Greg thought he’d purchased an 80 proof bottle of Wigle Wapsie Valley Bourbon. (Zagat likes it too!)   He needed half of the bottle to figure out that he’d actually purchased the cask strength, which is 112.5 proof.  Such things are par for this D2D course.

Greg recently found wonderful cocktail vessels at Goodwill.  Ninety-nine cents each.  Beautifully etched stemware and perfectly rounded coupe glasses.

Greg will forever sing the praises of Luxardo maraschino (“mah-duh-SKEE-noh”) cherries.

What’s that all mean?  It means a top shelf, mind-blowing, “this ain’t your old man’s” Old-Fashioned cocktail.

Remember K.I.S.S.?  Keep it simple, stupid: One Luxardo cherry and a barspoon of the syrup in the coupe glass.  Whatever ends up in the spoon as you scoop the fruit.  Then, a couple dashes of Peychaud’s bitters right on top.  In a pint glass, stir the bourbon with ice then strain on top of the cherry/syrup/bitters.  Cut a generous piece of orange rind, squeeze and twist the essense out of it…and drop it in the glass.

Drink that.

You get to the now booze-soaked cherry at the bottom.  What to do now?

Just wait a moment.

Remember the movie, “Men in Black,” how the cat had an entire galaxy in a marble on its collar?  “The galaxy’s on Orion’s belt.”  Well, these Luxardo cherries are like the taste and oral-sensory version of that.  Quite literally, they shut Jen up…mid-sentence even.  She’ll be talking, then hit the bottom of the glass, and as soon as she pops that cherry (…yeah, I know…) it’s cognitive shut-down.

So that’s the booze.  How about the beer?

1. Ballast Point “Sculpin.”  This beer is consistently rated near 100% across all sites, and it’s expensive.  Feeling the need to give this, “Best IPA in the universe” a try, we coughed up the cash.  After having tried it, we feel that the rating comes from the brew being so accessible and non-offensive while still being moderately big at 7% abv.  It’s like a very good “intermediate” level IPA.  You start with Magic Hat #9 or Sierra Nevada, then you move to this.  However, when we have IPAs at the D2D studios, we want to be assaulted with bit, complex aromas, flavors, and mouth feel…so this didn’t really do it for us.
2. Ommegang “Lovely, Dark, and Deep.”  Sounds dirty, huh?  It’s delicious, and at 5.3% abv, you can actually drink this one for a while.  (My problem, of course, came with…)
3. Terrapin “Wake and Bake.”  Wow.  I mean, Wow!  9.4% abv.  It’s an oatmeal, coffee stout that uses “Jittery Joe’s” coffee.  All from Athens, Georgia.  It’s like drinking the smoothest, most complex cold-brew coffee on the planet.  And oh, it’ll fuck you up.  Well, me.  But you, too.  It’s my…drum roll…favorite imperial “breakfast” stout as of right now.

And the topics?

1. We move through a Kindergarten level malt lesson
2. We move through 14 beers you’re likely pronouncing wrong.  (Thank you, Thrillist.)
3. We talk about Wigle deep cut rye, Wigle “absent minded” absinthe, and the possibility of an all-local sazerac.  Bing cherries are locally grown, so we could make bingaschino cherries and bingaschino liquer.  And at the end of it all?  A Sazerac’n’at!
4. We Wrap it Up with the Fabulous Thunderbirds.

And the music?

1. At the beginning, “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer” by John Lee Hooker.
2. At the end, “Drink You Away” by Justin Timberlake.

Have fun!  We present to you, “All That Glistens Is Not Booze.”