Update

Sorry if I've been MIA as of late, so here's the skinny.

The lappy died again and so did my iPhone so I've been living in a backwater state of technilogical stupor ( think like the Appalachias of the interweb ). I got screwed over by a wine bar and have thankfully landed at another great little cocktail bar, so hopefully soon I'll be remedying all of my issues before the end of the year.

Monday the 25th of October is marking Vessels 4th anniversary and its gonna be a party with all the bartenders that have worked there behind the bar on the same evening running a menu with a special cocktail for the night. Jamie Boudreau, Jim Romdall, Andrew Bohrer, Zane Harris, Anu Apte, Keith Waldbauer, Michael Bertrand, and myself would love to see you. Here is my drink (picture to come soon)

Peychaud Flip
1 oz Peychaud's Bitters
.5 oz Plymouth Gin
.5 oz Cherry brandy
.75 Lemon
.25 Agave
Whole egg
Smacked mint on top

MxMo XLX : Brown, Bitter, and Stirred

This month Mixology Monday is hosted by the wonderful Lindsey Johnson from Lush Life Productions. I am going to take a bit of liberty and allow that swizzling is a type of stirring. If you got a problem with it you are tough outta luck, cause Bitter Black Buck don't take no guff from no one.

Bitter Black Buck

2 oz. Cruzan Blackstrap Rum

1/2 oz Angostura bitters

1/2 oz Lime Juice

1/2 oz Demarara syrup

Ginger beer to top, The spicier the better

Nutmeg

Crushed Ice

Add ingredients except ginger beer into a tall glass and fill with crushed ice, stir, add more ice, stir, top with ginger beer, stir, top with ice, grate nutmeg on top.

Je voulais hier

1.5 oz Cognac

.5 oz Amaro Ninino

.5 Swedish Punch

.25 Green Chartreuse

.25 rich simple

Heavy lemon oils zest.

Papa Dolce Vida

Partook in TDN and threw this in the Zaya mix.

2 oz. Zaya

3/4 oz Grapefruit

1/2 oz Lime

1/4 oz rich Demarara

3 dashes Mole bitters

Violet Fizz

Egg Whites, Equal parts creme de violet, dolin blanc, lillet blanc, & lemon juice. emulsify, shake, strain and top with soda.

Frozen Banana Recipe.

So my chef asked me to make him a drink after work, but with unusual flavors and not too strong.

I decided to throw some random things together and it actually worked on the first try.

1.5 oz Xante

.5 oz Licor 43

.5 oz Creme de Cacao

1 oz heavy cream

I'm gonna put a bunch of recipes up in August.

Blackstrap Sour

2 oz Cruzan Blackstrap Rum

1 oz Lime

1 oz Demerara 2-1 simple

1 Egg White

Agnostura Bitters on top

Mailbag!

Playboy's Top 10 bars in America.

Hey Kevin,
Longtime no see! Hope Vessel is treating you well.

This is a little random, but I thought of you...
King's was just named one of the "Best Bars in America" by Playboy magazine and instead of sending out a press clip, I'd like to humbly submit the attached cover for the beersintheshower readership. Who knew Mike Leifur could be so...well...pretty?

I can now say I've served drinks to someone who was on the cover of Playboy.

Coining a Phrase.

Fernetworking.

Defined: When working at a bar and someone whom you have never met, but seems to be in the industry, I.E., they are in a ninja suit (black shirt & black pants) comes in at the end of the night and the first thing they order is a shot of Fernet, you take a shot of Fernet with said person.

This is Fernetworking. You will become friends, you will understand each other, you will have a repeat customer, and you will visit their bar.

Declaration of Gindependence.

Huge thanks to Hendrick's, Jon Santer, Zane and Anu for hosting a great party. Here is a shot of Murray Stenson signing.

Rainier comes from here.

Str8 from Wiki.

