The Hide Bar Newsletter

The Hide Bar - Newsletter

Number 16, June 2008

May has been a pretty busy month, what with cycling races and a beer tasting trip to Belgium, and June looks set to continue in the same vein. More cycling and more tasting, with a staff trip to Champagne for The Hide's team (a slightly worrying prospect) and some really good Tuesday tastings for all of you. We're also hosting a couple of cocktail competitions, so you may find yourself surrounded by nervous and excited bartenders from time to time!
We keep updating our Bin End and Reserve wine list, so keep an eye out for our specials. We've got a lovely Moscato d'Asti on there, a thirteen year old Madiran and Luigi Bosca's brilliant Argentine Gala 1, a blend of Malbec, Petit Verdot and Tannat.
We've also got some new piscos and calvados coming in if that takes your fancy. Calvados is my new pet spirit having had some lovely ones in Northern France during the cycle to Paris. Strictly speaking, not during, but they made a great reward in the evening! This means you'll be steered towards The Delicious Sour (calvados and apricot liqueur, lime and sugar) or a Calvados Old Fashioned should you ask for my recommendations next time you're in. Both come highly recommended.
Our greatest excitement is saved for last however. We have two of only six kegs of Meantime Smoked Bock in the world coming on tap next week. At 7% and £4 a pint, it's punchy, but it's a fantastically special thing you have to try! Smoked beers are the brewer's equivalent of an Islay Malt. The malted barley is dried over beechwood smoke as was traditionally done in Bamberg, Germany (the malt is imported from Germany, but the beer brewed in Greenwich). It's rich, malty and almost chewy, so may take a couple of tastes to get into, but once you are (and preferably if you have a plate of cheese and meat in front of you), you're hooked. If you buy a couple of halves or pints, we'll even knock 20% off a cheese & meat plate for you!

Cheers!

Paul

EVENTS
Tuesday tastings : Last roughly an hour and include random facts, helpful hints and a little bit of tasting. They are often free to attend, but booking is advisable as we're limited to about 25 people.

Tuesday the 3rd June, 7pm
Paolo will be combining his cocktail skills with some culinary expertise and making both sangrias and paella for a food pairing evening. Fingers crossed for some sun.

Tuesday the 10th June, 7pm
We are very proud to have Peter Schulz, owner and winemaker at Turkey Flat Vineyards (www.turkeyflat.com.au) coming to taste his range with us. These are fantastic wines, ranging from the Barossa Valley Butcher's Block Red (Shiraz/Grenache/Mourvèdre) to the brilliantly fruity, sweet Pedro Ximenez (a recent multi-award winner). Please book early to make sure you get a place.

Tuesday the 17th June, 7pm
Tom, the chap who has done a few cocktail sessions for us, will be coming in to make some drinks with Johnnie Walker and Bushmills. As ever, he will no doubt make lots of interesting things, and make a lot of mess in the process.

Tuesday the 24th June, 7pm
We're just waiting to confirm this one, but it'll be spirits and they'll be delicious!

Last bit - things I've learnt in the last month

I feel like I've been improving myself over the last few weeks. In particular, trips to Belgium to learn about beers and a trip to Simon Difford's bar-in-residence to learn about Peruvian Pisco stand out as things I'd like to share.

Firstly, a day trip to Brussels with the famous Alastair Hook, brewer of Meantime. Looking through them, I have to admit that my notes get a little hazy as the day wore on, but what I can remember is our tour round the Cantillon Brewery in the morning.

Cantillon is the last remaining traditional brewery in Brussels. Traditional in that the owners have produced lambic beers by spontaneous fermentation for over one hundred years. Originally home to hundreds of breweries, Brussels (and specifically the Senne Valley) is supposed to have the ideal atmosphere and microflora for spontaneous fermentation, however this style has largely been replaced by the more sanitised and controllable low (and high) fermentation methods which produce almost all of what we drink now.

While the initial mashing of wheat, malted barley and hops is similar to other beers, the key difference comes at the cooling of the wort, which is done in a large, shallow copper cooling tun (see pic). This magnificent piece of copperwork is open to the air, which is allowed to flow freely over the wort through special roof tiles. This is done during the winter in order to reach the required 18 degrees centigrade and when the mixture of yeasts and bacteria in the air is ideal for the beer.

From this cooling tun, the wort is pumped into oak casks where the wild yeasts start to ferment the beer, causing much foaming. After three to four weeks, the casks can be sealed to allow the yeasts to get on with the process of maturing the beer. Lambic can be drunk at this stage, but most is kept for longer and used for Geuze, a blend of 1, 2 and 3 year old lambics.

Lambics and geuze beer are naturally very sour and make great aperitif drinks, but they are often sweetened or mixed with fruit and allowed to steep to make krieks. Sadly not from Cantillon, we do have a rather good kriek in stock at the moment.

Secondly was my initiation into Peruvian piscos. Hans Hilburn and Johny Schuler of the Peruvian cocktail and restaurant scene were Simon's guests, there to show off the variety and complexity of the spirit. In the UK we're mainly used to the Chilean version in a few guises, but Peru seems to out-do in terms of styles and varieties.

I won't go into too much detail (Johny knows a awful lot about pisco and even has a television series devoted to the spirit at home!), but in short summary, there are four main types: non-aromatic (four types), aromatic (three types, mainly produced from varieties of Muscat), blended (where either the grapes, must or spirits are blended) and mosto verde. The last is distilled before fermentation is complete, giving a sweeter flavour. Most Peruvian pisco is distilled to about 40% abv, giving lots of congeners (effectively character, or impurities that make it more interesting!), as opposed to the Chilean which is distilled to a higher abv and diluted before sale. Any of these types can be produced in five different regions, resulting in an awful lot of combinations!

The classic pisco drink is the pisco sour, and Johny provided us with his personal favourite, reproduced below should you be able to lay your hands on some authentic (and in this bartender's view, delicious) Peruvian pisco and limes!

Glass: Flute or goblet

Garnish: 4 drops Angostura bitters (or Chuncho bitters if you can get hold of them)

Method: double shake and strain into flute or goblet

30ml non-aromatic pisco

10ml aromatic pisco

10ml fresh lime juice (if you can’t get South American tart limes, use 15-20ml UK standard)

10ml sugar syrup (2:1 mix)

15ml egg white

Happy experimenting!

Other stuff
Our back room is available for hire, and we’d love to hold tailored wine tastings or cocktail classes. Just get in touch and let us know what you’d like to do. We now have a price list of some of our more popular tastings, available from the website at www.thehidebar.com/parties.htm.

Likewise please get in touch if you have any comments and suggestions, please email everyone@thehidebar.com. You can also sign up to keep in touch at ‘people who like to drink at The Hide Bar’ on Facebook.

The Hide
39-45 Bermondsey Street , London . SE1 3XF
t: 0207 403 6655; f: 0207 117 4173
www.thehidebar.com; everyone@thehidebar.com

Cantillion

Back Room