Beta Cocktails

At this summer's Tales of the Cocktail convention in New Orleans, in a room off the lobby of Hotel Monteleone, was an impromptu bookstore featuring only books about beer, spirits and cocktails. The pop-up book shop is a feature of every Tales. This year, the best-selling tome was, somewhat predictably, David Wondrich's "Punch." The second-best-selling volume, however, was a dark horse: a thin, square, white, self-published item called "Beta Cocktails."

"Beta Cocktails" is the second coming of "Rogue Cocktails," a tiny book put out a couple years ago by two New Orleans bartenders with the intense names of Kirk Estopinal and Maksym Pazuniak (called Maks for short). They then worked at New Orleans' much-vaunted cocktail den Cure. (Kirk is still there, while Maks has moved to New York.) Their intent in putting out the booklet was to shake up the working cocktail paradigm by introducing some truly radical recipes that relied not on the usual liquors and liqueurs, but Italian amari and bitters.

I stupidly did not buy a copy of "Rogue Cocktails" when I first saw it in July 2009. But I sampled a few of the cocktails therein at Cure, and was duly impressed by their originality. They frankly amazed me. One used Angostura bitters as its base, the other Peychaud's bitters. As anyone knows, these products are typically employed by the dashful. Kirk and Maks' drinks used full ounces. I also tried something called The Start and Finish (by Rhiannon Enlil, another name that's hard to wrap your tongue around), which combined Averna, Lillet Blonde, dry vermouth, absinthe and orange bitters. It was remarkable.

When Maks started making drinks at Williamsburg's Counting Room, I started bugging him about publishing a new run of "Rogue Cocktails." He told me he had a new version of the cocktail book in the works. It took him more than a year to finally get it together. Beta Cocktails made its debut at the Tales book store. (I, in fact, bought a copy just minutes after the books had been delivered by Maks and Kirk.)

The Beagle Brings Birthplace of Barrel-Aged Cocktails to New York

Barrel-aged cocktails became a thing after Portland, Oregon, bartender Jeffrey Morganthaler began experimenting with them and selling them in late 2009. That happened at Clyde Common, the bar and restaurant in the Ace Hotel in Portland. 

There are many places where one can purchase a barrel-aged cocktail in New York now. But on May 10, one was opened by an actual partner in Clyde Common, Matthew Piacentini. Called The Beagle, it's located at 162 Avenue A in Manhattan's most drinkingest neighborhood, the East Village.

"There were ceratin aspects about Clyde that I liked," said Piacentini. "But it's absolutely a Portland restaurant and I wanted to make absolutely a New York place." One thing he wants the Beagle to share with Clyde, however, is "that the food and bar program will be given equal billing." 

"With the Beagle, we started with the bar," he continued. "It was the driving force. Everything had to, not defer to the cocktails, but nothing could take away from it." The chef is Garrett Eagleton, a veteran of that Clyde Common. Piacentini, who lives in New York now, and was most recently the bar manager at inoteca e liquori bar, hired a colleague from there, Dan Greenbaum to help created the bar program.  

Two barrel-aged cocktails are in the works. Piacentini doesn't see the point in aging liquors that have already seen some wood, such as whiskey and brandy. So he is concentrating on white spirits. One cocktail already in barrel is the Tuxedo No. 2: gin, dry vermouth, maraschino liqueur, orange bitters and absinthe. A second is a "white" Manhattan, using high-proof Buffalo Trace white dog, sweet vermouth and Angostura bitters.

The Manhattan will be made through an interesting, multi-barrel process similar to the solera system used to make sherry. A week or so after one barrel is filled with Manhattans, another barrel will be similarly prepared. When the first cask is ready, half of it will be emptied out, and the cavity will be filled by part of the younger contents from the second barrel. Theoretically, this will result in a constant supply of a consistent product. 

The cocktails should be ready by late June or early July. There will also be a variety of classic and original crafted cocktails and a selection of "pairing boards," in which a food is paired with a particular liquor; i.e. Sweetbreads and Calvados, Lamb Neck and Rye, and, most intriguingly, Braised Celery and Gin. Mmm. Celery.

