Even with the chaos of travel and cooking for Thanksgiving, there was still a surprisingly large amount of traffic on the blogs this week.  Without further ado, here is the Week in the Blogs:

• Erik Ellestad of the Savoy Stomp discusses the Brandy Fix and how the Fix differs from the Daisy.
• Pegu Doug points out an epic beer concept, Rogue’s Voodoo Doughnut Bacon Maple Ale.
• Cocktail Chronicles’ Paul Clarke tempts us with a description of his next SwigWell classes entitled Holiday Cocktails that Don’t Suck. If you can get to Seattle a week and a half from now, Paul will give the class on the 10th and the 11th at the Rob Roy!
• Marshall, one half of Scofflaw’s Den, provides a lesson on bar tools for the home bar. Given his years of experience making drinks, he proffers some good insight into what works and what doesn’t; moreover, this post makes for some great holiday gift ideas now that the trees and menorahs are coming out.
• Matt Rowley of the Whiskey Forge has a house move ahead of him, and with that comes transporting precious bottles of booze! Matt shares some helpful pointers on how to ensure the bottles do not break or spill, including the use of plumber’s tape to seal caps and corks. Matt also relates some holiday grocery shopping tips to avoid the crowds — chose ethnic supermarkets!
• Wes of the Gumbo Pages blog taps into the same theme as Pegu Doug, namely bacon! Wes offers up his recipe for Bacon Peanut Butter Cookies.
• Fred Yarm, the Cocktail Virgin/Slut, suggests another good holiday purchase, the Camano Coffee Mill, a  hand-crafted mechanical burr grinder. For drinks he had out, he describes two Flips for the season, Trina’s Starlite Lounge’s Mr. Monahan’s Flip created for someone not named Mr. Monahan, and Green Street’s tiki-esque Skipper’s Flip. For drinks he had in, there are the Fernet Branca take on the Apple Jack Rabbit called Follow that Black Rabbit and the vintage fruity number, the Sloe Combustion.
• Darcy O’Neil of the Art of Drink alerts us that his website’s bitters recipe list is back up with a few new additions!
• Alcademic’s Camper English continues on with his tales of Japan. He describes Highball bars where standing and drinking is not frowned upon and Highballs flow freely from taps. He also wraps up his trip stories with a miscellaneous post that includes pics of a Japanese speakeasy establishment and a random observations one that includes Japanese drinking etiquette. Domestically, Camper relates the thoughts on beverage culture from the creators of South Park and alerts us that he got an article on Banana Egg Nog published in FineCooking.
• After last week complaining on the nontraditional recipes calling themselves the Mai Tai, Tiare of A Mountain of Crushed Ice offers up ways to tinker with the recipe without confusion including a drink called the Hibiscus Queen. Beside the Mai Tai, Tiare is also a fan of Louisiana’s Abita Beer even if she has difficulty in getting it in Sweden. As part of the beer exchange program, a pub in New Orleans will be featuring Swedish craft beers in January.
• A Jigger of Blog’s Matt Hamlin unintentionally opened an expensive bottle of wine without realizing it; he cannot figure out if it was an epic win or an epic fail and asks you to vote. Matt also shares a holiday libation, the Bourbon Punch, created by Gina Chersevani of D.C.

Last Thursday for drink night, the theme was “red and yellow” in honor of the leaves changing color as we get further into Autumn. Therefore, the use of red and/or yellow cocktail ingredients was encouraged; this included Campari, Cherry Heering, and sweet vermouth for red, and Strega, Lillet Blanc, and Galliano for yellow. Here are some of my favorite drinks of the night:

Ed of Wordsmithing Pantagruel came up with two drinks that night. Here is the first:
Yellow Liver
• 3/4 oz Yellow Chartreuse
• 3/4 oz Gin
• 3/4 oz Cocchi Americano
• 3/4 oz St. Germain
• 3/4 oz Lemon Juice
Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Float a barspoon or two of Galliano on top of the drink.

