Whiskey Book Review; The Business of Spirits

I have a confession to make: I am a nerd. Let's be clear, I'm not a Star Wars nerd or a World of Warcraft nerd, although there's nothing wrong with those, but I am very nerdy about certain topics. One of them, as evidenced by this blog, is whiskey. Another of my nerdy interests is business & economics. I read Forbes just for fun and I get a real kick out of reading over Harvard Business School case studies. My most recent reading material, The Business of Spirits by Noah Rothbaum tapped into my nerdy interests in both whiskey and business, making for a double dose of nerdy reading pleasure.

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Saturday Night Whiskey Song II

Elton John sang that Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting which I couldn't agree with more, but Saturday nights are also great for drinking a bit of whiskey and singing along to some of the great songs that have been written about whiskey over the years. So, every Saturday afternoon check back here for a fresh whiskey-related song to get your Saturday night started off on the right foot.

This week I'm offering a newer song from one of the rising stars in country music, Rain is a Good Thing by Luke Bryan. This is a fun one, so shoot down that shot of Old Crow and get ready to party.

Luke Bryan   More CMT Music   More CMT Music Videos

Building A Home Bar on a Budget - Part 1 of ???

When building your home bar always keep in mind that it's yours, so make it to your liking! If you don't like my advice please don't take it, I just want to help you think through the very fun project of building your home bar!

A good home bar serves many purposes. It acts as a form of home decoration and a conversation starter; it allows for at-home pre-gaming before a night out on the town; and most importantly a home bar provides quick and varied drinks for impromptu guests, dinner parties, and nightcaps after those long days at work. I get a lot of questions from friends about the best way to put together a home bar on a budget, so I thought I'd share a few tips over the course of several posts, starting with this one.

The first thing to keep in mind when starting your home bar is your budget - set a budget for initial bar setup as well as a monthly budget for replenishing your favorite beverages and gradually adding new ones. If you stick to a budget you can actually save money by creating a place for you and your friends to have a few drinks for less than you'd spend going out to the local bar.

After setting a budget you've got to decide where and how you're going to display your bar. There are many options for this ranging from a simple window sill bottle lineup to re-purposing salvaged, antique furniture (my choice as you see in the photo) to building a custom bar from scratch (my neighbors did this recently with a lot of success). Be creative and find a spot in your house that will be convenient for making and serving drinks - think kitchen or dining room - and has plenty of space to display your bottles and store your bar gear such as bottle openers, glassware, etc. If you have kids you might also want to consider putting your bar somewhere that can be locked or made off-limits when you're not using it. After picking the spot for your bar spend a few minutes visualizing how you'll arrange things. This will help you get a realistic idea of your bar's capacity before heading to the liquor store to stock up - if you only have space for ten bottles maybe you shouldn't buy five different vodkas (in my opinion you should never buy five different vodkas anyway, but that's another post...).

Once you've established a budget and set up a space for your bar it's time to go shopping. I'll cover the basic booze you should pick up on your first bar-stocking trip in my next post, but don't forget these all-important, non-potable items that every bar should have:

1. Glasses - you'll want an assortment of glasses including shot glasses, rocks glasses, snifters, wine glasses, and pint glasses - flea markets, thrift stores, and stores like Marshall's and TJMaxx are great places to scout for bargains on glassware.
2. Shakers & strainers - it's best to have a couple so that you can make different mixed drinks without having to wash out your shaker after every one
3. Corkscrew - my favorite is made by Pedrini and doubles as a bottle opener
4. Bottle Opener - kill two birds with one stone by getting a combination corkscrew/bottle opener
5. Jigger - this is the little measuring cup used to measure 1oz & 1/2oz amounts of booze.
6. Pourers - great for parties, pourers fit into the tops of  your bottles and make pouring drinks a breeze.
7. Muddler - for muddled drinks like Old Fashioneds, Mint Juleps, and Mojitos - I like wooden ones
8. Long-Handled Spoon - for stirring drinks
9. Coasters - I like to steal these from bars to create a kitschy collection, don't tell on me!
10. Drink Book - a book of drink recipes is essential for every home bar - you can't go wrong with the Mr. Boston: Official Bartender's Guide.
11. BONUS - mini fridge - if you have a college dorm-style mini fridge hanging out in your basement there's no better way to put it to use than as a bar-side storage spot for beer, white wine, and chilled liquors.

