Aperitif

Dear all,

With October and Autumn drawing in, we are hitting our traditionally busy time of year. We love being busy and serving lots of delicious drinks, but it does mean we get booked up earlier, especially towards the end of the week, so please get in touch if you'd like to reserve a table as we hate to disappoint.

Looking ahead a little further, we are also finalising our Christmas canapé menus and sit-down options. This year we will be limiting sit-downs to 15 people so that we can focus on making it perfect. but we will also be taking larger bookings for our newly revamped (and rather delicious) canapés. These will be up on our 'parties' page in the near future.

Moving back to the present, our new cocktail list has been very well received by many of you. Just in case you hadn't noticed though, we thought we'd draw your attention to the Daiquiri List (the page after the Martinis & Manhattans). We have 9 very different natural daiquiris for you to work your way through, from the French-style Martinique Ti Punch made with Trois Rivieres Blanc, through to the deliciously rounded Jamaican Daiquiri made with Appleton Extra 12 year old, or the rich molasses of the Diplomatico Reserva 12 year old in the Venezuela Daiquiri. They're a fantastic example of how different one drink can be when made with different brands of a spirit. Come in and let us help you find your favourite.

Next, a quick apology. Due to licensing restrictions, we were unable to sell you delicious Meantime beers at the Bermondsey Street Festival a couple of weeks ago. We were as upset as you, but thanks to all those that made it that little bit further up the street to drink with us at home instead. Meantime's brews are definitely worth the walk.

Finally, we're rather happy to have been short-listed for two industry awards in the last few weeks - the Best Spirit Pub in the Publican Awards and for our staff in the Imbibe Service Awards. We'll be having a drink to celebrate, and hope you'll join us at some point this month. As ever though, if there's something you think we can improve, just drop us an email to everyone@thehidebar.com and we'll try and improve ourselves for you.

Cheers,

Paul

Tuesday Tastings

Our Tuesday Tastings cost £10 per person. Tastings start at 7pm and last around 2 hours. They are a mixture of tasting, talk from one of us, a wine maker, spirit producer or expert of some kind, general chat, plus a little bit of food to pair with the tastings.

They are held in our back room, so we are limited to 25 participants on a first-come basis. We can take reservations for the tasting, but due to no-show bookings, we need to take payment in advance. Please let us know if you would like a table in the bar afterwards as well.

Click here to reserve space at a tasting

Tuesday 13th October, 7pm
Buffalo Trace night

To mark Buffalo Trace's 236th White Dog Day (see the digestive for an explanation, and opposite for a great competition...), we are having a momentous whiskey tasting.

We'll be sampling Buffalo Trace, along with Sazerac 6 Year Old Rye Whiskey and Eagle Rare 10 Year Old Single Barrel. These will be presented by a Buffalo Trace distillery representative who can answer your every question on Bourbon and Rye whiskies, tell a few stories and give a little history.

We will also be making some whiskey cocktails and may even be able to offer you a few traditional Southern snacks. Buffalo Trace have mentioned something about 'goodies' - intriguing! Should be a fantastic Tuesday night (but don't blame us for Wednesday morning).


Tuesday 27th October, 7pm
Hartenberg Estate wines, Stellenbosch

Our October wine tasting is showing off some of the Hartenberg wines from South Africa. They have a huge selection of fantastic wines, of which we'll be showing the Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Cabernet-Shiraz and straight Shiraz.

Established in 1692, this winery is based in its own Stellenbosch valley where they emphasize the biodiversity and sustainability of the region, preserving 65ha of the estate as wetland.  They have also been voted the most successful producer in South Africa. Come and see what you think.

Digestive

White Dogs and Pot Stills

Buffalo Trace have inspired the Digestive this month with their promotion of White Dog Day, or the 'day' on which they start to distill their new spirit again (known as new-make or white dog) after a summer off. They can then stick it in a barrel and forget about it for 8-12 years (more about that in a bit).

We thought that was a good enough reason to give you a brief outline of bourbon manufacture - the tools to help you understand the differences between brands and flavours.

