Sauced

Gulpable Gift Guide 8: Age Your Own Whiskey Kit

Tired of waiting for locally made brown booze? Age it your own self, says Woodinville Whiskey.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Dec 20, 2010 at 03:49PM 1 Comments

Woodinville Whiskey keeps the juice moving with Age Your Own Whiskey kits. If you want one before December 25, call the distillery.

So here’s the trouble with being a brand-new distillery: You have to make money, but you don’t have any aged product yet because you’re brand new.

What to do?

You can sell vodka—people love the vodka. You can sell gin. Some people love that, though those people tend to be pretty particular, so good luck tearing them away from their Hendrick’s and their Plymouth. You can also make white dog—unaged—whiskey and sell that, which is what, in addition to selling vodka, the men at Woodinville Whiskey did.

And now—clever fellows that they are—they’ve created an age-your-own whiskey kit. For $149.95 you receive a two-liter, new charred oak whiskey barrel, two bottles (or 1.5 liters) of cask-strength (110 proof) un-aged whiskey and two nosing glasses. Don’t look at me like that, that’s what the glasses are called.

Because the barrel is small, aging is accelerated. So within a few months, says Woodinville Whiskey’s Cameron Rogers, you’ll have something worth tasting. Rogers says the distillery is also planning to release an unaged rye down the line, so whomever you give this to can age that next in the same barrel.

Call the distillery right away if you want one of these kits before Christmas.

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Tags: Whiskey, Woodinville, The Sauced Gulpable Gift Guide, Home Bar

The Gulpable Gift Guide #6: The Old Fashioned Cocktail Kit

Give the gift of the world’s greatest (when properly prepared) mixed drink.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Dec 15, 2010 at 12:32PM 3 Comments

There’s nothing wrong with picking up a bottle of wine, slapping on a bow, and offering it up to hosts at a holiday party. It’s a rather nice thing to do, in fact. But if it leaves you feeling empty inside, I have another idea for you: a make-your-own old-fashioned cocktail kit.

Collect the following.

1. Fruit: Buy a small mason jar and fill it with homemade maraschino cherries. I have a recipe from Mike McSorley (Tini Bigs) right here.

You’ll also want to buy a few oranges to toss into the kit.

2. Bitters: A traditional old-fashioned calls for Angustura bitters, which you can buy at QFC or Fred Meyer or on the internet. But you might also consider buying some locally made Scrappy’s Bitters to promote experimentation. Orange and maple, for example, could both be fun to play with. You can buy those at DeLaurenti or 12th and Olive.

3. Booze: You can make an old-fashioned with bourbon or rye, for a spicier effect. I tend to have Makers Mark ($23) around the house so that’s what I often use. Blanton’s bourbon ($56) is wonderful too and boasts the coolest bottle in all Bourbontown—something to consider when giving a gift. Rittenhouse Bonded Rye is an excellent value at $22. But how is that going to help you if you can’t get any at Seattle liquor stores? Try (Ri)1. It’s $39.95 and widely available.

I love the herbal quality of an old-fashioned made with Ransom Old Tom gin from Portland, Oregon (another cool bottle), which costs $37.25, but that may be an acquired taste.

Bourbon is safest.

4. Glasses: Including glassware upgrades this bad boy to a premium gift. If you want to go for it, might I suggest these, the most elegant old-fashioned glasses I know.

I’m assuming your giftee has sugar (for the simple syrup) at home, but you can always throw in a fancy pack of some gourmet sugar and/or a fruit-peeling tool and/or a bartender’s spoon to complete the kit.

Either way, grab a basket or gift bag large enough to hold all the goods, toss ‘em in, and that’s pretty much that. Though you might consider attaching a card to your kit with a link to Robert Hess’s excellent instructional video on how to make a proper old-fashioned. I consulted it last Christmas before making OFs for my family, and they went over gangbusters.

Good times. Happy holidays.

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Tags: Cocktails, Whiskey, The Sauced Gulpable Gift Guide

White Dog in Woodinville

Woodinville Whiskey Opens This Weekend!

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Sep 03, 2010 at 03:18PM 6 Comments

Woodinville Whiskey’s Orlin Sorensen (left) with partner Brett Carlile (right) and mentor David Pickerell, former master distiller at Maker’s Mark (center, wearing Kentucky gentleman hat).

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Woodinville Whiskey’s Orlin Sorensen (left) with partner Brett Carlile (right) and mentor David Pickerell, former master distiller at Maker’s Mark (center, wearing Kentucky gentleman hat).

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You can taste and buy WW’s vodka and unaged whiskey at the tasting room starting tomorrow, or special order through a Washington State liquor store.

