Erik Behind the Bar

Three, Two, One, Re-Launch!

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 15:05:00 -0800

It has been about a year and a half since I made my living bartending, and looking back on it, tending bar made me happy. I gave it up to pursue a career in wine sales, thinking that more money and regular hours would be mine, and besides, I'd still be in "the industry". Instead, I worked around twelve hours a day, five or sometimes six days a week, and the money was about the same, except now I was paying more taxes. I stuck it out for a year, and finally realized I should have stayed in the bar. I lived, learned, and moved on.

Although it sounds clichéd, that year was a great learning experience. I learned all about the distribution side of the industry. I saw all kinds of restaurants and bars, from the smallest dives to the truly high-class establishments, and I met all the management. I learned a ton about wine. So while it turned out that a sales job wasn't for me, I can't really say I wasted my time.

In any case, I've made the decision to return to bartending. While brushing up my résumé, it occurred to me that I should probably see what my website looked like after a year or more of neglect. I found what I expected. So after much procrastination, no small amount of consideration, and hours mulling over my earlier writing, I have decided to re-launch. I've kept a few of my posts, and while this may sound like cheating, I'm going to re-date them. After all, if I'm going to all the trouble to re-launch the site, I may as well put the best foot forward in the process.

If you are reading this, I'd like to thank you for your devotion and patience. I have a lot of ideas for this site, but it would be pretty silly to start making promises this time around. I'll update when I can, and we'll leave it at that. Wish me luck, and thanks again for reading!

Sour Mash

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 15:05:00 -0800

Ever look at a bottle of Jack Daniel's and seen the words "Sour Mash"? Someone asked me about this a few months ago, and I thought I'd start this column with that. Unfortunately, I don't remember who asked, so I can't give them proper credit for their curiosity. Whoever it was, thanks for getting me started!

To understand sour mash, first we need to know what mash is, as it relates to the process of brewing. Mash is a mixture of grain and water (and sometimes additional ingredients). Creating a mash, or Mashing, is the first step on the road to making grain alcohol. That makes it essential to beer, whiskey, some vodkas, most gin, but not wine, brandy, rum or tequila. Since the sour mash technique is used almost exclusively for whiskey, we'll focus on that.

Whiskey starts its life as grain, and in the case of most sour mash whiskey, that grain is corn, blended with rye, wheat, barley, and others. The grain contains high amounts of starch and low amounts of sugar.

Alcoholic fermentation requires sugar, so the grain is immersed in water and heated. This prompts natural enzymes in the grain to convert the starch into sugar. This process is called "mashing" the grain, and the water-and-grain mixture is called the "mash".

Once the brewer judges the concentration of sugar to be right, the mash is filtered, removing the spent grain in a process called "lautering". The liquid, now heavy with sugars and other essences of the grain, is called the "wort", and the spent grain is called "sour mash".

The wort goes on to be fermented (where it turns into "beer") and then distilled. After aging a while in oak, they call the stuff whiskey.

The sour mash fairs much worse. Often, it is discarded. In older days, the mash would be mixed into food for livestock, so it was also called "feed mash".

In the case of sour mash whiskey, a portion of the sour mash is added to the new mash of each batch. The process appeared just after 1823, when Scottish chemist Dr. James C. Crow began working for Old Oscar Pepper Distillery. The acidity in the spent grain helps to control harmful bacteria in the new grain, and also creates a more consistent flavor across many batches of whiskey. Eventually, the good doctor went to work for the Johnson Distillery, and his knowledge began to spread. The Johnson Distillery went on to become Old Taylor, and the Old Oscar Pepper Distillery is now the Woodford Reserve Distillery.

So there you have it. Sour Mash Whiskey takes a little of the old batch and adds it to the new batch. Think of it like the sourdough bread of whiskeys!

At the very least, you need a beer!

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 15:00:00 -0800

I couldn't suppress a chuckle when I read this quote from famous musician and composer Frank Zappa. Enjoy!

"You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline - it helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer."

~Frank Zappa

Here's to cheating, stealing, fighting, and drinking.

