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Double Gold Award Winner anD named Maryland’s Best Gin Distillery! r e c o g n i z e d b y t h e 2 0 1 8 N . Y. I . S . C .

UnCapped magazine is published quarterly by The Frederick News-Post, 351 Ballenger Center Drive, Frederick, MD 21703. It is distributed free in Frederick and Montgomery counties in Maryland, in select locations around Baltimore, and in Loudoun County, Virginia.

Send comments to UnCapped@newspost.com.

To advertise, contact 301-662-1163 or advertising@newspost.com.

CORPORATE PUBLISHER, GEORDIE WILSON ADVERTISING DIRECTOR, CONNIE HASTINGS CREATIVE DIRECTOR, ANNA JOYCE

EDITORIAL EDITOR, GRAPHIC DESIGN, ANNA JOYCE | EDITOR, CHRIS SANDS

Contributing Writers TREVOR BARATKO | CAMERON DODD | KATE MASTERS

Contributing Photographers GRAHAM CULLEN | BILL GREEN | DAN GROSS | CHRIS SANDS

ON THE COVER True Respite’s Cool Kids, part of the trend toward hazy IPAs Photo by Graham Cullen

35 South Carroll Street, Frederick

All rights reserved by copyright. Prices, specials and descriptions are deemed accurate at the time of publication. UnCapped may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the express written consent of the publisher. Advertising information has been provided by the advertisers. Opinions expressed in UnCapped do not necessarily reflect those of The Frederick News-Post or its parent company, Ogden Newspapers of Maryland, LLC. All terms and conditions are subject to change. The cover, design, format and layout of this publication are trademarks of Ogden Newspapers of Maryland, LLC, and published by The Frederick News-Post.

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UnCapped

Podcast

CHRIS SANDS

“The only thing silent about Peter Franchot is the ‘t’ at the end of my name.”

- P. Franchot

‘You Just Can’t Make This Stuff Up’ Over the last couple of years, the UnCapped Podcast has spoken with Comptroller Peter Franchot several times about legislation to reform alcohol laws in Maryland. Earlier this year, we discussed legislation that had been introduced to strip the comptroller’s office of the responsibility of regulating alcohol, tobacco and fuel.

Chris Sands: Alright. Let’s dig right into the topic. I don’t want to take up too much of your valuable time. There was a task force formed to look into your office’s overseeing the regulation of alcohol, tobacco and fuel? Those are the three things …

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and tobacco products away even though nobody ever mentioned that once,” and so, it’s basically a piece of petty partisanship that’s being done against me for my advocacy. It’s too bad because it’s very reckless, it’s very expensive, uh, it’s very completely unnecessary. The only people that are going to suffer are the citizens of the state who are going to have to pay for this political game and, uh, it’s quite a bit of money as you may ask me. I’m happy to tell you about how expensive it would be, but in addition to that, folks are going to not only pay through the nose for it, through their taxes, they’re going to have to suffer lower services as far as regulation of the tobacco, petroleum and alcohol laws.

CS: How long …

PF: It’s a long-winded way

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of saying you just can’t make this stuff up. It is so petty and so punitive and so transparent what’s going on. But, hey, that’s Annapolis.

CS: How long has the comptroller’s office been over the regulation of those three things?

PF: Since Prohibition. And we currently have a nationally regarded No. 1 in the country enforcement division made up of former law enforcement officials. Jeff Kelly, the head of the division, is the president of the national organization of organizations that enforce alcohol, petroleum and tobacco laws around the country. It’s a very distinguished group of people. It’s very disruptive for them to have this threat of, you know, revenge against me, I guess, and end up with them being moved into an unknown new agency.

And it’s very galling to them because they do such great work and yet, uh, their agency’s being taken apart for no reason.

I mean, there literally has not been one example put forward by any of the proponents of this move, the speaker and the senate president’s office primarily.

Not one scintilla of an example as to what the problem is other than we just don’t like Franchot.

CS: So, if I remember correctly, the only reason I’ve seen that they are using as a basis is that, I think they’ve said themselves, that the reasoning is that you spend so much time championing the alcohol industry that you shouldn’t be in charge of regulating it.

PF: Well, I have championed Maryland’s small businesses, which I’m happy to do. These

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CHRIS SANDS

Peter Franchot: No. Actually, the task force was set up, it’s all personal harassment and retaliation against me.

It’s kind of a parlor game that the legislative leaders, the speaker and the senate president play with me each year because they didn’t like my advocacy for craft brewers and particularly they didn’t like me drawing the curtain back on the out-of-state beer cartel led

by Budweiser and MillerCoors that basically runs the show as far as alcohol legislation down in Annapolis.

And, so, they set up this commission—it was only supposed to look at alcohol regulation, that’s all it did.

They couldn’t come up with a single example of anything that was wrong with the agency regulation of alcohol.

But then they came out and said, “No, we want to take alcohol regulation away from the comptroller. Oh, and by the way, we also want to take his regulation of petroleum

Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot on the UnCapped Podcast this year: “The problem is the out-of-state beer companies that have their tentacles into Annapolis and have ever since Prohibition, uh, are basically scared of the competition of the craft brewers.”

wonderful breweries that are all over the landscape in Maryland, which without support from elected officials like me, will quickly disappear from Maryland and go to Virginia and Pennsylvania and Delaware and D.C., West Virginia, where they have much more brewer-friendly laws…

The problem is the out-ofstate beer companies that have their tentacles into Annapolis and have ever since Prohibition, uh, are basically scared of the competition of the craft brewers. So, Flying Dog sales are going up. All of the Attaboy and all the great brewers are going up. Their sales are going up 15 percent, 10 or 15 percent a year. And Budweiser and MillerCoors are going down 10, 15 percent a year. It’s just economic protectionism which causes these big beer companies to say we want to limit the growth of craft beer.

