Beet Beet - Mixology Monday

The moment I saw the theme for this month's Mixology Monday announced by Rowen at the Fogged in Lounge I knew what I was going to mix.

At the end of March I attended Copenhagen Spirits and Cocktails and was served a Bax Beet Pinot during a seminar where Jacob Briars talked about The Secrets of the Worlds Best Bars - and blue drinks of course.

I don't remember much of what he said after I had the first taste - I was so occupied by trying to figure out, how it was made. It originates at Der Raum in Melbourne, Australia, a cocktail bar that I understand is now closed.

The combination of beet juice and Fernet Branca is magic to my taste buds. But then again beets features prominently as a condiment in Danish cooking and next to Finland and Holland I believe we are some of the biggest consumers of licorice - the black, strong, salty kind, not the red American kind - in the world.

Since I got the recipe for the Bax Beet Pinot we were served, I've made it a few times and that is my canvas for todays presentation:

Ode to Bax Beet Pinot

• 2 cl Fernet Branca
• 3 cl Malt syrup (add 1 part hot water to two parts Malt Syrup mix and cool)
• 1,5 cl lime juice
• 1,5 cl beet juice
• 1,5 cl Dubonnet

Mix everything in a shaker with ice, shake and strain into martini glass.

The recipe used at Copenhagen Spirit and Cocktails used sweet vermouth in place of the Dubonnet and simple syrup as the sweetener.

I like the - well - maltiness of malt syrup with the earth element of the beet juice and the quinine in Dubonnet cuts the drink nicely to the refreshing side.

Since I knew I would be up to my elbows in beets, peeling, juicing and what not I decided to try and brew beet juice in the same way as I regularly brew ginger beer. That is adding some, sugar, some citrus and a tiny pea of fresh yeast and then let it brew and carbonated for 48 hours with water.

I will say it's a bit of a mess - it's important to release the pressure in the brew after the first 24 hours, by unscrewing the cap on the bottle.

Fortunately something told me to do that in my garden because I ended up with a fountain of scarlet, foamy beet beer out of the bottle and all over my front garden.

However the finished product is quite nice - a mild beet taste, a very slight yeast and malt taste and lots of fine bubbles. This brew is the basis for my next presentation:

Beet Beet Cooler

• 2 cl gin
• 2 cl Fernet Branca
• 1 cl lemon juice
• 1 cl Cherry Heering
• 1 cl malt syrup
• 8 cl beet beer

Stir the first five ingredients with plenty of ice in a high ball glass, then add the beet beer and garnish with a slice of lemon dipped in a mixture of sugar and licorice root and caramelized on a hot pan, add festive peacock, umbrella or other fun long drink decoration.

Enjoy and thanks for the great theme Rowen.

Mixology Monday: Amalienborg

This month Mixology is all about fortified wines.

Jordan Deveraux of Chemistry of the Cocktail almost had me experimenting with port, Madeira or sherry.

But in the end my interest in wine fortified with quinine won out.

I was ready to see if I could come up with my own mix and started to thumb through a pretty special Christmas gift I got i 2012: A reprint of a handwritten bar manual a Danish bartender called Axel Sørensen wrote in the late 1930'ies when he worked at a now closed bar in central Copenhagen called Café De la Reine - the Queens Cafe.

The reprint has been made possible in a collaboration between Henrik Steen Pedersen who runs one of Copenhagen's hidden gems Moltkes Bar and the grandchild of Axel Sørensen.

Thumbing through the manual I noticed a cocktail called Amalienborg. (it may have an almost identical twin called Coronation)

Axel Sørensen suggest that it's mix of one half part Dubonnet, a quarter part gin and a quarter part French vermouth.

The cocktail - named after the Royal palace in Copenhagen - had also caught the eyes of the folks at Molktes bar. However they suggested different ratios of the ingredients. And I changed the French vermouth out for Kina L'Avion D'Or .

So with two quinine fortified wines I figured I needed a sweet gin and chose Old English Gin.

I present the twice updated Amalienborg cocktail:

• 9 cl Dubonnet
• 4 cl Kina L'Avion D'or
• 3 cl Old English Gin

Shaken with ice, strained into a cocktail glass and with lemon twist for a garnish.

Thanks Jordan for hosting!

Opera

The gin hound is slowly making it's way home (and on the World Gin Day no less). This week's cocktail is a classic from Harry's New York Bar in Paris in the 1920'ies - the Opera.

It's a very old school taste - I suspected as much and had a bar snack ready as very boozy cocktails make me hungry.

It also contains a fortified wine I had forgotten: Dubonnet - that favorite of my parents in the 70'ies.

They served it over ice as an appetizer before stuff like beef stroganoff and a cheese board for their friends.

I remember the bottle - and the ad. Somehow the Dubonnet guy always struck me as being lonely - and probably drunk, the way he upends the bottle. Dubonnet is also a favorite with the English Queen, and her mother before her.

• 6 cl gin
• 0.75 cl Dubonnet
• 0.35 cl Maraschino
• Dash of orange bitters

Pour everything over ice in a mixing glass and stir until cold. Strain into cold cocktail glass and garnish with an orange peel.

And the bar snack? Potted shrimp.