The focus of this year’s conference was whisk(e)y, so we gathered in Louisville, Kentucky. After a day of distillery and cooperage tours (followed by cocktail and spirit tastings galore), we gathered at Huber’s Orchard and Winery (the home of the Starlight Distillery) across the border in Borden, Indiana for a series of sessions about distillation and the liquor industry. Here are a few highlights from the conference:

Informal Product Tastings
Both at the start and later in the conference, we had opportunities to try each other’s products and talk about what we’re doing. The first night, a group of whiskey producers (and one rum) poured samples for other attendees and talked about their products and companies. This group is very informal, and everyone is very approachable, which makes for a really fun and informative tasting.

A couple of days later, many folks brought their products to the conference for more tasting and discussion.

Cooperage Tour
This was my second tour of a cooperage, and they are fascinating places if you like whiskey. This year, we went to Independent Stave’s cooperage in Lebanon, KY. Unfortunately, they did not allow photographs within the cooperage, so I’m substituting a photo from the Bluegrass Cooperage.

These places are very loud, with lots of big machines and quite a few men running them and ensuring the process goes smoothly (didn’t see any women, I looked). Starting from logs, they season the staves and then dry & process them to form barrels. It’s a fairly complex process, and each distillery requires different levels of wood seasoning and barrel char.

Tasting with Parker Beam
We toured the Makers Mark distillery in Loretto and also visited Heaven Hill’s facility in Bardstown. Both are beautiful,and we had great weather. At Heaven Hill, we were treated to a private tasting with master distiller Parker Beam (pictured). He walked us through a tasting of Bernheim Wheat Whiskey and the Evan Williams Single Barrel.

Craft Whiskey Distillers Panel
After our day of tours, we gathered for a day of focused conference sessions. The Huber facility is beautiful and suited our conference beautifully. They have a still on the premises, which was running throughout the conference, and they have a really nice conference space (and don’t miss their fried chicken, its fantastic). The first panel discussion, about craft whiskey distilling, included Jess Graber from Stranahan’s Whiskey in Colorado, Ralph Erenzo from Tuthilltown Spirits in New York, Don Poffenroth from Dry Fly Distilling in Washington, and Rick Wasmund from Copper Fox Distillery in Virginia. Bill Owen from the American Distilling Institute led the panel discussion.

These four talked about their challenges in getting started (and their financial investments), their current outputs, and some of the lessons they have learned along the way. All were forthright, painting a true picture of what their experience has been in starting their distilleries and selling their products. This session was a real eye-opener for everyone in attendance, especially those who were new to artisan distilling.

Jim Murray Tasting
One afternoon, half of us were led in a blind whiskey tasting by Jim Murray. Each whiskey was a surprise - it was not in fact what your palate suggested it was. The biggest surprise for me was the last whiskey we tasted. It was rich, complex and a bit peaty – it tasted like a well-made single malt Scotch that had probably aged for at least 12 years.

What was it? A 3-year old whiskey made in India(!). Mr. Murray said that because of the extreme heat in Bangalore where the whiskey is made, the aging process goes much faster. In fact, he said that with just 2 more years in the barrel, this whiskey would be undrinkable. The whiskey was called Amrut cask strength, and I would highly recommend seeking it out if you can find it.

Evening Meals and Cocktails
After the tours and conference sessions were over, many of us ventured out into Louisville for dinner, cocktails and conversations. It was a great opportunity to talk informally and get to know each other better. There were a lot of fun times, a lot of laughter, and great memories.

We had a great meal at Jeff Ruby’s (in-house dry aging), and a great meal and great cocktails at Proof on Main (bar in the photo). If you go to Louisville, go to the Old Seelbach Bar for a drink or two – I recommend the Speakeasy Select bourbon & rye. They are the house brand at the Seelbach, and I couldn’t find them anywhere else.

All in all, a wonderful experience. I learned a lot, made some new friends and had some great times. What more could you want from a conference?

For more details on the conference, check out the more detailed day-by-day summary on my personal blog, Thinking of Drinking and visit the American Distilling Institute website.

Finding Swedish Punsch
Some bloggers have written about Swedish Punsch because it is an essential ingredient in a certain classic cocktails. In fact, the pen name of a famous cocktail writer (Dr. Cocktail aka Ted Haigh) is also the name of a wonderful cocktail using Swedish Punsch (which happens to be one of his favorites).

This spirit is extraordinarily difficult to obtain in the US, even though it is quite common in Sweden. I’ve never seen it in a store, and have only read tales of purchasing it online. So imagine my delight when my friend brought the bottle over!

It Starts with Batavia Arrack
Swedish Punsch is typically made from a combination of Batavia Arrack, white rum or other neutral spirit, citrus juice, sugar, water and spices. Long ago, people mixed their own. At some point, Swedish liquor companies started selling pre-mixed versions, and several became popular. Vin & Sprit (owners of Absolut, at least for now) produce the Carlshamn’s brand.

