Quick Sips: Tasty Bits from Around the Web

New York’s chapter of the U.S. Bartenders’ Guild is organizing clean-up brigades for bars hit hard by Sandy. Twitter

How many wine glasses could you hold at once? Enough to beat the new world record? AFP

Arizona dessert dwellers may soon have a new wine school. Wine Spectator 

Beer-braised carnitas? Yes please! Bon Appetit

Working vacations let people get their hands dirty in the vineyard. Businessweek

Is global wine production really shrinking? Los Angeles Times

It's Time for San Diego Beer Week!

This weekend, one of America's best beer cities is kicking off its annual beer week. On November 2, San Diego Beer Week gets started with a Karl Strauss Tap Takeover at La Bella Pizza. Through November 11, there will be beer-soaked events happening all over the city, including the San Diego Brewers Guild Festival on November 3 featuring more than 100 of the finest beer offerings from San Diego craft breweries, and the festivities will culminate with a Beer Garden on November 11 that will bring together the best of San Diego craft beer with food from local chefs.

Head to sdbw.org for a full schedule and details on purchasing tickets, and for more info on San Diego's world-class beer scene, check our this article from our July/August issue.

Drink of the Week: Deschutes Chasin’ Freshies

When it comes to beer, this time of year we always love one of the season’s most anticipated styles—fresh-hop brews. For a super-short window of time each fall, brewers around the country flavor their beers with hops plucked fresh from the lupulin-loaded vines (as opposed to dried hop pellets typically used throughout the rest of the year), and today’s Drink of the Week—Chasin’ Freshies from Deschutes Brewery—is a newfound favorite. Packed full of fresh Cascade hops from Oregon’s famed Goschie Farms, this IPA is loaded with flavors ranging from tangerine to cracked pepper to leafy greens, with an approachable hop bitterness that doesn’t overwhelm. This month marks its inaugural release, but like the fresh hops hanging from their vines, it too will dry up soon, so snag a bottle (or three) while you can.

Deschutesbrewery.com for distribution info.

Quick Sips: Tasty Bits from Around the Web

Wine auction sales are shrinking—could Bordeaux be to blame? Reuters

A working keyboard made from—wait for it—full cans of beer. CNET

Sonoma wraps us another successful harvest. Sonoma News

Proposed fracking upsets a crop of domestic vintners. ABC News

Do big coffee companies help spur business for smaller ones? New York Times

MurrayAid

Photo: Lara Ferroni

Murray Stenson is a bartender’s bartender. For close to four decades the Seattle-based Stenson has been mixing some of the world’s best cocktails and showing us all what it means to be a class act behind the bar. Unfortunately, a heart ailment is keeping Stenson from bartending, and meanwhile, his medical expenses are mounting. But the cocktail community is rallying behind him with MurrayAid—a site dedicated to raising funds that will help offset his medical costs. Since launching over the weekend, the site has already raised close to $12,000, and the contributions continue to pour in—click here to learn how you can contribute. And to learn a little more about Murray and his contributions to the cocktail world, check out Paul Clarke’s profile of Stenson from our July/August 2012 issue.

Drink of the Week: PDX Cocktail

Portland Cocktail Week doesn’t officially start until Sunday, but we’re kicking things off a few days early with today’s Drink of the Week—the PDX Cocktail from Portland, Oregon’s Serratto restaurant. Combining Oregon rye whiskey (feel free to sub in your rye of choice) with fresh apple cider, bitters and spiced simple syrup, this autumnal sipper highlights a few favorite flavors of the region. And Serratto isn’t the only spot in town mixing up special drinks in honor of the upcoming cocktail week—click here for a full list of places taking part in the celebrations.

PDX Cocktail

2 oz. rye whiskey (Serratto uses Pendleton 1910)

1 1/2 oz. fresh apple cider

1/2 tsp. spiced simple syrup (black pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg)

2 dashes Fee Bros. Old Fashion Aromatic bitters (Angostura may be substituted in a  pinch)

Tools: shaker, strainer

Glass: rocks

Garnish: lemon twist

Combine all ingredients and shake. Strain into an ice-filled glass and garnish.