The problem is that’s just a wonderful manufacturing sector, it could double, triple or quadruple within the next few years in Maryland. If we could just simply get out of their way and let them do what they’re good at, which is producing great beer and selling it to Marylanders, using Maryland employees and Maryland agricultural products, like Flying Dog and Attaboy and all those folks, Antietam Brewery, etc. use, and all of that money stays local as opposed to [going to] the out-of-state beer folks. OK, so, last year when we were debating these improvements, uh, I pulled the curtain back and revealed that the legislators actually don’t make the liquor laws down in Annapolis.

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Sips & Shots

It’s Festival Time BEER - The well-beloved Maryland Craft

Beer Festival returns to Carroll Creek Linear Park in downtown Frederick, Maryland, Saturday, May 11. Sample more than 200 beers from 40-plus Maryland breweries, including some not yet open to the public.

Enjoy plenty of food and live entertainment.

General admission starts at 1:30 p.m. Kids 12 or under enter free. A tasting glass is included with your tickets, so get them, and more info, at mdcraftbeerfestival.com.

Rob Neff, Judy Neff and Steve Marsh during the soft opening of Checkerspot Brewing Co. in Baltimore last year

Judy Neff is the co-founder and brewer at Checkerspot Brewing Co. in Baltimore.

She has a doctorate in microbiology, and got her start in beer, when, after a trip to a San Francisco brewery, she bought a home kit and got hooked. She’s also about the pithiest brewer I know.

Where do you get you inspiration for your beers and their names?

From nature and things around me. Names are tough.

If you could have a beer with any person dead or

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alive, who would it be and why?

My grandmother. I would want her to see the brewery and try one of my beers.

If you could only choose one song to play every time you walked into a room for the rest of your life, what would your walk-on song be?

“Eye of the Tiger” What is your favorite Netflix/TV show?

Arrested Development If you could only have one final beer, what would you

choose?

Checkerspot’s Juniperus What is the strangest ingredient you have used in a beer?

Damiana. Look it up.

Do you like pickles?

I love pickles.

What is the best part about your job?

Two best things: the beer and the people What were your childhood dreams?

To be a zoo vet -Chris Sands

percentage increase from 2017 to 2018 of fully operational craft distillers in the United States. Pennsylvania added the most new distilleries last year—20 —climbing from the No. 7 to No. 5 spot.

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-American Craft Spirits Association

Festival Saturday, April 20, for an evening of cocktails and spirits samples exclusively from Maryland distilleries at The Frederick Fairgrounds. Meet the distillers, and buy bottles to take home. Join a cocktailmaking seminar with the Crafting Pass.

Get tickets at frederickspiritsfestival.com.

Beer in the House!

Freshman Rep. Joe Cunningham, D-S.C., made a rookie mistake in January when he attempted to bring a six-pack of craft beer onto the floor of the House of Representatives.

Only water is allowed on the House floor.

Cunningham laughed off the incident after he was stopped, according to a reporter on the scene. He later explained that he was trying to bring beer from local breweries in his home state to Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., co-chairman of the House Small Brewers Caucus.

He’s not the first freshman to goof up the rules. When Rep. Conor Lamb, D-Pa., was new, he tried to bring a cup of coffee onto the House floor.

-The Washington Post

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BREWER: COURTESY OF JUDY NEFF; SPIRITS FESTIVAL: THE FREDERICK NEWS-POST; CAPITOL: GETTY IMAGES

Meet the Brewer

SPIRITS - Hit up the Frederick Craft Spirits

Treat Yourself OLDE MOTHER BARREL-AGED BOTTLES Olde Mother has begun limited releases of barrel-aged beer that is beautifully packaged in wax dipped bottles. Future releases are set to include stout aged in McClintock Distilling’s rye whiskey barrels and one in Jamaican rum barrels.

Prices will vary by release.

GUINNESS PERSONALIZED PINT

OLDE MOTHER, WILLI BECHER, GUINNESS PINT: CHRIS SANDS; BOOTJACK: BILL GREEN; UKEG: GROWLERWERKS

Ever wish you could get your face (or logo) printed atop a pint of Guinness? The Guinness Open Gate Brewery and Barrel House in Halethorpe, Maryland, has you covered. They snap a photo, then put the pint in a fancy little machine that uses powdered malt extract and magic to create a masterpiece. It’ll run you $7.50 for the pint and $2.50 for the magic.

DISTILLERY MEMBERSHIPS Need a steady supply of craft spirits? Just join one of the many clubs offered by local distilleries. Benefits and pricing vary by location. Here are a few: McClintock Distilling mcclintockdistilling.com - $300 Baltimore Spirits Company baltimorespiritsco.com - $500 Dragon Distillery dragondistillery.com - $29 to $549

Availability of all items is subject to change.

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uKEG How do you keep your beer cold and carbonated on the go? Growlerwerks has you covered with its doublewall vacuum insulated, stainless steel uKeg. It’s CO2 regulator cap ensures your beer stays carbonated until the last drop. Available at growlerwerks.com for $169.00.

