Mixology Monday: The Wind-Up Bird

When I read this month's Mixology Monday, hosted by Frederic at Cocktail Virgin Slut, I was a bit trepidatious.  I've ordered a number of beer cocktails over the years but made scant few.  Most fall into one of two camps.  Some play off the velvet texture and chocolate notes of stouts.  Others center on the citrus elements of wheat beer.  This being summer in D.C., I opted for the latter.  My beer of choice was a Napa Smith Brewery's wheat beer.  I've named the drink the Wind-Up Bird Cocktail.

Ingredients

6 ounces of wheat beer (Napa Smith Brewery)
0.75 ounce of sloe gin (Plymouth)
0.5 ounce of scotch (Chivas Regal)
0.75 ounce of fresh white grapefruit juice 

Directions
Strain grapefruit juice into a glass.  Add the sloe gin, scotch, and beer and garnish with a grapefruit peal.

Outcome
The Wind-Up Bird proved well balanced, featuring no dominant flavor but instead a coherent blend of several.  The taste of the beer comes out first and throughout, but largely yields to the interplay between the sweetness of the sloe gin and the tartness of the grapefruit juice.  The scotch probably shows the least, but the smokey flavor informs the swallow.  I was curious whether the drink would be too sweet or now, but it turned out to be balanced in that department as well.  All in all, this is a very refreshing summer drink and one that I'm eager to make again for myself or guests.

Summer in the City: the Philly Sling Cocktail

On this hot summer evening I wanted to make something a little refreshing - and perhaps a break from the heavy cocktails that I've been making of late.  Reading through a couple of books, I came upon the Philly Sling, created by bartender Derek Brown.  It appeared to have some refreshing qualities as well as a bit of complexity.  As a bonus, I suspected my wife would like it, as it includes applejack and sloe gin.  The one hangup that I briefly considered is that it looks and tastes like a chick drink, though it has a fairly high booze quotient. At home that is no barrier, though at a bar perhaps some people would go for something manlier.

Ingredients
1.5 ounces of applejack
1 ounce of sloe gin
0.75 ounce of lemon juice
0.25 ounce of simple syrup
2 dashes of Angostura bitters

Directions
Shake ingredients with ice and pour into a chilled cocktail glass.

Taste (flavor, balance, and clarity): 7.5
This was an interesting drink.  In stark contrast to the Monkey Gland Cocktail, it did not prominently feature a single ingredient.  Rather, it produced a fairly mellow, if a bit sweet swirl of flavors.  The applejack and sloe gin - somewhat similar in my book in terms of strength of alcoholic and flavor and the degree of sweetness paired off, with the lemon and the bitters cutting the sweetness.  I'm not sure if the simple syrup was necessary for balance but perhaps it was good to dampen the drink a bit. All in all, quite pleasant and easy to consume.

Versatility (when and for whom the drink works): 8
I think that the Philly Sling works in a number of settings.  It's complex enough to sip and juicy enough to casually imbibe at a party or crowed bar (though the color indicates a chick drink).  That fact notwithstanding, I think a lot of folks would enjoy it, perhaps excepting those with very little tolerance for cocktails that are a bit on the sweeter side.

Hassle (Cost and Time):6
The Philly Sling is some work to make.  In addition to juicing a lemon, it requires simple syrup, which I had made recently.  As for cost, its moderately expensive, as real sloe gin isn't cheap.

Overall:  7.5
The Philly Sling is a quality cocktail that I will make again, especially for company when they don't want something too daunting.  It had a balanced, if slightly sweet flavor profile and was pretty refreshing.

Possible Modifications
I might omit the simple syrup next time.  I'm not sure if it really accomplished much.  I also might try using lemon bitters instead of angostura. 

Explorations in Sloe Gin: Sipping the English Countryside

Since purchasing a bottle of sloe gin a while back, most of the resulting cocktails have have been relatively light and citrus based, like a Cloudy Sky (sloe gin, lime, and ginger ale) or a sloe gin fizz (sloe gin, soda water, simple syrup, and lemon juice).  These are very tasty drinks but not particularly complex and pretty thin on the alcohol front.  I wanted to try or create drinks that were a bit more challenging or at least stronger.

The first of a couple of half-sized drinks that I made was simply called the Sloe Gin Martini, found though the wonders of the internets.  I wouldn't call it a martini, as there is no gin (no, sloe gin is not gin) but it seemed interesting regardless.  I stirred rather than shook it but otherwise followed the recipe.

Sloe Gin Martini

Ingredients
3 ounces of sloe gin (Plymouth)
1 ounce of dry vermouth (Nolly Pratt)
4 dashes of Angostura bitters

Directions
Stir ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.  Garnish with a lemon twist.


Outcome
Pretty good.  The first thing that hit me was the sweetness of the sloe gin, which had me thinking "uh oh."  But before the sweetness could get too intense, in the mid swallow the bitters and vermouth came to the fore.  The drink turns out to be well balanced, if a bit light.  This drink got good reviews from my wife, who drank the bulk of it, and I think would work for a pretty diverse crowd.  Given the amount of sugar, I'm not sure if you would want more than one, but it was a relaxing spring beverage, though not as sweet as most cocktails with sloe gin.  Another plus was that it was really quick to make, involving relatively few ingredients and no syrups, juicing, muddling, or any such nonsense.

The second sloe gin cocktail, which I came up with, was a bit stronger and more complex.

English Accent

Ingredients
2 ounces of sloe gin
1 ounce of old tom gin (Ransom)
1 ounce of lemoncello (homemade and relatively strong)

Directions
Stir ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.  Garnish with a lime wedge.

Outcome
This drink really shined.  Despite its relatively low amount, the old tom gin was the initial and probably strongest flavor in the drink.  Its slight sweetness and herbal quality complemented the liqueurs.  I like to think of sloe gin and lemoncello as cousins because both were traditionally made with fruit by farmer types in the countryside.  Homemade hooch is the best.  Anyway, they worked well together.  The swallow ended with a twisting of the two liqueurs followed by a bit of a warm taste from the gin.  All in all, most pleasant.

It's a bit more challenging than most sloe gin concoctions, being cut with nothing but liqueurs but still relatively accessable.  Also note that the lemoncello that I used was relatively strong and not too sweet.  Otherwise you might need to use some bitters or at least amp up the amount of old tom gin.  The English Accent was also very easy to make.

Next time I might try garnishing it withe a rosemary or mint sprig to play up the herbal flavor instead of the lemon wedge, which slightly cuts down the sweetness and amplifies the lemoncello.  I also think that I could dial back the sloe gin to 1.5 ounces and perhaps up the old tom gin to .75 ounces.