The Home Bartender For All: Recent Episodes
The Home Bartender For All
This is a podcast about the regular person at home who wants to have a drink with friends or just have a drink after a day of work. We want to enjoy the best cocktails, beer and whiskey responsibly, experimenting with new flavors and mixes and finding the perfect drink for the perfect occasion. Hosted by two friends who have been drinking together for almost 30 years.
Comparing 3 Different Winter Beers
LagerThe yeast ferments at colder temperatures, which means that the yeast ferments at the bottom when brewing. It usually has a fuller-taste which is more malt-forward. They taste a little like bread. They're smooth, crisp, and refreshing. They tend to go lighter on the hops which means less bitterness.
PilsnersThesetend to be a little heavier. Flavor-wise, a pilsner has the crispness like a lager, but a bit of bitterness like an IPA, but not as bitter.
AlesAle is brewed withtop fermented yeast. The flavors produced by top fermenting yeasts tend to be more complex and bolder in flavor. Ales can be more bitter, fruitier, funkier, and stronger in aroma than lagers
IPA - India Pale AlesThey derive their distinct bitterness from the flowers of the Humulus lupulus plant. Depending on the type of hop variety (Simcoe, Mosaic, Centennial, etc.) the brewer uses in the brewing process, a beer may contain piney, citrusy, or tropical flavors. Brewers can, and often do, combine two or more hop varieties in a beer for greater complexity.
Stouts and PortersThese are called dark beers because of their black and deep-brown colors. That color comes from the use of roasted malt in the brewing process. The beers made with these malts can take on toasty, chocolatey, deep-savory flavors as they roast.
The Black Russian and the Coffee Martini are they like Superman and Clark Kent and , if so, which is which. Mind Blown.
Black Russia
2 oz Vodka
1 oz coffee liquor
Shake and strain into an old fashioned glass
Espresso Martini
1 ½ oz Vodka
¾ oz coffee liquor
¾ oz Cold brew coffee (we used one with milk and sugar)
Shake and strain into a martini glass
This will have a foam – can put a few coffee beans on top (I don’t think I’ve ever actually did this at home)
Corpse Reviver #2
Original Ingredients
1 oz. gin
1 oz. Lillet Blanc
1 oz. Cointreau
1 oz. fresh lemon juice
1 dash absinthe
Orange peel, for garnish
Instructions
- Put dashes of absinthe in the glass and swirl around.
2 Shake all other ingredients into a shaker
- Add ice to cocktail shaker; strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with lemon peel.
My Variation Ingredients
1 1/2 oz. gin
1/4 oz. Averna Amaro (a bitter liquor)
1 oz. Cointreau
1 oz. fresh lemon juice (maybe less)
1 dash Peat Scotch to coat glass
Lemon peel, for garnish
Instructions
-
Put dashes of Peat Scotch in the glass and swirl around.
-
Shake all other ingredients into a shaker
-
Add ice to cocktail shaker; strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with lemon peel.
-
Averna Amaro
Distiller Notes
An excellent liqueur with full body and smooth taste, extremely pleasant for every moment of the day. You can drink it or taste it straight, with ice or frozen. It is produced using an ancient recipe made of herbs, which has been passed down from one generation to another since 1868.
Proof: 58
Critical Acclaim
Opaque and inky brown, the restrained aroma hints at espresso. On the palate, it's a wash of espresso, hazelnut and cola, with a pleasantly fleeting sweet-ness followed by a long, herbal finish.
Election Drinks – Red and Blue and a tribute to Sean Connery
Blue Martini
1 ½ oz Gin (or 2 oz if you are like Adam and I)
1 oz Blue Curacao
Shake with a lot of ice
Pour into a martini glass
Red Martini
1 ½ oz Gin (or 2 oz if you are like Adam and I)
1 oz Blue Curacao
Shake with a lot of ice
Pour into a martini
Singapore Sling
Ingredients
· 1 1/2 oz gin
· 1/4 oz Tripple Sec or Cointrau
· 1/4 oz cherry liqueur
· 1 oz pineapple juice
· 1/2 oz fresh lime juice
· 1 dash bitters
· club soda, to top
· Garnish: orange slice
· Garnish: cherry
Steps
1. Add all the ingredients except the club soda into a shaker with ice and shake.
2. Strain into a highball glass, and top with the club soda.
3. Garnish with an orange slice and a cherry.
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Mai Tai -
1 1/2 oz light rum
1 oz dark rum
1 oz lemon
1 oz simple syrup
2 oz pineapple juice
tumble
1/2 oz dark rum (or high proof) float on top
needs large tiki glass filled with ice
Mai Tai -
2oz dark rum
1 oz fresh lime juice
1/2oz triple sec or curacao
1/4oz orgeat syrup*
5-10ml (1/4oz) rich demerara sugar syrup**
Spent lime husk Mint sprig to garnish Equipment:
*I use DiAronno Almond liquor
** In a pan, heat ¼ cup demerara sugar with less than ¼ cup water. Stir some before putting on the heat as you might need a little more water.