Tuthilltown to Serve Barrel-Aged Manhattans at MCC, Tales

Tuthilltown Spirits—the Hudson Valley whiskey make which has done mightily well by the barrel-aged cocktail trend, selling dozens (hundreds?) of its 3-gallon oak barrels to bartenders and cocktailians looking to put some Negronis and Martinezes in wood—will be serving up some of its own, homemade barrel-aged beauties at the upcoming Manhattan Cocktail Classic and Tales of the Cocktails conventions.

Tuthilltown recently drafted Portland bartender Jeffrey Morgenthaler, the father of the barrel-aged trend, to its distillery to prepare several barrels of Manhattans—three casks for MCC use and two for Tales use. A video of the process was shot.

Their recipe for the Manhattan is a bit unorthodox: Tuthilltown corn whiskey, sweet white vermouth and orange bitters. Their figuring the wood will provide the needed color.

Nothing New Under the Sun

Think barrel-aged cocktails are the latest? Think again.

I was attending a seminar on aged cocktails conducted by Tony Conigliaro, the English bartender who started the whole trend by stowing pre-mixed cocktails in glass vessels (but who has little or no regard to the aged-in-barrel direction most Yankee bartenders are taking), when he flashed this image on the screen. It's a 1910 British ad for something called the Club Cocktail. The Club Cocktail, says the text, obtains its "delicious flavor and delicate aroma by aging in wood before bottling." Among the offered aged cocktails: the Martini and Manhattan.

Well, damn. And who found this ad and delivered it into Conigliaro's hands. Historian David Wondrich, of course.

Barrel Aged Cocktails Go National

As hesitant as I was to make Jeffrey Morgenthaler a national figure (joke), I wrote this lengthy piece on barrel-aged cocktails for the New York Times. Readers of this blog know that I've been slightly obsessed with this trend for some time, first interviewing Morgenthaler about his brainstorm back in March, and recording since then their arrival at Summit Bar and Dram, among other NYC bars. Many others publications and sites have caught on since then. Still, the trend is still young, only just arriving in Chicago and other places.

The article also gave me the chance to write about my experiment of making barrel-aged cocktails at home. (I flatter myself that I'm the first journalist, and maybe the first non-bartender, to try this trick.)

On the very day this article ran, I happened to be in Chicago and got the chance to taste the barrel-aged Manhattans at Girl & The Goat mentioned in the text. I preferred the two-month-old ones made with Rittenhouse Rye about the one-month-old made with Buffalo Trace Bourbon. I also found out that The Violet Hour has just put a barrel-aged Manhattan on their menu. Toby Maloney aged the cocktail in a 55-gallon barrel that previously contained Goose Island Stout—a twist I had not encountered before. The beer barrel informed the drink in a headier, and more positive, way, I thought, than had the whiskey barrels used by others, giving the drink more layers. Maloney served the Manhattan with a touch of Cocchi Americano, to softer the impact. But I preferred the beer-laces Manhattan straight.

Six-Week-Old Martinis, Anyone?

By ROBERT SIMONSON

WITH the precision mixologists take these days in building their more ornate creations, customers have grown used to waiting a few minutes for a drink. For the latest innovation in elite libations, however, they’ll have to wait six weeks or so.

Barrel-aged cocktails are being poured at bars from San Francisco to Boston. They are exactly what they sound like, complete cocktails aged in barrels, just as if they were wine or whiskey.

At Dram in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, an aged Martinez, a 19th-century cocktail founded on gin and sweet vermouth, can be sampled. At the Gramercy Park Hotel’s Roof Club, there’s an cask-seasoned star cocktail, made of apple brandy and sweet vermouth. Temple Bar, near Boston, takes its time with a Negroni.

