My favorite mad scientists, the fine distillers at St. George Spirits have just released their first gin… and their second… and their third.  This delectable trio of new gins is incredibly diverse and unique. When I mentioned the endeavor in

A friend recently mentioned how one crafty bartender had treated her to his bitter variation of the Last Word, swapping Angostura for  gin in the  traditional recipe. I had to give it a try, and found it biting and aggressive

In the 18th and 19th centuries, when the British Royal Navy rationed rum to mariners, it wasn’t Bacardi Gold.

This stuff had to be fiery enough to fend off the elements, so to ensure their booze wasn’t being watered down, seamen

I was treated to lunch by two fine, upstanding gentlemen from France (no, that’s not an oxymoron), and we tasted through a couple of great Cognac cocktails from Michael Mina and then four of their fine brandies1, but

My latest article for DrinkMe Magazine just rolled off the presses, but if you can’t pick up a copy, here’s the piece I wrote, accompanied by some great photos by my dear friend Liza.

Click the image to link to the

Update: sign up for the email newsletter to get a $7 off coupon, bringing the cost under a buck (+$5 shipping).

For  crooked bar owners, roofy dosers and those who just can’t drink a whole beer in one sitting, there is now

I used to brew my own beer back in the 90s, and despite excellent results, I’ve never drank a ton of beer at home, so a 5-gallon batch left me with an excess of malty goodness, the urge to sing

In my home town, there’s a rural hipster cafe where they serve a delightful little concoction called the $5 Shake.

It goes something like this:

$5Shake

16 ounces imperial stout, like Otter Creek Imerial Russian Stout
1.5 ounces espresso
1/2 ounce pure Vermont

As I tried to explain the beer brewing process to TSB a few weeks ago, I remembered that she is more of a kinesthetic and visual learner, and not so much auditory.  I knew she’d get it once she tried

Wine was a four-letter word Sunday morning, which I spent at the SFChefs.Food.Wine beer pairing boot camp with Beer Chef Bruce Paton and City Beer Store owner Craig Wathen.  I would have liked a few hard and fast rules, but

I rarely leave San Francisco, except by plane, and the occasional trek north to wine country, so being able to get the tasting room experience without actually leaving the city would be a blessing.

Press Club has answered my lazy cry

As posted yesterday, I made a batch of nocino with TSB, but we also made  Vin De Noix, a French walnut wine.

Vin de Noix

10 green walnuts, soaked overnight and quartered
500 ml vodka
1/2 c maple syrup
1/2 vanilla bean
2 cloves
2 orange slices
1

Some people have a magic touch, and TSB‘s  furtive fingers mix the meanest sangria I’ve ever tasted, but she also makes the process quick and simple, despite the complexities that other sangria masters claim the drink requires.  The following are

Recently released by the Scandinavian Design Center, the Baggy Winecoat is a poorly named purse that holds the internal bag from boxed wine with a convenient pour spout and sturdy base for fashionable picnic drinking.

In this age of

As mentioned yesterday, a shorter version of this article is in the latest issue of Drink Me Magazine.

For most, wine cocktails are what we drank while backpacking across Europe at 19 years old – before we knew better. 

Ice Cream Bar (815 Cole St. at Frederick), a throwback to the 1930′s soda fountain/ice cream parlor is just about to open in Cole Valley, and while the ice cream sundaes deserve their own write-up, the soda program from Texas/Rickhouse

For my 3rd piece of SF Cocktail Week coverage, I attended an excellent seminar on hosting a cocktail brunch.

Read my article on CitySip

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Rundown.com, a daily local email targeted at young urban males ran a piece I wrote today on where to watch football if you aren’t a 49ers fan in SF.

Read all about it on The Rundown

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Entertaining, but terribly misleading, the seminar on “How San Francisco Saved the Irish Whiskey Category” dedicated only 3% of the session to the topic as advertised. Thank heavens they were serving great cocktails!

Read my article on CitySip

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SF Cocktail Week was a blast, particularly the molecular mixology event put on by Cocktail Lab.

You can read my coverage on CitySip, which just launched in SF!

Note: I’m writing more for other food and beverage sites, so I will post