Folks - I was surprised that I could not directly find a Ginger Beer recipe on my site. I also added there far too much citric acid and far too less sugar. With time comes wisdom I guess. I was inspired by Liz the Chef - I have checked the traffic sources of my blog - and just found out, a lot of traffic came from her website. Thank you. Anyways - she posted a Meyer Lemon Dark and Stormy (and yes, the post is several years old). But what did I needed to see? Store-bought Ginger Beer. This isn't great! The problem with store-bought ginger beer is, that it is a) pasteurized and b) it is made with ginger extract (which I guess comes from dried ginger). Hygiene-wise it makes perfectly sense. Ginger has a lot of microorganisms (a lot of good ones)... yeast and lactobacteria. The best way to get 100% rid of it (because you don't want to have a commercial ginger beer bottles, which are exploding due to rogue fermentation) is to use dehydrated ginger. No water - no (live) microorgan
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I am fermenting (...) already so long, that it seems pretty easy in my eyes. Yet a lot of people asking me over and over again, how to do it. Well there are a lot of websites which have good kombucha recipes. However I still think, that there is too much of a "tree-hugger" approach to the topic - hence I think, it is a good point to write up a post how I make kombucha (as straight forward as possible). What is kombucha? Kombucha is a ferment made out of (real) tea. It is made with a designated culture, which is called SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture of bacteria and Yeast). What is kombucha for? There is not much scientific evidence for or against health benefits. It is for sure lacto-fermented which is quite gut friendly. It also made with tea, hence it has caffeine which has a vitalizing effect. And real brewed kombucha is further low in sugar (as the sugar has been converted). And in the bar? We are not using kombucha for its health benefits. But in the bar the acidity in kombuc
The year 2021 is still quite young... and 2020 wasn't really fruitful. However even though the title says, 2020 and 2021, this drink took me by surprise and it is easily one of the best drink I have had in a far longer time. Look - to rating drinks (and compare them with classics like a good Old Fashioned) are problematic to say the least, but this drink is surprisingly simple and incredible good. Introducing: the Bourbon Horseneck. I know, you expected more. And let's face it, we are not talking about a normal Horseneck here! First, we are looking at Knob Creek - one of my favorite "every day bourbons". It is very rich, has some caramel, maple syrup and nutty notes. But what really makes a difference is the ginger ale... my new recipe just remarkable rich and indulgent and there is just no ginger ale on the market which can come remotely close to it. So- if you want to experience the drink, I am talking about, there is only one way: some hands-on approach. Black S
After quite some time, Jeffrey Morgenthaler posted an interesting article. It is all about size and cloudy vs. clear ice cubes. But Jeffrey didn’t completely nailed it. And there is even more of a problem, because his article might put some bartenders on the wrong path. Why? Well he compared smaller ice cubes vs. a slightly bigger ice cube versus super clear ice cubes. Please read the article... Now here are the fallacies and ”quasi-fallacies”: - Biggest fallacy is, that he referred to the difference of the melted water to the original temperature. That is total nonsense. The energy which is needed to raise the temperature of ice is negligible to the energy which is needed to melt ice. This means 4° difference is impossible to make any reasonable difference in melted water! - Jeffrey is also referring to the cloudiness to air bubbles in the ice - which is not necessarily completely wrong (air can be frozen into ice, if not frozen one-directional) - but most of the cloudiness comes fro
It has been some time... my computer broke down in the pandemic and I went into a dormant hibernation- then bars opened up again and understaffed and overworked we had quite busy couple of months until the festive season - then again- COVID-19 stroke again - bars are again closed - and I am exercising the cruel king duty update my blog on my iPad. Let’s get to the topic: what do I mean with mixed drinks classes? Well- it is not a reasonably technical classification, but a lose grouping of drinks - and how I am looking at them. Is it a personal rating? Yes! But does it has some merits? For sure - I try not only to be reasonable, but also explain my grading. Why this topic now? Because here is a growing interest into simplistic and adolescent drinks - I have acknowledged it online as well as in the bar. Drinks like “P*rnstar Martinis”, Lychee’tinis and Apple’tinis and so on are coming back in focus... Is this bad - well, let’s judge the trend after my little top to bottom list! 10/10