Stormy Weather

Today was Lena Horne’s birthday.

I don’t know whether there’s a Lena Horne cocktail or not, but I did find two different cocktails called Stormy Weather:

 

Stormy Weather seemed appropriate for today because of the song, film and album associated with Lena Horne.

I found the following Fernet-Branca-based recipe on a site called From Absinthe To Zombie:

Stormy Weather
Charles Schumann, 1980

•3/4 Fernet Branca
•3/4 oz. dry vermouth
•1/4 oz. white crème de menthe

Preparation:
Stir well over crushed ice or cubes in a small highball glass.

Notes:

Instead of stirring, I shook this drink. It has a strong mint flavor, obviously, from both the Fernet and the creme de menthe. It definitely would work as an after dinner drink. I’ll have to try it again tomorrow, but stir it instead to see whether the ice chunks from shaking made that big of a difference.

Another Stormy Weather:

  

About This Drink:

I found this drink on The Washington Post‘s website: An original recipe for a Yellow Tail shiraz cocktail created by mixologist Trudy Thomas in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Ingredients:

•1.5 oz dark rum
•1.5 oz shiraz
•1/2 oz lime juice
•1/4 oz agave nectar
•1 dash Angostura bitters
•Ginger beer

Preparation:
Add all the ingredients except the ginger beer to a shaker filled with ice. Shake and strain into a Collins glass filled with fresh ice and top with ginger beer.

How To Make A ‘Hop Sun Shandy’

This Hop Sun shandy is a mix of beer and citrus with soda that’s light and refreshing for these summer days:

  
At the restaurant where I work, we only serve Southern Tier on tap. It’s like a permanent Tap Takeover.

Each and every summer we get the brewery’s popular seasonal, Hop Sun — a summer wheat ale.

About This Drink:

Shandies and Radlers have become quite popular in the past few years. It seems like every summer there’s new flavors and brands on the market. With Hop Sun on tap, we started adding in fresh-squeezed lemon juice and some liqueur to the beer for our basic and delicious house shandy.

Ingredients:

• .5 oz lemon juice 
• .5 oz simple syrup
• .5 oz orange juice
• .5 oz Domaine de Canton
• 10 oz Hop Sun
• 4 oz Sierra Mist
• Citrus garnish 

Preparation:

Add the citrus and simple syrup into an empty pint glass with the Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur. Next add 8 to 10 oz of Hop Sun and then top with lemon-lime soda. Garnish with a lemon, lime or orange wedge — or all three.

  
From The Brewery’s Website:

ABOUT HOP SUN
Style: American Wheat Ale
Brewed Since: 2004
ABV: 5.1%
Fermentation: Ale yeast, one variety of hops, three types of malts
Color: Straw, light honey
Effervescence: Crisp, moderately carbonated
Nose: Bready wheat, light hop aroma, lemon rind, pine.
Flavor: Balance of malts and hops, pleasantly bitter finish, light sweetness from wheat.
Bitterness: Light
Body: Light, refreshing
Serving Temperature: 45-50°F
Glass: Weizen glass, pint glass, mug
Availability: Spring

Hamburg Brewery’s Sweet Tang

I know I just used this picture yesterday, but what I didn’t mention was that this beer is actually a seasonal offering called Sweet Tang made by the Hamburg Brewing Company:

  
From the board at the bar:

  

From Their Website:

Introducing Sweet Tang, a genuinely refreshing citrus lager brewed with grapefruit and Lemondrop hops. Sweet Tang is suitable for breakfast, lunch, or dinner and pairs well with any summer activity. 

Its citrus aromatics penetrate your senses while a grapefruit tang escapes to a soft, but crisp finish. During summer, everyone deserves a Sweet Tang.

Beer Profile
Style: Fruit Lager
ABV: 6.0%
Color: 7 SRM
IBU: 18
Body: Low to Medium
Aroma: Citrusy Grapefruit
Malts: North American Pilsner, Honey Malt, Carapils
Hops: Magnum, Cascade, Lemondrop

I Have Respect For Beer

The title of today’s post comes from a line that Russell Crowe shouts in the movie A Beautiful Mind.