For the spiced simple syrup, combine 1/2 tsp. each ground black pepper, cardamom, cinnamon and nutmeg with 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of water over medium heat. Bring to a simmer, remove from heat and cool to room temperature. Strain through a coffee filter into a clean glass jar. Keep refrigerated for up to 2 weeks.

Mix all ingredients with ice.  Serve in rocks glass with lemon twist.

Serratto, Portland, Oregon

Quick Sips: Tasty Bits from Around the Web

Just how bad is this year’s European grape harvest? Businessweek

Why one coffee giant hasn’t paid a portion of its taxes, despite a global profit in the billions. Daily Record

Imbibe contributing editor Amy Zavatto takes a trip to the bonny distilleries of Islay, Scotland. Serious Eats

What’s the scoop on civet poop coffee? NPR

Big changes are in the works for one pioneering coffee company. New York Times

Ready for the Great American Distillers Festival?

Our friends over at the Great American Distillers Festival have offered Imbibe fans a $5 discount to the grand tasting event, taking place this Friday and Saturday night at the Tiffany Center in Portland, Oregon. This is a fun chance to meet local and national distillers and sample the fruits of their labor. 

All you have to do is enter IMBIBE at the GADF ticket page to redeem this offer! Click here for tickets and visit distillersfestival.com for more info about GADF.

Imbibe & the Bon Vivants Present Pig & Punch at Portland Cocktail Week

Next week, the cocktail community will descend on Portland, Oregon for Portland Cocktail Week, a celebration of cocktail culture, created by bartenders, for bartenders. Now in its third year, Portland Cocktail Week has offers several days of local cocktail immersion, and this year, we're especially excited to be teaming up with the talented Bon Vivants to bring their signature philanthropic event—Pig & Punch—to Portland. 

If you haven't heard of the Bon Vivants, they're Josh Harris and Scott Baird, a San Francisco-based bartending duo who travel the country producing one-of-a-kind cocktail experiences, often for a good cause, and Pig & Punch has become one of their most popular events. Pig & Punch Portland takes place Thursday, October 25 from 11 a.m.-5 p.m. at Yale Union Building (800 SE 10th Ave), and it's open to the public. It's a fun gathering complete with pigs roasting, punch, live music, games, and good energy, with the focus of using what we have to help those with less. The event follows a day of giving back to the community, when the Bon Vivants and a group of bartenders volunteer will spend the day at LEP High (Leadership & Entrepreneurship Public Charter High School). After volunteering on Saturday, Oct 20, we'll gather for part two at the Yale Union building for Pig & Punch. Entry is $30 at the door and includes food, punch and a Pig & Punch T-shirt. All proceeds go to LEP.

For a complete list of Portland Cocktail Week events and seminars, visit portlandcocktailweek.com.

We hope to see you there! 

Event Planning: Art of the Cocktail

Attention imbibers! Tomorrow kicks-off Art of the Cocktail, a three-day cocktail event set in the beautiful Victoria, B.C. The schedule is chock-full of seminars, workshops, tastings and competitions led by some of the biggest names in the biz. Those of you attending are in for quite a treat! We have our eye on workshops like Tiki in the 21st Century, Carbonated Cocktails (a trend we talked about here), and Eau de Vie: The Overlooked Cocktail Ingredient. Also, not to forget about the Grand Tasting event, which takes place in the historical Crystal Gardens.

Click here for more info and to purchase tickets.

Drink of the Week: Plantation 3-Stars White Rum

Aged or unaged, made from fresh-pressed sugarcane or molasses—we love rum in all its various forms, and today’s Drink of the Week—the Plantation 3-Stars Rum—is our current spirited crush. Combining both aged and unaged spirits from a trio of Caribbean locales (Jamaica, Trinidad and Barbados), this offering from the team behind Cognac Ferrand’s line of distillates fuses the depth of wood-aging with the freshness of a spirit right off the still—expect notes of tropical fruits, soft vanilla spice and a hint of fresh herbs and flowers. Sip it in classic rum cocktails like the Mojito or Daiquiri, or in the 3 Stars Swizzle with Velvet Falernum and grapefruit bitters. $25/1 liter, hightimewine.net

3 Stars Swizzle

2 oz. Plantation 3-Stars White Rum

1 oz. Velvet Falernum

1 oz. fresh lime juice

3/4 oz. simple syrup (1:1)

2 dashes grapefruit bitters

Tools: swizzle stick

Glass: Collins

Garnish: grapefruit twist

Combine all ingredients in a Collins glass and fill with crushed ice. Swizzle until a frost forms on the outside of the glass, fill with additional crushed ice (if needed) and garnish.

