The Institute for Alcoholic Experimentation: Hernö: like gin, but more so

An interesting article re-blogged from a chum at The Institute For Alcoholic Experimentation on Swedish gin. I didn't realise they made it either.

Clearly generations of experience making industrial strength home-brew in their cellars is paying dividends.

Now I just need to get my hands on a bottle. Click on the link below to have a read:

The Institute for Alcoholic Experimentation: Hernö: like gin, but more so: A rare bottle of Hernö Juniper Cask Gin, with a cask in the background (the real ones are much bigger) I went to the launch of a new g...

Cocktail Hour - The Gin-ess...

More Gin & Beer Based Adventures

Copenhagens' The Bird & The Church Key is known for its signature cocktail the Gin & Beer (reviewed here.)

I popped back recently for a few post 'flu medicinal gins and a chat with the manager Christian. He is always experimenting - fruits of his recent labours include a Guinness based riff on the Gin & Beer.

The use of stout adds a wonderful malty richness and the spicy liquorice notes to the finish - the latter coming from the botanicals used in Bulldog gin - complement the Guinness nicely. 

However, I missed the zestiness of the original fruit beer based version. It's worth mentioning though that Christian has also made a variant with No.3 Gin which gives the finished article a sharper profile.

This cocktail has not made it on to the menu yet - it's still a work in progress. I'd love to see Christian experiment with different stouts, though I suppose he'd have to re-name the drink!

If you're tempted to make your own assemble the following:

1. 2cl Bulldog Gin.
2. 3cl Cherry Heering.
3. Bottle, Guinness. (The Bird have it on draught.)
4. Ice.
5. Large brandy glass.
6. Cocktail shaker.

Pour a dash of Guinness in to the brandy glass, add ice. Give the gin, Cherry Heering a quick jolt in a shaker. Strain in to the glass and top with the rest of the beer. Simple.

Better yet, if you're in Copenhagen pop in to The Bird for a swift one.

Cocktail Hour

Quince Two Times..

It seems fitting that my last post before the Christmas hiatus is booze related.

As observant readers will already know I recently ended up with rather a lot of home-made quince cordial (after a rather less than successful attempt at making jelly.)

As nice as cordial is mixed with water, the mind naturally drifted to how I might more pleasantly imbibe some of this blasted stuff. Cocktails, that's how.
After much experimentation (well, a pleasant gin-soaked afternoon) I came up with the following:-

The Quince Regent.

This first cocktail is a variant of last week's Gin Fizz. I simply swapped the simple syrup for the quince cordial. Taste wise a hit of aromatic quince gives way to a very zesty finish, the soda water making for a refreshing winter bracer. 

Essentially you end up a rather enjoyable gin & quince laced lemonade - giving you a deceptively strong highball that it's all to easy to gulp down quickly!

Ingredients & Equipment:

• 40ml Dry Gin
• 20ml Quince Cordial
• 20ml Lemon Juice
• Bottle, Fever Tree Soda Water
• Lemon wedge, to garnish
• Highball glass
• Cocktail Shaker
• Ice

Procedure:

• Add the gin, cordial and lemon juice to a cocktail shaker and, well, shake.
• Pour over ice in to a highball glass.
• Top with the soda water and stir.
• Garnish with the lemon wedge

The Quinclet.

Essentially the bastard child of a pink gin and a Gimlet this one. Despite the fact it is inescapably pink, this drink will put hairs on your chest. Don't let anyone tell you different.

The quince gives the finished article a more rounded flavour than a straight gimlet, however the lime juice and bitters lend a pleasing bite to the finish.

Ingredients & Equipment:

40ml Dry Gin

20ml Quince Cordial

20ml Lime juice

Liberal dash, Angostura Bitters

Lime zest, to garnish

Cocktail shaker

Ice 

Martini glass, chilled

Procedure:

Pour a couple of drops of bitters in to the martini glass.

Give the gin, cordial and lemon juice a jolt in a shaker with a couple of ice cubes.

Strain in to the martini glass and garnish with a strip of lime zest.

Sit down before drinking!

I am now retreating to darkest rural Sweden for the duration of the Festivities, but will be back with more drink and fashion related ramblings in the New Year. 

I wish you all a very merry Christmas. Tinkerty-tonk!

Cocktail Hour

Sloe Gin Fizz

Amidst the countless Egg-nog recipes that pop up when researching festive cocktail options one alternative that caught my eye was the Sloe Gin Fizz.

