Mountain State Brewing Company Tasting

While on vacation at Deep Creek Lake in McHenry, Md (next to the Wisp ski resort), we wanted to grab a good dinner, and had heard about Mountain State Brewing's brewpub which was just down the road. Looking very much like a rustic cabin, this wasn't your typical brewpub - instead of the typical pub fare, this brewpub has two wood burning brick ovens and specializes in flatbread pizzas.

After ordering an Olive Another (olive tapenade, roasted red peppers, and artichoke hearts - yummy), we sampled the four beers they had available on tap - a blonde, an amber, an IPA, and a stout.

General comments:
All the beers had low levels of carbonation and were served at a cool (not cold) temperature - reminded me of beers from an English pub. Seemed to work better w/ the stout and IPA than the other two. Heads were thin in general as well.

Beer Notes

Cold Trail Ale - described as an American blonde beer using oats and wheat in the grain mixture, this was the light beer of the group. Very pale straw in color, there was no hop aroma at all. Clean tasting with extremely minimal hop bitterness, there was a slight caramel sweetness on the finish. Definitely a session beer, or one for those that go to a brewpub but really want to order a Michelob Light anyway.
Almost Heaven Amber Ale - "lightly hopped" w/ Wilamette hops, this deep red amber ale was tasty, although "lightly hopped" was an understatement - no hops on the nose, and only a very slight hoppy bitterness in the finish. The principal flavor was a pleasant nutty caramel, but it didn't linger on the palate long. This was Suz's favorite - easy to drink yet flavorful.
Seneca India Pale Ale - at 5.2% ABV, this IPA uses a mixture if Chinook, Casacade, and Amarillo hops for flavoring. Lighter in color than the amber, there was still very little hoppy smell to the brew. But although the menu said this IPA did not have a lingering bitter aftertaste, I found the opposite to be true - the bitterness was LONG on the finish, but pleasantly so - that's what you expect from an IPA, and this didn't disappoint.
Miner's Daughter Oatmeal Stout - this was my favorite beer of their selection. An extremely smooth, inky black beer, there was some initial bitterness which faded quickly, followed by a strong coffee finish with a slight chocolate note to it. Very pleasant, and a stout which was very easy to drink.

Overall I thought the beers were good, with the stout being the standout. Add to that some great pizzas ( and a s'mores flatbread dessert which was amazing), and this place was worth leaving your cozy ski lodge to visit.

http://www.mountainstatebrewing.com/

Mission Accomplished (Really)!

In September, spurred on by hubris and a complete disregard for the well being of my liver, I embarked on a task - a crusade, really - to create and consume all 100 cocktails on a list of cocktails compiled by the Anvil Bar & Refuge in Houston. These were cocktails to be tried at least once in your lifetime, and while I had already tried a little more than a third of them already (hey, I've been drinking for a few years now), I thought making them all myself would be kind of neat. Giving myself 121 days to complete the 100 cocktails list, I thought I was giving myself enough of a cushion so that I wouldn't be drinking 15 cocktails on New Years Eve to finish. It wasn't that bad, but it definitely came down to the wire, mixing up 5 over the course of the day on the 31st. But, as I completed my Seelbach cocktail (a bourbon and champagne concoction) at 11:55PM, I also completed The List (see below) - maybe not the greatest achievement of my life (although it probably ranks right above completing graduate school), but something which I was proud to have completed - especially since I told everyone I was going to complete it and didn't want to end up looking like an ass.

Some things that I learned along the way (other than blogging about every single cocktail separately wasn't going to happen for very long):

