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Cold season is upon us once again and instead of getting hopped up on drugs (though Mucinex is the truth) here a few ways to beat a cold sans drugs.

1) Hydrate

Water, Gatorade and hot tea pretty much cures anything. When we’re sick we find we have about 3x as much as we usually do. We’re not doctors so we don’t know why, but we’re going to go ahead and say we’re peeing out the sickness. The extra hydration helps you to keep going and it makes sure you don’t get dehydrated from all those trips to the bathroom.

2) Vicks

Our Dad is a firm believer in Vicks for all respiratory ailments. Vicks is a menthol rub and the generic kind will work just as well. We like to put it on before a hot shower on our chest, neck and our sinuses. The areas where the Vicks is will tingle under the hot water and you’ll feel the mucus go away (it’s kinda gross, but it works). We don’t recommend wearing Vicks if you’re out and about because you don’t want to smell like an old person, but it’s fine for when you’re nursing your cold at home or in the shower.

3) Medicinal Drinking

We’ve used medicinal drinking for years and have to say that it works surprisingly well. When we have a sore throat we like to take a swig of vodka and slowly swallow it. It burns while you’re drinking it, but it’s clearing the infection and helping your throat to heal. We also like to drink hot toddies. There a a gazillion hot toddies recipes out there, but you can adapt almost anything to the one below

Hot Toddy Recipe

1 shot of liquor (You can use brandy, rum or whiskey in our hot toddies (though you can use vodka if you really want)
Hot Water
1 tablespoon of honey (or to taste)
½ tablespoon of lemon juice (fresh or extract, we’re not fancy)
You can add cinnamon, cayenne pepper (it’s good for colds), tumeric (it’s good for colds too) or whatever other spices you want that taste good, just don’t go crazy or make it gross.

Pour the honey and lemon juice into a coffee mug followed by the liquor. Then add the hot water until the mug is full. Stir and make sure the honey is well incorporated into the drink. Add whatever spices you may want to the drink.

Welcome to another Barfly 201 lecture. We have a special guest professor today, Waldorf, friend of the Edukatorz. We asked him to discuss the meaning of “Protestant” and “Catholic” whiskeys since he’s the only person we know whose liquor cabinet consists solely of a selection of Irish whiskeys.

Hey there, kiddos.  The Edukatorz have done an excellent job breaking down the basics of whiskey (and whisky).  But some of you may have noticed that their discussion of Irish whiskeys made no mention of a divide in the Irish whiskey world: Catholic whiskey vs. Protestant whiskey. 

Now, some of you may be confused as to how exactly a beverage can have an opinion on the primacy of the Pope.  The distinction is very straightforward, however.  The Bushmills distillery is located in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, and traces its history back to King James I (who is also affiliated with a certain translation of the Bible that has long been popular among some Protestants).  Jameson is distilled in County Cork in the Republic of Ireland.   Read the rest of this entry →

We’ve edukated you about whiskey, beer, some basic bar manners and methods, and alcohol is a very frequently used tag here at edukatorz.com. Well, September is here, and hopefully you didn’t forget everything we’ve taught you, because we’ve got a brand-new column for back-to-school time: welcome to Barfly 201!

The Manhattan is one of the six basic drinks as defined by the great classical drink-definer David Embury. It also happens to be one of the preferred cocktails of the Edukatorz (we’ve mentioned it before). You have probably heard of it. If you haven’t, you clearly don’t drink enough.

All bartenders have a default recipe for any major cocktail, but like the martini, theManhattanis one where any professional bartender* is going to need more information about your tastes. So, when a customer asks for aManhattan, the instant response is going to be “how do you like your manhattans?” If the bartender receives a blank stare and an “uhhhhh…,” he’ll likely roll his eyes – that’s because it’s obnoxious when people order drinks without knowing what they want. Don’t be that guy. Keep reading instead. Read the rest of this entry →

Over the last decade or so, pale ales have boomed in the US. American brewers reinvented the style for American palates and American hops, creating their own beer distinct from its English ancestor. During the same time period (perhaps even as a reaction to the over-the-top hoppiness of American Pale Ale), wheat beers have seen increasing popularity in the states. Unlike their treatment of pale ales, American brewers have tended to stick more closely to tradition with wheat beers, and many are making very good versions of these German and Belgian beer styles. These days, hefeweizens and “white beers” are available in bars across the US.