Check back soon for my next post on the fun part of building your home bar - stocking it up with booze.

Whiskey Jim's Mad Rascal Drink Recipe

The Mad Rascal is a drink you might not have heard of before because I made it up! It all started when I was bartending at a wedding and we had a couple bottles of whiskey at the bar, which of course led to some lady ordering a whiskey sour. What we didn't have was any sort of sour mix, but not wanting to disappoint a lady I improvised by mixing Jack Daniels with cranberry juice, orange juice, and a bit of Rose's sweetened lime juice. I threw in a lime and a cherry and handed it off with a smile. I knew I had a hit when the same lady came back for three more raving that it was the best whiskey sour she'd ever had.

If you're familiar with mixed drinks you'll recognize that this recipe is very similar to a Madras which calls for vodka, cranberry juice, and orange juice. I named it by turning Madras into Mad Rascal which seems more appropriate for a whiskey drink. Since it's made up you can feel free to call it whatever you want. This is a drink that can't help but taste good, but play around with the proportions to find your ideal mix. The steps are as follows:

1. Fill an 8-12 oz glass to the brim with cubed ice.
2. Add 2-3 oz of whiskey - the original was made with Jack Daniels, but you can use a Canadian whiskey for a smoother drink or whatever you have handy - this drink really isn't about the flavor of the whiskey...sorry.
3. Add equal parts orange and cranberry juice until glass is almost full.
4. Top off with Rose's sweetened lime juice (available at any grocery)
5. To mix & chill pour into a mixing glass, swish it around and pour back into the serving glass.
6. Garnish with whatever fresh fruit you have handy and enjoy!

Oh Taste & See: Old Crofter Blended Scotch Whisky

For my first scotch tasting on this blog I thought I'd pull out the bottle of Old Crofter Deluxe Old Blended Scotch Whisky that's been gathering dust in my liquor closet for close to a year. Old Crofter is blended by Smith & Henderson of Edinburgh, but a quick Google search makes me think that it's no longer in production - I could find no real information on Old Crofter or Smith & Henderson. I believe it was a featured product at Total Wine & More in Claymont, DE when I bought it, but even their website has no mention of the brand now.

To my surprise I may have accidentally collected a bottle of out-of-production Scotch! I suppose that is kinda cool given that it was a price-driven impulse purchase (around $13 for the 750mL bottle), but I'm not really the collecting type, so let's go ahead and have a taste of this one.

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Bar Hopping: Royal Tavern, Philadelphia, PA

Although it is not a whiskey-focused bar, and doesn't pretend to be, Royal Tavern in Philadelphia's Queen Village neighborhood is a great neighborhood watering hole that also happens to have a very nice whiskey selection. I went there for dinner last night, and was pleasantly surprised at everything this low-key bar has to offer.

The best thing about Royal is hands-down the food. They have a small but diverse menu that includes many vegetarian and vegan options, as well as a good number of rotating specials at lunch and dinner. Last night they had a Greek lamb burger on special that was amazing - a juicy lamb patty with feta cheese and an awesome olive tapenade spread. Combined with their just-crispy enough fries and a cold beer from their great draft selection this was a perfect meal to devour at the bar. They also offer one of the best bar snacks in town - freshly popped popcorn with pecorino cheese and truffle butter.

Enough about the awesome food, you're probably wondering how their whiskey selection was right? Well it's not bad at all for a neighborhood joint. They had a nicely organized selection of all the standard bourbons, scotches, and Irish whiskeys including most of the common top-shelf brands. They also featured a few bottles that you don't see at most neighborhood pubs, such as a nice bottle of 14 year old Oban hanging out on the Scotch shelf, a 12 year old Redbreast Irish Whiskey, and a bottle of Sazerac Rye which is a whiskey you're starting to see in more bars around Philly, but certainly is not at all ubiquitous yet. I enjoyed a glass of the Sazerac, and I believe it was the only whiskey I saw poured during the two hours or so that I was there. It's not the type of bar where you'll be talking whiskey with the bartender or other patrons, but I didn't get a funny look when ordering either.