The Barrel-Aged Negronis Are Uncorked

It's been seven weeks since I filled a three-gallon Tuthilltown oak barrel with Campari, gin and sweet vermouth, and it's time to taste the barrel-aged Negronis. I have been sampling them all along, of course. About once a week. They progressed nicely, and according to expectations. Though I discovered along the way the hitherto unknown information that my wife does not like Negronis, aged or not. This was heartbreaking news. But she has bravely continued to taste them, hoping to bring her taste buds around.

To cut to the chase, the experiment has been a success. I strained the liquid through cheesecloth through a funnel into a series of glass jugs. The Negronis taste as good as any aged cocktail I've had in a professional bar. The naked truth is, barrel-aged cocktails are not a challenge. Anyone can make them. This does not denigrate their quality in any way. They are tasty little specimens. But making them is not rocket science. You just need liquor, a barrel and time.

High West Whiskey to Bottle Barrel-Aged Manhattans

In less than a year, the barrel-aged cocktail trend has gone from a bar room in Portland to liquor store shelves.

High West Distillery of Utah has announced that on Dec. 5 it will release "The 36th Vote—Barreled Manhattan." That's right, it's a commercially available, bottled barrel-aged cocktail. Just as the bewitching elixirs were reaching bars across the nation, exciting drinkers across the country, now they will be a commonplace, a thing you can pick up at your local store.

The product has actually already kicked. October 15 was the launch of the same liquor, billed as "The US Grant Centennial Celebration Barreled Manhattan." It was specifically crafted to celebrate the 100th anniversary of The US Grant, a luxury hotel in San Diego, California. This Manhattan was a collaboration between Jeff Josenhans, chief mixologist and sommelier for the US Grant, and David Perkins, proprietor of High West Distillery and Saloon. The mix uses, of course, High West Rye Whiskey, and "premium vermouth" (which, I wonder).

And just a day before my barrel-aged Negronis are ready.

Molto Nebbiolo at Maialino, Plus and Aged Martinez and Mix-and-Match Cocktails

The drinking is looking kinda interesting at the Maialino, the hot, vowel-heavy Italian restaurant near Union Square. The quirky, irresistible Nebbiolo Bar, set up by wine director Liz Nicholson, would be enough to draw in any curious drinker. It offers expressions of the red grape (best known as the raw material of Barolo and Barbaresco) from seven major growing areas in Italy and using different forms of vinification, including a sparkling, white, rose, and even an amarone-style wine. 

But now Nicholson has some competition from Kevin Denton, manager at the Gramercy Park Hotel Roof Club & Garden, who has put together a trio of intriguing cocktail options for the restaurant. Showing he's hip to the barrel-aged cocktail trend, Denton is offering Oak-Aged Martinez (Tom Gin, Sweet Vermouth and Maraschino). There's a seductive sounding spin on a classic in the Smoked Fig Old Fashioned, made of smoked fig-infused Rye whiskey and tobacco bitters. And, finally, there's an opportunity to experiment. An imbiber can match house-made root, birch and ginger beers with the spirit of their choice.

A smart, and nicely short, list.

Barrel Aged Cocktails Made at Home

Writing about barrel-aged cocktails as much as I have over the past few months, it dawned on my this summer that, though it sounds like a complex undertaking, making such a concoction is actually something anyone can try at home. All you need is a barrel and a lot of liquor.

Everyone I knew who was doing it seemed to be using barrels from Tuthilltown in the Hudson Valley. So I contacted the distillery and acquired a three-gallon barrel—which is about the sweetest little thing you ever saw. Adorable baby barrel. I then contacted Jeffrey Morgenthaler, the Portland bartender who got this trend rolling when he began selling barrel-aged cocktails at Clyde Common last fall, and then reported on his experience on his blog. I asked him what cocktail a novice should start with, and he named the Negroni. I basically followed his recipe, using Beefeater gin, Cinzano sweet vermouth and, of course, Campari. I had been leaning toward Dolin, since I like the stuff. But Morgenthaler recommended Cinzano for "the classic Italian flavor."