Wittbier/Weissbier

Wittbier (Belgian), weissbier (German), or “white beer” is an unfiltered ale made predominately with wheat. It gets its name, obviously, from its color; because it’s unfiltered, wittbier has a light, cloudy appearance. If you order a bottle, you’ll often see bartenders swirling it around as they pour it to distribute the sediment more evenly.

In Germany, the brewing process of Berliner Weissbier is strictly regulated (think bourbon laws in the US), and must be top-fermented with 50% wheat. These have a lot of head when poured, but it dissipates quickly. The Belgian wittbiers are similar, but less regulated. These are traditionally unmalted and heavily spiced, particularly with coriander or orange peel.

You’ve probably tried Hoegaarden and Blue Moon, but there’s a lot more to this category. Look for the interesting Japanese version, Hitachino Nest White Ale (don’t serve this ice cold, though, you’ll lose a lot of the flavor), Ommegang’s Witte, Allagash White, and the organic Mothership Wit to get an idea of the range available.

Hefeweizen and Dunkelweizen

These are two relatively close German styles of wheat beer. Dunkelweizen means “dark wheat” and hefeweizen “yeast wheat.” Both are unfiltered with strong fruit notes and a cloudy golden color. If it’s filtered, it’s called a kristallweissbier.

We recommend Ayinger Brau Weisse and Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier. You should also try the widely available Widmer Bros. Hefeweizen.

Weizenbock

Weizenbock is basically a dunkelweizen with more alcohol. Brewing a weizen beer in the bock style gives the beer more spiciness and darker fruit notes. Victory make a good version called Moonglow. Also try Schneider Aventinus if you can find it and the Ayinger Weizenbock.

Lambics

Yes, lambics are a wheat beer. If you’re unfamiliar, they’re a Belgian style of super-sour beers that often have fruits added after fermentation. Because they’re so unique, however, we’ll dedicate a separate post to lambics.

The Fruit Question

Adding a citrus wedge – either orange or lemon – is a purely American trend. Some people find it tasty, but a lot of people see it as an insult to the beer. The Edukatorz don’t really care either way, so go ahead and add fruit it  you want. But be aware that you might be offending some Europeans.

You may have heard that I’ve been doing some research on Fernet, which is basically San Francisco’s default shot. It was a tough job, but I have some results for you. First off, I can tell you that Fernet is not an acquired taste. By that I mean no one I’ve talked to seems to actually have acquired a liking for the stuff. It’s more like a habit. This is, however, entirely understandable. As I discovered first hand this weekend, the second shot of Fernet is far easier than the first one, and by the third you’ve shifted into Fernet mode and sort of enjoy the flow of syrupy medicinal flavor with an extremely dry aftertaste into slight burning of the throat and, finally, general feeling of warmth. Sort of.

But let’s start at the beginning. My very first question on my very first night in San Francisco, “What the hell is Fernet?” Fernet is an Italian liquor in the amaro family of spirits; an aromatic and highly alcoholic fermentation of many herbs and spices. There are different companies that make “Fernet,” but the original (preferred in San Francisco) is Fernet-Branca. The Branca family started selling the brew in the first half of the nineteenth century, and Italian immigrants brought it to American cities like New York and San Francisco.

This SF Weekly article gives a good overview of the history of Fernet and its place in San Franciscan culture. Not to be too picky, but it also reads like a promotion and is heavily laden with interviews and quotes from liquor promoters and bar owners who have clear interest in expanding the Fernet name. I mentioned that to a friend who’s been in the city for a few years and is known to drink Fernet every now and again, and he gave an interesting perspective on it. He says the Fernet boom is a fairly recent phenomenon, and the fact that the SF Weekly article was published in 2005 sounds about right. That’s not to say Fernet doesn’t have a strong tradition in San Francisco – quite the contrary – but he draws a clear distinction between the mainstream Fernet obsession and the original place the drink held in San Francisco’s bar culture.

