On the side

In our haste to escape Holyoke, we apparently headed east when we wanted to go west. Worse still – we were perhaps a half hour from Northampton via expressway, but we wanted to “experience” of traveling the country roads. Wrong direction and – admittedly beautiful – winding country roads added up to about three hours of wasted time. Time that should’ve been spent drinking and eating in Northampton.

Ah well…such are the pitfalls of spontaneous road tripping. (Of course, once we found a gas station with a map we sorted things out quickly. Yes – we should have gotten the map earlier…)

ANYWAY…finally pulled into Northampton, MA around 5pm. Found ourselves a Comfort Inn down the road in Hadley, cleaned up a bit and struck out for an evening on the town. First stop: Northampton Brewery. I am a fan of brewpubs. Always love the vibe and the crowd generally tends to be friendly. we always find ourselves striking up conversations with complete strangers. Thankfully – after the way our trip had started and getting lost – Northampton Brewery continued the tradition of friendly brewpubs.

While on the scenic route to Northampton from Holyoke via Ware (yes – those of you familiar will see our error), we had read about a burger place called Local Burger that did all local beef. So, we decided not to eat at Northampton Brewery and instead just go for a few beer flights. As luck would have it, there are exactly enough beers on the menu for two flights without duplication.

That’s my flight on the left; Mrs. Ohabeer’s on the right. I really hate taking photos in bars and restaurants – seriously don;t know how food bloggas do it – so these would bascially be the only flights we photographed all weekend. Turns out, I’d rather be drinking the beer than photographing it.

I also do not take massively detailed review notes. I’m there to be social, experience the pub and have (hopefully) some great craft beer. Hence the infrequent feature on OAB: Random Beers In Various Bars. I pretty much decided early on to use the Random Beers method for reviewing the many many road trip samplers.

NORTHAMPTON BREWERY FLIGHT
Four 6oz. glasses – personally that’s more than needed for a flight, but good when sharing.
Uncommon Ale
Northampton Pale Ale
Sand Shovel ESB
Imperial Stout
Nonotuck IPA
Weizenheimer
Weizen Berry
Wild Blue Funk

Uncommon Ale: Nice gold ale. Some what sweet. Wantsto be a honey amber but really does not make it. Doesn’t go big enough.

Northampton Pale Ale: Dark gold. Nice hop to malt balance. Solid bite on the back of the tongue. A crisp pale ale.

Sand Shovel ESB: It’s a nice reddish brown color with a malty hoppy scent. Not as bitter as I would like it to be. Just sort of there…until it warms a bit. Then it opens up nicely. Still not that bitter but gets a bit more caramely.

Imperial Stout: Mmmmm – big coffee raisin roasted malt goodness. Not incredibly thick but very delicious. This was the evening’s winner.

Nonotuck IPA: Definitely better than the Northampton Pale Ale. A bit of spiciness and a solid hop flavor. To this IPA’s credit, even hop-hating Mrs. Ohabeer was digging it.

Weizenheimer: This is an ok wheat. Fairly light with a bit of citrus in the aroma. Clearer than most wheats I like. Definitely an American wheat. Nice and clean.

Weizen Berry: The bartender confirms our suspicions: the berry here is extract. That makes this much like drinking a craft wheat downwind from an artificial flavor factory (to paraphrase Stephen Colbert). Not pleasant at all…

Wild Blue Funk: We got the final glass out of the keg and it showed. This had turned and turned badly. We ended up swapping it out for an Allagash (one of the guest beers not brewed in-house).

Allagash White: this is an OAB fave. A great yeasty wheaty white with a subtle spice.

After finishing the flights, we discovered they replaced the spent Wild Blue Funk with Maggie’s Wee Heavy Scottish Ale. As I usually cannot avoid a Scottish Ale, I decided to get a 12oz. glass to finish the night at Northamptom before heading to dinner.

Maggie’s Wee Heavy Scottish Ale: Beautiful dark brown ale. Big big malt with a ton of caramel. The big malt gets balanced with a slight hops edge in the after taste. This one made me quite buzzy, and yet I still had to sample one more thing…

Berkshire Mountain Distillers Ragged Mountain Rum:While aving the Wee Heavy, we asked the bartender if they carried any local spirits. She showed us a bottle of Berkshire Mountain Distillers Rum and we asked of a side neat. This is a beautiful rum. Light brown with a slightly oak scent. No alcohol harshness at all. Just a nice warm sweetness. We ended up bringing a botle back with us.

ROAD TRIP TOTALS
Beers Sampled: 13
Rum drank: 1
Towns visited: 3
Breweries visited: 2
Breweries open: 1

Next up: We slight sway out of the brewery and head out for local beer, a bar in a tunnel and the best.ice cream.evah.

Tuthilltown Spirits
14 Gristmill Lane, Gardiner, NY 12525
Phone: 845.633.8284

After 5 years of legislative navigation and applications processes, Tuthilltown Spirits Distillery is proud to bring you the FIRST New York Farm Distillery Whiskey tasting room since PROHIBITION.

I am a HUGE fan of their spirits. They make my favorite bourbon (Hudson Baby Bourbon), an amazing rum and a vodka that recent Russian guests at the Cha Cha Hut Grill Club raved about. I’ve had the opportunity to visit the distillery on several occasions and the crew there are friendly, gracious and above all a wealth of distilling knowledge.

