Morning Booze News: Allagash at Brouwer’s; Barrel-Aged Cocktails at Liberty
Belgian beers and aged mixed drinks are what’s up this am.
Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Feb 22, 2011 at 01:00AM
1 Comments
If you are unfamiliar with Allagash—the Belgian-style brewery based in Portland, Maine—you might want to remedy that as soon as possible.
As soon as, say, Wednesday, February 23. That’s when founder Rob Tod will be at Brouwer’s Cafe in Fremont, offering up samples of Allagash White, Curieux, Black, and Hugh Malone. The Allagash happy hour lasts from 3 to 6pm. Don’t forget to eat French fries.
Speaking of trying things, ever sipped a barrel-aged cocktail? London bartender Tony Conigliaro was the initial innovator behind this trend, combining the ingredients of spirit-forward drinks in oak barrels and then aging them for weeks at a time. Portland barman Jeffrey Morgethaler (Clyde Common) has been barrel-aging drinks and documenting the results on his excellent blog for some time now, and L’Abattoir in Vancouver, BC has become a hot spot for aged drinks as well.
Now it seems Liberty on Capitol Hill is experimenting with barrel-aging. And according to a blog post from Liberty’s Andrew Friedman, the bar has plans to use the little age-your-own barrels from Woodinville Whiskey to allow customers to create their own barrel-aged mixers.
I’ve got a message in with the Liberty men, I’ll try to get details about price, etc. Meantime, start thinking about which drink you want to age.
A Boulevardier, perhaps? Maybe a Red Hook?
Tags: Capitol Hill, Beer, Fremont, Booze News
Yes! A Boulevadier (Bourbon, Campari, Sweet Vermouth)? Delicious. A Red Hook? (Rye, Punt e Mes, Maraschino)? Why not?
You pick which one you want, and we’ll put it in a barrel.
Right now, we have a few spirits/cocktails aging. First was the separate aging in 5 liter barrels of Campari, Sweet Vermouth and our house orange bitters. The idea being that we can then use that in any cocktail, making any cocktail with any of those ingredients simply more interesting.
Then there’s the first aged cocktail – now ready:
The Good Dog – this one has Woodinville Whiskey White Dog (unaged whiskey), an Italian chamomile-infused grappa and Bitter Truth’s Lemon Bitters.
What do YOU want to age?