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drink these. you’ll feel better.

Brew Your Own Brew What Gose Around from Idiom Brewing Co. in Frederick, Maryland, to conjure summer.

According to Idiom, “With key limes, coriander and a touch of salt, there is a wonderful balance of citrus, tartness and spice.”

Original Gravity: 10.7 Plato (1.042) Final Gravity: 2.05 Plato (1.008) Percent ABV: 4.4% IBU: 10

Grist Bill: Amounts are based on a 6.5-gallon boil with 72% efficiency: 2 Row - 3 lb. 12 oz. (47%) White wheat - 3 lb. 12oz (47%) Flaked oats - 8 oz. (6%) 148F mash temperature for 75 minutes 15-minute boil, then cool to 95F Pitch Omega Labs (OYL-605) Lacto Blend and cover, until pH is 3.4 (use pH meter or test strips) Once pH is at 3.4: 45-minute boil (to kill lactobacillus) with the following additions: 5 minutes - Key Lime Zest and juice (qty x 2) 5 minutes - 0.70 oz. fresh crushed coriander 5 minutes - 0.35 oz. Himalayan salt 5 minutes - Huell Melon (7% AA) - 5 IBU WHIRLPOOL @ 195F (10 minutes) - Huell Melon (7% AA) - 5 IBU

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GRAHAM CULLEN

Pitch Wyeast #1007 (German Ale) until fermentation is complete.

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Ryder Dog This savory cocktail named after the dog of McClintock Distilling Co.’s co-founder Tyler Hegamyer comes compliments of Lazy Fish, an Asian sushi bistro in downtown Frederick.

• 2 oz. Maryland Heritage White Whiskey • 0.5 oz. Chai Pear shrub • 3 oz. apple cider

COURTESY OF KELLY PROTZKO; RYDER: NORA SANDS

Serve on the rocks. Cinnamon stick garnish optional.

The original Ryder

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You Can’t Have Enough Breweries.

Seriously.

• BY CAMERON DODD •

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Patrons enjoy the newly opened taproom at Silver Branch Brewing Company in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Palmer and partner Jesse Johnson plan to serve a variety of beers, but may lean into the high-alcohol dark beers they’ve served at a few festivals to good response. “We might do more focus on the heavy-hitting dark beers,” Palmer said. “But we love IPAs, Belgians. We love it all.”

Offering a variety of recipes isn’t as much a lack of specialization for new breweries as a market demand, according to brewers association communications manager Jim Bauckman.

“I anticipate they’ll be coming into a marketplace that demands new, quality beers over and over again,” Bauckman said. “The consumer is no longer satisfied with buying the same beer each time they visit a taproom. They want to test the variety and the creativity of the brewer.”

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Upcoming Breweries [In Maryland]

•B rewery Fire Taneytown •M obtown Brewing Company Baltimore •T en Eyck Brewing Queenstown •F orward Brewing Annapolis •P ipe the Side Brewing Company Hampstead •B ig Truck Farms & Brewery Parkton •B lack Locust Hops and Farm Brewery Freeland •A ssateague Brewing Company Berlin •U pper Stem Brewery Hagerstown

Variety will be the name of the game at Mobtown Brewing Company, which aims to open in Baltimore’s Brewers Hill area this spring.

Mobtown plans to start with six taps, co-owner Noah Chadwick said.

But with a 100-barrel capacity brew system in their repurposed industrial warehouse, and a 125-person capacity taproom, they want to bring it up to 16 varieties.

“We’re going to push the envelope with current styles that are out there and look for the next popular styles to come out with,” Chadwick said. “We’ll make a sour line. IPAs, stouts, saisons, Belgian styles. We’ll be all over the map.

We’d like to have a rotation.”

Chadwick and Brewery Fire’s Palmer both said they hope their breweries will fill a need in their immediate communities and appeal to beer drinkers from around Maryland and beyond. They are planning to partner with food trucks and eventually offer more live entertainment, as well.

“We want to be a neighborhood brewery that hopefully has appeal elsewhere,” Chadwick said.

That’s a trend breweries in 2019 are likely to follow. According to Howley, many breweries-in-planning know people are increasingly looking to breweries to not only offer quality beer, but also to be great community gathering places.

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CHRIS SANDS

ast year was a big year for Maryland’s booming craft beer industry with 18 new breweries opening, and things don’t look like they are slowing down in 2019. By all indications, this year promises those thirsty for new brews a lot to look forward to.

“We’re excited in general that we continue to see a growth in craft breweries across the state and regular openings like we saw last year,” said Janna Howley, operations director at the Brewers Association of Maryland. “It shows the demand is still there and the interest is still there.”

As of March, the association had 35 brewery members listed as “in-progress,” according to Howley.

That means the brewers are anywhere from dreaming of running a brewery to getting final approval from regulators.

Some, Howley said, are preparing to serve their first pints in a matter of weeks.

Brewery Fire, which promises to be Taneytown, Maryland’s first craft brewery, will be adjacent to Thunderhead Bowl & Grill.

“Taneytown rolled out the red carpet for us,” partner Dave Palmer, a Westminster resident, said. “It’s a town that is starting to get more and more businesses. It’s a really good fit.”