Win Tickets to the San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival

The San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival is only about a month away, and we're gearing up with a ticket giveaway to this year's Grand Tasting. If you plan to be in San Diego over the weekend of November 16 and you're interested in tasting fantastic wines and food from some of the country's best vintners and chefs, then you won't want to miss this festival, and you definitely won't want to miss this giveaway! 

We're giving away two tickets to the Grand Tasting to one lucky imbiber. The Grand Tasting takes place on Saturday, November 17, at the Embarcadero Marina Park North, and it will feature 170 wine and spirits purveyors, plus 70 of San Diego's top chefs. To make yourself eligible to win these tickets, simply click here to email and tell us about your favorite California wine of the moment. The deadline for entries is Sunday, October 14 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific time. We'll randomly select a winner of Monday, October 15. Good luck!

Quick Sips: Tasty Bits from Around the Web

Deep-fried … beer? Huffington Post

Debating the pros and cons of online wine shopping. The Washington Post

One vintner lists all ingredients on the label, but does anybody notice? New York Times

Shaken or stirred? Two journalists taste for themselves and decide. NPR

A coffee tug-of-war between growers and buyers. Wall Street Journal

Highlights from Imbibe’s First Facebook Session With Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head Brewing

Renowned beer geek (and the guy behind Dogfish Head’s countless beloved brews) Sam Calagione took over our FB page today for our first Facebook Session, spending close to an hour responding to readers’ questions as fast as his fingers could type—here are a few highlights:

Lauren S. asked, “What’s your favorite beer you’ve ever made?”
Sam’s response? “I usually answer that with ‘The one I am drinking right now,’ but right now I am typing so I will say Indian Brown Ale, 60 Minute, Festina Peche, and Bitches Brew are what I drink the most—but we love ALL of our children equally.”

Charlotte B. wondered, “Is there anything you won’t brew with?”
Sam’s thoughts? “We won't brew with … hmmm … illegal ingredients or ingredients we can't get enough of to at least make a 5-barrel (150 gallon) batch … At Dogfish we have always believed that any culinary ingredient can and should be considered when we are contemplated a new recipe.”

And we wanted to know, “What are you planning on drinking tonight?”
Sam closed things out by responding, “Tonight I am planning on drinking one 60-Minute IPA and one Lawson's Liquid from the people's republic of Vermont. I leave early in the morn for a beer dinner in Boulder where I will drink a bunch of beers from Russian River to Allagash to Port to Avery to Sierra … The Great thing about being a craft beer geek and not a craft beer snob is that It's ok to be promiscuous—we cheat on our favorite beers, even when we own a brewery, and we might wake up occasionally with a heavy head, but it is never heavy from guilt.”

Thanks again to Sam and to all our readers who chimed in with such great questions! Be sure to stay tuned in the coming weeks as we announce the guest behind our next Facebook Session!

Drink of the Week: Planeta Cerasuolo di Vittoria 2010

With fall creeping in, our tastes are shifting from craving crisp, warm-weather white wines to richer reds, but we’re not entirely ready to tuck our tastebuds into the fleshy, tannic wines of winter. Enter today’s Drink of the Week—the 2010 Cerasuolo di Vittoria from Planeta—a perfect red wine to straddle the shifting seasons. Grown in the sandy red soils of southern Sicily, this wine blends two indigenous varietals—Nero d’Avola and Frappato—into one seamless offering that’s supple yet fresh with lively aromas of tart cherries, bright acid on the palate and a finish of plump red berries that will carry you all the way to the cooler weather ahead. $24, binnys.com

October’s Where to Drink Now

Photo: Paul Wagtouicz

Pouring Ribbons

From a team of industry luminaries (including Tales of the Cocktail 2012 American Bartender of the Year, Joaquin Simo) comes this hotly anticipated East Village cocktail bar. Two sliding scales rank drinks from “refreshing” to “spirituous” and “comforting” to “adventurous” and help guide the choice between cocktails like the Eleventh Hour with rum, grenadine and chocolate bitters; Dueling Banjos with bourbon, Curaçao and corn milk; and the Fort Julep with Lillet Rose, green Chartreuse and mint. 

