ConciergeFALL 2015NEW YORK

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4 DAYS OF TASTINGS, DEMOS AND MORE

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BESPOKE CONCIERGE FALL 2015 47

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Those taps at the bar are no longer just for your favorite brews. Look carefully at the handles inside high-end bars and restau-rants in major cities throughout the country and you might be

surprised to find that a few are dedicated to premixed craft drinks.This growing trend in cocktail culture presents the opportunity

for smaller serving sizes, meaning guests can have a taste of a cock-tail before committing to a full size, or try more types of cocktails by ordering half sizes. It’s also an opportunity for bartenders to offer more efficient service—a benefit for travelers with many more destinations on the agenda.

On the East Coast, Manhattan’s Saxon & Parole has offered an option on tap since its opening in 2011. “We batch the base bourbon … with sweet vermouth in the classic Manhattan cocktail ratio, two to one,” says bar manager Masa Urushido. “After we pour it out of the tap, we finish it up by stirring in house-made leather bitters. … This method is much faster than making each drink from scratch and can be served in large quantities if need be. But the most important reason is simply, it’s fun.”

But what may have started as an efficient way to serve customers popular cocktails made of two or three ingredients—a house-made soda combined with liquor, for example—has since expanded into a sci-ence-infused art form, with mixologists experimenting with recipes like scientists in a lab.

In Miami, Batch Gastropub has taken cocktails on tap a step further and features tables equipped with beer and cocktails on tap for topping yourself off. Owner and operator Kevin Danilo says that cocktails on tap allow him to introduce new products, serve them quickly and guar-antee batch consistencies.

“It’s such a great feeling when the bartenders are swamped and they offer someone a 10-ingredient drink instead of a vodka cranberry,” Danilo says. “And the guest gets it in a few seconds and makes the ‘Wow,

ON TAPComing Out

Part art and part science, cocktails are coming to imbibers through the tap lines at bars across the U.S.

BY TIFFANIE WEN

Batch Gastropub in Miami offers a varied selection of draft cocktails.

this is incredible’ face.” Though purchasing the equipment to create draft cocktails is relatively inex-

pensive, understanding the process demands a high investment of effort and plenty of savvy. Mixologists undergo a fair amount of trial and error to discover what types of alcohols and ingredients scale up well and to perfect new concoc-tions, one 5-gallon keg at a time.

Jasper’s Corner Tap and Kitchen in San Francisco, for example, has been serving draft cocktails since 2011 and garnered fame for its popular on-tap Negroni, an aperitif made from gin, vermouth rosso and Campari. Now, it offers a clarified milk punch—a drink that dates back to the founding of the United States and was a favorite of Benjamin Franklin.

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colder the liquid is, the easier it takes to the carbonation. He also found agi-tating the keg during pressurization prevents separation and improves the quality of carbonation.

One strategy that insiders have started toying with is creating var-iations of well-known favorites to work with the keg. At A10 for exam-ple, Zaremba takes recipes that were popular in the 1970s to 1990s and turns them into flavorful carbonated drinks with fresh ingredients. “We tried out a Midori Sour recently with fresh melon and honeydew with white rye whiskey and it came out great,” he says.

When using fresh ingredients, however, bartenders need to ensure the components won’t spoil. “An Old-Fashioned is easy because there’s nothing going on that will spoil. But you can’t do it with citrus cocktails,” Mikell explains. Danilo also adds that it’s best to always nitrogen preserve batches when they include fresh ingredients.

COMBINED EFFORTS Though it requires a great deal of experimentation, all the effort invested into perfecting a craft cock-tail seems to pay off. Unlike bottled cocktails, which have a bad rap for falling victim to commercialization, cocktails on tap are becoming popular

Far from a simple conconction, the clarified milk punch at Jasper’s Corner Tap and Kitchen in San Francisco has flavors of allspice, hazelnut, chocolate, green tea and pepper.

in Chicago, says that another con-sideration is how the proportions of ingredients change in large quanti-ties. “Certain ingredients may over-power the final batch when scaled up to the amounts needed,” he explains.

He often starts with less of the ingredient and adds more as needed: “For example, absinthe is extremely potent in small doses and when scaled up, usually needs a reduction in amount used for the final batch,” he says. “In this way, one really needs to understand how multiple ingredients interact and work with each other.”

Another challenge involves the separation of ingredients and absorp-tion of carbonation. Garrett Mikell, the head bartender at Eveleigh in Los Angeles, has discovered that the

At Los Angeles’ Eveleigh, bartenders experiment with recipes and ingredients.

“Much like a consomme uses egg white to clarify broth, we use milk curd to clarify our punch,” says mixologist William Tsui. “The remaining mixture comes out clear gold and has flavors of allspice, hazelnut, chocolate, green tea, [and] pepper, and is undeniably unctuous and silky.”

BEHIND THE SCENES Coming up with recipes for cocktails on tap poses unique challenges. “One has to consider the ingredients and how they’ll react in a draft line,” Danilo says, adding that to avoid corrosion, draft lines must be able to handle acidic beverages and all equipment should be stainless steel.