Dan of the Kindred Cocktail drink database came up with this Fall fruit tribute:
Rick Pearitini
• 1 oz Poire William Eau De Vie
• 1 oz Blume Marillen
• 1 tsp Gran Classico
Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

Fred of CocktailVirgin took the conversation about egg yolks being yellow a bit far with this Negroni-Knickebein hybrid:
Knickroni
• 1/2 oz Campari
• 1/2 oz Sweet Vermouth
• 1 Egg, separated
• 1/2 oz Gin
• 1 dash Regan’s Orange Bitters
Stir Campari and sweet vermouth with a spoon in a 2 oz sherry glass. Layer an unbroken egg yolk on top. Layer gin on top of that. Cover with egg whites beaten to stiffness and garnish with a dash of orange bitters. Drink in a ceremonial 4 step process as laid out here in a post about the original 1878 Knickebein.

Since I liked the name of Ed’s other drink so much especially in honor of the color scheme, here it is:
Bert & Ernie
• 1 oz Laird’s Bonded Apple Brandy
• 1/2 oz Sloe Gin
• 1/2 oz Strega
• 1/2 oz Lillet Blanc
• 1/2 oz Lemon Juice
• 1 dash Regan’s Orange Bitters
Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass rinsed with Galliano.

In continuing on with the recipes from last Thursday’s Drink Night, perhaps a quick reminder about the Polynesian theme of “Nuku Hiva” and how it relates to current events:

In early October, the charred remains of a German adventurer were discovered at a campfire site on a South Pacific island. The tabloid media were quick to portray the slaying as a possible case of cannibalism on Nuku Hiva, an island historically known for human sacrifice. But locals are offended and experts say such killings are a thing of the very distant past.

Therefore, the quest was to craft Tiki drinks with at least one German ingredient, and fire was a plus!

Kimona a/k/a Blondechick of the Baby Got Sauce blog also utilized kümmel as well as a German absinthe!
Mary Ann’s Revenge
• 1 oz Bourbon
• 1 oz Kümmel
• 1 oz Orange Juice
• 1/2 oz Passion Fruit Syrup
• 1/2 oz Orgeat
• 2 dash Absinthe Duplais
• 2 dash Regan’s Orange Bitters
Shake with ice and strain into a rocks glass filled with crushed ice. Garnish with a alternating brandied cherries (3) and thin slices of ginger (2) on a cocktail pick and balance on glass. Pour 1/4 oz 151 proof vodka or rum over the garnish and ignite.

Ed of Wordsmithing Pantagruel went with the honey liqueur Bärenjäger and German-made bitters. Perhaps mere mortals will want to reduce the volumes in half or invite a friend.
Einbahnstraße
• 1 oz Coruba Rum
• 1 oz Lemon Hart 151 Rum
• 1 oz Cruzan Aged Rum
• 1 oz Kirsch
• 1 oz Bärenjäger
• 1 oz Domaine de Canton
• 1 oz Lemon Juice
• 1 oz Lime Juice
• 1 oz Orange Juice
• 1 oz Cinnamon Syrup
• 1 dash Bitter Truth Orange Bitters
• 1 dash Bitter Truth Creole Bitters
• 1 dash Bitter Truth Aromatic Bitters
Shake with ice and strain into a large Tiki mug filled with fresh ice. Garnish with a straw and a lime shell filled with Lemon Hart 151. Ignite the shell.

Stevi Deter of the Two at the Most blog went with Bierbrand and Bärenjäger.
Kuru Killer
• 1 oz Bierbrand
• 1 oz JWray Rum
• 1 oz Sour Cherry Nectar
• 1 oz Pink Grapefruit Juice
• 1/2 oz Bärenjäger
• Juice of 1/2 Lime
Shake with ice and strain into a rocks glass. Garnish with a lime shell doused in overproof rum and ignited.

Finally, SeanMike of Scofflaw’s Den rounded out the night with an Apfelkorn drink.
Ziege Jäger
• 1 oz Blackstrap, Rum
• 1 oz Apfelkorn
• 1/2 oz Lime Juice
• 1/2 oz Don’s Spices Syrup
• 2 dash Angostura Bitters
Shake with ice and strain into a glass filled with crushed ice. Garnish with fire.

