Mike Wright orders a Blue Foot Flanders Red-style ale, a slightly sweet and sour beer with notes of cherries aged in a Pinot Noir barrel. It’s his first time trying the beer despite the fact that he brewed it. The woman behind the bar who brings it to him is oblivious to this detail, despite the fact that Mike is on a bar stool in Southeast Portland at Victory Bar, one of Beetje Brewing’s half-dozen accounts, and it’s five blocks from his house. The definition of nano is that it’s one billionth the size of something, so there are a billion nanometers in one meter. In regards to nanobreweries, the definition takes some liberties, but not many. Compare, for example, Beetje to Budweiser. Anheuser-Busch brewed roughly 100 million barrels of beer in the US alone in 2010. Beetje made and sold less than five. Small time, under capitalized enterprises driven [...]

Rhubarb Blonde Ale. Peanut Butter Chocolate Porter. Lavender Orange-blossom Mead. Smoked Cinnamon Oatmeal Stout. Anyone can throw the kitchen sink into a brew kettle, but it takes more than imagination to make the results sing, which is why these concoctions weren’t just among the stranger beverages I tried recently, they were among the best. The American Homebrewers Association purports that there are 750,000 homebrewers nationwide (that’s almost one out of every 400 Americans). Quite likely, there has been no greater gathering of craftsmen than the 33rd Annual National Homebrewers Conference that took place in San Diego from June 17-19. This AHA-sponsored event once again set a new record for sold-out attendance, having welcomed 1,900 people within the fraternity of homebrewers from all 50 states and Canada. The numbers don’t tell the story, but they’re jaw-dropping nonetheless. Some 1,650 people entered virtually 7,000 homebrews into the competition. Over 700 kegs of [...]

For the ninth year in a row the worlds best mixologists, highest quality distillers, and most successful spirit marketers converged on the French Quarter of New Orleans for Tales of the cocktail. The 2011 Tales was my personal first, but the literal tales that have come from previous years prepared me for the madness that ensued, if not in body at least in mind. There were more seminars than humanly possible to take advantage of unless you brought a team of assistants, since they were double and often triple stacked, not to mention the constantly ongoing tasting rooms, special events, spirited dinners, and street corner networking going on. The amount of information crammed into such a small amount of time is challenging, but if you prioritize and plan your itinerary in advance you can certainly gain a wealth of new knowledge. Hopefully in the future the organizers will record all [...]

We’ve rented out the legendary and incredible man-made floating island on the San Francisco Bay for a private lush evening with live music, delicious drinks (lots of tasty rums) and spirited tastings. What’s more, we’ve teamed up with Spark, a San Francisco based non-profit that supports women-led programs that ignite global change. All profits from the event will go to support Spark’s efforts.

50% off SF Symphony + Free VIP Cocktail Hour ~ Drink Me brings you a Russian concert and Vodka Cocktails (SF VODKA). Do it the Russian way. If you haven’t been out to the Symphony, here’s your chance to go – with drink in hand! Friday, July 8th (Cocktail hour starts at 7pm) To get your tickets: Use code “DrinkMe50off” to purchase tickets at SFsymphony.org Then… Email events@SFSymphony.org to let them know that you will be joining for the cocktail hour  

Is there a better way to start a week than with a whisky tasting?  I didn’t wake up on Monday morning with the usual sense of despair that the work week was just getting started.  My Monday salvation came in the form of the Balvenie Road Show that was held at the Epic Roasthouse on the Embarcadero.  The Balvenie, if you are not familiar with it, is located in Dufftown and is fiercely proud of the fact that it is one of the few remaining family owned distilleries.  The Balvenie also takes pride and promotes that its whiskies are meticulously handcrafted and not the product of a large corporate machine.  And this leads us to their current campaign the Balvenie Road Show. The Road Show is a celebration of those that stay true to traditional crafts and apply their passion, skill and attention to detail in what they create.  The [...]

If you weren’t in New York for the Manhattan Cocktail Classic, you should have been. We headed out for the looong weekend of festivities.  It all kicked off the the grand gala at the New York Public Library (full of acrobats, cocktails from ALL of your favorite spirits and bartenders, and extravagant decorations).  From there, the event continues with classes and events popping up around the city – check out the official guide in our Islands Issue to see exactly what was going on.  Some of our highlights were seeing Padma at the Campari event introduce a fantastic set of performances at The Box (while sipping on delicious Negronis made by Tony Abou-Ganim himself), Pernod Ricard’s British Invasion – chock full of a British band and fish and chips, Espolon’s (kind of creepy, but awesome) tequila party at New York City’s Marble Cemetery, and Death’s Door’s Pig Roast lunch over at Hearth [...]

Booze is a wonderful thing. Insanely wonderful, actually. It’s no exaggeration to state that it ranks right up near the top of humankind’s greatest achievements. As William Faulkner once so-famously opined: “Civilization begins with distillation.” Drinking alcohol effects us in many ways, mentally and physically, and whole fields of scientific research have awakened to studying those effects. What follows is a basic science primer for the recreational drinker.