Over at the Examiner, I look at liquor privatization efforts in Washington, Oregon, and Virginia.
Permalink - Share/Save - Comments (0)From the category archives:
Oregon
With our “Brewing Up Cocktails” event successfully wrapped up at The Hop and Vine with co-conspirators Ezra Johnson-Greenough and Yetta Vorobik, I thought it’d be fun to go into the details on a couple of the drinks. These both use products from the Bols line and adapt popular cocktails for use with beer in place of the usual ingredients.
First up is the Dutch Devil, pictured up top in the flute. There were two inspirations for this drink. The first is the classic champagne cocktail, made with champagne, a sugar cube, and Angostura bitters. The second is Stephen Beaumont’s Green Devil, which deliciously mixes gin and Duvel Golden Ale with an absinthe rinse. This drink sort of combines the two, putting Duvel in place of sparkling wine and taking advantage of the malty notes in genever:
1 oz Bols Genever
1 Angostura-soaked sugar cube
Duvel
Build in a flute. We were serving these with the sugar cube added first, but the cocktail science article I linked to this morning suggests that adding it last might be a better way. At The Hop and Vine, this drink is now on the menu with a candied ginger garnish.
The second drink is a variation of the Bramble, a lovely cocktail created by London bartender Dick Bradsell. It’s made by mixing gin, lemon, and simple syrup in crushed ice, then topping it with blackberry liqueur and fresh berries. Our idea for this one was to take out the lemon and simple syrup and replace them with a sour ale. But which beer to use? Ezra likes it with the Cantillon Gueuze. My preference is the Bruery’s Hottenroth Berliner Weisse. Berliner Weisse is a tart style of wheat beer native to Germany, where it’s often served with raspberry or woodruff syrup. I like the way it balances this drink and the way the final addition of blackberry liqueur mirrors the way it’s traditionally served:
3/4 oz Damrak Gin
Bruery Hottenroth
3/4 oz Clear Creek blackberry liqueur
Build the first two ingredients in an ice-filled rocks glass, top with the liqueur, garnish with fresh blueberries, and enjoy.
For notes on the rest of the drinks featured at the event, check out Hoke Harden’s write-up for the Examiner.
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If you’re in Portland today, consider stopping by the inaugural Northwest Spirits and Mixology Show at the Jupiter Hotel. Admission is free with proof of hospitality industry affiliation, otherwise $10 with registration here. The show is industry only from 12-4 and open to everyone from 4-7.
The Oregon Bartenders Guild is contributing to the show with a few mixology demos. I’m working the “classic to contemporary” slot, tweaking a classic cocktail. I’ll be making and serving a Bols Boulevardier:
1.5 oz Bols Genever
1 oz Campari
1 oz sweet vermouth
Stir, serve up with a cherry or orange twist. This drink is traditionally made with bourbon, so I’ll be using Bols to tie it into the trend toward white whiskeys (Bols is made from about 50% malt wine, an unaged grain distillate). This has been one of my favorite genever cocktails to order when I’m out at bars that are still developing their own drinks; the ingredients are widely available, it’s easy to make, and it’s really tasty. My demo is slated at 5:25 and I’ll be sampling the cocktail from the OBG booth for sometime before.
Permalink - Share/Save - Comments (0)From an op/ed by an Oregon liquor store agent on why we shouldn’t privatize liquor sales:
A net revenue of $163.5 million (fiscal 2008-2009) just from liquor sales was returned to the citizens of Oregon. What retail business can generate net profit revenues of 40 percent of sales? I’d sure like to invest in such a company. Even a wildly successful company like Apple posted only a 19.9 percent net profit margin for 2009, which is far less than what OLCC liquor revenue generated for Oregonians.
And in the same article:
If the citizens of Oregon think that getting the state out of liquor distribution and retailing will reduce the price of alcohol at the checkout counter, think again. I’ve compared retail prices in California and Arizona to ours in Oregon, and except for the best-sellers (less than 10 percent of the inventory) the prices are the same or higher in those states.