Rainier Brewing Company (1884 – 1999) was a Seattle, Washington, company that brewed Rainier Beer, a popular brand in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Although Rainier was founded in 1884, the Seattle site had been brewing beer since 1878. While the beer enjoys near iconic status, it is no longer brewed in Seattle, nor is the company owned locally. In the late 1990s, the company was sold to Stroh's, then to Pabst Brewing Company, though Miller contract brews most of Pabst's beers. The brewery was closed by Pabst in 1999 and sold.

Although beer is no longer brewed there, the brewery itself is still a fixture in the south end of town, adjacent to I-5 just north of the Spokane Street Viaduct. The plant is now used by Tully's Coffee to roast beans. The trademark red neon "R" that sat atop the building has been replaced with a green "T" for the new occupant. The neon "R" is now in the collection of Seattle's Museum of History and Industry. When Seattle TV and radio stations provide traffic reports for I-5, the stretch of freeway there is known as "The Brewery," as in "traffic is heavy at the Brewery." ^{[citation needed]}

[edit]History

Rainier Beer atop Mt. Si

Rainier Beer and the brewery date back to 1884, when Edward Sweeney established the Claussen-Sweeney Brewing Company in the Georgetown neighborhood of Seattle. In 1893, Sweeney's company merged with two other breweries; the new company became known as the Seattle Brewing and Malting Company. Originally, all three of the breweries were operated by this company, but it was the Claussen-Sweeney brewery which would remain in operation until 1999 and become a Seattle landmark.

Alcoholic beverages were outlawed in Washington state in 1916^[1] and the Rainier brand was sold to a San Francisco, California company. Four years later, alcoholic beverages were outlawed nationwide. Following the repeal of prohibition, the brewery was purchased by Lethbridge, Alberta brewers Fritz and Emil Sick, who then repurchased the Rainier brand and began brewing Rainier in 1935. The brewery went through several names, such as Sick's Seattle Brewing and Malting and Sicks Rainier Brewing Company, during the 1935–1977 period.

1907 Rainier Beer advertisement

After Rainier Brewing Company resumed producing "Rainier Beer" after the end of Prohibition and its advertisements became ubiquitous in the Seattle-Tacoma area, a rumor began circulating that the brewery's owner, Emil Sick, had bribed a Washington state committee with free beer to name the local mountain "Rainier". This, however, is an urban legend and can still be heard today among Tacoma residents who preferred the alternate name of "Mount Tahoma".^[2] Sick did, however, purchase the local baseball team and named them the Seattle Rainiers for this purpose.^[3]

Sick's also brewed Rainier at a branch brewery in Spokane. The Spokane brewery closed in 1962.

From 1952 to 1964, Rainier came packaged in a series of decorative beer cans known as the Rainier Jubilee Series. First in the series were a set of Christmas cans marketed in late 1952 and again in late 1953; these cans are rare and highly collectible today. The Christmas cans proved such a success that Rainier's use of decorative Jubilee Series cans continued for over a decade, with literally thousands of different designs. Most of these are not as rare and collectible as the Christmas cans, but the "reindeer" cans (which were sold only in Alaska), and the first pull tab Jubilee cans (made only in the last couple of years of the Jubilee Series) are also considered rare.

Other brands of beer brewed by Sick's Rainier Brewing during this time included Rheinlander and Sick's Select. Later, the Rainier brewery would also take over brewingHeidelberg beer after its brewery in Tacoma, Washington, closed. Each of these brands (as well as rival Northwest brands Lucky Lager, Olympia, and Blitz-Weinhard) were once staples in the Pacific Northwest beer market, but starting in the 1960s and 1970s began losing market share to the major national brands.