• Erik Ellestad ventures further into the Savoy Cocktail Book with the Tequila Daisy, a Margarita lightened by soda water, and the Stone Daisy, a whiskey drink with hard cider. He also provides a New York City bartender-inspired Jersey Daisy with apple brandy and Fernet Branca.
• Trader Tiki shares a delightful Polynesian-themed drink, the Leeward Grog containing rums, citrus, pineapple, and vanilla syrup.
• Pegu Doug offers up a Halloween-themed post and a link to an article about the protective effects of strawberries.
• The Cocktail Chronicle’s Paul Clarke writes about a new cocktail education program called Swig Well, a Seattle-based class taught by Anu Apte and Hallie McGee. Instead of teaching mixing technique, the focus is on educating drinkers to imbibe better!
• Marleigh of Sloshed continues with her Halloween drinks with the classic Tiki Cobra’s Fang and Dave “Basement Kahuna” Wolfe’s Ghost Ship.
• Whiskey Forge’s Matt Rowley reviews one of my recent purchases as well, namely Andrew Schloss’ Homemade Soda; he also reviews Thomas Parson’s Bitters and Imbibe Magazine’s The American Cocktail. Matt provides a tasty libation for Day of the Dead, the Champurrado, a traditional spiced hot chocolate, and one for Halloween, the classic Zombie. In other beverages, Matt explains his obsession with Cheerwine soda and some problems with labeling your legal product as moonshine.
• Frederic Yarm, the Cocktail Virgin/Slut, reviews Atlantico Rum’s new offerings and uses them in the Port au Prince, and he delves into the PDT Cocktail Book with the gin and grapefruit Edgewood. Fred shares Deep Ellum’s room temperature tribute to Phili’s Franklin Mortgage & Investment Co. and Green Street’s Jack Rose recipe that was the result of an infamous Boston bartender brain trust that reviewed two dozen recipes to find the best one. He also relates a pair of chocolaty creations, the Manhattan variation called the Coney Island and the whiskey-tropical Tiki Ghosn.
• Camper English of Alcademics has been busy with his sponsored project including using molds to make gummy candies out of non-crystallizing liqueurs for Solid Liquids and explaining the differences between cane and beet sugar for Sugar Spirits. Camper also reviews Thomas Parsons’ Bitters and shares the inner workings of the Cointreau plant including which citrus peels are used and why. Camper also gets his recipes published in Every Day with Rachel Ray.
• A Mountain of Crushed Ice’s Tiare joins in on the Halloween fun by presenting the Spooky Pineapple rum drink replete with rich coffee and walnut flavors.
• Michael Dietsch of A Dash of Bitters writes his next chapter in his Five Essential Cocktails series on SeriousEats — this one is on rye whiskey and contains two of my favorites: the Sazerac and the Brooklyn.

Tomorrow’s Thursday Drink Night theme will be “Nuku Hiva” based on recent events on that tropical Polynesian island. A little back story:

In early October, the charred remains of a German adventurer were discovered at a campfire site on a South Pacific island. The tabloid media were quick to portray the slaying as a possible case of cannibalism on Nuku Hiva, an island historically known for human sacrifice. But locals are offended and experts say such killings are a thing of the very distant past. (read more)

Therefore, in honor of this darkly exotic mystery, the goal of the night is to create tiki drinks with at least one German ingredient! Bonus if you use fire!  Stop in to the chatroom after 8pm EST for all the fun and frivolity.