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 15:00:00 -0800

Here's the Tuesday Toast for September 18th, 2007. This'll be a great one for McGrath's!

Here's to cheating, stealing, fighting, and drinking.

If you cheat, may you cheat death.

If you steal, may you steal a woman's heart.

If you fight, may you fight for a brother.

And if you drink, may you drink with me.

~Traditional Irish toast

Why Another Cocktail Blog?

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 15:00:00 -0800

When I decided, at long last, that tending bar was how I wanted to spend my life, I knew that I would need a website. Mostly, I needed one to get a job. Business cards get lost a lot less than resumés, and a URL fits nicely on a business card. Plus, business cards get passed around! So my first stab at a site read like this: "Please Hire Me"! There were about five articles, selling myself as a good person and eager employee, and a page of contact information. That was it, and I got tired of it pretty fast.

Being a blogger (though somewhat sporadic about updates), I realized that a bartender's blog might not be a bad way to keep my website fresh. If you can believe it, I had not actually read ANY cocktail blogs up to that point. I was sure they had to exist so a quick google search later, I ploughed headlong into the world of bartender blogs. Thus, I hit the wall.

With so many cocktail blogs out there, written by such incredible bartenders, I was discouraged. These guys (and girls) had years of experience in the industry, a great command of the language, and some attracted so much readership that companies paid them to put ads on their sites! Discouraged is a bit of an understatement. I had just recently discovered what RSS was. How was I going to compete, or even be noticed, among these giants?! Was there anything that these guys hadn't already covered? I was tempted to just trim my site down to a literal online resume, and call it good.

Then I had the revelation that should have inspired my website from the beginning: my website is for me. If others decide to read it, that's a bonus. I started thinking about what I wanted, and from then on it became pretty clear. My website would become my dumping ground for all the knowledge and experience I would gather as a bartender. It will collect all the cocktails I discover. It will record all the tricks of the trade I pick up. It will document the lessons I learn. In short, it will chronicle the road from brand new, fresh-off-the-street bartender to tavern owner.

Armed with that decision, things started falling into place. My fiancé found movable type and set me up with it. As a former programmer, I took to it like a duck to water. I've spent the last several days getting my site to look the way I first envisioned it. There are still a few bugs I have to work out, but over all I'm pretty happy. My next step is to build a habit of posting regularly. I do plan to jump in the pool with the rest of those cocktail bloggers eventually, but for now I'm going to focus on building up some decent content, and getting enough work as a bartender to quit my day job. If you, dear reader, insist on coming along for the ride, then welcome aboard, and thanks!

McGrath's Irish Pub

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 15:00:00 -0800

This comfortable old pub has lots of character, with vintage posters, beautiful paintings, models of tall ships, and various musical instruments adorning the walls. Amenities include cable TV (often tuned to the History Channel if there isn't a game on), a state-of-the-art jukebox, a computer with a high-speed internet connection, and several dartboards. Just ask the bartender for the house darts if you find yourself without yours.

The bar boasts an array of bottled beer, cider and wine, and behind the bar we have favorites like Cazadores, Sailor Jerry's, Captain Morgan, Jameson's, and Bombay Sapphire. On tap there's Red Tail Ale, Spaten Lager, and Guinness waiting to be poured into frosty pint glasses. The bartenders here are well-versed in making shooters, with God Shave the Queen and Washington Apples being the most popular.

Music is a huge part McGrath's, and several nights a week you'll be entertained by live musicians. Check the website to see who is scheduled to play, or drop in for open mic night on Tuesdays! Monday night is Bruno's Bluegrass Jam, famous in the bay area and beyond.

Out of all the places I drop in, this is the one I keep coming back to. I've come to think of this pub as my home away from home. Perhaps it's because I live so close by, but more likely it's the people, who have become my dear friends. So come visit at 1539 Lincoln Avenue on the corner of Stanton Street in Alameda (94501)! Relax and surf the internet or shoot some darts. Try their unique God Shave the Queen shooter, or a tall glass of Guinness in an imperial pint. If the timing is right, you'll find me there, too!

