Bulletin № 019BittersGentiana lutea
How House Bitters Are Actually Made
Not a recipe card. A walk through what each step of making bitters is for, so you can build your own and understand why it tastes the way it does.
3 min read
Field notes on drinkVol. I
The science, history & craft behind exceptional drinks.
Most drink writing hands you a recipe. We are after the better question: why does this work? Bitters, vermouth, brewing, barrel aging, and the chemistry and history underneath the glass, studied the way you would study anything worth getting right.
The latest specimen№ 022
Quercus alba · Barrel Aging
Barrel-Aging Tequila in a Three-Liter Cask: The First Ninety Days
A whiskey-seasoned three-liter barrel, three bottles of blanco, and a shed that swings forty degrees between night and day. Here is what the physics predicts before the first taste at day thirty.
5 min read
From the index
All bulletins →Bulletin № 020BrewingHumulus lupulus
Why the Water Made the Beer Before Anyone Knew Why
Burton brews pale ale, Pilsen brews pale lager, Dublin brews stout. For centuries each town thought it had a knack. What it actually had was the water under its feet.
3 min read
Bulletin № 021CocktailsComposito miscela
What Balance Actually Means in a Glass
Bartenders say a drink is balanced as if it were obvious. It is not one fixed point but a tension you tune, and the levers all pull on each other.
3 min read
Bulletin № 016IngredientsMateria prima
The Twist Is Oils, Not Juice
A lemon gives a drink two completely different things from two different places. The juice is acid and sugar. The peel is aromatic oil, and that is the part you smell before you ever taste the drink.
3 min read
From the shed
Field notes, in photographs
The Brewshed Journal · Weekly
One cocktail, one brewing idea, one piece of history, one experiment.
A short letter most weeks. No filler, no recipe-blog throat-clearing, just the good part of the conversation, sent to your inbox.
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Most recent: Issue 03, Jalapeño, Cheap Oak, and a Name Younger Than the Drink · read it
The Classification
Eleven fields of study
Bitters
2Gentiana lutea
Tinctures, botanicals, and the bittering agents that make a drink legible.
Vermouth
1Artemisia absinthium
Fortified, aromatized wine. The most misunderstood bottle on the shelf.
Shrubs & Syrups
1Saccharum officinarum
Acid, sugar, and fruit. Preservation turned into flavor.
Brewing
2Humulus lupulus
Mash, boil, and ferment. Where the Brewshed earned its name.
Cocktails
4Composito miscela
Builds, ratios, and the why behind a balanced glass.
Barrel Aging
3Quercus alba
Oak, char, time, and the angel's share.
Tasting
1Sensoria gustus
How to taste on purpose, and put words to what you find.
History
3Memoria potionis
Where these drinks came from, and who we have to thank or blame.
Fermentation
2Saccharomyces cerevisiae
The quiet chemistry of yeast, bacteria, and time.
Ingredients
2Materia prima
Single botanicals and base materials, studied one at a time.
Glassware
1Vitrum potatorium
Why the vessel changes the drink.