So his arguments are that 1) monopoly liquor distribution yields enormous excess profits for the state and 2) introducing competition will increase prices for consumers. If this is the best the anti-privatization side can come up with, I think it’s safe to say the pro-privatization side wins the economic argument.
Permalink - Share/Save - Comments (3)OK, one quick post from Tales with a couple links. I’m at the Washington Examiner today with a post about why the FDA’s menthol hearings are asking the wrong questions. Then at the Portland Examiner, Hoke Harden has a great (and way too flattering!) write-up of the Brewing Up Cocktails event. If you’re curious about the drinks we served, go check it out.
Permalink - Share/Save - Comments (0)Scotch and cigars are a classic pairing, but lately I’ve been turning more and more toward rum as my spirit of choice when enjoying a cigar. One of my favorite rums for smoking is the incredibly rich Ron Zacapa Centenario, a Guatemalan rum distilled from sugar cane “honey” and aged for 23 years via the solera method. In short, this means that rum lost to evaporation one year is replaced with rum from the next, meaning that each barrel contains a blend of rums from each year. The rum is smooth, sweet, and very cooling, which can be an agreeable feature when having a cigar. For people who haven’t paired rum and cigars before, Zacapa is an eye-opening experience.
On Tuesday, July 13, my friend Ed Ryan from the Portland Cigar Club and I putting together an event at Alu Wine Bar and Lounge to bring together Ron Zacapa and cigars on the Alu patio. Ed’s bringing in two cigars, the Honduras Caribbean Honduran Puro Maduro and the Kinky Friedman Kinkycristo, which is a blend of Honduran & Nicaraguan tobaccos wrapped in a Costa Rican binder and a Honduran wrapper. These will be matched with Ron Zacapa served neat and in two cocktails. This is a fantastic deal, but space is limited, so buy your ticket on PayPal to reserve your seat.
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A while back Ezra from the New School blog and I started talking about writing a post about beer cocktails. Then the drinks sounded so good that we decided they deserved more than a blog post, they needed a whole event! So in collaboration with Yetta Vorobik of the Hop and Vine we’re “Brewing Up Cocktails” to celebrate Oregon Craft Beer Month, creating drinks featuring some fantastic beers. Mark your calendars for July 17 and head over to The New School for all the details.
Permalink - Share/Save - Comments (0)Though the previous post mentions one relic of Prohibition falling away in Oregon, plenty of others live on. Here’s the latest asinine ruling from the Oregon DOJ and OLCC:
Law enforcement officials are putting a stop to the home-brew and home-wine-making competitions at this year’s Oregon State Fair.
KATU reported on the glitch in state law that at the time put the home-brewing competition in jeopardy. Late Friday, Oregon State Fair Manager Connie Bradley learned from the Department of Justice that the law requires both its beer and wine competitions to be shut down.
“The issue has to do with the judging,” Bradley said Monday. “Judges are considered the public, and we cannot have the public tasting amateur wine or beer.”
The competitions have been going on for 30 years under existing law. The agencies have just now decided to interpret the rule to mean that allowing judges to taste homemade beers and wine counts as serving to the public.
People actually get paid with tax dollars to enforce these stupid rules. With the state budget in a mess and OLCC privatization an issue in upcoming elections, hopefully this will be one more nail in the coffin of one of our least useful agencies.
[Via Beervana.]
Permalink - Share/Save - Comments (1)One more relic of Prohibition fell away in Oregon last month as our state’s last remaining dry town served its first shot of liquor since 1859:
It was just after quitting time on June 18, and many of the people who had crowded around the bar inside Rookies Sports Pub had a shot of whiskey, tequila or cocktail staring back at them.
But they held off downing them — some needing more restraint than others — until about 5:15 p.m., as Trina Trevino rang the bell hanging above the back bar.
At that moment, business owner and husband, Alex, poured himself a drink, thanked his patrons and called out “cheers.”
“Here’s the pour heard around Polk County,” he hollered, followed quickly by, “The bar is open!”
Monmouth’s nearly 150-year prohibition on hard alcohol sales officially ended on June 17, exactly 30 days after residents voted down the law during the May primary election.