Z's Cocktail Lounge

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 15:00:00 -0800

Z's Cocktail Lounge is a stylish neighborhood bar in Alameda, located at 1403 Encinal Avenue near the corner of Sherman Street.

The ornate chandeliers will welcome you with their soft warm glow, and the red upholstered barstools will invite you to stay. Fresh beautiful flower arrangements add that special note of elegance and cheer. Behind the cherry finished hardwood bar you'll discover a stunning array of spirits presented against glass-and-mirror shelving and supported by striking lion-head pillars. Three crisp flat-screen televisions flicker from the high ceilings, eager to entertain you after a long day.

With a full compliment of the best vodka and gin, this place can put together the ultimate martini, made to order. Z's also boasts a competitive library of tequila, an exotic selection of liqueurs, and a truly impressive collection of bourbon and scotch. On the lighter side, Z's offers six beers on tap (anyone for a Black-and-tan?) and more than ten others in bottles, along with an attractive list of wines and port.

I tended bar here for a few months, and it was a great experience. Every so often you can catch me drinking here late at night, since some of my very best friends live just up the street. While the decor and selection are full of elegance, the patrons are easy-going and the dress code is casual, so it's a great place to hang out and relax!

Grog

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 15:00:00 -0800

Grog seems to be a very, very old word, and while it might not qualify as the very first cocktail, it certainly is one of the earliest. Originally, Grog was a term used to describe rum that had been diluted with water and then sweetened with citrus juices, sugar, or other flavors.

In the days when Grog rose to fame throughout the British navy, around 1740 AD, it was not known that boiling water would purify it. Sailing ships would put to sea with fresh water stowed in barrels, only to have the barrels foul and begin growing algea three or four days out of port. To make the water palatable the officers would mix it with rum, half a pint of spirits to a quart of water (1 part to 4 parts). The water was effectively sterilized by the alcohol and thus safe to drink, though it was still terrible to taste. To help this, the sailors began to add citrus juices (mostly limes because of their shelf life), and sometimes sugar or honey, if they had it. This concoction was known as Grog.

Reportedly, this practice of adding citrus was introduced by Admiral Edward Vernon, and his sailors were noticeably healthier than those of other ships. The Vitamin C in the citrus would help combat the diseases of malnutrition so common to long sea voyages, most importantly scurvy. Legend has it that Grog got its name from the admiral, whom the sailors aboard his ship referred to as "Old Grog", referencing an old Grogram coat that he was never seen without.

However, it seems there are references in books to earlier usages of the word Grog, meaning merely water and rum, or sometimes water, rum, and molasses. So the origin of the word is anyone's guess. Perhaps Old Grog's family made up the legend of the Grogram coat to explain away his affection for this cocktail.

In any case, I don't recommend taking water from your goldfish tank and mixing it with rum, despite how accurate that might be. No, instead, my version makes use of soda water for the dilution, and a variety of rums give it a complexity to match the sweetness of the sugar and the tang of the lime. Enjoy!

Ingredients
Glassware: Old-Fashioned Glass
1 oz. White Rum (Bacardi Superior)
1/2 oz. Spiced Rum (I prefer Captain Morgan's Private Stock)
1/2 oz. Dark Rum (Whaler's or Myers Dark, both work well)
1/2 oz. Lime Juice (about 1 lime's worth)
1/2 oz. Simple Syrup
2 to 3 oz. Club Soda
Garnishes: 1 lime wedge and one mint sprig

Instructions
Fill an old-fashioned glass with ice
Combine all the rums in the glass
Add the lime juice and simple syrup
Fill the remainder of the glass with club soda
Garnish with a lime wedge and a mint sprig

Tip: Remember to rub the mint sprig vigorously between your hands so it is fragrant when you serve the cocktail!

Suburban

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 15:00:00 -0800

When I first read about this cocktail, I was immediately intrigued by the combination of ingredients. Rum plays well with most of the bar, but dark rum is slightly less social. Whiskey occasionally finds itself escorted by a bit of sweet vermouth or triple sec, but when compared to vodka, whiskey looks pretty shy. I'd never heard of putting them both in the same drink, and adding port to the party seemed like a recipe for disaster! I had to try it.