“Fernet is the San Francisco bartenders’ drink. They only stocked it because old Italian men would demand it once in a while.” From his perspective, bartenders drank it mostly because no one else ever did. And more importantly, no bar manager cared about it to keep inventory on it. “It was an industry drink. Another bartender would order it because he’d been drinking it already at his own bar. If a broke line cook needed a drink, he ordered Fernet, because he knew the bartender wouldn’t charge him. It was like a secret password – if you’re drinking Fernet, you’re industry, and you’ll get taken care of.”

That idea sheds some light on some other stories I’ve heard about Fernet. At Dave’s off Market Street (the same bar mentioned in the SF Weekly article, incidentally, only I hadn’t read that yet) last week I ended up around a table with industry people from hotels, bars, and restaurants around the neighborhood – someone from my bar knew a cook from the Marriott who was dating a waitress from another bar… and so on. It’s how these things go, and soon the group expanded to about 15 from the original three I had sat down with. A cocktail waitress next to me drank Fernet and ginger all night, and I asked her whether she honestly liked the stuff. “I don’t know,” she replied, “I just got used to it at my old job.”

She told me that at the last bar she worked at, the bartenders and waitresses would all chip in for a staff bottle (or maybe two on the weekends) and drink from it all night. It cost about $2 a person, and by the end of the night they had a buzz that wasn’t too bad to work. “There’s some ingredient in Fernet that keeps you aware even if you’ve been drinking all night,” she insisted.

It’s apparently the bottle of choice for kitchen crews around here as well. I told a coworker about my Fernet project and he was eager to tell me about his first time drinking Fernet. “I’d been in San Francisco a couple of weeks, working as a cook on an open line [a restaurant kitchen that is behind a counter as opposed to a separate room, leaving the cooks "open" to the dining room and customers], and usually we had a couple beers during service. This one night, my buddy brought a bottle over to me that said ‘Fernet Branca’ and looked like some funky old-world sort of thing. He offered me a shot, and I asked him what kind of liquor it was. As I brought it to my lips, two things happened. One, my buddy responded ‘It tastes like old lady perfume.’ At the same time, an old lady who looked like a corpse dressed in makeup and furs sat down at the table right in front of my station. It was too late to stop; I’d just poured the shot into my mouth. Between hearing it tasted like old lady perfume, seeing this trainwreck of an old lady, and trying to swallow something that looked like liquid tar but tasted EXACTLY LIKE OLD LADY PERFUME, I spat the stuff all over the place. It was a mess, and to this day I can’t think of anything but ‘old lady perfume’ when I drink Fernet.”

Everyone here has a story about the first time they drank Fernet, and as often as not the stories include spitting it out or gagging. I haven’t found one person who really likes the taste of Fernet itself, but everyone here drinks it. I’m not sure whether it’s because people want to be part of some insider’s club, whether it really is a different kind of drunkenness, or whether people just get used to it. Whatever it is, I’ll gladly take the next Fernet shot someone offers me. And I honestly can’t tell you why.

I arrived in San Francisco in the late evening with a suitcase of clothing entirely unsuited to the “summer” temperatures here, a massive hangover from my 3-day stop in Vegas, and an apartment bare of any furniture or internet connection. So I packed my laptop and headed for the nearest bar that advertised wifi and ordered a beer. I soon realized people here are incredibly welcoming and proud of their city; I was immediately adopted by a group of middle-aged ex-frat boy types who insisted I take a shot of Fernet with them.

“What the hell is Fernet?” I asked. They laughed and said if I was going to be living in San Francisco, I would have to find out, and it may as well be sooner than later. I was presented with a shot glass of a near-black liquor that smelled absolutely foul. It was reminiscent of Jager, with some herbal elements, and the consistency of melted tar. It was disgusting. However, these guys turned out to be right – nearly everyone who I meet wants to welcome me to the city with a shot of Fernet. People drink appalling amounts of the stuff. If you simply order a shot, Fernet is the default.