• Erik Ellestad continues his stomp through the Savoy Cocktail Book by making the Calvados-based Moonlight Cooler and Scotch-based Mint Cooler. For his beer-of-the-week feature, he showcases Ale Industry’s Rye’d Piper, a hoppy red beer full of chocolaty roasted malt notes. Erik also includes some oyster and Porkpourri food porn pics to get you thinking about dinner.
• Pegu Blog’s Doug points out how sex sells with a racy Guinness beer advertisement. A well spent semi-safe for work 60 seconds.
• SeanMike and Marshall of Scofflaw’s Den write about opening up their Ambush Market of shirts and aprons for sale.  Support the anti-scene!
• Whiskey Forge’s Matt Rowley covers one of Houston’s Anvil Bar’s drinks, the Vanderbilt Fugitive, that features acidic buttermilk as an ingredient. In other food and beverage postings, Matt reveals his favorite Masala Chai recipe and a tasty mango sorbet recipe that includes Marschino liqueur! And after feeling some guilt about not recycling (see his break in story), he spotlights crafty ways people re-use bottles in some parts of the world to light their homes.
• Frederic Yarm, the Cocktail Virgin-Slut, uncovers a great use for blueberry jam and orange marmalade in cocktails. Moreover, he reviews Ryan & Wood rye and uses it in a Ward Eight, gets served Negroni variation created by Phil Ward, and ponders Trader Vic’s tequila-based Mai Tai called the Pinky Gonzalez.
• Camper English of Alcademics is currently in Italy this week where he is investigating the lemon harvest and limoncello production on the Amalfi Coast; I am sure we’ll hear more about his jetsetting ways and the reasons behind it when he gets back. However, this trip has not stopped his productivity this week. Speaking of lemons, Camper reviews a book on citrus written by Pierre Laszlo (the book currently resides in my to-read pile). Ever wonder how sugar cane and sugar beets end up as crystals for your coffee? Camper covers that and modern sugar production for his sugar spirits project. In other fermentable news, Camper covers Karlsson’s Vodka, a potato eau de vie. And finally, Camper writes for Fine Cooking with an article about a tequila-Barenjager cocktail.
• A Dash of Bitters’ Professor Michael Dietsch continues his bar lectures on Serious Eats with a seminar on Vermouths and other Aperitif Wines. Besides making heads or tails with Italian vs. French and red vs. white vermouths, Mike covers quinquinas and other aromatized wine styles that go great on their own and in cocktails.

With the warmth of the summer departing, the theme for this Thursday’s Drink Night is “Fall”! Perhaps it is a great followup to TDN: Football two weeks ago or perhaps it is just a great excuse to go out and buy locally pressed cider, restock your apple brandy collection, or whip up a pumpkin syrup in the kitchen! Stop by the chatroom at 8pm EST to join in on the celebration of the Autumnal Solstice happening this week!

Last Thursday here on the Mixoloseum chatroom was “TDN: In With Bacchus” in honor of Scott Spolverino who runs a blog by that name. Whether the objective was to use ingredients Scott would enjoy or to use ones that he lamentably cannot get in Scotland, the end result was a collection of drink recipes worth sharing. And it did not hurt that Scott offered prizes for the best drink name and the best drink recipe. Without further ado, here are the winners as picked by Scott:

Best name: Peat’s Dragon by Dr. Bamboo
• 1 oz Ardmore Scotch
• 1/2 oz Berentzen Apfelkorn
• 1/2 oz London Dry Gin
• 1/2 oz Lemon
• 1/4 oz Agave Nectar
• 2 dash Mole Bitters
Shake with ice and strain into a rocks glass filled with fresh ice.

Best cocktail: Smokey-Chokey by Sunny & Rummy
• 1 1/2 oz Blended Scotch (such as Famous Grouse),
• 3/4 oz Cynar
• 1/2 oz Honey Syrup (1:1)
• 1/4 oz Laphroaig 10 Scotch
Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a wide lemon twist.

For a few other of the recipes presented that night:

Lazzagroni by Marc of A Drinker’s Peace
• 1 oz Pisco
• 1 oz Bianco Vermouth
• 1/2 oz Lazzaroni Aperitivo (sub Campari)
• 1/2 oz Lime Juice
Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

Parched Rose by Ed of Wordsmithing Pantagruel
• 1 oz Mezcal (such as Chichicapa)
• 1 oz Suze Liqueur
• 1 oz Fino Sherry
• 1/4 oz Maraschino Liqueur
• 3/4 oz Lemon Juice
• 1 dash Mole Bitters
• 1 dash Boker’s Bitters
Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a rosemary sprig.