The Gin Fizz, essentially a sour with added soda water, dates all the way back to the 1862 tome How To Mix Your Drinks by Jerry Thomas. It is important to distinguish between a Gin Fizz and a Tom Collins - the former is made with dry gin, the latter with sweeter Old Tom gin. 

If we're being strict about things a gin fizz should not be served with ice, whereas a Tom Collins is poured over rocks. I've ignored that here. 

You should really use a soda syphon too, if you don't have one just pour the soda vigorously to create lots of bubbles.

My dear old mother makes a batch of sloe gin every autumn, bottles of which are generously donated to yours truly.

I normally drink it straight or on the rocks, with only a single ice cube. But sloe gin also makes for a fantastic cocktail ingredient. In this case it turns a refreshing summer high-ball in to a pleasing winter treat.

I've not tried the commercially available sloe gins, though I suspect they are rather less sweet than the family home brew. I have upped the lemon juice content accordingly. If using shop bought gin use 10cl less lemon juice. I've also sharpened things up with a jolt of Tanquary, but feel free to experiment.

Ingredients / Equpment

• 30cl Tanquary Gin
• 30cl Sloe Gin
• 30cl Simple Syrup
• 30cl Lemon Juice
• Bottle, Fever Tree Soda water
• Cocktail shaker
• High-ball glass
• Ice
• Lemon wedge to garnish

Procedure

• Mix the gins, lemon juice and simple syrup in a cocktail shaker
• Fill a high-ball glass with ice and pour over contents
• Top up with soda water
• Stir and serve with the lemon wedge

As ever, if anyone has any variants of this recipe that might be of interest do let me know.

Cheers chaps!

Cocktail Hour

The Gin Sour.

Continuing on last week's sour theme, today we discuss the Gin Sour. A very traditional cocktail, popular before Prohibition, this cocktail's precise history is uncertain. It was mentioned as far back as 1862 in Jerry "The Professor" Thomas' The Bar-Tender's Guide.

Again, it is worth mentioning that most modern recipes skip the egg white. Presumably over 'elf & safety concerns, but I urge you not to. The addition of egg white makes for a much smoother cocktail.

The original used soda water in the simple syrup, to my mind making the cocktail half Gin Fizz half Sour. The recipe here uses normal simple syrup.

Traditionally, gin sours were made with Old Tom gin - a sweeter style of gin popular in the 18th century and one that is making rather a comeback today. Fear not if you don't have it, one of the more botanical gins like Hendricks will work just as well.

Ingredients:

50ml Gin

25ml Lemon Juice

15ml Simple Syrup

egg white (I normally use 1 egg white for 2 cocktails)

Lemon wedge to garnish.

Equipment:

Shaker

Short glass, chilled

Procedure:

Dry shake the egg white, gin, lemon juice and syrup.

Add 2 cubes of ice and shake hard.

Strain over ice in to a short glass

Garnish with a lemon wedge & serve

Chin chin!

Cocktail Hour

Gin & Beer @ The Bird & The Churchkey.

Another gin based cocktail this week, and a rather unusual one at that.

As an Englishman gin and beer both are dear to the heart. So the stiff upper lip quivered with excitement on finding out one of Copenhagen's newest bars, The Bird & The Churchkey, had combined the two in their signature cocktail.

Unsurprising then that the founding principle of The Bird is to provide excellent gin and beer. As such it is stocked with over 60 gins, and sports some 40 craft beers. At last count there were 20 types of gin & tonic gracing the menu.

The bar itself resembles a pleasantly down at heel 1930's London gin palace. Located on Gammel Strand, staggering distance from New Utility HQ, it was the work of a moment to nip round the corner to meet up with the The Bird's manager, Christian Tønnesen, for a re-tasting. (I've had this cocktail before but was too over-refreshed to take notes.)

First mixed by a barman at Cocks & Cows (a Copenhagen burger bar whose premises The Bird took over. Both are owned by Nord Gruppen), the original Gin & Beer used garden variety Kronenberg and dry gin. In addition to tweaking the quantities, Christian switched the cooking lager for Franziskaner Hefe-Weizer, a fruity German wheat beer.

For the gin he plumbed for Bulldog - with a very contemporary un-gin-like flavour profile, it is distilled using juniper, dragon eye (a relative of the lychee), poppy seed and other botanicals. A profile, Christian argues, more suited for use in cocktails.