Christian Layke (left) and Brett Robison, co-founders of Silver Branch Brewing Company, in the brewhouse with the first batch of beer being brewed on site UNCAPPEDNEWS.COM

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From brut IPAs to lowcal lagers,

see what brewers have on tap.

Matriarch is a collaboration between Olde Mother Brewing Co. and McClintock Distilling in Frederick, Maryland.

Singularities No. 1 is a collaboration between Union Craft Brewing and Baltimore Spirits Co., both located in the Union Collective in Baltimore.

DAN GROSS

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The Future of Beer This Year

• BY KATE MASTERS •

CHRIS SANDS

W

hen it comes to 2019 brewing trends, the old is once again new — at least according to some experts in the industry.

“I think we’ll continue to see interest in styles like hazy IPAs and fruited kettle sours, the types of beers that are made, in my opinion, for people who don’t really like beer,” said Justin Bonner, the co-founder of Jailbreak Brewing Company in Laurel, Maryland.

Sure, it’s an opinion that could spark a few debates in craft brewing forums. But it’s clear that crafting distinct, non-traditional flavors has become increasingly important in a congested craft beer market.

Barrel-aged stouts, tart and fruity sours, juice-like IPAs: They’re all a way for brewers to expand the definition of beer and please a range of different palates—from the seen-it-all beer snob to the novice who prefers Barefoot wine to Budweiser.

“The concept is, if the craft market is shrinking, the way to stop it from shrinking is to introduce these beers that appeal to a lot of different drinkers, people who might not know that beer is a massive spectrum, from the super-hoppy West Coast IPAs to aged sours to the macrobrew lagers that some of us first drank in college,” said Oliver Gray, the marketing manager for Diageo in Baltimore.

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ers to pinpoint some of the biggest trends they expect to see in 2019.

Diamondback Brewing Company in Baltimore recently began focusing on brewing “slow beer,” like this pilsner, exemplifying the growing popularity of lagers.

Still, not all trends fade away quickly. 2019 should yield no shortage of IPAs, a style that’s become endemic to the American craft beer

landscape. Other developments are a direct reaction to years of big, bold flavors in the world of brewing. We spoke to a handful of industry insid-

Brut IPAs OK, OK, brut IPAs might be more fad than trend. But the super-dry beer—as crisp and effervescent as the eponymous sparkling wine—has become a runaway hit since it was first developed by a San Francisco brewer in late 2017.

“America seems to have fallen in love with hops, so there’s a continual trend in developing new styles of IPA,” said Hugh Sisson, the founder of Heavy Seas Beer outside Baltimore. “And the brut style, especially, is almost the exact opposite of the super cloudy, super juicy New England IPAs that have been popping up over the last few years.”

That’s largely because the beer is made with an enzyme that chomps up all the residual sugars in the mash, resulting in a dry mouthfeel and aromatic finish. Maryland brewers aren’t immune to its charm. Evolution Craft Brewing Co. in Salisbury released a limited-run brut IPA last September.

Flying Dog in Frederick had a brut IPA on tap in February, as did Union Craft Brewing in Baltimore. It’s not clear how long bruts will stay in vogue, but it’s likely that more brewers will experiment with the style in 2019.

A rise in craft lagers “I think 2019 will be the year when craft beer geeks finally start to have more of an appreciation Con’t. on 20 U N C A P P E D | SPRING 2019

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Make Your Own

GIN

I can’t really complain about my job. So far, I have found a way to get paid to take a whiskey-making class at McClintock Distilling Co. and a bourbon-making class at Dragon Distillery. So it seemed only logical to pitch taking a gin-making class presented by McClintock and Common Market in Frederick, Maryland. Luckily for me, everyone thought it was a good idea.

Before I entered into the world of craft spirits, gin always seemed like something that stuffy old people drank.

Imagine my surprise when I tried it for the first time and really enjoyed it.

Taking the class also helped to completely change my perspective on gin.

Class began with a brief history of the spirit, which turned out to be surprisingly interesting. Gin was invented by

the Dutch. There have been mentions of gin found in Flemish texts dating all the way back to the 13th century, but it really gained popularity in the 17th century. There is some debate among Maryland distillers about how good the Dutch were at distilling spirits. (Listen to episode 120 of the Uncapped Podcast for more on this at fnppodcasts.com/ uncapped). To compensate, they added

• BY CHRIS SANDS•

juniper berries to mask the flavor of the poor-tasting spirits. This is how gin got its name; the Dutch word for Juniper is genever. It was during the Thirty Years’ War that gin received it coolest nickname: After drinking it, British soldiers were said to gain “Dutch Courage.”

By the end of the 17th century, William of Orange had popularized

Samples of gin styles

CHRIS SANDS

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Things infused in gin

gin in England. The British worked to increase the quality of the spirit, and its renown really took off.

The popularity of gin can also be thanked for helping the term ‘proof’ enter the common vernacular. British sailors were often paid in part with a stipend of gin. Enterprising ship captains found they could make their supplies of gin last longer by diluting them with water.

Unfortunately for them, this scheme was foiled by a simple test. The sailors would soak a pellet of gunpowder in the gin. If it would still ignite, that was proof that it had not been diluted and was what they referred to as Navy Strength Gin. This is where I’ll end the history lesson. You’ll have to take the class to learn the rest.

What exactly is gin, you might ask. It is a neutral spirit that has been infused with botanicals; the predominant flavor must be juniper. There are two main ways to accomplish this: vapor infusion and maceration. (Think of a tea bag).

There is also a new third way that uses a vacuum to infuse the botanicals with

high pressure. The main benefit of this method is it eliminates the risk of scorching the botanicals by removing heat from the equation.

The class also includes a tour of McClintock’s production area, where you get to see what is left in the “gin basket” after they make a batch of Forager Gin. I think everyone’s favorite part of the class was to taste the six styles of gin.

To close out the night, we were given a mason jar to make our own botanical mixture. The Common Market brought an array of botanicals from which to choose.

One great aspect of gin is how easy it is for you to make your own version of it at home. All it takes is a neutral spirit, some botanicals, and a jar for you to mix it all together. Just let the botanicals soak until it tastes the way you want it to. If organic is your thing, the two companies that teamed up for this class have you covered.

Just get yourself a bottle of McClintock’s Epiphany vodka and head over to the Common Market to choose from its selection of organic botanicals.

Juniper berries

Cloves

Hibiscus

Professor Bumpers teaches the group about the different styles of gin.

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A classmate concocts a mixture of botanicals for infusing.

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Up With

OJ

Craft bartenders once avoided orange juice. Now they’re trying to improve it.

• M. CARRIE ALLAN •

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This juice was a revelation. In our home, orange juice came frozen, in cardboard tubes, dropping with a slorrrrp into a plastic pitcher to be diluted with water. Genuine fresh orange juice was nothing like that.

It tasted like liquid sunlight.

IMAGINE MY BEWILDERMENT when, years later, I entered the world of cocktails and discovered that this ambrosia is seen by many bartenders as the fruta non grata of the citrus world. If it weren’t for their peels, which exude fragrant oil to twist over drinks and rub over glass rims, many bars probably wouldn’t even stock them. The remnants of oranges—about 95 percent once they’ve been stripped of peel— tend to pile up wastefully behind bars, their shaved circumferences gradually drying out. Per various condemnations I’ve heard over the years, OJ is weak, boring, murky and adds nothing to a drink. A few times I’ve even heard it described as “flabby.” Poor body-shamed orange juice!

Craft bartenders, though, never met an ingredient they couldn’t improve, and OJ has gotten a particularly dedicated tinkering.

It’s gotten clarified, acidified and “fluffed,” all in the name of making it a more useful screwdriver in the cocktailer’s toolbox (and allowing it to become something more interesting than a Screwdriver).

TO UNDERSTAND WHY orange juice

isn’t as useful in drink-making, you need to go back to some basics.

The main role of citrus in cocktails, historically, is in the family of drinks known as sours. There are multiple subcategories, but the family includes classics like the daiquiri, the whiskey sour, the margarita, the Cosmo, the sidecar and many more.

At its most basic, the sour template is spirit, sweetener and citrus.

And in hardly any of the classic sours is orange juice a player. When it does come into play, it almost always has a partner, such as lime or lemon, giving it a lift.

The key to a perfect sour is balance: Too much sugar, and it’s like sipping candy. Too much souring agent, and it’s like sucking on a lemon. Orange juice just doesn’t bring that balance. “It’s roughly 11 percent sugar, so it’s not nearly as sweet as simple syrup, which is 50 The Garibaldi features “fluffy” orange juice.

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TOM MCCORKLE FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

ack in college, I got what I thought would be a great job at a bookstore. I imagined reading breaks and helping customers discover new writers, but mostly it turned out to be restocking and trying to avoid the back room, where the guy who handled magazine receiving daily held up copies of Hustler, open to the centerfolds, yelling, “Hey Carrie, this one looks like you!”

As a freckly redheaded person, I found it amazing how many women—tiny Latinas, triple-D blondes— seemed to resemble me.

I cherished my lunch breaks.

During them, I would walk over to The Fancypants Grocery Store, which carried foodstuffs I’d never seen: Loaves of brioche and tins of caviar, pomegranates and jars of aioli (what mayonnaise starts calling itself after spending a semester in Paris).

I could afford none of them. But once a week I would splurge on a pint of fresh-squeezed orange juice.

GETTY IMAGES

percent sugar, and it contains not 6 to 8 percent acidity, like lemon or lime juice, but closer to 0.8 percent, based on citric acid,” said Dave Arnold, co-owner of Existing Conditions in New York and author of the most fun chemistry book ever, “Liquid Intelligence: The Art and Science of the Perfect Cocktail.” In other words, it’s not sweet enough to play the sweetener, not sour enough to do the souring.

Arnold has been hacking citrus for years. His early experiments with oranges were partly driven by seeing all the stripped oranges stacking up at his old bar. “We had no application for the juice,” he said.

“We’d just give juice to the staff or to the restaurant or whatever. But all this citrus was going to waste because we were just using the peels.”

He saw the opportunity to upgrade orange juice by boosting it chemically with various acid powders to give it the punch of lime juice. Thanks to Arnold’s book and blogging, the technique has been widely adopted; if you see a drink that includes “corrected,” “improved” or “acidulated” orange, it’s likely gotten the treatment. In the Dr. J, one of the first drinks he remembers using the juice for, it provides a bright, cheerful punch, like someone shook up a daiquiri using a Creamsicle for ice.

Another common citrus hack is clarification. Most fruit juices, unaltered, add a murky opacity that— especially in our Instagram-driven hospitality environment—destroys the gemlike clarity that makes many cocktails so pretty. Clarifying juice removes that haze; it’s a fun but time-consuming project that can be done by a variety of means (from using coffee filters to strain out particles to using milk proteins to bind with and remove them). If you really want to geek out on it, Arnold’s book is the place to go.

Keep in mind that clarification impacts flavor as well; the particles that get removed to produce such clarity are part of what give any juice its taste. A while back I attempted UNCAPPEDNEWS.COM

Craft bartenders never met an ingredient they couldn’t improve, and OJ has gotten a particularly dedicated tinkering. a Last Word with clarified lime; the resulting cocktail, though delicious, was more of a Quiet Murmur—a pale, clear green, sweeter and more subtle than the original.

ONE OF MY FAVORITE “improvements”

of orange juice is the one in the Garibaldi they make at Dante in

New York. I first tried this drink at the annual Tales of the Cocktail conference, where the sheer volume of alcohol being served typically drives me to have only a sip of anything offered. The Garibaldi, on the other hand, I slurped down and immediately began wondering if I could bribe someone to bring me another.

“Anywhere you go in Italy and order a Garibaldi, they’ll know what it is,” said Dante’s creative director, Naren Young. On its face, it’s ridiculously simple, just Campari and orange juice, but the way the bar gets its juice takes the drink over the top.

They peel the oranges, leaving some pith, “not too much because we don’t want too much of that bitterness,” said Young, “but a little bit of the white pith does actually help produce the texture we’re looking for.”

The oranges are juiced to order in a Breville juicer “that basically spins at such a high speed that it pushes air into the juice,” resulting in a creamy, velvety texture.

The bar dubbed it “fluffy” orange juice, a term Young said is popping up at bars around the world. “We didn’t create the Garibaldi,” he said, “but I do think we’ve perfected it.” (If you don’t have a good juicer, you can get an approximate-but-not-quite-asgood effect by putting orange juice, as freshly squeezed as possible, into a good blender and cranking it to high speed.)

I’ll probably never again experience the blissful escape that unadulterated fresh-squeezed orange juice gave me back during those summer lunch breaks.

But it’s fascinating to see what happens when orange juice cuts its hair, puts on a snappy suit and puts its navel to the grindstone; you’ll start seeing the stuff in a whole new light.

Though honestly, if you’re working in the sort of environment I was back then, I’d recommend just sticking to whiskey. Make it a double.

– The Washington Post

THE GARIBALDI 1 serving Adapted from a recipe at Dante in New York

INGREDIENTS

• 1 to 2 navel oranges, plus an orange wedge for garnish • Ice • 1 1/2 ounces Campari

STEPS

Juice your oranges to yield a total of 3 to 4 ounces. If you’re not using an electric juicer that makes the juice fairly frothy, follow up by blending the juice in a blender on high speed to whip in some air. Add several ice cubes to a highball glass. Add the Campari and fill with the aerated orange juice.

Stir gently, then garnish with the wedge of orange.

THE DR. J 1 serving

MAKE AHEAD

Leftover simple syrup can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 6 months. You can buy the acid powders online.

Adapted from “Liquid Intelligence: The Art and Science of the Perfect Cocktail,” by Dave Arnold (W.W. Norton, 2014).

INGREDIENTS For the simple syrup • 1 cup sugar • 1 cup water For the juice • 1 liter orange juice, as fresh as possible •3 2 grams citric acid •2 0 grams malic acid For the drink • I ce •2 ounces white rum •P inch salt • 1 drop vanilla extract

STEPS

For the simple syrup: Combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring just to a boil; once the sugar has dissolved, remove from the heat. Cool completely.

For the juice: Combine the orange juice, citric acid and malic acid in a large container, stirring until the powders have dissolved.

For the drink: Chill a cocktail glass. Fill a cocktail shaker with ice, then add the rum, 3/4 ounce of the lime-acid orange juice, 3/4 ounce of the simple syrup, the salt and vanilla extract. Seal and shake vigorously for 20 seconds, then strain into the chilled glass.

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Burning Flavor In a high-tech world, aged spirits still get much of their taste from wood & fire

C

• M. CARRIE ALLAN •

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Barrels being charred at Kentucky Cooperage in Kentucky

from 40 to 70 percent of the flavor of an aged spirit is thought to come from the wood.

Globally, several species of European and American white oak remain the preferred material. “They’re able to breathe, so oxygen can pass in and out of the barrel—which is a key component of maturation—and they taste good,” said Jason Stout, vice president of marketing and business development at Independent Stave, an international cooperage company founded in 1912 and headquartered in Missouri.

The main difference between a barrel the company would create for, say, a bourbon and one for wine is that a bourbon barrel will be charred inside rather than gently toasted.

What happens to a spirit during its years in a barrel is multifold: Unappealing flavors get filtered out by that layer of char. New flavors get put in as the alcohol penetrates into

the so-called red layer underneath the char and extracts its chemical components. As temperature and humidity levels change around the porous barrel, it “breathes,” causing evaporation and oxidation inside: Some of the liquid disappears into thin air while the spirit is maturing (the fabled “angel’s share”), but the interaction among wood, spirit and air also impacts the development of flavors.

“Wood is made of certain building blocks . . . and heat transforms those big building blocks into smaller compounds that are then extracted,” said Stout. Understanding how to get those flavors out is part of the cooper’s art. You might be trying to get at, for example, an aldehyde called vanillin.