Smoke & Mirrors by Matt of Rumdood
• 1 1/2 oz Mezcal Platino
• 3/4 oz Ramazotti Amaro
• 1/2 oz Orange Juice
• 1 tsp Ardbeg Scotch
• 1 dash Orange Bitters
• 1 dash Mole Bitters (optional)
Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

• Erik Ellestad takes a momentary break from his travels through the Savoy Cocktail Book to provide some great pointers on tipping including what to do when you get one of your rounds for free. And in his Savoy efforts, he covers the Long Tom and Lone Tree Coolers.
• Pegu Blog’s Doug points out an article as to why cork is superior to screw caps and other bottle sealing methods.
• Congrats to Rumdood for making the next cut for the Tommy Bahama Rumologist contest! Rumdood took a break from writing this week as he is working on his next video to help win this dream job. Stay tuned for when to vote again!
• Matt Rowley of the Whiskey Forge shares heartbreak when a gift of a rare bottle of Hermes Orange Bitters arrived shattered! And on a positive note, he points out a place to get ceramic bone-shaped salt & pepper shakers that would be perfect for dispensing grated cinnamon or nutmeg for Tiki drinks!
• Gumbo Pages’ Chuck Taggart raves about a new drink database called Kindred Cocktails that allows users to enter and share recipes.
• Dr. Bamboo describes  bartending at two events including one that displayed some of his artwork. He also points out where his writing has been published lately including Bachelor Pad Magazine.
• Fred Yarm of Cocktail Virgin alludes to robbing a bank of their basil to make a tomato-laden drink, La Mancha, for brunch.  He also wrote about the room temperature Sir Francis Drake Special from the 1930s or 40s and a drink named after a Flapper character in a 1920s era cartoon called Prudence Prim.
• While A Mountain of Crushed Ice’s Tiare has spoken of the wonders of Mozart Dry Chocolate Spirit before, now she has their chocolate bitters! After giving tasting notes, she mixes them up in variations on the Daiquiri and Mai Tai.
• Camper English continues his Solid Liquids project on Alcademics with a post on dehydrating in bulk and partially dehydrating to make practically alcohol-free syrups. In his Sugar Spirit project, Camper discusses the sugar beet which played a roll in providing sugar in cooler regions and influencing the genesis of rhum agricoles on French islands in the Caribbean.
• Michael Dietsch of A Dash of Bitters wrote this week on SeriousEats about how to stock a home bar including how to store different ingredients and how to intelligently expand the collection.

• Michael Dietsch of the A Dash of Bitters blog gives us some Cocktail 101 about citrus on SeriousEats with tips on everything from zesting to juicing.
• A Mountain of Crushed Ice’s Tiare presents the obscure classic Tiki drink, the Yellow Boxer, and makes her own vanilla and passion fruit riff of this recipe. Moreover, some of her recipes were written up in Saveur’s post about fall cocktails.
• The ever busy Camper English of Alcademics continues his two sponsored projects. In his “liquid solids” one, he re-visits the microwave and fiddles with the settings for better drying, and he experiments with the oven and food dehydrator as well. For the “sugar can spirits” one, Camper gives some history of the sweet grass in the new world as well as some of its darker history. Lastly, Camper got an article about watermelon cocktails published in FineCooking.
• Frederic, the Cocktail Virgin/Slut, proffers Colin Shearn’s Transatlantic Giant from the Rogue Cocktail Book, the chocolate and anise-tinged Hell Diver, and Deep Ellum’s tequila-Sazerac tribute to Clint Eastwood’s character — the Man with No Name. Fred also had his Thames River that he created for a TDN last year recently appear on an event’s cocktail menu.
• Dr. Bamboo reveals some of his shady drinking history from his pre-craft cocktails days. In addition, he adds to his humorous “Greatest Cocktail Books Ever Published” series with Cocktails for Two.
• Matt Rowley of the Whiskey Forge continues on the culinary track with a post on bone marrow and suggests that you stop missing out on this treat!
• Praise for a liquor control board? Yes, I’m shocked too. Doug of the Pegu Blog discusses the new search tool that the Ohio Liquor Control Board added.
• Erik Ellestad surges forward on his Savoy Stomp by tackling the Fizzes. The Silver Fizz without egg and the Royal Fizz with both look like tasty gin drinks! And in the realm of sloe gin, the Ruby Fizz seems like a great recipe to try soon.