Summit Bar Sells City's First Barrel-Aged Cocktail

In a come-from-behind surprise, Gregory Seider's Lower East Side joint Summit Bar has become the first bar in New York to serve an example of the growing national trend known as barrel-aged cocktails. This week, Seider started pouring Lions in London (a variation on the Negroni), which he had been aging in barrel for the past couple months.

Previously, it had seemed that Dram in Williamsburg would be the break-out New York bar for the new technique, which was invented by bartender Jeffrey Morganthaler in Portland, Oregon. But the barrel Dram owner Tom Chadwick told me that the cask he was aging his Martinez cocktails in turned out to have a leak. So he had to start over. He hopes to start served the delicacy in early October.

Meanwhile, this journalist has started aging Negronis at home. More about that in a future post.

UPDATE: Went to tried it. Very good. As with my previous barrel-aged cocktail experiences, it's a well integrated, smooth and deep drink. A downside, someone might argue, is that the cocktail lacks the original spark of the involved liquors. The gin and Campari have been tamed and soothed. Still, if you want a regular Negroni, have one. If you want this, have this.

One warning: the Summit aged Lions in London is $18! Since it contains that same liquors as the regular Lions in London, and the barrel cost is negligible over time, you're paying for scarcity here. There are only so many of the drinks to go around until a new barrel is ready.

The bartender told me Seider is readying an entire line of aged cocktails.

The Corn Harvest Arrives at PDT

For some time now, I listed the Imperial Silver Corn Fizz under the Damn Good Cocktails column to the right. Which has been rather cruel of me, since you couldn't order the damn thing anywhere in the country.

That changed on Aug. 30, when Jim Meehan, bar master at PDT, and author of the drink, added to the fizz to the PDT menu.

I was lucky enough to try the cocktail on it's initial voyage, at a cocktail dinner in fall 2009. It is a combination of homemade corn water, whiskey, honey syrup, champagne and egg white, shaken into a frothy concoction that is pale yellow at bottom, white on top. As I wrote then, if there was such a thing as creamed corn whiskey, it might taste like this lightly sweet, absolutely unusual drink.

Meehan has tweaked it a bit. He switched from Maker's Mark to George Dickel, which is not a small thing, since we're talking Tennessee Whiskey now, not Bourbon. But I like Dickel better anyway. So good.

So go and try it and see if you don't agree with me. Enjoy the fruits of the harvest.

The Barrel-Aged Aged Cocktail Trend Will Not Be Stopped

First Portland, then New York and Madison, and now Boston. Barrel-aged cocktails are spreading across the nation at wildfire speed.

This fall, Hugh Reynolds, bar manager at Temple Bar in Cambridge, MA, will add whiskey barrel-aged Negronis to his menu. As with every other bar that's trying this trick, he got his mini-barrels from New York's Tuthilltown Distillery, which has parlayed this trend into a nice sideline.

Reynolds got the idea from Portland, Oregon, bartender Jeffrey Morganthaler, who was inspired by Tony Conigliaro in London, who ages Manhattans in glass bottles for up to five years. (The process is considerably faster in wood.) Morganthaler's concoctions have been selling like hotcakes since he introduced them last fall. Since then, the notion has been latched onto by a growing number of edgy, and not so edgy, cocktail bars.

Reynolds mixes up his Negronis using local Berkshire Mountain Distillery’s Ethereal Gin (a small-batch gin with varying levels of botanicals like rose petals and orange peel in each batch), Campari and Carpano Antica Sweet Vermouth. He then lets the cocktail age in the barrels for six weeks. Next up for the treatment is a rum cocktail called the Cherry Valance, made of Appleton Estate Rum, Cherry Heering and chocolate bitters.

Yet More on Barrel-Aged Cocktails

I heard about Jeffrey Morgenthaler's experiments with barrel-aged cocktails of in Portland a couple months ago and have posted a couple items here since then. Here's my first paid piece on the subject. I was surprised how quickly the idea had caught on. If I wait until the end of summer, I can sample a specimen here in New York. No need to fly to Portland. (Not that I don't want to fly to Portland.)

Here's the article: