I grew up in pubs. I was raised by my grandparents, who were relief managers for various breweries across Wales and the South-East of England. I don’t know how that sentence translates into American, so to keep a short story long, the brewery hires a manager but the manager turns out to be useless, ruins the pub’s finances and reputation etc., so my grandparents would step in for a few months, steady the ship as best as possible, before handing the business over to the next awful manager. Sort of like Gus Hiddink at Chelsea.
Anyway, I was pouring pints before I was tall enough to see over the bar, and I’ve slowly shagged my way across Europe working in heavily beer-orientated bars (a couple G&T, Cuba Libre, Moscow Mule, etc), but I’m moving to New York City next year where I’ve read there’s a lot more competition for bartenders, so I took the opportunity during the first lockdown to build a home bar and learn the history of mixology, particularly in regards the US.
I think it’s going pretty well. I read a lot of books and drank a lot of drinks. I took a few online classes, which I’d not necessarily recommend for the price, but they at least served as encouragement that I was doing things right. If nothing else, it’s provided me with an excuse whenever I want to get a bit messy; ‘Yeah, better make a couple more Daiquiris, since it’s research for my career…’.
Here’s the home bar as it stands.
Anyone else interested in this?
Any bartenders, amateur or professional?
If not mixed drinks, what’s your regular poison?
Drinking is a taboo in my country. But I have broke this among many other during my university years. The only mixing we had, at least as far as I can remember, is Bloody Mary. My favorite was Smirnoff with ice.
Sorry I’m of no help, 2 bottles of red wine is fine as far as I’m concerned.
When I was younger Cider was my thing, Uni moved to real ale.
I like whiskey, with water and maybe ice if I can be bothered to open the freezer compartment…
I’d love to dive into this more with you. I do a bunch at home as a hobby. Homemade syrups etc etc. I’m
Big on whiskey and gin drinks. Those are my two comfort areas though I’m always trying to expand my
Knowledge. I’m here in the US and happy to provide any insight on drinks
Or culture I can
I am with you here. Shined many a bar with the sleeve of my coat. Bartended when I traveled. Have been aspiring to build a pub shed before they were popular, and the suite in my basement will become a billiards room when my nephew moves out
Big into florals and some of the science behind the creation of spirits and mixes alike. Great book. I wasn’t big into floral cocktails, but my wife is, which is why I read the book! Ha! Florals are huge in the US especially during Spring/Summer/Fall
Cocktail Codex
Great overall book, ton of knowledge. Lots of the “basics” giving necessary building blocks for other spin offs/creations. You got experience so some of this will be redundant but a lot of it will be nice to reread.
The Savory
Simply because of the history. It is a fun read.
Happy to chat more, not sure I answered you or this is what you were looking for. If not please ignore it ha!
Cheers for the recommendations.
I have been reading Wondrich’s Imbibe, and Punch.
The latter doesn’t provide much in terms of modern, easily sourced recipes, but it’s a fun read regardless.
Also have a copy of Smuggler’s Cove by Martin Cate, the rich history of Tiki, but it’s killing my wallet sourcing the various Caribbean rums here in Denmark.
That said, I got a few bottles of Smith & Cross, and a Martinique agricole; the Mai Tais made me shiver.
Favourite drink this last week is the Trinidad Sour:
1.5oz Angostura
0.5oz lemon
0.5oz lime
0.5oz gomme/simple
Egg white
The short answer to this is that it doesn’t. The model of breweries owning pubs is not really seen in North America, except microbreweries with immediately attached tap rooms. Closest would be restaurant chains, not sure if they would have any sort of relief managers.
I almost never drink at home anymore. I absolutely love the social aspect of going for a drink, but at 43 the physical side of it is becoming increasingly unpleasant. I’ll suffer through that if it means a fun afternoon of kicking back and shooting the shit with your friends. Not for the sake of sitting at home by myself though.
What that does mean though is that almost all the booze I have at home is top notch stuff. If I’m only going to have 1 drink its going to be a good one. It also means that my drink cabinet is limited. There is no point having all these interesting bitters and syrups if you use them so infrequently. The result is my go to are classic but simple drinks like G&T, but with only top notch gin (Hendricks) and lime and rosmary out of the garden.
Congrats on the promotion!
I always intend to try more Speyside, but I get distracted by the Islays.
My missus has decided she wants to get into whiskey over Christmas, and I’m not going to argue with her. She likes port and sherry, so I’m thinking of getting her a Macallan and a Balvenie.
With any luck, she’ll hate them.
I’ve been trying out more Irish lately, also. Got this wee shipment yesterday.