Old Fashioned
2 oz bourbon
1/4 oz simple syrup (Here used demenura- a raw dark sugar)
2 large dashes bitters
Fill with ice and stir
Strain into old fashioned glass with one large ice cube
Garnish with orange peel squeeze oil out first
An Old Fashioned has it's own glass called an Old Fashioned glass or rocks glass.
It looks like a regular drinking glass but shorter and the base is heavier. About 6 to 10 oz
Stay tuned for Part 2.
Tequila Sunrise
2oz Tequila – Blanco – White
4 oz orange juice
Mix with ice- shake
Pour into the glass
Then – pour on the side – slowly – the grenadine
Stir slowly
Makes a sunrise affect
Red white and blue shot
In a shot glass
Add small amount of grenadine
Place the back of the spoon in the glass
Pour slowly, blue curacao
Pour slowly over the back of the spoon, white vodka
Makes a shot of red white and blue
Really red blue and white
Iguana
1oz Tquila
1oz Vodka
Mix with ice
Add ½ oz cream D Cocoa
Pour slowly on the side so it settles to the bottom
Father's Day Ginger Margarita
2 tbsp Sugar or Agave syrup
3/4 oz Triple sec
1/2 oz Fresh lime juice
1/2 oz Ginger syrup (see below)
1 1/2 oz reposado tequila
I used 2 dried chili peppers - optional but take out the seeds
Put all ingredients into a shaker with ice and shake very well.
Strain into Margarita glass and garnish with lime
To make Ginger syrup
1 large ginger - Peel and cut small pieces
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
Simmer for 10 minutes
Peel the ginger with the back of a spoon
Let cool - refrigerate - should last a month
I heard a trick that if you put 1 shot of vodka in, it will hold up better.
Bonus drink
Mint Julep
A great Father's Day drink. It's very cold and refreshing.
How to make
Use a regular large glass if you don't have a metal Julep glass
Add 8 mint leaves and 1/4 oz simple syrup
Muddle lightly - don't crush the mint too much
2 ounces bourbon
Stir
Add crushed ice
Stir again
Garnish with mint and add a straw.
I saw a nice trick of putting the straw near the mint so you smell the mint when you take a sip.
The Moscow Mule is a very refreshing drink with Vodka and Ginger Beer. Here, we compare the traditional way with the standard ginger beer and another with ginger syrup and seltzer.
Moscow Mule
2 oz Vodka
½ oz fresh lime juice
Stir with a lot of ice
If you build it in a mixing glass, pour into a
Moscow Mule copper cup or into a rocks glass.
Add 3 oz either ginger beer or
1 oz ginger syrup and 2 oz seltzer
Add 3 dashes citrus bitters or any other of the bitters.
Serve with ice and a slice of lime.
We throw back some of the best-known brands of Rye, Bourbon and Scotch and Yaakov gives some history and background.
In honor of National Margarita Day, we are making a fresh Margarita and then a Margarita with a Kick.
Margarita - Classic
Pour 2 oz of tequila to your tin.
0.5 oz Tripple Sec (orange liqueur)
0.5 oz of Cointreau
1 oz fresh squeezed lime juice
Add ice and cap off your tin.
Shake for about 20 seconds.
Double strain the contents of your tin into the drinking glass.
Fill glass with large cubes of ice.
Garnish with lime slice.
For a spicy Margarita
Add 2 to 3 thin slices of hot pepper to your tin. Pour 0.25 ounce of fresh lime juice to the tin. Lightly muddle your peppers to extract oils - Don't crush them too much - not to a mush
Then continue above.
My Secret Margarita With a Kick
Same as above but substitute
3 oz Tequila
1 oz Lemon cello or lemon liqueur for the lime juice
1 oz Cointreau not 1/2 Triple Sec
This has no Juice and will be stronger but the same basic flavors.
A side by side comparison on the age-old question of shaken vs. stirred while enjoying a martini. Was James Bond correct in choosing shaken? A scientific, or at least fun comparison.
Martini- Shaken vs Stirred
3 oz Vodka or Gin
1 oz vermouth
Some people add 4 dashes of bitters
Lots of ice
Either shake or stir
Strain into martini glass.
Add olive- usually an odd number
Or lemon peel- squeeze to express oils
Add some of the olive brine for dirty martini
I have used a large olive stuffed with garlic- WOW
Best way to serve drinks to your friends during Super Bowl LIV and Oscars 92.
Mexican bulldog or a Corona Rita
1 1/2 cup Tequila
6 oz triple sec
6 oz lime juice (3 limes)
4 oz simple syrup
3 bottles of beer – Corona or something light
Put all ingredients – except the beer- in the pitcher and shake or stir
It doesn’t make much difference here because the beer will blend it again.
Add the beer
Then put in the ice
I went to a friend’s house and they asked me to make the drinks. Home bartending becomes an episode of Chopped.
Adam and Yaakov discuss a stash of forgotten liquor discovered in a Brooklyn basement after 40+ years, and offer some helpful hints on the best drinks for New Year's Eve.
This is a podcast about the regular person at home who wants to have a drink with friends or just have a drink after a day of work. We want to enjoy the best cocktails, beer and whiskey responsibly, experimenting with new flavors and mixes and finding the perfect drink for the perfect occasion. Hosted by two friends who have been drinking together for almost 30 years.