Last Thursday, I hosted a workshop on making cocktail bitters at San Francisco’s Museum of Craft and Design. We sold out all 60Â tickets, the crowd was in high spirits throughout the night, and everyone seemed excited by what they made, so I’m already pondering venues to teach DIY Bitters again.
Author Archives: Quinn
Bitters Making Workshop at Batch Made Market
I was invited to present a workshop on how to make cocktail bitters at home during the inaugural Batch Made Market in San Francisco, and it was a big success! We did a quick overview of bitters’ history and uses, then dug into the tools, processes and testing methods for making bitters. It was a …
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Cranberry Bitters for Thanksgiving and Christmas Cocktails
Problem: too much Beaujolais at family Thanksgiving last year, and too few cocktails. Solution: homemade cranberry bitters to craft some festive holiday drinks. The holiday season – and the stress that comes with it – are nearly upon us, so most of the instructions in this recipe involve hitting ingredients with a hammer or jabbing them …
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Straight, No Chaser
Just a mood.
Drinker’s Dictionary Volume 2 (Your Input Is Needed)
One of my most popular posts (thanks, Reddit) and the best-selling item in my Etsy Store are both based on Ben Franklin’s compendium of words and phrases meaning drunk, The Drinker’s Dictionary. Now, more than 275 years after he published it, it’s time for an update. so I’m compiling the best contemporary terms for …
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Rapid Bittering (With Citrus Bitters Recipe)
I’ve been experimenting with bitters recipes, and the biggest challenge is time (second is finding obscure herbs). Bitters need to sit a few weeks for the alcohol to fully extract flavors, so my latest quick-fix was high pressure.
Kerf-Bending Coffee Cup Cuffs
I’ve been so busy developing new gizmos that I haven’t been posting much lately, so here’s a peak at my most recent project. Along with new decanters, including a set with quotes about the spirits they contain, and some DIY cocktail kits with etched bottles, I’ve been working more with wood. Along with creating woodcut …
Wisdom of My Father
This is my first Father’s Day as a dad, and my parents just came out to visit from Vermont to meet the baby and spend some time with me in San Francisco. Along with sound advice on parenting and relationships, my father dropped some cocktail wisdom on me when I took my folks out to …
SpeedRack is Back
If you are in San Francisco this weekend and looking for something to do, check out SpeedRack, the touring female bartender competition that’s raising money for breast cancer research. The last time I attended SpeedRack was in Portland, and I can vouch that it’s a rowdy, raunchy and a raucous good time. Tickets are only …
Multi-Purpose Bar Tools
I hate single-use kitchen gadgets (hot dog slicers, corn strippers, pizza shears, anything from Skymall), but so many bar tools are limited in what they can do. I certainly am not advocating a swiss army-style cocktail tool, and yes, that really does exist. There’s nothing useful about ten bulky tools crammed into one with all …