During the 1970s, Rainier ran a number of memorable television ads in the Pacific Northwest, largely conceived by Seattle designer Terry Heckler,^[4] assisted by several of his staff, especially Ed Leimbacher, writer/producer for Rainier print, radio and TV for a dozen years. Some of these noted by Seattle Magazineincluded the Running of the MFRs (Mountain Fresh Rainiers)(a parody of Running of the Bulls featuring bottles with legs), frogs that croaked "Rainier Beer" (a motif appropriated many years later by Budweiser), Mickey Rooney appeared in several TV ads, most notably a parody of Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald's "Indian Love Call" from the 1936 MGM film "Rose Marie". Mickey was dressed in a Mountie costume alongside his wife Jan as they sang. (most airings of this commercial ended with Rooney pouring a bottle of Rainier into her proffered glass, but occasionally a version was aired in which he poured the beer into her cleavage). A motorcycle that revved "raiiiiiiiii-nieeeeeeeer-beeeeeeeer" while zooming by along a mountain road. (A version of this commercial played on radio featured the sounds of different brands of motorcycles making the "rainier beer" revving sound.) Other ads featured a Lawrence Welk double (played by actor Pat Harrington Jr.) leading his band in "The Wunnerful Rainier Waltz" complete with bubble machine and soloists blowing on beer bottles, and a performance of a parody of the song "You're the Tops" while thousands of Rainier bottle caps fell like dominoes in a giant "R" frame (the whole commercial was reportedly shot on the first take, a great relief since it took all day to set up). Rainier also produced humorous posters such as a "National Beergraphic" parody of a National Geographic Magazine cover depicting tourists encountering a MFR in the forest, and a Flash Gordon/Star Wars poster, "Fresh Wars" that recalled the bar scene in Episode 4. There were even costumed MFRs that made promotional appearances at Supermarkets during this period.

In 1977 the brewery was sold to G. Heileman Brewing Company, and passed through several more hands before finally winding up owned by Pabst, which closed it in 1999. The Rainier brand was sold to General Brewing Company, which moved production to the Olympia brewery in nearby Tumwater, Washington. The Olympia Brewing Company closed in 2003. Rainier Beer is now brewed under contract in California.^{[citation needed]}

The beer's iconic status locally caused it to be referred to as "Vitamin R."^{[citation needed]}

In 1987, Rainier was awarded a silver medal by the Great American Beer Festival in the category of Best American Light Lager. The GABF recognized Rainier again in 1990, 1998, and 2000 with the gold medal for Best American-Style Lager as well as silver medals in the same category in 2003 and 2005. Both Rainier Light and Rainier Ice have received medals, in their respective categories, from the GABF.

In cultural reference, the seminal Seattle grunge group Mudhoney was humorously photographed in 1988 with cans of Rainier Beer. The image can be seen on the inside CD cover of the band's Superfuzz Bigmuff + Early Singles release. In the 2008 film Twilight, set in Forks, WA, Rainier Beer appears prominently in several scenes, and is referred to as "Vitamin R."

They also in my opinion had one of the best advertising campaigns ever.

The Back Row Manifesto

Equal parts Rye and Amer, Heavy dash Maraschino, Light dash Absinthe.

Fathers Day is Sunday.

Memorial Day '10

Vice President Johnson, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Chief Justice, President Eisenhower, Vice President Nixon, President Truman, reverend clergy, fellow citizens, we observe today not a victory of party, but a celebration of freedom - symbolizing an end, as well as a beginning - signifying renewal, as well as change. For I have sworn before you and Almighty God the same solemn oath our forebears prescribed nearly a century and three quarters ago.

The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe - the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God.

We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans - born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage - and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this Nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

This much we pledge - and more.

To those old allies whose cultural and spiritual origins we share, we pledge the loyalty of faithful friends. United, there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures. Divided, there is little we can do - for we dare not meet a powerful challenge at odds and split asunder.

To those new States whom we welcome to the ranks of the free, we pledge our word that one form of colonial control shall not have passed away merely to be replaced by a far more iron tyranny. We shall not always expect to find them supporting our view. But we shall always hope to find them strongly supporting their own freedom - and to remember that, in the past, those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside.

To those peoples in the huts and villages across the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required - not because the Communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.

To our sister republics south of our border, we offer a special pledge - to convert our good words into good deeds - in a new alliance for progress - to assist free men and free governments in casting off the chains of poverty. But this peaceful revolution of hope cannot become the prey of hostile powers. Let all our neighbours know that we shall join with them to oppose aggression or subversion anywhere in the Americas. And let every other power know that this Hemisphere intends to remain the master of its own house.