So, if you're looking for an outstanding whiskey bar in Philadelphia I can suggest better places than Royal Tavern. But if you're looking for an awesome place to take a few friends for dinner and drinks where everyone will be happy, including any whiskey snobs in the group, then Royal is the spot. It has amazing food, a nice laid-back vibe, and enough high-quality whiskeys to keep you occupied while you're enjoying your dinner.

Saturday Night Whiskey Song

Elton John sang that Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting which I couldn't agree with more, but Saturday nights are also great for drinking a bit of whiskey and singing along to some of the great songs that have been written about whiskey over the years. So, every Saturday afternoon check back here for a fresh whiskey-related song to get your Saturday night started off on the right foot.

And what better way to start this weekly tradition than a classic from the Redheaded Stranger himself...Willie Nelson's Whiskey River:



If this song makes you thirsty look for a bottle of Willie Nelson's appropriately named bourbon Old Whiskey River, bottled by Heaven Hill Distillery.

Whiskey Bars Popping Up Everywhere in Philadelphia

Over the past few years the bar scene in Philadelphia has really taken off. Dozens of new brewpubs, craft-beer dens, and "fashionable speakeasy" style bars, have opened in various neighborhoods across the city, and most of them seem to be doing plenty of business, which is great to see. Recently we've even seen the addition of a few new whiskey-focused bars, to compete with some of the great whiskey bars that have been serving the thirsty in Philadelphia for years.

While these new kids on the block certainly bring their "A game" in terms of whiskey selection, creative cocktails, and interesting atmosphere, there's still something to be said for the old classics. Philadelphia's classic whiskey dens continue to serve awesome drinks, with a side of friendly bar-chat, in an understated, self-assured way that the newly opened joints just can't match.

Over the next few weeks I'll be visiting and reviewing some of Philadelphia's best whiskey bars. I'll definitely visit the bars listed in the poll to the left, and I'm happy to add to my list based on suggestions from my readers. My current vote for the best whiskey bar in Philadelphia is Southwark. We'll see if that preference changes as I visit the other bars with fresh eyes.

Barrel-Aged Beers from Yards Brewery

It's beer week here in Philadelphia - a ten-day-long week during which almost 1,000 beer related events take place all over the Greater Philadelphia region. It's a great time to experiment by trying unique and delicious beers, so last night I visited the Yard's Brewery and was treated to tastes of a couple of special brews with a hint of whiskey in them. Both of these beers started off as traditional Yards products, but were then aged for a few months in used bourbon barrels acquired from Brown-Forman Corporation of Louisville, KY - the owner of such whiskey brands as Early Times, Old Forester, and Jack Daniels.

The first beer I tasted was a barrel-aged barleywine that was so wonderfully smooth I had a hard time believing that it packed an 11% ABV punch. The bourbon flavors imparted by the barrels give the beer a nice warmth and add a touch of oaky sweetness. Next I tried a porter that had received the same bourbon-barrel treatment, and the result was equally good. The wood helped to mellow out some of the boldness of the straight porter, and gave it a unique mix of flavors that you don't find in run-of-the-mill beers. Both were perfect beers for the gray, rainy day outside - like little liquid fireplaces to make the dreary day seem cozy.

For now Yard's has no plans to mass-produce these two awesome beers, but they are currently available on tap at the Yard's Brewery's in-house bar, so I recommend making your way up Delaware Avenue to have a taste for yourself before it's all gone.

Whiskey Book Review: 99 Drams of Whiskey

I just finished reading 99 Drams of Whiskey: The Accidental Hedonist's Quest for the Perfect Shot and the History of the Drink by Kate Hopkins. Ms. Hopkins is a food writer whose blog Accidental Hedonist covers all things tasty - from beer and whiskey to cheese and candy. 99 Drams is Ms. Hopkins' first book-length effort, and it uses the informal writing style found in her blog to make learning about the history and culture of whiskey entertaining, for whiskey connoisseurs and novices alike.


In the book Ms. Hopkins goes on an international quest to understand our obsession with whiskey. Her interest is sparked by the story of a gentleman whom she refers to throughout the book as Mr. Disposable Income, so named because he purchased (and drank) a bottle of Dalmore 62 Single Highland Malt Scotch Whisky from a hotel bar in Surrey, England for £32,000 ($70,000). Over the course of several weeks of travel the author delves deeply into the world of whiskey in hopes of comprehending how a bottle of brown liquid could be so highly prized.

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