So, here's our 10-step recipe for making bourbon:

1. Grow stuff
     As you know, bourbon is made from corn (that's the American corn, i.e. Maize), rye and malted barley. In Bourbon, this needs to be at least 51% corn, and in Rye, 51% rye. Obvious really. The exact blend of grains (the Mash Bill) is kept secret by each producer, but rye is the most expensive, so it's not chucked around too much. Corn gives a richer, sweeter flavour, rye gives a drier, more spicy flavour (whisky, the Scottish and Irish precursor, is made with malted barley - malt - or other cereals  - grain).

2. Grind it up
     Whole sweetcorn kernels don't cook as well as flour, so you've got to break it down. In effect, hit it with a big hammer. The resulting flour is then sieved with a certain size screen (#10 in the case of Buffalo Trace) to an ideal size for step 3. The size varies between producers and is also thought to affect the flavour of the end product.

3. Mash it up
     The next step is to make the Mash. This is a rich, thick porridge of water and the milled grains, with the corn being cooked first, then the rye, and finally the malted barley. The latter adds amylase enzymes that break down the starches into sugar, making sweet mash.  Neither mash is that tasty (although passable with some maple syrup in my opinion), but they are very useful for 4.

4. Make beer
     You've got starch, sugar, water, so now you just need yeast. Again, the strain of yeast can affect the end taste. Some of the old mash from previous distillations (step 5) is added at this point as well, and is called Sour Mash - you've probably seen 'Sour Mash Whiskey' on the side of some brands. After a few days of sitting there fermenting, you've got a pretty rich beer. Pretty thick and unappealing too.

5. Distill
     Right, you now take your beer and start to separate out the liquid from the solid. There are various ways of doing this, but the end result is you have to heat the liquid beer until the alcohol comes off. You then re-distill to make sure you've lost the heads and tails (impurities that you don't want), and are left with an alcoholic liquid that is not more than 160 degrees proof, or 80% ABV. In the case of Buffalo Trace, the liquid is 62.5% abv to retain a little more flavour. This is clear, powerful and has earnt the name 'White Dog'. I've had some. It's not great.

6. Stick it in a barrel
     All Bourbon has to be put into new American Oak barrels that are charred. New oak gives more flavour, and in the case of American Oak, this is rich in vanillins and other nice, rich flavours. The size of the barrel and the quality of the wood all affect the flavour, as does the amount of charcoal or degree of 'char' on the barrel. Buffalo Trace apparently uses the better part of the tree for its barrels and has the highest barrel rejection rate in the industry. You can ask them about that though.

7. Leave it alone
     Easy really. As the liquid cools and warms, it moves in and out of the cracks in the wood and charcoal, softening and gaining flavour. Impurities (and a little alcohol - the Angel's Share) are lost, and it starts to taste better. The location is important for the flavour here. For example, Buffalo Trace use barrels from parts of Warehouses I, C and K, using other parts and warehouses for other brands that need different styles.

8. Taste it (finally!)
     Not quite there, but from 8 years, the barrels are tasted to see how they're doing. Tough job. Some are judged to be good enough to use, others are left for up to 12

9. Blend it
     Once the barrels are ready, 25-30 are chosen to be blended into the Buffalo Trace house style. These make up a batch. They're emptied into a tank before stage 10.

10. Filter it
     Lastly, the liquid is filtered, either by pushing through charcoal or, in the case of Buffalo Trace, by chill filtering. This stage isn't essential (and a lot of excellent Scottish whiskies celebrate their lack of filtering), but it makes the end product more stable and consistent. A little local (filtered) water is also added at this stage to bring the ABV to a consistent level. In the case of Buffalo, 45% ABV (90% proof).

(11. Drink it)
     You can do this one already, so we're not counting it. 

Hopefully you'll now be interested enough to come and drink some with us on the 13th. We're quite excited about it already!  years. Hence the 8-12 year old comment at the beginning. If you're still reading by this point, it would be a useful thing to email us using the competition link above.


Cheers,

Paul