Tales of the Cocktail 2015

In our modern era that affords the technology of low-pressure distillation and high-speed centrifuges, we still smoke barley over an open fire and crush agave fibers with giant rocks. In this fun demonstration-oriented seminar, we’ll focus on the low-tech methods once used and sometimes still employed in making spirits and cocktails, and talk about whether they produce better booze or merely invoke old-timey nostalgia. Discussions and demonstrations will include processes like clarification with bone and milk solids, cooling cocktails with ammonia, early carbonation technology, using bugs and burnt caramel to color spirits, glass blowing, ice and salt pond-harvesting, and much, much more.