“How do we toast that barrel in order to . . . get the maximum amount of vanillin?” asked Stout. “Or how do we create a little bit of that sweet smoke character without going a little too

far and starting to get into that kind of burnt smoke character?”

What a spirit will glean from a barrel isn’t always just from wood.

A spirit that goes into a barrel that previously held something else will get less from the wood (the first liquid has already sucked some of those flavors out), but will get flavor from the previous contents. This is one of many differences between bourbon and Scotch: Where bourbon has to be aged in new charred oak, the Scots generally reuse barrels that have held wine or other spirits, so the wood typically has a more subtle impact.

Whatever you love in aged spirits— the creativity and surprises that come out of craft barrels, the iconic bottlings from famous distillers, the cocktails you can make from them—wood is part of the pleasure. Consider it one more reason to hug a tree.

–Special to The Washington Post FACEBOOK.COM/UNCAPPD

TADD MYERS/INDEPENDENT STAVE

arried to this distillery by a hybrid vehicle, having mapped my way here via satellite technology, and holding a device on which I can access vast stores of the world’s wisdom and idiocy, I find myself considering the humble wooden barrel, a piece of old-school tech that’s been connecting the world for centuries.

Barrels tower overhead in the storage area of One Eight Distilling in Washington, D.C. Most of them are new white oak, but others are darker with age and use, each labeled to denote what liquid—sherry, muscat wine, rum—it used to hold.

What’s quietly happening here and at distilleries around the world is the aging of spirits. For a harsh corn whiskey caterpillar to become a caramelly bourbon butterfly, it has to metamorphose by cocooning up in wood.

The technique likely started by accident. For centuries, the wooden barrel was a chief means for moving goods over distances. Well before forklifts, it allowed people to move massive weights by rolling the barrels, container and wheel all in one.

It’s unclear exactly when people began charring barrel interiors, but they probably did it to get rid of flavors from whatever the barrel last held. At some point, they noticed that wines at the end of their journey tasted better than at the beginning.

Centuries later, barrel aging is an art and a science that wine and spirits makers invest money and time into getting right. The influence of wood is even stronger in spirits, whose higher proof makes them extract more of the botanicals they rub up against. Estimates vary, but anywhere

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FUTURE, CON’T. FROM 13 for pilsners and lagers,” Jailbreak’s Bonner said. It’s a trend largely driven by brewers themselves, who can appreciate the technical skill and nuance of a beer with lower ABV and a minimal flavor profile.

“Your brewing techniques have to be spot-on,” he added. “The water has to be extremely clean. There’s no hops or fruit to hide behind, so the beer has to be perfect. It’s beer in the nude.”

Sisson, for his part, was skeptical that pilsners and lagers would gain much traction in the consumer market. But Heavy Seas still brews the Pounder Pils, a German-style pilsner that’s gotten a solid, though not overwhelming, sales reception.

Jailbreak, too, produces a Czechstyle pilsner, and larger breweries are continuing the trend. Founders Brewing Company recently released a lager called Solid Gold. Firestone Walker debuted a house lager in 2018. And Guinness has seen solid sales of its Rockshore Irish Lager and Open Gate Pilsner, both brewed in the United Kingdom.

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- Lost Ark owner Brad Blackwell

hard ciders and sparkling waters,” said Kevin Blodger, co-founder of Union. “I think you’re going to see smaller breweries experiment with those products because they’re new and they need to distinguish themselves.”

CBD — maybe Hemp-derived CBD is an already trendy product.

“CBD is being positioned as non-intoxicating and healthy, and you can legally use it in beer. I think it’s going to tie into the health-focused trend,” Sisson said.

In a shrinking craft beer market, it’s also a way to appeal to a whole new type of consumer—the medical or recreational marijuana user. Gray said that CBD is already a buzzword in the brewing industry, especially as some companies consider purchasing or collaborating with licensed dispensaries.

Collaboration As craft spirits expand statewide, breweries and distilleries are collaborating on new products with a wide-ranging appeal. Frederick’s Tenth Ward Distilling Company and Olde Mother Brewing Co. recently released Olde Ward whisky, a spirit distilled from the brewery’s pale ale.

After the spirit was aged, Tenth Ward gave the barrel back to Olde Mother to use for another beer, said owner Monica Pearce.

Lost Ark Distilling Co. in Columbia, Maryland, did a similar collaboration with its next-door neighbor, Hysteria Brewing Company. #MDAF was a limited-time whiskey release created from a Hysteria beer of the

same name, which the company brewed from local grains and hops.

“We actually punched a hole in the wall and pumped the beer right into our still,” said Lost Ark owner Brad Blackwell. “We made 55 bottles of whiskey, and they sold out within 20 minutes.”

The novelty of the collaborations makes them appealing to brewers, distillers, and customers alike, added Max Lents, the co-founder of Baltimore Spirits Company. His distillery has also created spirits from local beer— most notably, a fortified malt made from a Union Brewing stout—and exchanges barrels with Monument City Brewing Company and Peabody Heights Brewery.

As more distilleries put down roots, Lents said, it’s likely that cooperation will continue to grow. “I think it’s an asset that the local distillery scene is becoming part of the overall imbibing culture,” he said. “Now these entrenched breweries have a whole new body of people to collaborate with.”

True Respite’s Puckered line is an example of the growing market for fruited sour beers.