Beer is beautiful all on its own, but sometimes it can benefit from small modifications.

  
There’s beer and shot pairings such as these, for instance. And then there’s beer-in-shot combos, like a half-pint of Cherry Wheat with a half-pint of Porter and an ounce of Jim Beam Black Cherry Red Stag mixed in with it.

There’s a crew of guys who sit in my section every Thursday night at the restaurant where I work, and they’re always up for experimenting with beer and liquor combinations. Sometimes one of them does the Cherry Porter which I just mentioned with Southern Comfort instead of the Red Stag.

With all of summer’s seasonal brews now readily available, the guys agreed to switch things up this past Thursday and we substituted Watermelon Wheat for their Cherry Wheat in their Southern Tier Porter.

  
About This Drink:

A flavored Porter made with 21st Amendment’s Watermelon Wheat along with fresh watermelon and watermelon vodka.

Ingredients:

•Fresh watermelon
•1 oz 3 Olives Watermelon Vodka
•6 oz Southern Tier Porter
•6 oz 21st Amendment Watermelon Wheat
•1 Jalapeno slice (optional)

Preparation:

Cut up a watermelon into chunks and set the extra pieces aside. Put four chunks into a mixing glass and muddle. Add 1 oz of 3 Olives Watermen Vodka and fill the glass with ice. Shake the watermelon and vodka over ice and then double-strain into an empty pint glass.

In the pint glass add 6 oz of Southern Tier Porter and 6 oz of 21st Amendment Watermelon Wheat. Garnish with a chunk of watermelon (or watermelon and a slice of jalapeno as we did for one of the fellas).

 Of course, if you’re making these from bottles and cans of beer and not off the taps, it would just make sense to make two at a time!

I didn’t take any photos on Thursday night, so I done have any pics of the finished product… But if I make this again, I’ll update this post.

Note: If you come in to order this, we will only make it two at a time — so bring a friend.

  

Customer Appreciation Post — Prizefighter & New York Sour

I love seeing people’s photos of the drinks I’ve made them at the bar.

It’s nice to see the cocktail from a different angle… The customer’s eye view!

Thanks for the photos AnnieBets!

Prizefighter No. 1:

  

Read more about the Prizefighter by clicking here.

New York Sour:

  

A perfect shot of a New York Sour! And I’m even in the frame, prepping two rocks glasses for another round of drinks! Ha!

That glorious moment when the cocktail’s full to the brim and the wine’s still floating — not yet mixed in with the whiskey and lemon! I love the look of it!

Read more about the New York Sour by clicking here.

The Prizefighter No. 1 Cocktail

Today I’m writing about the Prizefighter cocktail, keeping in theme with yesterday’s pugilist post.

Yesterday was Jack Dempsey’s birthday and I wrote a blog post about the Dempsey Cocktail, which can be found by clicking here.

Dempsey was not only a boxer. He opened a restaurant later in life and also appeared in the film The Prizefighter and the Lady:

  
The Prizefighter cocktail is a contemporary take on the smash/sour — with Fernet-Branca as the base spirit.

The drink was created by bartender Nicholas Jarrett in 2010 and was included in the 75th anniversary edition of Mr. Boston’s Official Bartender’s Guide.

  

The following is from my Bar Notes page, which mirror’s Nick Jarrett’s post about the drink:

About This Cocktail:

I recently tried my hand at making Nicholas Jarrett’s Prizefighter No. 1 — an original from Clover Club, which I found the recipe for on the Bar Notes app.

Ingredients:
•1 oz. Fernet Branca
•1 oz. Carpano Antica
•3/4 oz. simple syrup
•1/4 oz. lemon juice
•6-8 mint leaves
•3-4 lemon wedges
•Pinch salt

Preparation:

Muddle the lemon, mint and salt in the simple syrup. Combine the other ingredients in the tin, and whip shake the drink. Fine strain over crushed ice, and garnish with mint.

Still Thirsty For More?