The law in Monmouth passed eight years after campaigners brought beer and wine to the formerly dry area:
The first mixed drink went to Salem attorney David Sherman, who lives in rural Monmouth. Sherman helped Koontz in architecting the campaign. He was also on board eight years earlier when current Mayor John Oberst spirited a campaign to get beer and wine into Monmouth.
“Did you ever think you would see this?” Oberst posed, sharing a scotch and a smile. “We knew if we went for the whole hog back then it would have been voted down. It took people a little while to see that the whole town is not going to fall apart if we allow the sale of alcohol.”
[Via Blue Oregon.]
Permalink - Share/Save - Comments (1)Today I was invited to a media preview of the North American Organic Brewers Festival. This is a fun festival to kick off the summer drinking good beer in Portland’s Overlook Park. If you’re heading there this weekend, here are my picks from the 18 beers I sampled:
Ambacht Golden Rye Ale — Though located nearby in Hillsboro, Ambacht is a new brewery for me. I liked both of their ales, with this rye standing out for its unique, dry taste.
Bison Belgian-style Scotch Ale — A Scotch ale brewed with Belgian yeasts. Malty with strong roast notes.
Elliot Bay Vanilla Bean Organic Stout — Big vanillla flavor and aroma, yet very well balanced. One of my favorite beers of the day.
Fort George Spruce Ale — Huge spruce nose and taste. Not for everyone, but very interesting beer. I really liked it.
Laurelwood Organic Green Elephant IPA– I thought the name derived from its green aroma, but the true story is more colorful than that. Big, citrusy hops, but very drinkable balanced with sweetness from the malt.
MateVeza Yerba Mate Black Lager — This beer’s many competing flavors didn’t quite come together for me, but it was the most unique beer I tried today. Notes of coffee, not too bitter, with a green taste from the yerba mate.
Santa Cruz People’s Porter — A good coffee porter flavored with Guatemalan coffee.
Uncommon Brewers Bacon Brown Ale — Yes, bacon ale. Surprisingly good, with the bacon coming through as a smokiness on the finish. It reminds me of a good bacon-washed bourbon.
Upright Rose City Seven — Someday Upright will release a beer I don’t like. Today is not that day. This is a limited edition of their Seven aged in Pinot Noir Barrels and flavored with hibiscus, rose hips, and rose petals. Fans of sour ales will enjoy this.
Food Cart Bonus — I finally tried Violetta. Their Oregon corn dog with sweet potato fries were just what I needed after a couple hours imbibing.
Permalink - Share/Save - Comments (2)This weekend I became a little more native Portland with my first experience brewing beer. Courtesy of my friend Paul, we set aside a few hours to try our hands at making rauchbier, beer brewed with smoked malts. In true locavore tradition we took advantage of his abundant backyard rosemary to smoke the grains:
Rosemary smoke is delightful. The smokiness carried over into the wort nicely pre-hopping. We’ll find out soon how it ends up in the finished product.
Permalink - Share/Save - Comments (0)Republican candidate for governor Chris Dudley has added Oregon to the list of control states considering privatization of their liquor markets. Elizabeth Hovde explains:
Some people want the state to monopolize the liquor business because they feel safer with it in charge. They believe that with limited access and price controls, the social problems associated with overconsumption are limited as well. But it’s hard to argue that a state monopoly on liquor helps curb alcoholism when distilled spirits are available at more than 200 liquor outlets, and wine and beer are already sold in grocery stores.
Dudley and others pushing privatization in Oregon need to make clear that current safety measures on alcohol sales would not be sacrificed, that the OLCC would keep its public safety functions and that any change in sales would be revenue-neutral to state, city and county budgets. Once that’s handled, the philosophical argument against a liquor monopoly is easy to sell.
Previously covered: OLCC’s “secret happy hour” requirement and anti-consumer special order policies.
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Literally it means “little headbutt” in Dutch, but if you order it in a Netherlands bar you’ll get something much nicer: a shot of genever and a glass of beer. It’s a traditional way to drink genever. To spread the tradition to Portland I’m organizing a few events around town and introducing people to the combination. Of course the genever will be from Bols. The beer would normally be a lager, and a good pils is indeed a great choice here, but this is Beervana we’re talking about. We’re not going to keep people away from top-fermenting yeasts and buckets of hops if that’s what they prefer.