1) I failed to notice the blurb at the top of The List about these being libations to try "for better or for worse." There are a few of these which I will definitely NOT be having again, ranging from the just "eh" (like the aforementioned Seelbach) to the truly awful (the Sherry Cobbler). Wasn't really clear why some of these made this list at all, but I can say I tried them for myself and can make an informed decision about never wanting to have them again.
2) Measurement is everything. The difference a 1/4 ounce of a particular ingredient can make in a cocktail is amazing (for better and for worse). I measured every ingredient per the recipe I was using, and will do so for any cocktail I make from now on. It guarantees a consistent cocktail (not as critical if you're not working in a bar), but also ensures you're going to experience the cocktail as the creator intended. Knowing the "base" flavor to a particular cocktail is critical if you want to tweak the recipe.
3) Proper shaking / stirring is critical. Almost all cocktail recipes call for the ingredients to be shaken or stirred with ice. This accomplishes two things - chills the drink, and dilutes it. I remember being in college and not wanting any ice in my drinks because I didn't want them "watered down". But water is a critical element to any drink - it balances the flavors, takes the hot edge of the liquor, and keeps drinks from becoming 80z liquor bombs (unless that's what you want them to be). I did realize that, for the first quarter of the list, I was overshaking my drinks - they were TOO cold, and overly diluted, resulting in watery cocktails that were too cold for me to taste the ingredients (especially ones with subtle flavors). After changing over to a 4 second hard shake (from approximately 12 seconds or more), I really noticed the difference and complexities in some of these creations
4) Cocktails are not supposed to be big. When the martini resurgence started kicking up in DC in the mid-90s, I remember all of the drinks being huge - 8, sometimes 10 ounce monster drinks, the kind you needed to hold with your whole fist just to lift them. Most were pitched as a good "value" - yeah, they're 8 bucks (remember, this was the 90's - add a couple bucks to that now), but you "get so much for your money." That's great - if your goal is to get blotto after two drinks. What usually happened was that the last third of your drink was warm (and disgusting), so you either sucked it down anyway (and got blotto), or didn't finish the drink - not much value in that. Almost all of the recipes used to create the drinks on this list came to roughly 5 ounces total, including water from the ice - some drinks had as little as 1.5 ounces of actual liquor in them. Cocktails from the late 19th century tended to be even smaller. The point is not to get drunk (although you can) - it's to enjoy a flavorful drink which takes the edge of the day away. You don't need much actual alcohol to do that.
5) Bartending is not easy. I know that bartending isn't just making drinks - a lot of what makes up a good bartender is their personality and attention to customer service. But making good drinks is definitely part of that equation, and that's not a simple task. Take the Manhattan - pretty simple from an ingredients standpoint. But it's just as easy to screw up a Manhattan as it is to make a really good one. The difference between the two is the skill of the person making the drink - and then you add volume (juggling multiple customers ordering multiple drinks) and the associated pressure and you start to see the really skilled bartenders rise above the rest. What I did was easy - I had all the time I wanted to whip these drinks up. Put me into a situation where I was doing this for 20 people, and I would crack.

Not sure what my next steps are. I think I will concentrate on making drinks I feel like making for a little while. A Manhattan sounds really good right about now...

Click the image below to see a more readable version of The List

Blackthorn (or Blackthorne)

One of the great things about the "Anvil 100" cocktail list I have been following is that in addition to naming the cocktail, it lists the principal ingredients. While it doesn't give proportions, I figured that it was just a good way of knowing what kind of drink I was going to be having (gin, vodka, etc) before trying to make it. However, it became very clear how important this was when concocting a Blackthorne - or Blackthorn. Or Blackthorne/Blackthorn. Allow me to explain.

The Anvil 100 lists the ingredients of a "The Blackthorn" as Irish whiskey, sweet vermouth, Angostura bitters, and absinthe. Now, these are the ingredients in the recipe which appears in Gary Regan's version of the "The Blackthorne" (emphasis mine) in his The Joy of Mixology book from 2003. This is the version I made - and it's terrible. Just bad - nothing good I can say about it. The whiskey and vermouth carry no weight in the cocktail, and the absinthe and bitters dominate the flavor (and not in any sort of pleasing way). So I thought "What the hell? Why would this make it on a list of supposedly unforgettable cocktails?"

Doing some research on line, I noticed that there were at least two other recipes for "The Blackthorn", neither of which has any of those ingredients in the recipe (well, one has rosso vermouth and the other has Dubonnet (an herbaceous wine-based spirit), so there is a common thread). The one I saw more often than not consisted of gin, kirsch, and Dubonnet. Unlike the first version I made, that actually SOUNDS like it would be good. So I chose to revisit this cocktail using the gin-based recipe.

The results were, as expected, the polar opposite from the first experience. This version was clean, crisp, and with just the right balance of sweet and herby so as to be complex without being "difficult." I emailed the website for the Anvil to clarify if they had mixed up the cocktail they wanted to highlight on their list. They didn't respond, so I will just give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they meant to feature the much more pleasant gin variation.

UPDATE: Recently I noted that one of the many cocktail folks I follow on Twitter, @drinkswmindy, tends bar at Anvil, so I shot her a tweet asking whether their version of this cocktail was gin or whiskey based. She was kind enough to respond that they make the whiskey version (which coincides with the List), and added they use Irish whiskey. So, that part was consistent. Turns out what I screwed up was the vermouth - I had used sweet vermouth in my original attempt based on what appeared in The Joy of Mixology by the great Gary Regan. In fact, I believe it should have been dry vermouth, per this recipe from The Wormwood Society's web site. I remade this cocktail the other day with the whiskey and dry vermouth components, and it was a huge improvement. The whiskey, dry vermouth, and absinthe all complemented each other, allowing each ingredient to play a part - the absinthe didn't dominate, which it can often do if not used in proper proportion with other ingredients. Not the best cocktail I have ever had, but it was pleasant, and was light years from the abomination I had initially created. There may be a way to make the sweet vermouth work in this, but I'll leave that to much more skilled people than me to work out.