—Read this post on Cocktail Virgin Slut. The proportions of the simple syrup and lemon juice have been modified in order to eliminate the lemon wedges from the equation. It definitely simplifies things a step. I made the drink this way as well yesterday… And cutting back on the simple syrup didn’t seem to hurt it.

—A write-up about Fernet on Cocktails & Cologne that mentions the Prizefighter.

And here’s another picture:

  

Happy Birthday, Jack Dempsey!

It’s Jack Dempsey’s birthday today, which had me flipping through my copy of Mr. Boston for the recipe for the Dempsey Cocktail:

  
That pic above comes from the 1953 edition of the Old Mr. Boston De Luxe Official Bartender’s Guide.

I know Mr. Boston’s not the oldest cocktail book nor the most cited, but it’s the only one I have on hand that mentions the Dempsey Cocktail.

Jack Dempsey

Who was Jack Dempsey? I didn’t know much about the man until I cribbed the following from Wikipedia:

William Harrison “Jack” Dempsey was born June 24, 1895 and dies May 31, 1983. He was also known as “Kid Blackie” and “The Manassa Mauler.”

He was an American professional boxer, who became a cultural icon of the 1920s.

Dempsey held the World Heavyweight Championship from 1919 to 1926, and his aggressive style and exceptional punching power made him one of the most popular boxers in history.

From Mr. Boston:

Ingredients:

•1 oz dry gin
•1 oz apple brandy
•1/2 teaspoon absinthe substitute
•1/2 teaspoon grenadine

Preparation:

Shake well with cracked ice and strain into a 3 oz cocktail glass.

Other Recipes:

—Difford’s Guide uses rum in its “Jack Dempsey” cocktail.

Customer Appreciation Post — Disaronno Sour

Here’s a photo of a Disaronno Sour that I was tagged in earlier tonight:

 

The recipe’s a simple one, but just make sure to use fresh-squeezed lemon juice! It makes all the difference!

About This Cocktail:

A classic amaretto sour made with Disaronno.

Ingredients:

•2 oz amaretto 
•1/2 oz simple syrup
•1/2 oz fresh-squeezed lemon juice

Preparation:

Shake all ingredients over ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass — or strain over new ice into an Old Fashioned glass. garnish with a lemon twist.

The Last Word

A quick pic of my first cocktail from before dinner in Buffalo last night:

The Last Word

Gin, green chartreuse, maraschino liqueur and lime juice.

This was my first time tasting green chartreuse.

Though the green chartreuse was in a cocktail and I wasn’t tasting it alone, it’s herbal flavor definitely came through. I look forward to my next chance to try some — either in a cocktail or on its own.

Green vs. Yellow Chartreuse:

•Green Chartreuse (110 proof or 55%) is a naturally green liqueur made from 130 herbs and plants macerated in alcohol and steeped for about 8 hours. 

•Yellow Chartreuse (80 proof or 40%) has a milder and sweeter flavour and aroma.

Still Thirsty For More?

—Read this article called “Exploring Chartreuse.”
—A look at its popularity as a shot.

My Recipe Card:

And here’s my recipe card from the Highball app:

  

Customer Appreciation Post — The Blinker Cocktail

Here’s a photo of a cocktail I made for LochNessie last night:

 A classic Blinker cocktail:

This drink is one I have saved in my Highball app.

Highball is a really great app for saving cocktail recipes. It’s easy to use, it’s pretty minimalist and it allows you to save and share your recipe cards.

Here’s my recipe card for The Blinker:

 

When I made the Blinker last night, I didn’t stick exactly to the recipe.

I didn’t use grenadine for the drink, as the only grenadine on hand was the typical pre-packaged grenadine full of sugar and preservatives and whatnot.

Instead, I used a grenadine-style simple syrup comprised of Pom Pomegranate juice and my restaurant’s housemade simple syrup.

It’s not a full-blown grenadine, as it’s missing a few ingredients and flavor components, but it’s a start — and it’s a nice flavored simple syrup to have on hand.

Here’s a link with more info about Jeffrey Morgenthaler’s method.