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Tours of the production room begin tomorrow. See if you can stop staring at that Kothe 16-plate column still. Hot stuff.

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Woodinville Whiskey, formerly known as Puget Sound Distilling, will be open for tours and tastings beginning this weekend. You can find it at 16110 Woodinville Redmond Road Suite three, just up the road from the Redhook Brewery and the Herbfarm.

The big plan is bourbon. Woodinville Whiskey has been working with David Pickerell, recently retired master distiller at Maker’s Mark, to create the bourbon that has been aging for two months in 30-gallon new American oak barrels in their production room. When will they bottle it? “When it’s ready,” says Orlin Sorensen, who owns WW alongside best pal Brett Carlile.

What’s available to taste and buy now is a vodka called Peabody Jones ($38.95) and a white dog—clear, unaged whiskey—by the name of Headlong ($34.95). Both are 100-percent organic.

I stopped by this morning and tried both. The vodka has a distinctly creamy mouthfeel and a hint of citrus. And the raw whiskey? By its very nature, White Dog is a bumpy ride. At first you grab the car door handle and hope the airbag is functional. But once your system adapts, it can be a pleasant experience, and one that stays with you for a while afterwards—like the aftershocks of adrenaline you experience after bungee-jumping off a bridge in New Zealand (to use a highly specific example). And I found Headlong to be readily palatable, even at 10 in the morning. It tasted to me like banana skins and, naturally enough, corn. I liked it.

A word about white dog: It’s only been two years since craft distilling has been a viable business in Washington State. New distillers who want to ultimately sell an aged spirit but need to start seeing some return on their investment have to offer up an unaged spirit (or two), and try to sell that while their flagship product gathers flavor in the barrel.

The typical way to do that is to make vodka and gin. But neither of those can help WW establish itself as a whiskeymaker. But by bottling a white dog, they’ve created a calling card for the quality of their product. When you drink aged whiskey, much of what you experience—from a flavor point of view—happened in the barrel. You don’t get to taste the base spirit. But white dog is about tasting grains and whatever the distiller lends to them during distilling. It’s like an x-ray of the whiskey.

Stop by the distillery this weekend and taste some for yourself.

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Tags: Whiskey, Woodinville, Vodka, Microdistilleries

Distillery Watch: Hutch Handmade Spirits

Seattle has a new rye guy, and his name is Kyle Hutchins.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Aug 18, 2010 at 03:36PM 1 Comments

Hutch’s rye whiskey should be ready around 2014.

Two years ago, Kyle Hutchins was wondering aloud to a colleague about craft spirits. Specifically, he wondered why Washington didn’t have any. Hutchins is a microbrew beer fan, and he didn’t understand why there was a dearth of small-scale local spirits.

“You should talk to my Dad,” his colleague told him.

“Dad,” as it turns out, is Don Poffenroth, one of the two founders of Dry Fly Spirits in Spokane. Poffenroth and his partner Kent Fleischmann wrote the legislation that made it affordable for craft distillers to do business in Washington State.

That legislation also stipulates that at least 51 percent of the ingredients that go into a Washington-made spirit are grown instate. That’s meant tricky business for a lot of would-be distillers, including Hutchins, who wanted to make rye whiskey.

Hutchins is a marketing expert—he’s worked for a decade as a marketer and corporate consultant—and he saw an opportunity in rye, both because the whiskey has made a comeback in recent years (before prohibition rye was ubiquitous, since then we’ve become a nation of bourbon drinkers) and because he saw an opportunity in the rye market at the $40 to $50 range. He also likes it better than bourbon.

“But there’s not a lot of rye grown in Washington.” Explained Hutchins. “It is a noxious weed that farmers want off their property.” He eventually found an organic farmer who grew a little rye for bakery flour, and struck a deal with him to grow more.

Hutchins studied under Poffenroth and is currently tweaking his mash recipe. Once he gets the whiskey in the barrel, he says he’ll probably age it for three to four years; given Washington’s climate, he doesn’t think two is enough. In fact, one of his concerns is that Washington distillers are bottling too early, producing an inferior product that may give locally grown spirits a bad name.

When his first batches are bottled, Hutchins will open a tasting room—he hopes to open somewhere central with lots of foot traffic, which he estimates could account for any where between 10 to 20 percent of sales. We’ll look out for Hutch rye whiskey in a few years.

To learn about other craft distilleries in Washington, click on the “microdistilleries” tag below.

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Tags: Whiskey, Microdistilleries

Distillery Report: Bourbon in Woodinville

See you in 2012, J.P. Trodden.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Aug 04, 2010 at 10:42AM 10 Comments

JP Trodden’s whiskey will age for two years at a Woodinville warehouse.

J.P. Trodden, a new Woodinville-based craft distiller, is about to start production on a bourbon-style whiskey.

To qualify as a bourbon [this should read “straight bourbon,” see comments for details], whiskey has to be made in the United States from at least 51 percent corn and aged for at least two years in New American oak barrels. In other words, you won’t be tasting J.P. Trodden whiskey for some time.

Distiller Mark Nesheim, who owns J.P. Trodden with wife Jennifer Severson, graduated from the apprentice program at Dry Fly in Spokane. He says he and his wife are big fans of bourbon, so when the law changed the decided to try their hand at making it.

While most new craft distilleries are starting out with an unaged spirit so that they can get a product to the people as soon as possible, Nesheim and Severson are only making whiskey.I look forward to tasting it in 2012.

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Tags: Whiskey, Woodinville, Microdistilleries, Distillery Report

Five Questions for the A Cocktail Chef: Cameo McRoberts

Cameo McRoberts is not a bartender, but that doesn’t mean she can’t make you a very good drink. Just don’t be snapping your fingers in her general direction.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Jul 07, 2010 at 11:11AM 3 Comments

Cameo McRoberts, not a bartender.

Working for Kathy Casey Studios, Alaska-native Cameo McRoberts (who—prepare to be impressed—was once sous chef to Rick TopChefMaster Bayless at Chicago’s Frontera Grill) creates plenty of cocktails, as well as bitters and syrups. But she’s careful not to call herself a bartender.

“Only because I know most of the bartenders in this series and they will make fun of me!” explains McRoberts.

“Coming from the kitchen I have a pretty strong knowledge of flavors and what pairs well,” she says. “As Kathy’s Executive Chef I work on tons of cocktail development with her and I put together all of our seminars. So in the past year I’ve had a crash course in cocktail culture, spirits, classic cocktails, cocktail history, and the whatnot.”

All I know is, she can make me a drink anytime—preferably using the amazing cherry bounce she keeps jarred up at the funtime cocktail lab she and Mrs. Casey call an office.

Here, five questions for cocktail chef Cameo McRoberts.

What is the most underrated spirit?

There is no bottle left uncorked in the cocktail world right now, it’s like a massive flavor unearthing. It’s really fun. Among the non spirit-geek crowd: definitely gin. It’s not the gin that hurts the next morning, it’s all the sugar in that tonic water! Good gin is like Dusty Springfield, sweet and gritty at the same time.

What’s your favorite Seattle bar?

The usual suspects: Rob Roy, Vessel, Zig Zag, Liberty, but the Ballard crawl is quite nice too: Moshi Moshi, Hazlewood, Oliver’s Twist (not Ballard, I know), and, as always, Sambar to finish.

What drink do you order at that bar?

Cocktail bars: anything the bartender wants to give me. Usually whiskey or gin-based. Everywhere else: shot of whiskey and glass of bitters and soda, with extra bitters.

What’s the worst thing you’ve ever seen someone do in a bar?

My mom bartended in Alaska when I was younger so let’s just say I’ve seen some crazy stuff. Service-wide, I am not a fan of the snapping of the fingers.

Name three reasons you live in Seattle.

Proximity to the motherland (Alaska).

The water, the trees, the views—it really is breathtaking a lot of the time.

Seattle’s delicate balance of big pond/small pond, especially in the service industry.

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Tags: Cocktails, Hazlewood, Kathy Casey, Rob Roy, Zig Zag Cafe, Vessel, Gin, Whiskey, Seattle Bartenders, Five Questions for the Bartender, Sambar

Oola…la. Another Craft Distillery Coming to Capitol Hill

The Oola Industries tasting room will be “right near Pike/Pine corridor,” says distiller.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Jun 30, 2010 at 02:59PM 5 Comments

Following in the gin-drenched footsteps of Sun Liquor’s Michael Kleeback, Kirby Kallas-Lewis plans to open a Capitol Hill tasting room for his distillery—Oola—within 60 days. And he hopes to have a vodka and a gin listed in Washington State liquor stores by Christmas (provided there are still WS liquor stores in which to list them).

Yes, all you people who care about such things, he makes his own mash. And not just for the aged spirits. “Even with vodka, there’s a lot that happens in fermentation that affects the product,” says Kallas-Lewis. Amen to that, Kirby.