We have three events scheduled so far and more in the works, bringing us into each of Portland’s five quadrants. To join us for a kopstootje, meet us at any of these venues starting around 6 pm:
June 10: Hop and Vine, 1914 N Killingsworth Street
June 16: Spints Alehouse, 401 NE 28th Avenue
June 17: North 45, 517 NW 21st Avenue
Come back to this post for additional events coming soon.
[Photo from the Bols Genever Oregon launch event at Carlyle taken by David Lanthan Reamer.]
Permalink - Share/Save - Comments (2)I’m writing a new drinks column for Culinate.com. In my first article I take a look at the new popularity of stouts brewed with oysters:
For beer lovers, oysters and stout are a classic pairing. But how about oysters in stout? It may seem strange, but oyster stouts have emerged as one of the hot trends in beer this year, with brewers across the country tossing a few shellfish into traditional stouts.
Culinate is also the website behind Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything iPhone app, which looks worth checking out for home cooks.
Previously:
Oysters and beer. Oysters in beer?
I initially wasn’t going to link to this New York Times piece about how marijuana has “fueled a new kitchen culture” focused on delicious, casual food that stoned back of house staff like to eat. As causality goes that’s a bit of a stretch and it’s not news that people in the service industry like to light up now and then. However I agree with Radley Balko and Will Wilkinson that the more successful people who come out as marijuana users the better chance we have of changing our disastrous drug policy, so for that reason alone the article is worth pointing out. The main reason I’m linking though is this appearance from Portland:
Duane Sorenson, the founder of the coffee roaster Stumptown, said that fat buds of marijuana often end up in the tip jar at his shops.
“It goes hand in hand with a cup of coffee,” he said. “It’s called wake and bake. Grab a cup of Joe and get on with it.”
This happened to me once even in the staid atmosphere of Carlyle. A customer (service industry, of course) left me a large bud along with his cash tip. According to my coworkers it was a generous gift but unfortunately it was wasted on me. Not knowing any better I took it home and put in my humidor. It turns out this is not the correct way to store it, which is apparently common knowledge among my friends who would have gladly taken it off my hands. It turned into a big ball of mold that went straight into my trash can the next time I opened the lid.
I consider this story karmic revenge for all the times people have told me about the fantastic Cuban cigars they’ve been saving for a special occasion without keeping them humidified.
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I don’t plan on writing about every Bols cocktail around town but when a drink is named Jacob’s Ladder of course I’m going to post it. My friend Andrew at Branch Whiskey Bar came up with this one combining three of my favorite things: genever, Fernet-Branca, and single malt Scotch:
2 oz Bols genever
.25 oz Fernet-Branca
.25 oz simple syrup
A few drops of Talisker
1 dash Angostura bitters
1 dash orange bitters
Stir with ice, strain, and serve up with an orange twist.
It’s an imposing list of ingredients but they come together nicely and the cocktail is very smooth. If you’re in Portland stop into Branch and give it a try.
Permalink - Share/Save - Comments (0)Apologies for the light posting last week, I’ve been hard at work with my new job and preparing for a few fun events coming up in Portland. First up is tonight’s Taste of the Nation event benefiting Share Our Strength. I’ll be there not as a mixologist but as a magician. This will be my first public performance since moving to Portland. Tickets are still available and there are lot of great restaurants involved, so there are plenty of reasons to come aside from watching me drop cards all over the floor trying to do tricks I haven’t done in years.
Then on Wednesday we’re celebrating Bols Genever’s Oregon launch with a punch party at Clyde Common with Jeffrey Morgenthaler. We’ll have two giant bowls of Bols punches out from 4-6 pm. Come join us for what’s sure to be a fun evening!
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Jacob Grier is a freelance writer, barista, mixologist, and magician in Portland, OR. He writes, eats, and drinks a lot. His articles have appeared in The Washington Post, Reason Online, The Oregonian, and other publications.
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