225 Avenue B, Second Floor, New York City; 917-656-6788; pouringribbons.com

Fort Julep

2 oz. Lillet Rosé

1/2 oz. green Chartreuse  

2-3 fresh mint leaves

Tools: swizzle stick

Glass: julep

Garnish: sprig of fresh mint

Rub the mint leaves inside a julep cup, then discard. Add Chartreuse and Lillet Rosé, fill midway with crushed ice and swizzle. Top with additional crushed ice and garnish with a sprig of mint that you've smacked in the palm of your hand to release the oils.

Pouring Ribbons, New York City

Dancing Goats Coffee Bar

With an expansive patio complete with comfy padded swings and rocking Adirondack chairs, this new café in Atlanta’s up Ponce City Market is the perfect place to sip in cups of Batdorf & Bronson Coffee Roasters deliciousness.

650 North Ave. NE, Atlanta; 404-874-0370; batdorfcoffee.com

Rumba Rhum & Food

Seattleites needn’t pack a passport for a taste of Cuba—simply pop by this Capitol Hill lounge for sips of rum-fueled Daiquiris, tiki drinks and ‘Ti Punch and bites of buttery empanadas, fresh ceviche and crispy tacos.

1112 Pike St., Seattle; 206-583-7177; rhumbaonpike.com

Photo: John Valls

Imperial

James Beard Award-winning chef Vitaly Paley recently teamed up with Beaker & Flask kitchen and bar alums Ben Bettinger and Brandon Wise to launch this downtown eatery and bar housed in the Hotel Lucia. Open from early morning to late at night, menus rotate from semolina corn cakes, eggs and espresso in the a.m. to Oregon Dungeness crab, fried rabbit, local wine and draught cocktails for lunch and dinner.

410 SW Broadway, Portland, Oregon; 503-228-7222; imperialpdx.com

Barefoot Coffee Roll-Up Bar

Get a behind-the-scenes glimpse of coffee roasting in action while sipping super-fresh espresso at this pop-up café in Barefoot’s San Jose roastery. They’re currently in preview mode but will launch into a full grand opening this weekend with coffee specials from Friday through Sunday.

76 Sunol St., San Jose, California; 408-293-7200; barefootcoffee.com

Drinkin’ for the Kids: A Bartender’s Birthday Fundraiser

Jason Littrell wants $3,200 for his birthday. But hang on, it’s not for him. The New York City-based bartender recently launched his “Drinkin’ for the Kids” campaign to raise money for Action Against Hunger USA with a grand goal to raise $3,200 by his 32^nd birthday this November. From his fundraising page he says, “Instead of the free booze of a 32^nd birthday party, I ask that you give a dollar, a penny, a yen, pound or shekel to feed the hungry.” Since launching his campaign on Monday he’s already nearing half of his overall goal, and with 50 days to go, there’s still plenty of time to contribute. “We've enjoyed a tremendous amount of success in our industry lately, and it's hard to believe that a very significant part of the world will never understand the luxury of running water at home...if they even have a home,” he says. “Let's build some water wells, buy some rice, and give a foot where we would have most likely only given an inch.” We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

Quick Sips: Tasty Bits from Around the Web

Does glassware really make a difference? Forbes

A favorite coffee-of-the-month club’s Kickstarter campaign hopes to further curate the craft coffee experience. Kickstarter

Amazon preps to launch online wine sales. Wall Street Journal

Would you pay $11,000 for a cup of coffee? Complex.com

Are Romanian wines the next big thing? Reuters

Will a worker shortage threaten one of Washington’s biggest crop? NPR