Future plans include a pisco-style brandy made with wine from Eastern Washington (Kallas-Lewis has a yet-to-open boutique hotel in Waitsburg, Washington). The wine he’ll use in the brandy was originally slated for bottling but got repurposed as bulk thanks to the sad economy. Sad economy=good wine for pisco. He also plans to roll out an Irish-style whiskey.

Kallas-Lewis learned the distilling dark arts at the Dry Fly apprentice program in Spokane, and at workshops around the country.

I will update you on the exact address of the tasting room as soon as I get the go-ahead.

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Tags: Capitol Hill, Whiskey, Gin, Vodka, Pisco, Microdistilleries, Tasting Rooms

Drink of the Week: Old Fashioned with Ransom Old Tom Gin

Warm outside? Ask for this warming whiskey drink with gin instead.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Jun 14, 2010 at 10:21AM 0 Comments

You know how some fashion magazine articles explain how to take your clothes from one season into another by wearing them with lightweight knits or strappy sandals or, I dunno, neutral colors?

To my mind, ordering an Old Fashioned made with Ransom Old Tom Gin is like that. It’s a way to keep enjoying a favorite wintertime drink in the warm months, without losing that hefty richness that makes you love it in the first place.

Lest I be accused of product placement, let me explain why I specify Ransom among Old Toms. First of all, it’s the only Old Tom I’ve had in an Old Fashioned. Second of all, it’s aged slightly—the Oregon-based distiller wanted to recreate the shipping and storage conditions in 17th-century England, when Old Toms were imbibed in abundance.

It’s also made with both malted grain and neutral spirits (popular gins are usually made with neutral only). The result is a rich, round, spicy beverage with a hefty mouthfeel. In other words, a spirit that can anchor a whiskey cocktail.

The herbal notes, meanwhile, lighten things up enough and add that refreshing quality of a gin-based drink, thus turning your Old Fashioned from winter warmer into springtime sipper. Okay, that was some corny language right there. Sincere apologies.

PS: If you don’t like Old Fashioneds, you can, and should, mix things up by trying Old Tom in a gin cocktail like a martinez, a Tom Collins, or a negroni.

PSS: I’ve had an OF with OT at four bars, and was happy each time. I first heard about it at Rob Roy, and have since tried versions at Bathtub Gin, Sambar, and Tavern Law.

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Tags: Cocktails, Whiskey, Gin, Drink of the Week

New Batch of Dry Fly Whiskey Arriving in Seattle

Want to score a bottle? This information will help.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Jun 11, 2010 at 07:56AM 0 Comments

On Saturday, June 12 Dry Fly will release a new batch of its 100-percent wheat whiskey. It’s always hard to grab a bottle before they’re gone, but I learned some good information from distiller Kent Fleischmann that will give you the leg up.

Twenty cases will be stocked in Washington liquor stores. You’re only allowed to buy one bottle at a time, and Seattle is receiving just seven cases. Three will go to the liquor store in University Village, four will go to the store at 7th and Bell.

The LCB has warned stores that they may have a line outside the door in the morning, and that they are not to hold bottles for people who call and request them.

Live in Everett? One case is also en route to the state-run emporium at 4933 Evergreen Way.

In other news, expect a new bottle design from Dry Fly, and look back here for information on the distillery’s first batch of bourbon-style whiskey, aged for three years in new American oak, to be released in the very near future.

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Tags: Whiskey, Microdistilleries

Five Questions for the Bartender: Marley Tomic-Beard

Who knew “I’m so wasted” was a bad thing to say while ordering drinks? Indispensable wisdom from the learned lady behind the bar at Spur.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Jun 07, 2010 at 09:15AM 2 Comments

Photos by Jim Anderson

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Photos by Jim Anderson

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Photos by Jim Anderson

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Bartender Marley Tomic-Beard moved to Seattle from Boston after learning to craft cocktails at a bar called the Eastern Standard.

“It was one of the few bars at the time that mixed classics,” says Tomic-Beard. “I honed my skills and learned not only about mixology, but the history that went along with it.”

She moved to Seattle and picked up shifts at Belltown’s Bath Tub Gin and Licorous on Capitol Hill. While working, she met Anne Magoon and David Nelson of Spur, who hired her for a fulltime gig at the gastropub right across the street from Bathtub. You’ll find her there Sunday through Tuesday and on Friday nights. Every other Wednesday, she’s back mixing drinks at Bathtub Gin.

Here, five questions for Marley Tomic-Beard.

What is the most underrated spirit?

Rye is an underutilized spirit not because it isn’t well known in the restaurant industry, but because the public doesn’t seem to understand its historical significance. Many people don’t know that a Manhattan should always be made with rye (or that it’s the Great Grandfather to the vodka martini). Rye whiskey is an American invention and thanks to many bootleggers and their Canadian counterparts, Rye got us through the Great Drought and Prohibition.

What is your favorite Seattle bar?

Rob Roy is my bar of choice when I imbibe. I love the environment and the drinks are always delicious.

What drink do you order at the bar?

My classic standby, the Boulevardier [rye, Campari, and sweet vermouth].

What’s the worst thing you’ve ever seen do in a bar?

I have seen so many spectacles in my nights behind the stick but the most obnoxious has been customers who bluntly tell me how drunk they are as they order drinks. Usually they are already falling off their stools, but the nail in the coffin is when they say, “ I am so wasted, I’ll take a Jack and Coke.” Then they are offended when I refuse to serve them.

Name three reasons you live in Seattle.

Being a newcomer and seeing Seattle with fresh eyes, its beauty astounds me. That Seattle is broken into so many incredible neighborhoods is another reason I love it. It is great to be able to zip over to Phinney Ridge or Greenlake or Capitol Hill and get different experiences. Lastly, the food and drinking scene in Seattle is outstanding, there are so many options to choose from.

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Tags: Five Questions for the Bartender, Seattle Bartenders, Whiskey

Lot No. 3: Bellevue’s Newest Bar

Casey Robison is responsible for the stellar cocktail program at Barrio. Here’s what he’s up to at Lot No. 3.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Jun 04, 2010 at 03:36PM 0 Comments

Bellevue’s newest bar is Lot No. 3, a brown-liquor-centric offering from the Heavy Restaurant Group, the people behind both Barrios and all the Purple Cafes. It’s also a much-needed place to have a drink as late as 2am—one of only two or three such spots in all the town of Bellevue.

Say what you will about chain restaurants, there is no denying that Barrio has one of the best cocktail programs in the city. The drinks are challenging, original, some of them esoterically smoky, and nearly all of them very tasty. Frankly, the food there could learn a lot from the drinks. And those drinks you can credit, for the most part, to Casey Robison.

Robison was also responsible for the bar at Lot No. 3. For this new spot, which specializes in simple comfort food and fine beers as well as aged spirits, Robison created a list of classic cocktails and designed a build-your-own Manhattan menu: you choose your whiskey (bourbon or rye) your bitters, and your vermouth. Cool idea, though one he openly admits to stealing from a bar in San Francisco.

Lot No. 3 has been open for about two weeks, and in that time Robinson says he has been surprised by Bellevue’s thirst for cocktails and esoteric spirits. He says he’s already had to reorder Japanese whiskey, which kind of shocked him. (I credit Naga for introducing B-ville to Yamazaki in the first place.)

So will we see a Lot No. 3 in Seattle sometime soon? “Let’s just chill for a minute,” laughs Robison, who helped open three restaurants for Heavy within the space of a year and a half. Still, he says, “it would not surprise me” if another one popped up one day on the west side of Lake Washington.

Lot No. 3 is located in the Bellevue Towers at 460 106th Ave NE. Robison works the bar on Thursday nights.

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Tags: Bellevue, Cocktails, Seattle Bartenders, Whiskey

Sun Liquor Anniversary Party and Update on Gin Distillery

Mark you calendars for barbecue and drink specials.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on May 18, 2010 at 10:36AM 0 Comments

Drink bourbon drinks with your bbq at Sun Liquor’s anniversary party.

Gin drinks, air conditioning in summer, and the nicest, most knowledgeable bartender named Erik: that’s Sun Liquor.

On Sunday, May 23 Michael Klebeck’s Summit Ave lounge celebrates its fourth anniversary with a party sponsored by Eagle Rare bourbon. There will be drink specials, a barbecue, and much merriment. The party goes from 5 to 8pm.

Klebeck, you may remember, is opening a gin distillery nearby in a 1930s building on Pike Street. He says things are progressing nicely. “All [building] permits are approved and we are finishing up the plumbing work which was quite extensive. We are still on target for a September, maybe first-part-of-October opening.”

I’m anxious to taste this new gin. It’s a tricky market for a new distiller, considering all the excellent gins already out there. And it’s particularly difficult for Washington distillers: I learned recently (by listening to this guy) that the problem is being able to obtain the proper ingredients to make gin and still use the mandated amount of indigenously grown product required by the distillery laws here. Dry Fly, however, is making gin, and Bainbridge Organic Distillers, which now sells vodka at its tasting room, is getting ready to sell its gin. In any case, it’s so cool we’re going to have a distillery on Capitol Hill.

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Tags: Capitol Hill, Parties, Whiskey, Gin, Microdistilleries, Barbecue