Lee Zaremba, a bartender at A10

among a sophisticated set because of their craft quality—they’re made in-house by bartenders and mixol-ogists by hand, and a batch can be consumed in a few days or weeks. At Eveleigh, a 5-gallon batch lasts one to two weeks, allowing mixologists to experiment with ingredients and con-stantly tweak recipes.

“By default, smaller places and res-taurants can add some personality to on-tap cocktails,” he explains. “When a cocktail runs out here, for example, we’ll change it out for something else. We go to the farmers market every Sunday and often incorporate what we find there into new recipes.”

Forced carbonation also provides room for mixologists to change the nature of the drink. Rather than adding one carbonated ingredient to a cocktail and mixing it in, a tap system allows for uniform carbon-ation and chilling so that the drink is minimally diluted by ice when it hits the glass. Danilo equates the experience to that of the difference between drinking a fresh bottle of Champagne and a week-old one.

“It’s also a lot of fun to car-bonate classics like a Negroni or Cosmopolitan. Some of them work exceptionally well and completely change the flavor profile of some of the world’s best drinks,” he says.

The most popular cocktail on tap

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ChicagoAt A10 in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood, guests are introduced to cocktails on tap with basic options like the gin and tonic made with homemade tonic, or more adventurous concoctions like � e Blushing Cha Cha or Apricot Nipper. (a10hydepark.com)

Los Angeles Located on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, Eveleigh’s cocktails on tap change sea-sonally. But visitors can expect to fi nd concoctions like the Summer Babe, a variation on a cocktail that is normally stirred and served neat, that includes Aviation American Gin, grape-fruit tarragon syrup and lemon. (theeveleigh.com)

Miami At Batch Gastropub in Miami, anyone can be a master mix-ologist. � e pub features fi ve tables with a tap system out-fi tted for up to four drinks, including specialty cocktails like � e Entourage (jalap-eno- and pineapple- infused Avion Silver tequila mixed with fresh-squeezed lemon juice and guava). (batchmiami.com)

New York City Madam Geneva, located adja-cent to sister restaurant Saxon & Parole, off ers New Yorkers a classic sip from the tap. Gin is a big category for the bar and lounge, so it’s easy to understand why the innovators behind the bar crafted a draft cocktail using the versatile spirit. � e Negroni at Madam Geneva is prepared with a London dry style—Beefeater—along with the traditional recipe of Campari, and sweet vermouth. (saxonandparole.com)

Tasting Flight Find draft cocktails on the menu in the following

cities across the country.

at Batch is The Entourage—jalapeno- and pineapple-infused Avion Silver tequila mixed with fresh-squeezed lemon juice and guava that is made effervescent through forced car-bonation. “The heat is amplifi ed by the carbonation, but the guava and pineapple cut it quickly so you get a burst of heat that doesn’t linger at all,” Danilo says. “It’s pretty crazy how everything works together to create that effect.”

RETAINING THE ROMANCEIt’s true that serving cocktails from the tap removes what many consider to be a key ingredient to mixology—the romance of watching the bar-tender create your drink. But insiders say the vast majority of customers are still intrigued by the new process and there has been a shift in attitudes.

Zaremba says it’s not uncommon for customers to be confused the fi rst time they see a cocktail served from the tap. “A question we often get is ‘I didn’t just order a beer of some kind, did I?’ ” he says. “Then we explain the process of how we create the cocktails and people get excited.”

“There used to be a puritanical approach to the cocktail move-ment,” Mikell adds. “It was sacrilege to a degree to have something pre-mixed. But it’s brilliant to put the work and time into it beforehand

Customers can order a Manhattan on tap at Saxon & Parole in New York City.

Apricot Nipper

Summer Babe

The Entourage

Negroni

so that you can create a high-end, highly-crafted cocktail in a minute.”

Another option is to premix a base in the tap and add ingredients to it afterward in a type of hybrid. At Batch, Danilo is experimenting with these bases, and an upcoming menu will include an Old Fashioned version as well as one for a Manhattan. “Once dispensed, we’re going to modify the cocktail with house-made bitters of the guest’s choosing,” he explains. “We’ll rotate those options so guests can really customize their cocktail based on their fl avor preferences.”

He adds that about 90 percent of customers who see cocktails on tap react positively, and he is often able to convince the other 10 percent of their virtues by allowing guests to try a taste, something they can’t do with handmade drinks. “We also invite them to come watch our batching days,” he says. “It’s like craft cocktails meets ‘Breaking Bad.’ Ninety-fi ve percent of that small group ends up leaving loving what we do.”

Zaremba agrees that cocktails on tap are not necessarily here to replace regular cocktails. “For us, having drinks on tap isn’t a replacement for building and executing a thoughtful cocktail program,” he says. “It’s an addition for us to showcase forced carbonation and have a good time with new ideas.” CA

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