Dogfish Head « The Noble Experiment

June 4, 2010

Summer Cocktails!

Once the nice weather hits, everyone is looking for something they can enjoy while sitting on their deck/patio/stoop. Something that helps you beat the heat, that’s light and refreshing, and in my case, something that has a reasonable amount of alcohol so you can sip all day.

This is why drinks like the Pimms Cup (a simple combination of Pimms No. 1, lemonade, and 7up) and the mojito (via http://intoxicologist.wordpress.com who, by the way, makes spectacular cocktails and has a great site) have become summer staples. They fit all of the above criteria. Following the lead of these summertime cocktails, when the warm weather arrives I leave the bourbon on the shelf and reach for the white rums, vodkas, and blanco tequilas. That’s just how I roll.

So, you ask, what should I drink? Good question. Let’s dig right in. Summer cocktail iterations are endless, so I’ll just get you started with two cocktail recipes that you’re certain to enjoy.

Painkiller – A classic summertime/island time cocktail, this drink just screams summer.

2 oz white rum (try Dogfish Head or Rogue rums for a nice alternative to the big guys)

1 oz pineapple juice

1 oz cream of coconut

0.75 oz orange juice (fresh squeezed, please)

I like to shake this drink and then serve it over ice. Getting the coconut cream to co-mingle with the other ingredients is important.

French 75 (ish) – A spin on the classic French 75, a brilliant summertime sparkling cocktail

1 oz gin

0.5 oz St. Germain

0.25 oz lemon juice

0.25 oz simple syrup

3 oz sparkling wine

Shake the gin, St. Germain, lemon and simple syrup in a shaker. Strain into a champagne flute and top with sparkling wine. Garnish with a nice, long lemon twist. In case you haven’t tried St. Germain, it’s a vibrant brandy based elderflower liqueur from France.

Here is another great reference on summer cocktails from liquor.com, a ridiculously wonderful site chock full of everything cocktail related you could ever need.

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May 5, 2010

Making Rhubarb Syrup and Cocktails

Tis’ the season for house-made spring mixers! And this time of year always makes me think of rhubarb and asparagus. Asparagus seems like a tough fit with most cocktails, so rhubarb was my spring item of choice for this mixer. Look at all this beautiful rhubarb!

I decided to go with a nice tangy rhubarb syrup to complement a yet-to-be-determined cocktail. So I took fresh rhubarb, sugar, water, and lime juice and threw it all on the stove. I brought it to a boil and let it simmer for about 10 minutes. To help concentrate the flavors, I decided to blend the mixture and strain it through a cheesecloth. The final product was a vibrant red color and had a nice consistency. It was viscous enough, but not overly so. And the sweet/tart balance was just right.

Now on to the cocktails: After testing out a few different liquors I landed on white rum. It’s a good fit for the spring time and I found that it had the appropriate amount of herbaceousness (sp?!) for this cocktail. Gin felt too complex and it overwhelmed the syrup. Vodka was too blank. White rum had the peppery zip I was looking for but it was balanced enough to let the rhubarb shine. For this particular cocktail I decided to use Dogfish Head White Rum (you may know that I’m a Dogfish fan) and it was just right.

To continue moving the cocktail in the right direction, I decided that rum, lime and rhubarb syrup would be my base. I ended up with two very different, but both appealing, spring cocktails. The first was simpler and it played off of the tartness/sourness of the rhubarb, bringing in a little acid to liven things up and a touch of sweetness to balance them out. See recipe #1 below. The second cocktail brought in some additional liqueurs and a bit more sweetness. But it was balanced out by Angostura and I was satisfied with the end product.

Go get yourself some rhubarb and get to work!

Rhubarb Cocktail #1:

1.25 oz white rum

0.75 oz lime juice

0.50 oz simple syrup

0.75 oz rhubarb syrup

1 Dash Angostura Bitters

Rhubarb Cocktail #2:

1 oz rhubarb syrup

0.75 oz lime juice

1.25 oz white rum

0.50 oz Domaine de Canton

0.25 oz St Germain

1 Dash Angostura Bitters

April 26, 2010

Dogfish Head Brewery

The Dogfish Head Brewery in Delaware has quickly become my favorite brewery around. I can’t recall precisely when this love affair began, but I can tell you for sure that it was cemented last night when I enjoyed yet another Aprihop Ale.

Growing up in the Northeast, the first craft beer I ever encountered was Magic Hat. Magic Hat was, and still is, a great brewery. I have a lot of respect for what they do up there in chilly VT. And I have great (vague) memories of drinking #9 when I was just barely old enough to be drinking.

But Dogfish Head Aprihop is a whole new seasonally inspired ale. It brings in nice apricot flavors without smacking you in the face with fruit. The approach of adding apricot to a strongly hopped IPA is something wonderful. The beer has great hop characteristics and a brilliant full body. It is, first and foremost, a great ale. One that stands on its own and can be counted, along with many other Dogfish beers, as a great example on how to brew a full flavored and interesting beer.

But it’s the seasonality that Dogfish injects into their beers that really makes these worth talking about. I remember having a similar revelation last fall when I taste tested five different Pumpkin beers. Most of the beers smacked of artificial pumpkin pie spice. Or they were light and watery with a canned pumpkin taste. But the Dogfish version stood above and beyond. It was a beer. A real beer. And it felt as if the brewers had taken a subtle hand with real spices. Not fake pumpkin pie spice, but the spices that make the fall season the fall season. Nutmeg and cinnamon and clove all played a role.

So to sum up, well done, Dogfish. Well done.