The Blackthorn

3 dashes Angostura bitters

3 dashes absinthe (I used Lucid)

1.5oz Irish whiskey (Jameson)

1.5oz french dry vermouth

Combine ingredients in cocktail shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

The Blood and Sand

Cocktail naming conventions are funny. I read somewhere that you can tell the difference between a European cocktail and an American one by how their named. Example: In Europe, what's the name for a mix of gin and tonic? Gin and Tonic. In America, what's the name for mix of rye, creme de noyeau, and lemon juice? A Maryland Squirrel. You get the picture.

Drinks can be named for all kinds of things - historic events, famous (or not so famous) individuals, great works of fiction, etc. The Blood and Sand was named after a 1922 film about a bullfighter (Rudolph Valentino) involved in a love triangle - get it, blood of the bull, sand of the bullfighting ring? Whatever - given that origin, not sure why scotch would be the base spirit, and given that it is, you might think this is going to end up being a pretty sketchy cocktail taste-wise. Happily, you would be incorrect.

The recipe for this was originally (via the Savoy book) equal parts (3/4 oz) of all of the ingredients. The version I used bumps up the scotch to a full ounce while keeping the other at 3/4, and that works very, very well. Using a blended scotch (in my case, Johnny Walker Black) also works well - a highly peated single malt would throw off the balance of the other ingredients, for instance. Overall, a great, sweet yet refreshing cocktail. Doesn't make me feel any more like Rudy Valentino, but it also doesn't make me feel like sticking a bull with a sword as part of some arcane bloodsport, so all things considered, I'm fine with that.

Blood and Sand

1 oz blended scotch
3/4 oz orange juice
3/4 oz rosso vermouth
3/4 oz Cherry Heering

Combine ingedients in cocktail shaker and shake with ice. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a maraschino cherry.

The Bijou

Evidently this recipe is a more modern-day friendly version of a cocktail first recorded in 1900 in Harry Johnson's Bartender's Manual , which called for equal parts of the spirits - certainly would have made this a more herb-forward drink. But the proportions I used produced a smooth, flavorful and enjoyable cocktail with that special something that green chartreuse always brings to the party. And I also saw recipes which further muted the herbaceous nature of the cocktail by substituting dry vermouth for sweet - being that I was making this cocktail for Suz as well (not a fan of sweet vermouth), I followed that path, which I thought still produced a well balanced cocktail. My choice of gin was Plymouth since its milder flavor helped bring out the remaining herbal tastes in the other spirits.

The Bijou

3 oz gin
1 oz green chartreuse
1 oz dry vermouth
dash of orange bitters

Stir in a mixing glass with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

The Aperol Spritz

Aperol is an orange flavored, slightly bitter liquor, very much like Campari. Italian in origin, it differs from Campari in it's more muted color (pink-orange, not bright red like Campari) and in its much less bitter taste compared to that other famous Italian spirit. Where as Campari comes on strong and then lingers on the palette for a good long time, Aperol gives you a quick, sweet hit and then finishes with a subtle bitterness which fades relatively quickly.


Spritzes as a drink type are typically just spirits that are combined with sparkling wine (traditionally, given its Italian origins, the Aperol Spritz uses Prosecco) and soda. There are other variations (adding water to stronger wines are sometimes known as straight spritzes), but this is the most common. I used Spanish cava as the sparkling wine - mainly because I had some left over from the Redskins game last week. It actually went very well, adding a slight sweetness to the whole drink which made it really refreshing and easy to drink.

Aperol Spritz

2 oz sparkling wine (prosecco or cava)
1.5 oz Aperol
splash of soda

Fill a cocktail glass with ice. Pour sparking wine first and then Aperol into the glass (add the Aperol second so it doesn't sink to the bottom), and then finish with splash of soda. Garnish with an orange slice.

The Americano

I like really like bitter spirits. They aren't something I think of every time I sit down to have a cocktail, but some of the best cocktails I have had have had a bitter ingredient as one of the anchor flavors in it. And since I started experimenting with cocktails in May, I have acquired quite a few of the better known varieties - Cynar, Fernet Branca, Aperol, to name a few. And of course I have had my fair share of Jaegermeister shots (but we won't speak of that). But the one bitter liqueur I have had in my bar the longest, and is nearest to my heart, is Campari.

A bright, gorgeous red, Campari has a sweetness up front which is somewhat misleading, not really preparing you for the lovely bitterness that trails behind it and lingers on your palette for a long, long time. To me, the Americano is the perfect vehicle for this experience. Campari can be a little cloying and thick on the taste buds, so the addition of the sweet vermouth, and especially the club soda, keeps things light without masking that great bitteness Campari is known for. It's refreshing as you drink it, but the orange-tinged aftertaste that lingers in your mouth is the real attraction for any cocktail which includes Campari.

The Americano

1oz Campari
1oz sweet vermouth
2 oz club soda

Build in an ice filled collins glass. Add a twist of orange as garnish.