I have no idea why. But I’m going to find out. I’m going to spend the night talking to locals about their love for the stuff. I’m going to research it on the internet. And I’m going to buy a bottle of it and drink it as a scientific experiment. Maybe it gets better the more you drink. Maybe it’s some kind of acquired taste that takes years to develop. Maybe it’s highly addictive and once you have a few shots you have to have more. I intend to find out.

I’ll let you know the results of my research tomorrow. See you on Hangover Saturday. And I guarantee it should be a massive hangover.

Apparently this is booze week at Edukatorz (but really, when isn’t it?). Today we’re going to talk about  a specific type of pale lager – Pilsners. Most Americans are probably familiar with pilsners in the form of Budweiser or Miller Lite. Those beers are disgusting and have given pilsners a bad name.

Pilsner is the main type of beer you think of when you think of lagers. Created in Pilzner, Czech Republic (then known as Bohemia in Germany) in the 19th century. Pilsner’s are created when city officials opened up a city brewery and utilized Bavarian brewing techniques and experimented with the new ‘lager’ style of beer. You end up getting a crisp, subtle clean taste and a golden color with this type of brewing technique.

Now-a-days pilsner is distinguished from other lagers by its use of soft spring water and Saaz hops. And they make pilsner all over the world. Technically crappy American beers like Budweiser or Miller Lite originally started off as pilsners, but we try to forget about them. The brands you’re most familiar with are probably Pilsner Urquell, Grolsch, Stella Artois, Bitburg, Beck’s, Yuengling and Pabst Blue Ribbon (beloved by hipsters everywhere).

So, I know I’m supposed to be writing about food, but tonight is “Taco Night” at my house.  The last time we had Taco Night, we had to address the question that vexes hosts and hostesses everywhere:

What kind of wine should we have with it?

Now, I know there are about 8 million rules for pairing wine.   No red with fish!  The moon is in Saturn, you cannot drink Beaujolais!  Chardonnay is great with everything!*

I am here to tell you to ignore them all, for two important reasons.  The first is that like most drinking, it’s about enjoyment.  If you want to drink a zinfandel with your American cheese and saltines for dinner, and it makes you happy, by all means, proceed (Personally, I’d question your desire to use American cheese for anything other than melting on a burger, but that’s just me.)

The second is that there are really only 2 basic rules for wine drinking, along with a third that while not mandatory, I find extremely useful.  Here they are:

1)      Mix.

2)      Match.

3)      When in doubt, sparkle.

Allow me to explain.

1) For optimal enjoyment, your wine can mix well with your food, or match it by echoing some of the flavors.  In the case of taco night, we like to mix.  Spicy food demands something sweet to help tame the spice.  In the case of taco night, this means a riesling.  Having some salmon with lemon?  Cut the rich flavor it with a crisp pinot gris.  As with many things in life, balance is key.

2) Onto matching!  By matching, what I really means is select a wine that echoes the flavors in your food.  Having some tilapia** for dinner?  Grab a bottle that echoes those clean flavors- maybe a nice sauvignon blanc?  Pulling a nice NY Strip off the grill? Go for a Shiraz, or another bold, slightly spicy wine.

3) When I worked at a wine bar, we were taught to open champagne bottles silently.  That is lame and completely kills the sense of celebration.  My mom needed no other excuse than “it’s Tuesday, and I’d like something to drink with my popcorn” to open a bottle of champagne.  You don’t either.  When in doubt, it is my deeply held belief that you absolutely cannot go wrong with a bottle of sparkling wine.  If you want to get really fancy, you can use the above two rules when selecting, or you can just pick up a bottle, pop it open, and watch people instantly smile.

