11 Cocktails For 11 Doctors

In honor of the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who this weekend, some enterprising souls have devised eleven cocktails, each inspired by one iteration of The Doctor. As documented on Tor.com:

Armed with recipes, good company, and very little in the way of instinctual self-preservation, I journeyed forth into the wilds of Glasgow to find a cocktail bar that would enable us to drink our way through eleven Doctors. Blue Dog and its excellent staff were game, and thus did our adventure begin.

The recipes to these lovely libations are here, and subsequent tasting notes are here. I particularly look forward to attempting THE GREEN DEATH on behalf of Jon Pertwee's Doctor, for all the reasons.

Hello Kitty beer. Because, I suppose, why not?

Hello Kitty beer, by Long Chaun Brewery in Taiwan

Kotaku has a detailed write-up on this new Chinese "endeavor". In short: six fruit-flavored varieties, 2.3% alcohol, and dangerously yummy and smooth to drink.

Doom, ever closer to you we slide. But at least it tastes good.

the origin of cascade hops? SCIENCE, of course!

I hadn't known that the origin of casacde hops was through Oregon State University's Fermentation Science program. I also hadn't known that advanced research programs in Fermentation Science were a thing, but in hindsight it should have been obvious. This is truly glorious SCIENCE.



If this whole doctor thing doesn't work out, my new second career choice will now be Mad Hop Scientist.

making beer with... a coffeemaker

CC BY-NC image by TSalon via Flickr

Here's an oldie but a goodie from Southern Fried Science, entitled "How to brew beer in a coffee maker, using only materials commonly found on a modestly sized oceanographic research vessel". The post includes detail instructions, such as the required tools ("an electric drip coffee maker with hot plate, a coffee filter, 2 1-liter sample jars, 2 handkerchiefs, 2 rubber bands, and a source of clean (preferably R/O) water"), ingredients (dry cereal for grains, Vegemite as an option for malt), and a step-by-step recipe. The end result is noted to be as follows:

A cool, smooth brew, flavored with whatever you found. It may be very bad, it may be good. It will be beer.

'nuff said.

decoding flavor

CC BY-NC-SA image from Abu via Flickr

Right. This blog! I have it. There are plans, etc, etc.

There's a lovely piece on CraftBeer.com that has a nice breakdown about what goes into how we arrive at describing "flavor" when it comes to beer. While nothing new, it provides a good framework for understanding why experience is key when it comes to describing what we taste, in more ways that one. Slainte!