Assemble the following:

1. 2cl Bulldog Gin.
2. 3cl Cherry Heering.
3. 1cl Simple syrup.
4. 2cl Freshly squeezed lemon juice
5. Bottle, Franziskaner Beer. (The Bird have it on draught.)
6. Ice.
7. Large brandy glass.
8. Cocktail shaker.

Pour a dash of the beer and the syrup in to the brandy glass, add ice. Give the gin, Cherry Heering and lemon juice a jolt in a shaker. Strain in to the glass and top with the rest of the beer.

In taste the end result is reminiscent of a strong Belgian fruit beer crossed with a zesty American pale ale. Initially the sweetness of the wheat beer and Cherry Heering are to the fore, with pleasingly sharp lemon & spicy liquorice notes to the finish - the latter coming from the botanicals used in Bulldog gin.

I urge those who love their gin and beer to patronise The Bird & The Churchkey.
An excellent establishment, it is staffed by people with a clear love for what they do. Unusually for Copenhagen the service is very friendly too.
I was particularly impressed that Christian crushes cucumbers each morning to make ice cubes of the juice. Detail is all.

Other recent liquid highlights include a Gabriel Boudier Saffron Gin G&T and a French gin, the name of which I was too squiffy to write down, garnished with grapes.

The Bird's liver threatening proximity means that, if I have not descended in to a gin soaked spiral of vice and destitution, I am sure to feature more from them soon. You can find out more here.

If anyone knows of any more beer based cocktails do get in touch.

Cocktail Hour - The Gimlet

A short history of the Gimlet.

Made with gin and lime, this cocktail is simplicity itself and a firm favourite of mine.

Named after a tool for boring small holes, or possibly Royal Navy surgeon Admiral Sir Thomas Gimlette, it is generally accepted that the Gimlet began life at sea, sailors needing the lime to prevent scurvy. Presumably the gin was added to tide over thirsty matlows till the issue of their daily rum ration. 
It's a wonder that us Brits ever sobered up long enough to conquer a third of the known world!

Gimlets are traditionally made with Rose's Lime Juice. Lauchlan Rose began importing limes from the Caribbean in the 1860s and, patented by him in 1867, the cordial acted as an alcohol free preservative for lime juice on long voyages.
The description in Raymond Chandler's 1953 novel The Long Goodbye states that "a real gimlet is half gin and half Rose's Lime Juice and nothing else."
This mix is very sweet - the norm now is a less teeth threatening 2 parts gin to 1 of cordial.

A true classic. With the growing popularity of gin the humble Gimlet is making a comeback.

There's a school of thought that dispenses with cordial in favour of a mix of fresh lime juice and bar syrup*. I must admit to preferring the slightly sharper flavour this gives. Whether this is still a proper Gimlet or not is open to debate.
Apparently this more modern variant is a bastard child of the original and a Giblet - made with three parts gin to one part lime juice, shaken, and topped off with soda.

I would suggest experimenting with both types, though make sure you have a comfortable chair to hand - a chum of mine once quipped that drinking a Gimlet was akin to "receiving a soft punch to the head." They are rather bracing...

Ingredients:

1. 50ml Gin - a dry gin such as Tanqueray or Gordon's is ideal.*
2. 25ml Rose's Lime Cordial

OR

1. 50ml Gin
2. 20ml simple syrup
3. 20ml fresh lime juice

Procedure:

1. Pour the gin in to a cocktail shaker filled with ice
2. Add cordial (or fresh juice & syrup)
3. Shake well and strain in to a chilled martini glass
4. Serve with a twist of lime

If you're interested in finding out more on classic cocktails Tobias Steed & Ben Reed's Hollywood Cocktails is an illuminating read. Also worth a look is The Institute For Alcoholic Experimentation. A fantastic cocktail blog, written by another chum of mine, Clayton Hartley, it is a mine of information on all things booze related.

More cocktails to follow next weekend.

*Simple Syrup, a barman's staple, is a doddle to make. Take 1 part sugar and 1 part water. In a small saucepan, bring sugar and water to a boil; simmer until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat and leave to cool. Can be refrigerated in a glass jar and kept for 1 month. Feel free to experiment with darker sugars like muscovado or demerara to enhance the flavour - this will also depend on what cocktails you want the syrup for. I find that golden castor works well for Gimlets. You don't want to overpower the sharpness of the limes or have it look too cloudy.

To make a Rich Simple Syrup just up the sugar ratio.

*Gin can also be substituted for vodka. This, in my view, is not a proper Gimlet and therefore will not be discussed here.