Until recently, finding Batavia Arrack was also a problem in the US. Luckily for the cocktail explorers among us, one was recently introduced in the United States called Batavia-Arrack van Oosten. It’s made in Austria and imported by Haus Alpenz (importers of several other fine products).

Batavia Arrack is distilled from sugarcane and java red rice, and has a very distinctive flavor and smell. It definitely shares some properties with white rum and a somewhat similar nose (depending on the rum), albeit with more spice. However, it has a lingering finish on its own and a menthol-like quality that lingers on the palate.

Carlshamn’s Swedish Punsch vs. Homemade
The bottle of Batavia Arrack has a recipe for Swedish Punsch on the label, so I mixed it up and compared it to the bottle from Sweden. It was amazing how similar they were in terms of the nose – they smelled virtually identical. Most of the aroma was coming from the Batavia Arrack, so that makes sense.

The tastes were notably different. The Carlshamn’s was syrupy and sweet, with hints of spice and a lingering menthol flavor. The homemade version had that menthol flavor, but was crisper and lighter in body, with more citrus notes and a lot less sweetness. If I were trying to make it more similar, I would add more simple syrup and less lemon juice.

Punsch that Drink
One touted option for drinking Swedish Punsch is to drink it on its own, either very cold or hot. I tried that, and while it was interesting, it’s not something I’ll likely be seeking out as a favorite choice.

I’ll soon be trying some cocktails with it (both versions), and will report back on favorites. In the meantime, here is at least one of Dr. Cocktail’s favorite versions (see msg 6) of the Doctor Cocktail:

Dr. Cocktail
2/3 Fresh Lime Juice
1/3 Swedish Punsch

Shake ingredients over ice, strain into a cocktail glass.

Interestingly, a few Swedish travel sites mention pairing Swedish Punsch with pea soup, an online discussion group has been discussing a bunch of other recipes for Punsch, and one blogger has a recipe for a Punsch Parfait that looks pretty good. Perhaps I’ll have to try those too.

Please add a comment if you have a favorite recipe to recommend. Otherwise, stay tuned for an update!

At any rate, one of the other interesting thing we’ve noticed is that certain brands sometimes have odd things happen that make their way into the liquor store and/or bar. Here are a few of the examples we’ve seen:

• Over-Dipped Wax - at The Alembic in San Francisco, we saw a bottle of Makers Mark that was over-dipped into the red wax. Josey, our friendly bartender, told us that every once in a great while the little old ladies who dip the bottles get to over-dip one of them, and sometimes they make it out of the warehouse. We saw one recently here in Chicago - unfortunately it wasn’t for sale.

• Upside-down Labels - We’ve seen a couple of upside down labels from the folks at Templeton Rye. One of their founders told us that they have some older gents putting on the labels, and every once in awhile an upside down one sneaks out of the warehouse. Here’s a photo of an upside down label from a bottle of Cointreau that we also recently found. We needed it for an event, so I figured why not buy the one with the funny label.

• Crazy Glassware - A lot of glassware gets sold in liquor stores. Sometimes its just accessories or plastic cups for parties, and sometimes it actually comes out of gift sets that didn’t sell or weren’t requested. Here’s one of the crazy glasses we found at a store recently. It was on clearance for $.25, which is why I had to have it - it does have some potential for mischief, after all.

Have you seen anything weird or unusual that you hunt for at the liquor store (or perhaps that I should keep an eye out for)?

Clyde May’s

Conecuh Ridge claims to be “Alabama Style Whiskey” (a loose term) made from an old moonshine recipe developed by Clyde May, a legendary local bootlegger who sold his homemade hooch for decades, before eventually going to jail for moonshining. Mr. May died in 1990, and his son Kenny May searched for a way to honor his memory.

The Official State Spirit of Alabama
Kenny May founded the Conecuh Ridge Distillery and introduced the whiskey legally in 2002 in Alabama. The whiskey is not (and the legal version never was) made in Alabama, and it’s not made from the corn/sugar blend that Mr. May used. Instead, it’s made in Kentucky using a corn/rye/barley mash, with Alabama spring water that has been trucked to the distillery. Regardless, Mr. May reportedly felt the spirit was close to his father’s recipe, and he worked hard to sell it.

Alabama (a control state) swiftly put the whiskey into their stores, and sales were brisk at first. The Alabama legislature even designated the spirit the official spirit of the state in 2004, after overriding the governor’s veto of the bill. This veto & override stirred up a firestorm of controversy (and fueled sales), and certain officials in the government were not happy about the situation.

