I'm No Alcoholic, But...

Sometimes there is nothing better than a well-mixed adult beverage. Notice that I said well-mixed, because that's the crux. If you're simply drinking to get hammered it doesn't really matter what you drink. Axle grease and vodka. Gin and Mountain Dew. Miller Lite.

But if you're drinking for the sake of drinking, with an appreciation for what it is your swallowing, not just any old beverage will do. There's a certain level of refinement necessary to enjoy alcohol for the flavor alone. Care must be given to your choice of alcohols, the mixing components, temperatures, relative densities of liquids and many other factors. And it's very clear to anyone paying attention when the mixture succeeds and when it flops.

I've recently begun drinking Old-Fashioneds. My sister can attest to the level of my devotion. What I've found is that the devil (and the angel) truly is in the details, because the recipe itself is very simple. Here's the recipe as written by Esquire magazine:

Ingredients Old-Fashioned

• 1 sugar cube
• 3 dashes Angostura bitters
• club soda
• 2 ounces rye whisky

Glass Type: old-fashioned glass

Instructions

Place the sugar cube (or 1/2 teaspoon loose sugar) in an Old-Fashioned glass. Wet it down with 2 or 3 dashes of Angostura bitters and a short splash of water or club soda. Crush the sugar with a wooden muddler, chopstick, strong spoon, lipstick, cartridge case, whatever. Rotate the glass so that the sugar grains and bitters give it a lining. Add a large ice cube. Pour in the rye (or bourbon). Serve with a stirring rod.

That's it. Bourbon, bitters, sugar and a splash of club soda. Mostly bourbon. Too much sugar and it's like candy. Too little and the bourbon clobbers your tongue. Same for the bitters. And of course, the better the bourbon (I've never had one with rye) the better the result. I've had some really stellar Old-Fashioneds now, and some pretty pitiful examples. One of the worst had Sprite added. Blah!

Finesse is the key. Knowing proper proportions and knowing proper procedures. Not to say that creative experimentation is excluded. But you have to have a sense of where you're going. Kate did that tonight and cooked up a freaking delicious drink. If I remember correctly, she said she created a simple syrup with water, sugar, honey, a cinnamon stick and some cinnamon basil from our front yard. To that she added guava nectar, gold rum, and a splash of Ginger Ale. I don't know the exact proportions of it all. She poured the final concoction over ice and a sprig of fresh basil.

It was really phenomenal. You could taste every element of the drink, each one amplifying the rest. The basil was the most interesting flavor component, just subtle enough to be noticed, but adding a really unusual edge to the drink. It sounds like a lot of disparate flavors, but, well-mixed the whole becomes much greater than the sum of its parts.

Beautiful Redemption

I love witnessing old friends with troubled pasts redeem themselves and become whole human beings with great purpose. My dear friend Matt from college, was once a bit of a recluse. He seemed to never be able to find his niche in the social world, so he tended to let alcohol do most of his talking for him. He was definitely brilliant at his craft, with sound engineering and film-making. But I was always worried about him and wanted him to be happy on all fronts. A few years back Jason and I visited my college home town (Columbia, SC) for my friend Nichole's wedding. I was happy to see Matt there and meet his new wife Ashley. He had found his soul mate and I was so happy for him. She has definitely turned his life around and they are so perfect for each other.

Yesterday Matt emailed his film-making team (Brooke, Nichole and me) to let us know that Ashley was 5 months pregnant and that he was going to be the father of a baby girl named Alice come early December. I told him how incredibly happy I was for him. Matt is proof that life may get you down for a while, but if you open your heart, true happiness can be just around the corner. I wish Matt and Ashley the best. Congrats you two!!

Karaoke: Music from the Masses

How many pastimes can boast entertainment value without talent? Karaoke is unique, both as an activity and as a spectator event in that respect. You don't have to sing well to enjoy singing karaoke. You don't even have to speak the language (reading is required, however.) In fact, the worse you are, the more inebriated you are, or the more like a Japanese businessman you appear, the more entertaining you are for your audience. With karaoke, people want to see either great performances or colossal failures. Either extreme is equally entertaining for different reasons.

This is why bars are the perfect setting for karaoke. Alcohol provides the lubrication. It provides shy, talented singers with the courage to perform. It takes untalented hacks and turns them into sloppy messes of fun. It creates unique opportunities for artistic expression, and versions of songs never imagined or intended by the original artists. And it creates audiences receptive to nearly any level of performance.

I've always really like karaoke. For a while Kate and I were going with friends after work to a local bar for drinks and singing. Two of us entered a karaoke competition as a result. Unfortunately I had to drop out after missing two weeks because of a bad cold. One day I'd like to try it again. It's just fun. Whether you going for a serious or a goofy performance doesn't matter. You just have to get up and sing. And get most of the lyrics right.

Or not.

Good Beer. Really Good Beer.

I like beer.  Beer with personality.  Beer that's not afraid to claim its heritage.  Give me something dark, rich and meaty over anything associated with football and being a real American any day.  I don't want bubbly water with real beer flavor added.  If I'm going to drink a beer I want those empty calories to be meaningful.  I'm not drinking it because I'm thirsty.  I want real flavor.  I want an experience.  I want the type of beer you drink, not because you're thirsty, but because you're hungry.

The short list of favorite varieties would consist of Bocks, Doppelbocks, Stouts, Brown Ales, Porters, Dunkels, Pumpkin Ales, Winter Ales, Hefeweizens and other assorted wheat brews.  That's just what I can think of.  I'm sure there's more that I'm missing.  Give me a Newcastle, a Lancaster Milk Stout, or a Shiner Bock anytime and I'm happy.  I once brewed (the only beer I ever brewed) a Banana Brown Ale that was pretty delicious.  

I don't do this anymore because it became more of a torture than a pastime, but I used to love going through all the high-priced specialty beers you find shelves and shelves of at decent liquor stores.  I can't bring myself to pay $12 for a single beer except on very special occasions.  Which I have done, though rarely, and had some wonderful beers.  I had a beer in France made by the Amsterdam Brewery Company called the Maximator.  A bock with an alcohol content of 11.6%.  Wow!  Talk about a heady drink.

It warms my cockles to know there is so much beer out there I haven't tried yet.  It's like a liquid candy store for grownups, where all the sugar has fermented into cold (and warm) alcoholic bliss.