I’m sure you’re  also wondering how you’re supposed to determine which wines are spicy or minerally or sweet or what have you.  Head over to your local wine store (here in DC, I especially love Ansonia Wines;  AM Wine Shoppe and Cork Market are both good as well) and see what tastings they have.  Talk to the people in the store.  If they’re assholes, find another store.  People who truly love wine are often all too happy to share their knowledge and recommendations with you.

And that’s it.  Taste, taste, taste, mix or match, and when in doubt, get something sparkling.  You’ll be amazed how far those rules will take you.

*- I hate Chardonnay with a passion that I usually reserve for…actually, nope, only chardonnay inspires that level of hatred

We’ve gone over the basics of lagers, ales and stouts so now it’s time to dive a little deeper into the specifics of each type of beer. Today we’re going to focus on pale ales.

Pale ale originated in the dour country of England around the 18th century. British brewers wanted a “paler” ale so they used coke (no, not that kind, this kind is made from coal)  instead of wood to roast the barley for fermentation. They discovered that the wood would burn the barley, while the coke would evenly roast it creating a pale beer during fermentation.

Pale ales have gotten a reputation as being bitter, though not all of them are. They range from smooth and crisp to super bitter.

Burton Pale Ale

This is the original real deal type of pale ale. When British brewers discovered how to make pale ale they did it in Burton-on-Trent, England. This particular type of pale ale is malty and balanced with a smooth aroma. Burton pale ale’s get their distinctive taste from the gympsum in the local water that brought out the taste of the hops. They clearly had a monopoly on this taste until a chemist came up with a process called Burtonisation that adds sulphates to the water to bring out the hops taste. Pale ales are now made pretty universally with water that has been through the Burtonisation process. The most famous Burton Pale Ale is Bass which is easily obtained in the US of A.

Bitter

Bitter beer came about when 19th Century drinkers in England started referring to pale ale as bitters to distinguish it from other beers with a distinctive hop taste. British brewers then started categorizing bitters as session (or ordinary), best (or regular), and premium (or strong or extra strong). These beers range from either a lower alcohol content of around 4.1% for session bitters to 4.8% and above for premium bitters. Though bitter, these types of beer isn’t very hoppy, but tends to taste maltier. We recommend checking out Young’s Bitter or Fuller’s ESB if you want to try some of this style out.

Indian Pale Ales

Indian pale ales were developed by the British in order to survive the trip from England to India.  The beer had to stay in its casks for a very long time sans refrigeration so in order to preserve it the British added extra hops to it. This style of pale ale is distinctively hoppy. We recommend trying out Dogfish Head’s 60 Minute IPA if you’ve never had IPA and work your way up from there.

American Pale Ales

American pale ales tend to be cleaner and hoppier then their British cousins. There is a wide variety of different types of pale ales out there, but all of their flavors tend to focus on the citrusy quality of American hops. We recommend trying out Sierra Nevada’s Pale Ale or Flying Dog’s Classic Pale Ale if you want to try this variety.

Last time we told you that you’d better know a beer, we discussed the basics of lagers. If lagers represent one of the major categories of beer, the other is definitely ales. Each has a number of sub-varieties, which we will discuss anon, but at the most basic level the difference between lager and ale is one of the most important divisions to help you understand beers.

Originally, calling a drink “ale” was meant to differentiate it from “beer,” beer being understood as having been brewed with hops. Ale was brewed with herbs and spices (called at “gruit”) and was a major part of a medieval diet. They even brewed low-alcohol-content ales so they could drink it with breakfast, since it was a source of nutrition for those malnourished old-timey Europeans.

Now, of course, the ale is a drink that falls into the “beer” category. The term refers to the actual brewing method. Where lagers are brewed with a bottom-fermenting yeast, ales are brewed with a top-fermenting yeast. This type of yeast likes higher temperatures (around 60-75 degrees Fahrenheit) and ferments much fast than a lager would.

Of course there are all sorts of different things you can add to ale, or different ways to manipulate it. There is a huge variety of beers, that unless we told you, you might not realize are all ales. From the highly hopped India Pale Ale (so popular in the United States these days) to brown ales to golden ales, all these types of beer are brewed in the same basic style and fall under the category “ales.”