Sales Halted in Alabama
Later in 2004, the Alabama Liquor Commission reported that sales had declined, and they decided to pull the spirit from the shelves, relegating it to special order status. In December 2004, Kenny May was arrested for selling liquor without license, and selling to an underage person. Kenny eventually pled guilty, and the company’s license was immediately revoked (and Alabama stores stopped selling his product). The company’s perspective (an online posting by one of its executives then) was that Mr. May was set up by the Liquor Commission. After his guilty plea, others stepped in and took over management of the company, and they continued to produce and sell the whiskey in other states over the next few years.

In late 2005, some Georgia-based investors reportedly stepped in and purchased a controlling interest in the company. In mid-2006, the whiskey returned to shelves in Alabama liquor stores under this new management, and the whiskey is still designated as the official spirit of the state (despite attempts by certain parts of the legislature to revoke the designation).

So the May family is no longer involved in selling or making Claude May’s Conecuh Ridge Alabama Style Whiskey, and it’s currently run by Georgia company and made in Kentucky. It seems like it hasn’t been going too well since then, either - sales are reportedly sluggish in Alabama, and the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last year (the case is still pending). Wikipedia says there is a shareholder derivative suit pending also.

So enough of the history, how does it taste?
Given the story and reported popularity of the spirit in certain circles, I was hoping to really like it. However, I wondered if the flavor had changed over the years as the company changed hands, and my friendly bartender thought that it had changed somewhat. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find an older bottle to try for comparison.

The whiskey had a strong maple aroma, and a lingering maple syrup flavor - it was a bit sweeter than I expected (and than I prefer). It has a bit of spice, but is a bit simpler and lighter in flavor than my preferred bourbons or whiskeys.

The few online reviews and comments I found were similar, although a couple really raved about it.

Though it wasn’t my favorite, I’ll surely remember the story, and perhaps now you will too. I think it would have been fun to meet Mr. May, he surely must have been a character.

A Brief History of Rose’s Lime
According to Wikipedia, Lauchlin Rose (hence the name Rose’s) invented lime cordial in the 1860’s. Mr. Rose patented a method to preserve citrus juice that did not require alcohol, and the British Royal Navy was at that time required to provide a daily lime ration to sailors (hence the term “limey”). A lime cordial ration + gin = happy sailors who don’t get scurvy (or so they thought then). Rose’s has pretty much been around ever since then, and was cemented as an ingredient for the gimlet in the movie The Long Goodbye.

The Homemade Version
I started with a recipe I found on Wikipedia. Unfortunately, it was too sweet and did not have enough lime for my taste. Head to head with Rose’s, it just didn’t stand up. I though it had potential so I tinkered (and tinkered and tinkered). Here’s what you need to make about 3 cups of lime cordial:

• 1.5 cups Water
• ¾ cup Sugar
• ¾ tsp Citric Acid (found in fruits, granular, and called “Sour Salt”, available at big grocery stores)
• 3/8 tsp Tartaric Acid (also found in fruits, also granular, and available at homebrewing stores and home winemaking supply shops)
• Juice of 4 limes (~¾ cup)
• Rind of 2 limes

Stir sugar, citric acid and tartaric acid together. Bring water to a boil, then add sugar mixture. Stir thoroughly to dissolve sugar mixture into water. Add lime juice and rind, and stir. Heat mixture for 1-2 minutes on high heat, stirring often. Cool to room temperature. Refrigerate overnight, then strain out lime rind. Refrigerate for 24 hours before using. Stored in the refrigerator, it should keep better than simple syrup.

Making a Gimlet
People use a variety of recipes for gimlets, anywhere from 4:1 gin to lime cordial all the way to 1:1. With this lime cordial, I tend to like a 3:1 ratio of gin to cordial. Of course, the ratio will vary depending on the gin you use. I highly recommend a flavorful, spicy gin for a good gimlet, and experimentation to find your favorite ratio.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Falling Pears Martini
4 parts Vodka
1 part Pear Liqueur (such as Mathilde)
4 parts Pear Puree or Nectar (available at many grocery stores, just ask)
Ground cinnamon and fresh pear for garnish

Shake ingredients over ice, strain into champagne flute. Garnish with dash of cinnamon and a slice of fresh pear.
 

Fresh Appletini
2 parts Vodka
Dash of Cinnamon Schnapps
3-4 parts Apple Juice (to taste)
Cinnamon & Apple Slice for garnish

Shake first three ingredients over ice, strain into martini glass. Add dash of cinnamon and apple slice. Can also be served warm - heat juice, stir ingredients together and serve!
 

Neapolitan Hot Chocolate
1 part Vanilla Vodka
4 parts Hot Chocolate
Whipped Cream and Strawberry for garnish

Add vanilla vodka to hot cocoa in a mug, stir well. Top with whipped cream and garnish with a strawberry on the rim.