little bit like http://www.theonion.com/articles/man-on-internet-almost-falls-into-world-of-diy-mus,17013/

― Tove Lo Tove You Baby (jaymc), Wednesday, January 21, 2015 12:14 AM (12 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

just go through sweet vermouth fast enough that you can alternate between the two.

This is my second year of making bitters - I mostly drink bitters + soda through the warmer months, and got into it after buying a ton of Regan's Orange and Fee Brothers and Scrappy's to try alongside the standard Angostura. This year I mixed up this super bright pink and sour blend of cranberry, hibiscus/sorrel/flor de Jamaica, and pink grapefruit that is so good on its own - thinking about what liquor to try it with beside vodka. Gin, tequila maybe. I also made up a floral blend of elderflower, jasmine, and lavendar with meyer lemon and green tea to bitter it that is perfect with gin.

Wow sounds awesome! I'm a fan of bitters + soda.

(makes mental note to visit Jaq soon)

Are you coming up for the pop conf, sleeve? An ILX bitters tasting might be in order.

thinking about it!

Negroni with Bonal instead of sweet vermouth = fantastic.

Easy out of the gloom cocktail I made for friends yesterday: The Rumble (devised by Paul McGee, apparently).

1 1/12 white rum
3/4 lemon
3/4 simple syrup
Shake with ice and pour over ice
float 1/2 oz creme de cassis
garnish with mint spring (recipe calls for blackberry as well, but nah)

It's really pretty, too. If I were Prince I would call it the Purple Sunset.

I had a craving for drinks with fresh ginger, googled up a few recipes, and had a Southern Baptist (rye, ginger syrup, lime) this afternoon. Started a batch of ginger liqueur (brandy base) and have a lot of ginger syrup available for more experiments now.

Sounds nice, WmC. I'd like to play around with homemade syrups more; so far, I've only bothered with simple syrup and pomegranate syrup (i.e., grenadine). But occasionally I see a cocktail recipe that calls for something like ginger syrup or pineapple syrup, and I skip over it, just because I don't want to spend the time. (Not that those would be especially laborious, but when I'm scanning recipes, it's usually because I want a drink at that moment.)

Btw, I finally did buy Punt e Mes, and it's great.

Got the Death & Co. book for my birthday -- it's excellent. Kind of a How to Cook Everything for cocktails. Even if you don't bother with the specific recipes that call for, like, Suze and cacao-nib-infused Campari, it's a great resource for the home mixologist.

i agree, really good book. even the dorky parts about running the bar are good.

Ha, yes.

cacao-nib-infused Campari

totally gonna try this

so i have a lot of bourbon that has been given to me as gifts over the years and some of it is of varying quality. typically i just like my bourbon neat but the lower quality bottles i've received are not really ideal for that. i don't know shit about cocktails apart from the fact that i enjoy good ones that are made for me. but i'd like to learn how to make a few and i figure that i could use up some of this bourbon i have. i realize that my cocktails are only going to be as good as the bourbon i'm using but i still feel like the shittier bourbon i have would be better off used in a cocktail than sipped neat. what are some good entry-level drinks to start on?