To that world assembly of sovereign states, the United Nations, our last best hope in an age where the instruments of war have far outpaced the instruments of peace, we renew our pledge of support - to prevent it from becoming merely a forum for invective - to strengthen its shield of the new and the weak - and to enlarge the area in which its writ may run.

Finally, to those nations who would make themselves our adversary, we offer not a pledge but a request: that both sides begin anew the quest for peace, before the dark powers of destruction unleashed by science engulf all humanity in planned or accidental self-destruction.

We dare not tempt them with weakness. For only when our arms are sufficient beyond doubt can we be certain beyond doubt that they will never be employed.

But neither can two great and powerful groups of nations take comfort from our present course - both sides overburdened by the cost of modern weapons, both rightly alarmed by the steady spread of the deadly atom, yet both racing to alter that uncertain balance of terror that stays the hand of mankind's final war.

So let us begin anew - remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof. Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.

Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belabouring those problems which divide us.

Let both sides, for the first time, formulate serious and precise proposals for the inspection and control of arms - and bring the absolute power to destroy other nations under the absolute control of all nations.

Let both sides seek to invoke the wonders of science instead of its terrors. Together let us explore the stars, conquer the deserts, eradicate disease, tap the ocean depths, and encourage the arts and commerce.

Let both sides unite to heed in all corners of the earth the command of Isaiah - to "undo the heavy burdens -. and to let the oppressed go free."

And if a beachhead of cooperation may push back the jungle of suspicion, let both sides join in creating a new endeavour, not a new balance of power, but a new world of law, where the strong are just and the weak secure and the peace preserved.

All this will not be finished in the first 100 days. Nor will it be finished in the first 1,000 days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.

In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than in mine, will rest the final success or failure of our course. Since this country was founded, each generation of Americans has been summoned to give testimony to its national loyalty. The graves of young Americans who answered the call to service surround the globe.

Now the trumpet summons us again - not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need; not as a call to battle, though embattled we are - but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, "rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation" - a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself.

Can we forge against these enemies a grand and global alliance, North and South, East and West, that can assure a more fruitful life for all mankind? Will you join in that historic effort?

In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shank from this responsibility - I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavour will light our country and all who serve it -- and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.

And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country.

My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.

Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own.

The Beltsville Crucible

2oz Templeton Rye

.5 oz Benedictine

.5 oz Maraschino Liquor

.5 oz Elixir (Bitter Truth)

This guy does OK, but check out the original.

Mao-Mo

Haven't put up a recipe in a bit.

1 oz. Appleton White

1 oz Barbancourt

1.5 oz Orange Juice

.5 oz Trader Tiki Passionfruit syrup (experimental)

.5 oz Trader Tiki Don's spice #2

1 barspoon Coco Lopez

Serve over crushed ice.

Chemistry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNWnjSe5Iiw

Practice makes perfect.

But if nobody is perfect then why the hell practice?

Practice is what you do when you are all by yourself.

Rehearsal is what you practice for.

DJ Skillz

You've stumbled upon a door where your mind is the key. There are none who will lend you guidance; these trials are yours to conquer alone. Entering here will take more than mere logic and strategy, but the criteria are just as hidden as what they reveal. Find yourself, and you will find the very thing hidden behind this page. Beyond here is something like a utopia - beyond here is What?

I'm a Barsmartie.

Hello my newest BarSmarts Graduates~

It brings me great pleasure to inform you that you have PASSED the BarSmarts Advanced course! Nice Work!!! We truly appreciate the time and effort you put into studying, shaking, stressing, sweating and finally PASSING the course. We will be in touch with you in the coming weeks regarding member benefits, but in the meantime, fill two shakers with ice, some Beefeater, a little vermouth, hold one in each hand and start jumping up & down in celebration of your newest accomplishment.

Congrats again, enjoy the weekend~

Suzanne

Dale DeGroff and Ricky Gomez were my judges on my practical exam. I am happy to say I've made Dale a drink.

I can't believe I tried to pass this up. Promo snafu's aside, this was an amazing time. The professional class of Seattle, and the west coast, all at the same place at the same time.

I took a series of photos of the items being passed around and wanted to share.