CHRIS SANDS

“Healthy” beers OK, so beer might never be healthy.

But Sisson said there’s a trend toward products that are crafted—or at least branded—as more health-conscious than previous styles.

“Let’s face it—everyone and their brother are trying to figure out what millennials want, and millennials at least position themselves as wanting a healthier lifestyle,” he said. “I think that’s what’s really driving this.”

More craft brewers are starting to take the Michelob Ultra route, creating beers with “healthier” ingredients or fewer calories. Zelus Beer Company, a small company in Medfield, Massachusetts, pioneered several beers infused with electrolytes. Earlier this year, Dogfish Head released a 95-calorie IPA called Slightly Mighty. The trend dovetails neatly with a rising interest in brut IPAs and lagers—beers that are lower in sugar and thus lower in calories. It also coincides with the recent explosion of hard seltzer and similarly light-bodied products.

“The national Brewers Association actually just changed their definition of a brewer to include things like

“We actually punched a hole in the wall and pumped the beer right into our still.”

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U N C A P P E D | SPRING 2019

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last call with

trevor baratko

Trevor

Chris Makes Colin Drink I

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little. This 6 percent Citra Indian Pale Ale that features a Kolsh yeast lingered in the back of my tongue like stale potpourri. (I’ve heard. I’ve heard that’s what stale potpourri tastes like.)

Chris, on the other hand, was quite a fan. “That’s really good.

Brand new, they just released it today … easy-drinking IPA,” he says.

Shut up, Chris. What do you know?

SOCIAL GAMBLER

UnCapped’s Chris Sands, left, and The New Guy

packaging, fellas, but let’s get to drinking.

RASPBERRY EMPRESS

This, obviously, is a sour beer. (OK, I actually have no idea what makes a beer a sour.)

Word on the street—aka the tasting sheet—is this “kettle sour” is flaunting Mosaic hops, fresh raspberries and 6 percent alcohol by volume.

Six more percent booze and substitute the raspberries and hops for grapes and yeast and maybe I’d enjoy it. NEXT! SWEET CREAMS ARE MADE OF THIS

Well, hello. You say you’re sour, but you’re a sweet little minx in my book. This Sour-Berliner Weisse is superbly my speed.

Inspired by a guava and cream pastelito, a Cuban pastry, this sipper is a sugar fiend’s dream.

Vanilla, creamsicle, orange. Qué magnífico!

THE COBBLER

Whoa whoa whoa, what’s going

on here? This guy’s delicious too! What is happening? Who is John Galt? It appears ole T-Bone enjoys Sour-Berliner Weisses, as the 7 percent ABV Clobbler follows the theme of that saucy Sweet Creams. But rather than creamsicle, The Clobbler entices with blueberry and caramel.

I suppose that’s the intent of this whole charade—to learn a thing or two. Henceforth, should I find myself at these things called breweries, I’ll quickly be scoping out Sour-Berliner Weisses.

SLICE

Nothing good lasts. Finally, back to a brew for which I care

For this American IPA, I was hopeful—I needed to be hopeful —strictly because of the tasting sheet, which philosophizes: “No matter where life takes you, your hat’s in the ring, willing to put yourself in unfamiliar situations all in the pursuit of a good time.

Here’s to you, partner. Enjoy this all Simcoe-hopped IPA and keep on taking chances.”

Ah, nothing like booze-fueled optimism.

Sadly, Social Gambler resembled the Slice, and I’m over this particular “unfamiliar situation.”

PEACE. ************************** Trevor Baratko is the editor-in-chief of the Loudoun Times-Mirror and LoudounTimes.com. He says hi to Crooked Run tasting room associate Lily. ************************** * Where is Colin? Some say he’s snowshoeing in the Andes. Others claim there was an incident involving Natty Boh and a microwave. Wherever he is, he’s still filing dispatches from an undisclosed location for The Frederick New-Post. So cheers to you, buddy, and all the beers you never wanted to drink, but ended up liking anyway.

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LILY COUSLAND

got stood up on Valentine’s Day. What else is new?

Chris and I were set for a wondrous tasting session. We would sip and, inevitably, open up to one another. We’d share our passions, divulge our secrets.

We would map out our future: Maybe get a little plot of land out west. Chris would tend to his hops, I my grapevines.

But it wasn’t meant to be.

Chris’s daughter, it turned out, had a doctor’s appointment. My Valentine’s dreams were dashed.

I never liked kids anyhow.

Fortunately, there was Friday the 15th, and that suited both of us just fine to indulge in some of the sought-after offerings at Crooked Run Brewery’s original and oh-so-inviting location at Market Station in Leesburg, Virginia.

I’m not a beer guy. Never really been a beer guy. Sure, there have been nights when I’ve thrown back one or eight, but it wasn’t because I wanted to; they made me do it, I swear.

Similarly, Chris is making me do this. He’s making me drink a few craft brews on an unseasonably warm afternoon. The nerve of this guy.

(Oh yeah, I’m not Colin. Not sure what happened to Colin.* Never met him, but from his writing, he seems like the kind of curmudgeon I’d enjoy.)

So, what are we sipping here at the 6-year-old Crooked Run? I leave that to the boss man.

“Raspberry Empress, Sweet Creams Are Made of This, The Clobbler, Slice and Social Gambler,” says the boss man.

Enough admiring Crooked Run’s captivating branding— seriously, kudos on the

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