So, it is great news indeed to find out they will now be open to the public so everyone can experience the marvels of small batch distilling. You can tour the distillery, taste their Hudson Whiskeys and Vodkas, and shop for spirits, whiskey cured barrels, t-shirts, private barrelings and more.

Hours of operation are:

Tasting Room (no reservations necessary)
Thur-Monday 11-6pm

Tours
Sat-Sun 12pm and 3pm

Tours by reservation only (please call 845.633.8284 for reservations). There is a capacity of 15 people on each tour, so please book in advance to be sure you have a spot. Larger group tours and additional times are available by appointment.

Tuthilltown welcomes groups including but certainly not limited to whiskey groups, bus tours, enthusiasts, Bartenders Associations, retailers/bar/restaurant staff outings, corporate outings, media, special event requests, etc. Please contact them for further info on group visits.

Tours and Tastings both include a complimentary Hudson Whiskey nosing glass and 10% off of any Spirits purchase that day.

(Of note to the home brewers out there – they have whiskey cured barrels for sale VERY reasonably priced. An excellent purchase for adding something special to that stout or porter aging. I’m planning to do a foamybeer coffee stout in one and let it age until sometime in the late fall.)

Many years ago, Mrs. Ohabeer and I discovered a great little Tex-Mex place in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. Lobo had only recently opened and it was a quiet afternoon. We took a seat at the bar – a usual practice of ours as we love talking to bartenders – and ordered a couple of house margaritas. At the time, Lobo had THE best margaritas in the Cobble Hill/Carrol Gardens/Park Slope area of Brooklyn. A great fresh juice blend was actually created to balance and compliment the well tequila making for an excellent – and cheap – margarita. The food was simple Texas diner Mexican. Slightly greasy but full of simple flavor.

As the afternoon progressed, we discovered our bartender was actually the owner, Sean Patterson. Things had gotten friendly – a few margaritas and some food will do that – so Sean asked if we were interested in a shot of Ancho infused tequila. Always up for adventure – not to mention free booze – we took the shot. Smokey peppery and pretty much undrinkable. Sean actually used it in margaritas, but I could never bring myself to try.

A few weeks later, we arrive and Sean sets two shot glasses in front of us. He grabs a bottle filled with ruby colored liquid and pours. Immediately we smell the most heavenly scent of liquid cinnamon. Raising the glasses, we take for the first time one of the now standard fares in the Ohabeer liquor cabinet…

Cinnamon Tequila – candy in a glass!

We continued to frequent Logo during our time in Brooklyn – often turning friends and visitors on to the cinnamon bliss. Discussions with Sean gave us the basic idea of how to make this ruby goodness ourselves. Good thing – as we ultimately moved to the Catskill Mountain fortress that now houses Ohabeer (and foamyindustries) and we would never again have this if we had to rely on our local drinking establishments. (On a side note, sadly our last trip to Lobo while wisiting NYC in 2008 was less than stellar. We’re hoping it was just an off day.)

the ingredients

How to make cinnamon tequila
Of course, I failed to take a photo of the actual ingredients for this batch, but this graphic will do. Shopping list is very simple:

1. 750 ml bottle of Hornitos Reposado
2. 10 cinnamon sticks
3. 750 ml bottle for decanting

The choice of tequila is important. The oakiness and flavor of Hornitos Reposado blends best with the cinnamon. It is possible another reposado might work, but this has proven best for us over the years. Also, get good cinnamon sitcks. Not something that has been hanging out on the shelf of your local megachain supermarket. Hunt down a good spice store or artisanal market or order online.

Once you have the ingredients, you need to put the sticks into the bottle. This will require drinking a bit of the tequila, so I recommend putting this together around happy hour. Once the sticks are in the bottle, turn it upside down a couple of times and place it in a cool dark place.

Each day for the next 10 days, you’ll need to take the bottle out and turn it upside down a couple of times. The goal is to mix but not shake. You do not want the sticks to break up. After 10 days, the tequila will have taken on an incredible ruby color.

Now it is time to decant. Trust me here – you do NOT want to leave the tequila in the bottle with the sticks. You will eventually get something akin to mouthwash from hell. Plus it will have the grittiness of a Sahara sand storm. Carefully pour the tequila into your decanting bottle making sure to not stir up the sediment or the sticks. You’ll end up leaving a bit of the tequila behind, but that’s the sacrifice made for non-gritty booze.

10 days and done

sacrifice for non-grtty booze

ruby goodness decanted

Put a cork in it – it’s done! True – it seems fairly simple (and really is) but there are a few cautions. As stated, do not leave the tequila in the infusing bottle. It will get very harsh. Same holds true for more than 10 days of infusing. You will also find this continues to age and settle even in the decanter. This will intensify over the next couple of weeks. Plus the final few shots are often undrinkable – though they work nicely in home made apple sauce and cinnamon tequila cookies.

I’ve found this drinks best as a shot with strong ales and the occasional stout. It also is a great addition to any sangria. Given it’s warmth and strong cinnamon candy flavor, we rarely drink this in the summer. On the other hand, you’ll rarely find Ohabeer HQ without a bottle in the winter.

So there you have it. Now go and make your own ruby goodness. If you do, leave me a comment and perhaps consider buying me a beer by using the button below to donate via Paypal. You certainly do not have to, but it would be appreciated.