Bald Borough
John Berens John Berens

Bald Borough

A brief break from the summery cocktails for something dark and boozy. For me, this type of drink is always in season, though admittedly enjoyed inside more than out in the intense heat. It’s a Manhattan riff, subbing some of the sweet vermouth for Amontillado sherry and Fernet Vallet. Both of these are fairly dry, so a touch of syrup helps balance the equation.

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Manhattan Old Fashioned
John Berens John Berens

Manhattan Old Fashioned

I’m excited to share the first of a couple drinks featuring an amazing Colorado-based distillery, @lawswhiskey. I had the chance to meet some of their team recently and they kindly sent some of their amazing whiskey. There are also some cool personal ties to their story that I’ll share during my next post. To start things off, I wanted to keep it simple, but of course with a twist.

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Vespermania
John Berens John Berens

Vespermania

This sounds a bit like a bunch of cocktail nerds got out of hand and held a WWF-style brawl. Don't lie, you would totally watch that, wouldn't you? What I actually have for you today, as with many of my drinks, is something born out of curiousity and availability. What was available: a LOT of barrel-aged (pink) vesper (check out my post from 1/5/22 for details). It turns out that when you barrel-age a cocktail, you get... (checks notes) a barrel FULL of cocktail. As someone who infrequently makes the same drink more than a couple times, that is a *lot* of vesper.

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Plumcot manhattan
John Berens John Berens

Plumcot manhattan

Okay, I’m back from my brief detour toward summer and today I have a Fall Manhattan riff that definitely pushes the boundaries of what this type of build can bring. Here I use a light Japanese whiskey that brings in notes of green apple and stone fruit to highlight a homemade plumcot (plum/apricot hybrid) liqueur I recently made. I mean they were practically giving them away at the store, I had do something…

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