To my surprise, the result was something like a Manhattan, but sweeter, and much more assertive. The bitters add a complexity that can only be found in the classic cocktails from before Prohibition. Through experimentation I discovered that the most satisfying Suburban is shaken very well. Tiny ice chips floating on a foamy surface give the drink a refreshing arctic texture while the extra time in the shaker smoothes out the dry sting of the straight rye. While the source I found mentioned no garnish, I find that a Maraschino cherry gives a sweet finish to a very satisfying drink.

By my calculations, this cocktail comes out to about 80 proof (or 40% Alcohol by Volume), give or take a few points for adding the bitters and then shaking the cocktail over ice. So even though it has a healthy amount of Rye (typically 101 Proof or 50.5% ABV), this cocktail competes with a typical dry martini. Given the sugars native to rum and port, I imagine its calorie count to be slightly higher.

This bit of nostalgia hails from the illustrious Waldorf-Astoria, a luxury hotel in New York, famous for its recipes in an era where cocktails were king. It's namesake is the Suburban Handicap, a horse race that first took place in Brooklyn (circa 1884), and then later in Queens. The quirky classic has earned a special place in my heart and I hope to bring it back to compete with its more famous playmates in today's cocktail world.

Ingredients
Glassware: Cocktail Glass
1 oz Straight Rye Whiskey (Wild Turkey makes a Straight Rye, as well as Old Overholt, but my favorite is Rittenhouse Bottled in Bond)
1/2 oz Ruby Port (I find the red color of ruby is preferable to Tawny's brown hue)
1/2 oz Dark Rum (I like Myer's Dark or Whalers)
Dash Orange Bitters
Dash Angostura Bitters
Garnish: Maraschino Cherry

Instructions
Chill a Cocktail Glass on the bar using ice and soda
Fill a Boston Shaker with ice
Combine all ingredients
Shake and strain into a Cocktail Glass
Garnish with a Maraschino cherry

About a Bartender

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 15:00:00 -0800

As long as the bartender is prompt, friendly, and doesn't pour too short, most customers don't care about his past. An employer, however, might want to know more, so I've written out this little bit on why I got into bartending.

My grandfather owned a bar in Deadwood, South Dakota. My father continues to tell me stories of how horrible owning a bar can be, but I've always been fascinated. Apparently, my grandfather owned the very building in which Wild Bill Hickok played his last hand of poker. Growing up, my favorite characters from movies and fiction always spent time in some kind of tavern. Who can forget lines like "You've never heard of the Millennium Falcon?" and "In all the gin joints, in all the world, she has to walk into mine"? Excitement and intrigue always started with a round of drinks.

Upon reaching adulthood, my friends and I had all the usual adventures. We sampled the good life seeing local bands, playing darts, learning dice games, and being pleasantly surprised when the jukebox played a beloved classic. I started collecting recipes and trivia almost immediately. I learned about scotch, and vodka, the best ways to make martinis, and where to find exotic rum. I began mixing the drinks for the parties we threw. I accompanied my parents on their annual tour of Sonoma's vineyards and wineries. Learning about the craftsmanship that goes into good wine made me curious about the other beverages I'd come to enjoy. I eagerly read about the artistry and tradition behind good whiskey, tequila and all the rest.

Through all this, I dabbled in writing, juggling, acting, martial arts, cooking and a host of other hobbies and pursuits. I've held a variety of jobs, but I worked most of them out of necessity rather than inspiration. When I turned 30, I began to wonder if I'd ever figure out what I wanted to do "when I grew up". One day, while reading about sour mash on the Internet, it hit me: I should own a bar! My research turned to business plans, local laws, and liquor licensing. I know it'll be a long road, but I've got passion, plenty of skill, and the support of my beautiful fiance'. For now I'm gathering experience and knowledge, but in a few years, you'll be able to come to Erik's for live music, great cocktails, and a healthy helping of the good life.